Child of Destiny

A few moments before Leviathan summoned his Ice Clone.

Still watching the ongoing battle from afar, Diablo remained cool while Alucard was quite itching to fight.

After seeing how the two sides were fighting with such intensity, Alucard could not help but want to join them, especially after seeing Dragulia, who was suppressing Poseidon by a great margin.

“Are we not going to join them yet?” asked Alucard, seemingly doing his best to suppress the urge to participate in the ongoing battle.

Diablo gave him a sidelong glance before speaking. “You should remember that our job here is just to observe the overall situation and not to get involved in it directly.”

“The Demonic Churches are involved, though,” refuted Alucard while fixating his gaze on the Leviathan and Dragulia.

“That is more reason why we have to hide and keep a low profile,” said Diablo, while adding. “We have to know their other intentions while they are still unaware of our presence.”

“I have already gotten rid of the Demonic Mark that the Demonic Players have placed on us earlier, so we are already off their radar,” he added while squinting his eyes.

“Now that you have mentioned it, why do these people bother to place those marks on everyone? Is it to monitor our movements and make us easier to target?” asked Alucard before shaking his head. “It shouldn’t be that simple, though? It feels too simple, given their expertise at scheming.”

Diablo agreed to his words and answered. “If Leviathan is truly targeting the other-realm portal that Felix and Felicia have found, then he must be thinking of turning it into a demon portal.”

“He should have the Demon Source Stone in his possession, which is the main ingredient for transforming such a dimensional portal into a demonic one. After all, it is something that is meant to establish a connection between this world and the Hell Realm that they are targeting.”

“Given that Leviathan is here, then it is highly likely that they are truly planning to establish a connection with the Envious Dragon of the Seven Seas, who is also the Great Demon King of all the Sea Monsters.”

“So long as those two from the Divine Sound Sect do not bend and disclose the location of the portal, there is no way for the Demonic Churches to establish another dimensional portal that will connect to another Hell Realm.”

Pausing for a moment, Diablo could not help but squint his eyes quite hard, staring intently at Dragulia. “If there is something that concerns me, then it must be the involvement of the Demonic Church of Terror.”

Hearing this, Alucard could not help but raise his brows a little and turned to Diablo. He was not as familiar as Diablo when it came to understanding the structure of the Demonic Churches or their respective purposes.

Understanding the look that Alucard was giving him, Diablo explained. “Not all the Demonic Churches want to establish a connection to the Hell Realm.”

“They are not like the Demonic Churches of Seven Sins or the Nine Demonic Churches of Chaos that have a connection to the Great Demon Kings of the Hell Realms.”

“The Demonic Churches of the Seven Sins are worshiping the Seven Sinful Demon Kings, which are also known as the Demon Monarchs of the Seven Thrones, while the Nine Demonic Churches of Chaos are the believers of the Nine Celestial Demons that control the Nine Gates of Hell.”

“The Seven Thrones represent the Seven Sins and the Seven Major Realms of Hell, such as the Infernal Realm of Wrath, the Nether Realm of Greed, the Bug Realm of Gluttony, the Lustful Realm of All Temptations, the Envious Realm of Dark Abyss, the Slothful Realm of Eternal Slumber, and the Devildom of Pride.”

“As for the Nine Gates, seven of them represent the entrance of each of the Sinful Realms, bordering the regions ruled by the other Great Demon Kings and Ancient Demons, while the other two are the borders between the other neighboring outer worlds.”

“I do not know the specifics of those two worlds, but I heard that they are called the ‘Outer Void’ and the ‘Forgotten Ancients’.”

“Based on the lore of the game, these two worlds should be similar to the ‘Atlas World’ that we are in and the entirety of ‘Hell’ itself. The former is divided into two major planes, while the latter is composed of multiple realms.”

Diablo paused for a moment when he reached this point, letting Alucard digest everything he just said, before continuing. “As for the other Demonic Churches, they are established by some extremely powerful beings, which rival the Divine Beings and Great Demon Kings themselves.”

“Some of them are even at the level of the Demon Gods, which is an even more terrifying existence than the Great Demon Kings of Hell. The Seven Sinful Demon Kings are said to be on this level, which is why they are called the Demonic Rulers of the Seven Thrones.”

