Due to space limitations, there can only be 2000 troops stationed. Silphia castle do not have levels like Trisia so there can only be so many numbers to put on its wall. So we stayed in a reserve room watching monitor in our status window. It was like watching TV of some siege. It has a bird eye view of the battle and we can zoomed in as much as we like. It is not as cool as Lord of the ring since we are looking from 90 degree up. But it has all the information and tension that we need. Currently there are over 5000 troops on the other side. But there are no movement yet.

“Hey, we are on reserves?” Anya pouted at Hasega

“What can I do about it? This castle do not belong to our guild. They want to hog all the exp and points” Hasega said while watching the monitor “So, there are only 1 or 2 captains out there. Iris is also with us here. All of the captains and the troops outside is from their guild”

“Umm, I don’t quite understand.”

“Basically Riri, they put us on standby while their own guild make a killing. If the situation is dire, only then they will ask our help.”

More question mark appeared on my head. Why do the owner of the castle put on their body in front of first? If you die early you won’t be revived until the end of the game. Isn’t it better if reserves dies first? Moreover, even if the chance is small, there is still a chance that you might drop your equipment if you die. If I have a shiny swords or armors like Hasega, I would definitely want to come out last

“Well, usually the enemy ditch out low leveled warriors first. The exp for each killing here is big. It is equal to ¼ of the exp for 1 level of the killed enemy. So basically, if you killed someone of your own levels here 4 times, you will gain a level up. So, if you knew that information, will you come out first, or come out last?” Anya asked

“I see.” If the exp is that big, I can probably gained 10 levels for 1 day of war here if I survived and killed a lot of enemy

“Moreover, their money isn’t infinite. I am sure that they want to kill first to reduce the contribution points for us outsiders as much as possible.”

“Ahh, if it is their own members who acquired contribution points, they can just returned the gold they accept back to the guild.”

“Exactly” Anya said while in teaching mode

“Ahh, but the enemy seemed quite high leveled this time.”

“Hmm, you are right. Measuring from their equipment, they should be at their 100” Anya said. “Maybe the opposite of what the guild desire would come. Sometimes it is inevitable that all member of their guild dies and we took all the glory. Hihi.”

“Ahh, battalion leader Kaliska, please go outside, please reinforce the southwest part.” Hasega made a call. So, this is the system for guild wars. I kind of feel like they are calling us to die here

“Hmm, we are taking turns?”

“The battle might took weeks. If we have problems in real time, someone will replace us. Convenient isn’t?” Anya said “Since we are on reserve, I might as well give Hasega a PM and log off. Need to take a bath and having dinner. Byee”

Anya said while meddling with her screen and log off momentarily. Meanwhile, I continue watching the battle. The battle was so-so. The enemy only send several hundred from their unit. Mainly wizards and archers. After they got their HP in red they quickly went back and another group replaced them.

“Hmm, so, they use this kind of tactics. What a boring battle” Rund commented

“It can’t be helped Rund. If they rushed ahead, an AOE offensive spell will kill them. Moreover, their number isn’t really that large compared to us.”Hasega commented

“So, is this battle going to drag on like this?” I asked

“No. Soon either their patience or ours will run out. When that happens you can expect a large scale battle. If no one makes a move, then in 5 days or so, players will start leaving in both sides because of boredom.”

“We can quit?”

“Just cancel your quest and you will be teleported to last town visited.”

I feel like quitting already. They are practically playing volleyball out there. Casting spell and then returning them. After that they switch players, if you take a look more closely, the switched players didn’t even use potions to heal themselves

“We will get big exp right?”

“I am not sure. In another town, the battle is usually more intense. But our castle has height advantage, sturdy walls, many siege weapons, and above that, a powerful guild protecting it. It can’t be breached simply by blindly assaulting it.”

“Hmm, I heard 10 or 20 thousand is normal.”

“It is, but more than 20 thousand is quite difficult. Anyway, usually the attacker is more than twice than defender. But look at now, our numbers aren’t really that far off right? I was questioned as why do they dared to attack this castle. I was expecting an army of over 30 thousand you know? They need to be at least that much if they dared to storm this castle.”

“Whoa.  How would they take turns?”

“Beats me. War above 30 thousands is rare. And usually you would do it in open field which makes it very cool and interesting, you know that famous video right? They fought in front of their castle. Now that was what we called a fight. But relax, before and after that happened something like this actually happened, it is just that YouTube only shows the good part.“

And so after a very boring talk about war mechanism and tactics which I already memorized, nothing really happened. It is the usual skirmishes consist of several group of people. Rund and the other went to log off and promised to come back again 2 days later which mean 12 hour. I followed suit to log off, sleep, doing homework in morning and going to school.

In school, Shella seemed to play with her phone a lot. She was looking into the war statistics. Using some kind of app, she was still able to maintain communication to her guild mates and coordinating the war. The work of a commander is very tough. By the way, once in a while, I use my phone too to communicate with my pets. The app is very convenient. It can even move our character. This way, I do not need to use a capsule every time I need to speak with Stella. The app can also simulate a battle but it is very inconvenient not to mention internet lagging. Playing real time and shouting skill name was much better.

1 week later

you have learned icicle spear

you have learned serpent fume

you have learned thunder spear

you have learned flame sword

you have learned ice sword

you have learned dark sword

you have learned light sword

you have learned thunder sword

you have learned wind sword

you have learned earth sword

It is a good thing that I brought my books with me.  There are only intermediate spells and advanced spell left but there are more than 20 books for that. During this week I manage to train and got another 10 spell by training at the corner back of the castle where no one is watching, by the way our battalion was called several times into battlefield. But our group mostly just standing at the back of the wall. Good thing I knew some basic buffing and healing spells plus I can do some offensive spell though it is minor so I manage to gain 100 contribution points. But my group is essentially only killed 2 opponents thus far.

“I should become a mage or archer if I went to participate like this.” Rund said

“Well, I am a mage and I manage to gain 1000 contribution point. Tough luck Rund” Anya said while puffing her chest “it is a good thing I manage to kill so many.”

“What the hell.”

“Rund, you are going to get your chances. Be patient.” Hasega said

“But we barely scrap 15 contribution point each! I can get more than 10 gold in 1 week at my level even by doing lousy quest. But I barely scrap 2 gold at this rate”

“It is the whining of the weak. Look at Riri, she scrapped more than 100 points by 0 killing.” Anya said while winking. “Accept your fate, some coward do this kind of cowardice battle. It is not like we want it too you know.”

Actually I noticed this 2 days after the war began. In this battle, the enemy is allowed for reinforcement while we don’t. This mean the enemy can invite more member at their leisure while we can’t. Moreover, we are locked inside this castle. Unless we can fly like Hasega and co, we can’t get outside of this castle. It is a battle of patience and attrition. If we take a look at the statistic of this war, from our 10 thousand army, more than 1000 already quit the quest and the complaint about cowardice and flaming on the forum grew wilder each day. It is far lower than the number of killed which is merely 225 people.for the opposition, there are no quits but they have took more than 2000 casualties but their number is still way above 10 thousand. To break this stalemate, 1 or 2 squad already tried to skirmish them but the enemy is tougher than it looks. They reinforced their camp and even have adequate shift at night. A mere 100 people can’t get past them and chose to pull back.

“Riri, what say you on this matter?” Hasega asked

“Umm, I don’t mind waiting. I still have 15 more books to learn.” I said the truth of the matter.

“Well, not everyone is as patient as you are Riri.” Anya said. “The truth is, I am also a bit agitated. Even though I have a griffin and could fly”

“The commander said that we will never lose as long as we stay cooped on this wall. And I dare to say that is true. But if this keeps going on, we will never win either. Moreover, the money for supply are growing thinner each day. Well, our commander has flying eagle and she could use it to brought food, so at least so our satiety bar is no problem. Hmm. are you saying that we should wait Riri?”

The truth is, if this situation prolongs any further, we are going to lose for sure. I kinda expected more than 3000 player will quit next week. And another 2000 the week after that. In just 3 week, the battle will not be between 10 thousand vs 12 thousand army but it is going to be 1000 vs 9.000 or 8000 army. The only one who would stay here to the end would only be hired NPC and flying user after all and possibly some loyal guild member. Even if the opponent would lose additional 6000 due to some random skirmishes which totaled 8000 including, they could still invite more or hired more npc if they want to. The only way to win is to summon 5 from 6 captain and storm the enemy camp and thus bringing the siege to the end by killing Qirin or killed the entire army. Killing the entire army is unlikely. But killing Qirin should be possible.

After thinking like that I look at Hasega. He knows that if we wait like this we are not going to win. The guild might win since the castle has a very thick wall and a lot of siege engines. So 1000 vs 8000 might be winnable. But the chance is slim and we outsider gain nothing from it. The one that profit would be the defending guild. Audine and the other captain certainly took this into consideration when announcing that kind of strategy. Politics rule even in fantasy world settings huh?

“You knew the answer Hasega. Why ask us?” Stella interrupted

“I knew we can’t win like this. But I can’t find a way to win. And by winning means a profit and honorable battle. I am now a paladin knight. I need honor stat to maintain my character strength you know. So, maybe I could ask for a little miracle from you Riri. Just like last time.”

“Ummm.” The truth is he asked for something impossible. A lightning never strike the same place twice. How can he expect a miracle to come to me more than once? What can a single person do in a battle like this?

“I am a captain. After some loses, I still command more than 1000 soldiers. We can ignore our commander orders to stay put and storm the enemy camp. Iris can summon another 1000 which would totaled about 2500 soldiers. After giving this number, do you think we have a chance Riri?”

“Huh? Why are you asking Riri captain Hasega?” Rund was confused

“Riri is very smart you know.” Anya commented while smiling at me

‘Stop putting pressure on me!! You knew I am weak to pressure’

“But asking someone who has such a poor equipment, no status, and no explicit rank. Even if her skill was quite okay and her level is higher than normal is it okay to leave this kind of decision to her?” Rund answered.

I kinda feel insulted at the way he describe me. Sorry for being poor with lousy lvl 20 rare equipment and common lvl 100 equipment. I can’t deny this equipment is too outdated for me. And it is also true that I have no rank to brag about. In the village, everyone listen to me and I have been offered to be the village leader but I denied it

“She commands a village you know. And that village is soon to be a town. You might as well call her a duchess now or several weeks later” Anya said

“Does she? She have never left this castle. If she commands a territory, she must visit the village like Hasega to handle some matters right?”

“Well, she does not own that village. But that village practically worship her, so is it not the same?” Anya said “More than that. She has experience”

“2500 against 12.000?” Rund said

“She has gone through worse and still could win” Hasega said while grinned

‘Stop bragging about me. Your praises hurts me. You know an antisocial person would never like to stand out!’ my thought almost screamed out from my lip

“Okay Rund, you have no say in this matter, I am asking Riri. So you should keep your mouth shut and wait until Riri make some plan.”

“Umm. Give me some time.”

“Okay. But no escape okay. I can already see you want to escape into some other books you have in hand.” Anya said. It is a horrible thing if your enemy knew how you would behave. How can she predict my behavior so accurately?

4 hours later, I am still sitting on come corner of the room. Hasega and Anya still has their eyes on me. It is a torture. If I do not make some kind of strategy I am screwed

“So, Riri. Do you have any plan?”

“Umm. I do. It is actually simple. We just need to kill Qirin right?”

“But the commander at this battle should be at least lvl 350. Even we are still 250” Anya said while pointing toward their everlasting group

“Exception to Iris which is 280.” Hasega added. Whoa, what a huge gap. The level limit here is a mere 70 but there are someone who is 5 times more than that. And to note, I am still a good 80 levels below you Hasega.

“Umm, so, how many should we gather to fight him alone?”

“That is the difficult thing. Level is ambiguous you know. Each level up only bring up 5 skill point. But we can gather those 5 point from somewhere else. For example is training center. By beating up wooden dolls we can gain stat. participating in a unique quest also brought some stat point. And drinking or eating rare food may also bring up stat point. But if you think he is a normal player. 4 or 5 level 200 player gangbanging him should bring him down. Someone who is surrounded bring many disadvantage to them. But if he is in a party, it is quite a difficult story” Anya said

Now, I have no clue what normal means. Am I normal? Is Anya and Hasega normal? What about Dem? Soldiers in my village which is now lvl 40? But that soldier is lvl 40, I can’t just multiply their strength 5 times to expect a normal lvl 200 players can’t I?

“But he is a commander. He can’t be normal.” Hasega said.

“Well, even if he is a badass, he can’t possibly handle more than 10 at a time right? So the number isn’t too far off.”

