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Chapter 49: Finding Providence II
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He doesn't appear on TV and there are only a few fleeting glimpse of him on the limited video and audio recordings of his exploits where he was included throughout Terroa.
But... he has a long standing reputation.
Kladis "The Blonde Knight", conqueror of Heartilia.
He led the famous castle invasion in the southern lands of Heartilia. That was his official title from the nobles and lords of the Southern Continent but to his enemies and the jealous and envious bunch, he has another famous name.
Harem King.
No woman is safe from him.
Queens, vagrants, pirates, priestesses, even the princesses and daughters of Imperial Kings and Majesties... his exploits to conquer both lands and women were known.
The so called Blue Card Legion is an open secret organization that controlled the largest Merchant Guild in the game, the Blue Card Merchant Guild, from the shadows... although no kind of proof had been laid out to claim the connection between these two untimely same-named organizations.
And yet from what people know, the Blue Card Legion's leader is this same person who is leading an invasion to the most glorious city in The North right now.
The Walled City of Alexandria, one of the oldest and historically important cities in RPG: Terroa.
Looking at the semi-transparent bluish dome of Mana erected 300m beyond the wall of the city, Kladis made a smile that was both enigmatic and sinister.
He opened his mouth and spoke, his voice echoing amplified by a magic circle on his feet. "City Lord Billion! Bring us Excalibur or face complete annihilation of your guild's branch in this city!"
It was both a declaration and an open provocation.
Blue Card Legion is declaring war to The Union!
NPCs only knew The Union to be an existence beyond the reach of ordinary people in their level.
Players, however, look at The Union in a different light that is tinge with fear and respect. The Union is a real-world organization and their strength is only second to that of the monetary power of Panorama Corp. and the economic superiority of the UNICORN.
But as a recognized global superpower, The Union is indeed a terrifying force in and of itself alone.
To declare war to their in-game counterpart is akin to declaring war to them in the real world.
What was the goal of The Union in the first place?
It is to stretch their hand to the global shares of the Panorama Corporation... to become the world's number one conglomerate magnate!
This invasion, outside of the reasons, is a clear slap to the face of their name.
In fact... this is actually the first time that someone had actually tried to invade a territory with the flag and name of The Union in it.
With a stomp on the ground, the blackrock floor bid a blunt sound as the weight of Billion's foot carried the indignation of such declaration.
"How dare you attack Alexandria! The Union had not carried any military actions in your territory. This is OUR city... we do not have the Excalibur or whatever it is you are claiming we are concealing in this place. Get lost while I still deem this display of your discourtesy as a mere child's actions! Get out of our city or the wrath of The Union shall befall you from this day forth until you die!"
If it was any other group, of course they would be shaking on their boots right at this moment.
Kladis still had a smile on his lips and his tone when he replied still contained that confidence.
"You are forgetting where we are, Billion. This is Terroa and we are on a quest. We know that you are trying to hide the Helium Guild here from Siva's wrath and we also knew that you are afraid of him and his capabilities. But we are not. We have a reason why we have announced our demand two days ago. But you forced that lie for not having him although we knew that he is there is a clear and open indication of your stance. We tried to give you a peaceful approach where we don't have to fight in the battlefield but you still refused our invitation and instead chosen to flaunt your title and name as the dog of The Union. Very well, we shall meet in the battlefield as you have deemed. Legion! Heed my command: destroy their shield and search the city. Leave no stone unturned until you find Jack Stone!"
Following the strong imposing declaration of Kladis was the unified roar of war from the countless number of winged and floating members of the Blue Card Legion.
Magical lights flew off as the shield withstood the brunt of these high-ranking magic spells.
Explosions occurred on the transparent bluish surface of the dome and the vibrations of impact frightened the citizens and the spectators around.
Although all damaging effects of the impacts were absorbed by the shield, the tremors of the sounds it created still travelled across the city and echoed in every direction as it thundered above their heads, reaching further into the distance.
The battle between these two global superpowers in the cold lands of The North had begun!
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Jack Stone was rattled and he gritted his teeth as he held the sword closer to his body.
"Damn it. We haven't even strengthened our ranks yet and now we are being hunted by an utterly frightening guild!"
Karim beside him couldn't help but frown as well.
"Siva's growth is really frightening. He was already a very strong individual when we faced each other but considering how he left that strong impression on us when he fought in par with Hagrid... I can't even imagine how I'm going to defeat him without my Deva's Path."
"That guy's a monster." said his vice-captain, Jin, from his left side. "It hasn't been that long since we last met and he's already strong to the point that it left the world shaken."
