Some time before Simon and the three Ancient Undead woke up from the nightmare, Jin had received a message from Beru and Cyrene.
Even Jin was caught off guard when he heard what they had to report.
After all, while Simon had been desperately fighting against him, Jin's mind had actually been occupied with an entirely different problem.
Namely, what kind of punishment was he going to get from Nefthis after all of this?
Attacking Simon while using Jin's identity wasn't actually the biggest problem. At most, Knox expected a mild reprimand from Nefthis for beating him up, especially since she herself would probably agree that the current Simon was still far too weak to properly stand as the Seventh Legion Commander.
In fact, Jin had already lost most of his interest in absorbing the Seventh Legion after seeing their current strength. If anything, this entire fight had turned into a wake-up call for Simon, a rather painful reminder that no matter how impressive becoming a Legion Commander might sound, the current him was still a baby compared to the monsters standing at the top.
The real problem would begin if Simon's identity as the Seventh Legion Commander became known because of what happened here.
In the original story, Simon only dared to reveal his identity after gaining Nefthis's full support and saving a kingdom that had every reason to hate the Seventh Legion because of Richard's past actions. Even after the king himself acknowledged Simon and the Seventh Legion, however, the revelation still caused plenty of criticism and trouble.
Compared to that, what had Jin done here?
He had suddenly brought the Eighth Legion into Death Land, caused a massive battle near Kizen's first-year students, released enough pressure to knock out people who weren't even close to the center of the battlefield, and he still hadn't come up with a proper reason to explain why the Eighth Legion Commander had appeared here in the first place!
Hell, if this somehow turned into a huge mess for Kizen, Jin wouldn't even be surprised if Nefthis spanked him hard enough to send him circling Qlipoth's walls twice!
That was the problem occupying most of Jin's attention while he walked toward Simon earlier. Even as his scythes continued cutting through the zombies coming at him, part of his mind had been busy going through one excuse after another, trying to find something believable enough to explain the Eighth Legion's sudden appearance.
Jin had been thinking about how to explain himself to Nefthis while fighting them, and that was also one of the reasons he had taken his time walking toward Simon instead of simply ending everything immediately.
If Simon, Pier, Prince, and Manus ever learned about that, they might actually cry.
After all, the opponent who had put them under such overwhelming pressure hadn't even been taking their battle seriously.
Simon, Pier, Prince, and Manus: We're sorry we weren't strong enough to make you fight seriously!
Unfortunately, no matter how much he thought about it, every excuse had some kind of problem.
Blaming another Legion had crossed his mind, but he couldn't simply point at a random Legion Commander and claim they had attacked Kizen without any evidence. Doing that would only create even more questions, and the last thing Jin needed right now was another problem to explain.
Then, right in the middle of his brainstorming, Beru and Cyrene contacted him.
And good gracious, they had brought him some very good news!
According to Cyrene, Kizen hadn't taken the disturbance in Death Land lightly at all. Several powerful figures had already arrived, including Bahil, Hong Feng, Silage, and a number of elite Crow agents, while Aaron had also regained consciousness after being knocked out earlier by the pressure that had spread across Death Land.
Fortunately, Jane wasn't among them.
If she had come as well...
Even Jin didn't dare imagine that possibility.
For the moment, however, none of the newly arrived Kizen forces had entered the battlefield. Cyrene and Beru were holding the line without actually attacking anyone, simply standing between them and the area where Jin was dealing with Simon.
That alone was already more than enough.
There were still first-year students nearby, so the professors couldn't recklessly start another battle without considering their safety. More importantly, even if they wanted to force their way through, the two beings standing in front of them were Cyrene and Beru.
Who in their right mind would make the first move?
So an uncomfortable standoff had naturally formed, with Kizen's side remaining on guard while Cyrene and Beru calmly prevented them from moving any farther. Things might have stayed that way until Jin finished his business with Simon, but while Beru was watching the people in front of him, his senses suddenly caught something else.
Someone was watching them.
Not from Kizen's group, nor from anywhere openly visible on the battlefield. Whoever it was had hidden themselves some distance away and was secretly observing the standoff from another position.
How audacious!
Beru immediately informed Cyrene through their mental connection, and after hearing what he had detected, Cyrene glanced toward him before giving a small wink.
That was all the permission Beru needed.
Taking her wink as permission to act, Beru immediately turned his attention toward the Kizen group. Then, without wasting another second, his figure suddenly disappeared from where he stood.
Unfortunately, that small exchange looked far more terrifying from Kizen's side.
One moment, the beautiful pink-haired woman standing across from them had casually winked at the strange insect-like creature beside her, and the next moment, that creature had completely vanished.
Because of this, several people immediately tensed as their eyes darted around the area, while others prepared themselves for a possible attack that could come from anywhere.
After all, from their perspective, what else were they supposed to think?!
They didn't know Cyrene and Beru were communicating mentally. All they had seen was Cyrene giving Beru a wink before the ant-like Shadow suddenly disappeared from sight!
Seeing such a dangerous-looking creature vanish right before their eyes, a terrifying possibility immediately crossed their minds.
What if that thing suddenly appeared right beside them and launched a surprise attack?
