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Volume 5
Chapter 48: Harem King
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The Union – Northern Division HQ
Alexandria Office
There are many organizations in Terroa that originated from the real world. One of them is the Union of the Seven Nations –an organization of the alliances of the most prominent business groups in the seven continents.
Every continent has a single unified alliance of every country’s business groups and the leaders of these groups had banded together to establish the Council of Seven where they then established the Union of Seven Nations as an entity that could rival that of an ordinary country in economic and monetary power.
When the Northern Continent became open for explorations of the lower continents, the first players to come were those affiliated in the biggest guilds and organizations of Terroa.
Hydra Society
Blue Card Legion
Trailblazer Guild
Wall of Jeremiah
Bright Light Sword Faction
Union of Seven Nations
They can be called the advance forces or just scouting groups but considering a new violently inhospitable frontier such as The North is open for adventure, they are left greedy for the monopoly of what treasures and quests lies ahead.
Information about the greatest empire and its endless legends and stories of great people and their redeeming treasures were listed and often described in gilded accounts in the Book of Legends.
Of course, such stories are always fabled oftentimes exaggerated but the Book of Legends aren’t the only source of information for hardcore treasure hunters.
Memoirs, tomes, scrolls, tablets, temples, tombs, and sometimes even lost personal items of such names are ofttimes the only spark needed for these guilds and parties to journey in many places. And, more often than not, almost 30% of them ends up passing through the grand cities of the Northern Continent.
As such, although The North is a place that is not listed as one of the starting places for players, it is still one of the places where the population is almost mainly composed of 60%-70% players.
The NPCs of The North had not grown that much but since the boom of RPG: Terroa’s 8th month, the player population increased substantially.
With the harsh climate, evolved monsters, and the exaggerated number of the alien demons scattered across the Northern Continent, the players who had wanted to go to adventure and explore The North had to eventually make base on the first city they discover.
A month across these snowy infested lands was the bare minimum time if one wanted to travel from one city to another. And that was talking about the easiest of the obstacles there.
Many players had ventured forth only to die and as such, in order to live longer and gain better opportunities than the rest, they established the clans and guilds ––organizations that had a unified goal of being able to someday conquer The North under their organization’s name.
Thirteen cities, thirteen territories… the thirteen large groups that claimed ownership of these cities had managed to establish the rules set upon by the decree of the old Emperor De Raizel.
Although no large scale wars had ever happened, the existing competition between these groups remained and the fire of animosity burns, waiting to be kindled.
While the balance between these thirteen powers remained intact, one group sought to tip the weight.
On the very first day that they had appeared, all of the thirteen lords of the thirteen cities have been alerted of their existence.
A large castle that sits atop a large chunk of rock, with smaller sized palaces built upon the smaller islets that connects to the main castle via old world vines… hovers just right outside Alexandria.
The guilds and organizations in Alexandria became alarmed as the City Lord, a member of the Union of the Seven Nations, issued a non-aggression decree to the owner of Apus Epirus.
As seen from within the giant walls of the city, Billion, the City Lord, kept frowning as he stared at the large castle in the distance.
There have been a clear demand of why this renowned Floating Castle of the Blue Card Legion had appeared here all of a sudden.
“We only have one demand: Helium Guild’s Leader’s sword, the Excalibur.”
As soon as this demand was spoken to, the Blue Card Legion gave the city two days to comply. If not, there will be war in Alexandria.
Clicking his tongue in annoyance, Billion looked at the glowing aurora in the skies of his city. His mood was already sour when this arrogant guild from the south had invaded them, but the surrounding 500km space around the borders of the Alexandria had been blocked for teleportation as well.
“They’ve been planning for this for a long time!”
Billion clenched his teeth in anger. Communications are still online but no one is allowed to fly over the city nor use the teleportation devices.
The suppressing power of the «Space Locking Aurora» is just too great. Without a Talisman of Aurora, one cannot cancel out the effects of this barrier spell.
“Where can we find the materials for that talisman in just two days’ time? It’s not as if we have S-Ranked materials always ready when the demand requires it.”
Billion was becoming more and more frustrated. This provocative stance from the Blue Card Legion is really a declaration of war against The Union.
Turning his head back, he looked at the attendant at his side and yelled, “Are the preparations ready?”
“We are 90% ready, sir.”
“Have the magicians and support divisions ready. We are going to face them off in battle. We cannot let the Blue Card Legion get their hands on the clue to the Providence!”
Billion was angry and right now, although the support team from The Union had already teleported towards the nearest city to Alexandria which is Warjillis, the news that that support team carried with them didn’t seem to be of any help to alleviate his anxiety.
“I don’t know if that Donar is real or fake but the fact that he was also headed here is not a good sign in any form either.”
