...

    Axion was staring warily at the two uninvited guests before him, thinking of a way to solve his current predicament.

    Seemingly sensing the thoughts that Axion had, Immortal suddenly turned to him and spoke. "Relax. We will not make our move yet. At least until that thing in you had fully ripened."

    Axion was trying to secretly send a message to his companions through their team channel. But the expression on his face suddenly turned ugly after realizing that the place was currently isolated by a powerful barrier, which also blocked all kinds of signals coming in and out of this place.

    Seeing the expression that Axion was making, Immoral suddenly started smirking. "Don’t try doing anything funny. Just behave there and patiently wait for ’your’ turn."

    He then turned his attention back to Azazel before asking. "So, how are we going to settle this?"

    Azazel squinted his eyes as he stared at Immoral before saying. "As the missing piece that has become a defective product, I don’t think you are worthy to decide anything."

    Immoral went silent for a moment as heard those words. He then gave the other party a provoking look before asking. "You can give it a try. Let’s see how strong one of the said generals of his army is."

    ...

    As the situation within the tomb was somewhat getting heated, a pair of hooded individuals stepped into an isolated part of the Plague Lands, quite far from the battlefield.

    One of them was a man wearing a dark grey cloak with small dark patches all over its surface, seemingly creating a hazy and eerie miasma around the cloak to his presence.

    The other was a girl hidden by a white cloak with silver-white feathers attached to its surface. She was holding a tall holy staff, which was a head taller than her, and had a golden globe at its tip that was constantly releasing a holy aura to ward off the dark miasma coming out from the Plague Lands.

    "I know that this place is in a mess, but I never expected that even the air is this filthy," commented Cloe as she scanned the surroundings.

    It was her first time stepping into this place since it had transformed into a region polluted by such a strong stretch of plague energy.

    She had to admit that she had somewhat underestimated the power of the Plague Race as the contamination that they carried was no weaker than what the Corrupted Monsters and Demonic Creatures were carrying in their bodies.

    The pollution that they carried through the plague was even worse than those creatures to some extent.

    "So, what are your plans?" she asked as she turned to Shin.

    Shin glanced at the update of the event that he had gotten from Exheart before saying. "I plan to hunt some powerful monsters and players, who managed to achieve decent positions within the Plague Army."@@@@

    He paused for a moment before continuing. "It seems like one of the generals was captured by an NPC Templar. From the information that I have gotten, particularly the description of the captured person, I think that it is the cunning assassin who I fought earlier."

    "That guy is quite tricky to deal with, especially when he is very proficient in creating multi-layered schemes. I wonder how he has fallen into that trap, which cost him being captured," he added as he fell into deep thought.

    He then threw that thought at the back of his head before sticking to his original plan. "Anyway, let’s go for a hunt while looking for the main locations that need to be purified based on your mission."

    As he reached this point, a sudden flash of ideas entered his head, making him wear a familiar grin underneath his mask. "Eh!? That’s right! We the Templars are unwilling to move until that fat sheep take action, why not force them to do it."

    He paused for a while before turning to Cloe. "Let me make a couple of calls. I have a plan."

    Not long after, he pulled out his contact list and looked for a couple of names before making a call one after another.

    "Yo! I’ve got a job for you. The pay is good and I will compensate you with your loses. But you have to make sure to complete the job successfully and time it well with my signal."

    "Don’t worry. It is just a ’simple’ infiltration job with little poking of the hornet’s nest."

    ...

    ...

    ...

    The calls lasted for quite a while before he turned to Cloe, who was giving him an odd look.

    She was silent for quite a while before regaining her senses. "You-... you sure are evil when it comes to other people."

    Shin just shrugged his shoulders as he added. "You can’t blame me. I am only doing it for our success!"

    ...

    In the meantime, Exheart, who was currently resting in the temporary base that the Righteous Churches had set up at the border of the shrinking Plague Lands, could not help but shake his head and wear a bitter smile after ending the call.

    Bryan and Hellban, who were also resting near him, noticed the multiple changes in his expression.

    The two exchanged glances at each other before Bryan finally stood up and walked over to Exheart. "What is it? It looks like you have eaten rotten food with those expressions."

    Exheart snapped out of his daze when he heard those words. He then turned to the latter, before saying. "I’ve gotten a commission offer from that guy. Are you interested?"

    "That guy?" Bryan was confused at first before realizing who the latter was talking about. A solemn expression washed over his face as he asked with full seriousness. "Let’s hear it out. What kind of commission is it?"

    Exheart felt a little troubled about how to explain the entire mission before finally summarizing everything in simple words. "A suicide mission."

    "A what!?" Bryan felt like he had heard it wrong so he could not help but ask again. "I feel like I did not hear you clearly. Can you repeat it?"

    Exheart sighed as he repeated. "A suicide mission."

    ....