Eventually, Rowena managed to convince Noah and send him away. Since Michael was the strongest and the most serious threat to its existence, it completely focused its rage on him. Despite the shadow monster's lack of facial features, Michael sensed deep hatred in its eyes. He thought it was because he had removed the curse from Ethan. However, the real reason was far from what he thought. This curse was just the simple version of the curse Andohr created five thousand years ago. He created the curse to affect the Dark Lord. When the battle between the Dark Lord and the mortal realm peaked, Andohr unleashed the curse upon the Dark Lord. Only, the curse didn't fall on the Dark Lord but on the Dark Queen. So even after the Dark Lord reset the universe, the curse still remembered its origin and why it was created. The curse was sentient, after all.

Black and red lightning bolts crackled around the dark swords in his hands. As the surroundings turned darker, Rowena felt the Dark Lord's power for the first time. Michael didn't hold back as he pushed his limit to the max. All the light around Rowena was sucked away by an invisible force as darkness completely enveloped them. She sensed the Dark Lord's power exponentially grow after the surroundings turned dark.

The shadow monster halted its advancement when Michael's eyes turned completely black. Out of the blue, a shadowy spike shot out from the monster at lightning speed. Michael immediately raised his hand as the black shield appeared on his wrist and blocked the spike. Still, Michael was thrown backward for several meters before he came to a stop. The sheer force Michael felt cracked his ulna and radius. The APD immediately injected the healing potion into his bloodstream and started the healing process. In addition to the healing potion, Michael took the berserker pills to enhance his physical prowess.

When the shadow monster fired another shadow spike, Rowena retrieved her blades and tried to cut the spike into halves. However, she was too slow compared to the spike's speed. Even for Michael, the spike flew too quickly. He dashed away, and still, the spike grazed him on the shoulder. Michael felt an intense pain in his shoulder. To his surprise, the dark flames appeared around his shoulder and burned the flesh in a blink of an eye. This was the first time Michael had seen the dark flames act without his command. Thanks to the APD, new flesh grew around his shoulder.

Meanwhile, Rowena threw her blades at the shadow monster and shook the chains attached to them, creating a wave of shock blast. The shadow monster figure was slightly distorted by the shock wave, but she was too weak to cause any real damage.

"GRRRHHHH!" The shadow monster roared, creating enough to blast Rowena away. Michael quickly dashed at Rowena and caught her mid-air by the chains of her blades. After Rowena safely landed on the ground, Michael threw one of the dark swords at the shadow monster. As the sword soared through the air, Michael raised his other dark sword, sending a bolt of lightning from the tip of the sword.

The shadow monster dashed forward as the sword, and the lightning bolt went straight through its shadowy body. Michael immediately dashed out of the monster's path while shooting out dark beams from his eyes. Unfortunately, the dark beams went through the monster, just like the sword and the lightning bolt. While Michael was running around the monster, shooting dark beams, Rowena leaped into the air and brought down her blades upon the monster.

But the shadow monster created a hand out of the blue and slapped Rowena to the ground. Rowena coughed up blood. The ground around her had several cracks due to the sheer force of Rowena hitting the ground. Her silky smooth skin was riddled with bruises and scars as blood oozed out of the cut on his shoulder The monster did not stop with a slap as it tried to stomp Rowena to death.

Michael immediately raised his hand, sending a powerful blast of wind. The wind blast threw Rowena out of the monster's reach. Without lowering his hands, Michael summoned the dark sword he threw at the monster. The dark sword trembled on the ground for a moment before flying straight back into his hands. After the sword reached his hand, Michael dashed at the monster. His black eyes started to glow red as someone lit a fire in them. Michael decided to fight head-to-head with the monster as he was confident in evading the monster's attack. Although it had the advantage in size and cultivation power, the monster lacked agility like him.

The badass points soared through the roof as Michael slashed the shadow monster left and right. He moved with enough speed to leave after images, and Rowena was stunned by how quick he was. As much as Michael liked to slice and dice the shadow monster, its shadowy figure made it impossible to harm it. No matter how many lightning bolts and dark beams he fired, none affected the monster. The more Michael fought, the more he realized he had no chance of winning unless he found a way to transform the shadowy figure into something tangible. Even the ring of fire created with dark flames had no effect.