Everyone in Terroa had seen the videos of the fight in the Dragona and to cause an entire city to be in shambles was a feat worthy of having the title of one of the strongest players of Terroa.
Adding that frightening ability of his, [Killing Zone], then perhaps no other player in the same rank will be able to stand against him.
The resounding explosions continued and citizens' evacuation procedures were hastened to the last word.
All of the low-ranked city guards were mobilized to help the citizens and since the core members of the Helium Guild were disguised as normal citizens blending on the crowd, they were also being guided towards the catacomb shelter chambers.
Their assignments were naturally on a random area.
When evacuating, the lower floors were the first to be filled up by the citizens before the upper floors were even used. The walls were tested to have been reinforced by strengthening spells from a distant past with their quality even shames the strongest strengthening spells of the current era's magicians.
Of the one 100 floors, they were on the 96th and upon entering the chamber for them, they were surprised to see a large field with buildings inside around 4 to 6 square kilometers.
"There is a field like this inside this tower?" Jin was mostly surprised.
They have heard of the legends of this underground tower but they have never imagined it to be THIS large that it was overdrawn even as an imagination.
It was shaped like a dome 300m high with artificial cloud and an artificial sol while the buildings here were like the ones recorded on the ancient archives ––ones built by the original Alexandrians, unswayed by the hands of time.
Jack and the members of the Helium Guild in many separate chambers were all astonished when they entered their respective chamber zones.
Jack and the core members with him were led into a 5-story building. They were given a bunker room that can fit six people.
Thankfully, they were all prepared in all cases of contingencies that they, all 450+ solid members of the Helium Guild, bought an expensive Auricle Communication Device.
Communications signal doesn't pass through to the underground halls but the AOE-based radio comms signal of the Auricle provided them with the ability to still get in touch with each other.
Not only that, there was also a locator function in case an entire party was registered in a particular signal channel, allowing the party leader to locate the members of his team within the range acceptable by the Auricle.
This is the same function as the Guild Comms Line with the [Communicator Device] but it was a more specific kind of function with the Auricle, suitable for uses within an area where no communication signal was present.
In the main channel, a minimap was displayed on Jack's vision and he was looking at the green locator dots of the members of his guild.
There were bluish green lines rendering the 250m wide sphere around his Auricle and orange dots were located on the levels within that sphere in his vision.
Karim, who has been quiet all these time, spoke in a whisper, "Team Leaders, report."
"This is Alfa Team, all members accounted for."
"This is Bravo Team, all members accounted for."
"This is Charlie Team..."
"This is Delta Team..."
"This is Echo Team..."
One by one, the team leaders of the separated HG spoke one after another.
Since some of the members have been on the lower levels as advance groups, there are sub-teams that were positioned on the lower floors, responsible for accounting their members.
Upon hearing the teams' reports, Karim had been nodding steadily and he gave the worried Jack the thumbs up upon meeting his eyes.
Jack sighed deeply, letting go of some of the stress of their situation. Since he had already been in the 96th floor as a refugee, only when the tower is at the verge of actually being breached and that the levitating platform is out of the equation, will the City Lord's officials allow the stairs to be used for an emergency escape.
Facing Jin, Jack issued orders to him when the two suddenly heard Karim exclaim from behind him.
"Are you sure?" he said with a grave expression. "I will make the report. Just keep looking."
"What? What's happening?" Jin anxiously asked and Jack approached Karim with a serious expression.
"Report."
Karim didn't answer immediately as he swiped the air and gave Jack the map. With the consolidated reports from the Core Teams filed together, they were at least able to complete a map that almost span 1.1km high.
It was the map the tower from the surface down to the lowest available floor with a member of HG.
There were small orange dots to mark the members of Helium Guild and with the reports finalized by Karim himself,
"Captain, one member has gone MIA."
"MIA?" Jin on the side was shocked while Jack had a composed expression although he still did frown deeply.
"Tell me what happened."
"Reporting to Captain: Team Yankee had reported that around 16 minutes ago, he was doing a routine check on his team when one member tried to restock nanocubes on the nano-vending machine at the side of the plaza. Back then, he went out with a buddy and they were being monitored in the minimap on his Team Leader. All of a sudden, the locator signal of that member disappeared from the map and his buddy returned without him."
Jack frowned deeper and then asked, "What did the buddy say?"
"He said they were just talking about a girl when that team member saw that particular girl and went to talk to her. He followed suit but the crowd of citizens and refugees blocked his way. The next thing he knew, he heard a grunt and he never heard from him again."
As Karim explained, Jack pulled out his player window and checked the names of the active members of Team Yankee under his friends list.
He saw there a crossed out name and when a name is crossed out, it only meant to be either LOGGED OUT or that person is [Game Over].
