Child of Destiny

Shing!

A brilliant silver arc erupted from an impossible angle, cleaving through the air as it threatened to bisect the towering demon where he stood.

Boom!

Unfortunately, just before the razor-sharp edge of the [Yamato] could reach its target, a dense crimson aura suddenly erupted around Malzareth’s body.

The silver blade collided against the crimson barrier, producing a deafening explosion instead of flesh being torn apart.

Bang!

Shin’s brows rose slightly beneath the [Nephilim’s Gemini Mask]. ”Hmm!?”

But he did not dwell on the surprise.

Swoosh!

The instant he realized the ambush had failed, Shin immediately disengaged, retreating several dozen meters before lightly landing on the shattered ground.

His eyes never left the towering demon.

Malzareth calmly lowered the massive execution club before rolling his broad shoulders as though the previous exchange had merely been a warm-up.

Then, a vast surge of dark-crimson demonic mana erupted from every pore of his body.

Boom!

The violent aura condensed at an astonishing speed before rapidly solidifying around him.

Layer after layer of crimson-black metal encased his enormous frame, forming a suit of heavy demonic armor covered in countless sinister runes.

The edges of every armor plate glowed with a deep crimson radiance as streams of demonic energy coursed between them like flowing lava.

Standing there in full armor, Malzareth no longer resembled a mere demon. He looked like a walking fortress forged for nothing but war and execution.

”Is this his version of Demonic Transformation?” Shin mumbled to himself while curiously observing the opposing side.

The righteous factions and the demonic factions had always walked two entirely different paths.

Among the righteous races, the Transcendent Races stood at the very pinnacle.

Their greatest advantage did not simply lie in their superior physiques or extraordinary talents, but in their ability to form contracts with powerful Elemental Spirits. Those spirits became lifelong companions whose strength continuously grew alongside their contractors, granting them overwhelming powers that ordinary races could never hope to replicate.

The Demonic Races, however, possessed a comparable path of their own.

Demonic Players awakened a power unique to their faction—Demonic Transformation. It was the hallmark of the Demonic Races after reaching Tier 3 Classes.

By drawing out the dormant power sleeping within their demonic bloodlines, they could temporarily push their bodies beyond their natural limits, greatly enhancing their physical abilities, demonic power, and battle instincts.

Among ordinary Demonic Players, such transformations were already considered their greatest trump card.

But the true elites stood on an entirely different level.

Rather than relying solely on the power of their own bloodline, they forged contracts with ancient demons that had existed since the earliest ages of the world.

Those Demon Contracts were the demonic counterpart to the Elemental Spirit Contracts possessed by the Transcendent Races.

Instead of borrowing the strength of nature itself, they drew upon the might of ancient demonic beings whose existence rivaled the Elemental Spirits.

The stronger the contracted demon, the more profound the changes brought by the transformation.

For the highest-ranking executives of the Demonic Churches, their contracted demon no longer merely amplified their strength.

It became one with them.

Their Demonic Transformation was further enhanced with the power of the ancient demon itself, fundamentally evolving both their appearance and combat abilities into something far beyond that of ordinary Demonic Players.

Most of the executives of the Pandemonium Descendants possessed this kind of power—especially the Seven Sinful Devils, each of whom had formed a contract with one of the Great Demon Kings.

However, what Shin was currently seeing seemed to be a bit different from the Demonic Transformation and Demon Contract that he knew.

Shin’s gaze remained fixed on the crimson-black armor encasing Malzareth’s towering frame.

”...Is this a unique power exclusive to the Church of Terror?” he muttered while carefully observing every subtle fluctuation surrounding the giant demon.

He had encountered executives from several Demonic Churches before, but those encounters were only limited to the members of the Demonic Churches of Seven Sins.

This was why the Demonic Church of Terror remained the one among those he understood the least.

”From what Diablo reported earlier...” Shin recalled, ”...the Church of Terror doesn’t worship one of the Great Demon Kings.”

”They worship something else...” His brows gradually furrowed. ”A Demonic Dragon.”

That realization only deepened his confusion. ”If that’s the case... shouldn’t their executives possess both the power of demons and dragons?”

His thoughts immediately drifted to Dragulia—the monstrous Arch Heretic that Diablo had barely managed to defeat.

That man’s body had clearly displayed characteristics of both races.

”Then...” Shin narrowed his eyes. ”...what exactly is this power?”

The aura radiating from Malzareth felt neither purely demonic nor draconic.

Just then, Hanzo’s calm voice echoed inside his mind. [Brat... this is one of the innate powers possessed by the Oni.]

