Back when Lizzy formed a Summoning Pact with Tiamat, the mother dragon wasn’t this large and monstrous. She had first appeared before Lizzy in her dragon form before turning into a beautiful Dragonoid to test her worth before agreeing to the contract. She was one of the Ancient Primals, the Primal of Creation, so she was on the same level as Bahamut, Leviathan, Odin, and Ultima.
Lizzy had never summoned Tiamat before since there was never a situation that called for her summoning, so she didn’t even know about this monstrous form that Tiamat would take upon being summoned to their plane.
Tiamat’s incredibly large body fell to the ground and towered over everyone on the battlefield. Immediately, the NPCs all began attacking her and so did their Summon. However, a barrier formed around Tiamat and blocked all of the incoming attacks.
Lizzy disappeared from her spot as she was forcibly teleported next to Tiamat’s large body so she was inside of the barrier. In the next instant, a sonorous bell-like roar exited from Tiamat’s mouth and it rang throughout the Realm of War. Even the players that didn’t participate in the Great War stage heard the roar and the Goddess Faction players thought that this was the special signal that Lizzy was talking about.
Before the Great War started, Lizzy had already told the other Goddess Faction players to wait for her signal before they attacked. Hearing this roar, they mistook it for the signal and immediately started their assault on the enemy fortresses.
*DING*
Primal of Creation Tiamat has activated her special skill: Sigh of Creation All players will suffer a 10% decrease in stat values while [Tiamat’s Children] will spawn randomly around the Primal of Creation’s Area of Influence and attack any creature that is hostile
[Tiamat’s Children] began spawning all throughout the Realm of War because, apparently, the entire realm was included inside of Tiamat’s Area of Influence, and Lizzy saw this on her minimap. Numerous yellow dots began appearing on her minimap which indicated the location of [Tiamat’s Children] but upon noticing that they were yellow, even to her, Lizzy panicked a little.
“Oh, crap!”
She began to frantically tell everyone in her faction through the faction chat to not attack any of the weird-looking creatures that suddenly appeared, even by accident, or else they would be viewed as a hostile force. Once they were viewed as hostile, then it was likely that the other [Tiamat’s Children] would start attacking them as well. The spawns from Tiamat’s skill were all called Lahmu or Lahamu and when they first appeared in the middle of the chaotic battlefield, many of the players down below didn’t know what to make of them.
It was a different case for the NPCs, however, because the Celestial Order and Pantheon NPCs were already viewed as hostile since they were attacking Tiamat. The Lahmu and Lahamu immediately began jumping on them ferociously, so the two factions’ players started attacking them, seeing that they were hostile. The Goddess Faction players immediately stopped attacking and started pulling back after Lizzy ordered everyone in the faction chat to retreat.
Only the NPCs remained on the battlefield and they continued to only attack the enemy players and NPCs. Some stray attacks would land on one of the Lahmu or Lahamu, but with the enemy NPCs pulling so much aggro towards themselves by continuously attacking Tiamat, the spawns didn’t retaliate.
After making sure that it was safe, Lizzy then ordered the players to jump back into the fray but to be cautious and not accidentally attack one of Tiamat’s spawns. Even though she was the Summoner, Lizzy wasn’t able to control the spawns that Tiamat had generated thanks to her skill. Even the debuff her skill applied affected all of the players, including her allies. The only exception to this debuff was Lizzy.
The 10% decrease was universal, so it put everyone on the same playing field with no side being at an advantage or a disadvantage. The Lahmu and Lahamu were the only things that severely affected the battlefield. Thanks to her Summon, Lizzy had somehow managed to increase the number of soldiers she had on the battlefield. The Lahmu and Lahamu weren’t too strong as they had the same level as Lizzy, Tiamat’s Summoner.
Lizzy’s level was one of the highest in the game, but levels didn’t determine everything. Stats and equipment also need to be taken into account, so the Lahmu and Lahamu naturally fall short of the players and NPCs. However, even though they fell short, it wasn’t by too much. Their presence on the battlefield still impacted the flow of the battle as it was now in the hands of the Goddess Faction. She wanted to join the battle, but she found that her body was immobile as she continued to stay floating just next to Tiamat’s large head.
It wasn’t only her, but she noticed that Tiamat was also just remaining stationary and not doing anything. The only thing Tiamat did after she was summoned was activating her [Sigh of Creation] and that was it. Tiamat didn’t do anything else, but she did notice that the Primal of Creation was only like this because the skill, [Sight of Creation], seemed to be a channeling skill, which meant that Tiamat had to continuously cast the skill uninterrupted for it to continue working.
[Lizzy: Mary, Sky, I leave the rest to you! Remember, aim for the Summons!]
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
[Maria: Got it!]
[Sky: Roger that.]
Just as they were about to rush at the NPCs and players attacking Tiamat’s barrier, a loud explosion occurred in the middle of the battlefield as a large golden hand suddenly rose up from the earth, sending chunks of rock and dirt flying everywhere. Another explosion occurred again as a second golden hand appeared. The hands rose from the ground steadily, the arms appeared, then the head, followed by the torso, abdomen, and finally the legs.
A golden man had emerged from the Earth and he towered over the battlefield just like Tiamat except his height was about two-thirds the height of Tiamat. It didn’t end there, as 4 other large beings appeared on the battlefield, each with their own unique entrance.
