Patiently waiting in the air for the Players to return, Nulla suddenly noticed 13 appear from the doors at the top of her section, and questioned “What are you doing here, 13? The Siege Event only just begun, so shouldn’t you be observing your Players like the rest of the Guides?”

Ignoring his questions, 13 concernedly asked “Nulla, did you release Annihilation and Salvation without even warning any of us beforehand?”

“Ah, so one of you finally discovered that little secret, huh?” Nulla replied, smiling wickedly.

“So you did actually give them out!” 13 exclaimed, pointing in shock.

“I did, but why are you asking that right now? Don’t tell me he already annihilated another Player, did he?” Nulla asked eagerly.

“He absolutely did!” 13 responded, “And now I fear none of my Players will even make it past the First Event considering the Level difference between Eyes and the other Players!”

“I’d like to assure you Levels aren’t everything and that your Defenders could still win the Event, but in this particular case...I think you’d be lucky to have even half your Players survive Eyes Thalion Ven’Thyl’s massacre.” Nulla replied matter-of-factly.

Noting Nulla’s uncharacteristic reply, 13 curiously looked at him and said, “You almost never have a bias on anything, especially when it comes to the Players—that’s what makes you such a good Administrator—so what’s going on, Nulla? What are you already planning this time?”

“What? Am I not allowed to simply express who I think will win?” Trying to defend his reply.

“Not if you’re already planning to somehow interfere with the Players again.” 13 intently stared at his non-existent face.

Nulla chuckled and denied the claim, “Ooh, I’m not planning anything.” reasoning, “I simply know some of the changes implemented onto Annihilation and Salvation, and know that neither of their potential Vessels can afford to lose this particular Event.”

“Changes? What changes?” 13 inquired, intrigued yet concerned, “Is that why you released them this early on?”

“It is, and as you may have noticed—or shall I say not noticed, none of us can perceive Annihilation and Salvation unless we discover and witness them for ourselves.” Telling her, “Although aside from that, the Creator has forbidden me from sharing the very few changes that I have been privy to know.”

“Hmm…” 13 worryingly hummed.

“However, what I can say is that I truly believe the Creator is planning this to be the eventual End.” Stating, “And whatever happens to these Players in the future to come...will surely decide all of our fates.”

Elven Stronghold, Bog Encampment

An encampment near the borders of the Elven and Human Kingdoms, surrounded by a muddy bog, within a muddled and foggy swamp, and of which the defenses are dispersed across several suspended areas above the murky waters and twisting trees.

—1’s Siege Event—

Patrolling along the outstretched and suspended bridges above the swamp, an elven Trapper said to his Party, “Hey, what do you guys think happened to that redhead chick who went to go attack the Attackers on her own?”

“Who cares,” An elven Warrior replied, “she’s probably dead by now anyway.”

“Yeah, I mean if she was just gonna ignore our team’s strategy of defending the camp and stupidly decide to charge in by herself, why did she even bother picking the Defenders’ side in the first place?” An elven Cleric questioned.

“I think you guys are forgetting something.” An elven Knight chimed in.

“Like what?” The Warrior asked, unsure what the Knight meant.

“Like the fact that ‘chick’ might have been Lavie En Rouge, dummies.” Their elven Wizard reminded them.

“Exactly.” The Knight nodded.

“I know everyone was surprised to see her name when we were choosing the Leader, but there’s no way that girl was her, right?” The Cleric was skeptical.

“Uh, you guys don’t think she’s mad that our side didn’t pick her as the Leader, do you?” The Trapper nervously asked.

“It’s probably why she left.” The Wizard assumed.

“Ahh, who cares.” The Warrior tried to dismiss the topic, saying “It’s not like she could actually take on 75 Players by herself anyway, so let’s just get back to focusing on our team’s strategy, yeah?”

“He’s right, they're probably gonna use this swamp’s extreme fog to ambush us all at once, so we’ll have to be ready to execute the plan the moment we see any of them.” The Knight stated to the group, getting the Party refocused and alert; but as countless minutes quietly passed by, they never encountered a single Attacker.

—66’s Siege Event—

“Ahh…! H-Help! Help!” A elven Berserker desperately pleaded, crawling and bleeding out in the murky waters of the swamp.

Hearing the call for help, an elven Priest patrolling nearby said “Hey, what’s wrong? What are you doing down there?” jumping down from the suspended bridge and immediately casting a healing spell on the injured Berserker, “Where’s your Party?”

“T-They all got killed!” The Berserker fearfully mentioned.

