Child of Destiny

……

Lodhir was one of the best and youngest talents in the training camp of a certain organization in the real world. During his training, he had spent a lot of effort just to graduate with pull marks from it.

The organization had later tasked him with a certain Virtual Reality Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (VRMMORPG) for unknown reasons. But since it was an assignment, he had no choice but to comply and do everything he could to finish the task.

But he later realized that this game was not simple as a lot of organizations seemed to be oddly interested in the game. Not only the underworld organizations had set their eyes on the game, but even the organizations under the World Government had joined it too.

They had built their respective guilds or other organizations complete with the powerhouse guilds and super guilds that had already established themselves in the virtual world.

There seemed to be a lot of silent wars that occurred within the game aside from the all-out wars that happened from time to time.

The organization that he belonged to had chosen to side with the evil faction. He realized that the organization had invested quite a lot in the game as they had already taken a few core positions within the Corrupted Cult despite being a player.

The core force of the organization seemed to have invested quite a lot of time in the game and put their utmost efforts into raising their status within the evil faction and snatched a couple of positions from the higher echelons.

He had also met quite a few familiar faces who were trained by the camp and played with them a couple of times. He had also found a couple of seniors who had already graduated from the camp a few years ago. They were all putting their efforts into building their influence within the game.

As competitive as he was, he wanted to put in this same amount of effort and investment a lot of time playing the game.

After playing the game for a couple of months, he managed to establish his position with the Corrupted Cult and become one of its core members. He also had a position that was higher than most of the corrupted players within the game, particularly the Messengers of the Corrupted Cult.

In terms of influence, strength, and status, there was only a single player within the cult that could rival him. That was Immortal, the Lich God, and one of the best and most powerful players within the evil faction.

Immortal’s influence within the cult was no weaker than him, which he found a great threat to his position.

Immortal was a senior within their camp in the real world, who had already graduated after just a couple of years of training. His talent surpassed almost all the younger generations of their organization and suppressed them with his absolute strength and mysterious ability.

But oddly enough, Immortal seemed to have refused to climb any higher position within the cult aside from being a Messenger. He showed no intention of going further after reaching that position and instead developed his strength alone.

Lodhir wanted to surpass Immortal, and he had done it not only after being a core member of the Corrupted Cult, but he had also become more influential to Immortal due to a couple of events that happened recently.

Immortal’s influence within the cult dropped sharply after a couple of setbacks that he had suffered, particularly his defeat against ‘Battle God Sickarius’ a couple of times.

First was the operation of nurturing the Corrupted Nest within the Saint Heaven Kingdom. Immortal had first encountered the current Battle God and the rest of his friends in the place, which led to the entire operation failing.

Immortal’s influence within the cult had suffered a blow during that time, which had given Lodhir a chance to swallow everything that was left behind.

He had manipulated quite a lot of events within the cult behind the side, crippling the faction within it that was supporting Immortal. This had given him enough power that was slightly stronger than Immortal.

Then the second incident happened. The huge failure in the Blind Abyss Empire and his crushing defeat against Battle God Sickarius took place, which also signaled the start of the fall of the great Lich God Immortal.

This event also cemented the fame and influence that Sickarius had.

Lodhir continued to play in the dark and devoured all the resources that were supposed to be sent to Immortal due to the recent failures.

He then plotted everything and set Immortal up.

Due to his influence growing within the cult, the other Messengers had started to fear him. They started following his orders despite him only having similar strength with them – or might be slightly inferior.

They feared his current position within the cult, which was almost as high as the elders.

Then Lodhir prepared the plan for the destruction of the Saint Heaven Kingdom. He had led that operation, which had borne great results.

Even though they still fail in the end due to certain powerhouses that appear one after another to protect the kingdom, the blame is still not directed at him.

He had cooked up a great plan and almost destroyed the whole kingdom. He even occupied land that became their main base within the Saint Heaven Kingdom before he was plotted by the mysterious Guild Leader of the Hand of Midas Lifestyle Guild.

Even though that base had fallen even after the great efforts that the Corrupted Cult had invested, he was still not affected by it since he had already taken his hands off the entire operations after the successful capture.

It was no longer his responsibility when it had fallen.

Instead, Immortal suffered the blow for him once again. Due to another defeat against the Empyrean Talons, Immortal’s influence within the cult had hit rock bottom.

Even though he could still provide them quite a lot of resources due to his powerful guild, the Undying Guild, which was also one of the powerhouse guilds within the game, the Corrupted Cult had decided to strip his title and position as one of the Messengers of the cult.

Lodhir felt a great achievement when it happened. He did not only ‘defeat’ this brightest and strongest senior within their organization, but he had also done it ‘magnificently’. He experienced a great sense of fulfillment when the news was announced.

He could now feel superior to Immortal, especially when the elders of the organization had praised him repeatedly due to his rising momentum and gaining a core position within the Corrupted Cult.

