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Chapter 035: Changing the Tides

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The person who entered was Kladis.

But...

His blonde hair was now black and his eyes were as red as blood. If it wasn't for his familiar face, this swaggering lady-killer would have been somebody else entirely on everyone's perspective.

Gats, most especially, were surprised. Narrowing his eyes, he scrutinized him watching an unfamiliar man that wore a familiar face swag his way to one of the designated seats while wearing a disgusted look at the swords in front of it.

Then, Kladis' eyes locked with the female players in the room and he smiled charmingly, giving away an enticing wink.

"It's really good, this feeling." Although his tone of voice was the same, the manner of speech is now different.

Yet for some reason, Kira and other women felt a certain seductive charm coming from Kladis when they met his gaze... and wink. A part of them being a woman began to feel a comfortable warmth.

"Who are you?" Gats asked sternly. His eyes went on his panel and contacted Kladis but there was no reply from the man in front of them.

His question alerted the others. Aside from those not physically present, everyone else stood up in alarm and readied for an attack, including some of the women in the room, especially those who were seated beside him.

Kladis remained seated and raised his hands in a gesture of surrender. His eyes locking into Hagrid —or rather, on his body before he licked his lips and spoke uncaringly at the situation; "I am not an enemy. I am actually what you all known to be as the man named Kladis."

Kira had a sudden realization and she asked, "Are you perhaps Lord Eros?"

Kladis winked at her and smiled playfully, "Bingo."

A look of delight flashed on Kira's face as she bit her lips and sat back down the chair. But the way she looked at Kladis —no, Eros— was different as it carried a rarely seen womanly charm. She wasn't that pretty in the game but she had a certain charm and appeal that only mature and experienced high-class women have.

Even the members of the Riddler's Guise guild had a look of reverence when looking at "Kladis" now.

Gats who seemed to have been played at his face, had an ugly expression of fury as he looked at the man addressed as Eros.

"Who are you and where is my general?"

Kladis didn't mind him, "Calm down... chief. Your general is, uh, well, I wouldn't call him safe but he is not dead. As long as I'm alive and wasn't killed in a particular way by a particular someone, then the man named Kladis would still live on. Actually, if we accomplish our goals and work together to fulfill each other's' needs, then I can assure you that you can see your general perfectly fine after it."

Gats, seeming to have understood something gave a cursory glance at the members of the Riddler's Guise Guild, specially the one seated on [Percival] chair, the replacement for Cedric named 'Wowmali' in the game but is usually called "Oder" by the rest of his members.

Seeing the reverential look in their faces as they gazed at "Eros", Gats understood. And it's making him angry but helpless for it was part of their deal.

Taking a deep breath to calm his nerves, Gats massage his face with his left hand, "Do I have to change my plans again?" he said loudly to himself.

For some reason, Gats didn't care about whatever absurd contents "Eros's" words had earlier.

"You don't have to." Kladis said, "Order me around, I will act like Kladis... actually, I have his memories so you don't have to worry about anything if it was about your plans... all you have to do is give me a command and I will accomplish it better than him."

When he spoke, he had so much confidence it was enough to invoke some reliance to some members.

Gats gave a meaningful glance at him, "If that's the word then I will hold on to it." As he spoke up to here, he glanced round the people around as he gestured at them. "Everyone, sit. With me here, I can assure you all that this guy will be as useful as the original Kladis was... or perhaps even better."

"Who is he?" Asked Hagrid. "He had the same face as the other guy but although he's still as irritating nonetheless, they're different people."

People.

Kladis made an amused silent chuckle at this. If it wasn't that all attention was put to Gats, they would have seen him being disdainful at the word.

Hagrid's question was what everyone else wanted to ask Gats.

"You can just trust me on this. He's harmless to us but deadly to our enemies, more so than the Kladis of the past. You can consider him as a Battle-AI. In some ways, he is Kladis's Battle-AI... in beta test."

Hearing Gats' assurance, they sat down and didn't say a word more for the time being. Still, although the excuse was convincing, it was still an excuse.

Gats swiped the air.

A panel appeared on everyone's visions containing the details of their tasks.

Kladis winked at Genevieve who blushed before he gave the panel in front of him a glance.

Hagrid and the others, although confused, since they weren't that close with Kladis, they didn't mind this bewildering situation and only focused on the tasks at the panel window.

All of them had different tasks and also reactions.

Gats spoke, "Since we're hostile towards the very Emperor of The North himself now, we can just be enemies with him until the end."

In general, the entire picture of their tasks was in a simple general outcome: utterly destroy the Fallen Empire of Tiara to give way to the Church of that imprisoned [God] in establishing their domain in the Surface Continents.

Gats, having chosen the [God], in accordance to their alignment, must follow the will of the NPCs. It was, after all, being monitored by the system since everything is the result of their choice in the quest.

"For the Church!" he said calmly.

The rest followed, "For the Church."

On the side, Kladis was the only one who didn't say a word and kept on smiling as he surveyed the core members of The Legion as if they were prey.

