However, no fireworks went off just yet. The “me” fading into unconscious split cleanly into two, with no blood or insides spilling out or vanishing. It was just rock hard mana hitting the floor.

I was underground using a spell called “Hide underground” which was a pretty basic earth spell that could made me sink underground. Using terrasense, I controlled that mana clone of me to try to finish off the harbringer remotely but alas the plan failed.

Just what the hell is that weapon? Even Loki's armoury doesn't have something like that.

I considered my resources. I had 15000 mana and 2000 health left. Not a lot to work with considering my opponent now just wiped out Breadtalk, Longbean, Soup and Xantos single handedly... My only hope was to use a mana drain but how am I supposed to do it? Plus he was just a few seconds away from victory. All he had to do was step into his own castle with our flag. I could not teleport to get our flag and teleport back into our castle. Units holding the flag were banned from using teleportation or flying skills.

I decided that prolonging the pain was even worse. I quickly emerged out of the earth and used all the mana I had left to teleport behind the harbringer. As I rose from the ground I could hear the crowd cheering like crazy and the emcee gibbering some inaudible rubbish. I was only fixated on mana draining that asshole. I felt the physical contact.

“Mana drain.”

My mana bar didn't move. Not in the slightest. It did not even increase by 100. He turned around and gave me a wry smile. This time, the pain from the halberd was real and because he was so close the illumination from the spear already made me feel like I was in heaven before the weapon came into contact with me.

All of a sudden, I found myself outside of the battlefield outside the transparent dome where we do battle in with the rest of my teammates.

“Even you lost eh Jinx.” Soup said.

“NO FAIR HE SOME OP MONSTER NOOOO FAIRRRRRRR.” Breadtalk sat on the ground flailing his arms rolling around until he found his head in between Horse's legs again.

“OOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHH” The crowd went. I think i need not specify what happened. I swear that her class was meant not only for battle but to decapacitate Breadtalk in ways only one with perverse imagination could picture.

Then the champion's award ceremony began. The whole team BALLs were transported inside the glass dome again and fireworks erupted into the air. Sure we were the favourites but the residents of Carnival did not jeer or boo them. They appreciated the high level plays that got them to where they were which was the deserving title of champion.

Honestly though what was up with the harbringer of death? Despite being engaged by at least 4 of us with each of us dealing some instance of damage at least, he still looked like he could fight another Carnival War battle this instant. I just looked both in admiration and jealousy at such a monstrous individual. His teammates were also not shabby. Looks like my mana intuition was spot on. Breadtalk's mana force seemed to be getting weaker and weaker by the second though due to numerous holes he had in his body due to the courtesy of Horse.

“Median heal.”

“Thanks Jinx I owe you one I love you I thought I was dying my whole life was flashing before me. I was thinking of the time I rolled down the stairs on purpose in primary school to make my crush laugh and the time I went to your house and tried on your nice underwear but thanks man.”

“Divine Judgement.”

Horse gave me a high 5.

Most of us looked dejected like losers should look like but surprisingly most of us took it quite well. Sure we lost as favourites but honestly in terms of raw power I think team BALLs were on the higher side. All our fights were always entertaining though especially when I saw Breadtalk roll a 9 on his Loki's Entourage. Looks like only with a 10 would we be able to win against them.

The awards ceremony proceeded as usual, with the exception of the winner's speech. It was not a winner's speech at all. It was more of a declaration of war.

“Good evening everybody. My name is Genesis. I am the harbringer of death just like my class states and I think I should introduce myself to all of you. My class was confered onto me by none other than the god of all gods, Odin. He favoured me and made me his favourite disciple thus you see in my hands, a replica with a taste of my own touch, none other than Gungnir. I was sent here on a mission and the mission is to exterminate the BOTs and anyone associated with their cause.”

By this juncture, the whole crowd really did us proud. Booing and jeering with tons of vulgarities thrown into the midst and spells casted towards the invulnerable transparent dome showed our immense popularity, even after losing the championship battle. Genesis just decided to drone on.

“My god sent me here because he has reasons to believe that Loki is up to something. We have intel that Breadtalk is the disciple of Loki who would start what is known as Ragnarök. This is a very serious thing as it would change the hierarchy of this universe and tilt the balance of the world.

“You mean your god is a pussy who's scared that he would be usurped!” Breadtalk screamed while his HP was still at quite a low percentage.

“Along with me, the gods sent their disciples along with me to stop this madness. To my left you see Trina, the winter huntress, descendent of Skadi. There is also FireFireFire, hammer chieftan, descendent of Thor. Then, there is Maxmystical, elementalist, disciple of Njord.”

