Maria was just about to pursue the fleeing players when suddenly, she received a message from Lizzy.
*DING* *DING* *DING*
[Lizzy: Mary, run! The guild masters from both factions are going to ambush you!]
[Lizzy: Mary, reply right now!]
[Lizzy: I’m sending some people to you! Just hold out for a bit!]
“Huh?”
She wanted to answer Lizzy but saw something flying at her in the corner of her eyes so she immediately closed the system menu and brandished her Calamity.
“Ugh…that was a bit strong…”
Maria had nullified the attack with her own but was pushed back a considerable distance. The power behind that attack was no joke so she immediately put on her game face and looked in the direction where it came from.
“Hah, I knew it would’ve been someone like you who’s brave enough to attack me,” Maria said with a smirk as she looked at the player in the distance that launched the attack.
Caedes was hovering in the air with his staff out. He had launched the attack earlier and only did so because he could no longer just sit around and watch as Maria massacred the players in his faction. Even though he had sent his faction’s players to attack Maria, it was only an initial probing attack. He wanted to gauge just how powerful his opponent was when faced with a massive army but things took a nosedive when she eliminated over half of the forces he sent with a single, devastating attack.
Maria exceeded his expectations and everyone else’s expectations. She was undoubtedly the most dangerous opponent in this realm so they needed to get rid of her.
“Alright, send the elite forces in. The guild masters will also participate. We have to eject this girl out of the realm before her reinforcements arrive. If she regroups with them, we won’t be able to get a chance like this again,” Caedes commanded in the faction chat.
Arthur was nearby and he couldn’t believe his eyes. A single-player wiped out so many of their soldiers and although the ones they had sent out weren’t their best, even they wouldn’t be able to flawlessly perform what Maria did and wipe out half of them in an instant. Both Arthur and Caedes had already become Awakened Players and although they were confident in being able to fight off large groups of players, they weren’t as confident as Maria who dove into the thick of it without any fear.
“What did I tell you, Arthur? I was right when I said we had to get rid of her first, yeah?” Caedes said to the other player leader of the Pantheon.
Arthur only tightened the grip he had on his sword before nodding, “Fine. You were right, but how are we going to take down such a monstrous player? Just what kind of quests or hunting did she do to obtain such power?”
“It doesn’t matter how she got this powerful. All we know is that she’s our enemy right now, and don’t worry, I’ve asked for some help…”
“Help?”
Maria saw her new opponents appear and started giggling, “Hehehe, the fun just doesn’t end~”
She didn’t move from her spot just yet as she waited for the other to arrive. Lizzy told her that the two factions’ leaders were coming out to ambush her but she only saw Caedes, Arthur, and the guild masters of the Pantheon while the Celestial Order leaders weren’t here yet.
“Oh, there they are!”
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Maria looked in a different direction and soon saw the Celestial Order leaders flying towards her. She even saw her older brother, Gerald, among those people. She already knew that Gerald hadn’t switched sides but it didn’t matter to her. Even if he was her brother, she wasn’t going to show mercy inside of the game if he became her enemy.
“Ohhh, beating up big brother Gerald…I wonder how that’ll feel? Ehehehe~”
Maria didn’t care that many players were moving to surround her in an encirclement. She welcomed any kind of challenge as long as it was entertaining. Winning them would be nice but she didn’t care if she lost. Besides, in the Realm of War, she wouldn’t be logged out, only ejected from the place with a 6-hour restriction from being able to enter it again. There were no real repercussions to dying in the Realm of War so she didn’t care.
Of course, her absence may cost her the chance to complete her quest, but it wasn’t like she was going to fight all these people without a plan. Maria already planned on revealing Bahamut here if she was on the verge of losing. What happens after didn’t matter as she would either win or escape from the battlefield. No one could stop her if she wanted to run away. In fact, she could’ve just avoided this battle entirely but simply chose not to.
Lizzy and her friends obviously forgot about her dreadful flying capabilities so they had sent out reinforcements. Speaking of reinforcements, they were currently flying as fast as they could to Maria’s location. One of the players on the ground that was part of Maria’s group was currently streaming her situation to Lizzy and the others who were making their way over.
