"Well, that was...terrifying, really," Brian said after Azroc had vanished from their world.
"He is a lot. But he's a good guy. I like him." Tom replied chuckling slightly at Brian's first impression.
"Feel free to do that without me next time," Brian commented and began to walk toward the door of the Security Center. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have some other business to attend to."
Before he could open the door, it was thrust open and a security guard dressed in full tactical gear burst in panting from running.
"There's someone at the gate. Oh, good, you're all here. Tom, I think you'll want to talk to this guy." The guard informed him after looking around the room and seeing who all was gathered.
"What is it? Is everything okay? Are we under attack already?" Tom said frantically as he tensed with the unknown.
"No, I think we are safe. It's hard to explain. Can you just come to the gate?" The man asked.
"Okay. Lead the way." Tom asked, curious what would make the man run back here if there was no immediate danger.
Tom, Derek, James, Brian, TJ, Jay, and Kiera all left to follow the guard back to the gate to see what the fuss was about. When they reached the gate, a man stood at the guard house wearing a suit with a clergy collar.
"What the hell? What is a man of the cloth doing here at this time? Do they need our help?" Tom thought to himself as they neared the guard station.
"Hello, erm...father?" Tom said to the man in greeting.
The man jumped slightly as he gripped what appeared to be a bible in his hands close to his chest.
"Oh! Sorry, you did scare me, my boy." The man said in a high-pitched soft voice when Tom addressed him. "Yes, I'm Father Blakely. I am the uh, guild leader of, um The Master's Flock guild. I just came here to see what might have happened to cause you to declare war on our little congregation. Was it Billy? He has a bit of a thieving problem, but he's a good boy I promise. We don't want any trouble. We are just trying to survive this whole ordeal. I'm so sorry if he did anything to offend you...OR if any of us did, haha! Oh, dear."
Tom listened to the man stammer on trying to explain what he thought might have offended Tom and his guild.
"Wait, wait, wait. You mean to tell me that you are the guild leader for The Master's Flock? Not that psychopath who calls himself The Master?" Tom asked trying to wrap his head around what he was hearing.
"What? Oh no, there is no one who would dare to presume to be above our Lord and Savior and call themselves that. I am, or rather was, I suppose, the pastor of The Master's House Presbyterian church here in Dallas. We are a small congregation but we happened to be open for prayer when the, um, incident happened. We think this was the start of the apocalypse as foretold in Revelation." Father Blakely said quickly, seeing an opportunity to try to clear up the misunderstanding.
"Jesus fucking Christ in a banana hammock...oh, I mean...sorry Father." Tom said backpedaling after his words.
"It's quite alright my son. These are trying times and I'm sure the Lord would have laughed at that mental image as well." Father Blakely said, beginning to relax as Tom realized what had happened.
"So apparently we declared war on some poor small church instead of the person we were trying to offend. I'm so sorry Father Blakely. There has been a mix-up. We were trying to declare war on a man who has committed despicable crimes against humanity." Tom explained.
"Oh, my! What exactly has he done?" Father Blakely asked.
"He has found an item that allows him to use some kind of mental ability to control the actions of anyone wearing them making them his slaves. And now we found he is a necromancer as well and can raise the dead to fight for him." Tom said, getting angrier just thinking about what The Master had been doing.
"Oh, dear indeed! That is despicable. I am horrified to even think that someone might be doing such terrible things when all life is so precious now. We might be able to help. We are a small congregation, but most of the members are simple country folk who moved to Dallas due to the rising costs of farming and already slim profit margins. Most had to find other jobs in the city, but they are actually a fairly tough group. Maybe we could join forces? We have been looking for a way to keep the people safer than our church has been able to and you all look to be in a solid state of affairs." Father Blakely stated.
"Are you asking to join the guild?" Brian asked with resignation in his voice and a long sigh.
"Well, if you would have us. I don't want to burden you though, so we will pull our weight, I swear it on the good book." Father Blakely said.