No wonder the elementalist had such high mana and such high quality water and ice spells. I was busy avoiding fighting with him head on because my mana intuition had the sense that his spells were of such high purity they would no doubt overpower anyone of mine if I clashed head on with him. Also, the winter huntress had true sight which was extremely rare along with those ice spears. It all just made sense now. It had never occurred to me that the other gods were making their move. No wonder the hammer chieftan had Mjollnir with him as well he was Thor's disciple! That meant that eventually he would be the one to cross swords with my master, Jormungandr.

“To my right, there is MidandFeed, blade master and disciple of Freyr. Cheeballs, Undying and disciple of Freyja and last but not least, Morgan the Strong, Lancer, disciple of Magni.”

It all made so much sense now. The only way we the BOTs could lose in a Carnival Wars was to disciples of the gods in the other faction. I looked at Genesis and I realised. Odin was known for being the god of war and death. He specialised in light magic with affinity to skies and owned the mount Slepinir. There was no doubt that Genesis was telling the truth. And I also remembered that one of the rarest rings in the game, Draupnir, was owned by Odin and the effects state that everything owned by the ringbearer cannot be taken control over. It was an especially important ring for summoners since there were skills to steal summons etc but that must have been the reason why mana drain did not work on him. I could not take away anything that was his.

“The seven of us have been gathered to fight against the BOTs and we are all aware that this place, Carnival as you call it, has been built for one main purpose. A harbouring site for troops that will engage us at the time of Ragnarök. Is it not Breadtalk??” He turned around and looked at our direction.

“Breadtalk quick he's looking for a reply.” Beathoven ushered him.

“Wait he's still bleeding from Jinx's attack he's actually almost dead now.”

“Do we let him die?”

“Median heal.”

No way in hell am I getting a murderer's mark over this.

“Ahh much better. NOW LOOK HERE YOU PUSSIES. AND ALL YOUR FATHERS AND MOTHERS IF THEY ARE LOOKING AT THIS SCENE TOO!” Breadtalk started.

“They are disciples of the gods not children you sunnavabitch.” Horse reminded him.

“Oh yeah. Sorry. But don't you start on my mother you idiot.”

“You started it!”

“NOT NOW!” I said. The whole crowd's attention was on us now and I have no doubt all the gods were watching this. Not just Odin and his faction. Our masters would be watching too.

“Ahem. As I was saying. DATS RIGHTTTTTTTT! 100 POINTS TO TEAM ODIN! Carnival was built to harbour the troops needed to fight against you and your idiotic gods and I'm not afraid to admit it. You can beat us in Carnival Wars but trust me you're gonna need to go through alot more than just us. To the citizens of Carnival, you have your choice in front of you now that the secret is out. The gods will no doubt try to vanquish this city of ours to try to attain “Peace” and “Righteousness” but I just ask you this. Will you just calmly vacate the city because you know it's going to be under siege? Or will you take up your arms and be part of this SSS rank quest to revolutionise RR as we know it? We need a new hierarchy. Odin has gone on for long enough. If Loki became the new ruler instead I bet 10 new cities like Carnival will be built overnight and as residents of this place, will you stand up and fight for it knowing that only the most powerful in the world will come for us?” Breadtalk shouted into his microphone which was stupid because it was a microphone.

There was a brief moment of silence.

“I'LL GO WHEREVER YOU GO BREADTALK!” Someone from the stands shouted.

“SOUPPPPPPPP!” what sounded like all the girls in the stadium shouted.

“BEATHOVEN BEATHOVEN BEATHOVEN!” More people shouted.

“JINXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX!” I was glad I had a fan club too.

Looks like we did a good job. We never did want our Carnival to be just a site for strong people who could help in the war. We gave them a sense of identity, a place they wanted to belong more than anywhere else and with that, it was of little doubt that the whole insane town of Carnival had no qualms about waging war with the most powerful deities in this universe.

“Fools.” said Genesis before turning to leave.

The seven of them took off from the centre stage admist the huge jeering and booing from the crowd and it looks like from now on we had a lot to do. Not just for our sakes but for one whole city worth of awesome people's sake.

We had to hold an immediate town meeting the next day in order to address the many questions that were posted to us. Most of them are like “Can we really be involved in a rank SSS quest?”, “Can I ask my friend from another city to join us in this fight?”, “Are we going to go to heaven to fight them?”

The questions ranged from extremely stupid to extremely interesting so we had to address this issue immediately.

-The next morning-

“Good Morning everyone. I'm glad all of you came to the town square upon such short notice last night for this urgent meeting. Jinx will be briefing you all about what really is going on and the founders will take any additional questions only after the brief.” Beathoven began.

