Child of Destiny

…

*DING*

System: You have heard the story of the forgotten hero of the elves, Doran, the Exiled. You are not uncovering one of the biggest incidents of the Elven Race.

System: Investigate deeper, and you may be able to uncover something even bigger.

Seeing these two notifications from his system log, Shin felt like there was something more to that incident than what was seen on the surface. ‘Don’t tell me this is orchestrated by someone?’

That’s right! That subordinate of the said Ancient Demon sealed by the Ancient Queen of the Shadows. Doran had never mentioned them again, so I assumed that they had already died during that incident or something,’ he thought, recalling something.

Moreover, the sudden invasion of the Demons is quite suspicious as well. It is also orchestrated by someone?’ he thought.

‘Based on my basic understanding of the game lore and the events that I have encountered through the missions and quests, most of the so-called demons are denizens of this world.’

‘Just take those sea beasts and abyss monsters of the ocean that I have encountered during the Trial of Primordial Waters, for example. Those guys used to live in harmony until most of the Sea Kings had betrayed the God of Primordial Waters and his temple.’

‘One of these kings was Leviathan, who was the ruler of all the sea monsters. From the current lore, he is now one of the Great Demon Kings of Hell and one of the Seven Primordial Sins.’

‘From what I remember, he now represented the Sin of Greed.’

Shin organized the information in his head before reaching a conclusion. ‘The so-called ruin that Doran has mentioned should be one of the clues that I can uncover this forgotten history.’

Shin was about to proceed, asking about this.

However, Doran seemed to have already seen through his intentions and skillfully dodged it while pointing up. “If you want more about it, then you have to reach much higher floors and meet me again.”

“The reason why I come here is to look at the newcomer, who dares to challenge this stupid tower,” he added, along with a smile. “It has been a while since we have had a challenger, so I became curious.”

“Since I have been imprisoned in the Terror of the Four Great Seas for a very long time, I do not even know what happened in the world during the invasion of the Demon Race.”

“However, I stumbled upon this place by accident when I was roaming through the sea,” Doran paused and smirked when he reached this point, looking at Shin with a profound gaze.

It was clear that he was telling Shin that these were the only pieces of information that he was willing to give him as a ‘gift’ for their first meeting.

As for the rest, they needed to wait until Shin had reached a decent ranking as a ‘disciple’ of the tower.

‘I see. He also has another reason for coming down to this floor aside from meeting me out of curiosity. He must need me for something, but can’t outright voice it out due to some hidden restrictions cast upon him by this tower or its creator,’ thought Shin, realizing something.

‘In order to gain the assistance that he needs from me, he also has to warn me about something by ‘telling’ me the story of how he stumbled upon this place and was locked within the tower.’

‘That’s right, he also mentioned earlier that the Terror of the Four Great Seas used to be his prison. Isn’t it indirectly telling me that he has already broken free from its restraints, but got trapped in a new ‘prison’ trapping him? It must be this tower,’ he analyzed the clues at hand and realized that the situation was not as simple as what he could see from the surface.

Playing along, Shin asked. “Is Elder Doran willing to share his precious experience with this junior?”

Doran could not hide his grin when he heard those words. He could tell that Shin was quite clever for seeing through his intentions.

“Ah~! It is not as amazing as it seemed. It can even be considered the most embarrassing moment of my life,” he said. “I am embarrassed to share such an experience with anyone, much less a junior.”

Doran went silent for quite a while, seemingly organizing his thoughts, before sighing. “During the time, the Demons are invading, and when I have thrown in that ‘prison,’ something huge happened that shook the cores of those living in the sea.”

“A bright light with multiple colors suddenly illuminated the dark sky of the sea and came crashing down toward this world.”

“Out of curiosity, I chase after it, along with a few extremely powerful individuals, who manage to get a glimpse of it.”

“We are not sure what exactly it was, but given our respective realms, it is not hard to decipher its value. Whatever that thing was, it carries an overwhelming amount of elemental essence that is more than enough to move even the Sovereign Beings of this world.”

“Moreover, it is a multi-element that can be beneficial to anyone, which is why quite a lot of people are standing at the peak of the world at that time to chase after it.”

“Not only that, even the Demon Race, who are invading our world at that time, are also moved by it. However, instead of seizing it for themselves, they want to destroy whatever that thing was.”

“These crazy demons seemed to instinctively know that it was something that they had to destroy no matter what.”

“Because of that, the entirety of the oceans and seas is thrown into further chaos, spreading the intense war from the land to them as well.”

“However, I must thank those who have gotten involved in that war since they are the reason why I can break free from the natural maze that the Terror of the Four Great Seas has and escape from it.”

“Even the blood oath that I have given my kin to never step out of that place when thrown me there does not punish me. This can only mean that I am currently free at that time.”

Reaching this point, Doran started smiling bitterly before continuing. “Unfortunately, my greed and curiosity have gotten me. I still chase after that multicolored light while slaughtering my way towards it.”

“The same can be said for the others, particularly the ones who are on the same level as me,” he then paused for a moment, seemingly recalling something unpleasant, before shaking his head. “Unfortunately, something unexpected happened during our ‘chase’.”

Shin no longer had to guess what was coming from Doran’s mouth next, since he already had a rough understanding of it.

He already heard from Molton most of it, which was gathered from the Imperial Library of the Divinity City, so he pretty much knew what happened next.

Whatever that thing that they were chasing was, it landed straight at the heart of the Immortal Empire, which was one of the leading forces during the Repelling Era.

However, Shin had overlooked something important. Something big that affected the entirety of the war between the denizens of the Atlas World and the invading Demon Race at that time.

He only realized this after hearing the next words that Doran had said.

“Unfortunately, due to our greed and curiosity, a large portion of the peak experts of the Atlas World have perished or disappeared during that incident.”

Pausing for a moment, Doran shook his head in bitterness before continuing. “There was a massive explosion right after that ‘thing’ struck the ground.”

“With this explosion, the unluckiest ones are killed on the spot while the rest are either gravely injured or become crippled.”

“The even more unlucky ones had even been killed by the surrounding Demons that were swarming in the same direction at that time.”

“Even though the Demon Race had also lost quite a lot of forces during that time, it was still negligible when compared to the overwhelming size of their invading force.”

“Meanwhile, the forces of the Atlas World have been hit hard, especially when the epicenter of the explosion is the Immortal Empire, which is one of the leading forces at that time.”

Hearing this, Shin was stunned and immediately realized how much of an impact the incident had. ‘Of course! If it’s someone as strong as this guy, then those people chasing after that light are most likely among the people who are standing at the pinnacle of the world at that time!’

‘They are no random dudes, so the forces of the Atlas World will obviously get hit,’ he sighed, realizing how huge that incident was.

Not long after, Doran continued. “Due to us being gravely injured, most of us are either ripped apart and consumed by the remaining demons, increasing their powers and continuing their evolution, or are possessed by them to become their puppet.”

“Fortunately, or unfortunately, the Immortal Emperor is one of the strongest experts of the world at that time, so he still managed to survive that explosion and even protected a huge portion of his land in the process.”

“He manages to save quite a lot of use as well,” he then paused for a moment, recalling what happened at that time, before continuing. “Unfortunately, the incident has attracted the attention of one of the most powerful demons invading at that time.”

Hearing this, Shin could already imagine a prelude to a world-shaking battle between the strongest powerhouses of both sides at that time.

……