Raiju remained quiet as the desperate look in her eyes changed to that of realization as she turned them to the ground.
‘Why aren’t they doing anything?!’
“Don’t expect help from any of those people down there. If they dare try to get close to help you…I’ll devour them too.”
“!”
The allies that Raiju had made couldn’t do anything and just watched from below. Maria’s 3 vampires were constantly on the watch for their movements and if any one of them tried to move to help Raiju, they would immediately disengage from their battle with the lightning spirit to deal with them.
Ash, Carmilla, and Elizabeth weren’t going to let the players interfere with their master’s fight with the traitor.
They were already boiling with rage because they couldn’t help their master at all and allowed the players below to steal away the goal that their master wanted to accomplish.
Their master was so close to achieving greatness, but it was robbed from her by the players.
It was infuriating that they couldn’t do anything because of some kind of protection force field that was preventing them from going down to massacre the players, but if those players voluntarily left the protection area, there was no way the 3 would let that chance slip.
Maria quickly dealt with Raiju and devoured her whole. The mischievous lightning could only let out a miserable wail when the last of its parts were finally consumed. The players below all watched as something so horrific happened right in front of them, but they were too scared to do anything.
The NPC that was helping them had been devoured by a player–no, by a monster. At the moment, Maria’s appearance didn’t look anything like that of a player. She looked like a monster and what she did earlier further cemented that fact.
“The protection period is only 9 months. Once those 9 months are over, I will be back to reclaim what’s rightfully mine and I will trample on everyone who participated in this treachery against me.”
“Hmph, take a hike!”
“...I’ll root out all of you from this planet. Don’t even think about getting out of your protective little turtle shell.”
With those words, Maria quickly flew away and left the battlefield, the Lycanthrope City. Down below, the fighting that had broken out had been quelled and the enemy players that had caused the uproar had either been killed or captured.
When the army commanders down below saw their Empress leave, they quickly sounded the horn and began preparing to retreat along with her.
The army collected all the mobile armor, magic tanks, magic cannons, and other siege weapons before slowly leaving the area. The area surrounding the destroyed Lycanthrope City cleared out after a few hours and all that was left was the player army, who were reluctant to leave.
The faction quest that the Dire had given to everyone would be deemed a failure if they just left, but seeing as the Dire’s Empress herself had left along with her army, they could only sigh and leave the battlefield.
However, their fears didn’t come true because a few hours later, an alliance-wide notification window indicated that their faction quest had been cleared. It wasn’t a failure and they received 100% of the rewards.
They also received additional rewards depending on their contribution points ranking. Even though the quest was completed, many players were left with a bad feeling in their mouths because, at the end of the day, they lost the war at the most critical moment.
Some of the players who were in the Dire Faction found that it was complete bullshit that, just by losing a single unique dungeon, they had completely lost the war even though they were winning it.
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The Dire faction players all took to the forums to berate and denounce the guilds and organizations that sabotaged their faction quest.
A few days after the events at the Lycanthrope City had transpired, Maria gathered all of her subordinates together, including her friends and family who were working with her Empire, to discuss what they would do moving forward.
There was no precedent of a player power being one of the major powers dominating a planet, so no one could predict what would happen now that the two major powers of Vanhal were both player-run powers.
One side was obviously the Dire, which was based on the Dreyra Continent, while the other side was the newly established Efeltheria Dominion, based on the Vanargand Continent.
What happened now for the future of Vanhal completely depended on what the players of the planet would do, in particular, it depended on what Maria wanted to do.
She was still holding a grudge against the players who had robbed her of her chance to completely dominate the planet, so there was definitely not going to be any peace between them.
Even now, Maria was still encroaching on the lands of the Vanargand Continent. The protected area was limited and only a few tens of kilometers around the Lycanthrope City, the rest of the continent was free game and Maria was quickly taking over the territories that still didn’t have any player organizations controlling them.
For now, she avoided the land that had guilds running them, but if they were weak enough, Maria completely rooted them out. Even when players on the forums complained about it, she paid no heed and continued with her conquest.
Her plan for Vanargand before Raiju’s betrayal was to leave the land outside of the Lycanthrope City to the players who wanted to rule over them, since all she wanted was to be recognized as the sole power of planet Vanhal and in order to get recognized by the system, she only needed to take over the Lycanthropes.
