Child of Destiny

Boom!

The massive explosion erupted at the top of the sacrificial altar, making it tremble violently.

Due to this intense shaking, the entire altar had also shown signs of collapsing, particularly with the tiny cracks that were starting to spread throughout its surface.

Rebecca and Zion, who were also locked in an intense battle against their counterparts, could not help but pause their actions because of this commotion.

He could not help but frown deeply, realising that the situation was slowly getting out of hand, especially when the sacrificial altar was slowly being destroyed by the battle.

Not only was the battle between Diablo and the duo from the Demonic Church of Terror already creating such a huge commotion, but their battle on their side was also showing enough destructiveness that it could threaten the sacrificial altar itself.

If this battle continued, then they could not guarantee the safety of this core altar.

However, they were not too concerned about this either, especially when this so-called Grand Sacrificial Altar did not actually concern them.

It was supposed to be meant for the believers of the Demonic Dragon of Terror anyway, so they were not too keen on helping them.

Regardless, they still had to give enough effort to help these guys, especially when they knew that it would buy them enough time needed for Leviathan to finish what he needed to do on his side.

Having this thought, they swiftly rushed forward, engaging in an intense battle against their respective counterparts.

The version of themselves from the opposing side might be on the same level as them, wielding almost the same abilities and techniques, but that did not mean that they could fully wield their true powers.

Now that the situation had reached this point, they knew that it was now time to truly showcase their real power.

Since the opposing side could also use Demonic Transformation, they wanted to see if they could also summon a Demon Contract as well.

Roar! Roar!

***

In the meantime, the current state of the platform at the peak of the sacrificial altar was quite a mess.

The floor was filled with cracks that were spreading in every direction.

Swoosh! Swoosh!

Two figures suddenly jumped out of the thick cloud of smoke before sliding backwards right after their feet touched the cracked floor.

They were trying their best to release the residual force that they had gotten from the earlier explosion while also keeping a close eye on the receding cloud of smoke before them.

They both knew that the earlier attacks were not enough to take down Diablo, especially after sensing that their combined forces were thoroughly blocked by the opposing side.

Ardent was paying close attention to everything through his demonic eyes, making sure that nothing could escape his sight, not even a sneaky exit from the receding cloud of smoke could trick his eyes.

At the same time, Zeal was currently spinning a chained sickle in his right hand, seemingly releasing more demonic powers unique to him.

From Ardent’s perspective, the countless black threads that his partner had released since the start of the battle were already filling the air.

Through these demonic threads, he was able to clearly see all kinds of movements within their range.

It was because of the combination of these black threads invisible to the naked eye and Ardent’s demonic eyes that the two were able to work extremely well whenever they were fighting alongside each other.

The combination of these two abilities made their coordination unrivalled and unbreakable.

Tap! Tap!

Contrary to what the two were thinking, Diablo did not take advantage of the cloud of smoke as a cover to hide his tracks or sneak into stealth.

Instead, he calmly stepped out of the receding cloud of smoke, seemingly unfazed by what had just happened earlier.

He casually tapped his shoulders as if he was dusting himself off while looking at the opposing side.

“It seems like my Celestial Shadow Art is still a bit lacking,” he mumbled after recalling the details of the previous exchanges.

He might have gotten quite a few upper hands during those exchanges, but he also found himself trapped in some predicaments from time to time.

He specifically recalled how he was caught by Zeal’s chains just now, which clearly put him in such a dangerous predicament.

If not for the strong combination of his Ancient Shadow Powers and Sanctified Demonic Powers being extremely powerful, then he would have most likely been caught in an even more dangerous situation.

His Celestial Shadow Art was not a proper martial art, since it was clearly the result of combining the two Martial Manuals Shin had given him, along with his own variation of Hyperactive Immersion.

He was neither a martial artist nor a mentalist in the real world, so the techniques in his arsenal were not as powerful as the ones that Shin and the others could bring into the game through their Reality Manifestation.

Fortunately, the Class Fighting Styles and Combat Techniques within the game were not that useless either. Some of them could even match those martial arts, especially the most advanced among them, since they were based on Martial Arts and Mentalism Techniques from the real world.

Diablo’s Celestial Shadow Art was a special type of Class Fighting Style, which had recently reached its maturity.

Along with the two types of higher forms of mana that he possessed, it was further lifted into a whole other level.

It was already on the same level as those real Martial Arts and Mentalism Techniques to a certain degree.

However, Diablo knew that it was still far from reaching its perfection. It was still far from reaching its true potential or matching the extremely advanced Martial Arts and Mentalism Techniques from the real world, as Shin and the others were using.

Diablo had yet to fully merge all his Class Fighting Style Skills and Techniques that he had under his arsenal, particularly those that focused on movement techniques such as Death Dance and Shadow Waltz, which also used to be his core techniques before.

There was also his Legendary Combat Technique, the Darkness Excursion, which could rival Shin’s Infinity Edge and Arthur’s Dragon Dance.

There were also quite a few others, which would further elevate the combat prowess of his Celestial Shadow Art.

The fullest and most perfect form of his Celestial Shadow Art would be achieved once all these skills and techniques fully merged with it.

Fighting these two before him, who truly reached a high level of power to rival some Maverick Gods and Godlike Players, especially when working together, put quite a lot of pressure on him and pushed his limits.

The earlier technique was the perfect example of this, which was how that defensive technique was fully created.

This kind of pressure was exactly what he was looking for.

“These two are truly a good whetstone,” he mumbled before squinting his eyes. “Moreover, I have also somewhat confirmed some clues from the earlier exchange.”

He looked at his status window and system log. “That damn Lucifer. No wonder he is not too concerned that I have run off the organisation. So he has left something within him that will gradually force me to stop fighting against them.”

He had finally realised what it was that kept on bothering him when facing the members of the Demonic Church of Terror.

*Ding*

System: The Demonic Seed within you has been triggered!

System: You have been afflicted by the Demonic Curse of Betrayal!

These two system notifications appeared right after his two powers came in direct contact with the Power of Terror that Ardent and Zeal possessed.

It was as if something had been awakened within him, which caught him a bit off guard.

He was not too sure why he had gotten such a notification or where the so-called Demonic Seed came from, but he could at least make some guesses about it.

“It is not forbidden for the demons to fight each other, so the so-called betrayal has never been an issue among them. There are even some instances where the other factions within the Demonic Churches plotted against each other just for some benefit or entertainment,” he mumbled while squinting his eyes.

“The only exceptions that will lead to so-called ‘betrayal’ are when a servant betrays its master or when a demon has betrayed its entire race in exchange for something, which is also something that will put the entirety of the demon race at risk,” he added, still confused.

“I may fall for either category, but I never have a mark of a slave that the Demon Kings or above have on me, which will trigger once I have turned back on them.”

“Fighting the other Demonic Churches is not a reason for such ‘betrayal’ as well,” he mumbled to himself while frowning quite deeply.

With all these in consideration, a single thought could only flash through his mind.

“Lucifer, what have you done this time?” he squinted his eyes, suspecting that this former friend and leader had done something to him when he still belonged to the organisation without his notice.

“This is getting more annoying,” he mumbled, feeling somewhat discouraged to continue fighting.

“I do not know if it is a one-time thing or not, but I am sure that this is going to be extremely dangerous once I do not deal with this so-called curse properly,” he added while staring at Ardent and Zeal, who seemed to have paused their tracks right after seeing him.

It was not because of the presence that he was currently emitting, but something else.

Recalling the notifications that he just received, Diablo could not help but have an extremely ominous premonition. “Don’t tell me that it is related to this stupid curse?”

…