Maria had just finished killing another group of players that were recklessly using their Summons and although it had been fun for her in the past few days, it was starting to grow tedious as more and more players began emerging from the Void Sea Realm. It was easier for the two factions to regulate the use of Summons when there were only a few people that could use them but now that there were more Summoners, it was getting harder and harder.

To make things worst, the PK guilds were instigating the use of the Summons since they would always use theirs whenever a fight broke out but thankfully, the Goddess faction players were somehow always able to arrive to prevent the war from happening. The Goddess Faction players could freely use their Summons to kill the Summons of other faction players without triggering the original Main Quest so they were able to play on even grounds with those that used their Summons.

Most players weren’t like Maria who could kill other Summoners without using her Summon. Things were easy at first since all she had to deal with were the PK guild’s players, but soon, the faction players started using their Summons so she had to deal with them as well. Unlike the PKers who didn’t care about their deaths and would just come back for more, the regular guild players didn’t like it when one of their own were killed. There were times when Maria would have to wipe out a whole party of innocent players because they would chase after her.

Her targets were only the players that used Summons. As long as they didn’t use a Summon, they wouldn’t be targeted at all but when the players grew too many for her to handle, Gaia began issuing a quest that was very similar to hers to all of the other players so things soon became a minor competition between her and the other players of her faction.

Naturally, it didn’t matter if she was the one who killed the players that used Summons or if it was someone from her faction but she wanted to be the one to do it because the perpetrators were a large source of EXP. It was fun at the start with her competing against those in her faction on who could kill their targets first but it soon got to the point where she was annoyed with it since there were times when she would arrive late to the coordinates where the Summoner was and find that the Summoner had already been killed by another player from her faction.

Maria moved around using her [Nightmare] form so she was always at her max movement speed but her identity as the Black Shadow was soon leaked everywhere and people found out about it. However, this didn’t change how Maria operated as she continued to attack Summoners indiscriminately. Some guilds that still held a grudge against her who sabotaged their contribution quest runs as the Black Shadow during the previous Main Story Quest stage started hunting her down and hindering her Summoners hunt but Maria actually welcomed these attacks.

It had grown hard for Maria to hunt Summoners who were decent sources of EXP thanks to her faction members’ interference–or rather, participation–but now new sources of EXP were knocking on her front door so why would she not welcome them?

Since she was just too powerful and the guild players’ fate for antagonizing her would be a logout, a few of them turned to the forums to verbally attack her but Maria didn’t respond to any of their flaming. It wasn’t like she ignored them or anything. Maria did see the posts thanks to Lizzy constantly ranting on and on about it and although she didn’t say anything, she would go to the forums and memorize the names of the posters and if they were unfortunate enough to meet with her on the field, they would be met with Maria’s vengeful wrath for badmouthing her.

Of course, she didn’t do anything too drastic and humiliate or torture them or anything. She would just let them live for a bit longer by slowly chipping away at their HP while she directly killed everyone else that came with them until only they remained.

After that, she’d let her summoned familiars, the golems, puppets, and clones, finish them off with a collective barrage of magic spells that would undoubtedly send them to the game’s login menu. It was pretty overkill but that was exactly what Maria was aiming for since it was amusing to her whenever she saw a player log out like that. It was always accompanied by a huge fireworks display and she could say that they went out with a literal bang.

After a real-life week passed since the start of her quest, Maria finally received a notification that her quest’s objective had finally been completed but it puzzled her.

“Strange. The objective has been completed but why hasn’t the next quest objective revealed itself?”

Quest: Goddess’s Shield Rank: S Type: Chain Quest Description: Gaia’s final wish is to prevent the war from happening on Gaia, but after seeing that it is inevitable, she wants you to help her minimize the damage done to the planet Objective 1: Prevent the war from happening! (Duration: 3 Weeks) (Complete)

Objective 2: ??? Rewards: Unknown Penalty: - - - Note: Failing or Completing the Quest will lead to a different Main Story outcome

This time around, there was no penalty for failing the quest but it still didn’t change the fact that if Maria were to fail, she’d receive a huge penalty from the other quest she had, Gaia’s 3 Fiats, so no matter what, she couldn’t fail the quest. However, the problem right now was that the quest’s next objective hadn’t revealed itself even after she had completed the first objective. She didn’t know what to do next so it worried her.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

“Hmmm, I guess I should go back to Gaia and ask her about it.”