“He might be weaker.” Hasega said “Qirin is a mage like you Anya. But she leans more to thunder magic.”

“Ahh, so you knew him” Anya said

“Yes, and he being a mage simply state that he will have several bodyguard around him. If he is able to cast his magic, even 10 or 20 can’t handle him. But we might be able to assassinate him, we have Dem after all. An assassin is best for killing mages after all. He might match him 1 on 1 while the other distract the bodyguard”

“So, umm, so, I am proposing that we assassinate Qirin while the others is a decoy.” I said my opinion

“That thought have crossed my mind Riri. But this castle only pointed to one direction. How do we send the assassination team without anyone noticing?” now that is the hard part. I was kinda expecting the enemy to all gather at ours but it might not be that simple

“Umm, the decoy isn’t actually a decoy. But an attacking team. So, just in case your group failed we just need to rush out to kill Qirin immediately.”

“Ahh, attacking from 2 front? One is blindly assaulting while other is sneakily assaulting?” Hasega said while thinking. 

“AT LAST! HAHAHAHA! You need to speak like that from day one, Riri. Why the hell did you wait for us to rot here? Hasega, stop thinking and let’s do it. I need to bring my axe out there, it has been gathering rust here. And I don’t want to come with the sneaking team. I want to be at the very front right now okay?”

“ummm, I was thinking of sending Hasega, Dem, Victor, Iris, and Anya together as assassination team.”

“And why is that?”

“You have better equipment and skills than the other member right”

“But we are more eye catching that way.”

“Ummmm” actually I knew something like this is about to happen. I have a plan for this, but I do not want to say it out loud.

“Don’t worry about it. Nothing is more eye catching than our Riri here.” Stella said while hugging me from behind

“Ahh, white rider.” Iris said while remembering something.

‘Stop it! I can’t take it anymore. Don’t speak any more about my past!!’

“White rider?” Anya, Hasega, and the others tilted their head

“Don’t worry, Stella is right. Nothing is more eye-catching than Riri. During my battle at city of acolyte, her equipment and skill is the most eye catching of all. Even if she almost didn’t kill anyone. She has that aura where she just drawing some attention you know.” Iris smiled

“Well, even if it at Trisia, she is definitely become popular. I thought it was because she was a strategist. But I guess it is not because of that.” Hasega said. “Okay. Let’s do it tomorrow at night. Me and Iris need some preparation too gather our troops. “

“Suicide huh? Well, if 2 captains are going, I am going too. I was thinking like that since day one but if I just rushed out alone and got killed, I can’t revived until the war is over. “

So, that’s why everyone chose to quit than risking to storm our enemies. The system was quite ruthless. But I think it is more realistic this way, to plant some fear into the heart of our enemies and us. If we can just revive after losing 1 level and some skill percentage, the penalty was too light while the reward is too good and people would just rushed out without obeying their commander.

“Umm, how should I speak to Shella tomorrow?”

“Don’t worry about it. I will handle it. Part of this is essentially her fault anyway. We can just say we want to rush out. We win in the end right? If we lose we will say sorry about losing 2500 soldiers. But 1000 soldiers have quit in the past few weeks right? An answer like that will make her speechless.” Anya said “Okay, I will PM some of my group members to gather. Victor is already fired up, he seemed like he want to rush out now, Dem get to work with those PM”

“Okay miss”

“Anya should be lower in terms of rank. But why does she able to command Dem and Victor like that?” I whispered to Stella

“Well, that’s what you call social standing Riri.”

“I see.” I don’t really get it. But let’s nod.

And 1 day passed just like that. I got another skill at that time. It is called wind jump. A short spell with no cooldown which allowed me to jump on wind. With this skill I can almost fly. But my mana can’t sustain it. It needs 100 mana for each jump. It might be useful for fighting. This way I can utilize 3 dimensional movement even if the terrain is plain. This might be useful if combined with fire sword or ice sword skill. That spell essentially added our weapon with elemental damage. 

I kinda feel like a sword mage now. At last, after tremendous training I finally got rid of this class stupid penalty of blacksmithing skill. I can finally slash someone good this time. No one will call me agility based tanker or dodging tanker anymore. Even if my sword is still for lvl 20, my stat is quite high and I can use elemental buffing for my sword. I should bought more mana potions from this castle store now.

“Riri, have you done you preparation?” Anya asked

“Yes.”

“Okay. Let’s go.” Hasega said together with Iris

And so we came outside of our castle. Somehow i seemed hesitant and reluctant to leave. Is this the feeling of a shut in? It does seemed hard to take the first step outside. If we were not together, i doubt i would ever be able to leave this castle.

After I stepped outside, I take out a normal horse brought from the castle. Some wealthier player also chose to mount a horse including Hasega and co. The night was very silent, every move we made seemed to make loud noises. Even the steps we made seemed as loud as thunder cracks.

“Here we are. That’s the first guard post.” Said Hasega and co. They wore a cloak over their face, the cloak seemed to resemble the one they wore during an escape towards Trisia with Maria. How nostalgic.

“So, we are going to hide away while our Riri here will catch the show.” Said Anya

“Hey, are you sure that we should let Riri do the leading?” Rund asked for confirmation

“All you need to do is rush ahead. Who cares with who is leading?” Said Hasega

After that I inhale, then exhale, after that I inhaled again before I shouted “CHARGE!!!”

I wore my cleric suit so in the dark of the night, my white clothes together with white dotted brown horse stood out. Moreover, due to my title as the white rider, my horse ran a little bit in front of the others.  All the guard post eyes seemed to be fixated on me

Your ability have raised by 10% due to audience

The cloak wearing group detach themselves as I and the others charge strike through the enemy camp.

“Fire sword.” I said as my Elkami sword blazed with fire and slashed through the enemy.

“Holy. That was really cool. Where did she learn that?” Hasega said as he sneak a peek towards us.

“Damn that kid always stealing the show.” Victor said while brandished his axe and putting some stranded soldiers to the after life

“Wind jump.” I said while jumping from my horse which was pierced through by some random spear a second later.

“Wind jump! Wind jump! Wind jump! Thunder sword!” I said while zigzagging above enemy troops and slashed an archer at the rear with “Meteor strike, severen slash”

I feel awesome. Even though the enemy is roughly lvl 70 and cannot withstand much of my strikes, killing one after another made me feel I am at the top of the world

“Summon Stella, Elkami.”

And then, I summoned my two friends into the fray, Elkami came out and directly let out a blue glow while flying toward the sky and gaining a height advantage. The only thing that can hit her is either arrow or magic now. Stella on the other hand, being very aggressive on the start clawing and biting everyone. From her glare everyone was inflicted with fear and just being near with her everyone’s HP dropped little by little

your stat rose by 25 % due to audience

“Whoa, that’s a lot.” I murmured while I looked at my stat.

“I am on my 5th kill Hahahaha.” Rund said while laughing like a psychopath. He said that sounding so cool. But even I already killed more than 20. I can’t really praise him. Well, there are also level difference so, 5 kill might worth much for him

“Well, I am on my 59th I guess. I think I missed my count somewhere.” El said while counting her fingers. What a scary numbers! As expected of a mage

“Stopped counting and do more killing. Don’t brag El!” Stella said while tearing one of the warriors head sending him to the afterlife. Her killing might be fewer than me but her area of effect debuff is something that can’t be count with numbers. Thanks to her the enemy around us moved more slowly and thus more easily to be killed

20 minutes later, I drank another mana potion while dodging and countering some warriors attacks. The mana consumption for this battle is no joke. I am on my 5th bottle already. El using spells and I use sword skill and spell consumed my mana at tremendous rate. If this continued I can only hold on for another 10 minutes. I should have brought more mana potion. When will Hasega and co do their job, we are slowly getting pushed back here.

Hasega POV

“So, where is the commander tent?” I said to Dem. He is our scouts now. With his ability as assassin there are no one more suited for this than him.

“Whoa, everyone really rushed toward Riri’s place. Only a meager 2 or 3 soldiers came to our way. And moreover they are all injured. A single stroke from victor is enough to kill them.” Anya commented

“Okay, found the tent. The commander is running away with his 2 bodyguards. Let’s kill them. This way.” Dem said while leading us. The plan was successful until now. Even if his bodyguards are strong, we can outnumbered them. There are 4 of us and Dem specialized in killing mages. I will attract their attention and tanking, Anya will snipe with her spell from afar, and Victor will stand beside me as damage dealer

“Go!!” I said as the commander was seen. We took a little runabout way of getting towards Qirin. In 2 minutes we can get behind him. After that it will be a piece of cake.

“CHAARGEE!!!!” Victor loudly swung his axe towards Qirin. Using vertical axe slash.

“Argh!” Qirin took a step back and his bodyguards rushed in to protect him

“Okay Anya, take a position, Victor, and will deal with the bodyguards. Keep the enemy reinforcements at bay!”

“Roger. Firestorm!!” Anya cast her most powerful spell behind Qirin. Even though it is her most powerful spell, it is an AOE Spell so it would be pretty unlikely to kill of the entire enemy. But it should be sufficient to hinder them. Now let see, I should deal with the bodyguards at the front while Victor deal With Qirin and Dem will assassinate Qirin from his back. With this Qirin should die

“Huh?”

“Hey, I definitely hit him at that time. Why isn’t his HP decreasing?” even if it is only 1 hit, a normal mage should lose more than 40% of his HP if it got a clean hit from Victor. What’s the meaning of this?

“Rise fallen warrior. Obey me and slay my enemy!!” as he said that several skeletons rose up from the earth

“He is a necromancer?!” Victor screamed

“But that doesn’t explained his HP.” Anya commented while casting another spell called fire strike. With a concentrated fire, one of his bodyguard fell down and thus finished by Victor.

“Backstab! Death strike!” Dem said while unleashing his moves from behind Qirin.

“ARG!!” Qirin screamed and try to counter with his staff but it was futile. There is no way a mere mage can handle assassin in close range. But his HP doesn’t seemed to decrease at all. Even if he is above lvl 350 with the best of equipment, getting attacked like that, he should lose more than 50% of his HP already.

“Dark curse! Shadow ball!” Qirin started to cast his spells toward us. I quickly shielded myself with my shining knight tower shield. 

We continue the battle in this fashion. I and Victor are handling the summoned skeletons and Qirin’s bodyguard while Dem focused on Qirin, Anya was handling enemy reinforcement with her spells. The battle has gone on for quite a while. My HP was down by 30% even though I am a tanker and my mana has almost dried up because of my healing spells and defensive skills. Victor is down to 40%. Anya is still safe at the rear but it is only a matter of time. And Qirin’s other bodyguard was finished somewhere at this interval

“This is cheating. Why isn’t his HP decreasing!?” Dem finally shouted. His HP was at the red mark just now. An assassin losing to a mage in close range was unimaginable. Something must went wrong somewhere.

“Hasega!” Elkami shouted at me. She left Riri and came to us asking for confirmation on Qirin assassination. Riri was on her last bottle of mana potion and thus her battle down there were no longer aggressive but defensive

“We have been attacking her for quite a while now. But her HP isn’t decreasing!” I shouted to El.

“Huh? Hmm. Wait a second. I sense a curse attached to him.”

“A curse?”

“It is the same feeling as Manager of death. It is just a little bit different though. Maybe he is a follower of Embinyu church as well. Just like Reis.”

“That doesn’t explained why his HP isn’t decreasing!!” I shouted as I cast a healing spell toward Dem with my last bit of mana left.

“Yggdrasil said that every follower of Embinyu life gauge is enforced with the souls of the corrupted dead souls. And thus, His HP is far larger than his maximum HP. But if you continue to strike him, his HP will eventually goes down and he will soon be killed. And every time a follower of Embinyu used his skill, some of his life force was taken. That’s all that I can say. Sorry if it is not much of a help. ”

What unreasonable request. At this rate, even if this Qirin’s HP goes back to normal and went down.  We will get annihilated first. My mana has run out. Dem Hp is in the red. Anya was also out of mana. Victor was also in the red now while drinking some health potion.

“Hey Qirin. Are you by any chance knew about Reis and Embinyu church?” Dem asked in the middle of a battle. Hey Dem, even if he knew will he answered us truthfully?

“How did you....”

‘Dem. asked him about Reis.’ Anya said on party channel

“So, Qirin. Do you knew a person named Reis or not?”

“Huh? Why should I answer? Are you retarded? Just die already now!”

“W-w-wait!” Anya shouted

“W-w-wait just a second. Let’s make a deal!” Dem said while sweating. His HP is already below 5% now. Any hit he received will be instant kill to him.”

