A similar meeting was happening on the opposite end on the Pantheon’s side. However, unlike all of the chaos that the Celestial Order had to deal with, the Pantheon didn’t have that much to deal with since they didn’t have any significant guilds move from their side. Their fight force was still intact despite a few ‘bottom-feeder’ guilds moving. Their switch didn’t really impact their strength at all so they only had to deal with the uproar the PK guilds were causing.
It was an annoyance at most for them but for their enemies, the Celestial Order, it was completely different. It was a real issue and the Pantheon Guilds weren’t oblivious to this fact. They had been holding meetings very frequently now since the faction’s guilds were divided into 2 sides.
One side wanted to bide their time and wait for more players to exit the Void Sea Realm while the other side wanted to strike at the Celestial Order’s guild now when they were in turmoil thanks to the PK guild’s doing. The two sides in opposition was respectively led by the Angel Faction’s number 1 guild, Testament, and the Light Faction’s number 1 guild, Camelot. Despite being on the ‘righteous’ side of the game, there was no solidarity in the guilds’ actions and they would sometimes butt heads with each other. They were unlike their enemies who had more solidarity with one another.
Normally, the Camelot Guild wouldn’t be so pushy and just listen to the Testament guild’s arrangements if they were good, but ever since Arthur was humiliated at the IGC and shortly afterward, became an Awakened player in the game at nearly the same time as Lizzy, he had become much more confident and brazen. What’s more, one of the 2 other Angel faction guilds was behind them in their opinion to start attacking now when the Celestial Order was still in turmoil.
Making a move on the Celestial Order would prematurely trigger the Main Story Quest but they saw it as an advantage. While the Celestial Order’s Guilds were busy dealing with the PK guilds, they could take this chance to start the quest and get ahead of them while their enemies were still busy. It was a good plan and some of the guilds that supported Caedes and the Testament guild’s decision to bide time for more players were persuaded to join their side.
Caedes threatened to attack Arthur and the others if they were to attack the Celestial Order prematurely so it led to this stalemate. He reasoned that even if they attacked now, the damage they would do and the advantage they would gain wouldn’t be much. It wasn’t like their side had more Void Realm Summoners than the Celestial Order. If they attacked, it was highly likely that the Nine Hells and the other guilds would just abandon dealing with the PK guilds and just attack them instead. Then, if the PK guilds tried to act as the oriole behind the mantis, both sides would be screwed.
The PK guilds didn’t care about the Main Quest. All they wanted to do was attack the guilds of both factions just to steal their equipment, money, EXP, and to sow chaos because that was what they’ve always done from the start ever since they were formed. To prevent this, they needed more players who were summoners to return from the Void Sea so that while a part of their forces was fighting against the enemy, another part would be able to deal with the PKers that were trying to fish for benefits behind their backs. It was a shame though because both factions forgot to take into account what Gaia’s Faction would do. For now, no one knew their objectives so they couldn’t factor in their actions to their plans.
If they knew that Maria was there to prevent the war and summonings from starting, they’d have mixed feelings because, on one hand, she was helping both factions from prematurely starting the war and would likely help them deal with their PK guilds problems since the PKers were arbitrarily summoning their gods and astrals but then, they wouldn’t be able to initiate the next Main Story Quest since Maria and Gaia’s Faction would stop them.
While both factions’ guilds were still in their meetings, Maria was already on the move since she received information from Gaia that another group of players was clashing with each other and one side was summoning their astrals or gods.
“Heh, it actually didn’t take that long at all~” Maria said with a happy smile on her face as she flew towards the location where the fight was happening. When she got a bit closer, Maria used [Blink] and teleported to a spot in the air to observe the battle below. She let out a whistle when she saw the summons wreaking havoc across the battlefield, “Oh my, aren’t they quite powerful!”
Naturally, the ones using their summons were those from the PK guilds. Maria noticed that the summoned beings were gods so these players were from the Pantheon and they were attacking players from the Celestial Order. Another thing about these attacking players was that they all had red names, so Maria immediately identified them as PKers.
Lizzy and her guildies were still completing contribution quests for the faction so they weren’t able to help her out but they at least filled her in with the things that were happening between the two factions.
“I guess these guys are the pesky PKs that’s been causing trouble, huh? So it’s because of them I can’t fight yet?”
Maria’s lips widened into a bloody smile as she said, “It’s time I take care of these pests!”
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She started casting multiple support spells on herself, layering each buff on top of each other before suddenly using [Blink] and teleporting herself into the midst of the battle below. Her sudden appearance shocked a few of the people nearby but what made them extremely shocked was the fact that she had appeared in front of a summon and casually blocked its attack with her ax.