When he saw the crossed out name, he swiped another window. This time, it was his Guild Window and under his authority as a Guild Master, he viewed the player's status.
There, he saw, the devastating news.
"He's dead." Jack hissed and his heart started to beat faster and faster.
Karim and Jin widened their eyes in shock. They of course knew how a Guild Master could tell if a member of his guild is dead or not.
GMs had a special ability to see the [status] of his or her member whether he or she is logged in or not.
If the player is not dead but logged out, there will be the status of [Active – logged out].
But if he was dead, [GAME OVER].
Only those with a [Ruler] status had that kind of authority to see a player's (that's under their leadership authority) status.
What Jack saw there was the latter.
"They know where we are." Jack hissed and this is something of a devastating piece of news to the five members of his guild that's around him.
"Captain." Jin's expression graved even more as he asked with repressed anxiety. "What should we do?"
Jack looked at his members and gritted his teeth as he gave a command. "Open your eyes and alert the other members. Report any other activities and do not let anyone out of their own groups. Use the citizens as shields. Do not let them use us against our own forces."
"Alright." Karim and Jin spoke and they started to give out commands along with the three other members of their bunker room.
Jack remained silent, contemplating their situation and their next sets of actions.
"We've been compromised. They knew we were in Alexandria! Damn it. All of this is because of this damned sword. It was one thing that I attempted Siva's assassination but now, the secret that this sword has had involved my Guild. If I knew it had this trouble attached to it I wouldn't have done all those things back in the forest!"
Jack sat down on his bunker bed as he pitted his head on his palms.
His eyes were shut as he dearly wished to have seen those big wigs' plans back when he had first heard about the sword called "Excalibur".
"Jack, we dearly value your ability to lead your Guild and the heart that you put into each and every member of your Guild so you would all advance steadily and strongly as a group. So, if you want to join The Union, you will have to prove your worth. A sword called Excalibur is located seep in a forest in the Far Eastern Region... find it... bring it to us and we will reward you with the right to carry our name."
"What a bunch of lies!" Jack hissed in between his gnashing teeth. "You used me! And when you guys realized that its consciousness recognized me as its master, you tried to collude on me into finishing the mission that the sword spirit failed to complete before. All this time, all of you people have only been gunning for The Providence!"
He was full of anger at the leaders of The Union.
Upon realizing that he was only being used, he had hidden himself in Alexandria, trying to bid his time until he was actually able to strengthen himself and his Guild... or at least strong enough that they would not feel threatened by Siva "The Destroyer".
"That guy is really a big trouble." Lamenting at their current situation, he knew, wouldn't do them good at anything. But he still couldn't help the fact that Siva had a grudge against him and his guild. "We've sacrificed so much just to survive. We sold everything we have to buy those Auricles and we have been hunting around Alexandria using a name under The Union. To think we'd still end up in this pitiful state..."
Jack, right now, was helplessly enraged by their pathetic situation. It was all because of that one single decision he made back at that forest in the Eastern Continent of Espada.
With the flow of minutes seemingly slow, the more conscious they are of the seconds, the more they felt that they are being choked.
And then, just as they were feeling secure in their safety, just as the 96th floor's magic gate closed to protect the people inside... an explosion rattled the entire 50th chamber.
The entire land shook violently as if the sky had just collapsed. Buildings that contained the protection and reinforcement of strengthening spells had large cracks appearing on their foundations. Pieces of rocks and debris fell down the artificial sky as the dead bodies of citizens and players were blasted off from their dwellings, sending chaos to the hearts of every individual and crowd.
From where they are, the explosion was just around three blocks away but its intensity and power was still enough to cause anyone to freeze on their feet and imagine the worst scenario.
There were no window on their bunker room and so they were all left to feeling what had happened from their bunkers' thick walls.
Even with the scanners of their Auricles, the data they got was the 'post-happening' without the colors and images that could more vividly explain what had just transpired.
"Just what happened out there?" Jack couldn't help but yell.
"I'll go and check the situation." Jin took two of the three core members they had and went outside their building to check the situation. Karim remained and pulled his naginata with now an even larger blade with a slight curved hook at the back side.
Looking at this weapon, it was more a Glaive than a Naginata.
Jack, having felt something was wrong, first checked his Guild Window. And, true enough, as soon as he saw the words written in there... he was utterly shocked.
"An entire team has..." the words were chocked on his throat as the names of his guild members were all crossed out with a [Game Over] at the side.
Then, from their ears, Jin's voice rung with a tone of astonishment; shock and fear could be discerned from his tone.
"C-Captain... the fifth block... that's the 2nd Alfa Team's building..."
