Many guild leaders cursed out when they saw the World Announcement. The first Main Scenario Quest of Gaia when every guild finished choosing sides was to find and activate some kind of crystal called the Origin Crystal. Each side had to find one and since there were only 2 in the world, so only 1 guild from each faction was able to receive the Main Scenario Quest rewards despite everyone having already received the quest itself.
Normally, faction quests like these rewarded the players of the entire faction but not this one. The Astrals and the Gods were too stingy to reward everyone so they turned it into a competition between the guilds that had pledged their allegiances to them. Since it became a competition, everyone was colluding against everyone and the easy quest of scouring and exploring the world of Gaia turned into a death race where each guild was constantly watching their own backs, preventing others from trying to steal their information, and killing each other on the field to hinder each others' progression.
The two crystals had been discovered only a week after the guilds had all descended to Gaia but it had taken a long time to activate them because each guild was trying to prevent their competitors from doing it before they did. However, judging by the World Announcement, the top guilds had somehow reached a consensus...or the Angel and Demon guilds from both sides had one-upped everyone else and just luckily managed to activate the two crystals.
The quest had taken too much time at this point and it was high time that they got on with it. Lizzy’s guild, the Fallen Angels, had reached an agreement with the Devil’s guild, Nine Hells, along with many others in the Celestial Order’s faction to allow Nine Hells to take the rewards of the first main scenario quest and split it between the guilds that had followed the agreement. It was naturally the Nine Hells guild that reached out but they didn’t just pick every guild. The Nine Hells guild had carefully chosen the guilds they wanted to partner up with after thoroughly investigating the guilds’ overall power.
They had chosen 6 guilds and the Fallen Angels were one of them and surprisingly enough, Gerald’s Citadel Guild was also on that list. With methods unknown, the Nine Hells guild was able to find out that Gerald was the brother of the Colosseum Arena's rising star, the recently infamous streamer, Maria. Maria’s presence on Gaia didn’t go unnoticed especially when every day she was rising through the Colosseum’s rankings and constantly posted new videos of her dominating players in Colosseum’s PvP and Battle Royale Modes.
Gerald was also on Gaia and it was the first time he met up with his little sister in the game and Maria would occasionally hunt with her brother whenever she got the chance to do so. Someone from his guild probably leaked that information to the Nine Hells guild and this put Citadel, a guild whose power was only mid-high tier on the Light Faction’s side, onto the list of guilds to recruit. Having an ally that had a close connection with a powerful solo player like Maria was enticing and the Nine Hells guild couldn’t give that up when they saw that Maria seemed to also have a feud with the Heavenly Order.
They learned about the Crimson Bounty Order placed on her head and found out that every angel race player was actively trying to hunt her down whenever she stepped into any of the monster fields outside of the city. The results always ended with Maria causing a massacre and this greatly delighted the devil race players who were enemies with them. As the saying goes, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. They wanted to recruit Maria to their side, so the Nine Hells guild started with those she was close with, Gerald of the Citadel guild, and the girls who were the leaders of the Fallen Angels guild.
Speaking about the bounty, it had gotten to the point where Maria had grown very annoyed at any player with white feathery wings. The moment she even saw anyone with white wings, Maria would immediately snipe them from afar without even properly checking their identities. Some unfortunate bystanders got caught up in the bounty feud just because they were donning cosmetics that let them have white-colored wings.
All the devil race players thought that it was such a pleasing sight to see their enemies die so tragically. Even when the angel race players were inside of Discordia City, it didn't stop them from dying to one of Maria’s supercharged [Dark Rays]. The Nine Hells guild had been trying to contact her in some way, but Maria would always avoid them and any other guild that tried to recruit her. Since the two guilds, Fallen Angel and Citadel, both had a connection with her, the Nine Hells guild saw this as an opportunity to kill two birds with one stone so they chose to ally with them.