“What deal?”

“You tell us all you knew about Reis and we will let you kill us and thus win this war.” Dem said

“No. I can already kill you here and now. Don’t speak about letting me kill you when you only have barely 5% HP left!”

“Qirin! I knew for sure that you are Embinyu. If you tell us the detail I will not share this secret to anyone. But if you didn’t tell us, then I will ask church of Freya to hunt you over even after the war was over!” I said to Qirin. This threat should be effective. Even if we killed here now, if I send a word about Qirin being a member of that church a quest for hunting him should be easy to pass. Once killed, his job will be forcibly changed or even worse, he will received a punishment of his level reset back to 1.

‘That was a good one Hasega. ‘Dem said in party chat while raising his thumbs up

‘The groundwork for this deal is mine. Remember Hasega, yours is only a follow up. Don’t steal my show.’ Anya said. It is quite true that she was whispering Dem about the things he said until now.

 Qirin suddenly went silent. His chant stopped and he seemed to be thinking a lot of things. His expressions said that he was anxious“Okay. Very well. I will kill you now and message you about Reis. Add me to your friend list. Damn it, if I knew this is going to happen I will never going to this stupid war. And i lose a lot of souls too when facing you. Damn it!”

“Keep your promise to hide my identity. If this information leaked somewhere, I will ask some friend to personally hunt you until you went back to level 1!”

“Sure. I have no grudge towards you. After all, the one I chased is Reis. You are not on our hit list.”

“Very well. Now die.”

And thus our group was annihilated

Riri POV

I have received word from Anya that we will lose on purpose. It happens that our enemy commander knew the whereabouts of Reis, the Death Manager. By the way, Iris was left stranded by the group somewhere on the way to the camp and thus he retreated and joined our ranks. Thanks to him, most of the enemy was pulled here he was also an excellent warrior. We fight with our backs leaning on each other, the scenery was just too cool. I wondered if he left the assassination group on purpose.

I feel bad about this. Betraying our commander, then betraying the troops that stayed with us here until the very end. But it can’t be helped. Let’s just said the plan failed and Hasega group got annihilated before managing to kill Qirin. Anya said that we can go on killing spree here so let’s not waste our acting. Let’s try to bring as many contribution point as we can. Even if we lose the war, and we do not received even a single gold, the exp that we gained will not go anywhere and we will still gained a considerable amount of exp. I wonder how much have I killed already. The exp that Stella and El got by killing should also went to me right?

And thus after 1 hours Stella and Elkami were forcefully recalled back (killed). El already exhausted my mana a long time ago and only flying around attracting attention.  It helped me quite a bit. Stella changed her way from aggressive to chasing some stranded soldiers when her HP went to red zone. She was able to hold on for a while but eventually killed. Losing debuff that Stella applied, our enemy began pushing us back. I tried to resist but it was in vain and eventually killed. Iris was still standing but his HP is already on the red zone. I guess he will be following us soon.

In the end, the stronghold fell, Qirin’s army made through the throne room and killed our commander. It only took 1 more week in the game. The opposing army only seemed troubled when they charged toward the walls. But after that was destroyed, the rest was easy. It turned out to be a quite balanced fight when they charged towards the wall. But when the wall was conquered, it was the end. I guess it was pretty close at the end for both of them. Qirin seemed to make a sullen mood even when he entered the throne. On forum, many ridiculed Qirin’s tactic, but there are some who defended it. but in contrast to Qirin, many forums also ridiculed our faction. Saying that we easily gave up, we should charge bravely all at once like the white rider. And so on.

Since I was playing Eiden, I have read less and less. I managed my objectives of making friends through the latest VRMMORPG. It is nice to be busy and surrounded by friends but it feels like I was abandoning books now that I have friends I feel guilty. Our quest about Reis is done. Qirin has informed us a very crucial info about Reis whereabouts through whatsapp. Maria and the other church went to work immediately. They are sending scouts and some knights to scout the area informed by us

Shella put all the blame of losing the war to some of her captains. She apologized to Anya and me for doing that selfish strategy. I am amazed, we are the one that disobeyed her orders and yet she was the one apologized. Well, after she explained the reasons, we can’t exactly hate her either. And it is just a game, we should not bring grudge to real world.

Ahh, my level rose like hell after that war, I managed to go to lvl 210 and I was able to equip all the equipment Stella brought to me. All the equipment are in a set. It is called Master Performer Equipment set. I am not a master yet but Stella already sees me so.

The equipment is a cheat I tell you. Unlike normal equipment that raise your stat by addition, this equipment raises your stat through percentage. It means you can literally equip it forever. Moreover, every type of weapon and every type of armor is inside that set Stella brought. From robes, steel plates, and leather coats. Boots, gauntlets, gloves, even rings but no helmets, but there are circlets. It is mainly made for females I see. For weapons, there are just every type. 2 swords (both 1 handed and 2 handed), 1 axe, 1 staff, 1 hammer, and 1 bow. I can’t bring everything. Stella said I just need to bring 1 set of armor and 2 or 3 weapons. Even though I can use everything I can’t bring them all. My hard earned skill seemed wasted. In the end, I decided to bring 1 handed sword, equipped along Elkami sword, a bow, and a staff. That’s my weapon. Tensaiga already occupied 2 handed sword, he seemed anxious he seemed like he want to cry when he see Stella’s 2 handed sword. We decided not to use 2 handed sword except him for his sake.

It has already been a few month after that war. I have managed to learn all of the spell in Stella books. I can’t learnt her Original skill though. She said I need to learn it myself. She said it would need years to get a grip on that skill so I can just wait leisurely. It is fine, I do not plan on quitting and Eiden Online isn’t going to close anytime soon. Since Stella is my goal, I will work hard on learning from her. She is already my dearest friend.

ß-----------------à

“Hello everyone.” Maria said in front of the church

“Hello.” I replied along with Hasega and co.  When I logged in from my house, Hasega quickly PMed me saying that Maria urgently awaited and pick me up. I wonder what the rush is.

“Please come in.”  She led us into her work office

“So, what’s the rush?” Stella asked

“Well, we have acquired information about death manager and verified it. “

“And?” Hasega asked. It seems like even Hasega and Anya hasn’t been informed on this

“The knights we sent were annihilated and few of them managed to get back with serious injury bringing precious information.”

“I see. So, you want us to participate on the next assault?” Iris said

“Exactly.”

“But, although I am a paladin, the city is still bigger than the church. You need count’s permission to send us out right?”

“That’s easy. This city is already in worst relationship with Reis.”

“So, where is the quest?”

“I haven’t finish explaining and yet you are so eager. Well, I guess that is your group’s forte.”

You have received a quest

War against Death manager

Gather at the darkness grasslands and then march toward dark lord castle and annihilate Death Manager.

Quest difficulty: A+

Quest reward: unknown

“Gather?” Anya asked

“So, it seems that Reis has amassed some army. We need some army too if we are to hope for Victor y.”

“Are there other city or church backing us?” Iris asked. Maria then showed a smile

“Not just a city or two. But the entire country. We have backing from half of royal army and 2 third of the entire church and clerics. We even received some of foreign knights backing us. Not to mention other races are also participating in this war. Elves, were beast. And dwarves. I think some of that fairies also came to help, even holy beast as unicorn and pegasus. Reis is quite hated”

“Whoa, he is top list criminal.” Victor said “even terrorist do not get such a treatment.”

“Well, not really. These country actually paid no mind at first. But, after our 100 knights were annihilated leaving 2 or 3 people alive, they brought information about Death manager’s army. And I tell you, his army is around twice or even 3 times bigger than when he attacked us. And thus, without any other persuasion needed, the nation lent almost all of their strength to attack this dark lord castle. ”

“I actually praised the nobles for a second there. I will ask those nobles to give my praises back. They are selfish to the bitter end.” Hasega said

“Well, I already has some vague idea. So I am not surprised.” Stella said

“So, when should we go there?” Iris said

“Hmm, 2 months. Gather at the designated spots. Well, actually, I would have been happier if you got here now.”

“But, that grasslands. Certainly, it is far. Are you sure 2 months is enough? Well, we can get there by griffin in 3 days. It is no big deal for us” Hasega said

“The quest has been spread since 2 months ago but the news reach us just 2 days ago. But, if we hurried, we can get there in less than 2 months.”

“Okay, should we go now group?” Iris asked us.

“Let’s speak with Count Ignis first. After that you can chose to depart at your own convenience.” Maria said “And the soldiers need to depart this week if we hope to reach there at time.”

2 hours later the meeting finished. The count easily agreed on sending almost all of their knights leaving minimum number for Trisia protection. The meeting took so long is due to arranging necessary supplies. While Trisia easily agreed on sending troops, its budget is very limited and they also need to arrange vigilante corps. It seems like Count Ignis already view the departing troops as dead man as he easily gave those knight title of Trisia Knights hero. With additional budget from the church, the knights is scheduled to march toward destination the day after tomorrow.

ß------------1 week later---------------à

“Hasega, Anya. Are you sure you are okay with this?” I said while hunting at darkling woods just before the grasslands of darkness.

“What do you mean?” Hasega asked

“You have an army to command right?”

“They are soldiers and I am not a babysitter. They can march on their own. Besides, it is better for us to arrive early. We can reserve some good camping spot at the middle. “

“Camping spot at the corner is close to monsters. Even if there are watchtower and night duty, you won’t be able to sleep peacefully.” Iris added

“That’s it Riri.” Anya said

“Besides, we have to know our enemy. Some scouts from dark lord castle have made some skirmishes. Frankly, they are very strong. Somewhere around lvl 100. “

It is true. Their average is 100. When they attacked Trisia, they only have average of 70 or 80. And we have Maria cheating buff. But that buff can’t be used when assaulting a castle. Moreover, I heard their number numbered hundreds of thousands. It is a lot more than when they attacked Trisia

“We have amassed 100 thousands on our side. They are all over lvl 100. I think this is going to be a match. And we have some more army that are marching towards our direction.”

“This is a special event on Eiden Online. The forums are littered with anticipation to joining this event. Even some guild wars were abandoned because of this. I am glad I can join. We are definitely going to carve our name in this world’s history. Hahahaha” Victor said with anticipation as he swung his shining 2 handed axe giving a last blow to some dark monster lurking around.

“We are not sure to win. Riri, any strategies?” Hasega asked for my opinion

“Umm, I have never attacked a castle before. “

“The standard tactic is we march head on while our catapults and trebuchets is breaking the castle walls. Special for this event, some famous guild and nation even employ their disaster magic.”

“Disaster magic?”

“It is comparable with Enigma spells that your fairy uses far more powerful if we look at the duration of the spell. But it requires several magician working in unison. Some group will guard those magician.”

“Ahh, something like ritual and cooperative magic?” I said

“Yeah. Just the effect is different. We will employ Thunderstorm spell. During the war, please be wary of stray thunderbolts okay. I heard the spell will be 2 or 3 hours long and will be cast for every 6 or 10 hours.” Iris said

“That is some ridiculous magic. Why aren’t we using something like those when those bastards attacked us?” Victor asked with a scoff

“The spell is of course a national secret. If you knew this spell, either you will be hunted and killed or you will be imprisoned in some wealthy houses. It is not a level a city count will have access towards to.”

“I thought Trrisia was a big city.”

“It is. We have that blessing spell right?” Hasega said

“Ahh, I see.”

“Well, let’s just see how the battle turned out. Audine and Rund is back you know. They also participated on this event. Though they are not the one in charge this time. ”

The leader of this war is Commander Edgar. An NPC High Paladin Knight. His level is over 400 I think. His armor is a full plated with cross shaped shield and shining silver sword. Every piece of his equipment is a top class item I am sure. Those armors and weapons are glowing for god’s sake. I can faintly see a bluish aura wrapped around it.

“I have no clue who he is. But just by looking he is supposed to be good right?” Hasega said

“No joke. His armor literally shined back then.” Victor said.

“By the way Riri” Hasega said “is the entirety of your equipment a set?”

“Yes. Stella gave them of course.”

“New skills and equipment..... I am so jealous.” Anya commented. You get those new skills and equipment first Miss Anya. Why are you jealous towards me now?

“Let’s wrap it for this day everyone. I am tired. Let’s return. Don’t forget to bring many potion during the war.” Hasega said “no, it is more like, use your entire money to buy potion during the war. Seeing the enemy like this, we might need every each one of them.”

