Child of Destiny

Chapter 2194: The God of Mischief and the Dancer of the Shadows

...…

While Diablo was looking at everyone from the top of the sacrificial altar, the four leaders of the demonic players from the Demonic Churches of Envy and Terror were also observing him.

They had only snapped out of their daze state by the countless wails of the demonic players who were being killed by the Shadow Lotuses and the doppelgangers of their old teammates.

”Go!”

Rebecca and Zion immediately responded, planning to climb the stairs toward the top of the altar to deal with Diablo.

Swoosh! Swoosh!

Unfortunately, they were forced to halt their tracks due to the pair of people standing before them.

It was not because they encountered an extremely powerful opponent or someone they knew from the demonic church, who suddenly stabbed them just like the others that were currently experiencing such a situation.

Instead, they saw a complete copy of themselves standing before them, who were emitting an eerily similar aura as they had.

No matter how hard they tried, they could not find any fault with these two. They looked like a mirror image of themselves.

They were not sure if their abilities were copied by these two doppelgangers, who also had the same set as theirs, but they could at least feel that it might be the case.

These copies of themselves might look perfect, which could put them in serious trouble, but they could at least guess the identity of the one behind all these for the same reason.

There was only a single person within the Titan Guild who could have such an eerie and terrifying ability.

God of Mischief, Loki!

Loki was known for his ability to disguise himself as almost anyone, but other abilities made his name extremely terrifying within this particular game.

It was the ability to summon almost a hundred clones, which carried all his skills. Among these skills was the eerie ability to mirror his opponents, disguising himself as them and copying their skills.

Naturally, there were also a lot of restrictions and a series of serious drawbacks to possessing such an unrivalled skill.

However, no one knew about these restrictions or side effects, making it an absolute mystery.

This was also the reason why Loki was among the scariest people that anyone would not want to encounter.

Swoosh! Swoosh!

While Rebecca and Zion were still watching their counterparts with wary eyes, the opposing side immediately made their move.

Rebeccaʼs clone raised her staff, which looked like a dried branch filled with dark and wicked energy, while its tip had a black skull that had a pair of horns sticking out of its temple and curving upwards.

An extremely evil miasma was constantly being emitted by this demonic branch, which swiftly transformed into an evil monster behind her.

Roar!

Alongside a terrifying roar, the evil monster spat out a flood of inky water that swiftly spread in every direction, seemingly trying to bury everything.

Seeing this, Rebeccaʼs eyes suddenly turned wide, unable to believe what she was seeing. ”They can even copy our equipments and demonic skills and powers?”

At the same time, she immediately acted, raising her demonic staff and using the same spell as her clone to nullify its effect.

She was aware of her spell and understood all its hidden effects. They would be in an extremely fickle situation, as this dark flood fully engulfed the place and started affecting everyone, so she could only use the same spell to fully negate all its effects.

The hidden effects of this flood of inky water might be terrifying, but they would also lose their effect once they met the same type of energy, which was unique to Rebecca herself.

BOOM!

While the two black-water floods clashed, slowly dissipating in the air afterward, Zion charged forward with great momentum, carrying a massive axe resting on his shoulder.

He was planning to take advantage of this opening to take care of the opposing side, but his clone seemed to have a similar idea and greeted him with a powerful attack.

BOOM!

A huge explosion suddenly erupted right after their battle axes clashed against each other, sending a terrifying shockwave in every direction.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Due to the repeated bombardment of these shockwaves, the massive altar near them shook violently and almost cracked due to the intensity.

…

”Loki sure is worthy of his name and fame,” mumbled Diablo while watching the ongoing battle between Rebecca and Zion against their respective clones. ”I wonder what kind of ability he truly possessed.”

He was acting quite leisurely despite how intense the battle between those four was. Even all the chaos caused by his shadow lotuses and Lokiʼs clones seemed not to concern him.

He had also noticed that both Zeal and Ardent had disappeared right after recovering from their surprise when they saw him.