“Dammit, she’s just waiting for them! I knew it, she wants to fight! This crazy girl wants to fight!”
“W-Well, it’s not like Maria wouldn’t have a plan, right?” Lilith asked.
She and her party members were also part of the rescue party. Sky was there too. She had been part of the unlucky group to have been sent to a random area in the Realm of War, but with her might, she was able to push her way through her enemies and with the group that followed her, reunite with the others in the Iron Mountains.
“Your friend sure is interesting…is she this reckless IRL as well?” Sky questioned Lizzy as she flew next to her on her familiar Charybdis.
“No, she’s pretty thoughtful and discerning. It’s just when she’s inside of the game that her persona does a complete 180,” Lizzy replied before sighing exaggeratedly afterward.
“We should hurry, we need to bail her out of her situation.”
“Hey, couldn’t this be a good opportunity to attack all of the leaders of the two factions?” Lilith asked.
“It is, but we’ve only brought a few of our elite players with us.”
“We should be able to at least pick off one or two of them though, right?”
“Yeah, but our priority is rescuing our faction’s players and Maria. After that, we quickly get out of there no matter what.”
Back on the battlefield, the two enemy factions’ players and guild masters had formed an encirclement around Maria. They blocked the ground and the sky so that Maria would have no way to escape. They all looked confident enough but were still feeling a little skeptical since even though they were being obvious with their intentions, Maria had done nothing and only watched on with an amused expression on her face as if she didn’t care at all what they were doing.
It unnerved a few of the players and even the guild masters since this could mean that the girl had some kind of plan or trick up her sleeve that could save her from this mess. Everyone had borne witness to her earlier attack that completely devastated the battlefield below and wiped out half of the Pantheon players’ first attack squad that was sent to probe out her strength.
“Are all your preparations finished?” Maria suddenly asked.
Caedes and Arthur flew a bit closer to her before the latter said, “I don’t know what you were doing letting us complete our encirclement, but you’re going to regret looking down on us.”
“Blah, blah, blah, are we going to fight yet or are we just going to keep talking?”
“Why you–”
“Calm down, Arthur,” Caedes quickly stepped in and said.
“Hmph!”
Maria had recalled all of her familiars and reverted to her normal state as she waited for her enemies to complete their encirclement so right now, everybody thought she was at her weakest though she only did that to preserve her MP and SP. Using her [Nightmare] form required both of those resources and since the first phase of the battle had ended, she obviously didn’t need to waste her resources.
“Mary.”
Maria turned to the person that called out to her. It was a familiar voice and she knew that it was her brother.
“Heh, ready to get beaten?” Maria taunted.
“Hahahaha~ being so rude to your elder brother now that he’s an enemy?”
Eos stepped forward and said, “Hello there, we meet again. I couldn’t greet you properly the last time we fought. I lost that time but I won’t lose this time.”
During the time when Maria’s identity as the Black Shadow wasn’t known yet, she and Eos had collided on multiple occasions whenever she attacked any of the Nine Hells’ quest parties. On every occasion except for the last, it would end with Maria always thwarting his guild party’s quest completion but the last time they fought, Maria had narrowly defeated him. Although the battle was a close call, a defeat was still a defeat and Eos didn’t forget that.
Maria fought Eos with a handicap as well since she didn’t use all of her abilities. Eos figured that out the moment he learned of her identity as the Black Shadow. She had fought him with a handicap but still won in the end. He still hadn’t completely unlocked his Awakening’s powers but still, it was humiliating that he had lost to Maria who was giving him a handicap so this time, he wanted to convincingly defeat her, even though it wasn’t a one-on-one battle.
“You’re that guy that narrowly beat Lizzy the last time, huh? Well, I bet if you fought her now she’d beat you into the ground so don’t count on beating me, even if you have all these helpers around~”
Maria taunted Eos but the young man only smiled back at her. Earlier, he had already received a warning from Gerald that she would do such a thing. Seeing that her taunt didn’t work, Maria clicked her tongue and said, “Jeez, you’re no fun, just like my big brother…”
Maria activated her [Nightmare] form and her body began changing. As this was happening, she unhurriedly asked with a smile, “So, are you guys going to continue staring at me–I know I’m beautiful–or are we gonna fight?”