Azalabulia might not have been immersed and in control of her avatar, but one of the main functions of virtual assistants was to automatically protect their assigned user’s avatar whenever the player wasn’t around to defend themselves. This also counted during siege attacks as a means of preventing what was basically offline griefing and raiding.

That was why the avatar of Azalabulia walked up to the top of the wall facing the ocean and held her hand out toward the enemy ships. A magical circle with a draconic design appeared in front of her hand, just like what would usually happen when she began chanting for a spell, but no words left her mouth. The spell still took just as much time to activate, which felt far longer without her overly dramatic chanting to go with it, and looked smaller as well which was to be expected given that characters were only about seventy percent as powerful when controlled by a virtual assistant.

But even so, Azalabulia at seventy percent power was still more than enough to send a black, magical bolt shaped like a dragon toward the enemy fleet, exploding between two of the ships closest to each other and causing significant damage to each of them.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to wipe the enemies out.

As for Serra, she was jumping from cannon to cannon to try and get some shots off using her masterful aim, but she found it difficult to aim as well as she needed to when there were retaliation attacks coming straight for her. None of her shots were as perfect as that first one, though they all still did some damage to the monsters being used for the ships. Then, when she saw a green mist rising up over the wall in front of her, she froze.

Serra only snapped out of her stillness when she heard Fenrir shout, “Everybody, get off the walls! The green gas is toxic!”

Her eyes widened a bit as she pulled her shirt up enough to cover up the lower half of her face before heading over to the nearest stairs off the wall. Aiko, who had been sticking around to protect Serra and make herself useful, followed after her.

Down below, Cassiel, Pfar, and Rao split up the ground defenses into three groups. Cassiel put herself in charge of the front most group, and she also assigned Pfar to the group that would be focused on defending the civilians in case the frontline was broken. Rao was placed in charge of a group that would assist the frontline for as long as they could, but would break off to help fortify Pfar’s group in case it looked like the frontline was about to fail.

And those on the wall weren’t the only ones who heard Fenrir’s shout. Cassiel and her forces on the ground heard it as well, and she noticed that some of the cannonballs that broke through the wall were nearby and already leaking that toxic gas into the air.

Rao, standing nearby, noticed one of the cannonballs that crashed into a house behind the wall ended up rolling out onto the street. The shop next to the building the cannonball struck had some clay pots sitting in front of it, so Rao ran up, flipped the pot upside down, and placed it down around the toxic cannonball while doing his best to hold his breath until he could get out from the gas.

But simply holding his breath wasn’t enough. He might not have inhaled much of the gas, but he still felt his lungs and skin burning. Only a few seconds later and he coughed up what looked like black sludge onto the street.

Cassiel rushed up to Rao and placed her hand on his chest to heal him. Part of her wanted to scold him for doing something that reckless, but it needed to be done. What other option did they have? His bravery needed praised, not scolded, for letting the cannonball leak more gas into the air would only subject even more to its toxins.

“Thanks,” Rao said, coughing again. “If they’re trying to poison us… we need to send some of us to run around getting rid of the gas where we can.”

Agreeing to that was something Cassiel didn’t want to do since she knew what it would mean, but she had to. “I know. How do you feel? Your health should be at full.”

“Like crap. It’s got to,” he stopped to cough again, “be like a debuff or something.”

“Tch. I used a spell that should cure any curable debuffs… so if you’re still affected, healing isn’t going to do anything.”

“Then if I’m already infected, it’d be best for me to run around dealing with the gas so nobody else has to.”

“But you—”

“Rao!” Rachel shouted, almost tripping as she ran up to them.

“Ray?” Rao asked, turning to look at her just in time to cough up some more of that black sludge onto the street.

“What—what happened?!” Rachel was quick to grab onto him and hold him steady, looking up into his eyes. “You look horrible!”

“They’re bombing us with toxic gas. I might have inhaled some.”