“Okay awesome Carnivalists. Here's the thing. Breadtalk is the disciple of Loki, the god who wanted to start this revolution because he feels that he wa locked up for something he did not deserve and we share the same viewpoint. Everyone should know that the prophecy exists. Ragnarök will happen due to Loki's act and it is actually already in motion. The moment he made Breadtalk his disciple, the wheels of fate started to turn. We were taken under wings of his children, the main opponents of the gods in Ragnarök. I am coached by Jormungandr, the world serpent thus my seemingly endless mana. Beathoven is coached by Hel thus came his new summoning and transformation prowess. Soup is coached by Fenrir which explains his lycan form. Horse is coached by Sigyn who is Loki's wife. Of course the other side has more gods and they have 7 of them but it is not the quantity that matters. Sure Odin is king for a reason but he has allowed this to happen to this extent and this will be his greatest downfall.”

“We made Carnival a place which would eventually host the army for Ragnarök. However, we did not want to force you all into this. We wanted the population to decide whether a place like this is worth defending and fighting for at the expense of your lives. The fountain I made which you can see from this town square. The moment 3 years pass, the fountain will collapse into a dark pool of concentrated X element mana. That will signify the start of Ragnarök. If you read the inscription of the fountain you would have figured that much.”

“We have an army of snakes, wolves and undead soldiers in the castle already and all of them are at least level 200. They are troops given to us by Jormungandr, Fenrir and Hel accordingly. However, these troops are not enough. We need adventurers like us brave enough to venture to the faraway lands of Niflheim and the likes. We offer you nothing but this city and many more like this should we emerge victorious and the chance to participate in an SSS rank class quest. This will not be easy, but this will be worth it.”

“To answer more questions you might have. We will only take citizens of Carnival on this quest. Outsiders will not be allowed to participate because we need useful people who really love this place. Not leechers who just want in and do nothing for it. The minimum level you need to reach is 300 by the time Ragnarök starts. Any lower and you will just be a burden because you can expect that there will be no one below level 300 there. We have exactly 1 year and 11 months left before Ragnarök starts. Masterclass artisans are the only exception to the level 300 rule as we may need their services in blacksmithing, enchanting etc during the war. Those are my main points. Any more questions?” I asked the crowd.

A hand shot up into the air.

“Can I have your autograph please?”

I used my manart to draw a huge penis on his face before signing on his shirt.

“Please don't be like that dickhead. Any more questions pertaining to Ragnarök?” I asked.

“How will we be split to fight the oncoming troops?” Someone asked.

“That's what I'm talking about. This looks like a question for none other than Genital Soup, I mean General Soup to answer.” I pointed to Soup who was standing and sleeping at the same time.

Horse kicked Soup in the nuts.

“OHHHHHHHHELLOOOOOO GAISSSS.” Soup greeted them in mid pain.

“I will split you all up into different teams based on your jobs. I have a pretty good idea of where to deploy certain groups of people. Especially after yesterday's fight. However, I will not say it now lest there is some spies amongst our midst.”

Another hand shot up into the air.

“Will we be able to get coaching from the gods as well?”

“Good question but I highly doubt so. They are hard pressed to coach us further more one whole city of people. However, we could teach you all some things the gods taught us.. This is a good idea. Okay how about this. 3 months before Ragnarök starts, we will hold a clinic to teach you all some upper level skills the gods has passed onto us so that you all will be able to use them as well during the fight? I think you all need that to fight better as well.” Horse suggested.

All of us agreed.

One final hand shot into the air.

“Do you think we have a good chance of winning?”

All of us looked at each other.

“I honestly don't know. All I can say to that is if we never even try, we will never ever know.” I replied as honestly as I could.

However, the looks on all the citizens of Carnival remained unchanged. They knew we were telling the truth. We were not the sort of rulers to lie to the masses to avoid a massive panic attack. Everyone knew our true characters. We were just idiot jokers who would do anything in real life acceptable enough not to become criminal acts for fun. What would stop us from doing the same here in RR?

“I understand that this might be alot of news for you all to take in at once. However, the enemy should already have begun their preparations for us as well so we have no time to waste. I only have one quote I would like to share with all of you. It's how I live my life and play my games. My friends know that as well. Guys care to tell them what it is?” I prompted.

“Why would I want to win anything else but a beautiful game?” They answered.

The whole town of Carnival may be fun loving idiots but they sure as hell were not dumbasses. All of them understood my message and gave a roar of approval, acknowledgement and the most of all, excitement.

End Of Chapter 34