“What? Did the Attackers already decide to attack? Where from?” The Priest questioned, quickly checking around, but the dense fog made it difficult to see far.

“N-No, not Players, I mean monsters!” The Berserker frantically informed him, “S-Something really fast and strong threw us one by one into the swamp and I just barely made it out alive from that...thing!”

“Wait, monsters?” The Priest repeated, “But didn’t 66 tell us there weren’t any monsters here?”

Feeling the large clawed gash in his stomach slowly healing up from the magic, the Berserker sat up, saying “I don’t know what to tell you. I saw what I saw, and this wound proves it.” Still wincing from the fresh wound, “Which means our sick Guide must’ve lied to us!” getting a little angry and riled up at the thought of being lied to.

“Well, at least now we know, but why don’t we regroup with my Party before—” In an instant, two razor sharp claws punctured through the Priest’s armoured chest and lifted him up into the air; then as the bloodied claws extended outwards, the Priest’s body was easily torn in half—instantly disappearing in a blue flash.

“Gahhh!” The Berserker screamed in fear, horrified by the sight of a standing black and pink monster wickedly smiling at him. And as he carefully backed away and drew his greatsword, his back suddenly bumped against the giant furred body of a dire wolf; though before the Berserker could even react, the dire wolf bit straight down onto his head and ripped it clean off his torso.

—20’s Siege Event—

“Hey, lardy!” A muscular built Elven man called out, “Are you seriously eating right now? You know we’re in the middle of the Event, right?” approaching an unusually plump and armourless woman sitting on the edge of the platform connected to the tree.

Swinging her legs and taking her time swallowing her food first, Essex then replied “First off, that was quite rude; are you really so immature you have to go out of your way to call a woman minding her own business names?”

“I just call it how I see it, lardy. And it looks like you can’t even wear the Event Armour because how fat you are.” The man pointed out, staring judgingly.

“Then you’re a sad, sad man.” Essex chuckled to herself, completely unbothered by the man's remarks. “Oh, and secondly, I’m not fat.”

“Rrright, keep telling yourself that, lardy. I’m sure sitting around and eating like a pig like this will definitely help with that.” The man said sarcastically.

“You know, I have a little pet peeve about being interrupted while I'm eating, so if you're done saying what you wanted to say, would you kindly leave now?” Essex asked politely, ignoring him and simply eating some more of her stored food.

“Yeah, whatev—” The man was interrupted by a sudden arrow flying out of the fog and cutting the side of his cheek. Then seeing a volley of arrows flying in their direction, the man reactively hid behind the tree as cover, but seeing how Essex was just calmly and cluelessly eating, he shouted “What are you doing! Get out of the way, lardy!”

“You sad man, you really need to work on your manners.” Essex carelessly responded, as multiple arrows struck her armourless body all over.

“Holy shit, lardy, are you serious?” The man exclaimed, “You couldn’t have even bother to try to move? Not even a little bit?”

“Why would I? I knew I wouldn't get hurt.” Essex showed her perfectly undamaged body.

“Oh...my...god… You're so fat arrows can't even hurt you!” The man laughingly stated, "Now that's a new one!"

Essex sighed, “I told you, I’m not fat. But if you keep on disturbing my pleasant snack time like this, I’ll kill you as fast as I will with those guys.” pointing to the charging group of human Attackers.

“Ha! You're gonna do something fast? I’d love to see that, lardy!” The man laughed at the thought.

Shaking her head and shrugging, Essex said “Well, you asked for it, but don’t go blaming me if you don't survives this.” Opening her suddenly purple infused mouth, it enlarged to an enormous size, and Essex immediately began spewing an odorless gas that quickly filled the air and dispersed into the entire surrounding area. "Next time, leave when I'm asking nicely, okay?" Then with the simple casting of Fire Bolt, all the combustible gas floating in the area erupted into a massive fiery explosion, engulfing everything and everyone in an unavoidable blazing inferno. However, while the very few Players who survived the initial explosion all writhed and screamed in searing pain as they continued to burn alive, Essex simply took out some uncooked food and began casually cooking it within the growing inferno of the swamp—completely unbothered by the fact that she too was burning alive.

Human Stronghold, Sanctuary Fortress

A fortress near the borders of the Human and Dwarven Kingdoms, surrounded by endless sand, amidst a barren and lifeless desert, and of which the defenses are evenly spread along the stone walls for each of the four potential sides of attack.

—11’s Siege Event—

“What do you say? Y'all up for that bet?” Casino quietly asked the 17 dwarves he was stuck in a wet, dark, and cramped space with.

