Child of Destiny

Discover hidden stories at empire

……

“How is it? Did we get any update for their locations yet?” said a Spectral Assassin as he turned to his partner, an Elven Twilight.

“Still no news yet. But from what I have heard, it seems like everyone from the Empyrean Talons has disappeared at the Teleportation Hall of the Divinity City,” the latter shrugged his shoulders as he relayed the words that he had gotten from their superiors.

“Tsk! Then are we wasting our time here, waiting for them to come out of the city gates?” asked the Spectral Assassin.

Unlike the others, who freely enter and exit the city, he needed to go through a quite complicated process before he was permitted to roam around the city.

It was not because the city had discrimination against Undead Creatures. After all, there were quite a few undead roaming in the city and even using some of the public facilities. Some even set up a stall at the central square while the ones with slightly special or wealthy backgrounds possessed a permit to do huge transactions and business in different parts of the city.

After all, the Divine Empire still had a certain connection with those powerful Undead Creatures at the Forsaken Islets and their unique products could help the empire to progress their research against corruption and demonic powers.

But since Undead Creatures were more prone to corruption and the temptation of the demonic powers, the officials of the Dinity City had to filter out all the Undead Race, who would be entering the city.

It was to prevent any spies from entering the city.

Those who failed the filtering process were either sent to the Forsaken Islets – one of the major regions of the Atlas Word and the hope of Undead Race – or put into jail if they happened to be a wanted criminal.

This was why most of the players with Undead Race had a hard time living in the city. They prepared to be ‘deported’ to the Forsaken Islets and set their base in that place. After all, it was one of the heavenly regions that any of them could ask for.

As for why this Spectral Assassin chose to stay here, he was stationed in this play by their guild leader as their race was crucial for tracking down the members of the Empyrean Talons.

He was not the only one as any Spectral Assassin or Undead Thief stationed here were under the instructions of their superiors. They were the centerpiece of this operation.

They seemed to have been linked with every member of the Empyrean Talons, letting them sense if those guys were near them.

They had scattered and spread a net in all the maps around the Divinity City to cover such a larger area. It was also the reason, why these people were able to accurately pinpoint or roughly guess the locations of the Empyrean Talons.

Their methods were quite special.

These thieves of the Undead Race had a special medium that could sense the players who had already stabilized a solid connection with the mana of the Divine Empire.

Naturally, such people would also be the ones who had stayed the longest within the Awakened Continent, which also meant that they were the members of the Empyrean Talons since they were way ahead of the others.

Then mediums would put a mark on these individuals after coming in contact with these people or if they have been broken by the other party.

The dark aura surrounding these mediums would spread in the bodies of those who had broken them, putting an even stronger mark.

This was also one of the reasons why only thieves of the Undead Race were chosen to hold these mediums. Aside from them being unable to be marked due to the Death Aura that naturally shrouded their bodies, they were also the fastest among the players due to their class.

They could easily perform their task and quickly retreat once it was done.

Next would be the jobs left for the rest, who were holding similar mediums that could sense the marks.

The Empyrean Talons might have fought these guys briefly while hunting and training in the wild or doing their quest – or it could also be because they had unknowingly bumped into these people while roaming around the city.

…

The Blood Carnival had spent quite a lot of resources just to set this plan up. They had prepared quite a lot in exchange for putting a mark on each member of the Empyrean Talons.

As one of the biggest Dark Guilds within the game and a criminal organization, they possessed quite a lot of influence within the gaming circle, particularly their mysterious ‘Carnival Masters’.

The one who had the loudest voice within this guild and the one with the highest authority was called the ‘Ringmaster’. It was said that he was one of the old gods, who was manipulating the scenes from the dark.

It was also said that he was one of the rivals of the old gods of the virtual world such as ‘Khing’, who was known as the King of Virtual Games, the God Slayer ‘Tora’ and Death God ‘Yami’, who were now going with the names of ‘Lawless’ and ‘Faker’.

Within the circle, the higher-ups of each huge guild and powerful organization within the game knew that this ‘Ringmaster’ was currently using the alias of ‘Pierro’, but he was still the legendary person who was once standing side by side with the greatest leaders of the game such as ‘Yuan’ of the Dragon Pavilion, ‘Serpent’ of Hydra Guild, ‘Skull’ of HeadHunter Guild, and others.

It was said that this operation was plotted by this mysterious Ringmaster before it was passed down to one of his most trusted subordinates, who was also one of the founders of the Blood Carnival, ‘Jester – the Clown of Deceit.’

While the one who put the ‘curse’ on the members of the Empyrean Talons was ‘Harlequin’, who was also known as the ‘Lady Clown’.

These two were currently hiding within the Divinity City while giving out a series of information to the leaders of the guilds – particularly the dark guilds – who allied against the Empyrean Talons.

They had spent quite a fortune just to craft this batch of cursed mediums before putting a lot of effort just to scan through the Divinity City and the regions around it while looking for the members of the Empyrean Talons.

…

Shin did not have this mark yet, which meant that he had yet to bump into these people.

Lorraine, on the other hand, who came to the Awakened Empire alongside them avoided these people since she did bother to hide her identity.

As someone who was leading the ‘Secret Society’ Adventurer Team these last couple of years, she had built up quite a reputation for herself. She even had a Maverick Title of her own and quite a famous Maverick God within the circle.

But this was not the main reason why these Dark Guilds and other organizations were unwilling to provoke her. It was because of the mysterious background of the ‘Secret Society’, which was rumored to have some relation with the ‘Mystery Pavilion’ – one of the most mysterious groups within the virtual world.

As an organization that was able to almost accurately rank the top Godlike Players within the game, their connection was unknowingly huge and quite terrifying, especially since they were skillfully hiding in the dark.

Even though there were some guilds and organizations who were not afraid of them, they did not want to create unnecessary trouble for themselves, especially when they were in a crucial stage of setting their root in the Divinity City.

Unless friction was made, they would not make a move that would lead to such a conflict.

Little did they know that the trouble would come knocking on their door by itself.

…

“Is everything ready?” asked Shin as he looked at Leonard, Diablo, Alucard, and Owen who had a mark on their bodies.

They did not bother to head to the Church of the Sun and Moon to remove these marks as they would use these against those superpowers targeting them.

They would be the bait that would lure those experts before the group would hit them before the opposing side knew what struck them.

Shin then distributed a bunch of diamond-like gems to each member of the group before explaining. “These are the instantaneous escape stones that I have gotten from the Church. I have spent quite a lot of merit points to buy so use them sparingly. But if you find yourself trapped in their formation, use them as you see fit.”

Then he proceeded to take out six rings before distributing them as well. “These are [Link Rings], and they are reusable rings that can let us sense the location of each other. We can also teleport to any location so long as they are within a thousand kilometers radius.”

“We can only use the teleportation skill seven times a day before they go in cooldown, so we have to consider when to use them later carefully.”

“These rings are also from the vault of the Church of the Sun and Moon that I have exchanged. I originally planned to ask Samael to work hard and help me exchange for more so that each member of the team can have them.”

“Unfortunately, I only have seven of them, so I have yet to distribute them with the rest,” he added.

Then he further polished their plan before Shin turned his head outside the widow as he sensed some players gathering outside. “They seem to have already sensed you.”

“Let’s proceed with the plan!”

…