Child of Destiny

As Shin was saving the members of the Devouring Whale Tribe from the sea snakes that were constantly growing stronger in every passing second, a bunch of killing intent were suddenly locked on him, making him swiftly retreat.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

At the same time, he simultaneously swung his sword around, cutting the group of sea snakes that were trying to coil around his body.

While he was cutting them, a figure suddenly emerged from the swarm of snakes and pounced at him with a saber in hand.

Whoosh!

This figure carried a lot of power despite having a pair of lifeless eyes. There was also an overwhelming dark energy coming from its body, making Shin raise his brows.

The speed and the timing of this ambush were so perfect that it instantly put Shin in a predicament. Moreover, the expression on his face suddenly changed when he saw who was attacking him all of a sudden.

“That bastard,” he cursed as he glanced at Nuguro, who was looking at him mockingly.

He could also see the movements of the latter’s mouth, seemingly purposely trailing his words for Shin to read them.

“Go enjoy getting killed by your kin.”

The blood flowing through Shin’s veins immediately boiled in response as if the body that he was currently hosting was responding with that provocation.

This somewhat affected Shin, who was doing his best to keep the World Serpent’s Fang under control.

The berserk reaction of his bloodline made the icy sword release a crimson hue, seemingly showing its killing intent.

But this killing intent was not directed to the individual who was ambushing him, but instead to Nuguro, who was watching everything from the top of the altar.

Shin suppressed the overwhelming killing intent that was slowly getting stronger with his willpower, seemingly saying – “Keep it down. I will take your revenge later.” –

Clang!

“For now, let’s free your people from his control and let them rest,” he mumbled as he deflected the saber directed at him before swiftly spinning while moving sideways.

Swoosh!

He narrowly dodged an attack directed at his back. He did not have to look at who it was as he was familiar with the technique and aura that the assaulter had used.

It was the same technique that one of the World Serpents that he had seen from the first round of the festival. The individual possessed an unrivaled assassination technique, which could rip the lives of his victims without making a sound.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

After dodging, Shin quickly turned toward another direction blocking a series of slashes that were trying to cut him from a blind spot.

While he was engaged in an intense exchange, an overwhelming presence suddenly appeared him behind, resembling a giant mountain.

A huge zombified World Serpent with a muscular build appeared behind him with wide-spread arms, trying to catch him.

If he was caught by those thick and muscular arms, he could tell that his bones would be crushed within an instant.

With a quick turn, Shin forced the one wielding the saber before him and faced the muscular World Serpent.

Then he suddenly threw his elbow toward the abdomen of the other party, which channeled a huge amount of force into it, especially a Yin-Type force.

Bang!

The attack did not deal that much damage to the muscular World Serpent on the surface, but when the Yin Force it contained exploded within the body of the latter, the huge World Serpent was forced to retreat due to the impact.

Even if the World Serpent did not have a sense of pain due to its having a zombified body, the strong force that exploded within its body created a mess within its innards, which made the snakes made of demonic energy within to be thrown in chaos.

Despite that being the case, Shin was still not clear yet because there was another series of attacks besieging him from every direction.

Shin slightly frowned his brows as he started to feel the pressure that a World Serpent had toward their opponents. Even if these zombified bodies lost the unique abilities of their previous owners, their physical capabilities were still present.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Shin tried to fend off the attacks by swinging his icy swords while dodging the rest that he could not afford to face head-on due to the overwhelming strength that they carried.

The members of the Devouring Whale Tribe wanted to help him, but they could not lend him a hand due to the increasing number of sea snakes.

Since Shin was too occupied to lessen the number of the snakes, the were was no one who could keep their number in check, making it hard for them to hold their ground.

The abilities of a Serpent Hydra were already troublesome. But when it was enhanced by the demonic powers granted by a Great Demon King, it became even more powerful and absurd to deal with.

…

While Shin focused on defending himself from the attacks of the five zombified World Serpents, he suddenly sensed something coming from the bodies of his opponents.

It felt like some sort of unique signal that his mind was picking up…-or more like a unique connection between the World Serpents due to their bloodline.

Shin knitted his brow in confusion before paying more attention to this ‘signal’. It did not take that long before his eyes suddenly turned wide due to what he just discovered.

It seemed like the ‘souls’ of these dead World Serpents were still ‘alive’ somewhere and trying to communicate with him.

After ‘listening’ to them for quite a while, he finally understood what they were trying to tell him.

He then looked at the altar from the corner of his eyes before glancing at Nuguro, who was still standing on it while watching the battle.

“I see. So that is the real reason why that guy refused to leave the altar despite possessing enough power to kill all the Devouring Whales. It is because he doesn’t want to, but he just can’t because of the sacrificial ritual. It is not because he wanted to defend those gemstones.”

“So, I can stop it if I somehow force him to step away from the altar?” mumbled Shin as he was dealing with the attacks of the five zombified World Serpents.

Shin was having a lot of pressure from these five but somehow did not feel threatened despite how aggressive and powerful their attacks were.

He was not sure about it, but it seemed like these zombified World Serpents were restraining themselves from harming him to a certain extent, despite not being too obvious from the surface.

“Is it because of those ‘souls?’” mumbled Shin as he looked at them.

Somehow, he felt that those lifeless and eerie eyes seemed to be begging him to end their suffering.

Hu~!

Shin took a deep breath as he held the icy sword with both of his hands while channeling his Mana Essence into it.

Seeing that Shin was preparing for another ultimate move, Nuguro quickly urged his puppets to attack, telling them to disturb Shin before he could accumulate enough energy for his technique.

But the expression on his face immediately turned grim as he sensed something strange coming from those zombified bodies of the fallen World Serpents. The response that he was getting from the demonic snakes that he had planted in those bodies was telling him that they could no longer control the corpses.

It was as if some forces were preventing them from moving.

Hearing those responses from the demonic snakes, the expression on Nuguro’s face suddenly turned ugly as he realized what was happening. “This annoying bloodline!”

For a reason, These corpses he was trying to control were the top talents of the World Serpent Race. Even after death, the power of their souls and bloodline still stubbornly hold on and continuously fight.

With this, Nuguro suddenly got an ominous premonition, making him urge the altar to hasten the absorption process of the dead World Serpents that he had already been absorbing.

This made the entire altar tremble, creating a visible ripple underwater, which also made the mana within the surroundings gather toward the altar.

The colossal corpses scattered around the altar also started showing some signs of drying up at a visible rate.

Falan, who was engaged in an intense battle against Octo, sensed this and could not help but glance in the direction of the altar.

But before he could even get a clear look at what was happening, Octo quickly launched a series of attacks that he could not ignore and forced him to defend.

“Dare to get distracted while fighting me? Are you looking to die?”

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Falan managed to fend off the attacks, but his expression was quite grim. He was not sure what was happening on the other side of the battlefield, but he was getting an ominous feeling that was hard to ignore.

He just hoped that Shin would be able to save his tribesmen from whatever it was.

……