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Chapter 117: Party Play

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Siva wasn't aware of the technicalities of Zelga's ability to summon a True Dragon, but he was sure that it was a dreadful ability that had its equivalent price to pay upon each use.

After all, this is a [Chaos God]-level summon. THIS has to have a high price.

And that's where Siva blinked as he thought of it.

"Now that I think about it, didn't Lady Brea tell us a few details about Zelga's ability?"

[Yes sir. She said that Zelga's ability to summon a True Dragon is reliant on the Mana provided by an attacker that attacked him. He uses that as catalyst to summon "Elementis" which, as she portrayed it, is the True Dragon before you.]

"It needs a catalyst. Right. I see. Then the catalyst to summon Labrador, it came from that knight that wore a blue armor that we met in Jeremiah. What was his name again?"

[Draco, sir.]

"Right. Draco... so in hindsight, if no one provided Zelga any Mana as catalyst, then Zelga would not be able to use that ability, is that it?"

[That's logically the conclusion, sir.]

Siva thought for a moment and nodded as he put a plan on how to deal with Zelga in the future.

—aren't people like me who can't use Mana his weakness, then? Should we be thankful that Zelga's arrogance made him spill his own ability's weakness out in the public?

—or was he actually an idiot or something?

[Insufficient data.]

Siva couldn't help chuckle at Cortana's comment.

As he focused his sense into the fight, the blades had already reached their "standby" positions not that far away from their initial targets. One blade a person, if his plan goes well, he'd be able to deal with these pests in under a minute.

"By the way, how long since Amanda finishes her tutorial... no... rather... how long should we stall for time until she can help?"

[Not too long now, sir. In around seven minutes, you can begin the operation. Disregarding her cat-like jumpy tenancies, her magic is truly powerful.]

Siva gave this a nod.

Though they weren't together during Gaia's Magic Lessons, Lily sent Cortana her magic lessons data from time to time.

Using this, although Siva hasn't personally seen it, Cortana had drafted him a few video renderings of Scion's current firepower.

Now, the only thing left for her is to actually have the mettle to actually step inside a true battlefield.

"Well, I wouldn't hope for that to happen. A person births his Battle Sense through actual experience, not in books, and most especially NOT when you only sit around and meditates on simulations like a thoughtless statue. Actual training is the key to the true strength. And this true strength births Battle Sense, which then tempers the heart and hardens the soul that improves confidence and courage."

Cortana, who was standing there beside him, bid Siva a glance as she smiled like the true secretary who'd learned something important from her boss.

She didn't say a word, afraid of disturbing Siva's thoughts who she was reading at this moment.

But she, only she, knew that Siva was simply just recalling his own experience and stating what he'd actually learnt and taught all his students back then about the important of courage, bravery, and most of all... [Battle Sense].

There was a balance in all things, she reads, and it affects one's overall constitution.

Face your fears, overcome weaknesses, find the path, claw thy will on it, struggle, do not let go, do not pull your punches, and defy the limits of those universal laws: immortality does not favour anyone for it was free for all to get using one's own path.

Alone in that forest for many years, Siva survived and fought his way through it like a monster.

No. In fact, he had become a monster. If he was unable to become one, he wouldn't last a day in that dreadful place.

Cortana surmised, no modern man would've been able to survive in that place without as much spirit and determination to live as Siva did back then.

Years of isolation from civilization converted his mind to rely 50% on thinking and 50% on instinct.

It honed him into a beast.

On that forest filled with ferine creatures, Siva's domesticated nature was converted. In the end, it came to a point that he almost forgot himself and had become 'one of them' until he met a stranded and lost group of adventurers —the first signs of people that connected him to civilization.

Thinking about it as he spoke the words, Cortana also became aware of the memories and archived all of them into the external HD source Rex made solely for her. It was jam-packed full of memory space that even with Cortana's 500YB (Yottabyte) Processing Power, there were at least five times more memory space inside it.

She didn't dare to interrupt Siva in the midst of his emotional anchoring and instead continued to pull out and gather information from around him.

Then, a prompt appeared and Cortana showed it to Siva who nodded at her.

[Lily's assessment on her Battle Sense is at least 12% of your level. For the Support Mage role that she'll play for you, it should be enough.]

"Alright. Debrief of her of the plan. Inform Lily of the necessary timings and synchronize her actions to match my tempo."

[Training Wheels Protocol is . Lily said that she needs at least two minutes more to explain the plan to Amanda.]

"That's enough."

[Oh, and warships have just appeared in Mundus.]

He smiled as his gaze landed on the True Dragon.

"I expected as much. The one that appeared in the Walled City of Alexandria was a huge loss to them so they wouldn't let this chance slip again."

[Countermeasures ready.]

"No need to deal with them. If my plan works, this fight won't even be that long before it concludes."

After hearing this, Cortana's gaze then shifted to the clustered Warships not too far above them.

