Black lights started to target the Ghosts that descended from the drake. However, compared to before, it was not that strong enough to injure Carl Gustav. Carl was even able to deflect the black lights that flew from every direction with just a swing of his sword. 

“Arrows?”

One of the Ghosts mumbled when he saw the black lights falling down after getting ravaged by Carl’s sword technique. 

“Does that mean dark elves are also elves?”

Iron looked at the Ghost who caught a falling arrow and spoke up after he landed on the ground. 

Just like the elves who were well known for their bow and arrow mastery, it seemed like the dark elves also knew how to handle their arrows well. However, it was only something that he had seen in an ancient record so he couldn’t attest if this was true. After all, the modern records had stated that dark elves was a race that specialized in abnormal weapons. 

“Iron.”

“Yes, sir!”

“Come closer.”

Iron immediately ran and stuck behind Carl.

Countless arrows began to fly and target him from all directions. It seemed like the dark elves had already figured out that Iron was the most important person in their group.

“The direction?” 

“Over there.” 

Iron pointed at the direction where the blurry figure of the bird was staring at him. Carl also hurriedly gave an order to Lintel before they started to move.

“Focus on protecting Iron.” 

“Yes, sir.” 

“Let’s go.” 

After Carl Gustav had confirmed that Lintel was closely attached to Iron, he began to raise his mana before moving forward. 

Suddenly, the powerful arrow that pushed Carl Gustav away before flew and aimed at him once again. However, this time, a storm blew in and blocked the arrow.

“Thank you.” 

Crimson nodded from afar when he heard Carl’s thanks before swinging his sword again. Unlike the Ghosts’ swords, his sword was a vivid blue. It was the perfect sword shaped entirely from pure mana. Since Crimson had a long experience in the military, he realized that the Ghosts were doing something important that they did not have the chance to report to him. However, considering its importance, he immediately sent them some help.

“We received the master’s protection. Are you happy with such a luxury?” 

Iron smiled bitterly when Lintel joked with him.

He was not sure whether he liked the feeling or not. The fact that a master protected them meant that the current situation was extremely dangerous and unprecedented so he couldn’t really rejoice at the fact that he had been protected.

Even with Crimson sweeping away the surrounding area and blocking the attack of the dark elves, the resistance that they faced continued to grow. The Northern Commander was busy sweeping the monsters away while Crimson was busy blocking the dark elves’ offensive. With this delicate balance between their confrontation, Iron and the Ghosts moved forward without taking any break. 

They continued to move forward until the shape of the bird began to get clearer and more visible. Just when the bird took on a reddish hue and a familiar shape…

“Do you know what this barrier is?” 

“This is my first time seeing this too. What in the world…” 

Carl Gustav, who was pushed back, couldn’t help but be flustered when he saw a barrier that he had not seen in his life before.

The barrier was something that they did not know existed even after countless reconnaissance from before. However, the closer they approached the barrier, the stronger it pushed them away.

They did not know what it was or how it was made but there was one thing that they were sure of. It was a barrier created to look exactly like the surrounding area that was powerful enough to avoid detection through a visual and mana inspection.

They only realized that it existed when they felt a strange and mysterious force pushing them away.

While Carl Gustav was approaching the barrier, a fierce battle broke out as the strong arrows that made him vomit out blood flew and targeted Crimson.

Because of this, Crimson had lost the leeway that he had making it so that he did not have enough time to care about the Ghosts. His entire attention was now focused solely on dealing with the dark elves as he swung his sword high up in the sky.

“I’ll have to let the commander know this first.” 

Carl immediately placed a whistle on his mouth.

Ppiiiiiiii!

Despite the thunderous sound of the storm and their fierce battle, the sound of the whistle floated clearly over the noise. Regardless of how chaotic the sounds in the surrounding were, it still spread clearly all over the place.

When Crimson heard the sound, he tried to swing his sword and help out Iron’s party.

Bang!

“Master level… or just a power equivalent to that?” 

Carl’s expression hardened when he saw a black arrow blocking Crimson’s attempt to help them. 

Carl realized that the dark elf that stopped master Crimson alone had a force that was far stronger than what they had imagined. It seemed like they were extremely skilled. Considering that fact and the fact that most of the dark elves that blocked them were also at the 5th Stage or probably even beyond that, he was sure that some of their military units would be wiped out easily under their hands.

“I’m going crazy.” 

Carl Gustav frowned as he ruffled his head in annoyance. 

The barrier in front of them was something that couldn’t be easily destroyed with just their power. They would not be able to break it unless they knew what kind of barrier it was. They could probably break it through sheer force but according to Carl’s estimate, one needed to have the power of a master to break this down.

While Carl stopped in place not knowing what to do, a ray of light fell from the sky and destroyed the intangible power that stopped the Ghosts from moving forward. Although it did not break in one strike, it still started to collapse after receiving a second and third hit from the flash of light.

“You can’t ignore a commander’s jjambap.” 

Lintel mumbled to himself as he watched the Northern Commander swing his sword like crazy. 

The power of the Ghosts was not enough and Crimson was being tied up and blocked by the being that they presumed to be at master level so the Northern Commander forcibly created a gap and broke the barrier. 

Thanks to the Northern Commander’s efforts, the barrier that mimicked the surrounding landscape and blocked Carl, Iron and Lintel started to gradually fade away. 

“That place?”

Iron nodded his head upon hearing Carl’s question. 

When the barrier disappeared, they saw a huge cave on top of the snowy mountain. The problem was that it was an unknown structure. It was something that they did not know how the dark elves had created and placed here undetected.

“There was… a place like this?” 