"All units. Prepare for battle!" Jack yelled without further thought. Jin and the two were caught off and just as they were about to change their equipments, a group of shadows approached from their left side carrying weapons and wasn't even trying to hide their identities.
"It's the Blue Card Legion!"
SWOOSH! SWOOSH! SWOOSH!
The sounds of fast movements rung on their ears, Jin and the other two jumped up, equipped their Flight Gears, and then made their defensive circle around the building that Jack was staying at.
Jin is a Wizard and a versatile tactician.
With a thought, an orb appeared in front of his chest and it floated there like a small blue planet with whisks of silky strands escaping into thin air.
The other two took out shields and immediately cast their spells. They were barrier masters and the purpose they were with Jack was to actually be his protector and not his sword. The sword in their group... was handled by Karim who now had to appear alongside Jack Stone.
Looking up, Jack saw the faces of the attackers.
The orb in Jin's hands emitted five small but very eye-catching Magic Circles. The five magic circles aren't that large and only measured half a meter in diameter. They materialized in midair and circled around the building as Jack came into their sights from the door.
Fifteen people floated there in midair and from two other directions, fifty or so more who wore the same armor as them were coming forth with intent to kill and destroy.
One thing that was noticeable from them though is that on the two groups that's coming, one group was solely composed of blonde and brunette women with strikingly beautiful appearances.
Jack immediately knew who that particular group is taking their orders from.
His gaze landed on the conspicuous leader of the attackers and if their gazes could melt metals, then their armors had long exploded into dust.
"Jack Stone, my name is..."
"I know who you are, Prince Volga. You don't have to pretend with your courtesy. I will also not be polite with you. I don't care about your lofty status outside this world but in Terroa, you are my enemy and the enemy of the innocent civilians you've just killed on that building that you have destroyed."
Volga gnashed his teeth in anger. It was one thing that Kladis and the other members of the Blue Card Legion didn't show any respect to him but at least, an enemy, should have some respect on his name.
Shaking his head, Volga tried to dispel his anger.
"You're really not giving me any face here." He held his face as his voice trailed with calm furiousness underneath it. "But no matter, you will die today and we will get The Complete Providence."
After he spoke, he pulled his sword from its scabbard. As soon as it was pulled out, the sword wrapped in cloth on Jack's hand vibrated and his connection with its spirit was kindled as he heard the [intent] of that entity in the sword.
After his moment of surprise, Jack also pulled out the sword from the cloth... its golden radiance was shining in all directions.
"I see..." he ushered with complete wonder. "This is the will of these swords then."
Volga uttered, "This place shall be the stage where these swords of ours shall be united once again."
"Is that... The Light Sword? I thought that the only way for The Providence to be found is through the unification of the Spirit and Vessel?"
"You're right." Volga uttered and the sword in his hand emitted a dazzling bright light. "This is the vessel, and what's with you is the Spirit. Once I get that spirit from your sword, the location of The Providence ––its true self–– shall be found as well."
Jack closed his eyes for a moment and then nodded as he gazed at Volga.
"I see now. So that's what those old bones are all after. No wonder they will try everything just to complete my task. Alas, I hid myself in this place and brought along a calamity to the innocent people of the city."
"Are you finished with your rumination? As a prince, I have given you enough time to say your last words so this time we shall face each other in glorious combat."
Jack smiled, "I am a man myself and I respect your decision. Very well, let us fight with our honor!"
Upon speaking, the female leader of the newly arrived female group yelled angrily at Volga.
"Prince Volga! What is the meaning of this?!"
On the other side, Karim and Jin exclaimed with worry and fear.
"Captain!"
"Jack, are you sure about this?"
Jack gave them a confident nod. "We are trapped anyways. Your Mana won't last before all of these guys are finished attacking. Our only chance is to buy time until our other Guild members arrives."
On the other hand, "Prince Volga, we have orders to carry out. What you are doing is not part of what the Supreme Leader had ordered."
"Shut up, bitch!" Volga yelled at the woman and the latter was surprised with wide eyes. "I am a prince and I am a man! I know what I'm doing! I don't need a whore like you to say what this prince would do!"
"You...!!"
"I am the leader of this operation. This is my quest. I am the one who will decide how this will turn out. I'll fight this man and after that, you do what you want to do."
As they finished their speeches, Volga and Jack's gazes met once again. A moment of silence pass and on the next, both of them went toward each other... sword in hand... deciding who will be the one to inherit the other's parts of the legacy of the elusive weapon called The Providence.
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Volga had snapped...!!
Will this duel have any meaning in the mission?
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Next chapter: Rentaw's misfortunes.
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