"It's not here..." Thal said not sensing the other demon king.
They checked every boss room up to now.
That was the entire reason for LFTO to storm this raid, they wanted to find the demon-king of portals so that they could get to Lorb's room, they had no way to know Lorb was already dead for a while.
"What do you mean? The demon king is supposed to be here!" Jordan exclaimed, he looked at the pile of loot, swords, wands, clothes, armour and toy items.
"Calm down! It's been thousands of years, he must have been moved..." Thal barked.
"We'll just have to find him again!" Thal said reluctantly.
Everyone fell silent, a few non-LFTO players were cheering and celebrating their victory.
"Alright! Let's start dividing the loot!" Curstl said trying to get the people's spirits up.
"YEAH!" a few non-LFTO members cheered.
"Indeed, let's make use of the experience and items we gained here!" Bonifacius said looking to John and the rest of his party.
The group divided the loot, it was a simple system, if you wanted to sign up for an item and didn't previously get anything you would roll a pair of wooden dice and the one with the highest number wins the item.
Bonifacius was able to get a replacement shield, it was a bit better than his last.
The Thief got a pair of boots that boosted her acrobatics stat.
Curstl got a wand.
Rootin' and Shootin' got a rifle and a pistol
Bromy and Crown got a few trinkets and rings.
Revenberry got a new staff.
Jordan got a better cape that makes him immune to fire as long as it's man-made in origin.
Alex got a necklace that increased his strength stat.
JohnWillStab failed to get any items thus far, desperate, he signed up for any and all items, in the end, he was able to get one.
A toy item that separated light like a prism.
"Nice!" Bromy exclaimed sarcastically.
"..."
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"It's better than nothing..." John said, his expression bitter.
"All that shit we went through... for this..."
They headed out of the raid, with a mix of good and bad morale and a recently unblocked entrance they stepped out into the sunlight for the first time in almost three days.
Not that three days without sunlight was a big deal to no-lives like them.
"Thank god it's over!" exclaimed one raider.
"I know right!"
"At least we got some loot!"
"Yeah... won't be signing up for another raid any time soon though!"
Their causal talk was interrupted when they saw him, Arthur accompanied by a depressed-looking frogman.
"ARTHUR!" John and Foxly exclaimed in unison.
"Foxly? JohnWillStab? You really did go into the first raid even! Congratulations!" Arthur clapped as Grim played a triumphant melody on his guitar.
"Anyway, I'm very glad you decided to come out here and perform your acts of heroism! Because..." Arthur produced his staff from seemingly nowhere.
"Now I have a hit-list of the strongest players!" he grinned.
"WAIT, WHO-!"
"TOO LATE!" Arthur exclaimed as he pointed the staff at them.
As a crack of white light flew at them accompanied by the sound of space-time shattering, JohnWillStab moved in to take the hit,
In his hand his crappy toy item.
"IT'S A WHITE CRACK! IT'LL DELETE HIS SOUL!" Foxly realised remembering his previous fight with Arthur.
"OH SHIT!" he exclaimed as the spell smashed into the toy, breaking it in half and turned into a massive burst of white light.
"JOHN!" exclaimed the Thief as Arthur took a step back.
When the light faded away Arthur's eyes widened.
"Interesting..." he remarked scratching his chin.
"...weird..." Grim remarked.
"That's not what the toy did in-game..." he added.
"What happened?" asked John, sitting up, he held half of the toy in his hand.
"Hmm... logically speaking, the toy ball was meant to split up light, so perhaps that could be extended to spells? Maybe I only too half of the intended damage?" John replied.
The two JohnWillStab locked eyes with each other.
"What the hell?!" they both demanded.
The first John stood up, his hair was longer than usual, he had his moustache and a red headband, his coat was longer and with a longer, more pronounced collar.
He didn't wear a shirt under the coat.
The other John stood up and patted his clothes clean.
He wore a blue vest over a white blouse.
His hair was shorter and on his nose was a pair of reading glasses.
"Who're you?" asked the headband-wearing John.
"I'm..." the blue-vest John looked around as the events came together in his head.
"The toy was meant to split up light, if we extrapolate that ability to magic, it would make sense that Arthur's cracking spell ended up separating us in two instead of killing us," he explained.
"...what?" asked the red-headband, John.
"I'm..."
"I'm JohnWillSmart! The logical and strategic portion of John's character!" exclaimed the blue vest, John.
"And I'm...?" asked the red-headband John with a raised eyebrow.
"You must be the edginess and showmanship... you're JohnWillEdge!"
[https://i.imgur.com/ZOtICVq.png]
"I'm super glad about your self-discovery, boys, but we kind of have a problem on your hands!" Crown exclaimed pointing at Arthur.
"Hmmm... interesting... JohnWillSmart and JohnWillEdge..."
"I wonder if I could... exploit one of them?" he thought as he clapped his hands once and turned to Grim.
"Perhaps one of the Johns would join our cause?" asked Arthur turning his gaze to the two.
"..."
"..."
"Fuck that!" JohnWillEdge said throwing his coat off and exposing his very average body.
"Imma kick your ass here and now!"
JohnWillSmart sighed.
"Hmph..."
"Huh..." Arthur looked amused.
JohnWillSmar looked at his group and stepped forward.
"John?" asked Bonifacius.
Everyone's eyes followed him.
"What is that dumbass planning?!" thought Bromy.
"I'll hear you out, maybe you have a good reason to be murderous..." said JohnWillSmart.
Everyone went silent, even Arthur seemed surprised.
"Perfect!" Arthur looked to Grim and nodded.
"Alright! Kill the rest of them!" Arthur said as JohnWillStab raised a hand up in protest.
"JUST YOU TRY! I'LL PROTECT EVERYONE HERE!" exclaimed JohnWillEdge.
"HELL YEAH! I DON'T KNOW WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU, BUT IT LOOKS LIKE YOU FINALLY GREW A PAIR!" Bolst exclaimed running up beside JohnWillEdge ready for a brawl.
"Not so fast, I said I'd hear you out, if you want me to consider your proposal you'll leave them alone, they barely managed to beat the three bosses anyway..." JohnWillSmart said dismissively.
"..." Arthur looked at JohnWillSmart suspiciously.
He let out a sigh.
"Very well, as a sign of goodwill, I won't have them be the test subjects for Grim's new skill..." Arthur agreed.
Grim sighed.
"Alright, let's get going then, no point standing around here..." said JohnWillSmart as Arthur cracked open a portal to the palace under the sea.
"Well said!" Arthur cheered as he three entered the portal.
"John?" asked the Thief, JohnWillSmart didn't even look back as the portal closed with John already on the other side.
All around the group blue lines appeared, they were Grim's strings, he deactivated his trap.
They were standing at death's door this whole time, without even noticing.
"..."
"Where'd four-eyes go?" asked JohnWillEdge, still grinning pridefully.