That plan was flushed down the drain the moment she lost her chance to take control of the Lycanthropes thanks to Eos and friends stealing her dungeon.
So now, she was rapidly trying to take over the Vanargand Continent and pushing all of the players and organizations that she blacklisted to a small corner of the continent. She planned to completely wipe them all out once the protection period was over.
This was the long-term plan, so she convened with her subordinates on what they should do in the short run.
“We should look for the next Main Scenario Quest,” Lizzy suggested.
“Mhm, I’m already ahead of you on that.”
“Oh? Do you already have a clue, Mary?”
“Yes.”
“Nice!”
“The next Main Scenario Quest will be in the Underworld. For now, we have the advantage since we’re the only ones who have access to the Underworld, but since there are entrances all over the planet, it’ll only be a matter of time before our opposition finds them.”
“Mhm, that’s why we have to take over the land of the Vanargand Continent as fast as we can.”
“With our forces stretched too thin because of our rapid expansion and hostile takeovers, we can’t deal with the guilds that are within the top 20 in rankings who are opposed to us,” Gerald voiced. “We may have to give up on some of the continent’s territory for now.”
“It doesn’t matter. Them finding out is inevitable, but since we have the lead, we should start sending our most trusted players down to the Underworld to begin exploring in earnest,” Lizzy replied.
Maria nodded and said, “Mhm. You both can start picking the players and send them to the Underworld. Once the enemy players find out about the Underworld, I’ll open the entrances I’ve found to the general public.”
“Good idea, we’ll start then.”
“Sky, Lily, I can entrust you and your parties to keep all this a secret, yeah?”
Although the two and their parties weren’t part of Maria’s upper echelons, they were people she trusted, so she allowed them to partake in the Dire’s meeting this time around.
Lilith smiled and nodded at Maria, “Don’t worry. We won’t leak this information to anyone! You can trust us!”
Sky nodded and similarly gave her assurance, “I’ll only be selecting those whom I absolutely trust to come explore the Underworld with me. You can rest assured that they won’t be spreading this info around.”
“Alright, I’ll leave the exploration to you guys.”
“Hm?”
“And…what about you, Mary? What are you going to do?”
“Me? Well…I have somewhere I have to go.”
“Care to share any details, hm?”
“...Let’s just say…that I have to go save my teacher.”
Maria ended the meeting with those words and quickly disappeared from the hall. She arrived at an underground chamber within her castle and in the chamber was a black teleportation gate.
Next to the gate was a very familiar figure, Death. It was Death’s incarnation.
“Are you ready, my former Champion?”
“...This portal will lead to the Ziggurat…right?”
“Yes.”
“Why are you helping me?”
“...No reason. I just want to.”
“...”
“...”
“Don’t expect that I’ll give you any favors or anything in return!”
“I won’t.”
“Hmph, good.”
“...Remember this child. Once you step into the Ziggurat, Tartarus, there’s no way back…unless you’re a god or a being with high-ranking divinity.”
“I understand.”
“And yet you will still go?”
“Yes. I have to save my teacher.”
“Hehe, this is why I was right in choosing you.”
Death’s Incarnation let out a low chuckle and waved its hand, activating the black portal. The once calm portal began to grow turbulent as a hazy image began to appear in the middle of the portal.
“...”
Maria silently watched as the portal slowly grew bigger and bigger. The hazy image also began to grow clearer and clearer until, finally, she saw Tartarus, the formal name of the Ziggurat, the prison of the gods.
While her friends and subordinates were given the mission to explore the Underworld, Maria herself had her own mission and that was to rescue her teacher, Paimon.
“Phew, I guess it’s time to start another new adventure…You ready, Lilah?”
“Of course, Master!” Lilah, the companion that had been together with Maria the longest, answered from atop her shoulder. “It’ll be like old times! Just me and Master roaming the land, hehe!”
Maria smiled and turned to the young child in her embrace, “Cali?”
Cali, Maria’s ego weapon, looked up at her mama and hugged her chest while saying, “I’ll follow Mama wherever…”
“Hehe, alright. Let’s get going. Unfortunately, I can’t bring Red or Ash. Red is the Underworld entrance’s protector, while Ash needs to be my proxy while I’m gone.”
“Don’t worry, Master. We don’t need him!”
“Haha, you’re right! Alright, let’s go!”
“Yeah!”
With that, Maria stepped into the large black portal, towards another new adventure.