“Okay.” I said while releasing my 1 handed sword skill with my night moon sword easily cut the enemy into 2 parts. I have been testing my weapons here and I found that for close combat, I chose night moon sword and Elkami sword for far range I chose elven star bow, and for magic I chose arch mage golden staff. I found out that sheathing Elkami sword and carry them on my waist is enough to summon El. But for close combat, bringing a weapon you don’t use on your body greatly hinder your balance and thus, I decided to use the sword. Even though it is quite outdated. Tensaiga isn’t for combat, although its sword can parry, Tensaiga is best used on the rear. I wonder if Tensaiga should be used like a staff.  Need to carry Elkami sword when using Tensaiga anyway. Front liners are a no when I use Tensaiga

7 weeks passed just like that. We go to several nearby dungeon to clear them but it is just that. There are some shameful stories and very funny one. We worked out how we cooperate. Our group was lacking a healer so instead of attacking, I return to my old jobs of being cleric girl. I kind of miss but hate those nicknames at the same time. Hasega being paladin also helped out with some healing spells but casting a spell in front liners and the rear gave a very different impression he looked like a leader while I look like a cheerleader.  When the enemy thinned out, I fast change my weapon with a skill and charge forward annihilating the rest. I kind of want to show off too. Weird that just a year before I would never want to show off. I am still reluctant to show myself to others but to these guys, I think it is okay.

4 days after the Knights from Trisia arrived, we began to march, and we are split into 2 groups. Group 1 advance first and cleared the land while group 2 march slowly while protecting siege engines. Honestly, I though we are the last one but there are apparently some guild and mercenaries which arrived at the very last minute. I think I saw some familiar mercenary there. Gerik and Marissa if am not mistaken.

“That screamed dark lord castle alright. Is Count Dracula lives there?” Victor made some useless remarks once again. But it truly is a castle ripped out from that story. With those dark creatures and dark cloud with occasional lightning, the setting is perfect. Those dark army that is standing by in front of the castle is numbered more than 50 thousands not to mention all of them looked strong some of them has mid boss aura around them. If I count the army also within the castle, the future of this battle looked grim

“Okay, we are beginning the disaster magic. Our group is charged of protecting those magicians along with other elite groups. We are protecting from the west part. And unfortunately, Anya can’t participate as she is one of mana providers for the spells.” Iris said. “We relied on you with magic support and healing Riri.”

“Sucks to be a mage huh?” Victor said “Let’s rip those beast apart.”

As dark cloud loomed over the dark lord castle, the dark lord’s cavalry troop began to march. Those rhinos that demolished Trisia walls were among them. On top of those gigantic rhinos now stood several dozen ghost archers. Behind them some dark knight and wolf riders mounted by dark goblins emerged.

“I have a bad feeling.” I said while looking at those army.

“If I am not mistaken, those rhinos are able to crush 3 meters thick walls of Trisia right? Can we survive that kind of charge again?” Victor spirit went downhill. Don’t show off at the start only to cower in fear now dunce

“We might be annihilated in one sweep.” Dem said with a gloomy face.  He certainly remember those terrifying rhinos and their charging power

“Don’t worry, there are only 15 of them.” Said Iris

“Only?” Victor said with a blank face

“Paladins will deal with it. We just focus on those horses. Right Hasega.”

“We will try to hold them. You guys kill them. That’s all. 4 or 5 paladins of my level might top them.”

“Hey, they are beginning to charge toward us already. When those disaster magic will come?” Victor said in anxious voice.

“Somewhere around 5 minutes. They are already chanting from more 20 minutes ago”

“Siege Weapons, ready!!” the captain issued a command in loud voices.

“FIREE!!!!” and thus the battle began. More than 20 catapults, 5 trebuchets, and 7 fire ballista released their ammunition

Rocks poured out from the sky hitting those cavalry units.  But as expected, siege weapons don’t fare too well on such a units. They tried to aim at the rhinos but only 5 were down. The ballista were especially effective. The burning tip of javelin is able to pierce those thick skin of rhinos.

“CHARGEE!!” Edgar said while sprinting at the middle Rhino as he and the rhinos clashed, a heavy sonic boom were spread across the battlefield. The sound that it produced isn’t at the level of metal clashing at each other anymore. Its follower followed his trail and just like water hitting a rock, the charge was stopped and the archers which sitting atop of that rhinos were immediately flung forwards.

“Holy, he can block that Rhinos alone.” Victor said while looking astonished. No kidding, even I can only stared at it in awe

“More of those are coming back me up!!!” Hasega said while using his skill “Shield stance, immobile fortress!!”

Hasega, along with 2 other royal knight that uses tower shields took one of the rhinos charge. The rhinos were successfully stopped after Hasega and the others were pushed back around 10 meters. Victor followed up immediately using is axe he jumped at hitting the rhinos straight at his head. The Rhino fell down but it is still far from death door.

“Archers!!! Volley!!” another shouts from another captain could be heard. Immediately, a rain full of arrows were rained down towards

“Enigma of the lightning god. Bolt of Thor!!” El said just after the Rhinos fell down.

“Precision shot” I said while picking off some random dark army that charge towards us. This elven star bow is extremely useful. I only trained this briefly and only managed to reach beginner lvl 7 but I don’t think I have ever missed my target with this bow. But I can’t just focus on firing with my bow. My role here is a cleric. I am using a bow now as a substitute of attack magic.

“Healing hand, healing area.” The dark force is a force made from dark souls. It is no different than undead. Just like in Trisia, they are also vulnerable against healing spells. An AOE healing spells works wonder here. Not just that they healed your allies but they also harm the enemies. But a bishop light based magic is even more effective. Although most of the enemy is dark forces, this some goblins and trolls were included. Healing magic is ineffective against them. They obliterate their enemy with one spell. One bullet for one lives. Even though Victor needs at least 2 or 3 it for each lives he took. That just shows how effective they are.

“UAAA!!!” Victor raised a battle cry as his body suddenly have a red aura surrounding it. After that he slammed and pummeled a huge troll in front of him. Stella is out there hunting. Her speed makes it easy for her to bite of horses legs. But as she is demon affiliated, sometimes a stray arrow from our group is aimed at her. Although her affinity is not chaos some people especially church related still targeted her. Thank goodness she can speak. She screamed at some paladins that brandished their sword against her. By the way, most of her debuff do not work against dark forces. Only her poison attack is. Her poison is very special. It corrodes the enemy. Demons HP continue to decrease in her vicinity and once bitten or clawed by her, the demons HP continue to decrease until it dies. But our allies is also affected by those poison. That’s why she deliberately chose to fight a little behind enemy lines. When her HP decrease, she pulled back and swap to her human form. That way the poison won’t affect our comrade. It is admirable on how she was able to adapt in the battlefield so well.

 BLAARRR!!!

A huge thunder strike crashed nearby sending some dark force back to the afterlife. That thunder was quite close. It is actually not close but very close, Hasega’s HP decreased for a bit due to aftershock of that one.

“Hey, where the hell are you aiming?” Victor screamed while closing his ears

“Victor! Rather than screaming watch your back. Disaster magic is an AOE effect spell. You can’t blame it if some thunderbolts were flying at us. Just continue battling while keeping watch! It will be instant death if you are hit.” Hasega said while parrying with some other monsters.

BLAAR! BLAR! BLAR!

Few thunder strikes followed suit. The disaster magic has begun. The lightning generally strikes at the opponent’s sides but due to us standing in front lines, some of those lightning struck very close at us chipping away our health. Ahh, a random paladin just got hit straight at the center of his body leaving a trail of dust behind. I need to watch carefully now, I will not be alive after getting hit by that. Even if the mages tried to aim at the opponent, it is practically impossible to aim at such a large numbers.

“This is bad,” Hasega said after drinking another bottle of health potion at the back. The battle has been going on very well at the start but somehow it is deteriorating now “Overall strength we are able to push them back. But they keep pouring over from the gate. When we close in, those dark archers keep messing with us and more than that, their stamina is limitless.”

“So, what should we do?!!” Victor screamed as he smashed 3 skeleton soldiers with a horizontal swing from his axe.

“Victor, behind!” I said as I aimed my bows towards a Cyclops targeting Victor with its club. Taking a critical hit on its head, the Cyclops staggered and was soon finished by Victor.

“Everyone!! Pulled back!!” the commander issued an order through his underling.

And so, the day ended. Fortunately, the main dark forces didn’t chase us. Maybe they can feel that there are light attributes traps everywhere near our encampment. Victor and everyone else pulled back while Hasega and other paladins tried to buy some time. After that, we all run away successfully

“Whew, today was quite good. I got 3 level today.” Victor said as he ate some food

“Yeah. Well, I am not the commander so I am happy with the exp points. but I am sure the commander was in a frustrated state by now. The battle flow wasn’t going accordingly to plan after all.” Anya commented and Hasega nodded

“The siege weapon can’t break through their defenses. Those walls are quite sturdy. And those archers dangling on the wall is a real pest.” Hasega added

“The commander planned to concentrate the disaster magic on the gate. That way we hope some damage can be done to that gate.” Anya said

“But, without that magic, can’t we win against the dark force? Ost of our talented mages were out for that magic right?” Victor added

“We have to.” Hasega added.

“Okay, this day is out. Let’s sleep. We are going to attack them again tomorrow.” Hasega said while heading to his tent. I also rose and heading to my tent after checking my weapons to blacksmiths for reparations.

“Hey, Stella.” I asked Stella who sleep besides me

“Yes?”

“Why Reis did all of this? Collecting these souls?”

“Hmm, I am not sure. Reis was kind of ambitious about power since the day I met him. He was an exiled noble after all.”

“I still don’t understand why he needs to conquer the world.”

“Well, we will not understand unless we experience it we are not nobles anyway.”

“I see. Stella.”

“Yes?”

“Do you, hate him?” I asked while gazing my eyes to her She stares back. If it was me, I was sure that I will hate him to the very depth of my soul. He has killed my precious Tantalus member after all. Not only that, he made her killed her own teammates and planned to enslave her. But Stella never said any curses or words of hatred towards him. I wonder why

“I am not sure.”

“Huh?”

“If you asked if I like him, I will say that I disliked him very much. But I am no longer wanted to hate anyone again. Even if they are evil. “

“I see.”

“I am just tired I guess. I have other things to worry about rather than hatred. Besides, if I hate him now, I afraid that the people that I killed will hate me. I have done many wrong things too after all.”

“I see. I wonder if I can be as strong as you. You have come through a very hard times and yet you are still strong and not broken down.  I might go suicide if I were you.”

“It was hard, I admit it. But I am not alone you see. I have Tantalus member. And now, I have you.”

“I see. “After that we went to sleep. And the dawn come

ß---------------------à

“Hello good morning. Having a good sleep?” Hasega said while waving his hand.

“Yeah. Quite well.” I said while equipping my elven star bow. Today I am an archer again.

“We are in high spirits today. Even without disaster magic, let’s break through those gate.” Stella said while raising her fist

“Ahh, I just received a word from Edgar, he said that after the gate is destroyed, the mages will come and reinforce us. We should not be hasty running through the broken gate.” Hasega said

“And let me add. Riri, you will no longer within Hasega team like yesterday. The opponent will conjure flying dark forces this time.  We see some pteranodon and black eagles on that side. Some giant wasp was also seen flying by.”

“Whoa, they have an aviation fleet this time. What do we have besides archers?” Victor made another sarcasm and question

“Some ballista but don’t rely on them. Don’t expect such a huge thing to aim at something small like giant wasp from 1 km range. That’s why Commander Edgar asked us to deliver him every archer capable of shooting flying monsters.”

“I am not that capable. I only wield a bow for 1 week.”

“Yeah. Right. You are not capable of shooting a bow but you can accurately pick enemies around Hasega from 100 meters long” Anya said with sarcasm. I want to say that it is the bow that is from high quality but I guess she will retort back with more sarcasm.

“This is bad. Without mages and archers, we should fight without back up?” Hasega groaned.

“The enemy ground force were taking heavy casualties the other day, we should be able to make it.”

“With disaster magic, those flying enemies isn’t a bother. But now that magic is used for the gate, they intent to attack from the sky huh?” Hassega commented

“Well, this is the situation. We have to deal with it. Commander Edgar was petty frustrated too yesterday.” Iris said as he tried to raise the group morale. “In addition, some of the knight that were late have arrived yesterday. We have some reinforcement. And more supplies are coming our way like blacksmith for repairs and top notch potions.”

“So, where is this top notch potion?” Victor asked

“Go to some stores. It is not free but it is way cheaper than market price.”