Although her quest was completed, the players that joined Gaia’s faction were still doing the quest that they had received from the goddess as though nothing had changed for them. That was good for them and all but Maria noticed that things didn’t look so good for her faction who wanted to prevent the war from happening. More players with Summoning Pacts had already begun emerging from the Void Sea and it had grown to a number that was worrisome.

It was hard for her to see a good ending for Gaia and the planet with how large the number of Summoners there were in the Celestial Order and Pantheon factions. There was also the fact that no matter how many Summoners and Summons Maria and the players from her faction killed, the players were still players and they could just respawn after a day and it wasn’t like they’d lose their ability to summon their Summons from their death. The war was inevitably going to happen and there was nothing anyone could do to change that. Not even Gaia could stop it despite her being an NPC goddess.

While Maria was thinking about this, a World Announcement was heard and it was the kind of announcement that Maria didn’t want to hear.

*DING*

The War of Gods and Astrals have begun! Players from the factions: Celestial Order, Pantheon, and Goddess Gaia, please head to the coordinates XXXXXX, YYYYYY to take part in the quest!

“Ahh, what the heck, it’s still happening anyway? Does this mean I’ve failed the quest??” Maria exclaimed in dismay. She thought that her quest had failed but it was then that a notification appeared that showed her next quest objective.

*DING*

Quest: Goddess’s Shield, has been updated!

Quest: Goddess’s Shield Rank: S Type: Chain Quest Description: Gaia’s final wish is to prevent the war from happening on Gaia, but after seeing that it is inevitable, she wants you to help her minimize the damage done to the planet! The Goddess has used a large amount of her Divinity to grant you and the rest of her followers the ability to heal the planet but the requirement is the energy expelled when a Summon is sent back to the Void Sea. Take part in the war and prevent the planet’s destruction! Objective 1: Kill as many Summoners and Summons as you can! (Duration: 3 Weeks) (Complete)

Objective 2: Interfere with the War alongside the other followers of your faction. Kill as many Summons as you can and send them back to the Void Sea to help restore the planet’s condition! (0/???) Rewards: Unknown Penalty: - - - Note: Failing or Completing the Quest will lead to a different Main Story outcome

Note*: At the end of the war, when the number of total Summon kills are tallied, if the Goddess’s faction does not send more Summons back to the Void than any other faction, then the second objective of the quest will be declared as a failure!

“What’s this? I only have to be the one to kill the most Summons?” Maria mumbled to herself.

She read it over again and after understanding that the objective was so simple, Maria started to smirk, “Heh, isn’t this going to be easy then? All I have to do is kill Summons, and not their Summoners. Piece of cake!”

Unfortunately for her, this was anything but a piece of cake. Up until now, all of the Summons Maria’s faced were those weak ones that were only ranked C or B. She never once faced an A-rank or above Summon before. Most of the players that received A-ranked Summons or above were those elite players of the factions who had been strictly ordered to never bring out their Summons under any circumstances until the war officially started.

As for how the war was started, it was due to the triggering of the Main Story Quest’s next stage. The top-ranking guilds from both factions had met up in an undisclosed location today to trigger the quest together because the requirement to trigger the next stage was the clash of 50 or more Summons from both factions–50 Summons from the Celestial Order and 50 Summons from the Pantheon.

It was the first Main Story Quest that needed the cooperation of two opposing sides to trigger so Eos had to get in contact with Caedes and Arthur, the two leaders of the Pantheon faction’s guilds. Thankfully, the two were willing to cooperate with him because if they didn’t, the Goddess Faction would just interfere and prevent them from triggering the Main Story Quest. Even though they did things secretly, Gaia was already aware of what they were planning and after seeing that it was useless to stop it, she decided to go down a different route.

Maria hadn’t seen the goddess ever since she started hunting the Summoners, but Gaia wasn’t idling around and doing nothing.

[Maria, the war is starting soon. Please return to the temple. I need to speak with you.]

“I’m already on my way back!”

[Good.]

“So, did you finally realize that preventing the war was useless?”

[Yes, that’s why I’ve decided to take a different route. Will you help me?]

“Gaia, I was already on your boat since the start. Do you really need to ask?”

[Thank you, but please hurry. A total outbreak of the war may happen soon so I will have very little time to explain my plan to you and everyone else!]

From the quest description, Maria already knew Gaia’s plan, but she might as well return anyway since she was already on the way there, to begin with.

“I'll be there in a moment! Just wait!”

Since the announcement, Gaia had recalled all of her followers back to the temple but it wasn't like they would immediately arrive. Just like Maria, it would take some time, but everyone could tell that it was urgent, especially after the World Announcement.