*****

In a secret hall in The Union of Six Federations in Espada, an NPC Noble and his cohorts received a similar mission in the form of a message.

The noble leader of this group had an ecstatic face as he read the contents.

"Finally!" he yelled and the rest of the group also bid their jubilant expressions.

After that, the noble put a red pointed hood on his head as he wore a bloody red robe. And to cover his face, there was jade-white mask with a face of crescent slits for eyes and a "sad" curve for lips.

And on their foreheads was a bloody drop of blood as if it was some kind of gem, resplendent and had a shiny sheen on its surface.

He declared, "For the Church!"

In front of him, more than 200 cultist people begun to wear the same clothing as him and they, too, all declared with jubilant expressions.

""""FOR THE CHURCH!!!""""

*****

In some parts of Terroa, even in Jeremiah, there're also similar groups preparing in secret. They wore bloody robes and put on the "sad" masks on their faces as a symbol.

They've planned for years for this moment to come so they were both excited and even more careful.

Just like the Blue Card Legion, these groups have all received the same mobilization order.

The Church is finally moving out of the shadows. A 25-cycle long planning phase, today, they'll finally claim this planet as theirs.

Now, Terroa is now facing a very serious situation.

*****

The BMA continued its guerilla harassment as it appeared and disappeared on random locations.

But just like what Siva had feared, slowly, Priestess Sandra became familiar with the location the BMA would be coming from and so gave orders to make the platoons last longer enough to deliver a timely counterattack.

Siva, of course, wouldn't let them off easily since after they advanced, they were already inside the center area of the danger zone of his ambush site.

The BMA's patterns changed and used redundant areal attacks; it would harass a location then vanish and when their guards against him were down after a moment, it will appear on the same spot where it vanished and cause mayhem alongside Plan-B.

With the [Hand of Midas] and the [Revolver Pistol] paired with the might of a perfectly placed bombardment and Siva's timely strike, their defenses crumbled and the same scene where all the members of the platoon who didn't focus on defense and still cast the Blood Prison Magic were utterly decimated.

Of the 900+ Acolytes, it now was 100 less and it's only been a mere minutes since the ambush.

It was a devastating loss.

Looking at them 5km away, hidden in five layers of Mini Realm isolation protections, Siva was still in a tight rope no matter how much upperhand he gain since in exchange for these losses, he continued to expend limited ammunition resources.

[Four, three, two... one... the Dáinsleifs are ready.]

'Target the Priest.'

*****

With the given command, the bombardment went in a different path as it focused its target on that Priest who can insta-cast Tier-5 Barrier Magic while persistently casting the Blood Prison Magic hoping to affect the hidden ambush teams of Siva.

When the focus fire of the bombardment shifted on his side of the formation, he began to panic.

"Shit... shiiiittt!!"

"Fool. Focus on defense!" Sandra roared.

With the focused bombardment on a single area, the saturation wasn't something a mere platoon of people can last and so after the fourth rattling loud explosion, their shield barrier magic collapsed.

"Ricky!" Sandra roared and wanted to rush over.

"Stop!" Cardinal Hossain grabbed Sandra in time as 3 lightning-fast bullets that came from 3 different directions hit the Priest straight to his face, torso, and legs.

In but a moment of opening, three bullets turned a priest into a pile of meshed up flesh.

Sandra's heart sunk at the sight.

The bullets had enough momentum to still pierce a total of six other Acolytes each and some of them even burned into ashes by similarly teleporting golden bullets. A few also turned into corpses as well because of a high-caliber bullet's impact.

"Raise your—"

In the middle of Sandra's words, just as the few of the survivors were about to flee or follow the given reactionary command, "Siva" come through a ripple in space from a designated direction in her mind and dealt the finishing blow on that platoon, killing every member of in less than ten seconds before vanishing once again where he stood.

The bombardment restarted.

With the death of another priest, there was now a large hole on their overall spell formation.

"Aaaaaaahhh!!!" Sandra roared as she cast random spells towards the locations she'd mentally marked as the directions where the blades, bullets, and the artillery shells were all coming from.

Whether it was luck or not, Sandra destroyed six and their left over fragments descended towards the boiling earth below their feet, disappearing into space as they fall.

Seeing this, the Cardinal whose performance had been poor until now, narrowed his eyes as he cast out his Mana Sense.

"There!"

He pointed in a direction and from there, the BMA had just appeared.

Sandra insta-cast an Earth Spear 3m long and 12in thick, that whistled thru the dry sulfuric air of this underground cave.

The BMA's momentum was disrupted and it backed off, looking at Sandra's direction. It brandished the War God Axe and deflected the Earth Spear but as soon as it did, a second and third one was already on its way to reinforce the first.

The Cardinal was as fast as Sandra in casting Tier-5 magic spells!

"Die!" Hossain was really furious this time.

Siva reacted fast and commanded for the BMA to vanish. But as soon as it did, the Earth Spear still hurled at the hidden Mini Realm behind the BMA.

Another Mini Realm shattered. It was the eight, if including the first one Sandra destroyed earlier.

