The next day soon arrived and a system announcement rang through the entire Realm of War when it was around 8 A.M. in-game time.

*DING*

NPCs of the 3 Factions have opened portals into the realm. The NPC armies will begin occupying the fortresses for the next period of time. All neutral areas can no longer be conquered and all players will receive a 1000% increase to their HP. However, any ejection will result in a permanent ejection from the realm so please be careful!

*DING*

Main Story Quest initialized: The Great War Players will have 6 hours to decide on whether they will participate in The Great War or not. Please proceed to your faction’s NPC leader to register!

Numerous portals began opening up at the center of the conquered fortresses and the NPCs poured out of them. They quickly occupied the place and began setting up basic shops around the fortresses that previously weren’t there. Now, the players could buy consumables and repair their equipment without the need for their lifestyle players’ assistance. Thanks to this, all of the lifestyle players were sent out of the realm before they were replaced with combat-type players.

Just like Maria predicted, there were more NPCs on the Goddess Faction’s side than the 2 other factions put together. If they were to intrude on the two factions’ fight, they wouldn’t be put at a disadvantage at the very least. The only differentiation would be the quality of each factions’ players which was a little bit worrying for the Goddess Faction. Although the players in the Goddess Faction had been able to level up substantially, it was still not enough to bring their average player level to the number that the other two factions possessed.

The bulk of the powerful players was from the Fallen Angels Guild with the rest being from a few select second-rate guilds and top-rank adventurer parties. The other guild players weren’t quite up to standard but these players wouldn’t be participating in The Great War.

Just like they planned yesterday, the Goddess Faction players would be divided into two sides, one side would go and participate in The Great War while the other side would form two large groups and attack the fortresses of the Celestial Order and Pantheon. With the roles already distributed, Lizzy, Maria, Sky, and their group immediately registered to participate in The Great War. The registered players would have an icon floating above their heads that indicated which side they were fighting for so later once the chaotic battle started, they could distinguish who was a friend and who was a foe.

Unitale didn’t have the concept of no friendly fire. A player could be caught up in their allies’ attacks if they weren’t careful which was why whenever a large-scale battle occurs between player groups, the vanguards would always charge in after their mages and archers finished their round of attacks. If they charged in while their allies were attacking with their large AOE skills, they could be caught up and instead of the enemies dying, they would be the ones logged out instead.

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The players registered for The Great War waited until the counter that was hanging in the air above each of the fortresses hit zero before a high-ranked NPC mage from each of the fortresses opened up a portal that would send them and the NPC army to the center of the Realm of War where The Great War would take place. The players entered through the portals in an orderly fashion followed by the NPCs. Lizzy and her guild were the first to move through and when they arrived on the stage of the final battle, she looked around and saw that it was a wasteland.

The center area of the Realm of War had been inaccessible until today so they didn’t know what the terrain was like. They imagined it to be in some kind of plains area but for it to actually be in a barren wasteland that had no cover whatsoever was still a bit shocking.

“Does the quest want us to just run at our enemies?” Sky asked with a rather skeptical look.

“We’re completely exposed here…if the other two factions see how big our NPC army is, they’ll definitely try targeting us first,” Lizzy said,

“It’ll take some time for them to cross the portal, let’s have our mages create walls and carve ditches all around us. Turn the terrain into something more advantageous for us, yeah?” Emily suggested.

Lizzy nodded and immediately put their guild’s players to work. The other two factions’ players began to appear in the far distance and they immediately saw what Lizzy and the Goddess Faction players were doing.

“They’re trying to play smart since they know that they’re at a disadvantage,” Arthur said.

“We shouldn’t slack off. Every bit of advantage we gain will help us clear the story, have our mages begin rearranging the terrain immediately!” Caedes ordered, not wanting to be outdone.

Eos’s side did the same as well because they knew how stupid it was if they fought this war by just running at each other. Human history has shown that it’s always those with the clever tactics and approaches that would gain a foothold in a battle. Of course, absolute power could triumph such things but neither of the 3 factions knew of each others’ exact strength and with the NPC armies added into the equation, no one could tell which side was weaker or stronger.

The Celestial Order and Pantheon knew about the level disparity between them and the Goddess Faction but they weren’t going to be stupid and underestimate their players. They already did that twice now in the Realm of War with each occasion ending in their losses because they had severely underestimated the players they were trying to attack. Naturally, these 2 occurrences had to do with Maria and Sky who were both participating in this Main Story Quest stage.

Maria was already planning on summoning Bahamut early on but Sky decided against using her Leviathan from the start because of the terrain and weather changes her Summon brought upon the 100-kilometer area where it was summoned. The flood and the storm would give her an advantage but it wasn’t the same for the rest of her allies. The two natural disasters Leviathan brought would do more harm than good to her allies so unless it was absolutely needed, Sky wasn’t planning on using her Summon this time around.

It took nearly half an hour for all of the 3 factions’ forces to arrive on the battlefield and it was enough time for each side to set up their areas to their liking. No one knew who started it, but the players from each faction somehow started a building competition and created majestic castles on their respective sides of the battlefield. It was also approved by the system because once the final NPC from each side entered the battlefield, a flag of their factions was suddenly generated on the highest peaks of the 3 castles just as a loud warhorn was sounded which marked the start of The Great War.