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Elrond was currently caught in a very difficult situation where he could understand what was happening.

He didn't know exactly who they were, but their army within the inner parts of the Ancient Ruin kept on being ambushed by troublesome players.

He did everything he could to take them down and stopped them from creating havoc in their ranks. But no matter how hard they tried to stop the rampage, his people couldn't do anything to their opponents.

One of them was the Nameless Swordsman, who kept on appearing and disappearing inside the Ancient Ruins as he pleased. Moreover, he was always striking them at the most unexpected time and most unpredictable place possible.

Every time he decided to attack, the Centra Order would always suffer a devastating blow that they couldn't easily recover. After all, the next round of the war was initiated just recently, so their fallen comrade couldn't revive themselves unless their priests and shamans revived them or until the war itself had ended.

But the main issue right there was the fact that the Nameless Swordsman would always make sure to take down the priests and shamans in their ranks before shifting his target to the players with range and magic-related classes.

What made their predicament worse, the Nameless Swordsman just took down Immortal recently in a one-on-one battle. And due to that, he was able to strike fear on every player who saw him just by standing near them.

And now that he was showcasing his real battle prowess on the battlefield and created chaos in the ranks of the Central Order people.

With the order given to them, the members of the Central Order tried to fight him and stop him. Unfortunately, the current Shin was too powerful for them that even most of the common Rankers couldn't hold him any longer.

And if ever a strong group of the Titled Rankers appeared, Shin would always smartly take a step back and retreat for the time being before striking another place that was unguarded by those Titled Rankers.

The Titled Rankers couldn't do anything about that issue since Shin was currently in control of the formation surrounding the whole Ancient Ruins. And with Hanzo infusing some of his powers on the formation, Shin was able to teleport wherever he pleased within this place.

Appearing and disappearing like a ghost, Shin gave a lot of headache to the Titled Rankers chasing after him. And because of this, he formulated a plan where they could corner him for an ambush.

Unfortunately, another variable suddenly appeared at this point in time. A mysterious assassin-swordsman made his appearance and ambushed the Titled Rankers in the most unexpected time.

Even if he didn't have the means to wipe them out currently, he was still able to kill one or two of them before retreating safely. And due to that, the Titled Rankers were forced to halt their hunt for the Nameless Swordsman for a few moments to put up their guard against this mysterious opponent.

Unfortunately, the Nameless Swordsman didn't give them the leisure to take things slowly. Whenever they slowed down at hunting him, this troublesome guy would always resume attacking at the same time they were busy looking at their assailant.

With that, the Titled Rankers were forced to chase after the Nameless Swordsman while being on guard against the unknown assassin-swordsman.

After engaging for a few more exchanges, the Titled Rankers were finally able to figure out the identity of this unknown assailant. And after discovering his identity, the commanding officers of the Central Order became even more troubled.

The 'Emperor of the Night: Sickarius', another rising star of the Saint Heaven Kingdom, and was also associated with two of the most troublesome Godlike Players known in the game.

With this discovery, the commanding offers of the Central Order present in the Ancient Ruins got a huge headache since they knew about that fact.

Due to that, Elrond was forced to ask some help from the Great Elder. But the elder was nowhere to be found when he got back to the temporary commanding center. And when he opened his friend list, he discovered that the elder was currently offline which made him think that there was an urgent issue that needed to be dealt with in the real world.

Elrond was tempted to contact the Great Elder due to the pressing issue that they currently had inside the game, but he was too afraid that he would disturb the latter which would lead him to face the wrath of the elder.

Left with no other choice, Elrond was forced to deal with the problem personally. Fortunately, the elite group under the Great Elder's command finally arrived which made him quite hopeful about their current predicate.

But he immediately went back to being troubled when he heard from the leader of the group that they were only here to investigate the matters within the innermost part of the ruins which also meant that they were not going to help him with the current problem that he was facing.

So, after informing Elrond about their arrival, they immediately left to do their personal mission and left Elrond to deal with his own issue.

Due to that, Elrond was forced to recall a few of the Rankers at the outer part of Ancient Ruins who were also leading their forces that were fighting the Undying Guild.

And because of the additional Titled Rankers in their ranks, they were able to at least hold themselves against both the 'Angel of Death' and the 'Emperor of the Night'.