But what he did not expect was for Immortal to suddenly leave the Corrupted Cult after the huge failure at the Frozen Kingdom.

Lodhir first thought that Immortal had suffered a great blow that he could not endure, which triggered him to leave the cult. He felt that the ego of Immortal was hurt due to it and suffered great humiliation.

Lodhir sneered when he first heard the news, but later discovered that there was something wrong with the situation when he also heard that even the dark guild under Immortal, the entirety of the Undying Guild, had also left the cult.

What was even stranger in it was the whole guild seemed to have vanished after they quit the cult. They even left their main base in the Blind Abyss Empire and the other bases in the neighboring kingdoms under their control.

The situation became odder when he realized that even the Corrupted Cult had been affected. The higher echelons of the cult, which were composed of the great elders and cardinals, had even launched a special meeting to discuss how to handle the situation.

It was a little later when Lodhir discovered that Immortal had stolen a couple of relics from the cult, which led the higher echelons to become angry and chase after him.

But they could not find Immortal after he had stolen their relics. It was as if he had disappeared completely along with the Undying Guild.

Lodhir did not know where it came from, but he had suddenly felt a sense of great crisis. He felt that something was about to happen to him, and it would not be anything good.

This was why he started preparing. He felt that Immortal would come back at him, which was why he led a few more operations and targeted a few kingdoms while being more aggressive. He had also set his eyes on a couple of relics, desiring to get his hands on them if possible.

This led him to the current operation in the Sacred Light Kingdom. He had teamed up with the Demonic Churches once again since they were very efficient at doing their jobs.

When he learned the proposition from the Paimon of the Pandemonium Descendants, he quickly agreed despite any hesitation after setting a special condition; the relics that they were going to get would be his possession.

Paimon seemed to have expected that and agreed.

Lodhir did not think of anything else as long as he had gotten his hands on the relic. When he got the ‘Crown of a King’ relic, he quickly used it along with the corpse of the fallen king of the kingdom that they had assassinated to create a powerful undead under his command.

The moment he had created this King Class Undead Monster, Lodhir felt relieved and accomplished. He felt that no one could stop him now in this kingdom since he was controlling the strongest being within it.

A Humanoid King Class Undead Monster was not something to be trifled with, and he was the one controlling it. If not for his current level and strength that restricted the real powers of this creation, then he felt that he would become the most powerful player in the game right now.

But he later felt something strange. It was as if something was about to happen. Then it became clearer when he heard the two pieces of advice that he had gotten recently; one was from a senior from the organization while the other was from Paimon when they were preparing the ‘Withering’ of the Sacred Light Kingdom.

– “Do you honestly believe that you have forced Immortal out of the cult? You are too na?ve. Let me tell you. He lets you do your thing while he prepares for this outcome. He let you play in the dark so that he can leave the cult without any problems.”

“If he remains to be a Messenger of the Cult, then he will never be able to leave that place due to the leash attached to his neck. But since you strip it off from him, then he can now do whatever he wants.”

“He is only using the cult as a source of certain resources that he can’t get his hands on anywhere. That is the real reason why he stays in the cult.” –

– “Heh! You said you want to handle the things here. Then let me remind you since we are currently partners. Don’t underestimate that guy who defeated your senior. He is not an ordinary opponent.” –

Lordir fell into deep thought and started contemplating those two ‘advice.’ But since he could not put his fingers on what was wrong at that time, he set it aside and continued with the operation.

He had received a warning from Paimon before he left, saying that he should have expected to receive some visitors once Paimon and the rest of the Pandemonium Descendants left.

Lodhir took it seriously since he felt that Paimon was too wary of someone. He later realized that the person that he was wary of was a former member of the Pandemonium Troupe, so he started preparing seriously.

If it was someone that even Paimon had to be cautious of, then they were definitely not an ordinary individual. This was the reason for the current security of the castle as well as the traps that he had set up.

He then waited at the throne, planning to welcome this ‘visitor’ with his newly acquired King Class Humanoid Undead.

But he was surprised when he saw that the person who ‘visited’ him was not the expected guest. Instead, it was someone that was not supposed to be here.

And since he knew that this particular guest was the one who became the first player to reach Tier 3 Class, Lodhir had become even warier.

But what he did not expect was Shin to be able to fight against Fallen Elven King Yulis, who was a Humanoid Undead with a King Class Rank. The scarier thing was that Shin had the upper hand during the initial round.

There was a dark look under the shade of his hood as he watched Shin battle against Fallen Eleven King Yulis on an equal footing. But at the same time, there was also a desire hidden within.

He wanted to use the secret technique that he had stolen from the members of the Undying Guild and turn Shin’s avatar into a powerful undead summon.

So long he could kill Shin along with the fallen elven king and use the secret technique, he would acquire yet another powerful undead monster that was comparable, if not stronger, to his current one.

“I have to find an opportunity to trap him so that King Yulis can kill him with ease.”

…