Insea City, Right Isle.

If the Left Isle of Insea City could be considered a place that’s abnormally peaceful and orderly, with an incredibly low crime rate and corruption, then the Right Isle was the exact opposite.

Here, poverty was the norm, plenty of crooks roamed the streets, thieves would find this place haven, and gangs brought terror and fear to the masses. Most importantly, superpowers run rampant.

“GO KILL YOURSELF, YOU FUCKING WHITE TIGER BASTARDS!” A man wearing a black-colored outfit shouted in an enraged tone, with the knives floating around his body shooting forward like arrows.

Standing on the opposite street was a man wearing predominantly white, and he had a mocking grin on his face as he stomped his foot to the ground, causing a wall of electricity to erupt out of the ground to block the flying knives.

“Accept defeat, Black Turtle Gang! This area is now ours!” Another man wearing a white-themed outfit rushed forward, transforming into a large jaguar with shadows slithering around him.

The man standing beside Flying Knives Guy gritted his teeth and opened his mouth wide. In the next moment, poisonous gas spewed out, covering the area ahead of him with toxins.

The shadowy jaguar didn’t fear the poisonous gas though as it transformed into a blurry shadow, phasing through the purple cloud and arriving right before the man.

Flying Knives Guy quickly reacted and conjured a new knife in his hand, stabbing it forward at breakneck speeds.

The chaotic scene ensued in the northwestern part of the Right Isle, affecting many normal citizens as they hid away in fear. They cowered in their homes or in the slums they lived in and watched with horrified eyes as the battle continued to intensify.

Amidst the crowd of helpless civilians, Poppy watched with curiosity at the ensuing fight while thinking to himself, I guess I found the perfect gang to take over later.

Now, I only need to have a “normal history” in the eyes of Aegis, start selling drugs, get forced to join a gang, and secretly make their leader my puppet.

I should be able to do this by tomorrow or somewhere around this week.

As he watched the fight turn more chaotic, he silently stepped back, disappearing into the darkness of the alleys as he prepared to find his perfect prey.

…

Christopher walked along the roads of Dery City with a hazy mind.

For months now, his heart and mind have been in turmoil over the constant series of things he had to deal with.

No matter how mature he may have gotten in the three months he had spent working for Aegis, it still didn’t change the fact that he was just a teenager who wasn’t even an adult yet. It didn’t matter if he was a Demigod or a figure viewed with respect and awe by many, a kid is still a kid.

This only made Braun all the more abnormal compared to others as he took the change with such openness that he didn’t even experience any emotional turmoil. He took everything in stride and didn’t fear challenging Aegis, a worldwide force with ten Level 6 and above entities.

If Christopher was in Braun’s shoes, he wouldn’t even dare imagine opposing Aegis, much less offend a Demigod as a mere Level 3.

This realization weighed heavy in his head as he felt the gap between him and Braun had become so wide.

Even though I’m the stronger one when it comes to individual strength, in terms of everything else, he’s grown much more.

He sighed as he walked and viewed the street around him where clouds of fate blended, partially obstructing his view.

Since discovering the death of Tabia, he had been relentlessly scouting the city in search of the turbulent clouds of fate and eliminating the hidden threat known as Braun’s avatar.

Of course, as expected of someone of Braun’s caliber, trying to locate his avatar was incredibly hard as the source was hidden amidst a whole area of turbulent clouds, with people infected by destiny spreading the disease to more and more people.

He took off his glasses and rested his eyes. Wearing the glasses strained his eyes, and he had to periodically remove them to recuperate, or else he’d suffer from some serious vision problems.

However, as a Demigod, he can effortlessly heal any damage brought by the Level 3 artifact, but it was still better to be safe than sorry.

As he turned to look around the street he was in, he curiously watched the wandering passersby and strangely found a crowd gathering in a certain corner of the street.

Hmm? He slowly approached the crowd of people.

Nobody noticed his strange white hair and eyes as he seamlessly blended in with the crowd, appearing inconspicuous even with his distinct features.

Using his ability, he surveyed the area a few meters ahead of him while hiding within the dense crowd and saw a strange sight.

A magic show?

In front of the entire crowd, there was a tiny stall situated right in front of a vacant alley with a simple design consisting of a wooden table, and plastic chairs, along with various items placed on the table like cards, a crystal ball, a pendant, and all sorts stuff that you’d see in a diviner’s lair.

Sitting behind the table was a man with jet-black hair and light brown eyes who wore a bizarre black cloak that covered most of his body and face, leaving only his distinct charismatic smile to be seen clearly.

Waving his hand, the man grabbed the glimmering golden coin on the table and stared intently at the woman in front of him.