A day after the said event in Warjillis, Elder God Donar picked up two mountains, three open fields, and a few chunks of land from Warjillis to serve as a floating fortress around the terrifying floating golden servant.
Just from the photos alone, this 2km tall golden giant was something to be feared in all respect.
It has all the characteristics of a person, except that it was a large giant like that of a god and has a golden body with a crown that held a large revolving black ball on top of it.
Even Billion, just imagining how it must have felt to the people of Warjillis to physically look at it with their own eyes was enough to make him shudder. And at the mere thought of how that monster could become an enemy of them all in case Donar decided to, his anxiety even grew a little bit more.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
“Fuck this situation. I can’t deal with two storms at the same time. Thankfully, if my calculations are right then this battle against the Blue Card Legion wouldn’t take a month. And even if it does take that long, I am quite positive that our reinforcements would have arrived by then.”
After pondering for a moment more, Billion gave an order to the assistant, “Tell the Weapons Builders to finish the project. We must be able to fend off the attack until out reinforcements arrive.”
Billion looked at the floating castle. The silence of the wind was like the calm before the storm.
He frowned, “Advice the Wizard ranks. Form five shifts of Barrier and Support Mages. We must exhaust their supply of weapons and people before we decide to go towards a full head-on collision.”
“Yes sir.”
The assistant immediately departed as Billion finished his commands. After a while, he noticed a message window popped up in his vision and upon checking the contents of the message, a relived smile broke out on his lips.
“Of all people…” he said and a loud laughter escaped his mouth. “I ever expected that I’d actually feel happy that she will arrive.”
As soon as he murmured these words, shouts of alarm rung behind Billion.
His ears twitched, his hair stood on ends.
Looking at the floating castle, he felt his nape turned cold as countless small dots of shadows began to fly off from the islets surroundings the castle.
Furling his brows deeply, he closed his eyes for a moment, inhaling a cold air before opening them again as he sighed.
“So it begins.”
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*****
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––At the same time, Apus Epirus––
Standing atop the open gates of the castle in the main island, with hundreds of silvery armored knights behind him, all women who blindly follows his every command, Kladis wore a confident smile as he turned his head sideways.
Standing on his left side, just behind his shoulder, was Kira. He gave her a nod and Kira replied with a bow as she turns her back from the city and went inside the castle leaving her womanly scent lingering in the air as her cape fluttered in the cool city winds.
Kladis lightly laughed as he faced the city, a glint of violence written clearly on his face.
“Begin the attack.”
The other members of the Blue Card Legion weren’t around and only Olaf, Hagrid, Genevieve, Mouse, Rhino, and Hijack (the members of Panorama’s Payroll), were all sticking around the castle walls.
Managing the overall combat strategies was Kladis and the rest of them were reinforcements that had to act according to the scenario that Gats had to play.
Kladis tapped his ear and he communicator buzzed to life as he gave an order, “Stay in position.”
“Don’t act as if you can order us like your underlings!”
Kladis didn’t get angry at the retort and said, “You are the most vital part of this mission. The success of our operation lies on your shoulders. Mess this up and me personally dealing with you is going to be the lightest punishment you could hope for.”
There was silence on the comms line but Kladis still wore his smile as he imagined the sour look on the face of the man on the other line.
“I know what my role is.” The man finally said and after that, the line was cut.
Kladis chuckled and his gaze intently landed on the walls of the city. He stretched out his right hand as the commander that stood on the wall ordered a full-scale attack.
A horn was blown, the rumbling of engines echoed.
From behind the castle, four warships appeared. Then, on the little islets that surrounded the main island castle, countless winged and flight armored individuals flew like wasps about to attack their prey.
Their distance from Alexandria was around 8km. It was a distance where high-powered cannons can still travel through with specialized sniping shells.
But even with that wide a distance, the imposing sight of the floating castle and its islets were enough to put an invisible pressure to the defenders of Alexandria.
Adding the sight of these countless players about to launch an attack to the city, when the invaders blotted out the sunset sky, the city folks who were on the last stages of evacuation towards the shelters have now become aware of the gravity of the situation.
This pressure created an invisible wind that blew hot air to the faces of the defenders of the city.
Like bees humming together, the storming sound was like a tidal wave of invisible ripples forming an invisible wall that veiled out any bravery the weaker ones had managed to pull up on their hearts.
The Blue Card Legion knew that only a handful of the guilds in Alexandria are allied with The Union so the rest of the forces there are either barricading themselves or have already left the city.
And even if they did indeed been commissioned or does have any notion to help defend the city or at least help on repelling the forces that wanted to catch the Helium Guild, they will still have to think about the fact that they are going against the Blue Card Legion.
Truth be told, the Blue Card Legion had been planning on this day for a very long time. They monitored the movements and activities of the disguised Helium Guild, they even went on to put spies and advance forces inside Alexandria just in case the city forces had countermeasures not on the imagined scenario of the Blue Card Legion.