“Old dude, can you stop? You’ve been asking that nonstop ever since we’ve been walking through the tunnel.” A young dwarven boy whispered, slightly irritated from hearing Casino ask the same question.

“You must be some type of gambling addict, aren’t you Mr.Casino?” A young dwarven girl whispered back, climbing up to the top with the others.

“Maybe a little bit.” Casino admitted, climbing up with the rest of the Players. “And fine, I’ll stop.”

“Hey, will guys keep it down!” The Leader at the top loudly whispered, “We’re in the middle of infiltrating here!”

“Dude, you're the loudest one of us.” Someone jokingly pointed out, causing the others to quietly laugh at their Leader.

“Haha, now shut up! I see someone passing by!” The Leader kept watch of the fortress courtyard from a slightly lifted wooden pallet covering their infiltration point. Then seeing no one nearby, he relayed “Alright, the coast is clear. Now remember, since the tunnel collapsed behind us and we lost two out of the three Earth Mages on our team, our first priority is to open at least one of the 4 gates of the fortress, and when we know the rest of our team can make it inside, then we prioritize taking out the ballistae and killing the other Players, got it?” And everyone nodded in understanding, “Great, then on my mark. Ready...Set—”

“Wait.” Casino interrupted, asking “Are y’all sure no one wants to take me up on who can open a gate first?”

And they all collectively said “No.”

“Jeez, and here I thought you millennials would know how to have some fun.” Casino remarked, amused by their seriousness.

Deciding to ignore Casino, everyone simply waited for their Leader’s signal, and when he finally gave it out, they all lifted the wooden pallet and climbed straight out of the well they had accidentally dug into to. Then before the Defenders in the fortress could react to the unexpected appearance, they all rushed towards the western, northern, and eastern gates. However, climbing out well after the rest of the Players, Casino realized he went completely unnoticed by any of the Defenders, as they were too distracted by all the Attackers trying to open the gates.

“Now, will you look at that, it seems like I'm pretty lucky today.” Casino happily smiled, nonchalantly making his way to the southern gate. “Maybe it was a good idea not to have accepted my bet, ‘cause they sure would’ve lost.” Being truly uninterrupted, Casino already began to open the southern gate by himself, and with the few Players waiting in the distance immediately noticing the opening, their Mage immediately sent up a fireball that exploded in the sky, notifying everyone and causing all remaining Attackers to quickly diverge towards the southern gate. Though bringing attention towards the direction, a few of the Defenders finally took notice of Casino, and he said to himself "Well, I guess my Luck can only take me so far, but it's about time I tested out these Skills in actual combat against another Player." Holding a cutlass in his right hand, and multiple throwing knives in the other.

—52’s Siege Event—

Perfectly invisible atop the highest point of the fortress, Da Vinci closely observed the heavily one-sided battle below, taking in every single detail of the beautiful battlefield and imagery she witnessed, as to creatively depict it onto a chosen canvas later on.

About 95% of the Players were Attackers, but as they seemed to have decided to plainly brute force the northern gate open, the handful of Defenders slowly whittled them down using the abnormal amount of ballistae and traps aligned atop the walls. Though ultimately breaking through the initial wooden gate, the Attackers unexpectedly came across an identical secondary gate needed to broken to fully enter the fortress itself, although this gate was strangely reinforced with stone and metal spikes. While the Attackers already began to force this gate open too, what waited for them inside was a countless array of varying traps meticulously set up and prepared all throughout the entirety of the fortress eagerly waiting to be sprung. Then as the Attackers finally broke through the reinforced gate and charged straight into the unknowing deathtrap that was the fortress, they all immediately triggered: multiple deadly spike pits, separate launchers shooting a barrage of poisoned darts and serrated arrows, boiling hot oil dumped by the Defenders above, and a make-shift flamethrower that set everything a blaze.

Delighted to see how well the first set of defenses worked out, having already taken out half of the Attackers, Da Vinci felt inspired and decided to sketch up some alternative designs for future use—activating Architect’s Drafting Board. While she frantically sketched out any and all of her ideas, Da Vinci specifically took into consideration the least effective to the most effective traps against the different types of Classes and Players she still carefully observed below, as well as considered the particular situation of the Siege Event and the fountain of resources it provided in her—losing herself in the designing process and letting the rest of battle play out without her.

