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In an open field on the Ancient Ruins

Few moments before the rebirthing ceremonies were done, the battle between Shin and Immortal was already reaching its conclusion.

Ha~ Ha~ Ha~

Shin was inhaling and exhaling rhythmically as he tried to catch his breath. Due to the series of events that happened earlier, he already exhausted most of his mental prowess and was about to reach his limit.

He already unsummoned all of his phantoms since he could no longer control any of them in his current state. Even though the skill duration still had quite some time left, Shin's mind couldn't endure the burden of controlling all of them manually.

Aside from his Sun and Moon Clones, he didn't have any other summons in the field. Even if it was possible to leave the control of their own phantoms to the AI of his clones, it was still going to be meaningless since Immortal could immediately pinpoint which among them were the real bodies of those clones.

Given that, Shin chose to give up those phantoms so that he could focus on controlling his clones.

Fortunately, he was not the only one who was holding on to the last straw in this battle; Immortal was not in a better condition either.

During their earlier battle, Shin managed to kill the Skeleton King alongside the horse of the Abyss Knight while controlling his clones manually. The True Ghoul was also gravely wounded by the scorching flames created by the modified Powers of the Sun.

The black flames created through that power possessed a corroding effect against undead monsters which was preventing them from recovering their injuries.

Meanwhile, Immoral was also in a similar state as Shin. He might have more strength to stand up straight compared to Shin but his MP was very close at getting empty and it was barely able to support the undead monsters that he had on the field.

He was currently doing some breathing techniques to barely recover some of his Mana while also using some of his recovering skills to hasten the process.

As for his pots, he already exhausted all of them a long time ago when he was still battling Shin in the air. After all, keeping the 'Demonic Wings' active was burning a lot of mana. And adding the fact that he was using some of his blinking skills from time to time alongside the offensive spells that he needed to use, it was not a surprise that he exhausted all of his potions.

Shin and Immortal locked their gazes at each other as they were trying to recover as fast as they could. They also kept their Clones and Undead Monsters in front of them respectively, trying to be on guard on any kind of sudden attack.

A few moments later, the two suddenly heard an evil laugh coming from a distance.

"Ku Ku Ku, look at how miserable you look right now, Immortal. Never did I imagine that you are going to be in this state despite being against a mere rookie," said the owner of the voice while walking towards the two.

"Tsk! You being here could only mean a single thing. Those idiots are defeated by those two," said Immortal with a deep frown as he could already identify the owner of that voice without even looking.

Hearing that, Hoawin chuckled once again before saying. "Don't blame them, it is not their fault to be schooled by those two. Both of us knew how strong those monsters have become after all these years."

He then took a brief pause before wearing a huge grin and asked. "But are you not afraid that I am going to kill you right now and absorb your essence? At first thought, it is not a bad idea to begin with."

"Heh! You can come and try. After all, killing me, a Messenger can also mean that your Demonic Church is declaring war with our Corrupted Cult. Especially that you are a high-ranking Apostle of that church," sneered Immortal provokingly.

On the other hand, Shin turned his head in the direction where that voice was coming from to see who was the owner. And when he saw who it was, the expression on his face immediately turned heavy as could identify this newcomer. "God of Carnage, Haowin."

No matter how soft his voice, Haowin was still able to hear him and said. "Oh~! I almost forgot about our guest over here. But how should I address him? Nameless Swordsman? Sickarius? Angel of Death or Emperor of the Night?"

He then took a brief pause and smirked at Shin before saying with a sarcastic tone. "I heard a lot about you, so I feel honored to have this meeting."

'Tch! D*mn it!' cursed Shin in his mind while looking warily at the two.

He already had a lot on his plate when facing Immortal, so it was not hard to imagine what was going to happen to him next when this lunatic joined in the battle.

BOOM! BOOM!

Then they heard a pair of consecutive explosions coming from the center of the Ancient Ruins.

