Child of Destiny

...

Border of the Frozen Kingdom.

Due to the importance of the quest that the Pandemonium Descendants had, they decided to send more than one group of Sweepers to the area.

One of the groups was led by Mowglee while the other group had another high-ranking Sweeper.

If Mowglee and his group were responsible for scouting the area and clearing the possible obstacles that would be a hindrance to them, then the members of the second group were responsible for executing the real quest.

They were hiding while waiting for Mowglee's group to finish clearing everything.

Earlier, when one of their units was surveying the area around their temporary hideout, they discovered a strange-looking place.

There was nothing wrong with that place on the surface, but after taking a closer on it, they discovered that the surrounding place was protected by multiple formations.

It surprise them at first since it was quite unexpected. Then they immediately became excited as the thought of it being a special place in this region entered Their minds.

Unfortunately, they later realized that it was actually made by players when they looked deeper into it.

They also thought that it was going to be an ordinary formation that could be broken easily, but they were proven wrong once again.

Not only the major formation was built pretty well, but it was also composed of multiple minor formations within it.

Moreover, those formations were not simple formations but the most complex ones that they could encounter in their virtual career.

That grand formation had an illusion formation, trap formation, imprisonment formation, slaughtering formation, and many more.

If they were not inside the game then they would think that this grand formation was constructed by an expert Mentalist in the real world.

There were quite a lot of their Sweepers trapped inside that place and couldn't be contacted.

For all of the squads that they had sent, none of them managed to come back nor were able to contact them for their findings.

Due to that, they were unavailable to fully understand what was hidden beyond the complex formation.

Aside from being aware of the nature of those formations due to what their Runemasters had discovered from the outside, they know nothing else about them.

Since they were losing their members inside those barriers, they didn't have a choice but to quickly report it to their heads and ask them what they were going to do next.

…

Kaita, one of the strongest captains of the Sweepers alongside Mowglee and the others, was currently reading the additional information sent by their headquarters.

"Tsk! We are delayed once again. Those guys from the Corrupted Cult are really provoking us right now!" he muttered with an annoyed expression on his face.

"They sure get ahead of themselves after one of their elders managed to establish a solid connection with the King of Hell without the help of Demonic Church," he added as he closed the projected files in front of him.

Right now, their current job was repeatedly getting hit due to the sudden change of heart of the Corrupted Cult. He also heard that one of the members of the Pandemonium Troupe got into a fight one the current representative of the cult.

Their simple job now became complicated due to the cult members getting too ahead of themselves after gaining a little bit of influence without the underworld.

"The Great Leader should give these filthy dogs a lesson and remind them of their standings. No matter how strong they had gotten, they shouldn't bare their fangs at us since their power of corruption will always be inferior to our demonic powers that came from the blessings of the Demon Kings."

He then paused for a moment and furiously mess with his hair. "Hah! And there is also the issue with Sword God Zero and Empyrean Talons!"

"Why did Mowglee need to agree to team up with those guys if we can just deal with those guys and clean up everything? I know those guys are strong, but we have enough people to take care of them if we set our heads into it!"

He then massaged his temples, trying to calm himself down. "There are a lot of things that we need to take care of before the representative of the Troupe arrives here."

Swoosh!

When he was about to finally calm himself, a figure suddenly entered his tent in a rush, seemingly ignoring that he was currently the lead officer of this place.

Kaita didn't even open his eyes to look at that person as there was only a single person who could do such a thing.

"Kiana, I know that we are close friends but you can't just barge in like this every time. What are you going to do if I happen to have an important meeting with the high-ups? You will surely get punished by them, especially with the personalities of those Troupe Members," he said in a helpless manner.

Kiana, who seemed to be a fighter class based on her attire and set of equipment, smiled at Kaita apologetically. "I am sure about that. It is just a form of habit, alright?"

Ahem!

She then cleared her throat before stating her purpose in coming here. "Anyways, the scouts that we sent to survey the surrounding areas seemed to have discovered something."