—26’s Siege Event—

Amidst a chaotic battlefield in the centre of the fortress, Xian calmly played a melodic tune on his floating guzheng, filling the air with the beautiful and distinct sound of the instrument, and completely overpowering the sounds of battle within the walls. “Accelerato.” He pronounced, casting out an echoing wave of magic increasing the speed of every ally who could hear the sound; then right after pronouncing “Ritenuto.” this time casting out an echoing wave of magic decreasing the speed of every enemy who could hear the sound.

The amazing aoe buffs, debuffs, and heals Xian constantly send out greatly skewed the battle to the side of the Attackers; however unable to avoid multiple Players targeting him directly, Xian eventually died after being littered with attacks from all directions.

Respawning back to your saved Checkpoint (63 Lives remaining).

Suddenly appearing back in the hidden underground hideout for the Attackers, Xian groaned in annoyance, thinking “I told those idiots we should’ve came up with something better than to just stupidly fight without a single semblance of a plan whatsoever! And now they made me lose one of my precious Lives!” Sighing as he walked back up to the surface, "I can't believe I went from not dying a single time in the first 3 weeks of being here, to dying every single day in the last week, but at least the Skill lets me stockpile the 10 Lives it gives me whenever I level it up." Xian groaned again after seeing and being reminded of the great distance between the hideout and the fortress, “Man, why'd it have to be so far away? Those idiots better not lose before I get back!” as he began his trek through the desert again to return back to the battle before they lost.

—47’s Siege Event—

Running scared, a human Sorceress snuck into the building in the corner of the fortress, and found two other Players cowering in the corner. “W-What are you two doing here?” She quietly asked, nervously checking behind her but seeing nothing.

“What do you think? The same thing you’re doing—hiding from whoever’s killing everyone in the fortress.” The human Pathfinder quietly responded.

“Yeah, so get your own spot!” The human Thief loudly whispered back.

“No way, I’m not going out there!” The Sorceress stood her ground, telling them “I just watched my friend get dragged away by chains and heard nothing but her dying scream, so there's no way I'm being next!”

“Just let her stay." The Pathfinder argued, "We could use another person if we get attacked by whoever it is that’s killing everyone.”

“Fine.” The Thief reluctantly agreed.

“Thanks, but what do you guys think is out there? I thought we already captured and killed the 16 Attackers, didn’t we?” The Sorceress pointed out.

“I’m pretty sure we did, but maybe one of them escaped somehow?” The Pathfinder figured.

“Or, our Guide lied to us and there’s something else we have to fight in this Event.” The Thief proposed.

“What, like a monster?” The Sorceress questioned.

“Think more of a ghost haunting the fortress.” The Thief clarified.

“Really? A ghost?” The Sorceress doubted.

“Duh, what else could explain why no one in the fortress has seen anybody actually being killed by someone?” The Thief reasoned.

“Stop joking around.” The Pathfinder lightly smacked the Thief in the back of the head, “It’s clearly just a Player using some form of invisibility, there’s no such thing as...” in that moment the head of an ethereal dwarf appeared through the wall they hid near, “ghosts…”

“Ahh, looks like I found more of you.” Tobias said, phasing through the wall and appearing with his already bloodied dagger drawn.

Dwarven Stronghold, Ice Ridge Keep

A keep near the borders of the Dwarven and Human Kingdoms, surrounded by a cloudy mountain range, atop a snowy and cold mountain, and of which the defenses focus on the single narrow ridge one must cross to safely enter and the well defended inner stronghold doors.

—99’s Siege Event—

“I’m so bored!” Faust thought to himself, patrolling along the walls with the other Players. “I knew I shouldn’t have let Dream pressure me into picking Defenders just because she didn't think I could do it.” Then suddenly hearing a scream from above, Faust looked up to see the body of an elven man plummeting to his death, as he quickly splattered in the centre of the outer stronghold and disappeared in a blue flash.

Smirking while he stared above the stronghold, Faust waited until no one was looking and jumped straight down the other side of the wall, disappearing into the cloudy mist; and a second later, he soared back upwards and re-emerged from the clouds, now taking the form a majestic giant white-feathered eagle. Although Faust immediately needed to avoid some ballista shots from some trigger-happy Defenders scared of the sudden appearance of a giant eagle, and he retaliated by powerfully flapping his wings and blowing a warning gust of wind in their direction, saying “Hey, watch it! Or I’ll attack you instead!” but obviously none of them could understand the nonsensical squawking of Faust's eagle form.

Leaving them be, Faust flew upwards and instantly saw the many Attackers precariously making their way down the very steep mountain side, and he thought “Now this is going to be fun!” Diving in, Faust began picking them off one by one with his razor sharp talons, and a few of the Attackers did try to fend him off using their ranged attacks, but being on a precarious mountain side and having no place to take cover, they were no match for Faust simply dropping each and everyone of them to their deaths.

