Child of Destiny

Bang! Bang! Bang!

A series of explosions erupted as the massive sacrificial altar continued to collapse.

A thick cloud of smoke and dust also rose as huge boulders that came from the altar piled up on one another.

This cloud also melded along with the crimson mist that was leaking out of the sacrificial altar earlier, which also represented the huge amount of concentrated Slaughter Energy that the demonic players had collected for the ritual that they were preparing.

Loki watched everything unfold while playing with the two prison prisms in his hand. He had waited for quite a while until the mixture of the cloud of dust and the crimson mist receded.

That was also when he saw the vague silhouette walking out of the mixture of cloud and mist quite leisurely.

Not long after, Diablo’s figure was finally revealed, which was still cloaked with the shadow robe that he had summoned earlier. However, the current state of this robe was quite a mess, barely having a clear form, and had a lot of holes in it.

Regardless, he still looked relatively fine despite the intense battle that had just taken place.

Seeing his almost perfect state, Loki could not help but want to give it a go and duel Diablo, especially after witnessing the latter’s battle against those two believers of the Demonic Dragon of Terror.

He was quite itching for a fight, barely suppressing the battle hunger that he was currently getting.

Fortunately, he managed to rein in such an urge before the situation could even get uglier.

Looking at the prison prisms that Loki was rolling with one of his hands, Diablo realized that the latter had successfully captured Rebecca and Zion.

It was understandable that it was harder to capture someone than defeating them, especially when the opposing side was as skilled as those elites from the Demonic Churches.

It was only possible because the gap between the strengths of the two sides was too overwhelming, so that the other could suppress their counterpart.

The fact that Loki was able to capture both Rebecca and Zion without suffering that much from the battle, as reflected by his current appearance, which lacked any signs of intense battle.

Diablo does not help but think that Loki must have won their little competition.

Seemingly understanding what Diablo was thinking, Loki took the initiative to speak. “Let’s call this round a draw. I have captured two, while you have defeated your opponents while also destroying the sacrificial altar in the process.”

Thinking about this, Diablo shrugged his shoulders, refusing to comment.

Not long after, Hades also appeared, saying to the two. “We have already cleaned the entire battlefield.”

“You two can proceed with your hunt for the demonic players and their hidden altars. You can leave this place to my people and me,” he added while sweeping his gaze over the entire place. “I will make sure that we have not overlooked anything.”

Diablo did not say that much and just turned around to leave.

Swoosh!

The shadow underneath his feet moved for a moment before suddenly swallowing him down and disappearing from everyone’s sight.

Loki, on the other hand, just shrugged his shoulders before tossing the two prison prism to Hades. “A little present. I am sure that you will like playing with those two.”

Poof!

After that, his figure exploded into smoke, indicating that he had also left.

Hades caught the two black cubes and looked at them before shaking his head. “That guy is surely planning to create some trouble, which is why he has left such a good present.”

He understood Loki quite well, especially his annoying antics that always caught them off guard. He knew that Loki was trying to buy him off with the two captured elites of the Demonic Church of Envy as a form of appeasement for it later.

He just hoped that that guy’s plan would not affect the overall situation that they had.

Setting these thoughts aside, Hades looked around before ordering the people that came with him to scale the surroundings, telling them not to leave anything unturned.

He had even summoned quite a lot of his undead monsters, especially the hounds, which possessed sharp senses and were keen at finding any suspicious energies lingering in the air.

They had scattered in different directions, covering the entire region and looking for any survivors that might have escaped the earlier disaster.

He might have trusted Diablo and Loki’s abilities, but he also knew how cunning the players from the demonic churches were, so he was unwilling to overlook anything.

…

Meanwhile, at the Main Sacrificial Altar, Dragulia had just received a report that informed him about the fall of one of their core altars.

Raising his brows, he could not help but acknowledge the strength of the opposing side. “It seems like we have underestimated those guys from the Titan Guild a bit too much.”

He believed that it would take quite a while before the opposing side found the location of the core altars, particularly when highly advanced formations hid them.

Moreover, the side of the Titan Guild should have no Formation Masters or Runemasters in them, which would help them break those isolation and illusion formations.

It should be quite tricky for them to find the core altars this early.

“Or there must be quite a few people who have managed to sneak past our scouts,” he added, suspecting that there must be high-ranking experts who had bypassed the eyes that they had left to monitor any movements from the vicinity around the Oath City.

They were meant to report to him or Leviathan if they had encountered or spotted any notable experts that could threaten them, particularly those from the Titan Guild and the Empyrean Talons.

He had never gotten a report, so he thought that there was still no one to arrive to assist the Titan Guild and their alliance.

Unfortunately, it seemed like someone had sneaked past those scouts even though they were keeping a close eye on Poseidon’s movements.

“I wonder who it is,” he mumbled, trying to guess the identity of the reinforcement. “Given that they have managed to take down the core altar without raising that much commotion, their strength should not be that simple.”

“There are quite a few from the Titan Guild who possess strong stealth abilities, so it can only be among them. It must be either Hades and Loki, or maybe even both.”

Putting everything into consideration, Dragulia thought. “They have managed to lock any kind of information from leaking out, so they must also have some means to create an isolation barrier that can block any kind of communication.”

“At worst, they may even have some skilled Formation Masters on their side,” he was trying to analyze the current situation, especially trying to guess the strength of the opposing side. “Who are the ones guarding that altar again?”

“Oh! Ardent and Zeal? Those two are not easy to deal with. There are also Rebecca and Zion from the Demonic Church of Envy; they are also not that simple either.”

“The fact that the altar they have been protecting has fallen before it is too late means that the strength of the opposing side is much stronger than theirs, or they have fallen into a perfect ambush, especially when no one has survived, not even the scouts.”

“None of them should have been killed until the entire altar had fallen. Or even worse, all of them have been incapacitated before being captured later,” he mumbled, finding the situation quite troublesome.

After assessing everything, Dragulia immediately sent a series of orders, specifically warning the demonic players guarding the remaining altars about these new enemies.

He had also instructed them to keep an eye on them, telling everyone to immediately report to him if they encountered anyone who far surpassed their strength, especially if there were god-level players among them.

Diablo was already a headache for them, so if there was an additional expert of the same level or two, then the situation would be extremely troublesome.

Looking at the progress bar for their current mission, Dragulia saw a large chunk had disappeared, indicating they had lost a considerable amount of slaughter energy.

“It looks like we have to bring the contingency plan a bit forward,” he mumbled before informing Leviathan about the sudden development.

At the same time, he summoned his two disciples, Henrick and Agata, giving them a few instructions about their next course of action. He had specifically told them how they would be responding to the sudden development.

After organizing everything, he stood up from the top of the main altar and stretched his body around.

“I am planning to make my move a bit later, but it seems like we do not have any other choice. We need to clear all these obstacles before they successfully destroy more of our altars and rob us of our precious slaughter energy.”

Not long after, he left the altar, heading toward a certain location.

“Let’s see if they are going to bite on this bait,” he mumbled as he disappeared from everyone’s sight.

…