Rachel’s eyes narrowed into a glare as she turned her head to look at the wall between her and the enemy fleet. The usually cute and energetic maid said, in a low and cold voice, “I’ll gut them and force feed their organs to the monsters they rode here on.”

A couple of pats on top of her head calmed her down, though. “Don’t worry about it,” Rao said.

“How—how can I not?! They poisoned you! They need to suffer a million times over for what they’ve done!”

“I’m sure my bro is working on a plan for that. Did you need something?”

“A-ah… him and my lady wanted me to tell you to get on Shogun to patrol the sky and look out for any ground or aerial troops trying to sneak up on us, but… if you’re in this condition, you can’t do that.”

Rao held his hand over his chest, now wheezing, prompting Cassiel to place a hand against his back to try and heal him again. While she might not have been able to remove the supposed debuff afflicting him, she could at least restore his health to the best of her ability to keep him alive for as long as possible.

“Sorry,” Rao said to Rachel, “but can you do it?”

“M-me?” Rachel asked. “But, I’ve never—”

“Shogun is a good boy, and he knows how to treat a new rider. And he knows to trust you.”

Rachel looked conflicted about it, but she gave in and nodded. “Al-alright. But… please, be safe. Even if this is just an avatar… I don’t want anything to happen to you. I don’t want you to feel pain.”

“I’ve got this.” Rao reached forward and took her hand into his own, giving it a soft squeeze.

Both Rachel’s and Rao’s cheeks burned bright red immediately after.

Rao pulled his hand away and said, “S-sorry! I—I didn’t mean to force that onto you, and it was our first time, and—”

“N-no! It’s—it’s okay!” Rachel said, waving her hands in front of her. “We… we finally held hands… I’m so happy that my heart feels like it’s about to burst out of my chest… I—I just wasn’t expecting something so intense in public for our first time…”

Cassiel raised her left eyebrow at the sight. Are these two serious? she thought to herself. I never acted like this around Fen… right?

“Maybe—if… if you liked it,” Rao said, “we could… try holding hands again after this is over?”

Rachel, still blushing and now smiling, nodded. “I—I would like that! But I should go get Shogun to follow orders…”

“It’s alright. Don’t worry about me.”

Rachel, clearly worrying, summoned all of her available courage to grab onto Rao’s hand all on her own for a few seconds before letting go, turning around, and running off.

“I can’t believe I’m so lucky,” Rao said and sighed.

Cassiel rolled her eyes. “Right… anyways. If you want to run around taking care of the gas, then I want you to grab a healer from your group and have them go with you. At least then they can heal you to keep you alive. If possible, find another pair to work with you and you can split up to cover more ground faster.”

Rao nodded and looked at his group. There were only fifteen people in it, most of which looked like DPS and casters given that all the tanks they could find were split up between Cassiel’s and Pfar’s groups.

Fortunately, there were two available healers to satisfy Cassiel’s plan. Another player also stepped forward to volunteer for subjecting himself to the gas, so the plan could be executed with two groups of two running around Nameless to take care of any cannonballs that got inside.

“And remember, if any land close to the river, just push them in if you can,” Cassiel said. “That’s how Fen dealt with it when they tried attacking us before.”

Rao and the volunteer nodded before heading off.

“Thanks,” Cassiel whispered. Then, looking over the rest of his group, she held her sword up over her head and shouted, “Alright! The rest of you can join up with my group! Don’t worry about the original plan. Just help us defend this area! We won’t let them break through!”

Cassiel, after all, was no stranger to leading those under her command back from before she ever met Fenrir. Her training to become an angel included leadership and troop organization lessons, and she was making full use of those in defense of Nameless.

Meanwhile, on Astika’s island, Eva warned the giant apes about what might happen before flying at full speed toward Astika’s chamber. Now, inside of the chamber meant to serve as a boss arena, Eva said, “Astika! There’s a—”

“I am well aware,” Astika said, rising up from the water in the center of the room. “Let it not be forgotten that I am aware of everything that happens in the waters around this island. Who are these mortals who wish to intrude upon my protected land?”

