“A-Airships? Aren’t those airships?!”
“The Dire’s Empress…she’s really pulling all stops on this battle, isn’t she?!”
“How in the world did she even make those?!!”
Many players, both allies and enemies, were astonished at how advanced Maria’s army was. It was shocking enough when she first introduced the magic tanks and magic cannons, then she blew away their minds with the magitek armor and now this.
Maria did have a navy and people knew about it as well, but since it was based in the waters and not on land, it had only a little bit of impact on the war, people weren’t too shocked about it.
However, the airships that comprised Maria’s air force were really mind-blowing to them because the air force she had wasn’t one based on flying creatures and players. Instead, it was advanced machinery.
At the captain’s command, the 3 airships extended their air-to-surface cannons from their hulls and aimed at the city.
“Cannons, ready! Awaiting your command, sir!” The weapons operation officer quickly reported.
“Hold on.”
There was a rather advanced monitor that showed real-time footage of the battle happening down on the ground. He waved his hand and the display quickly moved to where Maria was.
This was the maiden battle of the 3 airships, so they wanted to give the honor of giving the first battle command to their Empress, who made all of this happen.
Maria was looking up in the air and it was like she knew that the airships were waiting for her command, so she lightly nodded and mouthed, ‘Fire’. At the next moment, the captain quickly gave the order after he read her lips.
“Fire!”
The airships began raining down fire from the skies and every cannon blasted away at the city’s magical barrier.
The barrier immediately began to crumble as it couldn’t handle the absurd amount of damage the airships were dealing to it. Once the barrier was destroyed, the airships immediately ceased firing.
Even though Maria wanted to conquer the Lycans, she didn’t want to massacre them. They were soon going to be part of her nation, so the least she could do was preserve their city.
With the barrier down, the city walls were now vulnerable to the Dire Army’s long-ranged siege attacks. The catapults, cannons, and magic cannons began blasting away at the walls until a part of it came crumbling down.
The enemy soldiers that were standing on the collapsing area of the walls either crumbled down along with it, or they tried to run away.
“CHARGE!” Maria let loose a howl that everyone on the battlefield could hear and the dumbfounded soldiers of her army–mostly the players–immediately began to rush towards the opening in the wall.
Maria smirked and whispered to Cali who was in her arms, “My baby, it’s time.”
“Yes, Mama.”
Cali immediately changed into her battle form and Maria hoisted her over her shoulder.
“Let’s go, we’re joining the fight now.”
“Yes, Master,” Her 3 Undead Champions said before they rushed forward and began summoning their army from the underworld.
The area around the 3 Undead Champions began to darken as a murky shadow was released from their bodies. From within the pitch black darkness, the undead soldiers under their command emerged and they let out frightening cackles before marching forward with their respective commanders leading them.
Maria stood in her spot and smirked before turning around and asking, “Are you guys going to remain hidden over there?”
There was no answer. If someone was nearby, they’d be questioning her sanity right now, but Maria had long since detected that there were enemies lying in wait behind her. It wasn’t just her. Her 3 Undead champions had also detected those enemies waiting to ambush her.
Since she had detected them first, Maria didn’t want her subordinates to interfere in the fight, so she sent them ahead.
“Fine, if you don’t come to me, then I’ll go over to you!” Maria yelled as she threw her weapon at the spot where she felt the presence of her hidden enemies.
She snapped her finger and before Calamity hit her target, an explosion ensued and the hidden players immediately screamed and scrambled away from where Maria had sent her attack.
“Come out cowards and face me!” Maria lunged at one of the shadows that was closest to her that had been exposed after she had used her [Fire] spell. She grabbed the shadow and flew up into the air before slamming the enemy back into the ground.
*DING*
[You have killed a player! +500 kill points! Your current alignment is: Chaotic. Please beware that upon dying, you may lose equipment, EXP, and your death penalty will be strengthened according to your current player kill points: 2,500,000!]
*DING*
[You have killed 5000 players while being Chaotic! Your unique title: [Murderer+] has been upgraded to: Slaughterer]
A few days ago, Maria’s character alignment had become Chaotic because she had killed a few players with 0 kill points and, after that, she kept on killing players over and over again, and after her 1000th kill, she had earned the title: [Killer].