“Hmmm, I guess the summon’s stats are also dependant on the summoner, huh? This one’s pretty weak…”
Just like what Maria said, a summon’s strength was dependant entirely on the summoner’s strength. They did have their own base stats but those stats could be enhanced even further depending on their summoner and what rank of summons they were.
Summons had multiple ranks starting from C, B, A, S, SS, SSS, and EX. EX rank would mean that it was the true body of the summon that was being brought into the world so this was a rank that was impossible to achieve unless some very stringent conditions were met.
Maria’s Summon, Bahamut, was ranked SSS, the highest tier possible that anyone could obtain from the Void Sea. This was a given since this was a Primal. Only Primals had the ability and power to be ranked as SSS. As a SSS summon, Bahamut would receive an extra 300 percent bonus to its stats based on Maria’s stats. Considering how overpowered Maria’s stats were, this made Bahamut even more absurdly powerful since such a bonus was incredible, especially since on its own it already had some absurd stats.
Any other Summon was likely below that rank including the one whose attack Maria had so easily blocked. She judged that it was likely a C-rank Summon, the most basic one out there that only had a 100 percent stat bonus multiplier. Of course, that was amazing to any other player, but to Maria, that was pretty weak. She used her other hand to wield Zantetsu-R and she swung the blade down on the god’s head.
“W-What the heck?”
“S-She…She slew the god in one blow!”
One of the PKers let out a cough as their Summon was forcibly sent back to the Void Sea causing them a bit of damage. Maria didn’t let this slip and she immediately used [Blink] once again to appear before that person.
“Goodbye.”
“W-Wait–”
Maria swung her ax down on the player’s head and ended their life immediately. The player’s corpse exploded into a pile of gold and a bunch of other items in the next instant.
“Woah!”
Maria let out a surprised yelp when she saw this happen. Normally, when she killed anything, the corpse would just fall to the ground but this was the first time it exploded. She was showered not with blood but with gold coins and a ton of EXP.
*DING*
You have sent the Flame Titan, Prometheus, back to the Void Sea! 57,020 EXP gained!
*DING*
You have killed the Red Mark player: SlitThroat Lvl. 196! 570,198 EXP gained!
“...”
Maria was dumbfounded and shocked for a moment. She immediately let loose an [Explosive Wave] spell, a spell she had recently developed by combining [Fire] and [Aero] together, to push back all of the PKers that were just about to jump on her after she had killed their friend. Once they were flung backward, Maria then started to think out loud, “These guys…give A LOT of EXP…”
“...”
“...”
She eyed the Red Name players around her as her eyes glistened when she saw so many of them. Maria’s lips raised into a malicious smile before she let loose a horrific laugh, “Ahahahaha, I’ve hit the jackpot! The jackpot!!!”
What happened next was very unsightly…and cruel.
“Come here my sweet, delicious, EXP bags!!!”
Maria began a massacre as she killed all of the Summons along with their Summoners with a greedy glint in her eyes. Each time she killed a Summon and a Summoner, her EXP bar would jump a few percentages, bringing her closer and closer to her next level. This efficiency was so much better than grinding hundreds of thousands of monsters on the field. Maria only cleared away two-thirds of the PKers present before she heard the beautiful jingle sound of a level up.
You have leveled up! Lv.109 → Lv.110 You have acquired 25 Free Stat Points!
“Yes!!!”
When she cheered in elation at her level up, the PKers’ leader immediately signaled for everyone to retreat. Seeing this, the Celestial Order players were immediately frightened because it might be their turn next. The players whose asses Maria had just saved couldn’t help but fear for their lives since it seemed that she had just now found out the beauty of farming EXP from other players.
They were helpless against their opponents earlier but she just absolutely destroyed them and their powerful summons without breaking a sweat. Her appearance was much too recognizable so they immediately knew her identity, Fallen Angel Maria, and she was not part of the Celestial Order. This meant that they could be enemies and it was only coincidental that she had come to save them.
“Hey, hey, hey! Don’t you dare run away from me you delicious EXP bags! Come back!!!”
Thankfully for them, Maria didn’t even spare a single glance at them from start to finish. After saying her piece, she immediately gave chase towards the PKers that were running away in all directions. They thought that it was impossible for her to chase down all of them but that doubt was immediately silenced the moment Maria used her [Nightmare] and used a newly developed skill based on that form.
“[Shadow Clone].”
Multiple clones of herself appeared after she invoked the skill and with supersonic speeds, each clone gave chase to a different PKer.
“Hahahahaha, you can run, but you can’t hide!”
Maria was exactly like a tornado. She suddenly appeared, wreaked havoc for a little while, and was then gone in the next second.
“...Holy shit…”
“Just what did we witness…?”
The Celestial Order players that were left behind were still trying to wrap their heads around what had just happened but at least one of them was still capable of thinking straight.
“I…I think we should report this back to the Guild Leader…we may have a blessing, or a new problem, on our hands…”