He knew that they were currently rushing toward his direction at full speed right at this moment.

He was not sure if Loki purposely let them target him, or if he just did not have enough energy to deal with two more troublesome opponents of such caliber.

There was also a chance that Loki had reached his limit of creating such mirror images of people with such a strong set of abilities.

Regardless, this was a good opportunity to learn more about another top thief of the game.

Swoosh! Swoosh!

While he was observing the ongoing battle, he suddenly sensed some movements coming from the other sides of the platform of the altar that he was on.

Those movements might be subtle and extremely quiet, but his improved senses were able to notice them right after they stepped onto the platform, which was also within his sensing range.

He did not have to guess who they were since there could only be two people who were capable of reaching this level aside from Rebecca and Zion.

Swoosh! Swoosh!

In almost an instant, a pair of presences reached his side, indicating that they were extremely fast as well.

Whoosh!

However, right after they swung their weapons, their target suddenly started fading away, indicating that he was nothing but a mere afterimage now.

The two did not stand idle right after seeing this and swiftly responded.

Swoosh! Swoosh!

Trusting their instincts, they swiftly moved toward a certain part of the platform, which looked like an empty space on the surface.

Clank! Clank!

Immediately after they swung their weapons, they were suddenly deflected, changing their trajectories right before they could even reach their target.

Moreover, due to the strong force behind those simple actions, their forms were thrown off.

However, their movements remained steady. They did a series of acrobatic moves midair while their bodies were slowly getting out of stealth.

Shing! Shing!

Immediately after, they threw a series of attacks with their daggers and shortswords, which transformed into flashes of light that trapped Diablo in place.

In response, Diablo coated himself with a thick shadow barrier that repeatedly blocked the attacks while hiding him from them.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Bang!

Under the constant barrage of their attacks, the shadow barrier was shattered into pieces.

However, Diablo was nowhere to be found once again.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

Instead, a swarm of shadow tentacles suddenly shot out from behind the shattering barrier, attempting to grab Zeal and Ardent while they were still in the middle of ending their previous attacks.

In response, Zeal swiftly repeated, along with one of his life-saving skills, while Ardent wielded his shortswords to face them head-on, cutting them before they could even reach him.

Swoosh!

Shing! Shing! Shing!

Now that the two were momentarily separated from each other, Diablo had finally taken the initiative to attack.

Whoosh!

His first target was Zeal, who was swiftly retreating away from their previous location.

ʼCelestial Shadow Arts: Assassination – Silent Ghostʼ

Swoosh!

A dark flash flew straight to Zeal, targeting his neck.

This attack came like a ghost, silent and unexpected. They did not show any signs, making it hard to detect.

The dagger was already upon his neck before he could even sense it.

Poof!

However, Zeal was not an ordinary individual either. Before the dagger could even cut off his head, he immediately transformed into black smoke, making the ambush unsuccessful.

Diablo did not linger on the spot right after failing his head either. He immediately entered stealth once again while using his shadows to cover his tracks.

Shing! Shing!

It was at that moment that Ardent suddenly appeared and threw a barrage of slashes that sliced through Diabloʼs location.

Unfortunately, Diablo was not in this place when the attack came.

Zeal, on the other hand, unexpectedly appeared at Ardentʼs previous location, where he destroyed the shadow tentacles earlier.

They seemed to have swapped places when he escaped from Diabloʼs earlier ambush.

Immediately after, he swapped his daggers for a pair of sickles that were connected by black chains.

Clank! Clank!

Not long after, he started swinging the chained sickles around, seemingly randomly attacking the air around him.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

Diablo, who was about to make his move, was suddenly forced to halt his tracks when he saw those actions, especially after spotting extremely thin threads made of demonic energy that were being spread in the surroundings.

He also spotted that Ardent suddenly stopped while scanning the surroundings with his pair of demonic eyes. He could instantly tell that it was no ordinary ocular skill, especially after receiving shivers down to his spine after glancing at them.

He instantly knew that the space within the platform was not enough to escape from their respective skills.

...…