Carlos suddenly frowned.

"Purple Vortex, get over there and back up Ginya. She's tangling with a Controller-level monster!"

"Roar?"

"Crank up the bond to full blast and take that thing down fast!"

"Roar!"

Master's orders were urgent. Shoving its petty thoughts aside,

Purple Vortex immediately whipped up propellers, roaring sounds exploding as it rocketed back into the Necromantic Tower...

...

Necromantic Tower, deep in the left corridor.

"Boom!"

"Boom!"

One gold, one black—two figures were going at it hammer and tongs.

Collision sparks flew everywhere, battle shockwaves rocked the corridor.

The bones littering the ground couldn't handle this insane pressure, cracking and crumbling to dust...

After another bone-jarring collision, the massive impact sent both fighters reeling back.

One on the ground, one floating in midair, squaring off.

"Roar!"

On the ground, the black shadow let out a metallic roar.

Its whole body looked like forged iron—black, rock-hard, gleaming with metallic shine.

A savage beast head with three pairs of pitch-black beast eyes,

long and perfectly balanced, radiating violent intent with seriously intimidating presence.

Four powerful beast legs planted on the ground, claws dug deep into the floor, showing off its crazy weight.

On both sides of its body sprouted a pair of pitch-black talons, wicked sharp and built to last.

In their recent throwdown, these claws had actually blocked Ginya's Light Gold quality greatsword.

That was pretty much unheard of among the enemies they'd faced before.

"Roar!"

This black monster angrily bellowed at Ginya floating in midair,

warning the trespasser—this was its turf!

"Yours?"

Ginya's mouth spread into a mocking grin.

Just as she was getting ready to "play" with this hulking brute,

her expression suddenly shifted to disappointment:

"Master's giving orders. Our little game's gotta end."

The withered leaf armor covering her body bristled.

Bond activated.

Violent energy steadily climbed, the Withering Domain's life-sucking power surged!

As the Withering Domain spread out,

the black monster's three pairs of long eyes instantly narrowed.

It instinctively sensed the enemy rapidly getting stronger, a serious threat alarm going off inside.

Ginya's wings fluttered slightly behind her, her figure instantly vanishing as golden light came crashing down.

"Boom!"

Caught totally off guard, the black monster's massive body staggered, nearly knocked flat by this tremendous impact.

A gash opened up on its black iron hide.

With the bond cranked up and power massively boosted, Ginya could now easily carve up this black monster.

"Roar!"

Shaking its head, the black monster suddenly opened its jaws wide.

Evil wind howled as it spewed a barrage of iron spikes blanketing the entire corridor with no escape routes.

Each iron spike was crazy long and thin, tips gleaming with razor-sharp cold light!

Ginya's expression stayed cool, hovering in midair.

She raised her crimson giant shield against the iron spike barrage.

Right away dense metallic clanging sounds rang out.

These sharp iron spikes didn't have the punch to pierce the crimson giant shield, bouncing off one after another.

Even with their power cut way down, the ricocheting iron spikes still packed serious penetration.

In seconds, the corridor's tough walls and ground were swiss-cheesed with countless deep holes.

"Roar!"

With its signature attack totally useless, the black monster's eyes showed human-like wariness.

It made like it was gonna attack but its heavy body slowly backed up, already showing signs it wanted to bail.

Right then, a Dark Purple Force Field suddenly showed up, taking over half the corridor with seriously intimidating presence, totally matching the powerful enemy up front.

A purple figure urgently flew in, a massive propeller above its head making thunderous roaring sounds, cutting off the monster's escape route.

The black monster couldn't cover both front and back, its four limbs desperately clawing at the ground, three pairs of eyes constantly flashing thoughts of getting the hell out.

"Roar!"

...

Purple Vortex could tell that everything happening here was being watched by Carlos.

The monster's full appearance quickly took shape in Carlos's vision, his face lighting up with excitement.

"So it's this bad boy."

Umbral Iron Beast -

a mineral-type monster that could only be born in top-shelf Umbral Iron ore.

Usually, raising an Umbral Iron Beast meant burning through an incredibly precious Umbral Iron vein.

Because the Umbral Iron Beast was the concentrated essence of an entire Umbral Iron vein.

"The final piece for the Ghostly Dark Steed..."

The Umbral Iron Beast's iron body was insanely heavy, packed with the essence of a whole Umbral Iron vein.

It was exactly one of the three major 'ingredients' needed to forge Ghostly Dark Steeds.

....

"Boom!"

"Boom!"

...

Earth-shaking collision sounds echoed above the ruins, even making the Necromantic Tower shake like crazy several times.

Carlos stood in front of the Necromantic Tower entrance, scratching Blood Silver's tiny head, his gaze boring through the door...

Before long, one gold and one purple figure came charging out.

Behind them, the massive corpse of an Umbral Iron Beast got dragged out.

The heavy iron corpse carved a deep groove in the ground, showing off its insane weight.

"Outstanding!"

Carlos gave props to both retainers.

His eyes landed on the Umbral Iron Beast's corpse.

Even though it was dead, the rock-hard Umbral Iron body barely had any wounds.

Only the sword cut that punched through the beast's brain core had done it in.

"Incredible defensive game."

Carlos pressed hard with his finger, feeling how tough this Umbral Iron body was.

If he hadn't clued both retainers in on this monster's weak spot beforehand, taking it down would've been a real pain.

He stashed away the Umbral Iron corpse and personally went into the Necromantic Tower to gather tons of bones.

The materials for forging Ghostly Dark Steeds were now completely collected.

"This ruin's tapped out."

Since the exploration was wrapped up, Carlos had zero reason to stick around.

So he led both retainers and quickly bailed from the ruins...

...

Ember City, Valois mansion.

The future Shadow Twins,

Riley and Anna,

the twin sisters,

huddled in the courtyard corner's shadows.

Little sister Anna asked seriously:

"Sister, when's big brother coming back?"

Big sister Riley shook her head.

"No clue."

Then she fired back:

"Sister, when's big sister coming back?"

Little sister Anna also shook her head.

"No clue."

The Valois mansion's masters, Carlos and Iris, had taken off one after another without bringing them along.

This left the twins feeling seriously bummed out.

In the depths of their pupils, a touch of deep color quietly showed up as they stared at each other in a trance.

One black, one white mismatched eyes clearly reflected their sister's image.

All of a sudden,

between the twins' black pupils and black pupils, white pupils and white pupils, a mysterious 'bridge' quietly appeared.

Drawn to each other's mismatched eyes, they said at the same time:

"Sister, your eyes are so gorgeous!"

The sister was drawn to her sister's right black pupil, the sister to her sister's left white pupil...

The twins smiled knowingly with dopey expressions.

Each reached out a hand, slowly stretching toward the other's eye...