Villain: The Play of Destiny

As Keith slowly lay Samrath's dead body on the ground, he placed his left hand on the late Child of Destiny's chest, right over his heart that had stopped beating.

He heard a system prompt in his mind, and right then he felt something surreal and ethereal reach out to his hand. The next instant, an extremely blissful feeling washed over his senses, making his entire body tremble in excitement.

He saw it in his Mind's Eye, a small red cube with pulsating golden inscriptions that even he could not read, settle down in his heart, connecting itself to his Life Force, just like a seed sprouting its roots.

Surprisingly, the process only took a moment, almost as if he possessed an absolute affinity for the Book of Life, and Keith felt like a missing piece of his soul had been returned to him.

He could not describe the feeling in better words than that.

[Congratulations, Host, for completing the Main Quest 5! The Child of Destiny, Samrath Arya, has been eliminated.]

[Rewards: 1675 Fate Points, 2000 System Experience, 2500 System Points.]

[Final Reward, The Fourth Fragment of the Book of Life, has been harvested and linked to Host's Heart.]

His eyes suddenly changed Colour, turning from deep brown to Black, to Amethyst, and then settling to Red colour. But unlike before, he could sense it, so he immediately changed his eyes back to their false shade to avoid people, who were approaching him, getting distracted by them.

He slowly stood up and indifferently looked at Samrath's lifeless body.

Keith knew that a man like Samrath, who had gathered immense Good Karma in his life, despite how short it was, would ultimately go through reincarnation, and he had a hunch that he would be reborn again as a Child of Destiny as compensation for his miserable end in the last life.

He hoped that Samrath would not be born again with a Treasure that he could not let him keep, and if his soul was still worth it when the time came, he would not mind keeping him as his subordinate. Then again, it would only be after meeting the man in the future that he would decide his fate.

Or maybe, they would never have to cross paths again.

And if he turned out to be someone with stubborn righteousness, somehow gained the memories, and chased after him, he would have to find a way to eradicate his soul to prevent him from getting reborn again. Or he would simply wait for the boy to become Immortal and lose his Mortality before dealing with him.

Immortals could not go through reincarnation as Mortals could, and if he killed someone like Yexuan, whose soul was that of an Immortal Sovereign, the poor him would never come back to life.

He waited for the people to arrive at the place, and it only took a minute before his ladies arrived, and with them were a group of Blood Guards, as well as Samrath's last Guard who had been waiting for him in the Magic City.

The moment he saw the corpses of his companions, the man felt dizzy, and he staggered as he approached them one by one, shedding tears.

He had lost contact with them, and since he could not reach anyone, he felt a little restless and arrived at the Mourntale Estate, where he met Rebecca and asked for her help in locating his Young Master.

Unbeknownst to him, his every action was under the influence of Keith, who was manipulating his mind just so what happened here could have a Witness from the Arya's side.

It did not concern him as they could not do anything to him even if the blame fell on him, but he did not want any unnecessary hassle, and since things had turned out this way, he needed a witness for another minor matter as well.

"Lord Erebus..."

"He's Samrath." Keith lightly said, pointing at the extremely old man's corpse that was lying on the ground by his side. "His Life Force was drained." He informed him but did not give any explanation.

The man did not require an explanation either as his body just swayed to the chaos of his mind and heart when he heard the words, and then he dropped to the ground and shed his tears.

"Help him." Keith turned to look at the Blood Guards. "And seal the perimeter. Kill anyone who tries to force their way through." He ordered.

"Yes!" The Blood Guards responded and contacted the rest as they disappeared into blurs, only two remained behind to help the Arya Guard with the corpses.

Keith crouched down and placed his right hand on the ground, which soon trembled, and then thick roots sprouted from it, soon taking the forms of caskets.

Once he was done creating coffins for the corpses present there, he created another one, which made his blonde wife curiously raise her brow.

"For Yexuan." He lightly said before storing it away and his figure blurred, heading towards his prey.

