Child of Destiny

Boom!

A flood of darkness suddenly swallowed Dragulia, seemingly coming from within him before devouring his body.

He tried to struggle by relying on his demonic dragon powers. Unfortunately, it was only making it worse for him. The more he urged his unique powers to move, the stronger the imbalance they had within his body.

It was as if the two shadow powers that were covering his body were further upsetting the balance between the two powers. The Ancient Shadow Powers were trying to eliminate his Demonic Powers while the Sanctified Demonic Powers were purifying the two powers that he currently possessed.

He also tried to erupt with one last explosion of powers, which was provided by his dragon’s blood.

Boom!

The shockwave and flames unleashed from this explosion spread outwards at rapid speed, covering almost the entirety of the platform on top of the altar, but Diablo had already withdrawn from its range.

There were black chains made of shadows wrapped around Dragulia. They were shattered by the explosion, but the crimson aura surrounding his body flickered violently, refusing to stabilize.

Swoosh!

Immediately after, the blooming shadow swallowed him once again, which he tried hard to fight against.

Diablo, who was watching this from a distance, was not in a good position either. The combination of the cursed flames of the Dragon’s Ruin that Dragulia placed on him and the Demonic Curse of Betrayal was also trying to kill him.

He also did not have any way to deal with the situation since both his special powers were somewhat useless against them.

However, he at least knew that he had to finish off Dragulia if he wanted to release one of the two curses.

This had become a battle for who would be able to last longer.

Fortunately for Diablo, Dragulia was the first to be exhausted. He glared fiercely at the opposing party while a draconic fire rolled from his breath.

He then exhaled slowly, understanding that there was no hope to save the current situation. He might look crazy and like someone who liked to fight strong opponents, but he also knew his limits.

As a warrior, he knew the difference between courage and a waste of time.

He stared at Diablo for a couple of moments before initiating the detonation of his body.

He did not know if these shadow powers wrapped around his body could truly kill him or were just there to restrain his powers. He could not take the gamble and took the initiative for suicide instead.

It would be too dangerous for him to get captured and handed over to the Righteous Churches.

Anyway, he had already completed one of his missions here. It was just a pity that they would be losing the blessing of the Demonic Dragon of Terror, which was supposed to strengthen their forces.

However, he would not be leaving without dealing serious damage to the opposing side.

BOOM!

A massive explosion immediately shook the entire place.

The massive altar was caught in it as well, making it shake violently. It did not collapse nor form any more cracks, which was quite strange given how massive and destructive the explosion was.

However, his confusion did not last long due to the next series of events.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

An extremely powerful suction force suddenly emerged and started pulling every energy lingering in the air toward the altar.

Diablo ignored the diminishing flames half-engulfing his body and stared at the scene with an extremely grim expression on his face.

He immediately understood what Dragulia had done during his final moments. The latter had initiated the final stage of the Grand Sacrificial Ritual that they were trying to conduct at this place.

What was worse, he knew that he would not be able to stop it alone.

He swiftly moved, contacting Mister Jiang and Alucard, and informed them about the situation.

Given that the ritual was already initiated to the final stages, all the slaughter energy that had accumulated throughout the vicinity of the Oath City would most likely be rushing to this place right now.

Sooner or later, this place would turn into an Armageddon filled with multiple demons crawling out of the ground after corrupting the entirety of the Illuminating Forest.

The situation would be even uglier if the opposing side had also planned an even more absurd situation to reinforce this desperate move from Dragulia.

He also started to get worried about the situation at the Oath City. He felt that the opposing side would most likely launch a counterattack along with their NPC forces, especially now that all the slaughter energy was being collected at a rapid pace.

With such a strong suction force, it would not take that long before the main altar gathered all the scattered slaughter energy.

Following this condition, there was a high chance that those demonic players would most likely take this opportunity to further increase the amount of slaughter energy that they could harvest.

Without further ado, Diablo immediately moved, not thinking about resting anymore.

***

In the meantime, back at the Oath City.

The war was already reaching an extremely crucial stage.

The city walls trembled beneath the relentless assault of the countless demonic creatures that surged forward like a living tide. Their deafening roars drowned out the blazing war horns that were constantly being blown throughout the siege.

Arrows darkened the sky while blazing spells rained upon the advancing horde, carving fiery craters into the battlefield for more monsters to rush over the fallen.

The armored defenders stood shoulder to shoulder along the battle formations. Those knights used their shields locked together despite the violent impacts shaking their formation.

Every exhausted breath was followed by another swing of their sword or thrust of a spear. Every strike was fueled by the desperate resolve to keep the demonic creatures from reaching the city behind them.

Aside from the Northern Wall that was being defended by Hades and his undead summons, the other three walls already had breaches that were being defended by the players with the best of their abilities.

Even Loki’s seemingly hundreds of clones were also not enough to handle the violent horde of demonic creatures by himself.

Poseidon had also personally joined the battle, supporting his people with the flood domain that he could summon using the help of the [Divine Trident] in his hands.

Unfortunately, it was also not enough to handle the situation by himself. He could only handle one of the walls at most, which was the southern wall that was suffering serious damage due to their lack of a pinnacle godlike player.

With this formation; Hades at the North, Poseidon at the East, Loki at the South, and Alucard at the West – the four were acting as the great guardians of the city, doing their best to defend.

After all, they all knew that their first batch of huge reinforcements were already on their way. They were only a mountain away at most from the city, which was much faster to travel with their mounts.

…

Henrick was currently watching the intense siege that was going on when he suddenly received a message.

*Ding*

Raising his brows, he casually opened it, which then made his brows raise quite high.

”Master has lost?” he mumbled after reading through everything while wearing an even deeper frown. He knew that the opponent was quite strong, but he never had thought that Dragulia would lose to Diablo.

After a while, he turned to Agata and said. ”Master has ordered us to launch the final attack now. It seems like he has already initiated the final phase of the ritual.”

Agata nodded briefly and issued a series of commands to their subordinates, who were waiting patiently behind them. ”Tell the boys to start releasing the remaining demonic creatures. And tell the first unit that they can now move along with the Demonic Bishops that we have brought.”

She then paused for a moment, thinking of the members of the Demonic Church of Envy who were acting suspiciously recently, before adding. ”You can also head to the side where those Demonic Bishops from Envy that they can do whatever they want. Just do not get in our way.”

Hearing her words, the group immediately dispersed to do whatever task was entrusted to them.

She then turned to Henrick and asked, along with a deep frown. ”Master has lost?”

Henrick then briefly nodded before replying. ”It seems like it. He seems to have lost to Diablo, that Shadow Dancer from the Empyrean Talons.”

Hearing this, Agata could not help but pursed her lips. ”That guy has made us lose quite a lot as well. He has finished off quite a lot of our elites and even stolen the Plague Demons that we have brought. Who would have thought that he would also go after Master straight away.”

Henrick sighed before casting his eyes about at the ongoing siege. ”Master has instructed us to kill as many as we can and forget about anything else. It seems like he is only intending to destroy the city now.”

...…