Child of Destiny

……

The next few matches of the United Cup were not as exciting as the previous ones due to the lack of main forces of the other teams, other than Empyrean Talons and God’s Paradise.

The Empyrean Talon won against the Pandemonium Descendants as expected, but it was not a perfect score like the previous matches.

Shin had taken advantage of the situation to let the rookies and less experienced players of the team gain more experience in this match. All three rookies were sent on the field, letting them take the lead.

The Pandemonium Descendants had chosen to go with the regular match format, which had 2 Single Matches, 1 Group Battle, and 1 Team Competition.

They knew that they would not be the opponent of the Empyrean Talons in any other format of the matches, which included team battles. With that in mind, they would rather take a gamble and go for the regular format since they at least had some chances in single matches.

As the ones to have the Home advantage for this round, they had to make full use of it.

Unfortunately, they had lost the first Single Match against Chaotic Luck, who made the entire match quite weird with his signature ‘ability’ – his luck.

He had embarrassed the representative of the Pandemonium Descendants, who seemed to have a Unit Captain Title according to Diablo.

The Empyrean Talons then lost the second Single Match due to Samael being a little too nervous in the match. He had encountered a quite skilled Sweeper in that round, who was also quite familiar with Diablo.

According to him, Sweeper was one of the aces of the Sweeper Units within the organization.

In the group battle, the Pandemonium Descendants had chosen another odd choice. They chose the other format of the Group Battle, which included 3 1-vs-1s, where the winner stayed on the field while the loser would be knocked out.

In this round, Archimedes and Daulla had won the Group Battle by themselves, where the former defeated two members of the opposing side and almost won the final match as well. He was just slightly short of making the rare 1-vs-3 scenario.

Then Daulla took to the stage and won the match quite easily.

In the final round, the Team Competition, the Empyrean Talons did not send that much of their core members.

Akailu was quite eager to try his gains from the previous match and volunteered to join the Team Competition. Then Huahua was also sent on the field along with Alice, who was still quite upset about her ‘lost’ against Kael in the previous match.

Then Alucard and Diablo were sent to fill up the numbers, but did not make any move since the start of the round and became bystanders, who watched everything from the sidelines.

The Empyrean Talons then won the match 9 to 1 at the end.

As for the other matches, the God’s Paradise coincidentally had won their match with the same 9 to 1 score against the Dragon Pavilion.

The Hand of Midas, on the other hand, won a clean sweep in their match against the Hydra Guild, almost knocking out the current number one guild of the game from the tournament. It was quite a surprising result, but not many had questioned it as the so-called lifestyle guild had sent their strike team in the match.

The strike teams of the lifestyle guilds were supposedly the sole combat teams of Trading Firms, who were responsible for exploration and gathering materials for the guild.

They were also responsible for escorting the caravans of the guild, which were filled with goods and such. They were elites among elites, so their skills and strength were something that could not be ignored.

In the next rounds, the result was still the same.

The Empyrean Talons had successfully advanced to the Upper Bracket Finals, sending the Pandemonium Descendants down to the lower bracket despite taking the match in such a relaxed and easy manner.

The same for the God’s Paradise since they had also sent the Dragon Pavilion down there while they joined the Empyrean Talons in the Upper Bracket Finals, just like everyone had expected.

Hand of Midas, on the other hand, had successfully kicked out the Hydra Guild from the tournament and advanced to the next round.

The upper bracket would be delayed for a moment at that point, as the situation in the lower bracket was quite tricky. With odd numbers, the format of the round would be slightly tricky to deal with.

Hence, the tournament organizers had made it simple and decided to go for a special draw, where the two teams had to fight against one another while the other one would gain a bye advantage and advance to the next round without fighting.

In this draw, the Hand of Midas became very lucky and took the win, becoming the bye for this round.

Meanwhile, the Dragon Pavilion and the Pandemonium Descendants would be facing each other on the next round, wrestling each other to determine who would be advancing.

Given the situation at the lower bracket, the match between the Empyrean Talons and God’s Paradise at the upper bracket finals would be slightly delayed.

The next matches would be slightly intense due to the matchups in the lower bracket. The battle between the Soldiers from the Dragon Pavilion and the Sweepers of the Pandemonium Descendants.

The battle between the two sides truly delivered. It was so intense that both sides showed their respective strengths and targeted the weaknesses of their opposition.