Shin’s eyes narrowed slightly. ”...An Oni?”

For the first time since Malzareth appeared, genuine curiosity surfaced behind his mask.

Hanzo’s voice remained calm. [One of the oldest races of Atlas.]

[It’s been a very long time since I last saw one of their kind. Back then, the Oni were already feared throughout Atlas.]

[Even before the great wars that shaped the current world, the Oni were already renowned for their martial prowess.]

[Unlike most races, they never relied on sophisticated magic or complicated techniques. They forged only themselves.]

[Their bodies were their greatest weapons, their spirits their strongest armor.]

[Every scar they carried was proof of another battle survived. Every broken bone that healed became another step toward greater strength.]

[To an Oni... strength was never inherited. It was earned.]

[To an Oni, battle was never merely a contest of strength. It was a sacred ritual through which they tempered both body and spirit.]

Hanzo paused, as though recalling memories from countless ages ago. [During the Warring Era, they were regarded as one of the greatest martial races in existence.]

[They sought neither conquest nor dominion—only worthy opponents.]

[Many kingdoms feared them, while many warriors dreamed of crossing blades with them at least once before dying.]

Shin silently listened.

Hanzo’s tone then shifted. [The Oni that I once knew no longer exists.]

[When the Demon Race retreated during the Repelling Era, they left behind more than destruction. They left corruption.]

[That corruption eventually gave birth to the Evil Factions that plague Atlas today.]

His gaze settled upon Malzareth. [Most descendants of the ancient Oni chose that dark path.]

[It was not because they had turned their backs on their belief, but because that path was no different from what they truly pursued, particularly the beliefs of the Church of Terror.]

[They then fused their ancestral battle arts with demonic power, creating something entirely different from the Oni of old.]

[And what you’re looking at now is one of those descendants.]

Hanzo narrowed his eyes. [That armor isn’t simply a Demonic Transformation. It’s an Oni’s battle state strengthened by demonic power.]

[The ancient Oni compressed their battle aura into a living armor that hardened together with their bodies. The stronger the warrior became, the denser and more indestructible that armor grew.]

[The Church of Terror merely twisted that ancient heritage into something far more sinister.]

Shin tilted his head slightly, his curiosity only deepening. ”This Church of Terror sure is interesting...”

”First there was an executive who combined the powers of a demon and a dragon...” His gaze remained fixed on Malzareth. ”Now there’s an Ancient Oni wielding demonic power.”

A thought suddenly crossed his mind. ”Wait...”

”You said this was only one of their unique powers.” He narrowed his eyes. ”Then... What’s the other?”

This time, however, the answer did not come from Hanzo.

It came from Malzareth himself.

Without uttering a single word, the towering demon slowly raised his left hand.

Swoosh!

Dark crimson mana rapidly gathered within his palm before condensing into another ancient relic.

It was an ancient war mask.

Right after manifesting the Oni Armor, Malzareth had summoned the second inheritance of the ancient Oni.

Forged from a dark crimson metal that resembled dried blood, its surface was rough and weathered, bearing countless scratches and tiny fractures left behind by battles fought across forgotten ages. Faint demonic runes crawled across its edges like living veins, pulsing rhythmically together with the armor covering his body.

The mask itself resembled the face of a wrathful Oni.

Two short, backward-curving horns protruded from its forehead, while a pair of long ivory fangs extended from its snarling mouth. Deep grooves carved across the brow gave it a permanent scowl, making the entire visage appear as though it were glaring at every enemy before it.

The eye sockets were completely hollow.

Yet from within those empty sockets flowed an endless crimson radiance, as though another pair of eyes patiently waited behind the mask, silently observing the battlefield.

It radiated neither bloodlust nor killing intent.

Instead, it emanated an unsettling sense of awareness—as though the mask itself possessed a consciousness capable of seeing through every movement, every feint, and every weakness hidden before it.

The moment it appeared, even the surrounding air seemed to grow heavier.

[The Oni War Mask...] Hanzo’s voice finally echoed inside Shin’s mind. [The second inheritance of the ancient Oni.]

[The ancient Oni possessed two sacred battle arts.]

[The first is the Armor of War...]

[...the second, the Mask of Slaughter.]

[One tempered the body until it became an unbreakable fortress while the other honed the mind until every battle became instinct.]

[Only when the two became one... could an Oni reveal its true battle state.]

As Hanzo’s final words faded, Malzareth silently raised the ancient war mask.

Without the slightest hesitation, he pressed it against his face.

Boom!

An overwhelming aura erupted from his towering body.

Even Shin instinctively narrowed his eyes behind the mask.

......