Shin felt dizzy, his eyes were hazy, but he continued walking forward. Shin glanced at the heaven, surprised to see the sun.

“When did morning come?”

He muttered to himself while lowering his head, glaring at the city in front of him.

The city was in ruins, Shin managed to see a couple survivors walking in the streets without any aim.

“Am I too late?”

Shin’s lips lowered, and his expression worsened. Shin suddenly turned his face to the left, narrowing his eyes and a frown on his face.

“Humph…!”

Shin kicked the air beneath his feet and rushed towards that direction he stared at.

After four minutes, Shin managed to finally see what caught his attention, it was over a thousand beasts wearing red cloaks covering their bodies.

The moment Shin caught up with them, the beasts turned their heads towards Shin, bearing their fangs at him.

Not wasting a moment, the beasts pounced towards Shin and some rushed behind him, wanting to surround Shin.

Shin’s expression darkened, barely no expression could be seen on his face and his eyes coldly gazed at every beast around him.

“More and more.”

Shin mumbled to himself, but his voice entered the beast’s ears too.

“More and more people are hurt because of you!”

“Children losing their parents, parents losing their children…”

Shin’s mumble turned into a roar slowly but surely.

“You are looking for me, stop going for the others!”

A dark aura gushed out of Shin’s body while he grabbed the air where a katana and a dagger appeared.

Shin felt everything turn black suddenly, he could sense everything happening around him. His body was acting by itself and he saw things in a slow motion.

Shin saw his body slice open the beasts with a darkened facial expression, his white robe which he changed today was drenched in blood after a few seconds.

Surprisingly, even when Shin was holding the advantage, Shin saw the beasts nearing his body and attacking with their claws. Shin’s white robe turned into tatters not long after, but there were no wounds on his body.

After a beast died, his dark aura engulfed the corpse before it entered Shin’s body.

Shin felt his body strengthening for each beast he killed, but he also felt his eyes becoming hazier and his mind dull after he sucked in the energy of the beasts.

Not even knowing how long time had passed, Shin’s recovered from his previous supernatural phase. He was heavily breathing in and out while having his head lowered. Shin glanced around himself, only to see blood covering the surrounding two hundred meters, but there were no corpses around.

Shin felt a headache, he massaged his temples before shaking his head, trying to stay focused.

“I need to become stronger… I am not strong enough to meet her again by my own powers…”

After having mumbled to himself a little, Shin raised his head again, glaring towards a direction opposite from where he came from.

Deep inside of Shin

Twelve sculptures shining in different colours were in a circle around a dark sculpture of Shin.

A voice came out from the green sculpture – Malika.

“The Elder Tree seemed to make his body sturdier. But, Shin is harvesting way too much strength at once.”

Malika sighed after he finished speaking.

“It seems like it will be hard to stop Master right now.”

Ker’Vrak said with a frown.

“He’s unbending to become stronger.”

“It is all Muir’s fault!”

Within the pink sculpture – Shenya said in a cold voice.

“If Muir was dead, little Shin wouldn’t have needed to rush his strength!”

“Humph…!”

“Even we couldn’t deal with her back then, and now we don’t have Kuugo, it won’t be easy to deal with her without someone overpowering Muir.”

Zura said while glancing at the other Guardians.

“How are the strength of the people on his side?”

Kira opened his mouth and asked a question.

No one answered him for a whole minute.

“There are four who’s a notch below our original strength back then.”

After thinking for a moment, Glarius said before continuing.

“If we count with some special means, there should be six, seven at most. With one or two of them at our original strength.”

“Far from enough…”

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Zura sighed, she had no idea what to do.

“How strong is Lord now?”

Kira asked another question.

The other Guardians wasn’t sure why Kira would ask this question, but Gladius went quiet for five seconds before speaking.

“By his raw powers, he should be a notch below our original strength. If he used his Energy of Death and our powers, he would be a notch above our original strength, near Muir’s strength.”

Kira went quiet, a golden light appeared in front of his sculpture. Kira walked out of the light, staring at Shin’s fractured sculpture. A sigh came out of Kira’s mouth before he slowly walked towards Shin’s sculpture. Kira’s body shined brighter the nearer he came towards the sculpture.

“Crack…!”

Unknowingly, a crack appeared on Kira’s sculpture, but Kira continued walking towards Shin’s sculpture.

“I see…”

A smirk appeared on Kira’s face before he transferred the golden light around his body to Shin’s sculpture.

After a whole minute, Kira’s light faded away. Shin’s sculpture fracturing slowed down by a lot, Kira smirked while slowly fading away. Cracks could be seen on Kira’s whole sculpture.

