Child of Destiny

...…

As the war between the Righteous and Evil Factions continued, more and more people started to make their appearance. Those who were relatively unknown before the event started to get some fame one after another.

Rising stars after rising stars appeared on different battlefields, making themselves known to the world.

Some of them defeated a powerful unit by themselves, others defeated some famous groups or experts that made themselves famous overnight, while the rest were able to climb in the ranks within the army of their respective factions.

Most of these players were just unknown up until now, but they started to gather fame after they had gotten in the spotlight. Most of them instantly became a Maverick Ranker in just a couple of battles.

The ones who had gathered more attention were those who were able to fight against top Rankers or Titled Rankers. Some of them were even able to fight some Godlike Players, making them a celebrity after just a single battle, especially those who managed to emerge victorious.

As the flames of the war started burning brighter, more and more famous players started to join as well.

Most of these groups and individuals possessed big names within the virtual world. The majority of them were from the famous adventurer teams or powerful guilds while the independent individuals were famous solo players who possessed decent reputations under their belts.

All these players and groups were taking this opportunity to showcase their powers as the United Cup was drawing near. The groups wanted to at least grab a spot in the tournament as a seeded team while the individuals wanted to get noticed by powerful guilds or teams to get an invitation to join them.

Due to all of this, the competition among these people became more intense, showcasing their battle prowess and slaughtering those who dared to block their path.

But all these people were nothing compared to a certain person who started to gather more attention on different battlefields while roaming the war zones.

This individual did not only kill the players or fight against powerful NPCs or Demonic Monsters but also did something so absurd that the people who had witnessed it trembled in fear.

He was annihilating an army after army of the opposing faction all by himself.

Wherever he went, the demonic army of the Dark Cloud Kingdom was annihilated, not leaving even a single soul to survive.

His appearances on the battlefield would always spell doom for those from the Demonic Army, making them tremble. Even those Demonic Generals leading their respective armies could not stand a chance against him.

Of course, the people who had heard about the news from the official forums did not believe it, telling those who posted the articles or discussions that it was just an exaggerated lie to get attention.

They were saying that it was only hype to bring some people to light since the United Cup was right around the corner.

But all these people could not help but shut themselves up when a series of battle videos started to appear one after another as proof of their claims.

Not long after, the entire community went crazy due to what they had witnessed.

"What the F? Is that guy even human?"

"A monster! That dude is a humanoid monster! Definitely!"

"My God! Look how he slaughters an entire army by himself!"

"The heck!? Why has no one discovered such a monster of a player yet? Look! He is toying with the Demon Generals as if they were grade-schoolers."

"Just who is the real demon here? He is more of a demon compared to those from the Evil Faction! That guy is a real demon!"

After some time, skilled scouts eventually got a closer shot of this person and posted the photos that they had gotten online, gathering more attention.

"Wow! What a sleek armor and mask! Damn, that is so cool!"

"He looks like a demon indeed."

"More like a Demon Lord."

"Kya~! So cool~! I want to have his child!"

"Commenter above, I bet you are a dude."

…

Different kinds of nicknames started to spread as more and more people started to notice this so-called Demon who roamed the battlefield. But the most famous ones were Demon Emperor and Evil God.

No one knew who started it, but these two nicknames became well-known in every online platform that could be found on the internet.

This created an even stronger hype that made those powerful experts and large organizations take notice of him.

Some expert analysts also started to dissect and assess his fighting style and strength. But the more they studied this particular player, the more scared they became as they discovered that this person was like an endless abyss that could not be measured.

The depths of his strength were still unclear as even those Demonic Generals, who were comparable to King Class Monsters – bordering Emperor Class Monsters – were nothing but a toy in front of him.

What was even scarier was when some unsatisfied people tried to ambush him while fighting a Demonic General. These individuals were all famous or notorious in their respective classes as they possessed strength comparable to Godlike Players and Maverick Gods.

Despite all their efforts, all of them were slaughtered after just a couple of exchanges against him.

There were also some battle clips where real Godlike Players and Maverick Gods of the Demonic Churches set a trap for him, planning to end his rampage.

Unfortunately, the outcome was terrible – horrifying even.

He had crushed their plans and slaughtered all of them as if they were some bugs instead of being a powerful god within the game.

These battles indicated that he was at least on the same level as those apex gods standing at the very top of the virtual world.

This had proven his strength and gathered him more fame, putting him on the same standing as those famous gods of the game.

This also solidified his nickname of 'Evil God' as he was 'eviler' than those from the Evil Factions. Even the notorious villains in the eyes of the players were nothing compared to him, especially in terms of cruelty.

With him being on the side of the Righteous Faction, the tides of the war tilted against the Evil Faction.

The Righteous Faction was already at the advantage since they had an overwhelming number, surrounding the Dark Cloud Kingdom from all sides.

