Child of Destiny

Swoosh! Swoosh!

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The battle between Diablo and the duo of Ardent and Zeal reached a whole other level, increasing the intensity with every passing second.

Their figures kept disappearing and reappearing across the platform, clashing with one another time and time again.

Sometimes, they turned into streaks of black light that were flashing across the platform while repeatedly colliding with one another. Both of these lights were flying everywhere while the two kept chasing after them and trying to lock them in place.

The three had started to showcase their true battle prowess, which showed that they were god-level players.

Diablo alone was an extremely powerful Maverick God, rivalling those players who were at the peak of the game. He was capable of fighting the god-level players from any Godly Ranking List on equal footing.

On the other hand, Ardent and Zeal were a notch beneath him individually, but their teamwork made up for all the flaws that they had and put them on the same level as any of those pinnacle-level gods of the game when together.

At the same time, the combination of the unique abilities that they had was also giving Diablo some trouble.

The almost invisible black threads had already wrapped themselves around Diablo, giving Zeal enough grasp over his movements.

Zeal was able to read all the possible actions that Diablo could take through these black threads, which also somewhat weakened the latter to a certain extent.

Meanwhile, Ardent’s demonic eyes were always able to lock on Diablo’s figure. Even if he lost sight of the latter for a moment, the black threads were also helping him find Diablo’s tracks time and time again.

With the combination of these abilities, escaping from their eyes had become extremely challenging.

Stealth Skills had become quite useless in this situation, so Diablo could only rely on his extreme speed.

However, despite that being the case, Diablo was still able to hold his ground without encountering that much of a problem.

Moreover, he was taking advantage of the pressure that the two were giving him to further polish his style and combat abilities, particularly the Celestial Shadow Art, which was his current class fighting style.

He wanted to use this opportunity to integrate his other Class Fighting Styles into the Celestial Shadow Art, particularly the movement techniques.

The Legendary Combat Technique that he had, the Darkness Excursion, was also slowly getting integrated into the Celestial Shadow Art.

The entire process was steadily going according to his thoughts, along with the help of his Demon Eyes.

The integration of all his abilities, skills, and techniques into his current class fighting style was steadily moving toward the result that he had envisioned.

He was not overusing his Demon Eyes this time either, only shifting between first and second phase, not using more than necessary.

Regardless, he was able to hold his ground without encountering that much of a problem.

On the other hand, Zeal and Ardent were starting to feel the pressure from Diablo as they exchanged blows against him.

Diablo was starting to see through their techniques and combination attacks, somewhat affecting their coordination against one another.

However, they were also starting to notice that Diablo was suffering from some sort of drawbacks during their exchanges.

It was as if Diablo was suffering from some illness that was getting worse throughout the battle.

…

“Tsk! Tsk! This Demonic Curse of Betrayal is getting more troublesome,” mumbled Diablo after sensing that his condition was getting worse with every passing second.

His exposure to the Demonic Powers of Terror was putting him in an extremely disadvantageous position.

It was as if a plague was constantly hunting him, making him lose his edge during the battle.

Opening his status window, he looked into a particular debuff that was placed on him with a heavy expression.

Negative Status:

Demonic Seed – a mark of a Great Demon King placed on his servants.

Demonic Curse of Betrayal – a curse placed upon those traitors of the demon race. Anyone afflicted by this curse would suffer a demon plague that would continuously consume their soul under the exposure of the great authority that the Great Demon Kings possessed.

…

The description of the two was somewhat simple and did not reveal that much, but it indicated a few clues that he could use when he tried to investigate it at a later date.

Fully understanding his current situation, Diablo knew that he no longer had the luxury of polishing his class fighting style even further.

Bang! Bang!

Swoosh!

Diablo forced the opposing side into retreat after utilizing an extremely powerful attack that was reinforced by his two higher forms of Mana.

He then warded off their possible advance with the tide of shadows that were covering him from every direction before swiftly gathering all his Mana toward both of his moments.

