Maria and the other 2 girls broke the stalemate as they ordered their Primals to attack the enemy Astrals and Gods. Bahamut began casting [White Flare Array] and this time, the scale was much larger as hundreds of magic circles appeared around him and began firing white lasers at both the Astrals and Gods. Leviathan activated a spell called [Abyssal Torrent] and began shooting large pillars of water at the enemy, while Tiamat stopped casting her [Sigh of Creation] and instead began casting the spell [Oblivion].
The Astrals and Gods immediately started raising their defenses against these attacks, but a few of the abilities managed to penetrate their defenses. Even though they were in a precarious situation, Caedes’s Summon, Jupiter, took advantage of an opening created by the Primals and assaulted Astral Gemini. The players from the Celestial Order saw this and began setting up their defenses against the Pantheon before they retaliated. Only Astral Pisces and their Summoner opted to attack the Primals that were still firing magic spells and abilities at them from afar.
Arthur still had a score to settle with Lizzy, so he immediately ordered Athena to send attacks at Tiamat. Mahadeva decided to attack the Primals as well, while the other Gods went to attack the Astrals. Like this, the battlefield seemed evenly distributed. 3 Primals were fighting against 1 Astral and 2 Gods, while 3 Astrals fought against 3 Gods.
Although it seemed like the Celestial Order and Pantheon were cooperating to attack the Goddess Faction, this wasn’t true at all. Sometimes, Astral Pisces would send an attack over to the Gods, who were focused on their fight against the Primals. Caught by surprise, they were either injured or were distracted by the attack and had to receive a clean blow from the Primals or be pushed back a bit and put into a disadvantageous position.
Their battle was truly chaotic as each side wanted to eliminate the other, so they tried sabotaging one another. Of course, this worked in Maria and the others’ favor since it made their task much easier. If they could expel a few of the powerful Summons, then it would definitely provide a large amount of Aether for Gaia to repair the world. The audience, both inside and outside of the game, watched on with bated breath as the titans clashed with one another. No side seemed to be at an advantage or disadvantage.
The battle between the 3 Gods and 3 Astrals seemed to be pretty much leveled at the moment, while it was a bit more chaotic over on the side of the Primals battling the 2 Gods and Astral. The visual effects of the abilities and magic spells gave the audience quite the show. The players had been pushed back to a more supporting role while their Summons took the main stage. The players could battle each other if they wanted to while their Summons clashed, but if they die, their Summon would be sent back to the Void Sea Realm prematurely, which would upset the current balance on the battlefield.
Thanks to that, none of the players recklessly rushed out from behind the protection of their Summons and decided to just wait as the Astrals, Gods, and Primals continued to chip away at each others’ HP bars. Maria was getting a little bit impatient from having to wait on Bahamut’s shoulder and miss out on the incredible battle, but Lizzy continued to tell her to not make a stupid and reckless move.
If she was sent out because the enemy Summons targeted her, then Bahamut would disappear and that would put her allies in a precarious situation. They were already at a numbers disadvantage, so they couldn’t afford to lose anyone prematurely. The incredible clash continued for about another 10 minutes before Lizzy spoke in the faction chat and asked Sky something.
“Sky, do you think you can handle those two by yourself for a short moment?”
Sky turned to look at her before replying in the chat, “Why? Are you planning on doing something?”
Lizzy and Sky’s Primals were currently battling the 2 Gods from the Pantheon. Lizzy was attacking Athena while Sky was up against Mahadeva. Astral Pisces was naturally being dealt with by Maria’s Bahamut.
“Mary’s growing a little impatient so she might just try doing something in the next few minutes. I want to try and eliminate Pisces together with her, so I need you to hold these two Gods back for a while.”
Sky turned to look at Maria, whose face was scrunched up into an impatient frown. She gave Lizzy the OK before commanding Leviathan to start casting [Maelstrom]–one of the Primal’s most powerful attacks. The storm clouds in the air began gathering together as lightning struck the ground and electrified the water. The air grew extremely turbulent as a hurricane was starting to form.