"Well, we have had a massive influx, and food stores are already a little stretched..." Brian began to say, hoping to head off the conversation.
"Don't listen to him. We are happy to welcome anyone who is willing to pull their weight." Tom stared pointedly at Brian as he said this.
"Fine, fine. Whatever." Brian said putting his hands in the air in surrender and looking rather upset at the prospect of figuring out where these new people would be placed.
"So now we have to find The Master's Guild again in an endless list of names that mean nothing?" James asked from behind Tom.
"Actually, I would guess that The Master doesn't have a guild," Brian interjected.
"What do you mean?" Tom asked Brian, confused as to why this would be the case.
"Think about it. The requirements are needing a building, which there is no shortage of, as well as ten willing members. Since his slaves are likely no longer willing to do anything for him, he likely can't form a guild. So a formal declaration of war won't be possible. We will just need to deal with him without it." Brian explained. "I can't believe we didn't think of it before, but then again, we were angry and had just been in a battle and were flustered."
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
"That makes a lot of sense. So we just move ahead with war plans but forget the declaration of war. Alright. I'm okay with that. Now we make a plan and kick that motherfucker's ass. Oh...sorry again Father." Tom apologized.
"Not to worry, Tom. These are trying times for all of us." Father Blakely said chuckling slightly. "I'm just glad we could work through this misunderstanding. I was truly worried you might kill me on the spot. But I needed to come and try to speak with you for the sake of the people I watch over."
"Sorry again for the misunderstanding, Father. We only meant to stop this maniac from gaining more power." Tom apologized again and tried to be kind to Father Blakely.
"It's perfectly fine. This meeting went far better than I thought. My congregation doesn't actually even know I'm here. They wanted to attack you first to surprise you, but I talked them into waiting until we had more information." Father Blakely explained.
"I don't think that would have gone well for them given how you explained the size of your guild," Tom said skeptically.
"I agree. And without knowing anything about you I thought it was a terrible idea. Besides, I'm a bit of a pacifist myself. But I know that many in my flock are not. So I wanted to see if we could resolve this peacefully before that point." Father Blakely continued.
"I'm curious Father, have you reached level five yet?" Derek asked. "I'm sorry for asking, but my curiosity on this subject is piqued."
"Yes, unfortunately, I have. I have had to help defend the younger members from goblins on several occasions." Father Blakely replied. "Why do you ask?"
"I was curious what class a man of the cloth like you chose from the System," Derek explained.
"I chose Paladin." Father Blakely replied.
"My money was on Cleric. Why the Paladin?" Derek asked, assuming he knew the answer, but wanting to hear his reasoning.
"Well, I did consider the Cleric first, but after having to help defend the children I figured I should take something with a bit more offensive options." Father Blakely said, looking ashamed at his thoughts.
"I think that is truly admirable, Father," Tom said.
"Don't Paladins have to choose a god to follow?" James asked.
"Yes, but I was able to choose my God, the one true God, as my diety because it was a religion here on Earth. It wasn't originally an option, but when I got offended and began ranting about the other false gods, an option was added for God himself." Father Blakely explained.
"I would guess that the System didn't know how to put a god in that was just named God the first time and assumed it was a generic term. So when you adamantly opposed anything but the choice, it realized that was actually a name, not a category, and allowed its selection." Derek explained.
"Oooooorrrrrr...The System just proved the existence of God." James said.
"I really don't think that proves anything other than that the System can learn," Derek replied.
"Or does it mean we can get secrets to the universe by asking it questions?" James continued leaning closer to Derek, knowing he was annoying him.
"Your logic is flawed. Ask the System a universal question now and see if it answers." Derek said, crossing his arms over his chest to await James' next move.
"Okay. System? How much wood could a woodchuck chuck, if a woodchuck could chuck wood?" James asked to the air around him.
Silence met his question.
