Child of Destiny

……

Shin raised his head and stared intently at the man, who was being projected by an aura alone. The presence of this man was so strong that he was having an illusion of a massive figure that could cover the entire sky.

His presence was so overwhelming that even the space itself seemed to be unable to endure it. Cracks even started to appear in the surrounding space along with black lightning, which signified that the space was about to collapse.

Looking at the appearance of this mysterious person, Shin could see that they were wearing a blank mask that only had a pair of holes meant for the eyes.

His long hair hung loosely on his back, amplifying the mysterious and majestic air that he was passively emitting.

He was also wearing a majestic ancient robe, which had a series of complicated designs on its edges.

Since this person was facing him with their back, Shin was able to see that both of their hands with bandages.

For some reason, Shin could also feel a bit of familiarity coming from this person, particularly the aura that they possessed.

When Shin heard Marc Lincoln address this person, the ’First Head’, a silhouette suddenly flashed through his mind.

“Snake Head,” he mumbled.

From what he heard, ’Snake Head’ was not a name or even a moniker. It was something addressed to a certain group of people behind the Black Serpent Mafia.

They were the true leaders of this underworld organization and were said to be very strong on their own right.

David and his mother refused to elaborate more about them, telling him that he was not strong enough to carry that truth.

But from what he could tell, it must be related to the Voidwalkers and those so-called remnants of the past, which his parents were fighting in the dark.

“If he is the First Head, then he must be the strongest member of the Snake Head and the so-called Great Leader or something,” he mumbled.

Shin felt that this must be the best time to escape from this place, especially when Marc Lincoln and the First Head were too focused on one another.

Unfortunately, he was still yet to recover from the wounds that Marc Lincoln had given him earlier. For some reason, he was unable to fully heal those wounds despite using his healing flames. It was as if there were some sort of foreign energy that was preventing him from fully recovering from those wounds.

His only hope right now was the forbidden talisman that he had gotten from his mother.

Continuing to secretly channel all his energy toward the talisman, hoping that he would be able to ignite it before the situation became even more dangerous for him.

…

In the meantime, the First Head and the Chimera Creator had a staredown for a whole minute before the latter suddenly started smirking.

“Heh! It is quite a nice bluff,” said Marc Lincoln before pointing out. “You can’t actually use this much power, can you?”

“This is nothing but a mere projection of your consciousness, so it can’t wield that much power since it will be unable to maintain its form,” he added while fixing his glasses.

He then looked at the commotions that were happening all around them, particularly the slowly collapsing space.

With a wave of his hand, he manipulated the surrounding space, which quickly repaired itself.

“That sudden burst of power upon your appearance must have exhausted quite a lot of power stored in that scroll. I wonder if you have enough to deal with me,” he continued while releasing a powerful aura of his own.

Boom!

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Right after releasing his aura, an overwhelming pressure suddenly appeared and started clashing against the opposing party.

Regardless of all these, the First Head remained calm and just stared at Marc Lincoln.

He only nodded his head after staring for dozens of seconds. “Not that bad. I guess it is what you expect from that guy’s student.”

“You are right about this projection, unable to fight someone like you,” he nodded for another time before casually giving Mad Dog a sidelong glance. “That’s why I have brought a somewhat passable vessel for this operation.”

Right after hearing those words, Mad Dog could not help but shudder, having a bad premonition about it.

However, before he could even say anything else, he suddenly realized that he was unable to move his body.

He was completely immobilized and had lost all control over his body.

It was then that he heard the cold and indifferent words coming from the projection of First Head. “Don’t worry, child. I will only be borrowing your body for a little bit.”

Before Mad Dog could even respond, he found himself losing his consciousness as if someone was putting him to sleep.

A moment later, Shin and Marc Lincoln saw the projection of the First Head entering Mad Dog’s body in an instant.

Before Marc Lincoln could even spot it happening, the entire process was already completed, not giving him any time to respond.

