Bob was the hidden rank Assassin player that Eos and Lizzy met during the IGC. He was an independent player that had joined the Pantheon and managed to make a Summoner Contract with the God, Hermes.
He didn’t work with any of the players in his faction and always did his quests alone. Due to his solo playstyle, he was anonymous in the group and people only knew him from the individual contribution rankings, where he was constantly on the top. A few guilds tried to recruit him but he didn’t respond to any of their invitations, even from the faction’s big guilds, like the Testament Guild and Camelot Guild.
He preferred playing alone, so he didn’t want to join any player organization. The only reason why he was helping out this time was that he had somehow managed to make a high-ranking contract with God Hermes, so he was a valuable asset to the Pantheon faction.
Both the Camelot and Testament Guilds agreed to pay him with gold and rare materials for just being there during The Great War Main Story Quest stage and if they needed him to act, they’d double that payment. Thanks to the lucrative reward, Bob decided that he’d join The Great War and be one of their reserves. When the clash between titans happened, Bob was a little regretful that he didn’t actively participate in the war, but now that Caedes wanted him to make a move and kill one of the Goddess Faction players, he was more than willing to act.
A battle on this scale was something not even an assassin like him wanted to miss. His targets were Maria, Lizzy, and Sky, so he decided to pick his former ally from the IGC, Lisbet of the Fallen Angels.
“Hehe, don’t be too mad at me, it’s just business.”
He used his [Shadow Step] ability and sneaked up behind Lizzy while she had all of her focus on attacking Arthur and Athena. She didn’t even notice Bob had sneaked up on her until he used [Backstab] to stun her and followed it up with a slew of skills that depleted Lizzy’s HP in large chunks until only a small percent of her HP was left.
“Gah, what the hell?!”
Maria had been keeping her eye out on the battlefield so she saw Lizzy’s plight. She immediately used her extreme flying speed to dash over to her and appear in front of her friend’s attacker.
“Tsk, I couldn’t finish her off in time.”
“How did you sneak through Tiamat’s barrier?” Maria immediately asked.
“Hehe, sorry, but I gotta bail! Hermes, let’s go!”
The player suddenly sprouted some ethereal wings on his back and shoes before suddenly disappearing the next instant.
“Huh?!”
“T-Thanks, Mary!”
“Yeah, no problem, but how did that guy pass through Tiamat’s barrier?!”
“I don’t know, but we have to be careful now. I recognize him, he’s the assassin player that teamed up with me during the IGC! I think his name was…Hob…Rob?”
“It’s Bob, dammit! How can you forget my name, Guildmaster Lisbet? I’m hurt!”
The 3 girls heard his voice coming from next to Arthur and it was quite weird since he appeared to be just standing in the middle of the air. A moment later, a large figure materialized underneath Bob’s feat and it was God Hermes, supposedly the fastest God in the Pantheon.
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“Ah, so that’s why you were able to penetrate Tiamat’s barrier. You used your God!”
“Yep, and I almost killed you too. Did you perhaps get an upgrade or something? What happened to your Berserker class? I would’ve been able to kill you with my combo if you were still a Berserker.”
“Hmph, that’s outdated information!”
“Figures, you’re lucky this time, Guildmaster Lisbet. Next time, I’ll make sure to put you down quickly,” Bob said with a shrug.
“There won’t be a lucky next time, you sneaky bastard!” Lizzy roared before ordering Tiamat to change targets and attack Bob and Hermes.
“Dammit, a new God? Those Pantheon guys sure hid this card well. There goes our chance of eliminating Athena and Arthur,” Sky said.
“It doesn’t matter. It’s still 3 versus 2, we still have the advantage!”
Lizzy had spoken her words too early because right after she said that, everyone heard a maniacal cackle ring throughout the battlefield before hearing the voice of a girl say, “Can I join in?”
Maria had a bad feeling when she heard this voice and looked up at the sky. There, she saw a girl floating in the air with 2 black and white orbs floating around her. This girl had a rather unique appearance as well. She looked like she was split right down the middle and each side looked like 2 different people.