Just imagining that possibility was enough to put everyone even more on edge. With no idea where Beru had gone or when he might reappear, naturally, nobody dared to let their guard down.
While Kizen's forces became even more cautious because of Cyrene's dangerously misleading wink, Beru had already left them far behind.
It didn't take him long to reach the place where he had sensed the hidden observer, and once he arrived, he immediately found the creature responsible.
Its appearance was strange even by undead standards. The creature was completely black, with a soft-looking body that resembled a mixture between a slime and a walking squid. Several tentacles extended from its body, while its head had no visible eyes or other normal facial features, aside from horns on either side and a mouth-like organ protruding from the front.
The moment Beru saw it, he contacted Jin.
At first, Jin expected another problem. Perhaps someone from Kizen had managed to slip around Cyrene, or maybe another unknown force had been attracted by everything happening in Death Land.
Instead, as Beru began describing the creature he had found, Jin's thoughts suddenly stopped.
A black, squid-like undead.
Tentacles.
Horns.
No eyes.
"..."
"!!!"
Hearing that description, Jin immediately recognized what they were talking about.
Good gracious, truly good gracious! Isn't that Talahze?!
An Ancient Undead belonging to the Fifth Legion.
The moment Jin realized who had conveniently appeared in Death Land, all of the excuses and half-finished plans that had been running through his head suddenly became unnecessary.
A Fifth Legion Ancient Undead was here. And just when Jin had been desperately hoping for a pie to fall from the sky and someone he could conveniently blame for it!
Isn't this convenient?!
As expected of the Fifth Legion Commander! Even as a senior, he went this far just to help me! I'm really crying a river right now!
If Talahze had been able to hear Jin's thoughts at that moment, he probably would have turned from black to red out of sheer anger.
For Jin, however, Talahze's appearance couldn't have come at a better time.
He needed an explanation for why the Eighth Legion had suddenly appeared in Death Land and caused such a massive disturbance around Kizen's students, and now an Ancient Undead from a hostile Legion had conveniently shown up at the scene.
The excuse practically wrote itself.
The Fifth Legion had targeted Kizen's first-year students in Death Land.
The Eighth Legion was recognized as being on Nefthis's side, which naturally placed them on Kizen's side as well. If another Legion tried to attack Kizen's students, then what could possibly be strange about Jin appearing with his forces to protect them?
Of course, calling it an excuse would be rather rude.
Jin preferred to think of it as... making good use of the evidence available to him.
And the more he thought about it, the better Talahze's sudden appearance became.
Once Kizen learned that an Ancient Undead from the Fifth Legion had been lurking around Death Land during an incident involving their students, they would naturally demand an explanation from Magnus.
With the Fifth Legion already hostile toward Kizen, there was no reason for them to simply overlook something like this.
When that happened, Jin only needed to make one small request to Nefthis.
Let the Eighth Legion handle it.
With Kizen's approval, Jin would have a perfectly legitimate reason to bring his forces directly into Fifth Legion territory and demand an explanation from the 5th legion commander, Magnus himself. More importantly, knowing Magnus's personality, Jin seriously doubted the meeting would end peacefully.
With Kizen's approval, Jin would have a perfectly legitimate reason to bring his forces directly into Fifth Legion territory and demand an explanation from its commander, Magnus himself. More importantly, knowing Magnus's personality, Jin seriously doubted that their meeting would end peacefully.
For Magnus, when a newcomer Legion Commander suddenly came to his territory, in his eyes, it was as if a fat sheep had walked straight into his mouth.
But what he never realized was that this sheep was actually a wolf in sheep's clothing.
It was as if you wanted to bully something that looked like a cute little meow-meow kitten, only to find out that this meow-meow wasn't just some harmless little kitten.
It was a Mewtwo!
Once that happened, Jin could fight back without needing to make up anything at all.
Strangely enough, though, the Fifth Legion's undead weren't what interested him.
Compared to the summons Jin could obtain from the gacha and the powerful Shadow Soldiers he knew from Solo Leveling, most of the Ancient Undead belonging to the other Legions simply weren't impressive enough to make him desperately want them.
If he happened to get something useful along the way, he certainly wouldn't complain, but Magnus's army wasn't the prize Jin was looking at.
His territory was.
The Eighth Legion might already possess enough strength to terrify the other Legions, but officially, it still didn't have a territory of its own. Taking control of an established Legion's territory would solve that problem immediately, along with bringing all the advantages that came from having a proper domain under the Eighth Legion's control.
The more Jin followed that train of thought, the harder it became not to appreciate just how perfectly everything had fallen into place.
Talahze could become evidence that explained why the Eighth Legion had appeared in Death Land. That same evidence could give Jin an official reason to enter Fifth Legion territory, and once Magnus inevitably caused trouble, Jin would have the opportunity to take the territory itself.
Three benefits, all thanks to one Legion Commander!
With that realization, Jin didn't hesitate any longer. His voice immediately reached Beru through their connection, carrying an order that left no room for misunderstanding.
"Beru, I'll buy some time here! So, capture Talahze! No matter what happens, don't let him escape!"
And with that, a world where only Magnus gets hurt had just been created.