‘How long has it been?’ Shadow asked, his eyes had dark circles underneath them and were completely bloodshot.

“Since the battle started or since you’ve arrived it the Giant Realm, Champion?” The God of the Void responded.

Shadow rubbed his eyes as he oversaw the battle going on in the ravine below him. A viscous conflict between his Fallen Army and the Army of Giants, Shadow had added hundreds of Giants to his army, but there were still over a thousand swarming them.

His Fallen Giants were able to hold their ground despite being outnumbered, his Fallen Mages were constantly reinforcing the frontlines and he had his other thousands of Fallen soldiers providing ranged support with bows and a few artifact guns.

They were just barely managing to fight off the growing number of Giants. Shadow would hop into the fray when he could, but the energy it took to bounce around and climb the Giants was like running a marathon while climbing several mountains. He could only kill a handful before needing to catch his breath.

‘I don’t know, both I guess.’ Shadow asked the God of the Void.

“It’s been 1 week since you’ve arrived in this realm and 5 days since you killed the Giant General then engaged in this fight with the Giant Emperor.”

Shadow yawned and a Giant spear flew over his head. The fight had been extremely taxing, but each Giant he killed greatly increased his connection to the Void. So now he had all but fully awakened the God of the Void’s power within him. His summons could regenerate endlessly, and his strength had increased to the point where he could compete with even some of the Strongest Incarnates that existed.

Shadow decided enough time had passed so he would return to Earth and find Jin because this was taking more time than he was expecting and if he were to help fight the Elven Emperor now, he’d be too exhausted to help.

He had a group of Giants form around him and focused on making a portal on Jin’s energy.

Shadow had practiced making portals in the same realm, but never between realms. He was confident if he could find Jin, then he’d be able to use him as an anchor back into the realm.

But Shadow became increasingly concerned because as hard as he tried, he couldn’t find Jin’s energy anywhere. That meant 1 of 2 things, either Jin was outside of the view of the God of the Void and in a different realm or he was dead.

Shadow knew the last option was impossible and there was no way anyone could kill Jin with as strong as he was now, so he asked the God for assistance.

“Yes, there are some realms out of my reach. A God’s personal realm is accessible to only them and those they invite. Mine is the Void, the God of War has his Arsenal, the Goddess of Creation has her Garden, and the God of Knowledge has his library. Such realms cannot be gazed within unless granted permission by the residing God.”

‘Jin must’ve been sucked into a realm like that again. Guess I’m just trapped here until then.’

“Not necessarily, if you allow me momentary control, I will be able to successfully return is to the Mortal Realm, my Champion.”

Shadow didn’t like the idea of handing over his body, but he liked the idea of staying here in a conflict with the Giants while Jin faced the Emperor alone even less.

‘Fine, but only until we return.’

Without any hesitation, the God took control of Shadow’s body. He examined his hands and then the Void Daggers.

“It has been many eons since I last walked among creation, it feels nostalgic.”

‘Alright cool, can we get going, I’m worried about Jin.’

“Yes, my Champion. I will search for the Mortal Realm, but first I will need to create a little silence so I can focus.”

The God of the Void amplified the Domain Shadow summoned and then provided an increase in power to all the Fallen, all slightly grew in size. Now the tide of the battle had shifted and the Fallen were taking the initiative. As each Giant fell, the God of the Void could instantly turn them into a Fallen as long as they were in his domain. The God then clapped his hands together.

“Silence.” His whisper echoed throughout the battlefield and all the noises became muted.

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One Giant slipped past the Fallen and charged the God, but he didn’t even move and just flung the void dagger like a speeding bullet and blasted a hole in the Giants head then immediately raised him as a Fallen.

“Found you.” The God locked onto Jin’s energy. It was no wonder Shadow couldn’t sense his energy; Jin’s energy had become so faint that it was barely clinging to existence. “He is close to death.”

‘What? How?’ Shadow couldn’t believe it.

“I do not know, but I will bring us to him in a brief moment.”

The God opened a portal of the Void and recalled his Fallen from the battlefield. He stepped through the portal and closed it behind him.

The Giants quickly overwhelmed the area that the Fallen had been defending. Their voices had returned after the God left and they all cheered in victory at ‘conquering’ their enemy they’d been fighting.

