Child of Destiny

...

A powerful gust of wind was starting to gather around Zero as he continued to stare at the person in front of him. And from the amount of mana circling around him alone, it was pretty clear that was taking this matter seriously.

But despite that being the case, Snow White, the Frost Goddess, seemed to be unaffected by the pressure that he was emitting. In fact, she even started smirking at his actions and continued to stand on her stop, not showing any movements.

"Are you sure that you want to continue this?" asked Shiella with a smirking. She even added before Zero could even reply. "I may be inactive these last a couple of years, but it doesn't mean that you can take me on lightly. You may lose that number spot that you currently hold up until now."

"We will never know about that unless we try," refuted Zero as he started to take his battle stance.

Unfortunately, Shiella had no intention of fighting him in this place, so she quickly stopped him from making more actions before the situation could even escalate into a more troublesome stage. "I know that you are quite eager to get your ass kicked. But this is not a good place for our it."

She swept her gaze on their surroundings before saying. "Those eyes that are keeping you in check are all over the place already, so I think it is better if we look for a more suitable location before continuing."

Zero also take a quick glance where he could sense the gazes locked on him were coming from. And after seeing that there were quite a lot of them, he decided to withdraw all of the aura that he was emitting before relaxing his stance a little.

In the meantime, Shiella suddenly started walking towards the direction of the city before saying. "Follow me."

Zero frowned his eyebrows when he heard her commanding tone. But despite that being the case, he silently nodded his head before following after her.

...

Saint Heaven Kingdom, Dawn City.

Shiella brought Zero to a particular area that was under the jurisdiction of the Hand of Midas Trading Firm. She originally wanted to settle this matter quietly but since the latter created a 'mess' in Maple Cloud City, she needed to redirect the attention of the other organizations away from that place.

She couldn't risk their operations from getting ruined.

On top of that, her little brothers and their little team were currently doing a quest in Sky Deceiving Valley. It was going to be even more troublesome if those organizations managed to sniff their movements.

After all, their team created quite a lot of commotion recently, so it was pretty obvious that the other powerhouses would keep an eye on them to monitor their movements.

Shiella already went into a lot of trouble to redirect the attention of those forces away from their group. She even went as far as secretly supporting the HeadHunter Guild a little to prolong the ongoing war that they had against the Wing's Alliance.

"This should be enough, I guess?" asked Shiella as she looked at the man standing a few meters away from her.

"It is not that bad," answered Zero as started putting each of his hands on the hilt of his sheathed swords. And at the same time, an overwhelming amount of mana was instantly released from his body.

"Heh! Really are impatient, aren't you?" said Shiella sneeringly when he saw his actions. Though, at the same time, she also summoned her staff and lightly tap its bottom on the ground, spreading a cold aura in every direction.

"Let me warn you. If you don't go all out from the start, then I will make sure that you will regret it," she added as the floor of the training arena became frozen starting from her feet.

"That was the plan from the very start!" replied Zero before disappearing from his spot.

Swoosh!

And within an instant, he managed to appear behind Shiella while swinging both of his swords.

Swoosh!

Cling! Cling!

But a wall of ice suddenly appeared in between them and blocked his swords from advancing forward.

Seeing that his initial attack failed, Zero wanted to follow it up with a skill to start a series of attacks. But before he could even put his thoughts into action, he suddenly felt an immense threat coming from the thick wall of ice in front of him.

Without further ado, he quickly kicked that wall and jumped away from it to escape.

Bang!

The wall of ice exploded and the pieces that came from it flew in every direction like deadly shrapnel. A few of them were even chasing after Zero as if they had eyes of their own.

Seeing that, the Sword God did a quick flip in the air and adjusted his center of gravity before swinging his swords left and right.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Tap-tap!

When his feet touched the frozen ground, he immediately sensed threats that were coming from every direction. And when he raised his head to take a look at them, he immediately discovered that he was currently surrounded by floating ice spears.

"Heh! This is nothing," muttered Zero as he gathered his mana and infused them on his swords.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

And quickly after that, gusts of wind started to gather on both of his swords before forming a layer of aura that surrounded their blades.

"Come!" shouted Zero to which Shiella had responded with a simple flick of her wrist.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Zero repeatedly swung his swords and destroyed all of the spears that were trying to approach him. His actions sent a lot of ice debris in every direction alongside some fog that was starting to block his field of vision.

Realizing what was happening, Zero put infused more mana on each of his swords releasing them at the same time by drawing a horizontal circle in the air.

'Sword King Skill: Dark Tempest'

Swoosh!

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Consecutive explosions immediately followed right after the wind circle that sent out collided with the remaining ice spears, destroying them in the process.

But despite that being the case, Zero couldn't let his guard down because the threat that was sent was still lingering in the air.

Swoosh!

And just like what he was expecting, the fog that was created from previous explosions was torn apart as a huge sword made of ice flew straight to him.

He quickly crossed his swords in front of his chest while reinforcing them with his mana. And at the same time, a wind wall appeared in front of him out of nowhere, seemingly planning to lessen the momentum of the incoming ice sword.

Bang!

But despite immediate response and quick actions to set up a series of defenses, he was still blown away by the ice swords right after he came in contact with it.

Swoosh!

Bang!

-200,523

He then collided at the wall of the training ground, almost burying him on it.

Tap! Tap! Tap!

Then a series of light steps could be heard as Shiella slowly approach Zero. She stopped at a safe distance and looked at the latter before saying. "I already told you. You will regret it if you keep on holding yourself back. I am not the same as those idiots that you've fought previously."

Zero stopped up and lightly tapped his clothes to remove the dust from them before turning to Shiella. "So this is the strength of the previous top god, huh?"

Hearing those words, Shiella couldn't help but frown her brows as she didn't like what she just heard. "Previous you say? I guess you stood on that spot for way too long to become that arrogant."

"I am still far away from being replaced by the likes of you," she added with a cold tone which made the temperature of the surroundings drop with a great margin.

"I already told you, we will never know unless we give it a try," said Zero provokingly as released a much powerful aura than what he had earlier. And due to that, the gusts of wind started to gather from every direction and spun around him, forming a storm-like tornado within the training ground.

At the same time, his body started to emit an immense amount of mana with jade color. Then it danced along with the gust of wind circling around him, making his appearance look like a divine being.

Shiella clicked her tongue when he saw the arrogant look on Zero's face before muttering to herself. "It looks like I am being underestimated a little too much."

Bang!

Then an overwhelming amount of mana was also released from her body which also affected the temptation within the training ground to drop further.

Swoosh! Swoosh!

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Not long after, pillars of ice started to shoot from the ground one after another, surprising Zero a little. He was about to scoff at that sight as thought that it was just some fancy trick. But that thought immediately changed when he saw that the entire training ground turned into a palace all of a sudden.

"This skill-… could it be…?" Zero was trying to recall the name of the skill. But before he could even voice it out, he suddenly heard Shiella's voice that sent an intense shiver on his spine.

"I guess I need to teach you a lesson to remind the world why I am called the Frost Goddess."

....