"Looks like that party finally started over there. Will you mind if I lend you a hand here so that I can join those guys there?" said Hoawin grinningly.

Hearing that, Immortal immediately threw a vicious look at him before saying aggressively. "Mind your own business! I still have my pride to protect, so you better not meddle with my business."

"Then let me deal with these new visitors instead," replied Hoawin as he sensed some mana fluctuations in the air.

When those words left his mouth, a spatial tear suddenly appeared in front of Shin followed by his Elemental Spirits walking out from it.

There were six Elemental Spirits in total and they immediately surrounded Shin as they were planning to protect him from his opponents.

Aside from the original trio of Hanzo, Vladimir, and Grimrace, there was another trio that was added to the group. And obviously, those three were the ones who underwent a rebirthing ceremony just recently.

One of them was Solus who was still in her scarlet dress and blazing hair.

Meanwhile, it was not hard to identify which was Whitie and Blackie between the two.

One of them had the appearance of a young man in his late twenties. He seemed to be wearing an eyeliner due to the thick black lines highlighting the lids of his eyes. His pupils also had different colors as one of them was blue while the other was crimson.

He had long white hair with some black highlights on it. And there was a pair of tiger ears on his head while a tiger's tail was sticking out on his back.

He was wearing scarlet red pants and a white robe that seemed to be worn by the kings of ancient times. The robe was slightly opened which revealed his broad chest that had some tiger stripes on it.

There was also a black fur wrapped around his shoulders, connecting the tiger-looking guards on each of his shoulders.

This young man was currently looking arrogantly at Haowin and Immortal as if they were a pair of lower beings when compared to him.

Meanwhile, the changes that Blackie had undergone completely shocked Shin. Or rather he didn't expect that she was actually a girl and someone with a perfect figure on top of that.

She was wearing tight-fitted leather clothes that were highlighting her figure alongside the pairs of arm guards and shin guards. There was also a steel armor protecting her chest but leaving her stomach bare, showcasing her belly button.

Meanwhile, there was a veil covering half of her face as her long and curly black hair was loose on her back. At the same time, there was a pair of round ears sticking out on the head just like Whitie while her black tail was extended out from her lower back.

Seeing the lineup of Shin's Elemental Spirits, Haowin couldn't help whistle a little while looking at them full of greed. "Look at these guys, aren't they a group of fine Elementals."

On the other hand, Immortal was looking at them with a heavy face. Especially when he thought that three of them were hosting the cores that Shin got from.

"Leave them to us, Master. You can take your rest now," said Blackie with her cold yet caring voice.

Hearing that, Haowin started chuckling a little as he found those words ridiculous. "A mere Elemental dared to look down on me?"

After saying that, Haowin immediately snapped with his fingers to use a special skill that could forcefully unsummon any kind of Elemental Spirits and pets on the field.

He knew that Immortal was not in a good state to use his own suppressive skill, so it was better for him to use his own skill instead.

But things didn't always go according to plan.

Despite using his suppressing skills, the group was still present in the field and seemed to be unaffected by the skill.

Seeing that, Haowin suddenly knitted his eyebrows before trying to find the reason behind it. Not long after, he noticed that there was a spiritual formation surrounding them.

"Oh~! I see, so you guys used the residual energies from the previous ceremony to cast a special formation before setting it up on his place to counter any kind of suppression skills," said Haowin with a sneering tone before adding. "But, so what?"

He was about to cast a spell when he noticed that Shin was starting to walk forward and walked past his 'Reapers' Retainers'.

"Eh!?" his Elemental Spirits were taken aback by his actions and wanted to stop him but they immediately prevented themselves from talking when they heard Shin's next words.

"If you guys want to help, then keep the other guy busy while I'm dealing with Immortal. We are in a middle of a duel," said Shin as he stared at Immortal as he was challenging the latter.

Seeing that, Immortal started grinning from ear to ear before replying. "Fine by me!"

After that, they immediately forgot about the existence of the others as they got ready for the final exchange of this battle.

...