"So are you guys leaving?" asked Larry the green-furred wolfman.

They were sitting at the inn located in the druid-only zone, Moomglade.

Crown looked back to him, she was five bottles into getting piss-drunk.

"Well... I asked Bromy about it and he said..." she put on a perfect Bromy impression.

"No way in hell am I letting those two get in the way of the druid-centric arc! Tell me when they're done..."

Crown cleared her throat.

"And then he went to drink."

Larry took a sip of his booze.

"That's a good Bromy impression!"

"Thanks..."

"Guess I'll switch to a DPS druid... since healing isn't really an option..." she sighed.

"Just train your healing-company to be really good healers!" Larry suggested.

Crown rolled her eyes.

"I wonder what's going on there, though..." Larry thought thinking back to the message they got.

At the jGuardian base, in the Rolling Plains...

Rain pummeled the earth below, it was more water than this zone has seen in years, massive flooding took place all over the Rolling Plains as Grim played the magic song of rain calling.

He was stationed exactly where JohnWillSmart instructed him.

So was Marble, the only thing that went against his plans was John's inability to find Curstl and his fight with Edge.

Back in the game, the rain-song spell functioned as more of a fun spell since aside from extinguishing torches, fires and breaking some gun types, the spell was useless.

The hordes of sea-princes, level one-hundred raid NPCs slithered forward.

The rain gave them temporary passage onto land.

As JohnWillSmart and JohnWillEdge had their relatively quiet fight atop the jGuardian base, the forces of the sea advanced.

"WHAT THE HELL IS THAT!?" demanded the jGuardian guard, before him stood the massive, serpent-legged creature, with a single roar the creature sent the guard into a panic as he began running for his life, away from the base.

More jGuardians charged at the beast.

White scales coated its body, a dragon-like head with large shark-teeth jutting out as it slithered towards their base.

In its hand it dragged a chain, on either side of it was a cleaver.

The guard looked back and saw another dozen ranged-jGuardians.

With a single slash of the chain-blade it severed them into bits, sending armour and limbs flying across the field.

"THEY'RE TOO STRONG! FALL BACK!" exclaimed a jGuardian, moments later he was sent flying like a ragdoll, smashing into the rock wall of the jGuardian base by a different foe.

Like a Fishman with the tail of an actual fish, there stood a siren.

Once the member of an elite raiding guild, now standing at a blurry middle between a person and a mindless NPC afflicted by the curse of the long-dead raid boss.

Unlike the other snake-tailed creatures, the siren wore massive armour made from metal plates created by Marble.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"DEATH TO THE SURFACE DWELLERS!" cried the siren as he charged forward, faster and more brutal than any of the sea princes, snatching up jGuardians and tearing them in two.

Atop the base, JohnWillSmart could feel the trembling of the building.

"Where the hell are the others?!..." JohnWillSmart demanded.

They stood in Curstl's room, two large balconies stood on either side of the room, a stairwell down led to another part of the base.

An oversized bed stood in the centre of the room, all around stood bookshelves, fancy chairs and tables.

JohnWillEdge grinned victoriously.

"Hah! I made sure they couldn't come here and play into your plans," Edge said victoriously.

"...you what?" asked Smart sounding completely bewildered.

"I locked them in the L.F.T.O base!" he laughed.

"Aw sweet! We have a base!" thought JohnWillSmart.

"HOLD ON! YOU WHAT!?" demanded Smart.

He gestured towards the snake army.

"You absolute fucking idiot!"

JohnWillEdge took a step back, he didn't expect Smart to just go out and insult him.

"If they realise I'm not on their side, then you will have to deal with an army of level one-hundred snake people wrecking shit!" JohnWillSmart said pointing to the legions around them.

He pinched the bridge of his nose.

"This is why I hate you so fucking much! Why did you do that?! Why did you lock them in the base!? Are you somehow convinced you're stronger than... well, ANY OTHER CLASS?!" Smart demanded.

"Tch!" JohnWillEdge crossed his arms.

"No, don't avoid the fucking question, why would you do that!?" Smart demanded walking right up to Edge.

"I didn't want them to get hurt, that's all!" Edge exclaimed.

Smart rolled his eyes.

"Alright, and the reason you decided to leave your own guild in volume one?" he asked impatiently.

"I... didn't want to have everyone dealing with my goal,"

"And just how many NPCs have you killed since that day?" asked JohnWillSmart.

"What about non-human NPCs?"

JohnWillEdge moved in for a hit, ready to sever Smart's head only for Smart to dodge the attack.

"You THINK you're the righteous John because you're too much of an idiot to realise you're living a lie!"

He crossed his arms.

"You're just an attention whore!" JohnWillSmart exclaimed.

"God forbid anyone else gets a tiny little bit of 'screen time' while your ass is on the battlefield!"

"It's times like this I think Alex should have been the main character!" Smart finally said.

Edge punched Smart square in the face.