“With money we received from defeating dark force and our saving we should manage to buy something.” Iris added “Ahh, but let me warn you. Even though there are many various kind of buff potions. Please focus on stamina and health restoration potions okay. For you Hasega, you might like to add some mana potions since you use holy and restorative magic. ”

“Why?” I asked. I would love to buy some dexterity buff potions. And wisdom buff potions to increase my mana

“This is a battle of attrition. You guys are over lvl 200.buff that only last for an hour isn’t going to cut it.”

“Then for me?”

“For Riri, I would suggest Mana potions. Don’t even ask why. That battle before, you still ran out of mana long before dying right?” Iris said.

“Umm, yes.” I nodded

Stella sighed “This was my mistake. She should have enough if El wasn’t around. But with El, her Mana consumption has gone through the roof.”

“Don’t sweat it Stella. She became stronger in the end right? “Iris smiled

“Umm, what about Stella and Elkami?” I said looking at my 2 familiars.

“How far can she go?” Iris tilted his head. It seems it was a given that I can’t separate from these 2

“We can go as far as we like. “Both answered.

“Whoa. These are some exceptional familiar. I should have known from the battle before.” Iris said “Good. These guys are in dire need of range support. Stella is okay to go with them. It is better so that no one misfired.”

“Umm, okay then.” I said to them. It is quite sad that I am about to be separated from my familiars. But what he said is true. Stella and Elis more useful on the front line.

“Okay. Buckle up. Buy whatever you need and we will kick death manager butts in 1 hour.” Iris commanded.

After using all of my savings to buy mana potions, I am positioned in archer group 500 meter from the main force. Hasega is there at the very front. Wait a second, why am I also in the front of these archer group? There are stacks of 100 people behind me forming 10x10 formation.

“Okay. So, now is the briefing. Your order is simple, just shoot any flying monster. Please march forward as the frontal assault moves forward. But watch out for any infantry that slip by the frontal group. That’s all. “Edgar said as he rode his horse to the frontal group. He belongs there I guess. His shield is practically impenetrable.

“Okay, so your name is Riri. The group behind you will follow you. Your group is group number 4. There are 10 archer group so everything you do will contribute 10% of our army. Please do well.” Some random high leveled looking paladin called me. “Your main post is somewhere 150 meter behind center left. It is very close so beware of some stray dark force group attacking you. And your orders, as you already heard from Commander Edgar, is to kill any flying dark force. But in case you found it necessary, you may change your orders to providing fire support against ground enemy troops.”

“Umm, why am I the group leader?”

“Above lvl 200 with rare weapon, dexterity at least 350, and advanced archery. Well, in your case though you are still beginner, your weapon is extraordinary. And your dex is also high and you are proficient in close combat, so we made an exception and put you a little bit in front. Please protect your fellow archer group”

“I-I see.” So everything can be bought by money huh? And what’s with proficient in close combat so put you in front? You know an archer is a dead meat in close combat. Am I supposed to protect them alone from dozens of enemy infantry if they breach through the frontal defense?

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“Okay. Do your best. If I haven’t see your battle yesterday, I wouldn’t believe such a timid girl to be able to use weapons besides healing staff.”  He smiled and giggled while waving good bye. He then come to another archer group member. So he is the one in charge of archer group.  I can see that he can also wield bows and sword.

“Umm, captain Riri? Where is our post?” some archers shyly asked me for directions.

“Umm, let’s go there. He said that we are going to act behind that group.” I replied back

The formation are set 1 hour later and we marched toward the dark lord castle once more. Without delay as we come closer, giant wisp filled the sky and pteranodon and dark eagle also followed suit. I nocked my arrow on my bow and fired at those dark force. They are still quite a distance away, but, with their number that literally filled the sky, I doubt I will miss as long as my arrow can reach them. My arrow fly alone and hit some random giant wisp.it fell and died. Why the heck is no one firing?

I glared behind at my back “why no one isn’t firing?”

“Oh. Right. Sorry.” they nocked their arrows and aimed. 20 seconds later, no one hasn’t fired a thing. The dark forces came closing in

“Riri. Please shout fire to order them to shoot. “Anya said through whisper.

I completely forgot. I need to order them to shoot or they will not shoot. I take a breather, nocked my arrow and then as the dark force came closer almost above our frontal group, I shouted to fire. And this time, rain of arrows shot out from my group killing the enemies. Other group also followed suit after us. Shouts to fire came one of another as a volley of arrows came one after another.

While we took care of the aviation unit, the dark force infantry also stepped forward and defending against our forces. Inferno knights were pouring out from the castle and their tower shield barricaded us from the gate and their archers keep shooting us from a distance.

BLAR! BLAR!

Several thunderbolt strikes at the castle gate. The bolts look brighter and stronger than the ones they randomly scattered yesterday. Those huge gate have several cracks already from that strike. If they keep this up those gate will come down in less than 1 hour and we will crush them inside those gate

GRAAA!!

Loud monster screams can be heard as those thunderbolts trying to destroy the gate. That scream was even louder than the lightning.

“Ohh my god.” Hasega and Victor looked above to the source of the cry. It was a black dragon with Reis on top of it followed with 6 wyvern with black knights on top of them.

“That’s the boss alright.” Hasega whispered. He then concentrate back on the enemies in front of him.

“Fall back! Those dragons and wyverns are aiming for our siege engines and mages!!” Edgar shouted as some ranks behind him summoned their horses and scurrying back. Edgar followed suit while other paladins tried to close the hole he made.

The battle was getting harder. Don’t even think about handling wyverns or dragon. I am having a hard time just to kill dark eagles and pteranodon. I often had to change to my sword and slash at the incoming enemies using a skill.

“Kyaa!!” some girls shouted as a pteranodon opened its maw to swallow her but I quickly ran and with wind jump and severen slash I managed to cut the pteranodon into two. I barely used any skill at all but my Mana was almost at the bottom. El must be working hard somewhere. This is already my second bottle of mana potion my mana regeneration is slow due to summoning those 2 pets. My mana is really inefficient now.

BLAAR!! *Rumble*

“The gate has been destroyed. Mages, fire at those wyverns!!” Edgar shouted as he stepped in front of the siege engines and mages group.” He seemed determined to chase any wyvern that was aiming for our precious artillery. He is also preparing to fire light magic. That is all good but we also need fire support here.

Various light effects and color started to sprout from behind fireworks in our modern world can’t even compare. The wyverns nimbly evading them but those riders obviously aren’t Touhou players so they can’t possibly dodge all of them. While some of those bullets hit, the wyverns is still going strong. The dark knight started to counter fire by firing his AOE dark magic

While his henchmen are doing the dirty job, Reis and his dragons just flew around at higher altitude and firing his dark magic. No last boss is going to die first. I think he took this battle seriously now unlike Triisia. A glimpse of caution is seen on his face.

But, betraying my expectations, he landed straight at the frontal group, just in front of Hasega and Iris. As his dragon firing dark flame over at his surroundings killing numerous players, he unsheathe his sword and glared at my familiar, it is Stella. Oh no, he is going to abduct her again. This time Stella was much weaker than she was before, she is going to be abducted easily.  Need to get to her now!

“Archers!!, Fire at that dragon and that black cloaked man, he is the boss!!” I issued an order as I run while firing arrows towards him. This is no good, my arrows were easily deflected by his sword, but I am still a good 100 meters, need to keep firing and at the end, I will change to my sword and engaged him.

Stella wasn’t staying put either, she maneuvered brilliantly and tried to evade Reis. She knew just by looking that she could not win against him now. Iris and Hasega engaged him and put him on his ground, the battlefield quickly became emptied in a circular shape between them. No one is brave enough to come closer to them as their skill was clashing at each other. As Reis swung his sword, Hasega took stance to receive the blow while Iris beautifully circled around Hasega to make a counterattacks which is also easily repelled by Reis ’s sword. Stella was just running here and there behind Hasega. Stella wanted to retreat but if she ran, she was sure that Reis will chase her, and thus she can only rely on Hasega and Iris in front of them. Her form was back into demi human ones by the way. The clashing and the battle was so severe it is like they are dancing with an absurd speed that no one dares to interrupt them. They knew that if they entered, somehow they would become either a mincemeat or a hindrance towards their superiors

As I changed my bow into night moon sword I used a skill and dash to stab Reis on the face. He successfully repelled my attack and took a large step backwards. I quickly changed to Tensaiga and unleashed a slash of for my 22 comrades bringing their HP from 70 back to max. Then I unleashed blessing of water to enhance their regeneration rate. This 2 slash of from Tensaiga only took less than 2 seconds. Which is why it is much more efficient than chanting. The cool down is more than 100 minutes though. I can’t really spam this skill around. And with manage skill, I quickly swap back to night moon sword and Elkami sword. But let’s forget dual wielding now, my Elkami sword will get snapped into 2 pieces at the first clash with Reis sword. I can feel it on my hand when that sword impacted my night moon sword. A level 20 Elkami sword will be no match for that sword no matter how good it is. Rather than dual wielding, let’s use my other free hand to help me concentrate to chant a blessing.

Without words being spoken, Hasega and Iris knew what I am about to do, they quickly stepped forward within 1 second to block Reis incoming attack. Then, they clashed again while I dodged. 5 seconds later, my single bless and light blessing kicks in for us. We managed to push him back with a counter. Single bless is aimed at Iris since he has higher levels. After taking some distance, Reis just stood with no sign of assaulting

“Even if your charisma is gone, and your face isn’t as pretty as it used to be. I can’t be wrong. You are Stella. Why? Why instead of bonding with me, you are bonding with that filthy girl?” Reis finally opened his mouth

To me, her face doesn’t changed a single bit. But, since her charm stat and charisma stat were lost, I guess the resident of this world saw him as a normal plain girl. No wonder she didn’t get any attention nor recognition from anyone except players.

“I have already called for the commander. He will be here shortly. We just need to hold. Don’t let him return to the castle or let him fly back that dragon.” Hasega said

“Don’t worry. I already ordered my archer to aim at the dragon. He is being pin cushioned by my archer group.” I said back to Hasega. I ordered them to fire both Reis and the dragon though. But I guess they judge firing at Reis will cause friendly fire so the just shot at the dragon. I need to forget that I am ordering people not some AI in games. As I glimpse at the dragon, though dozens of arrows were flying at it regularly, he doesn’t seemed to be close to dying. Most of the arrows were deflected by it scale and some skillful archer in my group manage to scratch and cause some minor bleeding. But it is still far from dying. If Reis was determined to flee, we can’t stop him now

“Don’t worry, we might actually beat him now. He is far weaker than when he fight me at Trisia. Some of my poison must have damaged him permanently. “Stella said as she stand behind me. El was coming too after randomly spending my mana somewhere. Now, with 5 of us, I don’t think we could lose. “And Riri, I can’t fight in the group and he is too strong for me, my skill might damage everyone. Unsummon me so you can have more mana regeneration for yourself and El.”

“Ok.” I said as she disappeared

“I said that our goal was holding him. But killing him will do us better. Let’s try it! Hasega said.”

We clashed sword again. This time, Reis ’s sword was glowing with dark pulse. Unlike before, the hit that he caused seemed to be heavier than before. Hasega grunted every time he took a blow and his HP is rapidly fading. Iris was also easily pushed back, I closed the gap with my sword, but it was the best that I could do. Elwas firing her skills but it was easily deflected with Reis sword. Is that sword has magic imbued in it. No normal sword was able to cut magic. Only something as rare as my night moon sword. And moreover, it has to be socketed with gems. Let’s forget that, the act of he cutting an attack as fast as a bullet surprised me even more. His skill and weapons are top notch

“Change to Tenseiga, healing wave!” I said as I used another skill of Tenseiga. This is another AOE healing skill with superior power compared to slash of healing. Our HP which have fall below halfway mark was instantly recovered back to full. But this one is 30 min cool down. And slash of healing is still 6 more minutes. Unless someone died, Tenseiga will be useless now.

I charge and slash horizontally at him. Thankfully my dex was high so I can somehow keep up even though I am the lowest level here. My armor was also of high level and legendary. We Can keep up if it is the 3 of us. Iris is our main attacker, Hasega a defender, and I am a jack in all trade.  Elis our mage. Victor and Dem are quite busy dealing with the dragon.

“Final Judgment!” Commander Edgar shouted as he swung his sword while riding his horse towards us. In an instant, the area around us quickly turned bright. An angel came down from the sky and sounded a horn and the light goes blindingly white it started to feel hot.

“My HP is falling.” I said to Hasega

“This is a supreme light attack my commander of paladin.

“Hey, he is going to strike us too?” I asked

“Maybe, sacrificing 3 people to kill enemy commander sounds good right?”