Rebecca, Amelia, Yingying, Iseul, Kiara, and Minami followed right after him, and all of them frowned when they arrived by the side of a natural lake, several miles away from the place where Samrath and his Shadow Guards were slain, and they watched Keith get busy, creating an Illusion in the area using his Magic.

Rebecca met his eyes and immediately got to work as well, reinforcing the Illusion, and it took them nearly half an hour to perfect it.

Keith then simply created chairs for all of them and sat down on his.

"Yexuan?" Amelia asked, looking at the lake.

"He dived into the water, and then disappeared." He informed them. "He will likely stay inside the Steele of Time & Space for a couple of days or even more. But we can't be sure."

All of them nodded their heads and then took their positions, keeping their eyes on the lake, ready for any movement.

"Keith," Amelia called out to him after an hour, and he curiously looked at her.

"What were those 'Fields' that were trying to influence our minds and turn us away? There were Sound Isolation fields as well, and a weak Mirage..."

"Arrays and Formations," Keith told her.

"Yexuan was taking every caution and created those Arrays and Formations, which were very High-Grade and were still effective even though they were not displaying their true potential. This world lacks the natural Aura and Mana to make them work properly. Also, the things he used were not right either and were artificially refined by him for this very purpose. Again, because the right materials are not found in this world."

"How powerful would those Arrays and Formations be if they were done right?" Kiara curiously asked.

"Powerful enough to Isolate a territory as large as our world." He smiled to the surprise on their faces.

"He was not some weak Auror in the Time he has returned from." Yingying frowned, becoming even more cautious about the battle they were going to take part in.

"I guess not." He shrugged. "You saw how refined he was in combat back at the Trials, and his methods are meticulous. Besides, any weak Auror would never have been able to get their hands on the Heart's Blood of a Divine Dragon, or on the Steele of Time and Space for that matter."

"I really thought that you were planning on waiting for a few more months to deal with him and that you would not let us join the fun." Rebecca playfully said, and he could only smile at her words. "Why the change of mind?"

"I feel that it is the right time to deal with him."

She knew he was keeping something from them, but still nodded her head, not insisting he tell them what exactly made him change his mind.

Rebecca was right though. There was indeed something that made him change his mind, and it was quite a pleasant surprise.

Keith had been keeping eyes on both Samrath and Yexuan for the last few days, and he had been observing the changes in their Fate Values, both of which had stopped fluctuating and stagnated yesterday.

He guessed that it was likely because of what was going to happen, and his guess proved right.

Tonight, when the two Children of Destiny fought against each other, half of the fate value that Samrath was losing was passed to him, and the other half went to Yexuan, but at the same time, he kept losing his Fate Value as well.

It was all because Destiny had changed its Plans, and because Yexuan had been manipulated by him into going as far as to kill another Child of Destiny, a righteous one at that.

His personality had drastically changed after coming to this Timeline, and his once good heart was now corrupted, something that went against the initial Plan of Destiny.

However, Yexuan was still gaining more Fate Value than he was losing until the point when Keith arrived and stopped him from landing the last blow on Samrath, and when he himself discretely ended the Young Arya's life, Yexuan lost all the Fate Value he had gained from Samrath and even more.

He lost a total of a whopping 2200 Fate Value, of which, 1800 was his own.

The time in his Invincible Halo had been shortened as well, but at the same time, Destiny had seemingly helped him a little by fastening the process of assimilating the drop of Heart's Blood that he had in his body.

He was going to gain strength, and though the chances remained the same for him to reach the completion of Primal Desolation before his Invincible Halo would run off, Keith's instincts were telling him that he would escape from his hands if he waited anymore.

And he trusted in his instincts more than numbers.

Therefore, he had gathered them all here with him.

With Amelia and Rebecca there, two blessed by Destiny, one his favourite Child, and the other its favourite Heroine, Keith was looking forward to the misery and helplessness of Yexuan as he would meet his end at their hands.