As the pitch-black armor hit the ground, Anthony stared at it for a moment with an expressionless face. He released a sigh before a smile appeared on his lips.

Anthony wouldn’t deny it, when it came to just the usage of Laws, Death Renderer was a tough opponent, but unfortunately for the Dark Knight, he had met him. But unlike many, Laws weren’t Anthony’s sharpest blade or weapon. His sharpest attacks were his broken, overpowered skills and abilities, where if he used just one of them, he could have ended the fight.

As the challenge couldn’t replicate these skills and abilities, that was the beginning of their loss. Fortunately, Anthony was a man who liked fighting his opponents for a while before ending them. And the Dullahan had fallen to the Law of Souls.

’Normally, I wouldn’t outright kill the guy since the challenge was more about defeating him,’ Anthony thought to himself for a moment.

But he knew he had erased the Dullahan’s soul because he couldn’t afford to lose the reward because of some bullshit excuse that the unknown voice from earlier might pull.

’Death is the ultimate form of existence, huh?’ Anthony thought to himself as he remembered the Dullahan’s last words.

With that, he stretched out a hand as his voice echoed through the Home of the Retired.

"Awaken."

The moment those words left his lips, an incomprehensible amount of Origin Essence erupted from Anthony’s core. Due to Death Renderer’s strength, it had taken an outrageous amount of Origin Essence. Fortunately for Anthony, he possessed an infinite amount of it.

The Dullahan’s corpse shook, the armor trembling as though some form of earthquake was happening. But Anthony knew what was happening. As someone who had comprehended the Law of Souls and the Law of Death to the Manifestation Stage, he knew and could see what was going on in real time.

Unlike the previous times when he could just use his ability and the dead would simply awaken, this time, it was different. Death Renderer was already a servant to The Lover of Death, meaning his soul belonged to the man, and Anthony was trying to steal it. Although Anthony had already destroyed the soul, what he had destroyed earlier was merely a fragment of the Dark Knight’s entire soul that had been sent to challenge him.

So at this moment, Anthony’s Shadow Monarch ability was battling to steal the remaining soul fragments from The Lover of Death.

Of course, whether The Lover of Death would be furious or anything of the sort at him for stealing a subordinate, Anthony didn’t really know. But he couldn’t help but imagine gaining someone as overpowered as Death Renderer.

The Law of Death and Souls hummed throughout the entire Home of the Retired, not under Anthony’s control, but under the control of whoever was battling for the Dullahan’s soul. Anthony literally spent over an hour just wrestling for the soul, and finally, he won it over.

After all, the Shadow Monarch ability was literally a gift gifted by ??? himself. If it was defeated here, it would be a shame.

From Death Renderer’s corpse, a blackish-purple shadow rose ever so slowly. The moment Death Renderer rose to his feet, he dropped to one knee as he spoke.

"I thank my liege for awakening me to another state of existence," Death Renderer stated, his heavy greatsword plunged into the ground.

Anthony smirked as he spoke, "You said death is the ultimate state of existence. I hope you like this state of existence."

Death Renderer smiled at Anthony’s words as his cape behind him billowed slightly.

"How about your abilities and the Laws you had during our battle, are they still intact?" Anthony asked, as this was the main reason he had even added the Dullahan to his Shadow Army.

Death Renderer stayed silent for a moment as though he was checking. After a moment of silence, he spoke.

"Everything is intact, my liege," his tone respectful.

Anthony nodded, then decided to ask a question that had been running through his mind.

"Do you know how my Laws were given to you prior to your summon?" he asked.

Death Renderer shook his head as he spoke, "Forgive me, my liege, I do not know. Even if I possessed such knowledge in the past, my entire memory about things I knew relating to my former Master, The Lover of Death, has been erased."

Anthony arched an eyebrow in surprise. Whenever he turned someone into a Shadow Soldier, they still possessed their memories prior to their death, and Death Renderer losing his simply meant The Lover of Death, or whoever was fighting over the Dullahan’s soul, had managed to secure a win even if they lost.

His plans to ask things related to The Lover of Death were now down the drain. Although he could use Authority of Information and Thought Conception, beings like The Lover of Death were simply too strong and monstrous.

’It seems The Lover of Death isn’t exactly dead,’ Anthony mused to himself. ’Just like the Dark Knight had said, death is the ultimate state of existence, and The Lover of Death might have just changed or transformed into another state or something of that nature,’ he thought to himself for a moment.

He shook his head, deciding not to think about it too much. Whether the man was still alive or not had nothing to do with him.

With a thought, Death Renderer vanished to the Shadow World where the Shadow Soldiers resided. The moment the Dark Knight vanished, the ancient voice from before echoed.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" It laughed like a madman, the entire sky shaking and quaking as though it was about to collapse from the sound waves.

"Never in my life did I ever think I would witness someone steal a soul from my Lord," the ancient voice stated.

Anthony’s sky-blue eyes shifted towards the sky as he asked, "Are you going to attack or deny me the reward from the challenge?"

He knew that beings of such caliber possessed immense pride. For something to be stolen from them, they would immediately retaliate with immense force, and Anthony was expecting things to move in this direction.

The ancient voice rumbled as it replied, "That would be childish. You won Death Renderer’s soul fair and square. Besides, I’m more impressed and shocked than angry. After all, your comprehension of the Law of Death and the Law of Souls is simply too deep." The voice paused for a moment, then added, "Besides, that ability of yours that you just used, I’ve never seen or heard of anything like it." The voice sounded amused, pleased, in fact.

Anthony could sort of understand why the voice felt like this. These people must have been stuck here for thousands of years, being visited only once in a while by various geniuses that entered the realm when it opened, and each time, each genius might just get to challenge the Hellish or Hard Mode or something, which would certainly be boring to someone or people of such caliber.

’Although I’m tempted to awaken every dead being within the Home of the Retired and add them to the Shadow Army,’ Anthony mused as he looked around, ’that would be crossing the line,’ he added as he shook his head.

Although he was powerful, he wasn’t really a disrespectful guy unless it was an enemy. There was no need to antagonize whoever owned that voice.

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