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Chapter 75: Stakes of the Duel
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Siva calmly spoke, and then turned his head back at Kladis. "If you win, of course, you can keep your lives. I swear upon my divine name... let the Law of Heavens strip me of my divinity and live and die a mortal's life... that if I, Elder God Donar, ever go back on my word, then this curse shall then befall upon me and kill me on the spot!"
Kladis wanted to scream, he wanted to choke the NPC in front of him to death.
Stake the Rewloola?
It's absurd!
But then when he heard the oath that staked the very Divinity of an Elder God, he couldn't help but feel astounded.
Is such a thing exists?
His idea of the duel's prices lay somewhere on that line but he didn't expect that this Elder God will be so extreme as to actually vow against his own divinity.
Following his words, Siva was also gesturing upwards in the air as if presenting this vow to these so called Law of the Heavens.
And as if to confirm it, lightning strikes came from the hand of Akhenaton and these lightning strikes travelled and bound itself on his hand that held the Godhammer in it.
This gesture of Akhenaton really looked like he had sworn an oath to the heavens as the God of Lightning being his [divinity].
Still, the question remained, what's all these have to do with Kladis?
Lowering his arm, Siva looked at his right hand as if to ponder on something before speaking, "Now, you have made me curse myself with a vow. This is me, a Divine Existence, an Elder God, Exalted Immortal of all the Immortals... a High Being higher than your measly existence, giving you face."
Siva pointed the Godhammer on Kladis.
"Now, honor the duel. Give the contract. If I win, everything under the name of your Legion is mine. If you win, my Akhenaton is yours and I cease to exist as Elder God Donar."
Kladis felt startled but he braced and knew that this was an advantage over this Elder God. As he have now noticed, although he was a God, a supposed all-knowing existence, Elder God Donar is not aware of what ability his legion had and so, he also assumed that Donar is not aware of anyone else's ability.
After all, he had heard it as well: their divinity is being restrained here in the Mortal Realm.
S, he chose to wear a smile above his poker face. What more, aside from a poker face, he was indeed happy deep inside.
An Elder God... of course he was someone who relies on magic and abilities to fight.
He isn't aware of my ability and... of my domain.
But just in case, he still turned his head at Kira to ask about it, "Can we trust his oath?"
Kira shook his head.
"I'm not sure either." Kira continued, "But I'm certainly aware that the Law of the Heavens exists in this world and that all living beings created in this universe are bound by its restraints. If he had sworn his own divinity and name as Elder God Donar with the Law of the Heavens as the witness, then we can be sure that his words are considered sincere. Donar had taken an oath against his divinity and his divinity is lightning so we can be sure that the Law of Heavens had accepted his oath against his own divinity on that lightning show just now."
Kira looked at Siva. "But that's not the issue here. You know that the Chief Leader is not aware of this duel of yours. What are you going to do if you lose? A fight with the entire legion at stake...? It's one thing if it's just the castle but this is the entire legion?"
Kira was reminding Kladis that Gats wasn't aware that almost 60% of his Legion had already fallen.
Although the war divisions are still almost intact, the Armada had already fallen and that was a big loss to their overall firepower.
Right now, they don't have the power to defend their position in Heartilia, let alone contend with the rest of the big guilds of the world.
"I know, but..."
Siva was hearing them but he still maintained his Godly theatrical role.
His eyes narrowed, seemingly looking irritated on them trying to delay him and buy time.
"What now?" he hissed, cutting Kladis' thoughts.
But...
If anyone knew what that narrowing eyes meant, ah, no, if Thorn, Volt, and Rentaw could only see it, then they'd realize that behind that mouth cover is a bashful smile.
In this gamble, the moment Kladis and Kira doubted his oath, he knew from this point on that he had already won.
Why?
Because when they doubted his oath it means that they have no doubt about him being a divinity.
Kladis gritted his teeth, "I don't have a choice at the moment." After speaking, he turned his gaze from Kira and then swiped the air to pull up a rolled piece of whitish-yellow paper with a special texture. One look alone and Siva was aware that this is that special Guild Item called «Contract Paper».
Of all the items in Terroa, this item alone has the power to bind anyone and anything to any rules signed within its blank sides.
Kladis let go of the paper and it floated there in front of him and Donar.
Then, he pressed on the item and a panle appeared in front of him. He began to type in something and with every word he keyed in, the anxious Kira behind glared more at Donar.
Perhaps of the two, Kira was still trying to find out if this Donar is a fake God or a real deity.
After a few minutes of silence, the «Contract Paper» unrolled by itself, as words and phrases appeared in the blank space of the item.
Kladis pushed the floating item in the Real@D rendering of Donar and the latter read the contents.
