Legendary Summoner's Transmigration: I Can Capture Anything.

Jaden and Zaria walked towards the entrance of the imperial palace. A soft smile tugged at his lips as he looked around with curious eyes.

Soon, they turned towards a white hallway with portraits and paintings lining its walls.

He glanced at them and continued his steps in silence until a painting made him stop in his tracks.

He quickly turned toward the painting and walked closer to have a better look.

Zaria also stopped and turned towards him with a frown. "What's wrong?" She asked.

But he was too absorbed in the painting to answer her.

It was the painting of a dark silhouette sitting upon a jade throne with a sword in its hand. He frowned at the uncanny resemblance to the dark figure — his supposed shadow.

"Heh. You like this?" She asked with an amused smile.

He turned his head to her and questioned, "Do you know who painted this?"

She puffed her chest in pride, her smile widened as she answered, "I do."

"Who?"

"You already know," she replied and turned around to leave.

He furrowed his brows and thought of the most likely person to draw it.

Her steps echoed within the hallway while he continued to think.

After a few moments, an answer came to his mind. He looked at her departing figure and muttered doubtfully, "Shadow Sovereign?"

She stopped, turned her head towards him with a smile and said, "Bingo."

'Did he meet the dark figure in the shadow realm?' He questioned himself and began to follow after her.

A few minutes later, both of them stepped out of the imperial palace, and he asked, "Where are you going?"

She didn't stop and answered with an amused tone without looking back, "I have things to do... why don't you go talk with your lover instead?"

He turned his head to look at Selina's tent and thought while staring at it, 'Should I...?'

He began to think of what he could talk about to her.

Maybe he could ask her about how she came to love him? Or how they met? But deep down, he knew that he wouldn't trust her words, no matter how much he wanted to... he had always been the one to trust what he had seen instead of what others told him, after all.

He shook his head and mumbled to himself, "No, not yet."

He gave her tent a final glance before walking to his own.

A few minutes later, he reached his tent, and the voices of the others reached his ears.

"Should we take Jaden with us?" Arden asked doubtfully.

"Why the fuck can't you just wait for him to return?!" Jamie shouted, annoyed with his questions.

"But we don't know how much longer he's going to take..." Arden replied in a low voice.

A smile appeared on Jaden's face as he stepped inside the tent and asked, "Where do you want to take me?"

Arden looked at him with a bright smile and answered, "We just got called for an Adept-ranked gatebreak."

He nodded and said with a faint smile, "I'll come."

Navin looked at him with a smile while Jamie clicked his tongue and mumbled under his breath, "There goes all the fun, tch."

He looked at him from the corners of his eyes but didn't say anything... he was just too baffled by his thought process to say anything.

***

After about an hour, the four of them reached an Adept-ranked dreamgate.

All of them were battle-ready with armour covering them and weapons gleaming in their hands.

Jaden wore light armour, and he had decided to use a forged sword instead of using the [All-severing Moonlight (Replica)] because he didn't want anyone to connect him with the Faceless Ice Phantom that hunted nightmares at night.

Humm!

The dreamgate hummed faintly before a heartbeat echoed within the area.

Ba-dump!

Some time later, cracks appeared on it, and E-ranked nightmares began to pour out of it.

Thud!

Navin stepped forward, planted his shield onto the ground and muttered, "Mother's Embrace."

Sssr!

His astral core trembled, and Nature mana poured out of it before taking the form of green translucent hands around the shield.

The nightmares leapt at him, but just as they touched the shield, vines burst out of their abhorrent bodies.

Kukh! Kkhh!

They strangled them around their necks and choked them to death.

The others watched all of this with impressed looks, and Jaden muttered, "Why is a spell like that named Mother's Embrace?"

Jamie turned his head towards him and answered, "You should ask the ones who made it."

He furrowed his brows and remarked, "Aren't they dead?"

Jamie nodded and continued, "Yeah, they are. You just have to kill yourself so both of us can get what we want. You'll get your answer and I won't have to listen to your stupid questions."

He blinked a few times, turned his head back and muttered, "You are mad, aren't you?"

Arden seized the opportunity and replied with a smirk, "Of course he is. He's the Mad Sword, after all."

A vein throbbed at Jamie's forehead, but he decided to ignore the two of them and thought, 'I'll get nothing from talking with these clowns.'

Arden rubbed his chin and said while looking at him, "I bet he is cursing us in his head."

Jamie looked at him with an annoyed expression and muttered, "I can curse you to your face... if that's what you prefer."

Right then, the sound of metal hitting metal resounded within the area. All three of them turned towards the sound, and their eyes fell to Navin, who was looking at them with a smile on his face. Behind him were the piles of lifeless bodies of the E-ranked nightmares.

Jamie and Arden stepped forward, and a few minutes later, the next wave began.

Jamie unsheathed his twin single-handed swords and began swinging at the nightmares with a crazy grin stretched across his face.

Grruull!

The pouring blood of nightmares circled the blades as he used the blood magic to further strengthen his strikes.

Arden, on the other hand, stood a few meters beside with a solar arrow nocked on his bow.

Tsss!

He let go of the string, and the arrow pierced through three nightmares — each of them turned into ash right after.

Jaden watched all of their spells and martial arts with gleaming eyes and thought, 'Maybe I should ask them to give me their spells?'

A few moments later, the three of them finished all of the D-ranked nightmares and stepped back while staring at the dreamgate that had turned darker than before.

Jaden walked forward and stated, "Lemme take care of the gate guardian."

Jamie responded with an irritated look, "No shit."

A chuckle escaped Jaden, and the sound of cracks filled the area as the gate guardian stepped out of the dreamgate.

The dreamgate cracked and vanished behind it.

This time, Jaden didn't run towards the nightmare; instead, he had decided to end this with a different method.

He lifted both of his hands, and his grimoire appeared beside him as he mumbled, "Flaming thunder ball."

Bsssh! Trrk!

Fire and lightning elementals swirled at his hands and took the shape of a large fireball with a yellow thunder chain wrapped around it.

Fwoosh!

He commanded the fireball, and it whistled towards the gate guardian.

The gate guardian lifted its thick hand to destroy the fireball, but just as its hand touched the lightning chain wrapped around it, the chain unfurled and began to wrap itself around the gate guardian.

"Grrrrr—!" The gate guardian let out a stifled scream as the lightning coursed into its body, and before it could break free from the chains, the large fireball hit it and exploded.

Boom!

Jaden lowered his right hand and muttered, "Gust sweep."

Wind elementals gathered before his hand and blew the dust and smoke away.

Finally, the gate guardian came into his vision.

Half of its body was gone — exploded into smithereens, and whatever was left of it was also charred. It now appeared as if it were a coal sculpture.

Jaden heaved a sigh and mumbled, "It's still alive? Was the spell too weak...?"

The others looked at him with dumbfounded looks, and all three of them had a single thought, 'Are you serious right now?'

"I'll think about it later," he mumbled before pointing a finger at the gate guardian and muttering, "Dark Streak."

The darkness elementals began to crackle at the end of his finger and shot towards the gate guardian and pierced its head.

The gate guardian opened its maw to scream, but no sound came out because its vocal cords had been burned to ashes.

His frown deepened, and he mumbled again, "Dark Streak."

Another bullet of darkness pierced the gate guardian, but unfortunately, it still didn't die.

Annoyed at not being able to kill it within three spells, he pointed the fingers of both hands like they were guns and began to repeat the same spell.

"Dark Streak."

"Dark Streak."

"Dark Streak."

And after a few moments, the gate guardian was no more, both in body and soul.