When Maria and her armada of large ships docked into the Dire colony's harbor on Vanargand, it didn’t go unnoticed to the numerous players who were staying there and wondering why so many ships had suddenly arrived.
Everyone thought that it was the usual shipments since they’ve seen those ships come to and fro before, but this time, it was completely different and many took note of it as the entire harbor was closed off and no player was allowed to fly in the airspace above the colony. If they did, the soldiers protecting the colony and the harbor would immediately shoot them down and proceed to kill them. The same outcome happened for those that tried to sneak into the harbor and those that tried using magic to see what was happening.
Any player or NPC that was caught was killed without question. They were doing this to prevent any information about the cargo and people on the ships from leaking out since Maria’s subordinates wanted her arrival on Vanargand to be a complete secret.
Of course, when the players staying in the colony noticed this change and saw that a few of the colony guards had actually detained and even killed some players, their attention was drawn towards what was happening on the harbor. This seemed counterproductive since Maria’s people wanted to keep her arrival a secret, but the way they went about things just drew more attention to what was happening. However, all of that was just a smokescreen.
Maria’s people purposefully did that so they were drawing the players and any enemy NPCs’ attention towards the harbor while Maria and her elite team of warriors waited on a tugboat a few kilometers away from the port as they waited until it was night time to dock at a harbor located in a hidden cove that was only a few kilometers away from the colony, outside of any players or NPCs’ eyes.
“I’m finally back on this continent,” Maria said as she stretched her body after disembarking from the tugboat that brought her to the hidden cove harbor.
“Are we finally going to destroy–ahem, I mean, conquer–all of those mutts?” Raiju eagerly asked.
“You better remember your words, Master. We’re only conquering them, not destroying them,” Alexa said.
“Yeah, yeah~”
Raiju and Alexa now had a master-disciple relationship. Maria didn’t think that it was surprising at all because ever since she ordered Raiju and Alexa to go and decimate the western part of the Dreyra Continent prior to her taking over the Blood Faction, the two have been stuck together whenever they performed any operations on her orders.
“Raiju, you better keep Alexa’s words in mind. Those Lycans will soon become one of my people by the end of this war, so you better not do anything too harsh that’ll make them see me as some kind of tyrant,” Maria warned.
“I know, I know, but with all of ‘em war supplies and weapons them big ships are carrying, aren’t we practically just advertisin' to those mutts that we goin’ to decimate ‘em?”
Maria stared at Raiju with a rather odd look before asking, “...When did you start speaking like that, Raiju?”
“I heard it from some of those people you call ‘players’? I thought it was funny to listen to so I copied them~” Raiju replied with a playful smirk.
Maria shook her head and replied, “The things on the ships were just a diversion. We’re the real threat to the Lycans and everyone else on the continent, so our arrival was the main priority to be kept a secret.”
“Okay, but even if those guys up there do whatever they can, information about the things on the ship will inevitably leak out and our enemies will become wary of us sooner or later.”
In order to make the smokescreen more eye-catching and believable, the ships that transported Maria and her team to Vanargand had been loaded with a lot of war weapons and supplies. If anyone was able to get a hold of the information regarding the things the ships were carrying, then most–if not all–of the players that were vying for power on Vanargand would immediately turn their attention to the Dire because transporting all of that stuff meant that they were also preparing for war and readying themselves to launch an attack sometime soon.
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“It’d be great if we can keep everything under wraps, but if they find out about it, then it’ll give us more room to move since everyone’s attention would be focused on the colonies.”
“That’s true, since no one will think that the Dire’s very own Empress would come out to the backwaters of the Vanargand Continent with the purpose of taking over the lands starting from the outskirts~”
It felt a bit mocking, but Maria only flicked Raiju on the head before saying, “We have to start somewhere. If we were to launch a traditional attack on the Lycans, then those players will surely meddle in the battle.”
“Then can’t we just kill them?”
“Tch, Raiju, I told you before, we can’t touch any of the players that aren’t directly affiliated with the Lycans. If we do…let’s just say ‘God’s Wrath’ will descend on me–and perhaps on all of us.”
When Raiju heard that, she shivered a little bit before saying, “...If you put it that way, then I guess this plan is pretty safe.”
Raiju knew more than anyone the horrific consequences of incurring ‘God’s Wrath’ so she didn’t want to provoke such a thing again. Naturally, the god’s wrath she was referring to was much different from what Maria meant as god’s wrath though it was undeniable that, in a way, the two were pretty much the same.
“Everyone, start preparing! We’re leaving in half an hour!” Maria ordered.
After receiving their orders, everyone at the harbor began preparing for Maria and her team’s departure. While they were preparing, Alexa moved over next to Maria and asked, “Big sis, where’s our objective?”
“We’re going to be meeting up with Orh’bankhur who is waiting for us in one of the villages that our lycan sympathizers are in control of,” Maria said as she oversaw the preparations.
“Should I go scout and clear the way forward, big sis?”
Maria looked at the clock on her HUD before nodding, “Sure, go ahead. Here’s the map of the path we’re going to take. Follow it and see if it’s secured or not and if you find anyone nearby…”
She moved her thumb across her neck gesturing to Alexa that she was allowed to kill anyone and anything she met during her scouting mission that wasn’t an ally of the Dire.
"What if there are 'players', big sis?"
"Just knock them out."
"Understood."
“Good, and remember to remove the knocked out players from the area, okay? I don't want them waking up and accidentally seeing us.”
“Yes, big sis. I’ll be off now,” Alexa said after taking the map that Maria took out from underneath her cloak.
Right now, Alexa along with all of the people in Maria’s team were wearing a long black cloak that covered their entire bodies and completely hid their faces. The cloaks were made with materials that had been enchanted with both cloaking magic and obstruction magic.
The cloaking magic would make them almost invisible in the dark while the obstruction magic was there so that no one would be able to use [Inspect] on them to see their information when they were moving from the harbor to their rendezvous point where Maria's subordinate, Orh’bankhur, was waiting for them. With the cloaks, Maria’s assault party could stay anonymous on their journey even if they unfortunately bumped into other people which hopefully, didn’t have to happen.
Alexa put on her hood and quickly left the clove without another word. Maria and Raiju saw her off before the two of them returned to their preparations. Once everything was set and ready half an hour later, Maria’s team quickly departed from the cove.