Finally, Rowena drank a full vial of healing potion and jumped back to her feet. She tried to dash at the monster, joining Michael in the fight. At that moment, the monster fired five spikes from its body at Michael. He quickly raised the black shield to block the spikes coming directly at him and dashed away to evade the rest. But one spike managed to impale him through the chest. The force sent Michael flying as the black shield fell off his hand.

Rowena turned around and flew straight toward Michael without batting an eye.

"HAHAHAHA!" The monster caught Rowena off guard with its sudden laughter. Instead of pressing its advantage, the monster ran around the blood spilled out of Michael's wound. The monster's devilish laughter echoed through the entire fire realm. Hearing the monster's laughter, more and more natives of the fire realm marched toward the area. Michael's blood, coupled with the shadow monster's laughter, drew the beasts of the fire realm to them.

"Ghost," Rowena saw Michael picking himself from the ground with the dark spike sticking out of his chest. Seeing the blood flowing out of his chest ached Rowena's heart. This strange pain increased as Michael burned down the spike with the dark flames coming out of his hand.

"What's it doing?" Michael asked Rowena, who stared at him, burning his own flesh. Just looking at the skin melting down sent a chill running down her spine. He didn't even flinch as he continued to melt down the skin until she could see the rib cage.

"Stop it," Rowena couldn't bear to see him burn himself anymore.

"It's okay," Michael assured her. Then, the skin slowly grew on his chest until the burn wound completely healed, leaving only a mark.

"We don't stand a chance as long as it remains ethereal," said Michael. Rowena turned around and stood by Michael's side.

"I might be able to help with that," said Rowena, clenching the blades. The next moment, Michael felt the sudden drop in the temperature around him. He looked down at the blades to see the silver blades slowly turning icy blue. The bone-chilling Cold Flames surrounded the blades, summoning intense frost upon them.

"Freezing it. Good idea," Michael gave a nod of appreciation. He flicked his blades and prepared to shut the monster's laughter. But when he was about to take a step forward, he saw several flocks of crows in the air and groups of Glass Wraiths on the ground. They were all on their way to the shadow monster. Rowena was stunned to see the beasts of Fire Realm, especially the glass wraiths. Although the glass wraiths were relatively weak monsters, killing them was not easy at all. One had to shatter its body until it had no soul energy left to revive itself. At that moment, hundreds of them flocked toward them with one intention, kill them. Contrary to her reaction, Michael had a smile on his face.

"You stupid dumb fuck," Michael cursed the monster. Not in anger but in excitement. In Rowena's eyes, they were beasts, while in Michael's eyes, they were bags of experience points. If he could kill them all, he would reach at least Immortal stage level 8 without a doubt. At that time, the Death range would boost his power to the Half Celestial stage. In other words, the shadow monster just ran out of luck.

"Do you have a plan?" asked Rowena.

"Keep the shadow monster busy while I deal with these insects," Michael calmly said. Without wasting any time, Michael ascended into the air as Rowena prepared herself to fight the shadow monster with the Cold Flames. Once Michael was in the air, he cast the Lightning dash and flew straight toward the flock of giant crows. Even from afar, Michael began to bombard the crows with lightning bolts. The crows flew down from the sky like flies as Michael began to hear the sweet sound of experience points increasing.

"Did you miss me?" As Michael was wreaking havoc among the crows, Michael saw a volley of golden arrows striking down the crows. He turned around and saw Gaya in the air with her bow.

"What the hell is that?" Gaya asked, pointing at the shadow monster on the ground. The monster tried to fly toward Michael, but Rowena sent a stream of cold flames, interrupting its movements. The Cold flames froze the glass wraiths in the five-meter radius and shattered them to pieces. As Rowena expected, the broken glass pieces merged together and returned to life.

"That's the curse," Said Michael while shooting down the crows.

"This is not time for explanation. Kill as many beasts as you can," Michael ordered Gaya. With her by his side, he could earn double the experience. Finally, Michael received a golden opportunity to strengthen himself. If everything went according to his new plan, he would be at Immortal stage level 8 by the time this battle ends.