Child of Destiny

...…

Shin immersed himself in his current state, trying his best to familiarize himself with it. He then turned toward the army of ice golems and frost puppets before knitting his brow.

Given the opposing side's numbers, he knew it would take a lot of trouble before he could wipe them out. Moreover, he could also tell that they were much more powerful than the ones he had fought earlier.

Adding their perfect coordination and seamless synchronized attacks, Shin fully understood that this was not going to be easy.

There was also Leviathan in his demonic transformation, giving off a dangerous feeling.

Thinking about this, Shin decided to 'call' some reinforcements. Using the skills attached to his mask, he summoned the Sun and Moon Clones before fusing them.

Swoosh! Swoosh!

At the same time, he also summoned the Phantom Clone through the 'Phantom Apparition' Skill.

The two clones stood on each side of Shin while releasing a very dangerous air. The Eclipse Clone was emitting a purple glow that was flowing upwards continuously while the Phantom Clone was shrouded with a black mist that was making its body flicker repeatedly.

The strength of these clones had reached a whole other level after Shin had been promoted to Tier 3 Class. Their stats were slightly stronger than Shin while their respective skills represented different styles that their summoner had.

Even Shin was slightly confused as he found that these clones were somewhat different from what he remembered when he had summoned them. They were also starting to resemble the ones that he had fought during his promotion quests.

Or more like a fusion of the two phantoms and two clones at that time?

He now realized that there was something more to these clones that he was unaware of. "I guess I have to investigate more about them later when I have the time."

He had a vague suspicion that this might be related to his secondary combat class, the Phantom Swordsman Class. After all, he was repeatedly hinted that Kentas, the creator of his class, was someone on equal terms to the NPCs with the title of a 'Hero'.

He might even be a hero himself.

From what Berlin had said, Kentas was known as the Phantom King. Meanwhile, Longinus had casually mentioned Kentas being the 'First Fallen'.

These clues were already pointing to something, so all he needed to do was to follow it and reach the end.

…

Shin was not planning to manually control these clones just like how he usually did. After all, keeping his current state active was already putting a heavy burden on his mind. He could not afford to divide his attention in this current state since it would instantly collapse even with the slightest slip in concentration.

He would be living them to the Battle AI of the System. Given his strength and combat prowess, these clones would be strong enough to fight the majority of the Peak Titled Rankers or even a couple of the unranked lesser Godlike Players in the bottom ranking.

It might not be enough to clash against someone of Leviathan's caliber in a head-on battle, but it was more than enough to deal with these ice golems and frost puppets.

Even Leviathan himself could sense that he would be having a hard time suppressing these clones with his current puppets.

Regardless, he could easily distinguish which was the real body given the different auras that they were emitting, so it was much easier to focus on the real target.

Or so he thought-… Discover hidden stories at m,v l'e|m-p| y r

Not long after that thought crossed his mind, Leviathan suddenly saw Shin and his clones summon nine phantoms each, resembling each other. Even if the 'main' bodies were releasing different types of auras that made them distinguishable from the other two, these phantoms were greatly identical to each other.

Leviathan was quite familiar with this skill since he had seen it from their database about Shin, especially when Shin was still known for being a famous Maverick Ranker with the moniker of 'Emperor of the Night'.

This was the very first signature skill that made that persona well-known to everyone.

'Phantom Swordsman Skill: Phantom Dance' x3

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

The phantoms scattered in every direction blending in one another to cover the tracks of the other phantoms.

Leviathan was wearing a solemn expression as he knew what these phantoms could do. They could not attack nor could be attacked, but the 'main' bodies could switch with them whenever they wanted to. This made it hard to predict the attack patterns that they could choose.

Understanding his current position, Leviathan knew that he could not let his guard down even for a single moment.

Seeing that the phantoms were already moving toward him at speed, seemingly swimming through the blockade that he had set up with his Ice Golems and Frost Puppets, Leviathan quickly tugged the invisible mana strings attached at the end of his fingers and connected to each of his puppets to move everyone accordingly.

Boom!

Bang! Bang! Bang!

A chaotic battle quickly broke out, razing through the already devastated battlefield.

Shin and his clones constantly switched places with their respective phantoms while taking down as many ice golems and frost puppets as they could. Even if they did not kill the others, they had done their best to cripple them.

Some of the ice golems even exploded as Leviathan had detonated most of them once they were crippled. But even if each explosion was much stronger than the previous ones, none of them managed to catch Shin and his clones as they always switched places with the phantoms that were positioned the farthest from those explosions.

But Leviathan was also not someone to be trifled with. He seemed to possess an endless pool of mana that could not be emptied no matter what.

Even if summoning the Ice Golems and detonating them for those powerful icy explosions, he still possessed enough mana to supply his army.

Aside from that, Shin also had to deal with those very mobile frost puppets that were slightly different from the rest. They were quite skilled and possessed some tricky assassination techniques. Some of them also had decent swordsmanship that could buy enough time for the rest to catch up to them when they engaged in an intense melee with Shin.

Fortunately, Shin and the two clones were able to escape before they could even get trapped by the formation of their opponent.

But as time went by, Leviathan proved that his position with the Pandemonium Troupe as one of the Sinful Devils was not for show. He was able to keep up with Shin's irregular patterns when attacking along with the two clones.