“What would you like to know, Madam?” he asked softly, his voice containing a magnetic allure.

The woman sitting before him couldn’t contain her excitement as she quickly asked, “Will I win if I were to bet all of my money on Horse Number 5 on today’s national horse racing championship?”

“Greedy, aren’t we?” the man said with a faintly mocking tone, yet his hands swiftly moved as he tossed the golden coin high into the air. When it landed, the top of the coin showed heads. “Luckily for you, yes, you’d win.”

Upon hearing his answer, nearly the entire crowd whipped out their phone and moved to the website where they could bet their money on horses.

Without any ounce of hesitation, they quickly bet a ton of money into Horse Number 5 just before the round started, and their eyes shone with lustrous light.

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“What…” Christopher squinted his eyes and wondered what madness was happening. I didn’t feel any fluctuation of super force back when he flipped the coin, so he shouldn’t have a superpower, but why is everyone betting on Horse Number 5 all of a sudden?

Do they trust the man that much?

Christopher decided to look for answers and asked the man beside him who also placed a ton of money on Horse Number 5.

“Hey, why is everyone betting on 5 all of a sudden? What if he actually guessed wrong?” he asked softly.

“Him guessing wrong?” the man almost laughed when he heard that question. “You must have been living under a rock if you don’t know about him!”

“Is he famous or something? I just got here yesterday and it’s the first time I’ve heard of something like this,” Christopher muttered.

“Ahh, I see.” The man nodded his head as he finally understood why Christopher was ignorant of the situation. “Well, it’s kind of a long story.”

“But a week ago, the Divine Prophet began wandering around the city, divining the truth for others for a small fee. Since the very start, not once was he wrong! And…” the man grinned victoriously as he stared at the screen on his phone showing Horse Number 5 winning first place.

“If you asked the right questions, you could earn a huge profit!”

A sonorous cheer resounded as everyone felt euphoria bubble within their hearts.

Within a few minutes, they’ve effectively earned thousands of dollars.

Christopher’s eyes glinted with white light as he saw the result of the Divine Prophet’s divination and felt that something was wrong.

There may be humans with inhumane abilities even without crystals, such as being born with divine strength or having an unnatural sense of luck, but this one’s too different.

It’s a lot like those conditional-type abilities. Many divination-based abilities at lower levels require some sort of medium to activate, like Tarot Card Reading or Water Deciphering, and all of the items on his table are like that…

He silently took a few steps forward to try and get a closer look, but the man suddenly flipped the coin once more and it landed on heads.

“So you’re here, eh, Christopher?” the man looked up, staring Christopher directly in the eyes.

Familiarity washed over him as he instantaneously realized who the man was.

Braun?!

Although he was shocked, Christopher quickly reacted by sealing the space within the area, while also putting the crowd to sleep.

Their bodies fell to the ground one by one, cushioned by a soft layer of wind.

“Oh damn, I didn’t expect that.” The divine prophet calmly raised his arms.

“I’m not here to fight. I’m here to negotiate,” he said blandly.

“Sure.” Christopher swung his hand and launched a deadly curved blade of space.

“Oh, fuck you,” the cloaked avatar ducked to the ground, narrowly avoiding the blade. “I’m telling you, I’m really here to negotiate.”

Christopher didn’t bother to listen as he clasped his hands together, trapping the cloaked avatar in a cage of space.

“I’m going to give you the location of three other avatars, and you can kill me in the end. But before that, you must not kill me!” the avatar shouted.

“Wow, that sounds so genius,” Christopher sarcastically said and launched a spear of space, puncturing the avatar right in the stomach.

“Fuck…” the avatar’s eyes glowed green as he pulled out the spear and healed his wound.

Christopher continued to launch deadly weapons of space to the avatar’s way, dragging him deeper into the empty alley so that the innocent civilians around them wouldn’t get implicated.

The avatar frustratedly dodged Christopher’s attacks, with his eyes glowing a brighter shade of green.

Why isn’t he listening? Why is he so fucking stupid? My deal is practically the best one for him!

I’ve already spent a week straight divining the proper response I should say to him, but-

“Wait a damn minute…” the avatar unknowingly slowed down, causing a blade of space to hit his arm. He hissed in pain as he crutched the missing lump on his left shoulder, but his gaze turned dark and cold.

I know that those three bastards trying to kill me made me angry, but it shouldn’t have been to the point that I actively sought out revenge by purposefully staying in this city, waiting for Christopher to arrive, and using him as a tool to target them.

That’s way too risky of a plan, especially with my non-combat-oriented abilities. How would I even have the means of escaping his clutches when he did successfully kill those other three?

