Child of Destiny

...…

Shin and Ashura were sent back to the place where the last left before their duel. They were back in the Shunkai Forest where the Empyrean Talons met the God's Paradise.

They felt quite awkward after remembering the cliché moments that they had during the previous battle. It sounded like they would be seeing each other again after quite a while, but here they were standing in front of each other again right after the duel.

"Sigh," Shin smiled helplessly before trying to break the atmosphere by making fun of themselves. "Well, this awkward."

Ashura chuckled as he heard about that before nodding. "That's right. It indeed feels like that."

After laughing heartedly, Ashura suddenly asked. "Are you coming and see what those guys are doing?"

Shin knew that the latter was talking about their members, who were currently having a battle of their own. He was also quite interested in it, but after remembering that his current task hadn't ended yet, he shook his head and politely refused. "I still have to deal with this troublesome quest that I have."

Remembering something, Shin suddenly said. "Ah! That is right! You are from the Martial Alliance, don't you? Are you not going to catch me for the faction quest?"

Ashura paused as he remembered it as well. He then smiled bitterly and shook his head repeatedly before saying. "Well, that includes the condition of our earlier duel. You will come with us once you lose while I will stop the faction from going after you if I lose."

"I have temporarily hindered the faction quest with my position along with the help of my friends. But that is only until the duel ends," he paused for a moment before adding. "But since the result falls in neither category, I think that the bounty will be put up by the Mission Hall once again."

He then recalled the battle before continuing. "However, I doubt that there will still be people, who come after you given the strength that you have shown everyone."

Shin thought for a moment before shaking his head. "I doubt that. After all, this is a good opportunity to catch me given that I am exhausted."

"Moreover, there are also quite a few stubborn people, who will be targeting me just like those from the Corrupted Cult and Demonic Churches. I haven't seen the real experts that they have dispatched, so I guess that they are plotting something."

"There is still quite a lot of time before this special event ends," he added while looking at the timer of the quest.

Hearing that, Ashura found it reasonable and nodded. He then paused for a moment before answering Shin's previous question. "But since neither of us wins, I will wait until the next time before we fight again. As for the quest, I will withdraw from it along with my friends."

"They have already gotten their fill of entertainment after all," he added chuckling.

The two walked and roamed the forest a little while casually chatting like long-time friends. Seeing them walking together, those people, who were trying to scheme against Shin and took advantage of his current exhaustion, started having second thoughts.

A single monster was already hard to deal with, much less having two of them at the same time. Ashura's presence was more than enough to discourage most of those people and drop their plans.

While walking, Ashura suddenly remembered something. "Ah! That is right. I heard that a huge neutral region is going to open for the next few days. I am thinking about settling on this kingdom for a moment and developing our team in that place."

"Do you know if there is a good place where we can garrison our adventurer team? Given your status, I am sure that you can give us a good recommendation," he added.

Shin was slightly taken aback when he heard that. He then fell into deep thought as he found that this was a good opportunity.

They were lacking a few powerful people, who could garrison on their territory. He and Shiella had already found quite a few forces that could hunt regularly on their territory while maintaining order and keeping an eye on possible invasion.

The security within the city itself was already stable enough. Given that they had a private NPC army and Adventurer Guild garrison in there, adding the forces of the Church of the Sun and Moon, the Church of Light, and the God of War Temple, stationed in there due to the branches that they had set up, they will not have any problem keeping order inside the city.

The problem was the outside, where the players could be lawless and do whatever without the watchful eyes of the landowner.

They had already invited the Secret Society and Ethereal Hope, who were relatively famous among the players and had a decent number of people.

There was also the Slayers Adventurer Team led by Lawless and Faker as well as the Brotherhood Mercenary Group under Legolas and Aragorn, who were previously key figures in the Central Order.

Then there were the people from the Hand of Midas, Assassin Union, and Secret Recipe. The latter two were powerhouse organizations within the game, which were also close allies of Empyrean Talons, while the latter one was a renowned information merchant organization.

With all these forces, Shin was confident that they would at least be able to keep the order within their territory as well as the Golden City and the Calderock Port.

If they added God's Paradise and let them garrison in the city while maintaining a friendly relationship with them, Shin could see how prosperous his dukedom would become. He was also sure that Shiella would not refuse such a good ally.

The fame everyone had was more than enough to discourage any plot from the dark forces and greedy organizations that could target them.

Moreover, Shin also knew that having a great rival close to them would arouse the competitiveness of the Empyrean Talons. This would make the group grow stronger at a much faster rate.

After having such a long string of thoughts, Shin turned to Ashura and answered. "I do have a recommendation. But I think it is better to discuss the terms with another person since she is the one dealing with this matter."

Shin was planning to dump the annoying job, particularly the negotiations, on his big sister.

"I will let her know about it, so you can talk to her later," he added before quickly informing Shiella about the matter.

Ashura seemed to have realized something and said. "Are you talking about the Guild Leader of the Hand of Midas Trading Firm?"

"We have quite a decent partnership with her since we always sell all the materials that we have gathered in our adventures to the firm while we get a decent discount from their products," he added positively.

Hearing that, Shin nodded his head and extended his hand. "Then it is decided."

Ashura reached out and shook Shin's hand in response before leaving.