But in exchange, the frontlines on the other side of the battlefield suffered a few losses which led them to be at a great disadvantage and forced their army to retreat time and time again.

"F*ck! What is Elrond doing?! We are going to lose this war if he keeps on recalling our leading players! We are already short-handed, so how does he expect us to win if we are being overwhelmed by our opponents' numbers!?" shouted Legolas out of anger after seeing that his people were being pushed back in battle.

"Tsk! How would I know? I'm here with you all this time, battling these filthy undead maniacs," answered Aragorn who was standing right beside him.

Hearing that, Legolas suddenly gave him a sharp glare before saying. "Battling my *ss. All you did here is stand and laze around while watching them do all the work."

"What's the point of making a move now if our opponents are still not revealing their own cards. So, it is better for me to save my energy for now so that I can fight them later with ease," answered Aragon nonchalantly.

********

Meanwhile, the elite group working under the Great Elder managed to sneak through the defensive formation guarding the innermost part of the ruins. But even if they were able to do that, they were still in low spirits since they had to use a few of the special scrolls in their possession just to get past that annoying barrier.

They had spent quite a lot of fortune just to acquire them; some of those scrolls even came from the hidden quest that they completed before. But who would think that they needed to use them just to deal with a 'messy' barrier?

Because of that, they were naturally going to become very annoyed at whoever was behind this formation barrier.

So, with that mood, they entered the corridor right in front of them with a plan of slaughtering whoever was the guy who made them spend those precious scrolls.

They were so fearless when they walked towards that corridor since they were confident about their own strengths. After all, they could still be considered as top experts of the game.

Unfortunately, that corridor was actually a free ticket to the underworld for them as there were a pair of monsters lying in wait inside it and ready to devour them anytime.

They didn't even have the time to scream when they encountered the wild 'Dragon' and hungry 'Beast' waiting within that place; all of them already died before they could even have the time to find who actually killed them.

On the other hand, the pair who just killed them didn't care about their feelings. They even looked pretty much bored when they wiped out the group; it was as if they just killed a housefly fly which was flying inside their house annoying.

"Tsk! For how long are we going to stay here? I'm actually excited when I heard that we may be going to fight quite a few of our acquaintances, but who would have thought that they are just going to send their 'pets' instead?" complained Arthur while sitting on the floor lazily.

Leonard shook his head helplessly when he heard that and said. "What do you expect? Their guilds are still in the middle of a war against each other, so it is natural for them to focus on the war first before casting their attention on this place."

Arthur clicked his tongue when he heard that and refuted. "Tsk! It is true for the Central Order since they are clueless about Shin's real purpose at coming here."

"But it is a different matter when it comes to the Undying Guild. After all, Immortal is aware of the existence of that so-called fallen god and the ceremony that she is undergoing. So, I doubt that he is going to stay still and let Shin get such a powerful Elemental Spirit after being defeated in front of a lot of people."

Leonard nodded his head and agreed with his words since he also knew what kind of person was Immortal. If he couldn't get what he wanted, then he would choose to destroy that thing rather than giving it to someone else.

And while they were currently in the middle of those thoughts, they suddenly felt a sudden burst of powers coming from the hall that they were guarding.

Understanding that the ceremony had finally started, Arthur stood up once again and picked up his weapons before saying. "This is going to be noisy."

Hearing that, Leonard nodded his head repeatedly and added with a smirking tone. "And absolutely lively."

Meanwhile, a strange phenomenon suddenly attracted the attention of everyone who was fighting outside the Ancient Ruins – three pillars of light suddenly shot up towards the sky and pierced through the heavens.

Even if they didn't know what those pillars stood for, all of them were sure that something big was happening inside the Ancient Ruins. And no matter what that phenomenon signified, that kind of scene was bound to arouse the greed within everyone's heart right after seeing it.

Not long after, the news about this strange phenomenon spread throughout the Blind Abyss Empire and attracted the attention of all major powers residing in it.

Meanwhile, the man who initiated this whole event was currently standing at the highest point of the Ancient Ruins and staring at the entire battlefield with his cold eyes.

A moment later, he put his mask on before muttering in a cold tone. "Now, let's see how you are going to deal with this."

After that, he jumped off from that place he was standing on before disappearing in the shadows of the night.

...…