Upon returning to Earth, the God of the Void relinquished control back to Shadow. Shadow looked around the land that was filled with craters that were perfectly circular. He couldn’t sense Jin anywhere though; he wandered around and looked for any sign of him. All he found was gold scrap metal and 3 headless corpses, along with a concerning amount of blood.

He followed the trail of blood away from the largest crater in the ground, he saw some blood splattered on a boulder in the distance and rushed towards it.

He found Jin laying there in a dried pool of blood and burns across his body. Jin must’ve been unconscious for days because his wounds had started to heal but they still seemed serious.

‘You idiot, why did you try and fight them off alone?’ Shadow picked up Jin and put him on top of a Fallen War Beast. He then summoned one for himself and rushed to an area far away from the battlefield. Shadow figured that Jin must’ve been the victor in the fight against the Devil Elf Emperor otherwise he’d be completely dead.

Shadow found the ruins of an old hotel and decided it would be the best place to wait for Jin to heal. It was tall and provided a clear view in every direction.

Shadow activated his domain and turned the castle into a Void Fortress, completely rebuilding the ruins with pure Void Energy and improving the building too. He then summoned a variety of Fallen to guard the fortress and dispersed others on patrol.

The old, ruined hotel had now become a towering black skyscraper surrounded by Fallen Orcs and Giants. The ground became filled with smoke that was emitting from the domain and all you could see in the windows of the building were glowing blue eyes of the Fallen standing guard.

Shadow created a large Void hospital room and summoned Fallen Orc Healers to tend to Jin. He then went out to further improve the defenses of the fortress. He had the Fallen Giant Mages cast a spell of invisibility over the building to hide it and then had others create a protective barrier around the surrounding area just to be safe.

He then had some Orcs dig trenches and gave them Artifact guns and bows he had stored in the Void.

When all was done, he realized how fatigued he was. After the days of battling giants and then creating this fortress, Shadow had expended what remained of his Celestial and Spiritual energy. He then went to the top floor overlooking the area and watched his Fallen army make rounds around the building until he fell asleep.

2 days passed while the Heroes rested, both were completely entranced in their slumber. The Fallen army maintained rigorous patrols and killed anything that got remotely close to the fortress where their Master was resting.

On the 2nd day of their rest, the entire planet shook as the Incarnates had finally begun the first phase of their plan to kill the Devil Emperor and gain full control of the Mortal Realm.

Despite the massive planet altering event, both heroes were completely unmoved and still in a deep sleep. By the 3rd day most of Jin’s wounds had healed and Shadow had regained his energy.

When Shadow woke up, he immediately went to check on Jin.

To his disappointment, Jin was still unconscious. Even with the assistance of the Fallen healers, Jin’s recovery was taking longer than he expected.

“Champion, I sense something very wrong within Jin Kai’s spirit. There is great turmoil within him.”

‘What do you mean, is that why he won’t wakeup?’ Shadow asked the God of the Void.

“I believe so, I still have some connection to his spirit since he is one of my blessed. The Devil spirits within him are conflicting with his pure Celestial energy with the tainted Celestial energy of the Devil Emperor.”

‘That sounds bad.’

“It is, if his pure energy becomes corrupted then he will mutate into a Devil. The process must have started when he absorbed the spirits of the Devils in his last fight. Through sheer willpower he is maintaining stability in his mind. But he can only holdout for so long.” The God of the Void sounded genuiley worried for the first time since being in Shadow’s body.

‘Well thanks for letting me know the problem, but do you have a solution to this?’

The God of the Void was silent.

‘Is there a solution or not?’ Shadow asked again, growing impatient with the God.

“Yes, you can purify the tainted Celestial energy by siphoning the corruption into the Void. But there is a chance this may corrupt your own Celestial energy.”

‘How high of a chance?’ Shadow was nervous but he knew that he couldn’t just let Jin become a Devil.

“A safe estimate would be that there is a 1 in 3 chance of you tainting your own energy. If that happens, I will be forced to vacate your body before I become tainted as well and that would lead to your death.”

Shadow weighed the options. ‘1 in 3 I die if I do something, 100% chance I live, and Jin dies if I do nothing. I’m doing it.’

“Do as you see fit, Hero.” The God of the Void clearly disapproved of this option, but Shadow didn’t care. He was going to do what he had to in order to save Jin.