Child of Destiny

……

Bang!

The pair of lights clashing in the air were separated from each other as Shin and Haowin retreated to gain some breathing space.

While Shin was trying to catch his breath, he suddenly saw Haowin stopping a few distances away from him with wide-opened arms and fully spread wings. He knitted his brows a little as he focused his gaze on the latter, and then he saw a huge group of black spheres appearing behind his opponent.

Then, before Shin could even react, Haowin waved his hands forward and sent the black sphere toward the opposing party.

‘Demonic Skill: Shadow Stars’

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

The black sphere moved according to Haowin’s will and transformed into streaks of light that were heading toward his opponent. Their speed could not be underestimated since they were almost upon Shin in just an instant.

Seeing the black spheres bombarding him from multiple angles, Shin quickly flapped his wings and retreated to create more space between him and the barrage of attacks.

Swoosh!

He then started flying in the air while doing a series of aerial maneuvers. He spun, rolled, moved side to side, and even flew in the air with irregular patterns.

He was practically showing his amazing flying skills while dodging the black spheres that were chasing after him.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

He left a series of explosions behind as he continued to fly in the air like an eagle playing in the middle of a raging storm.

The explosions behind him looked like fireworks in the sky, which captivated the players watching the battle both from the distance and the live broadcast.

Adding the blazing trail that Shin had left through his path and the beautiful arcs that it drew, the scene became more pleasing to the eyes despite how destructive those explosions were.

Seeing that this was not going to work, Haowin decided to engage with close quarters once again.

He read through the trajectory of his opponent before flapping his wings to send himself toward the direction that he had predicted. He was planning to block Shin’s path while the black spheres were chasing after him.

Swoosh!

Shin quickly sensed the approach of Haowin and swiftly made some adjustments to his movements. He spun around and swung his sword along with it.

A blazing trail was spread around him before turning into a flaming mantle that wrapped around himself and blocked the barrage of black spheres coming his way.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Those spheres were immediately melted by the flaming mantle when they came in contact with each other.

At that moment, when the flaming mantle finally receded after being bombarded by the black spheres, Haowin suddenly appeared with his demonic arm stretched behind.

There was a huge spherical object floating above his palm while blazing with shadowy flames. He then struck down with it, slamming the blazing sphere at Shin.

‘Demonic Skill: Fallen Star’

Swoosh!

Shin just finished his spin at that moment, but he was already assuming a sword-drawing stance when he stopped. He stopped facing Haowin with a ducking position before unsheathing his sword.

The flame quickly stuck out from the gap between the sword and the sheath when he pulled out the [Yamato]. He then swung it forward while skillfully controlling the raging flame with the Solar Breathing Technique.

Shing!

‘Jade Kirin Scripture: Quickly Draw (Fire Form) – Solar Flare’

Swoosh!

A blazing crescent wave was quickly sent out as Shin swung the sword horizontally. It drew a perfect arc in the air as it continued moving toward the incoming blazing sphere.

Swoosh!

The blazing sphere was instantly cleaved in halves as the crescent wave flew past it. The two halves immediately exploded right after being separated from each other, making a clear path for Shin.

Bang! Bang!

At the same time, the blazing crescent wave sent by Shin immediately dissipated right before it reached Haowin since it had already exhausted its powers.

The two stared at each other’s eyes for a brief moment as their movements paused momentarily.

Then they simultaneously made their moves, throwing their next attacks.

Haowin flew a little higher than his current position while pulling his right arm backward. He then raised it behind him and formed a claw with his hands while gathering his demonic energy in it.

The demonic arm grew in size along with the purple demonic energy enveloping it. It was releasing a suffocating feeling as the surrounding mana was continuously being sucked by it.

When the accumulation of powers reached its peak, he swung his claws down, cleaving through the air and tearing down space.

Swoosh!

‘Demonic Skill: Demonic Collapse’

Shin quickly pulled back a little as he swiftly put the [Yamato] back to its sheath. He was assuming a sword-drawing stance when the surrounding fire elemental mana gathered toward him.

He then channeled the accumulated mana toward his sheathed sword as he was using the Solar Breathing Technique to control the flow of mana within his body and surroundings.

He waited for a couple of moments before finally pulling out the [Yamato] from its sheath and stabbing it at the incoming claw of his opponent.

Shing!

‘Jade Kirin Scripture: Quick Draw (Fire Form) – Blazing Strike’

Swoosh!

That stab was accompanied by a large amount of blazing mana spiraling around it. It then collided with the sharp claws of Haowin that was trying to crush on him.

Bang!

The two sides were thrown in a deadlock for a brief moment before the blazing strike from Shin pierced through the attack of his opponent.

But immediately after putting a huge hole in the huge hand made by the demonic energy, it quickly exhausted its powers and lost its momentum before dissipating in the air.

Shin then quickly followed it up with another move, jumping through the hole that his previous attack had created and stabbing his sword forward.

Swoosh!