These large humanoid beings were the Supreme Gods that the players from the Pantheon had contracted with and summoned. With the first golden man, there were 5 Supreme Gods on the battlefield and everyone noticed that one of them was a large version of the God that Caedes had summoned earlier to fight against Lizzy. The Goddess Faction players immediately knew what these beings were when they saw Jupiter, Caedes’s Summon.
“Shit, it’s the enemy Summons! They have 5 of these things?!”
“Oh no…the Guildmaster’s in trouble!”
Lizzy knew she was perhaps screwed when all 5 of these Gods turned towards her and Tiamat with hostile intent in their eyes. However, the bad news didn’t stop there because, from the sky, 4 brilliant lights slowly descended until they were level with Tiamat’s head. The lights formed large, moon-like balls in the air for just a moment before bursting open as creatures made of starlight in the forms of a Lion, a Scorpion, 2 Humanoids, and a large Fish were revealed.
“...We are so dead,” Lizzy gulped nervously and mumbled.
[Sky: Lisbet, have all our players retreat. I’m summoning Leviathan!]
[Maria: Count me in, I’m summoning Bahamut!]
Lizzy immediately roared in the faction chat and ordered everyone to retreat. Maybe because they saw the players suddenly running back to their castle, the Goddess Factions’ NPCs similarly disengaged from the battle and retreated alongside the players. Only Maria and Sky remained as the two began chanting the incantation to summon their Primals.
{God of the eternal sky and everlasting father of the dragons, rain fire and incinerate my enemies with your divine flames!}
{Ruler of the depths and patriarch of the abyssal beings, engulf the world in a furious storm and cast judgment upon those who dare bare their fangs!}
“Come forth, Bahamut!”
“Rise from the void, Leviathan!”
With their incantations completed, Maria and Sky’s Summons joined the battlefield. The first to appear was Leviathan. The massive sea serpent appeared through a summoning circle on the ground as it rose into the air accompanied by a storm and a raging tsunami that engulfed the entire battlefield.
The chaos didn’t end there because, from the sky, numerous flaming comets began falling to the earth as a draconic roar rang throughout the battlefield. Bahamut descended from the clouds along with those comets and this time around, his appearance wasn’t like before when Maria first summoned him. He now closely resembled the Bahamut that Maria met in the floating castle, but instead of being slick black in color, this Bahamut was red.
“Finally, I summoned the real Bahamut…I think?” Maria exclaimed happily. Of course, the previous Bahamut she summoned was also the real Bahamut, but it was just a different version or incarnation of the original Bahamut. Lizzy and Sky also saw the difference and this one seemed much more powerful and intimidating.
Once the Summons completed their summoning animation, their Summoners were immediately teleported over to their sides. Maria was teleported onto Bahamut’s shoulder while Sky was teleported on top of Leviathan’s head.
Thankfully, Lizzy had ordered the people on her side to retreat, so no one was caught in the aftermath of the 2 Primals’ summoning. The enemy players and NPCs were all caught in Leviathan’s flood and they suffered from the comet shower that accompanied Bahamut’s entrance. Many of the players and NPCs down below were ejected from the Realm of War and their summons were sent back into the Void Sea Realm, providing a decent amount of Aether for the Goddess Faction.
The 3 Ancient Primals all gathered close to each other, while the 5 Supreme Gods and 4 Luminous Astrals each grouped up into their own areas. Just from numbers alone, the Pantheon seemed to have the advantage in this 3-way confrontation, but numbers weren’t always everything.
The Goddess Faction had Bahamut, Leviathan, and Tiamat, while the Celestial Order had Astral Gemini, Astral Leo, Astral Scorpio, and Astral Pisces. Then the Pantheon had Goddess Athena, God Hephaestus, God Jupiter, God Mahadeva, and Goddess Bastet. All of these titan-sized beings radiated with extreme power and it made everyone else on the battlefield feel small and insignificant. Everyone had solemn expressions on their faces while only Maria was all giddy with excitement.
“Ohh, we’re about to fight. We’re about to fight!”
“M-Mary…I don’t think this is the time to be voicing out your thoughts…” Lizzy said as she sent her a whisper in the party chat.
She had sent a party invite to both Maria and Sky since they were now the only players on the battlefield. Maria only replied to her with a grin while Sky said, “Let her be, Guildmaster Lisbet… even I’m feeling a little excited about this.”
“...Yeah, me too, I guess.”
The three girls looked at each other before chuckling. The enemy players also had somewhat eager looks on their faces, but no one made the first move. Right now, the Celestial Order and the Pantheon weren’t thinking about cooperating to attack the Goddess Faction at all. They had the least number of Summons on the battlefield, so the two sides were least concerned about them. It was each other that they had to be wary about since their numbers were just about the same.
Cooperating was not an option because they would have to fight right away once they worked together and took down the 3 Goddess Faction players. Whoever received the most damage from that battle would be on the short end of the stick, so neither side was willing to risk it.
All 3 sides continued to just size each other up, waiting for one of them to make the first move. This stand-off between the titans was being broadcast live in the real world through the Unitale exclusive TV channel. Players from around the world who couldn’t participate in this stage of the Main Story Quest and even ordinary viewers were watching in anticipation of how this battle would go down.
The 4 members of the Celestial Order and the 5 members of the Pantheon present on the battlefield each had a serious and grave look on their faces. From their TV screens, the viewers could feel the palpitations in the air as the titans and their summoners stood their ground and just waited. Only the 3 ladies from the Goddess Faction had slight grins on their faces and they each eyed one another before Maria began laughing hysterically.
“Hahaha! Bahamut, go!”
“Leviathan!”
“Tiamat, attack!”