"They can't give me a clear explanation of what it is since they lost quite a few members while exploring. But based on what they have said, it looks like they discovered a special region."

"They didn't know what that place is, but based on the set of complicated formations built to isolate the area, there is a chance that there is something important hidden in that place."

Hearing those words, Kaita couldn't help but feel a little interested in the topic and asked. "Hoh~! Have you taken a look at it already?"

Kiana quickly nodded her head and replied "Hmph! What do you take me for? Of course, I've already checked the place and confirmed that it is true."

"And I also feel that whatever is hidden in that place is something that even our superiors would take interest in. The grand formation set to protect that is very complex, so it can't be a trivial matter," she added with full confidence.

Kaita raised his eyebrows for a moment as he thought of something. He then nodded his head and stood up. "Alright, let's take a look at it and see if it is worth exploring."

*********

In the meantime, in the place where the trio of Zero, Lawless, and Faker were fighting the members of the Earners Mercenary Group.

The battle was already over.

Miraculously, every member of the Earners managed to get out alive from the attacks of the three gods after struggling for a long time.

But despite that being the case, none of them had a relieved expression on their faces. In fact, they were even more dejected compared to earlier.

Flouree was currently staring into the sky as she tried to recall what happened during the battle.

She managed to fight Zero on an equal footing but she didn't feel too good about it since she was practically struggling to save herself during the latter part of their battle.

She was thankful that she managed to survive in the end despite losing. But in exchange, she used her last trump card in the final moments, when she was about to lose die at Zero's swords.

She could still vividly remember how helpless she was during those moments, making her realize that she was still not a match for the Sword God.

"I at least managed to save myself as well as those guys," she muttered while looking at the group who was currently slumped on the ground.

Jia and the others were fighting Faker and Lawless earlier and were clearly suppressed by the two despite having the numerical advantage. They were more like struggling to preserve their life during the entire battle This was the reason why they looked very exhausted right now.

Death God Faker and God Slayer Lawless, those two became much stronger compared to the information that they received. If Flouree compared them to their previous forms that she remembered, then she would undoubtedly say they already surpassed their former selves and they were still growing, making them a much scarier opponent.

During the final moments of their battle, she activated her most powerful spell, a forbidden spell, to escape their inevitable end.

But it also meant that she could no longer be a functional member of the team for the future battles on the rest of their commission.

Not only she was penalized due to her overstaining herself when using the incomplete technique, but she also got an additional penalty for using her forbidden spell. She would not be able to help the others during the next battles that they were going to encounter, which would greatly weaken their fighting power.

The Sweepers of the Pandemonium Descendants shouldn't be a problem since the rest of the Earners would be able to take care of them even if those skilled fighters, who ambushed them earlier, suddenly appeared and fight them again.

The problem was Zero and the Empyrean Talons. She was afraid that they could no longer be able to contend against those guys now they lost four of their members since they arrived as well as her fighting power.

No matter how she looked at it, they would definitely lose against those guys even if the rest of their team gave out everything they had.

"Sigh~! I guess we don't have a choice now," she muttered to herself in great disappointment and frustration.

Fortunately, not everything was a bad thing since they managed to get their hands on one of the most important tasks that they had within their mercenary group.

She opened her hand and looked at the small marble on it. From a closer look, this red marble looked like trapping a certain beast within it, it was a bird with vermilion and blazing feathers.

Swoosh! Swoosh!

It was only at this moment that Mirage and the others managed to arrive. They couldn't help but have a sigh of relief when they saw that none of the remaining members died, but they later furrowed their brows when they discovered the strange atmosphere.

"Captain-…" Mirage was about to ask what happened but his words were cut off by Flouree the very next moment.

"Listen, we can no longer actively move within the area since I am currently in an extremely weakened state. I can no longer participate in any kind of battle, so we are going to move with caution from now on."

"We are going to continue with the commission but our main priority is to explore the whole area and survive until everything is over. Understood?"

The others were slightly taken aback by their words but still nodded their heads regardless. "Understood, Captain!"

...