Arthur had been there when his faction had attacked Sky before, so he immediately knew what was coming when he saw the hurricane form. He had been seriously injured by this technique that Leviathan was casting and almost sent out of the realm, so he wasn’t going to forget it.
He turned to Mahadeva’s Summoner and yelled, “Get back and activate a defensive ability! That giant serpent is using its ultimate attack!”
“Okay!”
Pisces’s Summoner took note of Arthur’s words and similarly prepared to disengage from the battle for a moment, but Maria saw this as an opening and quickly ordered Bahamut to push the attack.
“Don’t let him get away, Bahamut!”
“Understood.”
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Bahamut used his extreme speed and continued to stick close to Pisces as he slashed out with a [Dragon Claw] and used [Breath] on the giant fish. Pisces’s Summoner cursed and couldn’t help but retaliate to his enemy’s attacks.
“You stupid bitch! You’re going to be caught in your own ally’s attack!” The Summoner roared in anger.
“What the hell did you just call me?!”
Maria had enough of the waiting and now that she was being insulted, that broke the small bit of patience she had left in her as she used [Bahamut’s Wings] and charged straight at Pisces’s Summoner. Her speed was blinding and before her enemy could even react, Maria was already right in front of him. She crashed into him with her two swords stabbing forward. They plunged straight into the guy’s torso and with her charge, Maria pushed him off of Pisces’s back.
Pisces was about to attack Maria but Bahamut didn’t let it as he quickly latched onto the giant fish with his large claws and executed a point-blank [Mega Flare] which blasted the Astral into the sky. Maria’s charge sent her plunging into the waters below and she didn’t stop attacking the Summoner who had insulted her.
Lizzy saw what had happened so she immediately ordered Tiamat to start attacking Pisces while the other 2 Gods were distracted by Leviathan’s ultimate attack. Arthur and the other Summoner weren’t blind and saw what happened at Maria’s end.
They wanted to go attack her with their Summons and send the troublesome girl out of the Realm of War, but Leviathan’s [Maelstrom] was already completed. The attack engulfed not only their battlefield but also the other battlefield where the Celestial Order and Pantheon were clashing.
Arthur and his allies were too close to the [Maelstrom] so they couldn’t attack Maria, but they didn’t have to worry because she and the Astral Summoner would be caught up in Leviathan’s devastating attack. They didn’t know how the Astral Summoner would make it out of this alive, but they had a feeling Maria might have a trick up her sleeve to survive that storm. They prepared for that moment, so when Maria appeared again, they would immediately charge at her with their Summons and eject her out of the Realm of War.
Lizzy could feel their evil intentions so she couldn’t help but feel a little frustrated. It wasn’t like she could just go down there and rescue her friend because she would be caught up in Sky’s attack, making her another target.
“Dammit, Mary, why did you have to charge and plunge into the water like that?! Leviathan’s [Maelstrom] is coming, you dolt!” Lizzy exclaimed in exasperation.
“Wait, are you calling me stupid?”
“Eh?”
Tiamat had already moved next to Bahamut and was fiercely launching attack after attack onto Pisces. The Astral’s HP was steadily disappearing and Lizzy had her eyes focused on the Astral, so when she heard the familiar voice of her friend who she thought was at the bottom of the sea and probably caught up in Leviathan’s [Maelstrom], she looked towards Bahamut and saw Maria–who had a deep angry frown on her face–still standing on her Primal’s shoulder like what she did earlier had not happened at all.
“W-What the heck? How are you even here?!”
“Uhh, why wouldn’t I be? I just sent out my [Shadow Clone] earlier to teach that guy a lesson for insulting me. I hope he enjoys the [Maelstrom] because he’s going to have a roller coaster of a ride until he dies in it!”
“...You know, you should at least tell me if you’re going to do that! You got me all worried!”
“Uhhh…I forgot?”
