Child of Destiny

…

After launching another attack, Alice swiftly recalled her elemental spirits and rested to recover some of her mana.

Calculating the time, Shin turned to Leonard and Arthur before saying. “It’s time. You two can go.”

The two could not help but feel a little excited after hearing that.

“Finally! I thought I would die of boredom doing nothing but running around,” said Arthur while stretching his body left and right.

He twirled his spear around before resting it on his shoulder while fixing his grip over the round shield that he was holding with his other hand.

Leonard, on the other hand, spun his war axes and played with them for a while, producing a series of gusts that blew the air around them.

Not long after, the two turned to Shin and the two girls before teasing him a little.

“Don’t bite more than you can chew, alright?” said Leonard, chuckling.

“Don’t die on us while messing around,” seconded Arthur while suppressing his laughter.

Bang! Bang!

They did not even wait for Shin to refute their words, swiftly kicking the ground. They immediately disappeared within the map, seemingly afraid that Shin would suddenly catch up to them and fight them instead.

Watching their backs disappear, Shin smiled bitterly and shook his head repeatedly. He knew what they were talking about, but he refused to say anything, ignoring the topic completely.

He turned to the girls somewhat awkwardly before saying. “Let’s go. We must reach the summoning altar within two to three minutes before the opposing side can gather themselves.”

Even though he was he was confident with their plan, he also understood that the opposing side was not some random group that they could underestimate.

These guys were the defending champions for a reason.

“Alright,” the girls nodded their heads before running closely behind Shin, following him toward the summoning altar that was located in the middle of the map.

At the same time, Shin continued to instruct Alice which void gate she would fire her spells, continuing their harassment against the members of God’s Paradise.

…

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Boom!

Right after warding off yet another ambush, Ashura and the rest swiftly regrouped before continuing to move forward.

In the end, they had chosen to stick together, not willing to give the opposing side the chance to pick off their members one by one.

After all, this was the chosen map of the Empyrean Talons, so it would not be hard to guess what kind of arrangements the opposing side had made.

Ashura could tell that those from the Empyrean Talons were forcing them to divide themselves into two groups. This would give the opposing side an easier time picking off their members one after another.

Taking advantage of their great familiarity with the map, Ashura refused to believe that Shin would just rely on this ‘simple’ harassment to take them down.

After watching all the matches of the Empyrean Talons and studying them, he realized there were quite a lot of underlying traps and arrangements behind each move and formation that they used in battles.

He could also sense that something terrible would happen once they had taken the initiative to divide their forces.

Instead of doing it now, Ashura was waiting for the right opportunity for it.

“I have found the summoning altar. It is right at the center of the map,” said Keir after collecting the shadow mites that he had released earlier.

“How far are we from it?” asked Ashura, seemingly waiting for this news for quite a while now.

“It seems like we are quite lucky. We somehow get near it through our random pathing,” said Keir after confirming their position.

“Lucky! Lucky!” said Susanoo, finding it quite fortunate given their current position.

Lia, on the other hand, was thinking differently. “Or is it?”

Hearing her, the team turned to her, giving her questioning looks, aside from Ashura.

It was Ashura who had answered it for them. “She is thinking that we are forced to take this path rather than us stumbling to this place by luck.”

“Eh!?”

“Huh!?”

“Impossible!”

The other three could not help but deny it instinctively, thinking that it was ridiculous. But after putting more thought into it and recalling everything that happened earlier, they all realized that it might be truly the chase.

“What the heck!? They have thought that far ahead?” mumbled Susanoo by instinct, did not know whether to feel impressed or scared about it.

“More like, ‘that guy’ has arranged it very well,” said Lia, correcting his thoughts.

The group suddenly fell silent after realizing that traps might be waiting ahead of them. They hesitated whether to continue moving forward or avoid the path ahead of them, taking a slight detour.

While everyone was lost in thought, Ashura had already decided. “We will be continuing. Stick to the plan.”

He paused for a moment to turn to Susanoo and Kallavan. “You two will continue with your arrangements. Just take a detour while trying your best to avoid the ‘detection’ methods of the other party.”