The right side of her body had short black hair and had an oni horn jutting out from the side of her forehead. This side of her face had a golden-colored eye while the armor she was wearing looked like an amazon’s armor that was black in color. It was quite revealing in some places, though the girl didn't seem to mind that. The left side of her body had long white hair with bangs reaching down to her silver-colored eye, nearly obscuring it. This side of the body was wearing modest, priest-like clothing and they somewhat overlapped with the revealing armor on the right side of her body, so she had her important parts completely covered up at least.
Another thing was that she was sporting 8 pairs of wings on her back. The right side wings were white webbed wings while the left side wings were black feathered wings that were reminiscent of Maria’s old wings. There was also a halo floating on top of her head with one side having steady white flames blazing on it while the other side had unstable black flames blazing all around.
She was chaotically geared and her appearance was very asymmetrical. Her existence alone could easily trigger a person who had symmetry OCD though, despite her appearance being so chaotic, there was a certain harmony and order in that chaos.
Earlier, when she said ‘Can I join in’, she hadn’t directed that to anyone else besides Maria. This girl had her eyes fixated on Maria from the moment she had appeared and it seemed like she didn’t even acknowledge anyone else’s existence. It was because of this odd fixation that Maria had a bad feeling well up from inside of her. Maria had never seen this girl before but it seemed that she knew about her for some reason. Her question was also kind of odd, since this was a battle between Astrals, Gods, and Primals, but here she was without one next to her.
Arthur looked at the newcomer and noticed that none of the Goddess Faction girls appeared to know who she was. She didn’t seem like a Celestial Order player, but he also never saw someone with this kind of appearance in the Pantheon either, so he quickly asked, “Whose side are you on?!”
The unknown girl didn’t say anything, but when Arthur turned to look at Bob, only to see that the guy was sporting a pale and shocked expression on his face, so it seemed that he knew this girl, judging from his reaction.
“Bob, who is that? A friend of yours?”
“A-A friend? Are you crazy?! Don’t you know who that girl is?” Bob frantically replied.
“Enlighten me.”
“That girl’s the Supreme Leader of all the Red Name Guilds!”
“She’s a Guildmaster of a PK Guild?”
“No, she’s not a guild master, she’s the leader of ALL the PK guilds.”
“W-What do you mean? She controls all of the PK Guilds?”
“That’s right. I know about her because I have dealings with a few PK Guilds myself. Naturally, it’s only PK commissions, but that shouldn’t concern you guys,” Bob said.
“So she’s the leader, huh? Which faction is she a part of?” Arthur continued to ask.
“T-Technically…she’s listed under the Pantheon faction–”
“Really now? So she’s an ally, huh?”
Arthur’s eyes brightened before he ordered Athena to fly over to that girl as he shouted, “Hey you, you’re part of the Pantheon, right?! It’s a good thing you’re here! Let’s work together and–”
Bob’s eyes nearly popped when he saw Arthur flying over to the girl, so he quickly interrupted him and said, “No, what the fuck are you doing?!”
The black-white girl had her eyes entirely on Maria but when she felt Arthur approach her, she glanced at him before saying, “Buzz off, weakling.”
“Huh?”
Out of nowhere, large black and white swords of light appeared in the air above Arthur and Athena before they descended on top of their heads. Arthur was caught off guard by the unexpected attack, so he ordered Athena to block them, but that wasn’t the best idea.
“Dodge it, dammit!” Bob yelled.
“Hm?”
The swords of light penetrated through Athena’s defenses and struck her materialized body, dealing quite a bit of damage that knocked off a good portion of the Goddess’s HP. This attack was an attack done by a player and not a Summon, so it immediately caused Maria and the others to widen their eyes in shock.
“H-Her attack pierced through the Goddess’s Barrier!”
“Who the hell is this girl?”
“...”
Maria felt the girl’s eyes lock back onto her and it made her feel extremely uncomfortable so she glared up and returned her gaze. One side of the girl's lips lifted and she reiterated again, “So, can I join?”