“What did you do?”

Ker’Vrak asked absentmindedly.

“Don’t worry, I just thought of something.”

Kira’s weak voice came out from his sculpture.

“The stronger Shin becomes, the more we can act. I used a part of my soul strength to stall for some time, my own soul will recover with time, there won’t be a problem for me.”

“The only thing is; I can’t do this often. I did at most give him some more time to act, perhaps a month, maybe less, a week or even one day.”

“Great, even one day would help."

Ker’Vrak mumbled for a moment before sighing.

"Master's body and soul is getting weaker because of the increase of his strength..."

The Capital Evainheim

Within a small room were five chairs around a table.

On one side, Eva and Lola sat there watching the three on the opposite side.

Azane, Peutoa and Kali sat on the other side, glaring at Lola and Eva in return.

“Cough cough.”

Eva coughed before opening her mouth.

“Let me present myself. I was the previous Queen of the Elves; Eva Wathan.”

Kali nodded, she opened her mouth and spoke with a grin on her face.

“I am The Purple Witch; Kali.”

“Lola Wathan; the current Queen of the Elves.”

Lola said with a cold voice while glaring at Kali.

“Peutoa.”

Peutoa simply stated her name, keeping quiet after that. She expressionlessly stared between Lola and Eva.

“The Red Mist; Azane Zonor.”

Azane said with a loud voice and a smirk on her face.

Kali tapped the table with a single finger.

“Now, will you tell us why you brought us here after hearing Shin’s name?”

“Have you met him?”

She raised her eyebrows slightly, finding it slightly weird.

Lola gave a simple nod.

“Yes, we met him. Our guards picked his unconscious body up at the outskirts of the forest.”

“What happened afterwards?”

Kali asked right after Lola finished speaking.

“Shin wanted the Elder Tree.”

Lola narrowed her eyes slightly.

“You have to understand; the Elder Tree is very important for us Elves. Therefore, I made a deal with Shin.”

Kali stopped tapping the table, the atmosphere around Kali became ice-cold.

“What did he give you for the Elder Tree?”

Kali leaned forward while glaring at Lola.

“He told me that he had nothing to give.”

Lola explained, not taking her eyes off Kali for a single moment.

“Shin said he will give us ‘one favour’ for the Elder Tree.”

“Hihi, that sounds just like Shin…”

Kali laughed for a moment before focusing again.

“From what I saw, your beloved Elder Tree is wilted. It seems like you accepted his offer.”

Kali closed her eyes for a moment before opening them, her voice turned ice-cold.

“What is the favour you asked him to do?”

A smirk appeared on Lola’s face, she coldly glanced at Peutoa and Azane before staring at Kali.

“Hehe…”

Azane, Kali and Peutoa had a bad premonition.

“When he has finished doing what he needs to do, he will return to marry me…!”

Lola said every single word clearly.

Everything went quiet for a moment before three destructive auras gushed out of Peutoa, Kali and Azane.

The three of them furiously stared at Lola with cold eyes.

“You have no idea, do you?”

The first one to calm down, was Kali. She sighed for a moment before glancing at Eva and Lola.

“Do you even know what Shin’s up against?”

After having thought through it for a moment, Lola nodded seriously.

“One of the three strongest Gods of the Gods Realm; Lord Marvin.”

“Hihihihi!”

Kali laughed out loudly, she gazed at Lola with disdain.

“You should stop thinking about staying with Shin if you’re thinking that the only problem Shin is facing against!”

Kali narrowed her eyes and said seriously.

“Muir Meors and the Gods have been eying Shin since the beginning. We have no idea what’s going through the minds of the Nobles nor that guy above them.”

“Every single enemy of Shin is strong enough to destroy the Elven race with a pinch.”

“If you’re thinking about gaining profit from Shin, you should forget everything about him.”

“Humph…!”

Azane coldly stared at Lola before standing up from her chair.

“Lord has already left, there is no point for us staying here.”

Peutoa calmly stood up from her chair, turning around, wanting to leave.

“Heh…”

Lola was flabbergasted by the numerous enemies Shin was facing. She thought about the youth asking her for the Elder Tree, offering one favour with a bright smile on his face. The scene where the assassin attacked Shin also appeared in her mind.

Shin is facing enemies on all fronts, does he even get a chance to rest properly?

Lola felt cold sweat drench her back.

“I have already decided that I will stand by his side.”

After having calmed down, Lola opened her mouth and spoke with a calm tone.

Azane and Peutoa turned around towards Lola.

Kali was still sitting on her chair, she had been observing Lola’s expression since the beginning.