At Clearsky Fortress, the base of operations for the Celestial Order, Eos looked at the Nine Hells’ Vice-Guildmaster and asked, “What did you say? The Goddess Faction has appeared?”
“Yes, Eos. They’ve taken over the Iron Mountains, the previously contested neutral area and it looks like they’re setting up their base camp there.”
“Dammit, I knew they’d appear but this is too soon! I thought we’d at least have a few more hours!”
“What shall we do about them?”
“Obviously, we need to get rid of them first. We can’t have a third-party constantly breathing down our necks while we fight against the Pantheon…”
“A new quest was issued from the NPCs. It provides rewards for any Goddess Faction player we kill so we should have everyone in the faction take it if we’re going to exterminate them.”
“Give the announcement, and not only to our guild but to everyone else!”
“Yes.”
A similar conversation was happening between Caedes and Arthur over on the Pantheon’s side. They too believed that it was best to take care of Lizzy and her Goddess Faction players before they start attacking the Celestial Order again. Thanks to that, the two large factions that were previously at war with each other were now attacking the intruders that were trying to interfere with their battle.
Lizzy immediately noticed the change when the Celestial Order and Pantheon players were all swarming the Iron Mountains, trying to locate their exact coordinates. It wasn’t like the Iron Mountains were a large place so it’d be easy to find them.
For now, they needed more time to build their fortifications around the mountains so Lizzy had her guild’s elite teams go and intercept the enemy players coming to the mountains. There were still other players from her faction moving to regroup with them so it wasn’t only the fortifications she was worried about but those players as well, especially her friend, Maria.
[Lizzy: Mary, where are you?]
[Maria: I picked up a few more players on the way to the mountain. We’re moving a bit slowly because our size has increased…not to mention that there are some idiots constantly harassing us on the way.]
[Lizzy: How far out are you guys?]
[Maria: I dunno?]
[Lizzy: Why did I even ask…]
Lizzy replied to her friend’s message as she smacked her forehead.
*DING*
Another message appeared and this one cause Lizzy to smile a bit.
“Yeah, I shouldn’t worry too much about her. She can take care of herself and it’s not like just any player could kill her. If the Celestial Order and Pantheon want to eliminate her, they’d need to send their Guildmasters along with a few of their elite teams.”
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Emily was listening to their conversation earlier and spoke up to say, “Since it’s like that, don’t worry about her so much. Those guild masters won’t make a move and if they do, our spies would report it to us immediately.”
“You’re right, anyway, we should deal with the problems on hand. Are we almost finished?”
Emily nodded and replied, “Thankfully, they all appointed you the leader before we came into the Realm of War. Thanks to that, they’re all listening to your orders without question. The fortifications are all ready, now it’s just a matter of time.”
“We’ll be fighting a long battle of attrition so get everyone ready. We might not be able to log out for a while.”
“There’s no way this war would take days…right?”
Lizzy shrugged and said, “Who knows. This could be a precedent.”
“Ugh, and we just returned to school. Our attendance is going to take quite a beating this semester…”
“We’ll worry about that next time, hahah~”
******
Over on Maria’s end, her group was constantly growing larger the closer they got to the Iron Mountains. More and more stray players from the Goddess Faction would appear since they received orders from Lizzy to regroup with everybody else there so it was inevitable.
It was safer to be in a larger group since it would make it harder for people to target you but it would also make you a big target. By now, the Celestial Order and Pantheon players already knew about their group so Caedes, Arthur, and Eos were sending some of their elite teams to intercept them. They couldn’t let Maria and her large group meet up with Lizzy in the Iron Mountains because it would only make things harder for them in the long run.
Lizzy gave Maria a report that a large group of players from both of the enemy factions was heading their way but instead of getting worried, Maria was happy since it meant that she would be able to fight again soon. The others in her group, however, weren’t as enthusiastic as her. They weren’t as strong so their thoughts were that this was the end of the road for them but seeing as Maria wasn’t discouraged, they thought that they should at least put up a fight and go out with a bang.
[Lizzy: I’ve sent a team to go meet up with you midway. It’s highly likely that our enemies know of our movements but it’s better than just abandoning you guys to die.]
[Maria: I won’t die, but I’m not sure about the rest of these guys so do whatever you want. I plan on killing as many players as I can before running away~]
[Lizzy: Sheesh, you battle-junkie.]
Maria heard a loud horn coming from the distance before one of the players nearby began shouting, “I see them! I see the enemy!”
She looked in the direction where the player was pointing and saw the large dust cloud that was heading straight towards her group.
“There’s another group of enemies to our right!”
“Looks like I can finally fight!”
Maria quickly took to the skies as she pulled out her two weapons and held them aloft. She took a look at the two enemy groups that were heading towards her before flying towards the Pantheon player group.
“W-Wait!”
A guild master from the Goddess Faction called out to Maria but it was in vain. She had already taken off and was moving to attack the enemy.
“Goddammit, we need to hold out as long as we can before our reinforcements arrive! Our strongest player, Maria, has already moved out to deal with one of the groups on her own so we should do our part!” The guild master yelled as he tried to rouse everyone’s spirits.
Thankfully, they all saw that Maria was not trying to run away but was instead going to fight so everyone began feeling a little more reckless and bold.
“Haha, since we might die and get kicked out of the realm, why don’t we give those bastards a run for their money?”
“I hated how they looked down on us before! They just got a head start compared to the rest of us!”
“Let’s fight! Let’s fight and take down at least two of them with us!”
“I’ll reward anyone 100 gold for every enemy player you kill!”
“Oooraahhhh!!!”
Maria was startled when she heard the sonorous battle cry behind her. She turned around and tilted her head in confusion before shrugging and continuing her flight towards her targets.
“These guys should be from the Pantheon. I remember them giving me a hard time with my Second Objective Quest so let’s pay back that debt!”
She activated her [Nightmare] form mid-flight and began changing. Her crimson-colored wings were dyed pitch-black and her skin color changed to an ashen purple color. Her armor became drenched in black from her shadows merging with it as Lust’s Sigil appeared in the middle of her chest and started glowing.
“Come out!”
Her [Shadow Puppets] jumped out of her shadow while 4 clones materialized around her. Each clone began casting a golem summoning spell and her 4 Elemental Golems appeared.
“Hahahaha, let’s have some fun!”
Maria raised her Calamity-Z into the air and launched a [Calamity Cleave] onto the enemy players down below.
“Hahahahaha!”