Donar pressed on the item and keyed in a few items of his own to the contract and then after a while, sent it back to Kladis as finalization.
When the latter saw it, he couldn't help but clenched his teeth.
"You..."
"I specifically told you to include 'all' that is entitled under the name of your legion. Failing to do so... hmp, I will let you know now that although I treasure the special abilities of your castle, it's not hard for me to spend millions of years just to wait for something with the same abilities like that to appear in the universe realm. You should know that it is only with my magnanimity that you are standing there right now with your two legs still attached to your body. If you continue to test the limits of my patience, you can be sure that it wouldn't take me an hour to obliterate all that you hold dear in front of you. Including that castle and your precious battleship."
After speaking, Kladis was full of remorse and fury in his chest that his breathing was clearly visible as he continued to fume in front of Siva.
Pointing a finger at the item, Siva said coldly, "Sign it."
Kladis clicked his tongue and, with a trembling hand, bit on his right thumb as he pressed it on the paper.
DING!
At the moment that it was signed, a notification message popped up on every member of the Blue Card Legion under his rank.
The message was long but the main point spoke of the stakes of the duel that was about to happen.
"Oi, oi, oi..."
"What's the meaning of this?"
"The Supreme Commander, did he just..."
"What?! This ain't a joke, Kladis!"
"Crazy! This is crazy!"
"It's... ridiculous!"
Many went aghast, many were enraged.
There are many who are only honorary members of The Legion and wasn't really genuine members of this behemoth. Many are mercs bound by contracts with promised monetary payments while there are also those bound by quests that forces them to be in a guild in order for them to succeed.
But most of them are NPCs recruited and trained by The Legion to be their main forces...
These are tactics and techniques employed by the big guilds in order to increase their overall forces. In this way, not only their numbers increase, their overall strength will also rise as these NPCs get stronger.
And yet right now, they are being forced to obey the will and decision of the Supreme Commander... to be a Gulag fighter, in a general sense!
Where their loyalty will lie does not matter because once the Supreme Commander falls, they inevitably become the lowest members of the Church of Donar and their very lives and careers are at his mercy.
For the Users, whether they quit the game or not will not matter because, after all, they're just spoils on the impending battle.
And besides, they're also players of RPG: Terroa who pays monthly dues and spent many hours and exerted so much effort to reach the point of their careers they are currently at... why would they abandon it all just for the sake of an in-game guild who had the audacity to offend someone who they shouldn't have offended?
Also, isn't Donar an NPC?
Playing a "role playing game" is all about adventures and [role playing]. Changing their identities from being guild members, and legionnaires, into nominal Church Believers were part of the whole kit and caboodle the three words 'Role Playing Game' meant.
They were sure that special quests and missions will be available for them once all these farce was over.
In fact, many of the legionnaires thought ahead of the rest of their colleagues and felt that this is in fact a form of good fortune aside from being a curse.
And thus, the confusion, anger, and 'oh well' moments after their initial shock only lasted for a few seconds before the reality of the events and the consequences of their actions had hit them:
In the end, we still offended an Elder God!
Majority of the members now understood that all they could do at the moment is wait for the result of this duel.
*****
When word got out of the duel, the broadcast agents and network CEOs who were sniffing the smallest news in the event in The North began to double their efforts to recruiting the players that were on their sphere of influence.
They wanted to get as much footage, sneak peaks, and exclusive videos of the events that is currently happening here in the Walled City of Alexandria.
Perhaps, aside from the advent of the first immortal, Elder God Donar in 'Battle City' Warjillis, this event is the second biggest incident that warranted the same amount of attention as the things that happened in the fight between Hagrid and Siva in Dragona —that, by the way, was exclusively reported by Terroa Day Today's Kathleen Brew.
In fact, her timely appearance in that location was still up to debate by many experts.
Since there are yet agents of the media companies to actually arrive in the scene, the exorbitant prices that the free agents demanded on their scoops became as high as the sky.
Still, for the sake of having a piece of the big pie in the storm that this event will brew, they had no choice but to pay those inflated demands.
As such... many hunters, adventurers, mercenaries who were hanging around Alexandria at the time that this event flared up, and even members of The Legion, were all recruited by the media perks and began to fly up in the sky carrying all their camera drones and also scattered them all over the place.
The war for the best angle and footage regarding this duel, on the sidelines, has also begun!
*****
On a hill not far away from Alexandria, overlooking the burning battlefield on the south, five figures stood there smiling.
In the middle of the group was a familiar face that's been getting all the attention lately.
A man with a large scar on his face from the Maven Race with blue crystallite eyes smilingly watched the events transpire in the castle.