All of this was solely put on the fact that the Blue Card Legion really did held the importance of getting that sword for the sake of The Providence.
With The Union protecting it this way, if they didn’t know what the real purpose of the Excalibur was, then the only reason why they defy the demand was all because of their pride.
But… these are all behind now.
The invasion had already begun.
“Attack.” Kladis spoke and the men and women of the Blue Card Legion all cried for war––
––they will not stop until they have The Providence.
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*****
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The city guards yelled frantically, the NPCs and weaker player citizens all rushed as they were led to the inner sanctums of the city, towards the lower depths, to the shelters made for when Dragons attacked.
It was an old shelter and it goes all the way down to the darkness of the earth.
Only a few levels were ever used and even the strong players and elderly NPCs who knew a thing or two in the place had only gone down at a depth of almost a kilometer. No one had basically been on the lowest depths of this shelter zone, not even in the oldest and most treasured records of the city elders.
Alexandria is an Ancestral City. It had stood the many ravages of time and had a fair share of even the oldest of the old stories of heroes in the Book of Legends.
The buildings that stood above the surface have been the new ones as those old structures have all been renovated many times as to cater the need to adapt to the passing of generations.
But while it is so, the cultural heritage remained intact as the old ways of the Terrans have been passed down up to this day by their devoted Cultural Preservation Society. The old Alexandrian practices shall remain as long as one heritage keeper remains intact.
Although the threat of this attack doesn’t actually concern the destruction of the city, it is still deemed to be safer for the population to escape to the shelters so they could evade being collateral damages.
Guided by the city guards, the citizens followed them in an orderly manner until they reached the chamber on a floor that they belonged.
There were hundreds of floors in the shelter and every floor have at least 40 shelter chambers.
Some floors have lesser, larger chambers but they are still part of a simplified circle with the only way to actually get in and out were the levitating platforms that the guards controlled.
The diameter of the shelter zone was almost 100m with a sturdy circular catwalk and only a single uni-ladder that connects all the floors of the chambers.
If one wanted to get in or out of the shelter chambers, one had to ride the levitating platform up.
From the very top floor is the first floor, then the floor below it is the second, then the third, then fourth, and so on… no one actually knew how many floors were there and the deepest chamber everyone knew was on the 100th level ––used primarily by the city lord prefects and office personnel for management.
That depth down this chamber was already more than just a kilometer deep and yet the deepest parts of the chamber zone is still yet to be explored. There wasn’t even a single record pertaining to the deepest part of the shelter zone. They only knew that it was used in the past as a warehouse but now it was redesigned as a shelter for in case there was a Dragon or even a demon invasion.
And for the reason why no one has yet to discover what lies on the deepest parts of the chamber zone is because of the pressure and the lack of air.
The lower the floor you go, the greater the pressure, the lesser air you breathe, the more chances to die.
And that is the reason why even though there was a lot of unused floors, they could only use a limited space of this large spacious shelter zone.
––or was it a tower, even?
“What’s the situation?” Jack Stone embraced a white cloth in his chest. His clothes were not that of a knight nor of a warrior but that of a civilian, blending in on the chaos of the crowd.
Upon being asked, his trusted left hand man, Karim, let out a sigh as he checked the [covers] in their surroundings.
When he made eye contact with a few dozen people, those people all gave him a slight nod as they confirmed their locations and made reports.
“The Blue Card Legion has begun their advance. The City Lord will hold the line and will try to reiterate that we have never set foot in this region.” Karim reported and his voice carried a somber tone.
Jack clicked his tongue and he turned his head back to the general direction where floating castle was from.
“I only wanted the sword and its [Heroic Bestowment] ability but I never knew that the secret it possess was going to be this big. Not only that, it also has a sentience that lets it choose its own master.”
Karim could only sigh. They were stuck with this kind of situation no matter how they try to think about escaping it.
As they approached the entrance to the shelter zone, the sounds of explosions finally began. The loud rumbling detonations of powerful spells hit the barrier magic erected by the Shield Mages while the wizards of the Blue Card Legion bombarded the shield with the intent to bring it down.
And the, right this instant, a loud booming voice thundered from the horizons.
“City Lord Billion! Bring us Excalibur or face complete annihilation of your guild’s branch in this city!”
This voice came from the imposing blonde knight with a fluttering cape from the floating castle 8km away.
Jack, upon hearing this, had a ragged breathing as he recognized the owner of this voice.
“Damn it! It’s that Harem King…! He’s leading this attack to take the Excalibur! They’re really serious on burning this city to the ground!”
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Kladis’s reputation shakes The Union…
Is Alexandria going to burn?
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Next chapter: Helium guild in desperation.