There was also the Storm Empire whose military might was so strong that the Demonic Churches had to station their most powerful generals and armies on the borders facing the empire.

The community thought that this faction war would be the Righteous Churches' victory given their overwhelming advantages. But they later learned that it was not going to be that easy.

They all realized that this was just a start as the Demonic Churches started revealing their true powers.

The army of demonic monsters filled the gap in numbers. They had even brought out Emperor Class Demons that were more powerful than Emperor Class Monsters. Their absurd power pushed the advancing armies of the Righteous Churches back and put the state of the war in a deadlock once again.

What was even crazier about this was an even more powerful Demonic Generals appeared one after another, matching those Heavenly Generals of the Righteous Churches and even slaying a couple of them during the confrontation.

These incidents made the flames of war even stronger, bringing it to higher heights.

Then there was a certain post from a famous scout online that attracted the attention of everyone.

This person was famous for discovering dungeon entrances, hidden treasures, or all sorts of anomalies within the game. He was also known for being a 'real' adventurer as he did nothing but explore the world he was in whatever game he chose to play.

"A huge, strange portal is within the depths of the Dark Cloud Kingdom" – Scout Aesir.

That was the title of the post, which attracted the attention of more people. But when they read its contents and learned what Aesir had discovered, they could not help but tremble.

They all learned that it was a Demon Portal connecting the Atlas World to another Dimension and given that it was being heavily protected by the Demonic Churches, it was most likely connected to the Demon Realm, also known as 'Hell' – the home of demons.

The famous players who majored in studying the history of the game have also confirmed this and even presented some evidence to prove their claims.

The Atlas World had a long history, and those players who loved studying the background stories of every game that they played discovered quite a lot by staying in the libraries.

Setting aside the Ancient Era and beyond, which records were still unclear, the world was said to have experienced more eras.

One of them was the Warring Era, where different Races fought against either, while the other was the Repelling Era, where all Races bonded together to fight against the invading Demons.

The current timeline of the game was called the New Age Era, where people from another world were summoned to help the world from the remnants that the Demons had left during the previous era.

This was the basic lore of the game, which most people knew as it was presented to everyone in trailers and such before its launch.

But they were not discussed more deeply and left everyone for the players to be discovered.

The so-called 'scholar players' loved to read such lores and they were the ones to prove that the portal that Aesir had discovered was a Demon Portal as it greatly resembled the ones that appeared during the Repelling Era.

Learning about this, the players became even more excited as this could also mean that another huge expansion was right around the corner.

Those players lagging behind the leading players ground even crazier as they all knew that they could not afford to be too low-leveled when the Demons invaded the Atlas World once again.

The apex experts and top guilds, on the other hand, focused more on investigating how to reach the Awakened Continent as they all knew that they could only survive the upcoming expansion after strengthening themselves in that place.

As all of these were happening, Uno was currently sitting on top of a mountain-like corpse of a Demonic Monster that he just hunted while browsing the online forums. He was also reading the post that Aesir had posted and frowned.

"I guess this is the portal that Shin is looking for, huh?" he was considering whether to head there and do something about it or just ignore everything.

He was just playing the game to relieve his boredom from the outside world after all. Moreover, he also did not want to steal the contents of the games that Shin wanted to explore. He wanted to leave those for Shin when he woke up later.

What interested Uno was fighting those powerful individuals and challenging himself against the Demonic Generals or Godlike Players out there.

While he was considering what do to, he suddenly sensed a presence coming toward his direction.

Closing the virtual screen in front of him, he turned toward the entrance of the forest and saw a man donned in black and golden armor walking out from it.

Seeing the appearance of that person, he could not help but grin and ask. "Have you guessed who I am and come to me to seek for answers?"

The other person looked like a knight given his equipment. There was also a round shield on his left hand while holding a spear on the other.

The helmet that he was wearing was designed to look like a dragon head, giving him a cool and majestic appearance.

The crimson cape behind him fluttered along with the wind as he continued forward.

Stopping a few distance away from Uno, this induvial raised his head and said. "I'll save it until Shin wakes up. For now, I want to test something."

Uno grinned even wider as observed the other party a little closer and found something that piqued his interest. "You are much different from before."

"I guess it will be more interesting to give it a try here instead of the outside world as you have yet to harness those new powers properly without bringing harm to your body."

He then stood up and patted himself before saying. "Alright, I will be your training partner to test it. But in exchange, do not hold back as I am also curious what a true descendant of an ancient dragon looks like."

From his tone, he seemed to not put the other party in the same category as his family in the outside world.

"Different, huh?" mumbled Arthur as found those words strange yet also agreeable at the same time.

His great-grandfather had also said a similar thing after his Bloodline Ceremony, and it became even more distinct after he had seen that 'flame' during his father's burial.

He then raised his head to look at Uno once again and nodded. "Let's go."

...