[Sir, what should we do about those coming back to get back their warships sir?]

Siva looked up and saw labels and zoomed images of the people flying at high speeds towards their clustered empty warships.

He smiled, "Let's not let them."

After his command, Siva flipped his hand and then space rippled and expanded.

The warships were floating 3km above him with no shortage of people trying to get into it.

After he had mastered Split-Dimension, Siva could create new Mini Realms with but a thought and the hand-flipping motion wasn't THAT really needed. It was only born out of habit, is all. A finger point will have sufficed if Siva consciously controls it.

The "controlled space" then reached and covered the entire 10km area around him and then pulled all those people back inside Labrador's battlefield.

The surprised and shocked faces of the NPC and Players greatly amused him and he chuckled at the easiness of his action and its deviating results.

"It was too convenient." He said, his grin vanishing slowly, "I wonder then in the future if [Players] will be able to unlock the [Immortality] in this game or not... the war nine months later will decide it."

ROOOOOOAAAARRRR!!!

Boom!! BOOOOM!! BOOOOOOOMMMMM!!!

GRAAAAAAAAAA!!!

The explosive sounds of his rampage erupted with every beat as its 4km large body rocked the area nearest to it. The trembling of the land could be felt in the form of shockwaves bringing along with it dirt and small pebbles in the issuing winds.

"My victory against it before was just due to luck. It won't happen again. Yet, even with all the strength I have acquired from then and now, I'm still unable to defeat it without the Artemis MOD, Akhenaton's aid, or me actually entering its body. And that's an option I don't even want to consider because if at that time Labrador had made a Dragon Roar, the attack alone would have vaporized me who was on its mouth, hanging on like a parasite."

[Escaping Labrador has a 98% chance of success now sir, but winning against it on a direct battle without the help of the same firepower as the fleet you once had in Alexandria is nulled at 15%.]

"Aye, Dragons really are strong creatures."

With that thought added at the sight of [Labrador] rampaging in front of him right now, the more he appreciated this mysterious feeling that he had as he thought of capturing it, as was his current plan.

While the rest wanted to capture it for its plentiful resources, Siva wanted to capture it for the sake of his Dragon Revitalization and Mechromancer Projects.

After a few more moments trying to imbed the sight of the True Dragon's "majestic" rampage in the lands a few kilometers away, Siva made a long sigh and beamed a smile.

"Well, the good thing is... I have Electra." He said.

[More enemies have appeared in Mundus, sir. The place will soon be flooded with people within the next fifteen minutes. Should I proceed now?]

The blades have long since been in place. It was just awaiting orders.

Siva spent one last look on the dragon and then gave the now cute 'secretary' that only he can see beside him a slight nod.

"Do it." he said. "And then we will go to Dakar."

[Order confirmed.]

After she spoke, space rippled and BM-Puppet took a single step to stand beside him. This was the [Sword Master] BM-Puppet, with its Absolute Domain and equipped with the [Dragonator], [Fire Lord Set], and the [Fire Sword].

What more, it was now fully equipped with combo moves and game avatar-like maneuvers that you'd only see in RPG-type video games of the last era.

Its martial arts, adding the passive double hits and the heavy-weight attacks of the BM-Puppet then the Fire Sword, and then Scion's Magic, was one of its main features. Put differently, against people and monsters, the [Sword Master] is a formidable enemy but in this fight, these moves wouldn't only be useless, the Sword Master's actual purpose for being here is only to be Scion's medium in casting her spells to support Siva.

But still, as limited as this support was, Siva is still very much happy at the thought of having Scion back him up like this.

Siva chuckled and spoke, "I'll be counting on you, Mandy, support me well. Don't worry though since I'll be giving you the signals and Lily and Cortana will be the ones to decide the availability of your chance to attack. You just have to maintain active attention towards my prompts and the visual data prompts on your screen."

Although the face was wearing a faceless mask, the voice that replied to Siva was Scion's.

[I'll do my best.]

Siva laughed and in his heart, he actually felt that tinge of emotion he almost forgotten.

"As for you two, Cortana and Lily, actively adjust her visual data and prompts according to optimized setup so that in the future, this could be used as a blueprint for developing the future soldiers of the Mechromancer Project."

[Yes sir.]

[Yes, boss.]

The feeling of fighting alongside someone he can openly and wholeheartedly put his trust on. It was the feeling of a [Party Play]. He felt really excited at the prospect of the thought alone, much less at the notion that this was the first time (although it's unofficial) for the two of them to fight together.

"Alright, let's go." He said and laughingly took his first step with [Scion] following behind him.

[Yes!]

Siva couldn't see it but he felt the excitement on her voice as well. This was a date so he laughed.

*****

Fifteen minutes later, hordes of players as well as 20+ warships along with their Cyclone fly-escorts reached the location of the supposed battlefield against a huge Dragon. Yet what they all saw in the place was nothing more than the vivid aftermath of an intense battle.