“An example of this is the Demonic Church of Terror worshiping the Demonic Dragon of Terror and the Demonic Church of Destruction established by the Prime Dragon of Destruction.”

“There is also the Demonic Church of Absolute Evil, which is believed to be the Evil Black Dragon.”

“These three dragons were the said traitors of the Dragon Tribe. I am not sure about the specifics, so you should ask about them from Siegfried, since that guy seems to know almost everyone so long as they are about dragons.”

Thinking for a moment, Diablo suddenly added. “From my understanding of the Demonic Church of Terror, they are a bunch of lunatics who want to do nothing but spread terror and strike fear into everyone.”

“They will slaughter anyone and even annihilate an entire kingdom just to achieve their goals. They also regularly conduct a great sacrificial ritual to worship the Demonic Dragon of Terror, which will give them some blessings in return.”

Staring at Dragulia for quite a while, he suddenly continued. “The fact that Dragulia is here, who is an Arch Heretic within the Demonic Church of Terror, proves that something big is going on.”

“If it is just Leviathan, then there is nothing much to worry about since I can figure out his intention quite easily. But Dragulia is a different case.”

“I am also not familiar with the Great Sacrificial Ritual, either, since I am a part of the Demonic Churches of the Seven Sins when I am working with the Pandemonium Descendants.”

Alucard immediately understood what Diablo was worried about after hearing those words. “So you want to know what methods the Demonic Church of Terror uses when conducting this said sacrificial ritual.”

“But don’t you think that it will already be too late when it happens? You just said that they can even slaughter an entire kingdom if needed. Then doesn’t that mean that we also have to hurry? What if those demonic players have taken the initiative to clash with the Titan Guild and their alliance on that side to initiate this ritual or something?”

“It will be too late for us to make our move if that is truly the case,” he added with a deep frown, justifying his earlier suggestion to join the battle.

Diablo also understood this reason, but he felt that this was a rare chance to gather more information about the other Demonic Church that he was somewhat unfamiliar with.

Understanding them would make it easier and give them more chances to predict their actions in the future based on this information.

Thinking about this, Diablo could not help but reflect deeply on his decision. But he immediately composed himself and contacted the team’s leaders, particularly Cloe, who was the designated Commander of the Empyrean Talons.

As for Seigfried (Arthur), one of the Vice Commanders, and Simba (Leonard), their Leading Combatant, these two were unreliable leaders when it came to these matters.

Shin was currently offline since he was undergoing a special training under Professor Henry’s instruction, so they could not consult him on these situations.

There was also Snow White (Shiella) and Khing (David), who could be considered as advisors of the Empyrean Talons due to their relationship with the team.

However, Diablo could not contact them that easily due to his position. David was still fine, but Shiella was a bit too much for him.

He sent his message to both Cloe and David directly while asking Arthur to pass the message to Shiella.

It took them a bit of time to reply, but the contents were basically the same. – “Do as you see fit.” –

“Tsk!” Diablo could only click his tongue when he saw their replies before swiftly issuing orders to the people that they currently had on this side, particularly Mister Jiang, who had been assigned to keep an eye on the overall situation of the Oath City and the ongoing battles throughout the neighboring regions.

Seeing that Diablo had already made his, Alucard felt a bit excited, taking out his sniper rifle and getting ready to get involved in the ongoing battle before them.

He then went on to move, looking for a perfect vantage point for snipe.

Diablo had also jumped off the tree that they were standing on, entering stealth and dashing toward the battlefield.

However, before they could even fully put their plans in action, a message suddenly arrived from Mister Jiang.

Mister Jiang: The Demonic Players are acting strange. Some of them are secretly moving toward multiple directions, carrying some suspicious tools and stones.

Along with this message were photos that their group had taken while monitoring the movements of the Demonic Players.

Seeing these photos, particularly the tools that the demonic players were carrying, Diablo’s eyes suddenly turned wide and opened his virtual map.

He had also marked the possible locations that this bunch was heading based on the directions that Mister Jiang had given.

Diablo then connected these locations that he had marked, forming an extremely huge hexagram on the map.

“So that was it! These bastards-…” he immediately figured out their plans and swiftly sent a copy of the map that he had created to Mister Jiang.

Diablo: Do your best to prevent those guys from establishing these points at all costs!

Diablo: We will be dealing with the two leaders of this trash from the Demonic Churches!

…