Swoosh! Swoosh!

The dagger and the stiletto in each of his hands glowed with great intensity, revealing the violent and terrifying features of the Ancient Shadow Powers and Sanctified Demonic Powers.

The Ancient Shadow Powers revealed an extreme darkness that was capable of devouring everything. Even the light seemed to be incapable of escape from its grasp, erasing all its traces.

On the other hand, the Sanctified Demonic Powers were showing a mixture of demonic and holy aura that seemed to be capable of both corruption and purification. It was as if it would turn anything that it touched into a corrupted creature before purifying them.

Not long after, both weapons that he was holding in each of his hands turned into black light that melded with the shadow robe covering his figure.

He then joined his palms together, controlling all the shadow elemental mana in the surroundings, further augmenting the powers that he wielded.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

Not long after, the shadow underneath his feet expanded and covered an extremely huge area before a huge flock of dark ravens emerged from it.

They circled him, forming a spiral storm that spun around him and made the Divine War Robe wrapped on his body flutter with extreme intensity.

Feathers of black-gold and crimson-black colors filled the air and veiled his figure before transforming into a colossal raven that opened its wings wide, almost covering half of the massive platform that they were on.

‘Celestial Shadow Art: Ultimate Move – Dawn of the Shadow World’

Shriek!

Not long after, a deafening cry coming from the black bird filled the entire place before diving toward the duo standing in the distance.

Whoosh!

Seeing this, the expression on Ardent and Zeal’s faces suddenly turned extremely heavy, understanding their current position.

Without further ado, they immediately went all out, planning to not hold anything back.

Ardent crossed the shortsword before him while channeling a massive amount of contaminated mana mixed with demonic powers, turning into a massive demon head engulfing him.

Roar!

‘Demonic Dragon’s Apostle Skill (Pseudo Tier 4): Slayer – Terror Manifestation’

At the same time, Zeal retracted all the black threads that he had been releasing since the start of the battle, gathering them toward his chest.

Boom!

Not long after, his overall presence propelled into a whole other level while his body seemed to have undergone another demonic transformation.

Roar!

‘Demonic Dragon’s Apostle Skill (Pseudo Tier 4): Executioner – Might of the Demon Dragon’

Boom!

The two of them fused, transforming into a massive demon that clashed against the incoming Shadow Raven.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

A series of explosions immediately followed right after the two sides clashed against one another, forming a massive storm of energy in the process.

This scene continued for quite a while, shaking the entire sacrificial altar, further increasing the number of cracks that it had on the surface.

The storm of violent energy continued along with the even stronger series of explosions, leading to the entire platform collapsing.

BOOM!

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Like a domino effect, the rest of the massive altar continued to crack and collapse under the bombardment of the continuous explosions.

“F*ck!”

Rebecca and Zion, who were also having the final stand against their counterparts, could only curse under their breath after seeing this.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Moreover, the explosions on their side of the battlefield further worsen the already terrible situation, leading to the complete collapse of the altar.

Wail~!

A series of eerie and terrifying cries of agony filled the air, along with the thick mist of crimson blood that escaped from the gaps between these cracks.

Seeing this, the two immediately realized that they had already failed in protecting this core altar, so there was no need to entangle themselves with Loki and his clones any further.

They were about to retreat when something unexpected happened.

“Ah! It looks like that guy has won this round.”

They had heard a voice coming from behind, sending shivers down their spine.

They wanted to quickly turn around and launch an immediate counterattack coming from that person, knowing that it was most likely Loki in his true body.

Unfortunately, they had found that their bodies had suddenly turned stiff and were unable to move. It was as if they had lost their overall control over their bodies.

“Well, it is what it is. Catching two elite members of the Demonic Church is not that bad either.”

“I am sure that Hades will not scold me that much with the two of you serving as a good present.”

Immediately after, the two found themselves locked within a prison prism, indicating that the opposing side had captured them without putting up much resistance.

…