Child of Destiny

...…

The moment Shin and the pair of siblings came out of the inn, the scouts who were keeping an eye on them immediately reported to their superiors when they saw the trio coming out.

The news quickly spread in their ranks and the four powers monitoring this small group quickly noticed the movements of the three.

They did not make their move immediately since they knew that this certain newcomer was someone that they could not defeat. They did not know who he was, but they understood that he was someone that they could easily provoke after seeing how he dealt with the elite group from the Golden Dawn earlier.

They fully understood the gap in their strength, so they could only wait for the experts of their group to arrive before they could make a move.

Their task right now was to keep an eye on this group and ensure they would not leave their sight.

But they had to also be wary of the other parties waiting in the dark. Even though they were currently allied, they still could not fully trust one another.

They might be allies but there was only a single item that they needed to snatch, so there was still competition among them. The one who secured the item first would take the priority on choosing the person who would represent them in the 'council' in the Maze Forest.

The others were even from the opposing faction, so it would not be strange for them to compete.

But that was only if they managed to snatch it.

…

Shin quickly noticed the people following and observing them from the dark the moment they stepped out of the inn.

He raised his brows and mumbled. "That's quite a lot of them."

He immediately spotted several scouts keeping an eye on them, but he could not accurately guess where they belonged; he still did not know which people belonged to which power.

He was confident in dealing with any of them, but it would be hard to fight if he had to protect Samael and Huahua in the process, especially if he would be facing the Sweepers from the Pandemonium Descendants.

The incident here was caused by the combined forces of the Corrupted Cult and the Demonic Churches once again, so it would not be strange if that organization was involved once again.

It would be even more troublesome if they sent a member of the Pandemonium Troupe.

He believed that he would be able to clean the floor with any of them given the current stats that he had, especially now that he was promoted to the third tier of his class.

Unless the leader of that group made his move personally. Lucifer was able to clear his promotion quest, after all.

He had a bad feeling about this person the moment when he laid his eyes on his in-game name.

However, he doubted that the leader would make his move personally just for this kind of job. That was unless that person was a battle-craze maniac.

But despite all these pointing toward their favor, he still could not shake off the uneasy feeling that he was having. His instincts were telling him that this was not going to be as smooth as he was expecting.

"Well, it will be for the best since I will be able to test my current strength after reaching tier 3 and see my current limit," he mumbled to himself as he led the pair of siblings out of the city.

It would also be at this moment when he would identify which group these scouts belonged to.

"I have to keep a closer eye on those people with a very high level of stealth. They are most likely from the Evil Faction."

...

As Shin, Samael, and Huahua stepped out of the city, the information was immediately reported to the higher-ups of the Pandemonium Descendants, who were stationed in the Sacred Light Kingdom and overseeing the entire operation.

It did not take long for the report to reach Paimon, who was responsible for the operations concerning the important questlines of the Demonic Churches under the Pandemonium Descendants.

Reading through the message that he had received, he suddenly turned to the person sitting across from him and said. "We have found the final relic that the elves need for the purification ceremony. It is in the hands of an independent player."

The person sitting across from him was the representative of the Corrupted Cult, who was also the one who led the invasion in the Saint Heaven Kingdom.

Given that they had already collaborated with each faction before, they were somewhat familiar with each other. But this was also the reason why they could not fully trust one another.

This person fell into deep thought before asking. "Can your people handle this? I know that you are quite capable, but you are not the one who will be leading the charge, so I am quite hesitant about this."

Paimon smiled mysteriously before continuing. "That is up to you. We are only collaborating to achieve our respective goals, so there will be no problem so long as we don't hurt each other benefits."

"We will deal with this ourselves, but you can't claim any rewards," he added, emphasizing his point.

The other person shook his head. "Our side doesn't care about the rewards. So long that we can spread the corruption, we will be fine."

"That's a deal then," said Paimon before turning his head to the side. "Tell that couple that they can move now, but they can't touch the members of the 'Big Three'. We are still in the middle of negotiating with them, so we must avoid any sort of 'misunderstanding'."

He paused for a moment before adding. "And tell them to be careful on that mysterious expert accompanying our targets. I've got a bad feeling about him."

While he was giving out the orders, the door of the room suddenly opened followed by the appearance of two players.

Paimon suddenly frowned deeply when he saw those two as he was quite familiar with them. "What are the two of you doing here? Aren't you in the middle of a 'hunt'?"

Amon, another leader of the Pandemonium Descendants, gave Paimon a sidelong glance before replying. "The Sweepers have reported that our target sighted in the Holy City before disappearing on our radar."

"None of them saw him exist from all the exits of the city, so we suspect that he went to the Teleportation Hall."

