"Summon everyone." the envoy said, quickly all the Shadow minions surrounding him disappeared as if getting absorbed by the shady walls, leaving the Envoy's shady figure floating alone.

"I might be lucky that the a.s.sa.s.sin Arkhan attacked before I got done in by that b.a.s.t.a.r.d. However, I am not that easy to get bullied. Just wait, I will be back and I will have your Perfect body presented before the King soon." The envoy thought. A vengeful aura lingered in his intent.

Soon enough, in less than fifteen minutes, the room was filled again by Shadows. But unlike before, the room was full-packed by the Shadows that not even a sliver of light was present. The sheer amount of number of Shadows was beyond one can count that even the envoy was utterly surprised for the turnaround.

Slowly, a smile crept in its ghostly face, "This is perfect. With this amount of power, I should be able to fight back against him. His body will be as good as an empty vessel before this day ends!"

Suddenly, it's void-like etherial mouth opened and every single one of the  Shadows willingly dived deep into his mouth, like black water, they were absorbed by the Envoy and it's already terrifying aura suddenly surged with intense power.

"Yes..Yes...With this power..." The envoy felt the powerful gush continued to increase his spiritual essence to bloat with immense energy. Despite the cost of thousands of Shadow minions that he had been ama.s.sing throughout the thousand of years of his existence, the Envoy believed that it was a worthy sacrifice.

Once he managed to get a hold of the perfect vessel that Elric possess and presented it to the King of the Dark Realm, his chance of getting exalted and become its right hand would be significantly increased. And if it comes to worst, he will just forcefully took possession of Elric's body and maybe start his own ruling to this realm using that perfect body as a base.

But first, he must get rid of the powerful soul and essence lingering in that vessel, or else, taking it over is just a mere dream. Thus, absorbing all the acc.u.mulated energy of the Shadow minions and using it to temper and increase its soul power is a necessary step he needs to do.

As time went by, the former weakened ghostly figure of the Envoy now looked like an imposing figure. The amount of the Dark Energy it has absorbed caused it's a ghostly body to even take a solid form. It does not require any weak human body to possess as the strength of its dark essence alone is enough for it to move like a real physical being.

Like a mutated soul, it had become extremely dense that no amount of light could linger on its surface. It was the form of utter darkness. Two pairs of ghostly long arms, a slim dark body, and a single menacing red eye in its utterly dark face was everything that can be described from it. Under its feet was nothing but a smoking trail of darkness reminiscing to a G.o.d of Death.

The strongest Shadow has been born. All the Shadow possessed humans in his vast domain has been freed just for him to complete this form, and the Envoy knew that he must make the most out of his currently overwhelming power.

Slowly, it's body blended to the earth as if suddenly sinking from a small black pond. It's terrifying figure and aura disappeared on the spot and the room was filled with light again.

***

On the other side of the globe, hidden somewhere deep under the sea is one of the Guardian race's base. It was responsible for watching and dealing with everything that was happening in the eastern region of the globe just like how there was an Eastern Dragon race once.

It was located about a thousand feet deep underwater, covered with an isolation barrier that hides them even from the most advanced human detection technologies. With the status of the Guardians as the balance keeper of the world, they have access to the superior technology that normal humans could only dream of. Mental telepathy, mind control, anti-gravity aircraft, cloaking, and even cloning is just a few of their natural capacity.

Situated in the middle of their base are the same beehive-like rooms that the Ancient Humans had based their designs from. However, the floating beehive-like rooms of the Guardians is made of a mysterious white metal that emanated refres.h.i.+ng energy throughout its surroundings. Being inside it allows one to feel extremely calm and a refres.h.i.+ng scent lingers around that also nourishes the body.

The Guardians, just like their close relative, the Ancient humans also had the same faces except that all of them are bald. Their mouth is extremely small, eyes are deep and incredibly blue that emanated an emotionless gaze. 

One thing that comes in one's mind watching how they act is that they were like robots. Their movements are calculated, their faces are fixed. Not even a single sound of laughter nor crying nor any emotion-related sound can be heard.

They were just there, working, holding the hologram tablets in their hands while their mind is constantly in communication in real-time, all connected to every single guardian living in the world.

Then suddenly, all of them stopped moving. Their deep blue eyes widened with an incredibly rare show of emotion.

Their body was shaking. All of them. Drops of sweat immediately flowed out of their pores and the whole atmosphere became incredibly tense. It was the same feeling as if you were a robber and was trapped inside a room, knowing the armed police with their dogs are about to come inside.

It was incredibly rare for the Guardians to show their emotion, given that they were logic and calculation based creatures. They have evolved past being under the control of emotions in order to advance their thinking abilities just like the Ancient Humans, although they only differ to the mission given to them.

All the elders of the Guardians around the world quickly made a mental discussion via long-distance telepathy.

In their own private mental room, their individual yet almost the same voices sounded,

"It's him again."

"Those beings are at it again."

"The probability has reached one hundred percent."

"A major s.h.i.+ft is coming."

"We should do it."

"I agree."

"The Arkahs has a ninety percent chance of succeeding."

"Let's hope for the ten then."

...

"It was never a coincidence."

"He must be the next candidate to the gate."

"We must grab this chance. We waited for this for thousands of years."

...

"Our chance has dropped to only three percent if we do that."

"too slim."

"The other options seem viable."

...

"Let's do that."

"Send the elite. That should help him."

"Done."

"Now, let's wait. We can't interfere anymore, else the probability will change again."

"If he wins, its all good and the world is safe."

"But if he fails, we should all brace ourselves."

"Agree."

"True."

"Indeed."

...

"All done. All methods and actions have been applied. The expected result is..."

"Chance is...zero?"

"very sudden."

"It's the end."

...

...

...

"f*ck."

***

The whole isolation barrier that Grandma Kahayag built was already filled with countless cracks. Due to the overwhelming strength that Elric and Arkhoz had been exerting in their exchanges, the isolation barrier that also serves as the arena for the fight was slowly collapsing.

"Elric, I can't hold the barrier anymore. Finish him or we will risk getting exposed outside."

"But I am having fun grandma. " Elric, with a battle frenzied face, replied. His torn clothes were dangling helplessly in his hips and signs of blade cuts can be seen in his body. But the Dragon's blood was able to sustain him.

Unlike the normal reserve and sometimes stupid Elric, the current one has the same expression of his great Ancestor Lapu-Lapu. The Legendary warrior of the Maharlikan Island and defender of the Unknown Treasure.

With the awakened Spiritual ability comes the price of his natural human bloodline from his great Ancestor also taking over. His battle instinct was flamed and he is now looking like a battle maniac.

On the other side of the corner, Arkhoz, who is currently hiding using the advanced cloaking technology given by the Ancient humans to him, was terribly gasping for air. His pale blue body was riddled in inflamed muscles from Elric's punches, kicks, and sometimes, scary headb.u.t.ts that made his face covered with thick blood.

His black sword in his hand had been broken and only half of its original length is left.