There're still the dust clouds yet to settle and the heat of the intense battle that's yet to subside.

From those in the warships and those in the open field that traveled on their own "vehicles", they all heard a series of thundering sounds indicating the intense battle they have no 'eyes' on-site to see still happening. That prompted them to think that they still have something to share once they arrive but who would have thought....

...who would've thought that there was nothing in here now except the telltale signs of a great and desperate battle?

It was around 8 minutes ago, the Advanced Escort Cyclones recon teams reported; those thundering sounds of the battle suddenly stopped.... leading to them thinking that perhaps the battle had ended or had entered a lull and so when the sounds did not continue, they even more rushed in this place, only to see nothing.

There were only crushed flesh and the splattered blood of poor victims, debris and thrown rocks that scattered from a heavy impact, the cracked earth beneath their feet screaming of the Dragon's full might and power... and the lingering after effects of a large scale [Water Element] spell that still sent a cold chill down to one's spine....

...for there still remains the drifting snow and few cold wisps of low temperature.

To those in the very front, it felt as if he entire place was in the middle of a coming winter.

But more than that, there was not even a sign of a Dragon's corpse, nor just a shadow of its scale in any place they look.

There was not even a sign of any survivors that should have been left here to tell the tale of what kind of battle had transpired.

And yes, there's not a sign of Siva——

—the one responsible for this entire mess.

Everyone looked around them and one of the men with a keen eye finally noticed something.

"There's surprisingly no warship remains here."

—Right...!!

Not even a shadow of any warships or even their burning "remains" that managed to get here ahead of them that should be here somewhere, are left.

Around 40,000+ players and 27 warships stared at the sight of an overly "empty" battlefield.

Heck, empty doesn't even explain it. The entire place was just plainly desolate. Aside from the cold winds and the telltale signs of battle, there was not any evidence that the said battle was here just some few odd minutes ago.... Aside from the still fresh stench of blood.

The organizations of Terroa pulled out all of their resources to get as fast as they can and yet they did not even see as much as a shadow of the big prize they had already politically agreed to divide amongst the ones that attended here.

Amongst the group was actually the Third Elder of The Union. He brought with him 8 warships and at least 24,000+ NPCs and players that included the crews of the warships who all came from the 'paid' citizens and the localized mercenaries of Dakar.

He carried the greatest force because he wanted to not only flaunt the power of The Union, but also intimidate these scattered individuals that will try to haggle with them over how much of the resources they should get upon the successful hunting of the True Dragon.

And yet, who would have thought...

That not only them, ALL OF THEM would go back to their bases with nothing to show of their trouble of getting in here?

He stood there inside Flagship Andromeda, one of their prided creations, shaking and trembling from the intense rage and humiliation he suffered here.

Swiping the air, he checked the status of the ones that arrived here earlier than them but not one of them actually was able to reply.

—the f*ck?

He then sent them personalized emails, including the Haven Dust President and his people, and that was where he received the answer. Although all of them had different wordings about it, they all said the very same thing.

They have become prisoners.

—no way... could they be...

——no, it's possible... the problems in Mundus...

Third Elder stood there frozen, unable to grasp on what straw the events here could be faulted into.

And then, as if to answer this thought, one of the operators on the command bridge of his ship put a hand on his ear as he listened. A few moments later, he stood up and then faced the Third Elder with a salute, "Sir! It's a message encrypted with the Emergency Code! The code is from one of the advanced officers dispatched back in Maria!"

The Third Elder immediately sat up, "Send it to the main screen!" he yelled, face warping into an ugly frown due to his restrained anger.

"Hai!" the officer followed the command.

It was a video message.

With a blink, the main screen came to life and then projected a black screen that gradually dimmed to clarity and displayed Siva, sitting on a familiar chair inside a familiar office, wearing his faceless mask.

In fact, to the rest of the crew, it was not that very familiar but to the Third Elder, he knew exactly the location of where this video was taken.

This was the Seventh Elder's office in Dakar!

After the initial shock they felt, they heard Siva's voice that's full of anger, speaking to them.

[I will only say this once: I will only give you 24 in-game hours to bring him to me. After that, in every 10 minutes that you fail to bring the Seventh Elder to me, I will destroy the Walled Cities under the flag of The Union. You can rest assured. I will be your greatest nightmare.]

And then the call ended.

Yet as soon as it did, the same comms officer from just now had a horrified expression and reported with a trembling voice: "E-Emergency Distress Call from Headquarters! The base... the base has just been attacked. It's a [Category-4] damage! One of the warship hangars along with Warship Vandalia had been destroyed!"

BAM!!

The Third Elder, a large Gonn Race [Player] who had been "playing" the game longer than any of the other elders, hit the arm rest of his chair and dented it, roaring in fury at the same time:

"SIVAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!"

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