He was constantly adjusting the formation of his forces to trap his opponents. With his battle formations, the choices that Shin could pick whenever he was retreating were getting smaller and smaller.

Moreover, he also realized that those random explosions that Leviathan released were also meant to restrain his opponent. The icy mist and the frozen surroundings caused by those explosions were also starting to affect the environment.

Given the already chaotic environment with the fallen trees, devastated ground, and stormy weather, fighting was already quite hard. The visibility was already quite terrible due to the heavy rain, so it had gotten worse due to the icy mist that was constantly being created by the cold environment produced by the explosions.

Snow was even forming in the air and falling toward the ground, slowly piling up.

If not for Shin's sharp senses empowered by the Sensing Circle, Demonic Telekinesis, and True Sight, then he would most likely be caught in the traps of his opponent already.

Regardless, his attack power was still quite powerful and destructive. After familiarizing himself with his current state, his control over the Primordial Lightning was slowly getting better and returning to what it was supposed to be.

The black-and-white lightning danced around the battlefield as he continuously moved leaving the electric trails behind him. He also borrowed the lightning element in the environment to enhance his techniques.

His Primordial Lightning could not be complemented by the Storm Lighting of the current weather due to the different source that it came from. But their properties were similar, so Shin could still get inspiration and little boosts from them, particularly when he was using the lightning versions of his techniques.

Aside from Shin's gradually increasing battle prowess, Leviathan also had to keep a close eye on the two clones, especially when he noticed that the two of them were using a completely different battle style compared to their master.

Not only that, the set of skills that they were using was also quite different from what Shin had, which confused Leviathan. They were more like summoned monsters rather than clones.

The Phantom Clone alone, who looked like an assassin, almost took his life multiple times. If not for his powerful Puppeteer's Barrier and quick responses, then he would most likely have died already.

Its speed was also quite troublesome as it was much faster than Shin himself. Leviathan felt like he was in constant threat with its presence.

As for the Eclipse Clone – this one was more like a true magic swordsman who had a variety of magic spells rather than sword skills. Aside from the skills that Shin already possessed from his main class, it also had a large pool of skills that they had not seen from Shin in his every battle.

Leviathan even thought that these skills were the trump cards that Shin had hidden from everyone, especially since most of the skills were large-scale ones.

But he later realized that this Eclipse Clone indeed had an independent set of skills compared to its master.

Leviathan first thought that all he needed to do was to buy enough time for the 'Phantom Dance' to end, but he did not expect that these clones would put him in a difficult position.

Given that Shin was calmly bidding his time for the perfect opportunity to kill, Leviathan knew that Shin did not care about the 'Phantom Dance' itself. He seemed to be unfazed about the duration of his clones as well.

It was as if Shin was waiting for something – and that something was putting a lot of pressure on Leviathan. It was as if a dark shadow was trying to catch him as he ran forward.

Due to this 'underlying' threat that was looming around, Leviathan had to also make his preparations in response.

…

The more Shin fought, the stronger the connection between all his 'weapons' came together.

Then, all of a sudden, something seemed to have clicked inside him as he continued to use the combination of all the abilities he possessed, particularly the sword principles that he had learned from the real world and the two in-game skills such as Elemental Unification, Mondi's Style, and Demonic Telekinesis.

The Sword Heart and the Heavenly Fighting Physique had resonated with one another before fusing into one. The somewhat foreign 'Sword Heart' had fully become part of his body.

Then the seed inside him seemed to have spouted and spread in every direction before turning into a field of swords that was carrying every sword insight and technique that he practiced.

*Ding*

What followed was the familiar sound from the notification given to him by the system.

System: Congratulations! Your Sword Heart had evolved from entry-level to intermediate-level!

System: The Sword Seed had transformed into a Sword Graveyard!

*Ding*

System: A new ability under the 'Sword Heart' ability was generated!

System: Congratulations! You have learned 'Domain Skill (Tier 3): Graveyard of Swords'.

…

Shin was caught completely off guard by the sudden notification. He did not have to look at it to know what it could give him. The name itself was already giving him a rough idea about the effects of the skill.

Briefly disengaging from the battle to glance at the description of the skill.

--------------------

Skill Name: Graveyard of Swords

Skill Level: Tier 3

Skill Rank: Special

Skill Type: Domain

Skill Details:

-All stats will be doubled within the entire duration of this skill while all resistances will receive a boost of 30%.

-Increase all the ranks of your sword-related skills by 2 levels within the range of this skill and all their cooldown would reduce by 50% and cost by 100%.

-Sword Techniques executed within this domain skill will receive a massive boost in might and power, particularly under the conditions of a 'special combat state'.

Range: 100 meters (mobile with you as the center)

Mana Cost: 50,000

Cooldown: 6 hours

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"Sweet~!" He could not help but raise his brows when he skimmed through the effects of the skill. What surprised him more was it being a Tier 3 Domain Skill on top of everything.

He could not say that it was weaker or stronger than the other Tier 3 Domain Skill that he received after clearly his promotion quest since both skills had their respective advantages.

But this one was meant for a solo battle while the other was more of a team-oriented skill.

What made him like this more was he felt like he could use this one right away compared to the other domain skill as he currently met all the conditions for its activation.

Seeing that the 'Phantom Dance' was already about to end and so was the duration for his clones, he started preparing for the final exchange.

...