"You take that back, asshole! I'm not the traitor here!" Edge said pushing Smart to the ground and planting a punch to his face.

Smart shadow-stepped out causing Edge's second punch to hit the floor and not JohnWillSmart.

Smart wiped the blood from his nose.

"Every action you make is hollow! Every inner-monologue is just an excuse to yell 'hey I'm the good guy' at the reader's face!" JohnWillSmart shadow-stepped behind Edge and kicked him in the back, he shadow-stepped back but was met with a blade flying his way.

He caught it mid-air and looked back to Edge who was already running at him.

"I'm ACTUALLY trying to help everyone!" JohnWillSmart said.

"SHUT UP ALREADY!" Edge punched Smart in the gut, knocking him back and towards the large balcony.

"I'm done with you! You do nothing but hold me back!" Edge exclaimed as he grabbed Smart by the collar, if he tried to shadow-step away, Edge would be moved with him.

"You've been keeping me down for too long! Why can't John act like a sad idiot for once?! We've been living in a place where the water is thirty percent lead for YEARS and you've been keeping me buried for ALL THAT TIME!"

Edge pulled his head back and headbutted Smart.

"People were getting shot on a daily basis outside and you were A-OK WITH IT!"

"The only contact with John's family was a passive-aggressive letter BUT GOD FORBID JONH FEELS ANY SADNESS OVER IT!"

"NO JUST GO EAT SOME NOODLES AND PLAY A GAME OR SOMETHING!"

Edge pulled his head back again and performed another headbutt.

"PRETENDING THERE IS NO PROBLEM ISN'T THE SOLUTION, RETARD!" Edge headbutted him one more time before they both fell back to the ground, their faces bloodied.

They both breathed heavily.

"If we took your advice John would have been dead already..." JohnWillSmart sighed.

"Maybe we wouldn't be in this mess in the first place... if we listened to me..." JohnWillEdge replied.

JohnWillSmart slowly got to his feet, Edge did the same.

"I'm... just doing what's best for us..." Smart said.

"And look where that got us! You need to hand me the wheel..." Edge exclaimed.

Again the entire base trembled as the outside was ravaged by the siren.

JohnWillSmart let out a sigh.

"Look... I know you're not evil or anything... just... stupid... really fucking stupid..." JohnWillSmart admitted.

"I think we both know we can't stay apart forever... but-" JohnWillSmart began but was cut off.

"I'm here!" Arthur exclaimed, panting heavily after climbing all the stairs leading up to this room.

"Arthur!" JohnWillSmart exclaimed.

"That's a load of stair! But the cool entrance was worth it!" Arthur exclaimed.

"How was that a cool entrance?!" both Johns thought in unison.

Arthur looked up.

"It's the other John!" he exclaimed,

Arthur grinned smugly.

He pointed his staff forward towards JohnWillEdge.

Edge tried to get away but was dragged by Smart.

"What the hell!?" JohnWillEdge demanded as Smart shadow-stepped aside causing both of them to appear beside Arthur.

"Huh?" Arthur looked to JohnWillSmart.

"John?-" Arthur's question was cut off by JohnWillSmart's dagger digging into his side.

Arthur let out a gasp as he placed a hand to his wound.

"John?..."

JohnWillSmart snatched the staff from his hand, shattering it into bits.

With a kick from JohnWillEdge, Arthur began falling down the long flight of stairs.

"What happened..." thought Arthur.

The blade fell from his wound releasing a torrent of blood as his vision began to blur.

"So... after all... Grim and Marble were right... John wasn't our ally..."

As Arthur fell through the many floors he eventually managed to stop his tumble.

"..."

He stood up, his legs feeling shaky, he managed to make his way into an empty room with a chair and a bed.

"Friends... list... call... Grim..." he said as the familiar voice of the depressed frogman appeared in his head.

"What's up?" he asked.

Arthur did his best to sound excited.

"Guess what!? We did it! Curstl's dead!" Arthur exclaimed.

"Seriously?! Huh... guess I owe John an apology..." Grim replied.

"Yeah! Thing is I'm really low on mana, mind teleporting to the base with Marble and picking up the bag of party supplies from my room?" he asked.

"Both of us?"

"I mean... you're a frogman..." Arthur remarked.

"...that's fair..."

"Yeah, there's a Dungeons and Dargons board there too, make sure to bring it as well!"

"Sure, whatever..."

"Alright, goodbye, Grim," Arthur said as he hung up.

Arthur knew this was going to be how he perma-died.

He didn't stand a chance wounded and alone against two tenacious class users.

Not without his staff.

"I got so close... to ending all life here... I even killed Lorb..." Arthur thought.

"Is that too much to ask...?"

"I just... wanted to spare everyone the suffering..."

"Still... I do regret not playing a proper game of DnD with everyone..."

JohnWillSmart and JohnWillEdge could be heard bickering outside as they followed the trail of blood to Arthur's location.

The door smashed open revealing the two Johns, daggers and tenecirus tentacles at the ready.