Shin looked at the spot where Ashura disappeared after crushing a return scroll before turning around. "I still have a couple of hours before this quest ends. There is also that solo quest that is linked to my territory. I still have quite a few matters to attend, sigh."

***

In the meantime, Ashura arrived at the Divine Arena of the Holy City, where the rest of the Empyrean Talons and the members of God's Paradise were having a friendly match.

When Ashura arrived inside the room, he saw that there was still a battle going on. But instead of the team battle that he was expecting, what he saw was Arthur and Susanoo having an intense bout against each other.

There was also Simba and Kallavan in the distance, having an enjoyable battle of their own.

"Huh? Where are the others? Don't tell me it already ended?" asked Ashura as he walked towards Lia, who was observing the battle with full focus.

She had already sensed Ashura's arrival earlier, but she did not look at him as she was too busy watching the battles.

She only replied when Ashura arrived beside her. "It is not that we have finished already, commander. Your battle is just way longer than ours."

"As for the others, they look for rooms themselves to continue sparring in one-on-one duels. It is quite rare to find a qualified opponent after all."

"Is it?" asked Ashura with a raised brows as he did not feel that his battle with Shin took that long. Regardless, he still nodded his head and asked. "And the result?"

Lia paused for a moment and gave him a sidelong glance before sighing. "They are close battles, but we only win one and lose the other."

"Oh! That is interesting. How is it?" he asked.

Lia thought for a moment before replying. "Sigfried is slightly stronger than Susanoo and I am still a little inferior to Arielle when controlling the battlefield, so we have lost the first battle."

"As for the second one-…" there was a weird look on her face when she recalled the other battle before saying in a strange tone. "It is hard to explain since it is quite a strange one. You can see it for yourself later when you watch the recorded video."

She paused once again as she recalled the details of the battle for the second time before sighing. "We almost lost that battle as well, but weird things kept on happening at that time and the second group somehow forced a win."

This time, Ashura could not help but frown even further as he could see that something more to it that could not be explained in words. He became more curious about the said battle.

After that, he asked another matter. "What about noteworthy rivals? Have you seen anyone from them?" Stay ahead with m v l em pyr

Lia did not even think as she answered. "Aside from the well-known godlike players that they have in their group, there are three other players that we have to keep our eyes on."

She opened a virtual screen and shared it with Ashura before continuing. "The first one is this assassin. From what I can see, he is strong enough to be a top-ranked Godlike Player himself. As long as he wants to join any kind of individual tournament, he can get himself a decent title."

"His skills and techniques are way above the current ceiling of the players, which makes him very hard to deal with."

"I can also see that he can enter Hyperactive Immersion without any problem. He can even suppress Dio during the entire battle, though his coordination with the other members of the group is rather weak."

"I am guessing that he is relatively new in the group, and it hasn't been that long since he joined them. But he can be a real threat in group battles once he integrated properly with the others, especially with a troublesome class that he has."

She then paused and switched the profile with another player. This time, Alucard's profile was being projected on the screen. "This is the second one. He is quite troublesome. I am guessing that he is an old-timer from the previous virtual games, who changed his name as a disguise."

"Sherly is having a hard time keeping up with this guy, but that is only due to the advantage of his race. He seems to be from a Noble Vampire Race and possesses a decent inheritance. The purity of his bloodline is quite dense as well which is why he has a lot of advantages."

"But that is not the only problem. The guy is not only good at shooting from the distance as he is quite good at close combat, specifically his swordsmanship."

Ashura nodded his head as he commented. "Good in both marksmanship and swordsmanship? This guy seems to be an all-rounder in terms of combat."

Lia shook her head as she said. "That is not the interesting part about this guy."

She paused as she continued with a serious tone. "Sherly said that this guy is similar to the Gun King and Sword King from the previous game that she majored in, «Guns and Swords» Online."

Ashura became even more interested and asked. "How so?"

Those two were the top gods of that game, and their respective styles did not share any kind of resemblance with each other, so this topic quite piqued his interest.

Lia thought for a moment before continuing. "Let me correct myself. What Sherly says exactly is this guy possessing the skills from both The Gun King and Sword King, specifically the 'Gun-Fu' from the former and the 'Silent Steps' and 'Sleep Walk' from the latter."

Ashura was surprised at those words before smiling. "Now that is intriguing. I suddenly become curious about this guy's background."

After that, he suddenly asked. "What about the third one?"

Hearing that, Lia suddenly wore a weird look on her face before sighing. She then opened another profile before explaining. "This guy is the famous Herald of Chaos. The one with the said Legion of the Chaotic Sun."

"I don't know how to judge him. I don't know if he is a secret expert comparable to Maverick Gods or a complete noob. It is hard to decide."

"At times, he is doing complicated formations with his summoned monsters that almost break our formation, but at times he is messing up with his teammates."

"The others tried to focus on him, but he always somehow survives by sheer luck or absolute skill – I don't know. This guy can't be understood by logic, so I don't know how to describe it."

"He is also the reason why we almost lost that second round, but also the reason why he won somehow, so I don't know how to judge him," she was sighing while covering her face with both of her hands in embarrassment as she recalled the details of that battle.

She then turned to Ashura, who was looking at her in full confusion, before continuing. "Anyway, you can watch that battle and see it for yourself, commander. I am sure that you will understand until then."

Ashura then turned to the profile projected on the virtual screen and saw the name 'Chaotic Luck'.

"Just who is this person?"

...