His heart ached. One Mini Realm costs 10,000slots to create and that is still outside the slots allocated on them.

There's only five "realms" generated each day and it was too valuable considering it's only been just a few days since. Today, all Mini Realms he had are deployed in the network which lost seven just now, aside from the six outside this cave.

His heart ached at the cost of this loss.

BANG!!

The [Revolver Pistol] and the [Hand of Midas] still fired to cover at the last moment before the Mini Realm totally shattered.

It went straight towards Sandra but her shield spell was too tough for those two bullets to pierce.

Siva stopped the attacks.

There was a moment of silence.

No attacks came to their ranks but the Acolytes and their two "Elders" reacted a little stiff, unable to make what the reason for this sudden silence.

On the next instant, Sandra came to realize.

"This is our chance! Retreat!"

"No!" shouted the Cardinal. "We have to proceed with the plan. There was still Bishop Morris waiting for our signal outside Horbe. If we could just give the signal, we can turn the tides and summon our forces if we successfully launch the Ark Gate. If we retreat here now, it will affect the Pope's and the Pontifex's plans!"

Sandra argued, "But we don't know if the Ark Gate formation in the city was already seized or not!"

"Hmph. We've spent years building its foundation so even if we can't open it fully, they won't know the exact location of the other nodes. We can still open it partially and the reinforcements and Bishop Morris outside the city will still be enough to mop-up Siva and the Vajras!"

"Cardinal Hossain! We can't teleport away!"

Just as he finished his argument, a report came that sounded urgent and terrifying to them.

""What did you say?!""

The two were utterly shocked.

Sandra took out a T-Device and pressed for a city but she also couldn't teleport away.

"How can this be possible?"

"Space-locking ability... it must be that Immortal in the surface or some sort of device!"

Upon the Cardinal's words, Sandra grimaced, "It must be some item that's doing this. Space-locking ability... only that Immortal in the surface or an item with similar ability as his can grant this effect."

The Cardinal was horrified.

"It's really a trap!" he looked around him. There is only the molten lava below them and the wide walls of the underground cave.

He looked over at their group and then back to the lava floor below them.

"Let's go back." He finally said. Angry and unwilling to accept the result of this mission, "It's better than dying here."

Earlier, he was the one who wanted to continue but now he was the one ordering to back out.

Sandra couldn't agree more.

"Focus on defense!" she ordered.

At that moment...

ROOOOOOAAAARRRR!!!

A rattling sound of a Dragon's Roar could be heard and the molten lava below them started to tremble as it boiled and seethed as if it's about to detonate.

Cardinal Hossain cursed, "No! It's too early! We're yet to open the Ark Gate above us!"

"Siva's ambush team might have noticed this earlier so they escaped!"

"No one's attacking us now. To the surface!"

The battalion of Bloody Church followers pulled their Shield Barriers down and with Sandra and the Cardinal leading them, they took flight towards the direction of the underground opening leading to Horbe's surface —or at least they wanted to.

Sandra saw this and she roared in anger. "Don't pull down your defenses!"

"Keep your eyes peeled!" Cardinal Hossain came to follow and the two only quasi-Immortals capable of a small-scale [Mana Sense] spread them out. "It may be quiet now but there are no saying Siva and his ambushers have yet to depart."

"Hm? What's this?" in the middle of their ranks, an Acolyte was hit by something small and he caught the object before it fell towards the lake of lava.

It was a silvery golden golf ball-sized object.

Slightly heavy compared to its tiny size and smooth on the surface, aside from a single dot-like object that looked like a 'pin' meant to shatter its surface.

Not only him, there were other locations that got a gift from somewhere as well.

One such item also 'fell' on an Acolyte behind the two leading figures and the commotion made the two leaders look back.

Just as they were about to ask questions, one side of the formation received an artillery shell from hell that came out of nowhere. It exploded and rattled a part of the battalion and following it was another round of bombardment on other random locations.

And it was just the beginning.

"We're still inside their ambush zone!" Sandra was really furious.

Just as they were about to form their Blood Prison Spell Formation, the explosions on their shields became the primer that 'triggered' the pins on the hands of some of the Acolytes... spreading a blue mist that field the entire interior of their barrier.

Not only there, but on some parts outside of the barrier magic they cast, blue mist also spread along with the continuous bombardment.

"SIVAAAAAAAAAAA!!!" roared Hossain. He'd now realize it was Siva, and that the man and his team in fact did detect the change of the Dragon Team first and then used it to pull this little trick on them.

They, again, fell into Siva's trap!

Oh just how wrong he was. If he knew that there's only him and that there was no "team" ambushing his battalion, he might not die in the bombardment but in hypertension due to anger.

"Fire Field!" Sandra yelled out but just as the first signs of her spell formed around her and a few Acolytes who reacted rather fast, the blue mist was ignited from different areas and those inside their barrier shields were cooked by their own spells.

Their ranks fell as more than 150 acolytes died in that one explosion.

It was a lightning explosion!

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