“We would flank them later if things worked according to plan,” he added before signaling everyone to continue.

They had already wasted quite a lot of time due to the continued harassment of their opponents, so continuing to waste more time with these little pauses would only delay them further.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

While they were moving ahead, they failed to notice that there were pairs of eyes that were currently watching them.

Arthur and Leonard, who meticulously positioned themselves on a spot where they could both hide and observe the opposing party quite safely, had already spotted the group and reported to Shin.

“They have chosen not to separate themselves from each other,” said Arthur before quickly adding. “I must admit that Ashura’s intuition is still as good as ever.”

[Coordinates.]

Shin ignored the side comment and urged the latter to report the main point.

“Tsk! As boring as ever,” complained Arthur before sending the coordinates.

[Alright, continue with the plan.]

Shin then quickly closed the channel, ignoring all the complaints from the latter.

…

On the other side of the line, Shin and the girls, who were already standing before the summoning altar, turned at them and gave out their final arrangements. “Alice, keep sending your spells to gate number 1, 3, 5, 7, respectively.”

“You don’t have to always fire them. You can just keep your pace while also trying to recover as much mana as possible.”

“If you’ve exhausted everything you have or if anyone suddenly appears for an ambush while you are down with mana and concentration, you can just jump into the altar and swap places with Diablo.”

Alice nodded her head as she quickly sat on the ground, not planning to fire any spells yet, and wanted to recover as much mana as she could. She wanted to do it with meditation as well to hasten the process.

In the meantime, Shin turned to Cloe and continued. “Cloe, take the second gate to your left and wait for two to three minutes before jumping on the next gate right across it.”

Cloe rolled her eyes when she heard that. “I know. You don’t have to tell me that since I am the one who told you about the patterns.”

“And I am the one who has perfected it,” Shin chuckled while teasing her.

He then ran toward the void gate on his right and leaped into it. Midair, he turned his body to face the two and waved at them. “See you later~!”

Swoosh!

Cloe rolled her eyes at him before walking toward the gate that Shin had pointed out and leaping into it without any hesitation.

Alice slightly opened her eyes and looked at the two gates where the two had disappeared into before sighing. She then continued to meditate to recover as much mana and concentration as possible before making her move later.

…

In the meantime, on the side of God’s Paradise, Ashura could not help but halt his tracks and swiftly signaled the rest to stop.

His instincts were telling him that there was danger right ahead of them, making him frown quite deeply.

They waited for quite a while, doing nothing but keeping their guards up.

When Susanoo and Kallavan were about to raise their doubt and ask Ashura what was wrong, the latter suddenly picked up his [Heavenly Meteor] and swiftly charged behind the group, striking with all his might.

‘Mystic Cosmic Method: Meteor Crusher’

Swoosh!

Heading straight to the void gate situated right behind their group.

Roar!

At the same time, a golden dragon suddenly emerged from that void gate, about to launch an ambush toward their rear.

Boom!

Swoosh!

Ashura was immediately repelled and sent back to his team right after the collision.

He was looking warily at the settling cloud of smoke until a blurry silhouette walked out of it.

“It has been a while, Siegfried,” he said, greeting the opposing party.

Arthur, who had just walked out of the cloud of smoke behind him, smirked as he looked at the group provokingly. “That’s right, so you better be prepared for the souvenirs that I have brought.”

“Just you alone?” asked Kallavan as he stepped forward aggressively.

“Nah~! I’ve brought my brothers this time,” he added while pointing his chin behind them.

Susanoo, who did not keep his eyes away from ahead of them, saw Leonard walking out of a void gate while playing with his war axes.

He tightened his grip on his swords, preparing to launch an attack, when Keir suddenly grabbed his shoulder.

Confused, Susanoo looked over his shoulders and gave the dark magician a questioning look. But before he could even complain, he saw that the latter was looking sharply to their right, not daring to keep his eyes away from that direction.

Looking over, Susanoo saw Shin walking out of the shadows calmly and silently. He looked like a ghost that had suddenly come out of nowhere.

“You have yet to see us, the Monster Trio, fight together, right? Let me give you the honor then,” continued Arthur with the same provoking tone.

……