“Assholes, to put it bluntly. They’re a bunch of griefers who just want to kill everybody and burn everything down, and those are the nicest of their crimes.”

“I see. And they are not affiliated with any of yours, correct?”

“Right. They’re our enemy.”

“While I have no interest in getting involved in the affairs between yours and any other groups… if it is of their own volition that they step foot upon this island with intent to harm those under my protection, then it is only right that we defend ourselves against those who wish us harm.”

“They probably don’t even know what’s up with this island. If I had to guess why they’ve sent anybody over here at all, it’s because they’re trying to secure some ground and are making sure we don’t have any defenses over here that we might be able to use against them.”

“Then they should be quite surprised when I make my introduction.” Astika spun her spear around in a showy, dramatic fashion before confidently smiling at Eva. “While I intend on maintaining my neutrality and thus will not interfere with those assaulting the coast, I will handle those who dare intrude upon my domain.”

“That’s better than we could have even hoped for.”

“Oh!” Astika suddenly sounded much less serious. “Speaking of what you were hoping for… shortly before you arrived, I found something I believe will be of great interest to you and yours.”

Eva tilted her head before realizing what Astika had to be talking about.

As for the invaders, after successfully bombarding Nameless’s walls and depriving the town’s defenders from being able to man the cannons atop them, it was time for them to begin the next phase of their operation.

Sending rowboats over to the beach while under defensive fire was too risky, but now? Now, they had a clear, safe approach.

“Alright! Let’s get to it, you maggots!” the man at the front of the fleet’s flagship shouted. He was a towering minotaur covered from shoulder to hoof in heavy, metal armor that didn’t leave any skin exposed. If there was ever anybody who looked like a literal, walking tank, it was him. On top of that, the scar over his eye and the four horns instead of two allowed him to stand out amongst everybody else on the ship who tried as hard as possible to look like a bunch of edgy badasses. “Remember! Keep the girls alive! You all want some more variety back at base, don’t you?!”

The other men, and women, aboard the ship cheered.

“Those priority targets especially. Do what you want with the rest of the bitches whenever you find them for all I care, but secure and bring the priority targets here immediately. Once they’re here and we’ve got the domination collars on them… well, we weren’t told we’re not allowed to do what we want to them after we’ve secured them.”

The vulgar cheers from aboard the ship would have been enough to sicken most people’s stomachs who had any sense of morals.

But players such as those were to be expected in a game where anything was possible. While most people chose to live fairly wholesome, but adventurous, lives in a fantasy world, there were always going to be some people who embraced the “no rules, anything goes” approach to perform the most evil acts that anybody could imagine. Most of these players were kicked out of the other factions, but the End Bringers happily welcomed the most depraved and cruel of players into their arms.

If there was any one group of players responsible for driving others to quitting the game, it was them. Just a single encounter with them was usually enough to make the more normal players of the game question whether they really wanted to play in a world where immoral players like them had free roam to do what they wanted.

Even if somebody didn’t personally encounter the End Bringers, they still heard the stories that were often enough on their own to bleed the world of players.

“But I call dibs on their leader! The bitch with the green hair!” the fleet’s leader shouted. “I’ve heard she’s—”

A metal chain wrapped around the minotaur’s neck, silencing him and all who were watching him. The next second, the chain was tugged backwards and yanked the leader off the ship, tossing him into the ocean below it.

With all that heavy armor he had on, even if it was possible to swim with it, getting out of the water would be extremely difficult.

More importantly, a man with long, white, and soaked hair jumped up onto the deck where the leader was previously standing. A smaller girl with blonde, equally soaked hair and a bow jumped up next to him.

There was no witty nor badass one-liner. No taunting words. No explanation of what was happening.

There was only pure, silent rage in the eyes of both Fenrir and Saya as they looked straight on at their enemy after hearing what they were just shouting and cheering about.