“Riri, let’s flee!!”

Without even answering back, we fall back and just before us, a beam of light strike the place we were before. My eyes went blind for a second due to the brightness of the spell. This is quite nuts if I may say. Even before the beam, my HP went down a quarter

“Damn it, he is still alive?” Iris said. He is as fast as me so he was able to escape. But Hasega was caught instantly. When the attack came, his HP s already halved. And even if he is a paladin with high light resistance, I guess he can’t came out of there alive. But when the light dissipated I saw a black scale and black wings

“He used the dragon to cover himself. Damn it.” Edgar said as he step down from his horse, readied his shield. The dragon was dead, but I can see black aura covering it. The dragon fell down with a thud and Reis with menacing aura stood there.

An awkward silence followed. Reis just glared at us. But our commander isn’t making a move too. Even captain paladin can’t make a reckless charge huh?

“I command, rise dark dragon” he said. The corpse of the dragon twitch a bit and stood.

“Huh? He can revive that thing so easily?” Iris was shocked at this development. Id that was true then killing the dragon was meaningless. The dragon itself was so hard to deal with. If we have to deal with both of them, I don’t know how I should respond. Victor, Anya, and Dem came to us to support. We still took a chance then. I, iris, and Edgar will take Reis and the dragon will be for Anya dem and Victor

“It is a zombie dragon. It is weaker. But it has poisons mixed inside. Kill it quickly and kill Reis !” Edgar shouted as he brandished his sword

“I shall see you at the castle.” Reis said as he sprouted black wings and flee.

“Tensaiga. Water revival.”  I unleashed Tensaiga last skill which has a cool down about 70 hours.  And then, Hasega revived. With Reis fleeing, all of his wyverns, dark knight, and all of his ground infantry flee with him to the castle. He is determined to make a last stand there. I guess it was my stupidity to think we can kill him here the zombie dragon let out a poisonous gas across our army, my archers have been shooting arrows for a while, his body is already looked like a hedgehog but it seems like that dragon was not close to dying for the second time

“Damn it! he manage to get away. Let’s chase him. He has wings was a news to me. This time, after we capture the castle, we will erect a barrier so he can’t escape.” Edgar said as he used another amazing skill and cleave the dragon into two. The cleaved dragon then turned into ashes, it will not revive again now. After that he ran towards the front gate that has already been destroyed. “Everyone, follow me. Let’s crush them!!”

At the rubble of the gate, we encountered a heavy resistance of the remnants of the dark force. We are weary and their stamina is limitless. I want to retreat and rest but the commander wants us to destroy him now while he is wounded. Our forces was already not what it was like before. Only about 100 paladins left. This group has a very bad balance now, the frontal melee group was heavily injured while our wizards have spent their mana. Our archers were also low on arrows.

“Okay. Let’s storm the keep. Charge!!” Edgar said as he rammed the inferno knight desperately blocked the ruined gate.

“Charge!!!” Victor and Hasega also followed. While Anya took up the rear guard preparing spells, our everlasting group charge into the castle. Returning back to my bow, I followed them while picking any enemy that came from afar.

We scoured through the garden, there was a little resistance here. Now onto the buildings itself. The door was easily smashed by our commander. And our remaining forces went in.

“Let’s clear the first floor. First group went into the kitchen, my group will go to the main hall, Hasega, go to the second floor!” Edgar commanded

“Umm, is this good idea? “ I asked Iris

“This is the normal routine when you conquered a castle. But I have to agree with you, spreading our weary and thin forces really isn’t the best. We might get annihilated group by group. Those dark forces seemed few and losing. But they still have those wyvern and dark knight remember?”

“We do not question our superior orders Riri. Let’s just get to the second floor and do our best to wipe the remaining dark force.” Hasega shouted as he climbed the stairs upward. Ur group and several leftover knights from Trisia followed

We met some groups of trolls and inferno knights. But Hasega worked better than before dealing with those armies. Even their dark archers and giant wisp was in disarray here. My fear of sudden ambush might be unrelated. We might win this day after all

“Okay, here it comes. This is the second floor main hall. There should be something big here.” Victor said as he opened the door.” There should be some mid boss or strong monsters inside.”

“Where is your confidence come from?” I asked

“In all games I played, that is a standard scenario. Hell, Reis might be in there.”

“Wait, if Reis is in here, we should prepared beforehand right? Like resting and recovering our HP and mana?”

“Well, Reis should be inside the min hall on first floor. That is more standard. This room should be safe.” Iris said as he opened the door. A black cloaked figure stood there with his back on us. It then slowly turned around and together with him 4 armored war trolls were with him. Armored troll, like its name implied a troll equipped with full steel plated armor from its helmet down to its foot and 2 giant iron maces. It was a lot tougher than war trolls that only used a crude wooden club and naked skin as an armor. But a single war troll itself was fitting opponent for a group lvl 100. and this war trolls were of course, a lot more tougher we saw some of them before, and they took around 20 or 30 people to take a single one out from our army. And there are 4 of them together with Reis .

“Iris, what did you said about the last boss can’t be here?” Victor said as he staggered back.

“Well, they are going to be entertained with my knights down there with their wyvern. Those knight were as tough as me now. I am quite wounded because of Stella’s poison that time at Trisia. I wonder if that captain paladin can handle them. Let’s forget them for now and focus on to us.”

“Why are you doing this Reis?” Stela asked while appearing besides me “Why are you joining the dark church?”

“Why not? Look at this power that I got. All of you are jealous of this power right? That’s why you tried so hard on killing me.”

“Talking to him is a lost cause Stella. Something like a last boss can’t be talked over. Let’s just prepared ourselves.” Victor said as he brandished his 2 handed axe. The nice beautiful axe was now in a battered state with all of the scratches it accumulated while battling.

“Knights!!! Ready your weapons. Dem, take half our knight to deal with 2 of those war trolls. While Anya and the other half of the knights will deal with the other 2. Riri, I, and Iris will take down Reis.” Hasega said as he readied his weapon

“I am death manager. I conquered life and death. You guys can’t possibly prevail against me. “He brandished his weapon “Dark stone from the abyss of hell, give me the blessing of hell to help me sent my enemy to your abyss.”

He crushed a black stone and the stone let out a dark miasma enveloping him. Okay, that was definitely a buff, we are in deep trouble now. It was a close match before, but he is buffed up now, we have Victor but, a boss monster receiving buff is no joke right? Even if the buff was only 10% if it applied to boss monster its damage and speed will shoot up.

“Charge!!” Hasega shouted and we ran towards our corresponding enemy. Dem together with 20 knights were assaulting 2 armored war trolls, Anya with other 30 knights assaulting the other 2 war trolls and we will be attacking Reis.

Reis swung his sword downwards to parry with Victor’s axe. A loud clanging sound could be heard with shockwave followed behind. Without delay Hasega slashed from the right while iris slashed from the left. Reis skillfully dodged those slashes behind. But I leaped to him and slashed downward. He will not be able to escape now. But to my surprise, Reis with an impossible speed swung his sword and sent me flying. My armors are too light to parry with Reis strength. Thankfully I have acrobatic skills and I managed to land without any decrease in health.

He ignored me and slashed at Victor. By reflex, Hasega quickly blocked his slash with his shield but the power was different from before, he fell back with Victor. Reis tried to slash and kill the incapacitated Victor and Hasega but Iris took the initiatives to slash at him from behind. Reis reacted by swinging his sword. They slashed with incredible speed one after the other, all of Iris slashes were blocked and all of Reis Slashes were either dodged or diverged from its trajectory. It is hard to completely block Reis buffed up state now. Even with that, Iris HP was plummeting, he is not a tanker so it is understandable. I need to react fast too, I dashed and tried to stab Reis from the back, Reis just deflected my sword like it was nothing. I am not a heavy hitter, I did not rely on heavy hit. My forte is speed, so even if my sword is deflected, with my dex I quickly took another slash, but he blocked it too, not giving up, I continued the attack, he was pushed back a little with the flurry of my attack. My speed was greater than him, his sword is strong, but I can outmaneuver him. Not to mention, I am not limited to physical attack, I have magic and wind walk. I can move three dimensionally and if he took a distance, I can come closing in while chanting a spell.

I and Iris continued this for a while until Hasega and Victor returned back to their stance. But, as I and iris slashed at him, he let out his black wing disrupting our concentration and balance. He didn’t let that moment to pass, he let out a slash and it hit directly at my chest and Iris. We were blown away with half of our HP remaining. He then continued to charge but this time, Hasega and Victor came to the rescue, the battle returned to stalemate with those 2 now replacing us. Hasega deflected Reis sword with his shield, and Victor charge at him. Reis seemed fatigued a bit but he is still far from defeated.

I quickly drank mana potion to recover my Mana and cast healing spells for all of us. The effect was meager but Iris also drank his health potion while looking at the battlefield. Dem and Anya managed to kill 2 trolls. Only 2 trolls are left now. But they are in a haggard state now. If you asked me, they did quite well managing to kill those 2 in such a short amount of time. As far as I know, trolls have an absurd high amount of HP and strength but they are prone to magical attack and they are slow as well. Dem’s high dexterity and speed together with Anya and El’s spell makes it efficient for them. It seems to me that Hasega put some thought when choosing who to engage those trolls. But the knights that we brought from Trisia looked like they are about to die with any hit now. Their numbers are almost halved too and Anya and Dem seemed exhausted. Those trolls are special afterall.  

“Riri! Let’s charge! Hasega and Victor s HP are already below halfway mark.” Iris said

“But, our health isn’t full yet.” I replied. I looked at my HP that is at 90%

“Doesn’t matter. Let’s charge.”

With that I followed him and dashed. As I found an opening between their duel, my sword then were enveloped by a bright light as I cast a skill light sword. It pierced Reis. But he quickly counterattacked by slashing his sword downright. But it was blocked by Iris’s swords. He then leaped backwards to gain some distance

“That skill just now? Why you didn’t use it earlier?”

“If it hits and I didn’t care about mana usage, I would use it more often.” I replied. That skill was quite mana consuming since my mana regen was almost nonexistent now. El was helping Anya and Dem with the other 2 trolls. Stella can’t help at the moment. It seems like she was about to cry for her uselessness. But it can’t be helped, she is a pet for solo players after all.

“Reis, now equipped with his black wing dashed and he strike at me. his strike has become lighter but faster. So he is adapting his style to our style after all.  This is difficult, I can catch up since I also have wind walk. But Iris was struggling, Reis black wing was obstructing our view, when we tried to slash the wing, it just diminished into shadow. It isn’t a real wing after all.

With as little break as ever, Hasega and Victor tried to mix themselves into our duel.  They just drank a potion and came back. Their HP was still at the halfway mark. We managed to deal some damage now, our cooperation has gone smoother and Reis can’t catch up with our coordinated assault. It seems like his buff also wanes with each passing time. But we are also at our limit, we can barely keep up and we keep accumulating damage. In this battle of attrition, who is going to last I wonder?

“Dark slash!!” he said as a dark miasma enveloped his sword. He then slashed at Victor. Victor  tried to defend with his axe, but his axe was split two on the handle. Oh no, a critical hit. His HP is already below half only at 30%% a clean hit will kill him

“Die now!” he then slashed upwards and Victor flew way. His HP has already gone

“Damn it, he got Victor.” Iris said in a low voice

“What a shame, that was one expensive axe.” Hasega replied. Is that what you cared about? Well, this is a game so you are not wrong that equipment are more important than lives. But you are breaking your heroic tale here Hasega.

“Watch out!!” El screamed.

“ARGG!!!”  Dem screamed as an iron mace sent him flying crashing down the wall. Even if you have high dodge ability you will still get hit eventually. Now it is only Anya left, with 2 war trolls. The knights were almost annihilated. Only 5 are visible.

“Sorry Riri, I think I will have to use this.” El said as she chanted an enigma spell. My mana was sucked out, I am already low on mana but true to what she said, if she didn’t use it, we are going to get killed with those war trolls or Reis.

“Heads up! Reis is coming again.” Iris said as he dashed and parrying Reis slash with his two swords

“Ugh!” Reis grunted as he received Hasega slash from behind

“Anya, please hold those trolls for a minute more!”

“no promises El, you know I am weak in close combat. Fire wall!!!”

“Riri, use Stella to help Anya. It is okay now, I will tell the knights to pull back, they are a burden with their injuries now.” Hasega said. “And keep your eyes on Reis, don’t wandered off now, we are at a critical stage!!”