It was an upgradeable title that many player killers already had and it was a title that could be continuously upgraded. The only condition to upgrade the title was to kill players while being Chaotic, so kills while you weren’t in Chaotic alignment weren’t counted.
This made acquiring the upgraded titles even harder because most players, even player killers, would try to lose their Chaotic alignment as quickly as they could. Maria, unfortunately, couldn’t do that because her enemies kept sending people to attack her so she wouldn’t lose her Chaotic alignment.
They wanted her kill points to keep on increasing so that when they do manage to kill her, her death penalty would be at its highest value, making it all the more severe for her. If they could kill her and have her logged out of the game for a few days, it would be the best case scenario for them.
Unfortunately, all of their attempts so far have been completely foiled and all Maria did was continue to rack up kill points and kill counters, which in turn upgraded her [Killer] title to what it was now, [Slaughterer].
Of course, this title was separate from the NPC-specific killing title that she also possessed. Naturally, this was the [Species Eradicator] title, but since it was already ranked EX, it was impossible to further upgrade it.
[Slaughterer
Rank: Unique
While under the Chaotic alignment, invoke a STAT check every 30 seconds on the players 50-meters around you. If their (LV x 100) + (STR + AGI + INT) is below your total STATS (STR + AGI + INT + VIT), the [Rational Fear] debuff is applied. Enemies inflicted with the [Rational Fear] debuff will take 20% additional damage from your attacks and be marked in your field of vision.
Upgrade conditions: Kill 10,000 players while being Chaotic (5,000/10,000)
Note: Killing players whose kill points are 50% lower than yours will not decrease your kill points!]
It was because of this title that Maria was able to see through her enemies’ stealth skills. This was her card to fight against those assassins and she wanted to upgrade the title to its highest form, so she wanted to kill the players that were aiming for her life.
She had to be the one to personally kill her enemies or else it wouldn’t count. There were about 100 players lying in wait around her and 100 NPCs as well. All of their levels were close to 400 and this got Maria excited.
Maria smirked when she saw their basic information using her [Inspect] skill and thought that her enemies were finally trying to put in some effort to kill her. Other than the first attempt which had caught her off guard and nearly killed her, the subsequent attempts were rather miserable.
They only sent players that were level 300 or so to her, so it was quite easy to fend them off. If they really wanted to succeed, they needed to do at least this much. Of course, the numbers weren’t enough…
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“If you really wanted to try and kill me, you should’ve sent at least 10 times more people!” Maria cackled before she quickly took off into the air again.
She eyed the ground below her and with her title’s ability, she locked onto all the highlighted players and NPCs before casting her 6 Elemental spells, [Fire], [Blizzard], [Terra], [Aero], [Thunder], and [Gravita], her unique skill [Nephalem’s Eye], and her wide-scale AOE attack, [Rain of Terror].
Maria literally rained down hell on the players below and the soldiers that were at the back of the army who hadn’t been able to reach the wall yet, and the reserve units were stunned to see the destruction happening behind them.
After making sure that all of the players and NPCs were dead, Maria turned around and raised Calamity, “Attack! Attack attack attack attack!!!”
At her command, all of her soldiers–even the reserve units–quickly rushed forward. Maria herself flew into the city and landed in front of the vanguard unit and led the charge.
“WUUUUOOOHHHH!!!”
“CHAAARRRGGEE!!!”
“Push forward! The Empress is with us!”
Maria led the charge and when she arrived at the city gates, she unleashed a [Calamity Cleave] using her Calamity in one hand and a [Shin-Zantetsuken] with her Zantetsu-R in her other hand.
The attacks struck the gates and just as she was about to send her final chain of attacks, the gates collapsed and were blasted wide open.
Without waiting, she dashed forward and collided head first with the enemy ranks that had been hastily made just behind the city gates.
Despite being hastily set up, the enemy ranks were nearly complete and were totally airtight. It would be hard to push through the walls of soldiers when they were so densely packed together.
There was no plan in mind as Maria charged headfirst into the barricade of soldiers. All she wanted to do was completely topple the shield wall in front of her and step over her enemies’ corpses.
“Break through it!” Maria roared.
She changed her weapon’s form into a sword and lunged forward with another [Calamity Cleave]. The shield wall in front of her immediately blew apart as the people behind it couldn’t withstand her attack.