Lizzy had a pained look on her face before she said, “Ugh, enough talk. Let’s deal with this goddamn fish. It’s still alive, so that means its Summoner is also still alive.”
Maria and Lizzy’s Primals worked together and brought Pisces’s HP bar down to a third before Bahamut cast [Giga Flare]–a more powerful version of the [Mega Flare]–and sent the large fish careening into Leviathan’s [Maelstrom].
The [Maelstrom] was an ultimate attack that dealt continuous Pure Damage to any target within a 30-kilometer radius. Those that were struck directly by the [Maelstrom] would lose a substantial amount of HP and Pisces, who was struck by [Giga Flare] and then [Maelstrom], had its HP bottom out the same instant its Summoner was ejected from the Realm of War. A large amount of Aether was sent back to Gaia thanks to this kill and it made all of the Goddess Faction players cheer in excitement since their side had just drawn first blood on this battlefield of titans.
“Welp, there goes one of them,” Maria remarked.
Lizzy gave her a grin before saying, “Nice, that’s one down! Now let’s go take care of those 2 idiots!”
The [Maelstrom] ended just a moment after Pisces and its Summoner were finished. Bahamut and Tiamat had sustained a few injuries from the Astral and lost quite a bit of HP from being too close to the [Maelstrom], but Bahamut quickly cast [Mega-Regen ] and [Mega-Restore] on itself while Tiamat used the ability [Life Creation] to heal itself. Their HPs didn’t fully restore but it was brought back to healthy levels just before they engaged in battle again. This time, it was 3 versus 2 and they were the ones who had the advantage.
Sky had Leviathan rest for a moment before she joined the fray, since her Summon needed to regain a bit of MP and SP after casting its Ultimate Ability.
“Dammit, I can’t believe that unreliable asshole. How dare he lose to these bitches?!” Arthur cursed as he insulted both the girls and Pisces’s Summoner.
Maria heard that and immediately mocked him, “What’s this? Is the great Guildmaster of the Pantheon blaming others for his own incompetence?”
“Incompetence?! How dare you!”
“Get better at the game and know which side to stand on! Your pathetic Gods and Astrals can’t even use any proper abilities and are only relying on brute strength and brute magic force to attack us! How pitiful!”
What Maria said seemed to be true. Lizzy and Sky finally noticed this as well, now that she had brought it up. Maria had been observing the battles happening across the Realm of War long before the final stage of the Main Story Quest even started. She noticed that the Astrals and Gods summoned by any of the Celestial Order and Pantheon players never once used a proper ability or spell in a battle.
Earlier, when the battle hadn’t developed to this stage and the NPCs and other players were still fighting on the ground with their Summons, it was only the Goddess Faction Summons that were using proper abilities in the war. Thanks to that, the Goddess Faction players were able to rack up a large Summons kill count even at the cost of some of their lives.
It was happening even here on the present battlefield. No Astral or God had used an ability, spell, or ultimate skill, so it was safe to assume that they couldn’t or they needed to fulfill a special condition to use abilities.
Maria leaned more towards the former because these Astrals and Gods were sealed into the Void Sea Realm by Gaia, unlike the Primals who lived there from the beginning. Since they were sealed, it was highly likely that their abilities were sealed as well, since these were only incarnations being summoned by the players and not their true bodies.
“No way…how come I didn’t notice this before?” Lizzy gawked after she looked back at the battles she experienced all throughout this Main Story Quest stage and finally noticed.
Sky was also the same. She hadn’t stopped to observe and question this peculiarity. Now, she understood why the Celestial Order and Pantheon players always seemed to fall short of their plans when they ambushed her, Lizzy, or Maria.
“Let’s attack, guys. Our enemies are just a bunch of sturdy punching bags, so this is basically our win already!” Maria said with a malicious grin on her face.
“Don’t get carried away, Mary. We should still take these guys down one by one. Even without any abilities or spells, they’re still pretty strong!”