Haowin swiftly retreated to create more space. After properly gaining a moving space, he stepped forward with a powerful stomp before throwing a powerful punch.

Bang!

The demonic fist and the tip of the sword quickly caused an eruption after meeting each other. The brief pause that they provided gave the two enough breathing space before throwing more attacks at each other.

Shin continued to slash while applying the insights that he had gained during his previous battles, using a series of straightforward attacks along with the sword techniques under his arsenal.

Haowin was forced to dodge from time to time since Shin’s attacks were much faster than his. But he still found a couple of windows where he could throw a few punches for a counterattack.

In these exchanges, it was clear that Shin had the upper hand. Not only his advantage of having more experience in aerial battles was starting to show, but his swordplay itself was also improving during the battle in a steady manner.

The Reality Manifestation was not only helping him summon his Mentalism Techniques and Sword-Drawing Skills, but it was also helping him fuse the two styles in a much smoother way.

And since the Solar Breathing Technique was perfect for fire elemental control, the Celestial Vermillion Bird Method and the Jade Kirin Scripture showed some great maturity during the entire battle.

The Elemental Spirit Possession of Solus, the Divine Constellation, was also giving enough help since it could have absolute control over the fire elemental mana through it.

Combining everything together, Shin was able to gain a lot more in this battle than he had expected.

Moreover, he was starting to touch that ideal state that he was looking for. At least for this particular style that he currently had.

Shin was focusing on his own growth during this battle, but that did not mean that he was not aware of the changes that his opponent had.

During the process of their battle, Shin could also see some extreme changes from his opponent. He could see that Haowin was starting to adapt to the demonic physique that he currently had and the extreme powers that it possessed.

He could still tell that Haowin was currently being influenced by the system and the limits of the game. But for some unknown reason, he could feel that there was something different between Haowin and the other players of the game.

It was as if the ‘limits’ that Haowin had were different from the ones that the regular players had – or even the other Godlike Players.

During their exchanges, Shin could sense some familiarity from the movements of his opponent. It was the feeling that the system was completely ‘helping’ Haowin reach what he was trying to achieve.

It was similar to what he sensed from Diablo during their battle, but also somewhat different.

The difference was big from his perspective, but it was almost unnoticeable from the point of view of other people.

From what he had seen, the system was granting Diablo enough skills and techniques to achieve what he was envisioning inside his head. It was as if he was given the ‘ability’ to do things that he could only imagine.

From his knowledge, that state was known as Hyperactive Immersion. A legendary state that was known to all experts of the virtual games.

In comparison, Shin felt that the ‘thing’ that the system had given to Haowin was a ‘vessel’. A perfect vessel that could withstand an overwhelming power that he was not supposed to have.

It seemed to be an enhanced version of the Battle Physiques that the players had after the trials in the Divine Colosseum. A physique that was perfectly tailored for them alongside their chosen techniques.

Shin suspected that whatever Haowin had achieved, it must be one of the hidden mechanics that the game had along with the ‘Hyperactive Immersion’ and ‘Reality Manifestation’.

It might also be similar to the ‘Magic Circuit Formation’ or ‘Conductor of Magic’ that he had heard from Zero. It was the special magical state that was showcased by Flouree, who was a captain of the Earners Mercenary Group and a girl with some history with Arthur.

The difference between her and this method from Haowin was their completeness. This state that Haowin currently had was much more perfect and flawless.

…

Shin’s suspicions were not that far. In fact, he was very close to it.

Haowin indeed had a Demonic Physique that was specially tailored for him by the system. He unlocked this physique after he became a true believer in the Demonic Churches and the first person to convert his race into a True Demon.

This transformed his virtual avatar from an ‘imaginary’ state into a ‘true’ being.

In this world, he had a true body, which was much better compared to the rest of the players. He could also control it perfectly since this virtual body had become a ‘true’ body.

This state was called by the system the ‘Perfect Demonification’.

The concept of this was from the idea of creating a body comparable to the physique of the Demonic and Monstrous Beast from the real world.

In the real world, it was common knowledge for everyone that beasts and monsters had a much tougher body than humans. Some were even more flexible and agile than any other beings.

Their muscles, tendons, bones, and other parts were much tougher and stronger than human physiques.

Some of them even had special abilities that they innately had since birth, making them special creatures compared to humans, which made some of the people greedily research them.

Even if there were some people who could rival the bodies of these demonic and monstrous beasts through intense training, those people were very few and rare.

There were a couple of research that concerned this topic, but none of them were that successful, or at least did not have any serious side effects. They might have some progress, but they were still far from their desired outcome.

Some of the researchers in the World Gaming Organization, who knew about these research projects were invited to join the creation of the game. They had become one of the game developers and applied this idea of their research within the game.

After inputting the data into the game, the Super AI Chronos ran some virtual simulations and created a hidden mechanic in the game along with the others.

This achieved the desired outcome that the researchers had, thus they named this special state as the ‘Perfect Demonification’. .

……