No matter how much the surrounding area was blocked by a barrier, they couldn’t believe that a structure that was almost as big as a mountain was hidden behind it. The three of them couldn’t help but stare blankly for a moment. 

“Get a grip.” 

Iron and Lintel hurriedly came back to their senses when they heard Carl’s voice. Before they knew it, dark elves were already approaching them. 

“I’ll take care of this place…” 

“We’ll stop them.” 

Billie Brandt cut off Carl’s words. He and the rest of the Ghosts swung their swords and dealt with the approaching dark elves. 

Carl immediately pulled out his sword and created a huge shockwave. 

“Go inside.” 

“Yes, sir!” 

Lintel answered Carl loudly as he tried to enter the cave with Iron. 

Then, the dark elves started to attack once again.

The Northeastern Commander was currently preoccupied with the presumed master level dark elf while the Northern Commander was dealing with the monsters and dark elves. Even the Ghosts were fighting against the dark elves. 

“Go and pierce through them.” 

“……” 

Carl turned around when Iron remained silent. 

“I told you this before, right? What’s Ghost motto?” 

“The mission comes first.” 

“That’s right. So complete your mission.” 

Iron nodded heavily at Carl’s orders. Carl smiled at him as he poured mana in his sword. At that moment, a huge shockwave coming from inside the cave spread around. 

“Go.” 

“Yes.” 

Carl took the attention of the dark elves away while Lintel took the lead and protected Iron. 

“Where do we go?” 

“To the left.” 

“Next?” 

“The right.” 

They ran quickly along the cave’s complex passages under the guidance of the red bird. The bird, which seemed to know where the dark elves were coming from, guided them to passages that were rid of them. However, that was the best that it could do in that situation.

In the end, the dark elves caught up to them. They rushed forward and aimed at Iron.

Even if they were corrupted by polluted mana, they still quickly determined that Iron was a divine beast contractor. After all, they were still beings that had once interacted with the spirits and the divine beasts. Determining something like this would only be a matter of time for them.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Lintel was already starting to feel the exhaustion as he continuously blocked the rushing dark elves.

They were fortunate that the dark elves that attacked Iron were not as skilled as the ones from before. However, Lintel gauged that their skill had surpassed those at the general knight level. This meant that it was still difficult and exhausting for him, someone who was at the 5th Stage, to deal with them alone.

“Go on ahead.” 

Lintel smiled as he spoke to Iron. Iron remained silent for a moment before nodding heavily. If he stayed here, then they would both be caught and their mission would fail.

“Owl!” 

―Hoot!

Owl recognized the seriousness of the situation, so it allowed Iron to grab its feet as it broke through quickly with its mana.

Some dark elves tried to follow him but Lintel did not let them be.

Thanks to Lintel’s efforts, Iron was able to move forward and go to the place where the phoenix was. There were still dark elves that chased after him along the way but they were able to avoid them.

After a lot of twists and turns, they finally arrived at a huge opening in the cave. 

There, he saw a huge phoenix tied down by black chains that were connected to the four huge black towers in every direction. These towers were sucking the power of the phoenix dry.

Then, he saw the swaying and swirling space behind the phoenix.

“They artificially created a dimensional crack?” 

Iron couldn’t help but curse when he saw this.

“These fucking bastards!” 

When he realized that the reason why he suffered so much in his past life was all because of the dark elves, he couldn’t stop himself from cursing. He already knew it to some extent but when he actually saw it with his own eyes, he couldn’t help staring at the dark elves as if they were his bitter lifelong enemies. 

“These dog bastards!” 

―Tweet!

Baepsae urged him to move. It told him that he had no time to swear at them.

Iron went back to his senses and quickly approached the phoenix with Owl. He thought that the giant phoenix would be released if he went near but it seemed like he had to work first before that could happen. 

Ping!

An arrow suddenly flew in while Iron was quickly approaching phoenix. Iron instinctively avoided the arrow by jumping off of Owl. He had already quickly rolled on the floor but he was still unable to completely avoid the arrow as it grazed his arm.

“Keuk!”

He did not know if it was because the arrow was from a surprise attack or because the power contained in it was too much, but a bone-chilling pain passed through his body upon contact.

When he looked at the approaching dark elves, he saw that a black thunderbolt was wound around their arrows.

Iron hurriedly pumped mana into his legs. His body was still wrought with internal injuries and he still hadn't recovered from the aftereffects of the doping from earlier, but he still forced himself to move.

This is not the time for me to think about useless things.

This was the opportunity that the Ghosts had created for him so he had to make full use of it. 

Iron ran like crazy fueled by the thought of taking full advantage of the opportunity that was given to him. Owl knew what was running through his head so it fired two beams of light from its eyes to help him block the approaching dark elves. 

Iron squeezed out all of the mana that he could squeeze out as the number of the approaching dark elves continued to grow. He avoided all sorts of weapons that flew all over the place with every step that he took. Various weapons like arrows, daggers and spears continued to fly towards Iron. But Iron just ran and avoided all of them, albeit only barely.

However, the problem was exhaustion had caught him faster than their weapons.

“Heok… heok…”

―Tweet!

Baepsae quickly recovered Iron’s energy while shouting at him to quickly make contact with the phoenix.

He felt energized from the temporary overflowing energy in his body. He felt the same when he doped himself with the mana stone earlier.

With this energy coursing through his body, Iron squeezed out the last of his strength as he ran forward once again.

“Uwaaaaaaaa!”

Dodging the incoming weapons that flew at him from all over the place, Iron finally touched the beak of the phoenix that was lying on the ground. As soon as his palm touched the beak, the phoenix’s closed eyes opened as a strong shockwave spread all over the place.