Fuck, fuck, fuck! This was a trap! Someone manipulated me! The avatar gritted his teeth as the veil covering his mind was lifted.

There was only one person who could have bypassed his mind’s ever-evolving and adapting state. It was none other than Freidrich Braun, the original Braun!

Goddamn it, DAMN IT! The avatar’s left shoulder began to wriggle as new flesh sprouted out.

Even though he uncovered the truth and cleared his cloudy mind, there was still nothing he could do to avert his current fate. He was going to die here and now, with no way of escape.

The gap between Level 3 and Level 4 was large enough already, and Christopher just had to be at the peak of Level 4 when it came to combat strength, especially with his broken ass super force manipulation ability.

Christopher slowly approached the avatar, his expression cold as ever.

Think, think! What could you possibly do to live a moment longer? Reincarnation? Perhaps regression? Nah, none of them would work.

If I had a fully functional soul, then I could potentially leave behind a tiny wisp of it for future revival, but I’m sadly just a clone powered by a fragment of the cloning crystal. Perhaps transferring my memories would work, but without zenithral power, trying to survive Aegis’ hungry eyes would be virtually impossible.

Death is certain no matter what I think.

The heavy, oppresive feeling of death weighed on his mind as he felt utter despair the closer Christopher got, but then a voice spoke in his mind.

“What if you could reach Level 4? What if you could successfully ascend? You would not just survive, but even gain more power than the original?”

How am I gonna ascend though? There’s a limit placed on us, stopping us avatars from ascending beyond the peak of Level 3.

“And who told you that limit existed in the first place? Had you even tried actually ascending?”

… A wicked grin slowly crept on the avatar’s face as he mumbled, “I had not…”

Fuck it!

In the next moment, inside the metaphysical space within his body, over ten different crystals began to move closer and closer to the green flame in the center as their forms fragmented and warped.

Outside, Christopher felt the avatar’s aura rapidly increasing, like a volcano ready to erupt. Winds howled in the avatar’s presence as massive waves of energy pulsated from his body, bathing his entire figure in green flames.

“You’re gonna get cooked, Christopher! I’m going to become a Demigod now!” the avatar madly shouted. “AHAHAHAHAHAH!”

“I’m gonna become unstoppable-“

Christopher waved his hand and sent out another warped blade of space, decapitating the avatar.

The avatar’s body rolled to the ground, with blood leaking out of the bottom of its head.

“…” Christopher stared at the corpse of the avatar, wondering if he was hallucinating or if all of this was just an illusion. But as he tried to verify the reality of the situation using all sorts of means, he soon found that this was indeed reality.

“What just happened?” He couldn’t even begin to believe that it was actually all real, because, in his mind, even the stupidest version of Braun would have more common sense than this avatar.

“It’s simple. I fucked with his mind so I could comprehend more of the intricacies of fate and the concept of control,” a voice lightly responded from behind.

Christopher widened his eyes and turned to look, but as he did so, he found himself standing in a strange black void.

“Don’t bother attacking, this is just an illusion constructed with light. Use your other senses and you’re still in front of that stall.” A man with pale white skin, obsidian-black eyes, and wildly grown hair stood on top of nothingness.

“You’re…” Christopher was dazed by the sight.

“The one and only.” He grinned and stepped forward. “Long time no see, for real this time, Christopher.”

Christopher was about to say something when he suddenly felt the space behind him warp, and all of his other senses turned dull for just a split second.

The illusion then disappeared, and when he looked back, he saw that the corpse of the avatar was already missing, and all signs of Braun disappeared.

…

“That was pretty scary,” Braun mumbled in his pocket dimension as many of his hatchlings skittered around.

In his hand, he held a strange floating mass of light that was sometimes corporeal and sometimes ethereal. Its form continued to change, turning crystalline and at times constructed out of light.

“To control destiny would be one of the highest forms of controlling already. It contains the domain of mind, probability, luck, causality, it’s essentially a broken ability.”

“I still don’t know how important comprehension is at the Demigod level, but it should be a vital factor in reaching higher levels, so I better start early.” Braun smiled and continued to fiddle with the strange thing in his hand.

I already have one incomplete Level 4 crystal in my hand for the luck and divination abilities. I necessarily don’t need incomplete Level 4 crystals, but I’d much rather use them. Let’s see if I can kill off some avatars indirectly for the probability and causality domains I still need before the climactic day arrives.

Braun casually placed the incomplete Level 4 crystal to his side without even bothering to spare it another glance.

This wasn’t his first incomplete Level 4 crystal, and it was sure as hell not going to be his last.