"These spirits stole the essence of spirits, moved it to the human realm. That’s why you can hurt them easily, unlike us. We need to keep killing them, we need to take that essence back!"

William initially thought the Fox spirit fell into a trap. So the best course was for him to help the Fox spirit and other allied spirits to escape. He never thought they were the ones attacking, needing to push forward, not retreat and run away.

Regardless of what the spirit essence meant or what its value was, the fact that this fight was happening in the human realm was a shocking piece of news. He knew now why his attacks were quite deadly to the spirits. He was fighting them on his turf, not theirs. They were weakened. They were vulnerable.

William had tons of questions for the Fox spirit, and yet he knew this wasn’t the time to do this. He first needed to retrieve that spirit essence, then ask questions later.

The first thing he did was to start scouting the battlefield. "Keep fighting here, and I’ll take a look around," he shouted as he dashed towards the side, attacking and killing many spirits while advancing.

William could tell for a reason; these spirits lost lots of their original might when they descended to the human realm. As he ran and fought, he was bewildered by the huge number of spirits. He knew there were lots of spirit variations spirit masters had, but not to this extent.

In just one hour, he fought and killed thousands upon thousands of these spirits. And yet the horizon was still filled to the brim with them.

William wasn’t worried about such a scary number of enemies and a very low number of allies. As long as these spirits were weak against him, he didn’t care. He shifted his focus away from the ongoing clash, heading in different directions to map out the grand battlefield.

So far all he saw was normal landscape, hills and plains, rivers and even a lake at the far west. And yet there wasn’t a single indicator of where the main enemy camp was.

"Something seems wrong." After five more hours, William started to consider something: "If there is no visible camp even after exploring the forefront, how come these spirits are flooding here like an endless swarm?"

He moved his eyes around. The more he looked, the more unsettled he became. For a reason, everything he experienced here was weirdly like a monster tide. Instead of the Scarlet Bears, there were lots of spirits.

"If the logic stands, then..." he knew he was thinking of something far fetched, and yet it was the only possible scenario that could explain this weird situation, "there must be groups of portals, linked to other worlds, or perhaps to the spirit lairs..."

William needed to find proof of this crazy idea before running back to the Fox spirit. If there was another world attached to here, or even more, then there was a great chance this was a home or a base for the hostile spirits. William had the upper hand in this world, but he wasn’t that confident when regarding fighting in the spirit world.

"There..." Just as he started to look for a portal, not a base, he easily spotted it after a few minutes. It was well hidden behind a large hill, yet the large density of the spirits around it exposed its presence. "There are three portals here... It’s the same as how monster tides work in the human realm..."

William didn’t hurry to retreat to the Fox spirit. He spent six more hours scouting further behind the enemy lines. He found five more groups of these portals, and then it was only open plains and nothing else.

"Are you telling me those bastards ran back to the spirit world after strangling us here?!!" The Fox spirit was taken aback, alongside hundreds of other spirits who were on his side, "We need to push to these portals and take control of them."

"We should go in there and kill those bastards," another spirit, in the shape of an ox with triple sets of wings, "we can’t let them refine the spirit essence, or else we are all doomed!"

"But we can’t leave this world alone," a third spirit, the shape of a fierce-looking lion, with the legs of a dragon, said, "if they directed all the spirits towards the world we are heading to, then we won’t stand a chance."

"Leave this world to me then," William saw this as the best help he could provide, "I’m way stronger than they are here, and I can easily defend the portals until you return."

"But..." The Fox spirit looked hesitant, yet what William did next made him and every other spirit fall into deep silence.

Since the big war ended, and the apocalypses were crushed, William took back his monstrous weapons. The giant monsters he created were now lying inside his rings.

He simply waved a hand, and all of the hundred behemoths appeared, surrounding William and other spirits, before starting to fight madly like there was no equal to them on the entire battlefield.

"I can easily defend the portals," William said, and this time his words carried a heavy weight supporting them, "leave the portals to my helpers and me. You go in there and kill all the bastards and retrieve the spirit essence you are talking about."

The Fox spirit exchanged silent glances with other spirits before they ran after William.

"If you ever wanted to make an evolution to your spirit, then consider me," the fierce-looking lion suddenly approached William and said, resulting in a roar from the Fox spirit, stopping the lion and warning others.

"He is mine, don’t ever dream about having him!" the Fox spirit spat, and yet the lion didn’t shrink back easily.

"I’m just saying he can get my help if he needs to evolve his spirit," the lion said, "it’s normal, you know."