I did as I ordered. Stella was as eager as she ran, transformed and bit a troll right on the nape. It was a critical hit and the poison will slow down that troll regeneration now. No time to watch them, I can only trust them, I have my own duty. That is to fight against Reis.

BLAAR!!

Just a few minutes later a loud sound rang behind us. The spell that El cast has launched. I sneak a peek behind me. Finally Anya can come to our side. Those 2 trolls has finally died. Anya stepped on their bodies and came to us

“Wait. Anya!! One of them hasn’t died yet!!” I screamed. Anya looked behind her. But it is too late, the troll has already raised his club and swung down. Without even a scream, Anya’s body was pulverized.

“Damn it. Anya fell too. Riri, kill that troll immediately!!” Iris said

“But..”

“Hurry!! We will stall for some time with Reis. He is already exhausted. We can make it if you hurry!!”

“Okay.” I reluctantly faced the troll. The troll already staggered when walking. Just 2 or 3 more strokes of slashes should bring him down. I need to finish this as soon as possible

I quickly ran and cast thunder blade. Lightning covered my sword I slashed at the troll. The lightning stunned him a little so, without delay, I continue my strokes of slashes. The troll recovered and tried to hit me horizontally with its club but I quickly dodged and cast flame blade towards it and thus killing him. It only took 10 seconds in total but I was not fast enough.

“Watch out!!” Reis tried to slash Iris but Hasega with his shield stand in between them and they both flew to the wall.

“Dark laser!!” Reis said as he chanted.  The laser shot through those two. Hasega skillfully shielded against the attack while protecting Iris at the same time but he then dropped his shield

“The shield was cursed. I need to rely on my sword now.” he murmured as his shield was turned black. A cursed shield can’t be equipped and need to be purified on the church first. I have no idea that some darkness attack could inflict such a status on your equipment.

“Just die you insects” Reis said while panting, he gathered another mana on his hands.

I quickly launched light bolt on Reis while running towards him. My light bolt interrupted his chant while I ran towards him. We finally cross blade again. How long has this battle progress? While my stamina bar was already reaching towards red, my mental fatigue was reaching its limit too. Even if I tried the initiative to attack, I was immediately pushed back to defensive. This is too hard. His hit was precise and heavy. If I forcibly countered, my sword will just get deflected and I will lose my balance.

“Arg!!” I was flown back. It is futile. I can’t possibly fight him alone.

“Darkness bind!!” he chant and dark chains emerged from his hand

“Riri!!” Hasega and Reis dashed between us and used their body to block Reis. The chains bounded them.

“Insects be gone already! Dark wave.” Reis said as he swung his sword horizontally creating a dark torrent and killed both Iris and Hasega

“Riri!” Stella ran towards me. Now that we are alone, we can fight together. Reis HP was a mere 10%. We were so close on beating him. But I probably can’t made it. 10% is still a long way for me alone. If Hasega and iris were still present, we might make it. But alone is impossible.

“Riri, don’t give up. “

“But...” I looked at her. She is still in full spirit. Her eyes looked expectantly at me.

“Why Stella? Why did you look at her but not me?”

“Because she is my closest friend. The one that understands me.” Stella said while standing beside me

“So, is my years of gaining your attention worthless? You, you always looked at me like that. Even now, with eyes neither of hatred nor fondness, you never looked directly into my eyes. Am I only a passing commoner to you?”

“No, you were my friend. A long time ago.” She replied. But somehow I understood what Reis is talking about. Stella never made any close friends. Even Ragnar, she always maintained her distance with others, even at Headquarters, she looked lonely but she never interacts with others more than necessary. I knew why though, because she felt guilty to the death of her friends, she should never be happy when her friends died in her hands. And most importantly, she was terrified of her impending death. She really never tells anyone about this except me huh?

“I will definitely make you look at me! I will bound that girl and torture her in front of your eyes. With that, our bond of hatred is complete! HRAAGH!” he said while dashed towards me. I get shivers when he talk like that. This is supposed to be a game but it is so realistic. He is a total villain, I can’t even reply back towards his goal. He is far more villainous than demon king that wants to rule the earth.

“Stella, he has some screw loose in his head.”  I complained. “How is someone like him became Tantalus member?’

“I thought so ever since we met.” She replied “Tantalus is just that kind of a group. It was still tolerable that time, I thought he was just idolizing me. But on the way he got more screw loose than normal.”

Then he charged. Just like before, I have no choice but played defensively. Whenever I am in a pinch, Stella circled around and bit him. He seemed to be in so much pain just being near Stella. I knew her aura can damage someone. But it is just a little damage. Yet every 10 seconds or so, his HP is decreased by 1% alone.

“Damn it. I am not going to die now. “

“Please Reis. You have done too much evil and you already contracted with demon. You can’t live normally anymore.” Stella said with her green eyes in her wolf form

“Unsummon beasts.” He said. Dark miasma flow from the outside, creep inside of walls into Reis In an instant his HP recovered halfway. No way, what is that technique

“What? Only 50%?” he said dumbfounded 

“Riri, he took every dark creatures he summoned and feed his soul with it. His stamina and magic has also recovered. Not only his HP

Alright. That is what I call cheating. I can barely manage 10% of his HP and now I must fight him while he is half of his power. My stamina is already dry A few strikes more and I might fall unconscious. My magic is in a similar state. This is so desperate, the developer is truly evil if he made a scenario like this. Am I going to be captured and be separated from Stella again?

“Just give up! Don’t struggle anymore, and I will ease your suffering. I will just unbound you from Stella and release you.  After that I will flee this castle, I have no need for this stone slab for our living place”

“Reis...... okay. Just don’t hurt her okay.” Stella said as she returned to her human form looked very tired. She looked at me again smiling while crying” At least I could save you. “

I felt my heart pierced with such a spectacle. She has suffered so much. I can only give her several months of freedom. After resurrecting, she smiled much more brightly than she used too, she has been lonely and looking for a close friend up to now. If I let her go now, she will suffer under that death manager. As a toy, she will be treated no more than dolls until her soul fade away and Reis became bored of her.

“No! “ I shouted. “Even if I have to sacrifice everything, my equipment, my character, or even my soul on the other side, I will not let her go and suffer alone, ever!”

“What a pest. I need to clean you up before the others arrived. Fortunately, it will take some time for me the other to arrive for I have destroyed the stairs from which you came. Now prepare to be tortured by me.”

“Wait a second, Riri, are you going to use that?”

“Sorry Stella, I can’t let you go no matter what.”

“You broke your promises!!” Stella cried more awfully now. I am sorry, but I have to do it, I can’t win otherwise, if I lose you, I might as well just delete his character.

“I won’t die. My life might get shorter, but even if use it once right now, we can still be together for a few years more right? Please don’t cry Stella.” I said to her while preparing my skills

“Soul transmutation! To Elkami”

Soul transmutation has been used

Lightning dark fairy Elkami soul is infused with your soul

In this form, your stat increased by 20% of Elkami stat

Strength + 30 dexterity +180

Wisdom +240   intellect +450

Stamina   +120 vitality +24

Your magic resistance has increased by 20% of Elkami stat

Fire    +2%     water +2%

Earth   +3%   wind +4%

Thunder+ 10%   ice +4%

Dark   +7%    light+ 4%

Your race has changed to half fairy

Your class has changed to mage

Your class restriction of weapon damage penalty has been removed

Magical damage has increased by 50%

Your have gained a new skill until transmutation ends

Flight

Thunder mastery

Darkness mastery

Spell caster

You have learned the following spells

Thunder Barrier

Thunder strike 

Thunder shower

Thunder ball

Lightning ball

Enigma of lightning god Zeus strike

Enigma of lightning god thor Hammer

Enigma of lightning god zeus bolt shower

Enigma of lightning god bolt of thor

Lightning bolt

Mana bolt

Lightning charge

Lightning pulse

Lightning strike

Lighting flash

Lightning storm

Shadow ball

Dark lightning

Period until soul transmutation ends 6 hours or until canceled manually

A surge of power came within me. I feel my power getting stronger. I get additional mana thanks to the increase of my stats. And my movement were faster, in short, I feel overwhelmed by my own power. This is about the same as the last time I used it.

“Damn it. Just die and give Stella back to me you insect!!” Reis roared and lunged against me. I dodged with impossible movement. This form gave me flight grandmaster. Even if Reis also has wings, he can’t match against me in maneuverability. We fight in 3 dimensional room, Reis has an advantage in power and health but I have numerous advantage in speed and magic.  Reis was pushed back, when he tried to slash at me, I dodge above or below and countered his attack. It was surprisingly easy now with this form. If only this soul transmutation skill do not have a limitation, this is without a doubt a cheat skill. I don’t know what will happen when this skill reach advance level. Maybe my account will be deleted and my character became a mob monster, or maybe my race will simply change into fairy or demon wolf. I am not sure so with all of my might, I have to finish this battle as soon as possible.

With my increased dex and int, I do not spare any effort of using magic. With each passing minute, Reis HP has decreased by 1 percent. If this keep going, he will die in less than 40 minutes.  Using sword magic when in close range and using normal magic when he gained a distance. Reis got an advantage in a further range his spell is far more advanced. But with a barrage of my intermediate and beginner spell, I still overwhelmed him.

“Damn you. DAMN YOU!!!” Reis screamed as he blindly charged at me. he launched a desperate attack. But, with my enhanced stat, it is easy to dodge and counterattacked. His HP continue to decrease even faster.

30 minutes later, Reis was out of breath, with 5 % HP left. With his desperate attack, I can’t get away unscathed either. I was left with 30% of my health. If this was a movie or a game, this is a time when both party unleashed their finishing move. But will it also applied to this game?

“I found you!” Commander Edgar finally ransacked into our room. He really took his sweet time getting here.  But considering the stairs getting destroyed I guess it is a wonder in itself that he managed to get here at all.

“Good job stalling for time Riri. Now let us finish this.”  He said as he pat my shoulder and step forward. My job is finished right? I should leave it to them. With Reis left with 5% HP fighting with Commander Edgar should be easy for commander. I Already did all of my job here right? I should left right? No matter how I think about it, it was the correct thing to do but why is my heart aching? I feel like something is missing. Reis glared at me with all of his hatred like I am his parent’s killer. There is nothing more that he could do and he knows it, so he can only glared like that. I turn my head to Stella, she just looked at Reis with a pained expression.

“Wait commander..... I will deal with him myself.” I hold Edgar’s hand while stepping forward bypassing him. “This is something that I must do.”

Edgar looked at me with a strange look but he finally nodded “But if you died or something extraordinary happened, I will take charge. I can’t let him flee after all of this. I will focus in barrier magic with the others in the meantime.”

“Okay.” I replied. Reis looked at me with an astonished look. He probably thinks that I am weird for making such a proposal. Sorry but I do not know about it myself. This action is the first thing I did outside the norm and logical calculation. Even I was surprised at myself for making this kind of decision

“Why?” he looked at me warily “Being arrogant now that you can defeat me yourself? Or are you afraid that he will take credits for killing me? I am just a monster in your eyes right? Foreigners from another world?”

“No. Proving myself that I can defeat you myself is not the goal. Nor is the drop loot or contribution points. I stand here before you, just to tell you that you are mistaken. You have lived with Stella far longer than I am. And I think your love for her is even bigger than mine. But, I pity you that the one who understands her the most is not you. But me.” I speak in a firm tone from my heart. In my heart I knew that this as the case. When we met at Trisia and that forest, I just looked at him like he is some madman or monster. Or maybe just some NPC that is designed to do bad things. But when we crossed blades earlier, somehow I can understand his thoughts.

Stella was too bright. I always wondered why such a girl choose me to be her friends. Maybe it is because that first day when I caught her making a mistake. In front of another, she always made a dazzling appearance regardless of what she did. There are many who adored her including me. But that admiration of me turned into friendship while Reis admiration turned into obsession. If Stella didn’t die and always like that, perhaps I might ended up the same as him. But when she shows me her fear at in that forest, when she turned into a summon, my admiration turned into friendship in that instant. I felt a connection from her.

“Nonsense! I will eradicate you and take Stella for myself.”

“I guess it is no use telling you. You can’t understand that if you did it that way, Stella will not getting closer but will get further away from you. As her friend, I shall free her from you.”i said hile raising my sword. “Enigma of lightning god!”

“Hahaha, my enigma is stronger than your! Enigma of the dark god” he laughed and smiled “Hades wrath!”

I smiled back “multicast, Bolt of Thor, Zeus, Srtike, Thor hammer, Zeus bolt!”