—4’s Siege Event—

“So much for laying low on the Defenders’ side.” Omega thought to himself, standing over the heavily tortured bodies of 12 Players somewhere within the inner stronghold.

“Why...why are you doing this?” A bloodied elf weakly questioned, struggling to endure the gruesome wounds Omega had already inflicted onto him; pleading “Just...just kill us already!”

Not responding directly, to keep his voice from being known by many, Omega replied in his head “Oh, I plan to, but first…” Suddenly removing his face, Omega frightened all the conscious Players witnessing the sickening act, but they were all caught by complete surprise as there was nothing more than an exceptionally defined and beautifully ornate porcelain mask underneath it all. However, holding his ever-changing face in his hand, Omega then forcefully placed it on top of the bloodied elf’s face, and called out “Ripper.” rapidly causing the elf’s skin to be excruciatingly torn right off from the flesh—ultimately resulting in the elf quickly dying and disappearing in a flash.

Pleasantly surprised to see black smoke take the elf’s place, Omega immediately inhaled it all and thought “I really didn’t think the Essence Of The Kill would work since I technically can’t kill anyone here, but now that I know it does in fact work here, screw laying low if I can gain so much power by freely killing Players.” feeling the blackened coloured magic quickly coursing through his entire body, permanently invigorating and empowering his very being. Then letting out a satisfied exhale, Omega directed his attention to the remaining tortured Players cowering in fear, wickedly smiling under his porcelain mask as he menacingly approached them with his ever-changing face in hand.

—13’s Siege Event—

“Y-You know,” Cullen nervously gulped, “I-It’s not too late to go back up.” shaking as he climbed down the pit alongside Ravi and Penelope, “E-Eyes, definitely has everything under control, so what do you say we go back up, alright?”

“You’re only saying that ‘cause you’re scared of heights, but you know we can’t just sit around and do nothing, hoping he can beat everyone all by himself.” Penelope replied, ensuring Cullen took the right steps, “Besides, it’s your fault for reminding us we bought climbing gear a few days ago for that Silver Request we did.”

“Urgh, I knew I shouldn’t have said anything to guys.” Cullen regretted reminding them, carefully placing his hands and feet onto the holds the others secured.

“Look on the bright side, at least we’re not climbing outside in the freezing cold.” Ravi optimistically pointed out, leading the way as he used his strength to haphazardly drive pitons into the walls of the pit—trying to secure a safe way down.

“Yes, but now we’re climbing down a giant dark pit we can barely see anything in even with our elven sight.” Cullen stated, accidentally looking down and seeing how far they still had to climb down, “Fuckin’ hell!”

“Well, unlike you Wood Elves, I’m a Dark Elf, remember?” Penelope reminded him, “Meaning I can see perfectly fine in the dark, so will you stop worrying, Cullen? Nothing bad will—” All of a sudden, every single haphazardly placed piton above them successively came loose from the walls of the pit, and immediately caused the three of them to plummet downwards into impending death.

“Oh, fuck me!” Cullen yelled out in fright.

“Whelp, you had to go and jinx, didn’t you!” Ravi shouted to Penelope.

“What? You’re the one who was supposed to secure the spikes!” Penelope argued back.

“This is exactly why I told you guys we should’ve only had one person climb down first!” Cullen interjected.

However, while they continued to uselessly argue amongst each other about their situation, rapidly descending down to the bottom of the pit, they were suddenly interrupted by multiple notifications appearing in front of each of their faces; and as they quickly read through the notifications, they all cheered triumphantly as their bodies splattered against the stone floor of the stronghold—disappearing in a blue flash.

Victory

Eliminating every single Defender within the mountain walls of the Dwarven Stronghold, the 4 remaining Attackers have successfully led the Elven Kingdom to absolute conquest over Ice Ridge Keep, securing a pivotal foothold between the Dwarven and Human Kingdoms, and obtaining a great tactical advantage for the remainder of the Second Trinity War of Novus.

M.V.P

1st- Eyes Thalion Ven’Thyl (4 Attacker Kills/1 Attacker Kill Assist : 15 Defender Kills/54 Defender Kill Assists)

2nd- Cullen/Ravi/Penelope (53 Defender Kill Assists)

3rdd- Crystal Mornings (4 Attacker Kill Assists : 1 Defender Kill)

Guide 13’s Siege Event has now concluded, and all Players will be returned to the Waiting Hub shortly.