"Given the information that we have, there is a high chance that he will be here," he added after a brief thought.

Paimon stared at him for a moment before casting his gaze at the person behind. "I can understand if this lunatic is here, but why do you have to accompany him? To keep a close watch on him and put a leash on his neck?"

He completely understood this guy. As the true leader of the Sweeper of the Pandemonium Descendants and someone who handled all the assassination assignments of the organization, Amon had never been in a place where he was not needed or outside his area of responsibility despite his hot-headed temper.

If this guy was here, then there must be a serious reason.

Amon stared at Paimon for a couple of seconds before saying nonchalantly. "There is no serious reason about it. I just felt that I needed to be here."

He paused for a moment before a dangerous glint appeared in his eyes. "Or you can also say that I feel like there is going to be something big here so that I will be lending you a helping hand."

In the meantime, the player standing behind Amon was glaring fiercely at Paimon after hearing the word meant for him. But since he was here for an interesting mission to relieve his boredom, he had to suppress his anger and follow the orders. If not, then he would be forced to go back to his previous post.

Paimon ignored the sharp glare directed at him as he nodded to Amon with understanding.

While all of these were happening, the representative of the Corrupted Cult remained silent and observed them.

He squinted his eyes a little as he felt a little offended as he was being treated as an air while they were discussing among themselves. But he could not do anything about it as he completely understood that he was not a match for any of them.

'Just wait, and I will devour your organization sooner or later,' he thought to himself as he looked at them.

As if sensing his thoughts, Paimon suddenly turned in his direction while giving him a mystifying grin. It was as if he had been completely seen through.

Seeing that expression, this representative from the Corrupted Cult felt an intense shiver running down his spine.

…

A few moments later, after Paimon had sent that representative of the Corrupted Cult and a new messenger of the faction, Amon suddenly asked.

"Are you sure that you are going to use that guy? I don't think that he will fall into your trap. He doesn't look like an idiot that will commit such a grave mistake."

Hearing that, Paimon suddenly chuckled and said. "Whether he falls for it or not is not my real target. What I need is a way to infiltrate their ranks."

He then paused and pointed in the direction where that representative disappeared before continuing. "And that guy will be the guide that will lead us to their core."

"He is just a new dog that recently joined their ranks and doesn't know much about their inner system yet."

"Moreover, he is a very ambitious one and quite eager to prove himself. His type is the one that will easily get agitated once things get a little awry."

"Someone very talented but also very easy to get blinded by it. He is the perfect target that we are looking for. All we need to do is to lead him and patiently wait for the right moment to harvest the fruit of our 'labor'."

He then paused and chuckled. "And when that time comes, we will finally get the demonic treasures that we are keeping our eyes on."

"We will also help the leader to get his hands on the other half of the 'Great Demon Codex' and complete it to receive the true legacy of the Devil Ancestor."

"It is quite hard to snatch them before because that sly fox Immortal is quite hard to deal with. Playing tricks with him is useless since he can see through all of them. But now that he is no longer on their side, things will get a little easier."

Hearing everything from Paimon made Amon shake his head. "It looks like manipulating the other Messengers into isolating him paid off."

He then suddenly paused and asked. "Don't tell me that you also let the acquisition of the Saint Heaven Kingdom just force Immortal to leave the cult?"

Paimon chuckled as he shook his head. "You are looking a little too much to it. The operations in the Saint Heaven Kingdom and Frozen Kingdom failed due to a lot of factors."

"The role that I've played is very minimal. It was still those from the Empyrean Talons, the Hand of Midas, and the Assassin Union are the ones that caused our failure."

"There is also the returning king of the games, Khing, and that old friend of ours, Diablo. Given the circumstances, I can say that that failure is inevitable."

Amon continued to shake his head while smiling bitterly. "So, that is why you abandon those guys in the Corrupted Cult at the last moment and push all the blame to Immortal."

Paimon smiled in satisfaction as he took it as a compliment. "We may have sacrificed a lot and wasted our resources and efforts, but I can say that it is worth it in the end given the conditions that we have right now."

"I still can consider it as losing the fight but winning the war since there are still a lot of things that are involved. But we can still consider it as us winning in the long run," he added while wearing a mocking grin.

"Regardless of the reason, we still benefited from it in the end."

Amon shook his head as he listened to everything. "This is why I can't trust you. You are someone that can backstab anyone just to achieve your goals. Aside from 'Pride', everyone else is just a chess piece that you can manipulate."

 Paimon took it as a compliment. "I at least deliver satisfying results. And everything that I have done is for the sake of achieving his goals, so no one can question my loyalty to him."

"All of these are for his great cause while everything else is irrelevant!"

...…