Four blue spell circles light up besides black one. The one that Reis cast. The timer from the spell ticking down. In a minute everything will be decided. Reis spell is more advanced than me, but with my multicast, I managed to summon all of my enigmas while he can only keep one.  He shows a restrained face, he tried to bring his spell to maximum power by sacrificing all of his mana. In contrast, I did the opposite, I do not have enough MP summoning 4 enigma so, I tried to lower its power a little bit so I can summon the 4th one.

30 seconds have passed, we still maintained our position. Reis can’t put any more strength in his spell, if he does, the spell will collapse and failed. Silence permeated the air and no one makes any sound. Even commander Edgar that watched from the sidelines keep her silence and moved slowly to the door with all of their soldiers, even without telling, they are able to grasp that I am going to unleash a powerful spell. The room was filled to the brim with mana that you can sometimes see it sprouting some bubble glow on the entire room. It was a pretty scenic appearances if not for the tensely 2 individual that are about to kill each other.  Stella firmly stood behind me.

5 seconds more, concentrate. Do not think about anything except destroying the enemies in front of you. 

3 seconds.  I will be able to do it right? No! Do not hesitate. I am no longer a shy and lonely girl. I have friends now and I have a responsibility now.

As the seconds passed, a loud thundering sound unleashed itself from the densely packed magical circle behind us. Reis unleashed something like a dark abyss in front of him while I unleashed a bright blue lightning from all of my circles. In less than a second, the 2 powers clashed with great intensity. A crack suddenly filled the entire wall and castle pillar from the shockwave of our powers colliding

My lightning quickly engulfed the dark shadow Reis has cast and my spells hit straight to his body letting out a bright light followed by huge blast. As he let out a last scream, Reis fell. With caution, I approached him but he didn’t move anymore. He is finally dead. That was the end of what we know once as death manager.

“It is finished.”  Edgar said as he step forward besides me and stared at Reis’s fallen body. I quickly returned back from my half fairy to normal human. When I checked back I was beginner level 8 on soul transmutation. With just an hour or so using this skill it has gone up 5 levels.  But I guess it will still take a long time for it to reach advanced.

“Riri.” Stella hugged me from behind, “This is the last time okay. I will not forgive you if you use that skill again.” She said while weeping

“Ugh.” Reis groaned. Everyone’s relaxed atmosphere jumped into alertness except Commander Edgar

“Relax, His dark aura completely vanish. He is at the last breath of his life.” He said while praying besides his body.” He is now a normal human at death door, may god bless his soul and forget his wrongdoings.” He prayed as he nodded his head.

Reis opened his eyes and stared at us. With a weak expression, he spoke while coughing blood. “Stella.”

Stella just stare back without saying a word. Tears started flowing from her eyes. Even if Reis has done many wrongdoings, he is still something like a family to Stella. I do not quite get it, but maybe Stella didn’t hate Reis that much.

“Sorry.” Stella replied

“When you shower me with kindness and affection, my heart felt an instant joy. It was a joy like no other.  For the first time, I felt so happy. I managed to get into Tantalus with my talent and connection. You smiled at me. That furthered my ego thinking that I might have a chance. As a prince, I always rescue you in our play. I thought, maybe I could be your prince in life? Not just in our play. But your kindness, your affection, and your attention slowly wanes. No, it is not that, your behavior didn’t change and that’s the problem. Your affection didn’t change at all when my love of you continue to grow. I was disappointed. In actually, you just treat me like an ordinary member. When I tried to appeal to you, you smiled and praise me. But that praise was empty, its word has no weight, you would say pretty much the same thing to everyone. When I tried to confess to you, you rejected me with a polite gesture. It hurts me the most. No matter what methods I tried, you didn’t looked at me. Our bonds are slowly fading, if this continues, I will just become a background character to you. That’s why....”

“You make a pact with dark churches?” I said with solemn tone

“They offered me great powers. They said with these dark powers, I can manipulate someone’s mind. They showed its power to some village girl and it really worked, I accept that powers without hesitation. I was so content. With that power, I can get what I want. Even if by force.”

“The dark powers that you possess erodes your mind. You have made a wrong decisions.” Edgar butted in “You are overwhelmed by its power and the dark god that its church deifies used your desire to extinguish thousands of lives. Massacring city of acolyte and Trisia. And not to mention your past events before that. Just to obtain a single girl forced love.”

“I see. So, I was wrong. GUARGH!” Reis coughed up blood. His life is nearing his end. I let out a silent tear as I hear this man’s story. “I can somehow feel it. But I can’t fall back. If I fall back, Stella will never be mine. And I will be all alone.”

Reis then looked at e “Sorry little girl. I do not know your name. May I know it?”

His question astonished me. But I answered back while trying to hold back my tears “It is Riri.”

Then, he looked back at Stella. “Stella, I do not deserves a forgiveness for my behavior. But still, I am sorry for what I have done.” He turned back at me again “Riri, I was so fool not understanding her nd went on my own foolishness. I realized now that isn’t true love but mere ambition. I have done something so cruel to me beloved... And to you too, I apologize. And at the very last..... Please take care of Stella..... May she finally found happiness living with you... and your friends....”

With that final words, Reis closed his eyes. His body slowly turned into a black cloud and disintegrated. As lights from the window filled the entire room, his body vanished and a system window rang up in front of me congratulate me for beating boss monster and telling me the loot that I get. This is one cruel world, there are no cemetery for him. He is treated as a boss monster in this world. And when he disappeared, he leaves no trace. The room looked so solemn and sad. Why is my heart so hurt when I finally freed Stella from her chain of the past? I have free her from Reis. But my heart still ache. I am not the only one, even Stella didn’t smile for her freedom. She cried instead like me. A silent tears fell from her cheeks as she continued to watch the spot where Reis body was.

I switched back and forth from watching her and watching the spot where Reis body is. Commander Edgar and the rest of the soldiers gave a final salute and returned. Not long after that, Stella wiped her tears and asked me to go back, leaving a sad and ruined castle behind. The once scary castle has turned into a castle filled with tears. When I looked back into this castle, somehow I can feel my hart aching with sadness and tears start to gather at my eyes.

“Let’s forget this and continue on Riri. The village of acolyte still need us.” Stella forced a smile

“I do not think I will forget this. You know, I love books. No matter if the ending is sad or happy ones I still liked them. If this events were to be turned into books, it will most probably be a sad ending. But I still will not forget this sad events. After all, in these sadness there is happiness, I can learn many things. Therefore, I do not want to forget him. At least in this world, let us 2 be the last to remember him. Reis the death manager.” I replied while I stare into the wide blue sky. “I came to these world looking for friends. And thanks to these events, I finally found one. A true friends.” I looked at her “that’s why I should not forget”

“I see. That’s soo like you. Thanks again Riri.“ Stella said while hugging me.

 chapter 39

 epilogue

Author note

-          And that’s the ending of this story. sorry for a very long delay, i got school and got hooked on some useless internet games. this chapter was a very long one I have to admit. With over 20 thousand words. Closing the plot holes took a lot of effort. Maybe I do not even need to do any filler in my head which I discarded when I tried to rush the ending.  But without fillers, Stella past is still unveiled and it will be a dark history no one knew about. At first i tried to separate this into 2 chapters but ending at chapter 41 is kinda bad in my eyes so, i forcefully combined them. Well, since this story is about Riri, not Stella please pardon me for leaving Stella’s past behind.

-          I hope this ending satisfies you. I personally thought this ending was good and the best one out of possible endings in my mind. I agonized on how the wording of Reis and Riri should be to express their emotions and atmosphere. I first thought that Reis should spoke like he gives up bonding over loves and started with a bonding of hatred but i do not have the vocabulary to express it finely. So, I guess obsession of love is better so I chose this ending.

-          Comments or questions regarding someone’s feelings are welcomed.

-          After this last chapter, there will be a short epilogue which might also include a little prologue for next series. But don’t hope too much, the next series might never come though. I want to learn to draw like some illustrations on Japanese light novel. Until I can do it, the next series will never come. And i have opened every thread. Please post a comment or question on the post you are confused about

-          And enjoy reading this last chapter. As the last one, please shower me with comments okay?

-          This is the latest of Riri Stats

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Status WindowName:RiriAlignment:GoodLevel:250Class:idol performerRace:humanGender:femaleTitlesManager, White RiderFame:5150Infamy:0MaxHealth:6675 (+800)Health Regen:26.5/SecMaxMana:10900(+800)Mana Regen:43.4 / SecStamina:309Vitality:127 (+150)Strenght:147 (+142)Dexterity:350(+55)Intelect:311(+125)Wisdom:332(+102)Leadership:165(+30)Luck:0charisma:182(+140)Charm:110(+125)Fighting Spirit:190Faith:140(+105)Art:74Elemental ResistancesFire:1%Water:0Wind:0Earth:0Light:45%Darkness:45%

Riri’s latest used weapons (She has more weapons at her house in acolyte but i only speak about the most used weapons. other weapons aren't mentioned much since i decided to rush this story)

Spoiler :

-          Tensaiga

-          Elven star bow

-          Elkami sword

-          Night moon sword

-          Archmage golden staff

Riri’s equipment(She also has other armors at home but same reason as above, i deliberately ignore them)

Spoiler :

-          Stella’s ring

-          Ring of leadership

-          Ring of mana

-          Performer’s mithril enhancement ring

-          Ring of vitality x3

-          Ring of intelligence x3

-          Earing of faith and wisdom

-          Necklace of vitality

-          Performer’s dragonskin’s leather armor and skirt

-          Performer’s angel shoes

Riri’s skill

Spoiler :

Speed reading intermediate’s lvl 2 (40%)

Manage beginner’s lvl 9(10%).

Magic mastery advanced lvl 5

-          Light blessing   advanced lvl 4

-          Phoenix regen intermediate lvl 7

-          Healing hand advanced lvl 4

-          Healing Area advanced lvl 3

-          Group cure advanced lvl 6

-          Expert cure advanced lvl 6

-          Single bless advanced lvl 2

-          Fireball intermediate lvl 9

-          Light bolt beginner lvl 7

-          Dark bolt beginner lvl 2

-          Sand bolt beginner lvl 2

-          Water ball beginner lvl 2

-          Wind ball beginner lvl 2

-          Mana bolt beginner level 3

-          Lightning bolt beginner lvl 4

-          Firesnow beginner lvl 3

-          Cure poison beginner level 3

-          Cure paralysis beginner level 2

-          icicle spear beginner level 3

-          serpent fume beginner level 6

-          thunder spear beginner level 4

-          wind jump beginner level 7

-          flame sword beginner level 1

-          ice sword beginner level 3

-          dark sword beginner level 2

-          light swordbeginner level 7

-          thunder sword beginner level 5

-          wind sword beginner level 3

-          earth sword beginner level 3

Acrobatic advanced level 4 (Movement 160%)

Multitasking advancd lvl 2

Weapon mastery intermediate lvl 3

-          Fencing style

-          Swordmaster style

-          Jujitsu

-          Ranger assassin

-          Knightsword defender

-          Knightsword swordmaster

-          Kung fu

-          Heavy knight

Ambidextrous beginner lvl 2 (Dex +2)

Bullet deflector intermediate lvl 6 (Dex +80)

Sneak beginner level 2

Horse riding intermediate lvl 1

Soul transmutation beginner lvl 8

Enchanted autograph beginner lvl 1

Break dance beginner level 1

Audience beginner lvl 2

Repair beginner lvl 5

Tailor beginner lvl 1

Cooking beginner lvl 2

Fire mastery beginner lvl 5

Multicast beginner lvl 1

Stealth Beginner level 1

Stella’s skill

Spoiler :

Wolf form intermediate lvl 2

-          Venom claw

-          Venom fang

-          Venom fur

-          Venom aura

-          Venom blood

Devil glare intermediate lvl 4

Hunter instinct intermediate lvl 5

Elkami’s skill

Spoiler :

Thunder Barrier advance lvl 6

Thunder strike advance lvl 8

Thunder shower advance lvl 1

Thunder ball advance lvl 2

Lightning ball advance lvl 9

Enigma of lightning god Zeus strike intermediate lvl 7

Enigma of lightning god Thor Hammer intermediate lvl 3

Enigma of lightning god Zeus bolt shower intermediate lvl 2

Enigma of lightning god bolt of Thor intermediate lvl 5

Lightning bolt intermediate lvl 6

Mana bolt intermediate lvl 6

Lightning charge advance lvl 4

Lightning pulse advance lvl 5

Lightning strike advance lvl 2

Lighting flash advance lvl 1

Lightning storm advance lvl 2

Shadow ball beginner lvl 2

Dark lightning beginner lvl 3