Child of Destiny

...

Shin exchanged a few more blows against Ken Asesino, who was giving their best to fight him. Unfortunately, despite the overwhelming difference between their stats, they were still unable to pose any threat to Shin.

Instead, they were the ones who were repeatedly suffering. Their Health Points were steadily dropping as they were unable to withstand most of the sword techniques that Shin was showcasing.

They were repeatedly getting hit, which chunk a massive portion of their HP Bars. If not for their having insane Health Points, then they would have most likely gotten killed earlier, especially when they did not have the same level of toughness and tenacity as Berdugo, who was the main tank of their group.

In just a couple of minutes, both Ken and Asesino were almost reaching their limits. Seeing that they could no longer withstand any more exchanges, the two looked at each other and tacitly agreed with their previous arrangements.

They felt that Berdugo had created enough distance by now, especially when that guy exhausted all his speed-boosting skills and positions he had in his arsenal.

Asesino did not hesitate for a second as he unleashed all his speed-boosting skills to escape.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

He transformed into a dark shadow that dashed toward the depths of the Plague Lands without looking back.

Ken, on the other hand, gathered all the plague energy from the surroundings and channeled them toward his katana.

Whoosh!

He then pointed the katana toward the sky while chanting a series of eerie mantras, summoning an image of a hideous monster above him.

His HP Bar also dropped at a visible rate, which signified that he was sacrificing his Health Points in exchange for this powerful skill.

Meanwhile, Shin ignored Asesino as there was only under a minute before his 'Graveyard of Sword' Domain Skill ended. He did not have the time to chase after that guy, especially when Ken before him was the immediate threat that he had to take care of first.

Moreover, that power presence was also starting to affect his senses to a certain degree. Given that this person did not appear up until now, Shin knew that his initial guess was right – the other party had mostly likely been unable to interfere with the current situation due to a certain reason.

Huu~!

Taking a deep breath, Shin adjusted his breathing rhythm and summoned the twin tigers, Blackie and Whitie for their respective Elemental Spirit Possession.

"Dark and Light Reapers!"

At the same time, he also changed the form of the [Yamato], swapping it with its twin sword form – the Dusk and Dawn Blades.

Swoosh! Swoosh!

'Elemental Spirit Possession (Dark): Abysmal Conqueror'

'Elemental Spirit Possession (Light): Sacred Vanquisher'

The two elementals possessed the twin swords respectively, changing their forms. Explore more stories at empire

Shin twirled the sword side to side, leaving beautiful arcs in the air, as he gathered the powers of the Abyssal Moon and Brilliant Sun in them.

It had been a while since he had summoned these powers in battle, which was why there was some awkwardness in his movements when controlling them.

But he did not have the choice as he wanted to try something.

With the help of the 'Graveyard of Swords', which was able to enhance his insights and understanding of the Sword, Shin focused his mind while controlling the two opposing powers.

He moved the swords in opposite directions before stopping when one of them was pointing toward the sky while the other was directed toward the ground.

At the same them, he utilized the five-elemental breathing to the fullest while summoning the five elemental powers that he possessed – the Eternal Flame, Primordial Waters, Natural Wood, Metallic Earth, and Earthen Metal.

These powers took a different form from one another before positioning themselves behind him and forming a unique formation.

Using the Powers of the Abyssal Moon and Brilliant Sun as the center, these five elements moved and rotated with a certain cycle. They gradually gained momentum, spinning rapidly behind Shin while accumulating more energy from Shin.

Roar!

Ken did not know what Shin was planning. But given the scary storm surrounding the latter, he did not hesitate as he swung his katana with all his might and released all the accumulated plague energy that he had gathered.

Roar!

The monstrous image behind, which was made of the densest plague energy, also opened its mouth while charging at Shin with full aggressiveness.

…

Shin stared at the incoming monster made of plague energy with calm eyes before releasing all the accumulated energy that he had collected.

The five elemental powers merged before fusing with the intertwining powers of the Abyssal Moon and Brilliant Sun.

They formed a spiral storm that shot toward the sky.

Swoosh!

The sky seemed to have been affected by this power. Dark clouds gathered as a thunderstorm started to appear alongside it.

The wind blew violently, making the surrounding trees shake intensely, while the ground trembled as if signaling the impending earthquake.

Shin had created another ultimate move with his elemental powers, but slightly different from the 'Ragnarök' as he was using all the accumulated knowledge and insights that he had learned and achieved about the five elements and the principles of duality and unity instead of relying on the powers of his Elemental Spirits.

Thus, he had named it-…

'Ultimate Elemental Skill (Self-Created): Armageddon'

Boom!

The storm of elemental energies shook the entire place. They ripped even the space and annihilated everything that they came in contact with.

Shin, who was standing in the middle of all of these, maintained his posture. The elemental storm became more violent as more time passed.

Even the eerie and hideous fog monster created by the densest plague energy was shredded into pieces before slowly dissipating. It did not even manage to reach its target as it was immediately destroyed by the other layer of the elemental storm.

Ken, who was only hanging by a thread by relying on surrounding plague energy, could not escape as the range of the elemental storm grew larger with every passing second.

The plague energy that was originally filling the air and constantly corrupting the surroundings was also erased by this storm, which somewhat 'purifies' the surroundings.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

The whole storm lasted for only a whole minute but the destruction that it had left behind was so devastating that it only left a massive crater behind.

Everything was erased, only leaving Shin, who was standing at the center of the giant crater.

With such a powerful storm, it couldn't go unnoticed, especially when this place was only a couple of miles away where the gathered players were resisting the horde of plagued monsters.

But Shin threw all of it at the back of his head as he walked toward Ken, who miraculously survived for some reason. However, the latter was barely hanging on his life as his body was completely shredded by the elemental storm earlier, only leaving some portions of his zombified body that managed to remain intact.

Shin knew that once Ken died, his in-game avatar would be deleted as well given the nature of this event.

He walked at Ken and looked at the stubborn expression that the latter had, unable to help himself from admiring the guy.

He shook his head and asked. "You're admirable. What are your plans after this?"

Ken did not reply as he continued to stare at Shin – or it was also possible that the guy was unable to reply.

"You guys have quite a lot of potential. If you guys decided to create another account and come back in the game after failing in this event-… to start over again-… go to the Gold Mountain of the Saint Heaven Kingdom and look for me," he said before turning around.

He also looked in a certain direction and mumbled. "So, it is only a spiritual avatar."

"He did everything he could to save his friend, but still failed in the end," he shook his head as he resumed his steps. "Anyway, I have already given them the invitation. I just hope that they don't take this to the heart and accept."

"After all, we just happened to be on the opposite sides of the event, so I don't have the choice."

He was not planning to invite them to the Empyrean Talons as he was too strict about picking their future members, but he could still give them a special potion at Gold Mountain. After all, these guys do have decent potential, especially that assassin with a crafty mind.

He felt that that guy was quite interesting, especially after orchestrating a massive scheme that targeted the experts hunting in the Plagued Lands and schemed something to prepare for the next development of the event even if they failed.

It was also meant to increase the hostility that the top forces had with one another.

It was a multilayered scheme that covered quite a lot of targets.

The more Shin thought about it, the more interested he became.

As Shin was walking away, Ken stared at his back with unknown emotions in his eyes.

.....