"System?" James asked again, suddenly feeling that he was being made a fool of.
"See. Just an algorithm learning." Derek shot at him with a triumphant smile on his face.
"Shut, up. It just didn't have anything to do with the way the System works right now. I'm sure there will be an opportunity to get the answer." James tried to recover from embarrassment.
"Sure, sure. And when you do get an answer, be sure to ask exactly what the profit margins are for a seashell stand down by the seashore." Derek laughed as he continued with the teasing.
"And if you can, find out how much a peck of pickled peppers weighs. I've always been curious." Tom chimed in, adding to James' misery.
"Haha, very funny. Some of you are just afraid of asking the tough questions!" He tried to flip the conversation on them.
"Oh, sure. Just do not forget to ask what caused Fuzzy Wuzzy to not be so fuzzy wuzzy anymore too. It might be cancer." TJ jumped in trying to be a part of the teasing for once.
"Dude...too far. Cancer is no joke." Derek said looking at TJ with disgust.
TJ shrank away at the comment.
"I'm just kidding with ya. That was hilarious!" Derek suddenly said, breaking into a broad smile.
TJ let out a sigh of relief. "Really had me there for a minute!"
"Ha! If you wanna dish it you better take it." Derek winked at him as he spoke.
"Alright, Father Blakely. Why don't you head back and get your congregation together along with anything you can think to bring with you to help the guild? We will await you here with orders to let you and anyone you approve inside where we can evaluate you all and see about adding you to our team. How does that sound?" Tom asked, deciding to get everyone back on track.
"That sounds wonderful. Thank you Tom for understanding. And no hard feelings at all about the mix-up. It was an honest mistake given the circumstances and that monster masquerading as The Master." Father Blakely assured Tom.
"I'm so glad we cleared that up. I look forward to meeting with you again when you return." Tom said diplomatically.
Just as Father Blakely left, another person came into view through the night. They appeared from behind a building and began walking to the gate.
"Halt! Who goes there?" Said one of the guards on duty and everyone turned to where he was facing.
The man walking toward them was wearing what appeared to be full ninja garb with the face mask pulled up so that only a slit was left for his eyes. There were two swords across his back and knives strapped around his waist, completing the assassin's look.
"Greetings, my name is Kyle, and I am here on behalf of Shandra. She would like to inform you that she will be declaring war on your guild unless you agree to come under her leadership and agree to follow our guild's rules and authority." Kyle said as he bowed low in greeting.
"What?!" Tom cried out at the announcement. "Why the hell would we ever do that?"
"My mistress sees this as an opportunity for both parties to grow stronger. Your fighters alongside ours could rule all of Dallas." Kyle continued.
"We don't want to rule Dallas. We just want this to be a peaceful place for everyone to exist." Tom replied, his anger boiling over.
"What better way to make peace than to control everything that happens? If Shandra takes over, she will clean up the city, as well as create a place where people can continue with their lives in a safe manner." Kyle explained, really trying to sell the pitch.
"And pay for it with our people's blood? No, thank you." Tom said with vehemence.
"No omelette ever gets made without a few broken eggs my dear fellow," Kyle reasoned.
"I agree, but I'd rather it be my eggs broken than someone else." Tom spat quickly in reply.
James started snickering.
"Shut up, you know what I meant," Tom said without looking back at him.
"Mistress Shandra will be displeased," Kyle said back to him, his eyes narrowing.
"I don't give a flying fuck what that cuntbag douche nozzle thinks or feels. The answer is no." Tom replied firmly.
"Very well. I wish you the best of luck in what is to come." Kyle said stepping backwards into the shadows and seeming to disappear.
After disappearing a new notification flashed in everyone's vision simultaneously.
War has been declared:
The leader of the Guild STORMCRUSHER has declared war against the Guild VANGUARD. Be warned that sides can be taken. Alliances can be formed. Prepare for battle and fight with honor!
"Well...shit," Tom said reading the prompt.