With every step she took, Maria lashed out at her enemies with both her weapons and sent them high into the air where the archers and mages of her army finished them off with their attacks.
The soldiers Maria was leading followed her and they took down their enemies who were still getting in formation. Maybe if they had completed the formation, they wouldn’t have collapsed so easily.
In the distance, Maria saw that the enemy’s heavy-armored warriors and shield warriors were marching towards them, so she began charging up her skill again, but this time, it was [Zantetsuken].
“Cut! [Zantetsuken]!”
She executed the skill with both of her swords and a phantom of the Primal Allfather appeared floating behind her and with Maria’s motion, it executed the skill, [Zantetsuken].
“Haaahhh!!!”
Two red-black sword waves flew forward and cut apart the space where the enemy soldiers were coming from and a wave of explosions ensued.
Her skill alone wasn’t enough to defeat the enemies in front of her because they were players and NPCs that had ridiculously high HP, but after executing her skill, their ranks were in shambles due to the explosions she caused.
The soldiers following Maria quickly rushed forward and began attacking the heavy-armored warriors and shield warriors, bringing them down one by one while the mages behind them created barriers in the air to block the incoming range attacks from the enemy archers and mages.
“Squad 4 and 5, to the left! 6 and 7, to the right! Cover our flanks!” One of the commanders that were following behind Maria roared. “The rest of you! Follow Her Majesty, the Empress!”
The captain of the mage squad that had been following closely behind Maria also began yelling out commands, “Mages, keep the barrier up! Protect our soldiers and Her Majesty!”
“Charge!”
“Archers! Fire!”
Maria looked around and quickly dashed forward to attack an enemy player that was in front of her while she silently issued a command, ‘Go! Kill anything that tries to attack!’
The command was for her Undead Army and Shadow Army, which had suddenly emerged from the ground after Maria had spread her shadow.
She was already in her Nephilim battle form, so her Shadow Army was just waiting for her command to come out of the shadows and that time was now. The two armies rushed forward and they began attacking the enemy soldiers that were slowly falling into disarray due to the sudden emergence of the shadow puppets.
“Guard the flank! Guard the flank!”
“Enemy incoming! Don’t let them pass!”
“Fuck! What’s with these black monsters?!!”
“Hold your ground! Don’t let them break through!”
“We have to kill the enemy’s leader! She’s right there! She’s right there!”
“Attack!”
“Kill her!”
The battle on the ground was completely chaotic as both allies and enemies fought against each other on the streets of the city. The enemy commanders wanted their troops to defend the Dire’s attacks while at the same time doing something about Maria.
They wanted to kill her first and foremost because it would greatly shift the morale to their side. Maria was but one person, but they believed that by killing her, it would somehow turn the tide against them.
Unfortunately for them, that wouldn’t work. Even if Maria was to fall, her soldiers would complete the job. They had an overwhelming advantage in terms of both the quantity and quality of soldiers and weapons.
Not only that, but it wasn’t like Maria’s subordinates were just going to allow them to kill her.
“Your Majesty!” Ash cried as he descended from the air and landed by her side. A large ice ball was shooting straight towards Maria and he smacked it away, diverting it towards a group of enemies that were charging over to their location. “Your Majesty, please don’t charge in alone like that!”
“I wasn’t alone. Can’t you see everyone else?” Maria replied as she nudged her chin at the allies nearby who were engaging the enemy soldiers.
“I meant that you were charging in alone without your imperial guards!”
“Ah…whatever.”
Right after she said that, the guards Ash was referring to quickly arrived and they formed a shield wall around Maria.
Ash had specially created this guard unit to protect Maria on and off the battlefield. Her personal army was never around her as she kept them busy with missions and her Undead and Shadow army were usually rampaging around on the battlefield by themselves.
This left her alone, so Ash prepared these people to be Maria’s meat shield, but she usually left them behind when she charged forward to attack her enemies. The one fault Ash needed to address was the imperial guards’ lack of aerial mobility. At the very least, the guards that were following Maria needed to be able to fly so they could follow her around, or else she would just leave them behind like always.
“When we get back, I need to replace everyone. You guys just won’t do. You can’t even follow and protect Her Majesty!” Ash snarled.
The imperial guards began sweating cold sweat underneath their armor after they heard Ash’s words.
“Hey, no need to be harsh, Ash.”
