...

Shin stared at the door of the room with sharp eyes while also focusing his senses to feel the movements outside. "Tsk! It looks like there are a lot of them out there."

​​

"We are completely surrounded," said Hanzo as he nodded his head.

"Hiss~! Trying to assassinate their own guest? Such a strange way to show their hospitality," said Shin in a sarcastic tone.

"What are we going to do with them, my liege?" asked Solus while conjuring another pair of fireballs on each of her hands.

Hearing that, Shin suddenly smirked and quickly said. "What else? Of course, we are going to return their favor."

After that, he immediately snapped with his finger to summon all of his other Elemental Spirits and asked Blackie, Vladimir, Grimrace to scatter and take care of the other assassin hiding in the dark.

Meanwhile, Shin and the others patiently waited for the opposing side to make their moves. And just like what they were expecting, the assassins made their move not long after Shin ordered the three to scatter.

Bang!

The door of the room was blasted as a group of Twilights (Elven Assassins/Thieves) entered the room, forcing their way inside. But right after they entered, they were immediately greeted by a group of fireballs that accurately hit their bodies and sent them out once again.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

But despite taking down most of the assassins, there were still some who managed to dodge the unexpected attack and continued to charge toward Shin and the others.

Unfortunately for them, it was also the time when Whitie and Hanzo made their moves. They either blasted the assailants with a powerful energy wave or cut them down with a space-cutting strike.

It didn't take long for the group to take down all of the Twilights that were trying to assassinate them. And right after cleaning up the battlefield, Shin quickly checked the corpses one by one, trying to identify each of them.

Not long after, he discovered that all of these assassins did not belong to the forces of the Elven Kingdom. Their outfits were one thing, but what really attracted his attention was the black smokes that were being emitted by those corpses.

"These are corrupted powers without a doubt. Don't tell we bump into another scheme of those Corrupted Cults," cursed Shin silently after confirming what kind of energy was coming out from the corpses of the assassins that they killed.

While was still thinking about what was happening, Grimrace suddenly appeared behind Shin and quickly reported. "The castle is in the state of chaos as it was currently under attack by the spawns of the Corrupted Church. And no one from the outside knows what is happening since the whole place is currently sealed."

Hearing that, Shin suddenly knitted his eyebrows and muttered with a soft voice. "The castle is under attack? Why do I feel that this is a planned rebellion?"

After thinking for a few moments, Shin immediately dropped that thought as he was not sure about it yet. "Let's forget about it for now and gather more information for the time being."

Then he turned his head at the group and quickly gave out his order. "Grimrace and Blackie, you two head inside the main castle and see what is happening there. Hanzo and Vladimir, look for the Elementalist who come with us here. We need to know where she is to understand what is really happening."

"Solus, come with me. We are going to help the elves to fend off these believers of Corrupted Church," he added before walking out the room. And at the same time, all of his Reaper's Retainers aside from Solus suddenly disappeared as they went to do the respective tasks.

*******

In the meantime, Prince Federith was currently watching the chaos within the Elven Castle from a high place while wearing a huge grin. "This is your fault, father. If only you trust me a little more, then this shouldn't have happened."

At the same time, his close aide suddenly appeared behind him before asking. "Are you sure about this, crowned prince? We can always do this until the Sage and the Envoy of the Church of Sun and Moon before make our move. Are we being a little too hasty?"

Hearing that, the prince turned silent for a moment before replying. "We've been dragging this matter out for a long time already, so we can't delay this any longer, or else we are going to face the wrath of that Messenger of the church."

"But still-… isn't it better if we make our move after those two left? Now that they got involved, it is impossible to avoid the eyes of those Righteous Church now," refuted the aide.

"Moreover, we are also going to be in trouble once the news arrives in the ears of two other kingdoms," he added while keeping his head low.

Prince Federith suddenly smirked before saying. "Isn't that the reason why we keep all of the exits of the castle sealed alongside the main gate in the first place? And that is also why we are making haste. We need to finish this as soon as possible before the neighboring kingdoms become aware of what is going on."