His hair was moderately short and moderately long. It swayed in the chilling cool wind and the white patch out of the copper brown bunch was noticeable. A hand brushed the few strands that swayed on his forehead and the handsome confident complexion behind the scarred face remained unchanged despite the wound.
What can be found special about these five was their uniform: all leather black with their heads wearing a six-colored jester hat with bells in the ends. In their faces were differently-styled white masks of a violet-lipped jester with the left eye in a heart makeup while the right eye in a diamond sign.
Every one of the four had a different styled mask.
The only one who wasn't wearing his jester mask was the smiling man with the scar.
A lithe-bodied female jester approached. Half her mask covered her lips and her left eye and left cheek was bear, with the heart sign directly embedded on her skin as makeup.
She stood beside him and her sweet voice layered with allure asked the scarred man from behind.
"Aren't we going to help them? We were scouted to join them after all..."
The man didn't reply for a moment and chuckled, "It's one thing to be scouted for them but the Great Father is the one that said to see if they will be worthy of us. If they fall here, then that's the best they can do and is not worthy of our strength."
"..."
The scarred-face man didn't look at the girl when he spoke and his eye only stared at that battlefield.
A while later, he stood up and stretched, then pointed a hand-gun at the golden idol as if shooting it from the skies.
"It was unfortunate that Akhenaton won't be joining The Great Father's revolution. But no matter... with us and The Sin here, this small obstacle of an artificial god won't be able to change anything. The war that should have ended years ago will end this time around... with all the pieces taking their places... and us gaining true immortality... we will be eternal!"
His voice drifted in the air as if declaring something that is already written. But his words carried ambition as well as confidence and pride.
"Bang." He gestured to shoot it and imitated the sound as he turned around, his other hand putting on a black jester mask with a red-spade right eye.
When he turned his back, everyone followed and not even on his fifth step, his shoulders began to shake and a weird laugh escaped the mask.
"Hihihihihihi... huhuhuhu... HAHAHAHAHAHA......... HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!"
The eternal darkness curse covered their retreat and no one else noticed them coming and going. But, in the eyes of old man Janus who observed from afar, the detail of the green-colored design at the back of their black leather gears were clearly visible.
A green-colored laughing jester with four cards, all having a question mark on them, tossed in the air.
Like a mockery of his being, or an insult to his grand name, these five people made Janus sigh heavily.
"Pegasus, you evil man, this world never sinned and yet you want to destroy it to fuel your ambition." As he spoke, Janus looked at southern horizon, his gaze piercing through the distance and landing at the back of that pontificate-clothed individual who is now in midair face to face with Kladis.
Weapons bear, the two were about to fight.
Janus sighed again, "Terra sealed your memories because it was a burden for you. But when the times comes that you got them back, I hope that you will give this world a chance and... and protect the truth that Terra secured with all her life."
*****
Hovering in midair, eye to eye, one with a warhammer, one with a pair of gun and sword... and as if all the noise in the world had vanished in that one single moment, both them glared at one another, feeling for each other's calmed breathing.
Their distance with each other was 100m but from afar and in contrast to the massive objects hovering around them like an invisible wall of an arena, this distance was as small as single leap.
Kladis raised his left hand that held a blue-bladed sword with a golden hilt and pointed the sharp edge at his opponent.
"Only one of us will live after this duel."
Siva, with the Godhammer in his right hand, made a left-footed pose as he glared at Kladis. He didn't say anything and only focused his mind on controlling the rage he was feeling in his heart.
Siva's attention was naturally on a conference, "Volt, how is your side?"
"I'm in the engine room. Everything's in position."
"Okay. What about you?"
Thorn replied, "We've managed to sneak below their castle and all thanks to you that they lowered their shields or we wouldn't be able to get in."
"I'll buy as much time as I can but you need to hurry and find her. Have you contacted Alice?"
"Done. I've already told FlowerLord to tell Scion to be online so the rescue will be smoother."
"I'll be relying on you then."
"Just... be careful and don't die."
The call was cut.
Sighing, Siva summoned all his mental strength that was almost at its limits and took a step. Then another, and another, his pace getting faster and faster. For a player who relies on Flight Armors, these actions are comedic. But Siva is not really a God so he had to 'play' that part in everyone's eyes, and do these silly actions of taking steps as if there were solid grounds in midair.
BOOM!
Upon his seventh step, he took a dashing eighth step before a ring of air expanded behind him on the ninth.
BOOM!
A second exploding sound of compressed wind rung on the other side as the both of them took a step forward with ear-deafening explosions, leaving a tunnel of wind which they passed through to meet in the middle of that short 100m distance two seconds later.
Both of them were leaving a white trail of dust as they passed through the black canvas.
.
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Everyone watches the duel between a mortal and a God!
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Next chapter: Kladis unleashes his fury!
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