“...Yes, Your Majesty.”
Elizabeth and Carmilla arrived not long after and Maria’s friends also appeared.
“Instead of crowding around me, why don’t you guys go secure the objectives that we set earlier, hm?” Maria said to her friends and subordinates with an annoyed look on her face.
“We’ve already sent others to deal with those and with the airships, we’ve pretty much won the battle already.”
The airships in question were quietly hovering in the air above the city and since they wanted to do more, the fleet’s admiral decided that they should provide close air support to their ground units.
“This is the Aerial Fleet’s Commander. All visible anti-air defenses have been neutralized. We’re ready to provide close air support! Mark the targets with red [Flare Bombs].”
This transmission was heard by the commanders leading the ground squadrons currently fighting on the east and west sides of the capital city who were still trying to break through the gates.
“Resolution will be providing air support for the army in the west while the Zenith will provide support for the army in the east!”
Without any hesitation, the commanders of the east and west armies began painting targets for the airships to attack. With their support, it made their job taking the city walls extremely easier.
“Resolution, this is the west army’s commander, we’ve marked the target ahead of us! Take down the gate and provide cover fire for the ground team while we storm the walls!”
“Roger that.”
“We have a visual of the target. Firing magic cannons 1 to 5.”
The airship sent a volley of mana-concentrated lasers from their magic cannons and blew down the city gates.
“Confirmed hit on target. Proceeding to the next objective! Fire when ready!”
The enemy soldiers on the walls were dumbfounded when they saw their gates get taken down so easily, but they had no time to be awestruck since the cannons of the airship were now pointed towards them.
“Firing on enemy personnel on the walls!”
The Resolution began blasting away at the enemy soldiers that were still on the walls with their regular cannons.
With the cover provided by the airship, the commander in charge of attacking the west gate immediately ordered his troops to charge and run into the city. Once they were past the gates, they began attacking and killing any enemy soldiers in their way without mercy.
They had been delaying them for too long. Unlike the main army that had Maria there to break down the city gates with a few strokes of her weapons, the east and west armies didn’t have her, so they had been pinned outside of the walls thanks to the enemy’s fervent defense.
Now that they were finally inside of the city, they quickly moved to fulfill the objectives their Empress had given to them during the war meeting. There was a similar scene over on the east side of the city as well, after the Zenith provided support for the east army.
With the east and west walls secured, 3 of the objectives had been completed. They only needed to deal with the other objectives and secure the important points within the city before storming the castle on the north side of the capital.
This was going to be a bit rough because the enemy soldiers had regrouped and began fortifying themselves inside some of the buildings. It became a little difficult for Maria’s soldiers to push deeper into the city because the enemy soldiers occupied extremely good chokepoints and pinned the advance forces down.
2 of the 3 airships were busy providing air support for the forces attacking the east and west sides of the city, but there was still the remaining airship, the Endeavor, that was free.
“Endeavor to ground units within the central area. We are ready to provide close air support. Mark targets with red [Flare Bombs] and friendlies with green [Flare Bombs]!”
“Heard you loud and clear, Endeavor. We marked two buildings. Please go ahead and blow them down. Danger close.”
“Roger that. Incoming cannon fire, keep your heads down.”
The Endeavor began aiming its cannons at the two buildings that were marked with red smoke and began firing at them. Just on the opposite side of the street, their allies were hunkering down in a building trying to take cover from the cannon fire, but when those cannons started blasting at the 2 targets, the soldiers on the ground weren’t prepared.
An astounding shock spread throughout the area as the two buildings collapsed from the airship’s cannon fire. There was absolutely no mercy in the attack as it completely leveled the targets, killing any enemy soldier that was unfortunately still inside of the buildings.
“Endeavor to ground units, objective complete. Standing by for the next target.”
“Thanks Endeavor. We’re pushing forward. Please provide cover fire while we move up!”
“Roger that. Switch to AG batteries and provide cover fire for the ground team! Be careful not to hit friendlies!”
Maria was watching as all of this happened and couldn’t help but pout.
“As exciting as it was to watch, but my hands are still a bit itchy and I’m not yet satisfied!”
“Your Majesty, please hold back for now. Let our soldiers do their jobs. We still have the castle to storm later,” Elizabeth advised from the side.
“Hmmm…fine. Let’s just follow behind them.”