He then paused for a few moments before quickly adding. "As for the Sage and the Envoy, make sure to capture them alive. Both of them are Otherworldly Individuals so killing them is the same as freeing them since they can just revive with the help of the power of Heaven."

Hearing that, his aide could only nod his head before quickly leaving to execute the order given to him.

********

Meanwhile, Charlotte was currently fighting a group of Twilights while running away from the main castle.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

She struck a few of her pursuers with her Elemental Magic and forced the others to distance themselves away from her.

"Surround her! And don't let her escape!" said the leader of the group while trying to interrupt Charlotte from casting another spell.

In the meantime, the other members of his group quickly spread around and surrounded her from all directions, making sure that she couldn't run anywhere.

Seeing that there was no place for her to run, Charlotte quickly summoned two of her Elemental Companions while calling forth four pillars of fire which also transformed into fire dragons immediately after.

"Raijin opened a path for us to get out of here. Fūjin, support me blow these annoying guys away," she said while quickly waving her hands forward and commanded the four fire dragons to fly towards the leader of the opposing side.

At the same time, Fūjin quickly swung his hands in the air to summon a group of small tornados and sent them in all directions.

After that, Raijin quickly took advantage of the opening for the two to charge forward while surrounding his body with a powerful current of lightning.

Crackle!

Charlotte and Fūjin followed closely behind Raijin to break through the encirclement of their opponents. Unfortunately, more and more assassins were popping out of nowhere as time went by, so escaping this place seemed to be much harder than she had expected.

"Tsk! What is that Prince thinking? To think that he is colluding with the Corrupted Church despite his status? That guy has gone crazy," cursed Charlotte after blasting away another group of assassins.

But not long after, another group quickly replaced those guys and quickly jumped towards her with their daggers at hand. And when Charlotte saw them, she quickly understood that it was impossible to get out of this place if she didn't give her all.

Given that, she quickly summoned her other Elemental Spirits to increase their group's battle prowess. "Suijin! Kaolin! Xin!"

Her team was quite strong but it was still not enough to fully overwhelm the group assassins surrounding them. Aside from their strong innate battle capabilities for being an NPC, these assassins were also labeled as Special Elites which made them much stronger compared to normal NPCs.

Moreover, these guys were also corrupted beings, which was why their combat prowess was much more powerful than common 'Special Elites'. And on top of that, their numbers were not small either, which was why dealing with them was practically difficult.

And while Charlotte was busily battling the Twilights surrounding her group, she suddenly heard a voice of someone who seemed to be mocking her. "Well, well, well~! Look who is here. Isn't this the famous Elemental Goddess: Charlotte? Fancy meeting you here."

Casting her gaze at the source of the voice and saw an Elf with a cloak wrapped around his body and a longsword hanging on his waist.

"So, it was you after all, Silver!" said Charlotte with a solemn tone as she saw the player walking over.

Meanwhile, the elven player who had the name of 'Silver' raised both of his hands in the air before saying innocently. "Please don't look at me so aggressively, Ms. Charlotte. It may lead to some misunderstandings, you know?"

"And I just got a special quest from the crowned prince, so don't look at me as if I betrayed the whole world," he added, trying to defend himself.

After that, he looked at her straight to the eyes before saying. "Anyways, we don't have much time left, so how about you surrender now and let yourself get captured? That way, we can save both of your time."

He then snapped his fingers to activate a powerful suppressing skill that forcefully unsummoned Charlotte's Elemental Companions before pulling out his sword. "What do you think?"

"In your dreams!" responded Charlotte before pointing at Silver and commanding her fire dragons to charge at him.

Seeing that, Silver slightly shook his head before charging forward while barely dodging the fire dragons. And with that, he was able to arrive near Charlotte in an instant while thrusting his sword forward.

His speed was so fast which didn't give Charlotte any time to blink away from him. Even setting up a spell barrier was impossible because of his instantaneous speed.

But while she was helpless in front of that incoming sword, a katana suddenly appeared in front of her and blocked the path of the incoming strike.

Clang!

"Tsk! Ganging up on a girl? You guys sure have no shame."

...…