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
Gerald and Lizzy didn’t see any demerit in allying themselves with Nine Hells and they both chose to do so. The first main scenario quest had gone on for too long and it was about time they got over it but they wouldn’t be able to do that if every guild was fighting amongst themselves in their respective factions. Only 5 of the 6 guilds that Nine Hells reached out to had chosen to ally themselves with them because the last one surprisingly prided themselves as the Dark Faction’s most powerful guild.
Dark Heaven was the name of that guild and it did have the largest number of Dark Faction players in it. The Fallen Angels was a Neutral Guild that leaned more towards the Dark side but since they took in players from any faction as long as they met the requirements, Fallen Angels had long since been removed from the Dark Faction’s list of notable guilds and were categorized into the Neutral Faction.
The Fallen Angels were the Neutral Faction’s most powerful guild, especially after all their numerous feats on the First Planet, Eur. There wasn’t a player in either of the 3 factions of Eur that didn’t know their names since Lizzy and her guild members constantly started numerous commotions on both of the two opposing sides.
Gerald and Lizzy were both standing next to each other with their guild members standing right behind them as they watched the Nine Hells Guild Master walk down from the temple that housed the Origin Crystal after he had finished activating it. She felt a little bored, so Lizzy decided to strike up a conversation with her best friend's older brother.
“Gerald, or should I say―”
“Nope, just use my name, Liz. Don’t make this weird.”
“Pfft. Who told you to choose such a cringey name?”
“I randomized it.”
“Suuuree…”
“Anyway, what did you want to say?”
“This alliance...how long do you think it will last?”
“...For as long as it needs to. To be fair, if the Nine Hells guild keeps their promise and gives us the rewards from the main quest, I don’t really mind if the alliance continues. However, what about you? I didn’t expect the most powerful Neutral guild to submit…”
Lizzy scoffed and replied, “I didn’t submit. If I wanted to, my entire guild would have stormed the temple and we would have taken the quest rewards ourselves and no one would be able to stop us. Not even the Nine Hells and their numerous devil players.”
“Oh? So why didn’t you?”
“Because if we did, we’d earn the ire of every other guild in the Celestial Order. We already have enough on our plate dealing with the guilds in the Pantheon, so contending against them while we're also public enemy number 1 on our own side isn’t exactly what I want...”
“Makes sense,” Gerald replied in understanding. “So by doing this...you’re trying to redirect the hostility while also gaining some benefits?”
“Mhm...but it’s not like the Nine Hells guild doesn’t see that. Well, I don’t care too much about this. I just hope the next main scenario quest won’t pit everyone against each other or else I’ll have to make a move and with Maria now here with us...I won’t hesitate next time.”
Lizzy had already sent Emily to go with the Nine Hells Guild Master to receive their share of the rewards so she turned around and left after leaving behind a sufficient amount of guildmates to follow Emily and escort her back safely to the city. Gerald quietly thought about something after seeing her off. He then sent something to his little sister before walking over to the Nine Hells' guild master to receive the reward on behalf of his guild.
When Maria received her big brother’s message, she skimmed through the contents before clicking her tongue and dismissing it. Right now, she was right in front of Goddess Gaia at the temple they had first met when she arrived in Discordia. The goddess was still the little girl that Maria previously interacted with though she had changed a little bit since the last time they saw each other. The scrawny goddess was no where in sight as she had been able to eat properly after Maria had left behind a sizable amount of gold for her.
At the moment, the goddess was currently pacing around back and forth on top of the temple's altar while mumbling to herself over and over again, “This is bad...this is really bad! Ah, this is so bad!”
“Stop mumbling to yourself and pacing back and forth! You’re annoying me!” Maria clicked her tongue and said. “Just hurry up and tell me! What quest do you want me to do?!”
“Uhhh...Uhhh…”
Gaia looked around all confused and Maria quickly walked over to her. She raised her fist and was about to pound the goddess’s head but Gaia snapped out of it and quickly said, “I-I know!”
“Huh?”
“Death’s Champion, Maria!”
“I’m here.”
“This is the quest I’ll be giving you!”
*DING*
You have received the Quest: First Summoning