Alex quickly scanned his surroundings, his sharp eyes darting left and right.
Hundreds of participants were rushing toward him from both sides, their intent unmistakable.
Not everyone had chosen to fight, some had decided to remain in their rooms, unwilling to risk their lives in battle, but the vast majority had no such hesitation.
They had been told that killing a human was one of the easiest ways to be recognized by the trial and prove their worth.
And Alex was the perfect target.
A golden ticket to the bloodline.
“You can’t fight them all,” Alphox’s deep voice echoed in his mind. “Find another way.”
Alex could hear the frustration in his tone.
The dragon hated feeling powerless.
He could of course appear to deal with all these lowly beings as well, but that was stupid.
There was a reason why he left Alex ten kilometers from the city when traveling there: he didn’t want to get detected.
“I’d help, but if I materialize, I’ll be detected immediately,” Alphox added.
“I know,” Alex muttered.
Alphox, once a Primordial Dragon, was supposed to be dead.
The moment he revealed himself, the ten current Primordial Dragons would sense his presence.
They would descend upon the temple without hesitation, determined to erase him from existence.
And they wouldn’t stop there.
Alex would be caught in the crossfire simply because he was the Shadow Dragon’s host.
“Use the undead,” a new voice chimed in, one Alex rarely heard.
He in fact hadn’t heard it much at all in the few months leading to the trial.
It was the Undead King, speaking with an unusual excitement.
“Come on,” he urged.
It was rare for him to speak, but that didn’t mean he hadn’t been watching.
In fact, just like Alphox, he was always observing, always waiting.
“Yeah, I could do that,” Alex mused.
There was a reason the idea had come to mind.
Normally, his undead summons were too weak to be useful in large battles.
They took only 50% of his stats, which, until recently, had been under 100,000.
That meant his skeletons had barely 50,000 attribute points, far too weak to stand against the high-level monsters and players he often faced.
But now… things were different.
After receiving the [God’s Blessing], Alex had gained over a million attribute points.
And since his undead inherited half of his stats, that meant even the weakest skeletons would now have 500,000 attribute points each.
That was enough to let them go head-to-head with level 1,000 monsters.
Of course, his “stronger” summons, or at least that’s what they were when he first got them, the [Grand Skeletons], [Bony Knights], and [Spectral Wraiths], were still weak by comparison.
Their stats were fixed, meaning they couldn’t evolve alongside him.
But even so, just summoning basic skeletons would be enough to hold his ground.
Yet…
“I don’t need to do that,” Alex grinned, ‘And showing my undead now wouldn’t be very smart.’
There were some necromancers in Universal Descent, obviously, but as said before, the strongest one of them all is Lich.
He was the one that had enslaved the undead and [Undead Land] in Alex’s past life.
He would have to get rid of him eventually since he had caused millions of deaths with his undead previously.
But first, he needed to let his undead army grow, and get stronger himself to face Lich.
“Then how do you plan to beat them all?” Alphox sounded more panicked than Alex.
Alphox didn’t care much when they first met.
But now, he had a reason to fight.
He wanted revenge against the Primordial Dragons, and Alex was the perfect partner for that.
“I’ll just…” Alex closed his eyes. “Use the power of a god.”
[Destiny Points: 93/100]
He couldn’t use [World Cleaver] just yet, but there was another ability, one that would do the job just fine.
[Fated Cataclysm]
It took time to activate, but he would have two [Destiny Shifts] left.
As long as he used them wisely, he’d survive.
If he died here, he wouldn’t just lose the battle, he’d be disqualified from the bloodline trial.
If that happened, he could forget about obtaining a bloodline, and worse, Arceus would never let him into the [Mage Tower] without one.
That wasn’t an option.
Without hesitation, he activated his skill.
[Fated Cataclysm]
[Allows the user to summon a massive explosion of raw destiny energy, obliterating everything in its path. Consumes 70 Destiny Points, no cooldown.]
A golden orb formed in his hand, humming with raw power.
It slowly drifted upward, embedding itself in the ceiling above.
“Get him!”
“He can’t take us all on!”
“Stay out of my way! Whoever kills him is set for life!”
The participants were desperate.
Every single one of them saw him as a stepping stone to their own success.
But Alex only smiled.
“Come at me!” he shouted.
He knew that if anyone survived the aftermath, he couldn’t afford to reveal too much.
He was lucky Alphox had guided him to the fifth hallway, the one with the ‘weakest’ participants.
If he had encountered powerhouses at level 1,800 or 1,900, things would have been different.
He would have been forced to use [World Cleaver], a skill he had never used before, one that required more Destiny Points than he currently had.
Instead, he gambled that this would be enough.
Above him, the golden orb grew larger and larger, drawing in his divine aura.
The ceiling itself began to crack under the pressure.
Then, the attacks began.
Spells rained down on him from all directions, fire, ice, lightning, void energy, and even blood magic.
At the same time, dozens of warriors lunged at him, swords, spears, and claws gleaming in the dim temple light. Read exclusive chapters at My Virtual Library Empire
Alex twisted and dodged, avoiding as many attacks as possible.
[+1 Destiny Point!]
[+1 Destiny Point!]
[+1 Destiny Point!]
He grinned.
This was exactly what he wanted.
The more danger he faced, the more Destiny Points he gained.
Every successful dodge, every close call, it all fed into his power.
Using [Bleeding Claws], he slashed through one of his attackers and used their falling body as a springboard, flipping over a wave of incoming spells.
But then—
CRACK!
A stunning spell struck him in the chest, locking his muscles in place.
“Argh—!”
Before he could recover, the others swarmed him.
Blades carved into his body.
Spells exploded on impact.
His health plummeted.
And then—
Destiny Shift!
[Undoing Death.]
The fact that there were so many enemies actually worked in his favor.
He gained Destiny Points faster than he lost them right now because of avoiding the attacks.
Even though [Destiny Shift] cost 10 Destiny Points to activate, he was regaining them so quickly that he was effectively immortal.
He fought for nearly a full minute, dodging, striking, and dying multiple times.
The golden orb in the ceiling finished charging.
A deep hum filled the air, vibrating through the entire temple.
The ceiling shattered.
And then—
BOOOOOOOOOOOM!
A massive explosion of golden energy erupted, consuming everything in its path.
The shockwave blasted through the temple, shaking the walls and sending debris flying in all directions.
Outside, all of [Dragon City] could hear the detonation.
Inside, every single opponent who wasn’t safely locked inside their room was vaporized.
Alex stood alone in the center of the devastation, untouched by his own attack.
And just like that, the battlefield was silent.