But in the end, the side of the Pandemonium Descendants had won due to their home advantage. They had taken advantage of the terrain of the map and its special features to launch a series of ambushes, putting their opponents in an awkward position.

Even if the side of the Dragon Pavilion had rich experience when dealing with different terrains due to their military experience as cadets or veteran soldiers, they were unable to fully showcase their skills due to the strange methods that their opponents were using.

But the Dragon Pavilion made a huge comeback at the next round, which was their home advantage.

Unfortunately, the final score of the two rounds was not in their favor. Since the Pandemonium Descendants had won with an 8 to 2 score in the previous round and only lost with 3 to 7 in this round, the Dragon Pavilion lost with a 9 to 11 final score.

It was a pity since the match was quite close. The audience even wants a third round for this matchup. Unfortunately, the scores were not equal, so a tiebreaker was unnecessary.

Fortunately, the United Cup was still far from over.

The match was quite anticipated as well since it was a battle between the Strike Team of the Hand of Midas and the Sweepers of the Pandemonium Descendants.

This match had also delivered just like the previous one, making everyone believe that this season’s United Cup was not that bad.

If not for the main forces of these teams backing out of the tournament, then the would be even more amazing.

The match between the Hand of Midas and Pandemonium Descendants had made everyone view the former team in a different light.

The guild chiefs were already powerful enough to change everyone’s perspective about production classes, giving everyone a different view of these non-combative classes.

Then here was the Strike Team of the Trading Firm, showing everyone that their combat prowess was not that bad either.

They had even won the match against a very strong organization in a very convincing manner.

Even though the scores on both rounds were quite with 6 to 4 and 7 to 3 in their favor, they had properly shown their true capabilities that would not lose to any huge organizations or the top guilds of the game.

They had once again reminded everyone that they were also one of the Powerhouse Guilds within the game.

With the Hand of Midas advancing to the lower bracket finals, the match at the upper bracket finals would start the next day.

This matchup had pretty much hyped up everyone, unable to wait for the upcoming clash of the titans.

The event organizers, especially those assigned to the marketing team, had done a beautiful job of hyping this matchup.

All they had to do was wait for the match and enjoy the show later.

…

While everyone was too focused on the events within the game, someone had finally returned home in the real world.

Arthur, who had been away for quite a while, had finally returned!

If someone had paid more attention to his current appearance, they would have noticed some changes in him.

His physical appearance did not change that much, but the aura and momentum that his body was passively emitting had undergone a massive transformation.

Those who would see him right now would most likely bow to him through their subconscious mind as if he were a majestic being that needed to be worshiped.

Those with weaker minds might even have the urge to kneel in front of him due to this unique and majestic aura that he currently possesses.

“At home, at last!” he mumbled as he stood in front of the Springfield Household that he had missed for quite a while now.

Behind him, an old man was staring at this familiar place, bringing him down memory lane. He felt quite nostalgic. “It has been quite a while since I have visited this place as well.”

With a slight nod, he turned to Arthur and said. “Brat, you are not home, so this old man has to go back to the Ancestral Land and continue to retreat.”

Hearing that, Arthur could not help but furrow his brows and ask. “The elder is not going to visit Grandpa and stay for quite a few days?”

The old man shook his head. “There is no need for that. We, Seniors at the Valley, have already detached ourselves from the events of the outside world.”

“Our goal now is either to focus on achieving Transcendence or seek the Original Truths of the world.”

He paused for a moment and shook his head once again before adding. “You will also understand once you reach our level.”

He then turned to the Springfield Household for a moment before adding. “Unless the family is at great risk, we will not show ourselves and stay our hand away from any form of conflict.”

After that, he turned around and started leaving.

It took Arthur quite a while before he regained his composure. He swiftly put his hands together and gave the old man a deep and respectful nod. “Thank you, Elder, for all the guidance that you have imprinted on this junior’s mind.”

“Thank you, Elder, for bringing this child back. Please be careful on the way, Elder Old Dragon,” he added.

The old man did not turn his head as he left and just waved his hand in acknowledgement.

Arthur waited until the old man disappeared from the horizon completely before picking himself up.

He then turned to the household and wore a devious grin. “I wonder how those guys are doing. Should I give them the ‘souvenirs’ that I have gotten from the Sunset Dragon Valley?”

……

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