Boom!

Not long after, his already overwhelming presence had become even more distinct, making it harder to breathe.

“Such a powerful presence!” mumbled Shin after seeing this.

But it was not the end yet, since he saw Mad Dog taking out an evil core and swiftly swallowing it.

“That’s-…!?” Shin instantly recognized that evil core since it was the very same core that Voss was trying to consume earlier, which he had also sent flying during their exchange.

Boom!

Right after consuming the evil core, Mad Dog, or rather the First Head, nodded his head with a bit of satisfaction before nodding his head. “This should be enough.”

On the other hand, Marc Lincoln started wearing a solemn expression after seeing this scene.

The aura that came from the opposing party not only became more distinct and powerful, but it had also reached a certain level that even he felt extremely threatened.

Realizing that the situation was getting out of hand, Marc Lincoln did not dare to lower his guard and went all-out straight away.

Boom!

With a powerful explosion of power, he underwent some sort of transformation.

A pair of wings suddenly grew out of his back, along with a bunch of tentacle-looking things from his lower back.

Boom!

At the same time, the surrounding space seemed to have started resonating with him, giving the impression that he would be able to manipulate it with a single thought.

Bang!

He did not wait any longer, either, and suddenly flapped his wings strongly, sending himself propelling forward.

He disappeared from Shin’s vision for an instant before suddenly reappearing before the First Head, who seemed to be already anticipating this ahead of time.

The Chimera Creator raised his fist, which was swiftly wrapped by the hideous-looking tentacles on his back and creating a massive arm made of flesh.

Along with this transformation, this fleshy arm seemed to have connected itself with the surrounding space, wrapping itself with an overwhelming amount of spatial energy.

Boom!

The space seemed to have collapsed in an instant when he threw his punch.

However, his opponent remained indifferent and just raised his hand in a casual manner.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

During the process, black threads seemed to have come out from his body before wrapping themselves around his arm. His arm grew larger in the process, matching the size of his opponent.

It was as if he were seemingly mimicking the actions of his opponent.

Boom!

A massive explosion erupted when the two sides collided, sending intense ripples in the air and creating multiple fissures in the void.

Such a collision was more than enough to crush Shin, who was far beneath their powers.

Fortunately, he was quite far from the center of the explosion, escaping a terrible outcome.

But that did not mean that he was safe yet, especially when the strong shockwave blew him further away from the collision.

Bang!

Not long after, his back collided against a huge boulder, further worsening his condition.

“Argh!”

Fortunately, he did not let go of the talismans in his hand. All his efforts would go to waste if he let it go and stopped channeling his energy into it.

But before he could even recover from his condition, both Marc Lincoln and the First Head moved, resulting in multiple clashes that were no weaker than the first one.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

“Sh*t!” Shin could only curse as he dragged his body to take cover.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Each collision produced a massive explosion, which could destroy him in an instant if he got swept up in them.

While he was trying his best to recover from his current state and focusing on channeling his energy into the forbidden talisman, Uno’s voice suddenly rang inside his head.

[Once you activate that talisman, swap places with me.]

“What are you thinking?” asked Shin instinctively.

[You will be thoroughly exhausted once you expend all your remaining energy and activate that talisman. Do you think you will be in a position to escape once it happens?]

Shin thought for a moment before nodding his head. “I guess you are right. But isn’t it dangerous for you to come out? Given the current situation and the overwhelming evil energy lingering in the air, I don’t think that it is a good idea to let you get exposed to it.”

[Do you have a better solution than?]

Hearing Uno snapping at him, Shin just shrugged his shoulders before nodding his head. “I guess we do have no other choice.”

He then peeked from behind the pile of rubble where he was hiding and looked at Mad Dog, who was currently being possessed by the First head.

“Just be careful of that guy. I feel like he is targeting us,” he warned while squinting his eyes.

[As if I need you to tell me that.]

…