Grayson sat at his desk, resting his chin on his hands as he contemplated the guild’s plan for the future. From now on, we’ll have to be prepared for the Keeper to interfere any time we go on a raid.
The Keeper was very clearly more aware of the powers of his world than they were, so Grayson believed that he had naturally set up methods to mark all of their likely targets. That, or he had managed to mark some of the guild members themselves. These were the only two reasons that he would have been able to appear that quickly when they went to raid the Empress of Bloodhaven.
Regardless of which answer it was, the end result was the same. They couldn’t leave their people behind because it would reduce their fighting force, and they couldn’t change their targets away from the ‘highest level individuals’ because it would then show no effect on the Keeper’s own strength. In this situation, unless they had a reliable way to permanently sever the link that the Keeper had established, they could only play into this plot.
Of course, they did have one such method, but it could not be used until the final battle. Fleece had the ability to block out divine detection if she were to activate one of her skills. Grayson needed her to stay in the base, though, because her skills were similarly necessary for them to be able to quickly evacuate from a battle.
If they had taken her before, when the Keeper surprised them, their losses would have been much higher. Instead of fifteen, it was likely that they would have lost closer to one or two hundred troops to that sealing mirror…
With a resigned sigh, he opened the guild chat. Everyone, gather in the main hall. And make sure you have your boss gear ready. We’ll be moving out soon. Anyone that isn’t going to fight, go ahead and prepare to evac to site three.
“Got it!” Blank smiled as he held open a small portal in the void of the digital world, which was attempting to close around him. Getting the timing right to hold open the connection without interfering with the data packet had been tricky, but he believed it was worth it.
With a thought, he summoned his journal, and bookmarked the location on the other side of the portal. Only then did he let it close. As Vivi had once taught him, a unique trait of digital existences such as themselves was the ability to use mana to teleport from one digital location to another. Even if the two were not connected, such a transmission was still possible.
Of course, he would not charge blindly into what was likely the enemy camp. First, he had to contact Vivi so that she could pass on the information to the Keeper, and then wait for his opportunity. Only then would he infiltrate to gather information.
“My Keeper.” Tsubaki suddenly spoke up at the base of the stairs leading to my throne. She had been standing there motionlessly for hours, so something had apparently changed with one of her avatars. “We have just received a report from Vivi.”
“Did another batch of invaders decide to log in?” I asked with a raised eyebrow. I found such an event unlikely at this point. Even if they did enjoy the game, and were from a game-centric world, they had to realize that their focus should be on fighting me now.
“That is not the case. Blank believes that he has located their base through the internet.” Well… that was a surprise. “He has marked their location digitally, and is prepared to move when the opportunity arises.”
I leaned forward, letting myself sink into thought at that. “If we can coordinate with him, he can infiltrate their base when they launch their next assault. Tsubaki, I’ll need to trouble you to act as my intermediary at that time.”
“I understand, my Keeper.” She nodded her head, but didn’t stop there. “When that time comes, please take Dana with you to fight.”
“Dana?” I looked over towards the nine-tailed maid, surprised at her request. “I thought you would want to keep her as far away from the fighting as possible.”
Tsubaki simply shook her head. “We have been preparing for this invasion ever since you first mentioned it to us. Now that they have started their offense, it is time for her to play her part. If it becomes too dangerous, she knows a spell that will immediately summon herself to my side.”
I thought about that briefly, before giving a small nod. I had a pretty good idea what Dana’s preparations were here, and it fit fairly well into my own plans. Just as I was lifting my head to answer her, I felt a shift in my divine energy. Looking over towards the wall of mirrors, my lips tugged upwards. “Tell Blank that he has permission to invade, and call Dana. They’re on the move again.”
Greyson marched forward, the leader of nearly nine hundred men. They did not fire their spells randomly upon entering town this time, and an aura of deadly calm seemed to spread from this group. Citizens parted to allow their passage, clearly seeing them as some knight order that had been called to act.
Everyone was on edge, knowing that the Keeper could appear at any moment to launch a powerful attack. They were wearing their best equipment, specifically designed to counter divine abilities. Although he showed himself capable of fighting in hand-to-hand against a small group, this was nothing compared to the ability to seal an army at once.
At the front of the march, Greyson’s eyes twitched slightly. He heard a faint giggle enter his ears. A small, elven girl ran up into the road, a bundle of flowers in her hands. “Big brother knight!” She called out, holding the flowers up for him. He could even see a faint blush on her cheeks.
He could have kicked her aside, or even cut her down for trying to interfere. But, if they made such an image for themselves, it would only make their lives harder when it came time for them to control this dungeon. As such, he briefly stopped, letting out a faint smile as he leaned down to take the flowers.
“You should have saved these for someone special, right?” Their arrival hadn’t been announced, so the fact that she had flowers like this meant that they had already been prepared for someone.
However, the elven girl simply stuck out her tongue. “Big brother is special, right?” Grayson had a sudden premonition of danger when he heard her giggle again. “You should be careful, now!” As she said that, she turned and began skipping away.
“Stop her!” He called out, throwing the flowers down and quickly drawing his sword. However, the flowers never touched the stone road at his feet. As soon as they left his hands, they dispersed into silver smoke, which spread out to form a circle.
“Aaah, big brother wants to bully me!” The girl called out, keeping her playful tone even as she changed her pace to running away. “I’ll let my friends play with you a bit.”
Two figures quickly emerged from the marching group, their forms seeming to flicker as they chased after the girl. However, moments later, after chasing her down a nearby alley, they let out sudden, horrific screams. The sound of something crunching emerged, and blood splashed along the walls of the alley.
Grayson wished that he could charge over, but he had problems of his own. From the circle of silver smoke, he could feel an ominous presence staring at him. This wasn’t the anger of the Keeper, he had felt that before already. This was the feeling of being stared at by a vicious predator.
Darkness filled the circle, and a great claw stretched out from this darkness. Instinctively, Greyson lashed out, slicing with his enchanted sword. There was a pained scream as the claw was cut, before it retreated back into the circle.
At this moment, a cold voice echoed out in the air. “Did I tell you to stop?” When he turned to look for the source of the voice, he saw that same girl standing on a nearby rooftop. Her eyes were no longer playful, but rather emitted an icy chill. Blood dripped down from her lips to stain her blue dress. “Open the gate.”
As if responding to her command, the circle of silver mist exploded outwards, filling the street before them. Figures with glowing red eyes stared at them from the misty darkness beyond. Monstrous forms that seemed to bubble and shift, playing tricks on the mind just by watching them. Screams echoed throughout the town as the citizens saw this scene, quickly scattering lest they be caught in what was to come.
“Begin the march.” As the girl said that, she produced a silver scepter in her hand, adorned with a blue jewel. Greyson did his best to split his focus between the girl and the portal, stepping back to join his troops.
At the same time, the first of the figures stepped forward. Its arms were covered in blinking eyes, hands stretched out with silver claws. Its face was nothing more than a giant, vertical mouth lined with countless teeth. As it emerged from the portal, it let out a hideous screech, before charging fearlessly towards the invading party.
Behind it, two giant cats with smooth, black skin emerged. Their skin was stretched taught, revealing twisted layers of muscle in various positions. Like the figure before them, they charged as well.
With the information that they had gathered, Greyson was able to identify the origin of the silver mist, and thus had a strong guess as to what these monsters were. “Exorcists, offer blessing!”
Rhythmic chanting began to fill the air as several people hidden within the army began to pray. The weapons of the soldiers soon resonated with the chant, bringing forth a silver glow. When Grayson slashed again with his glowing weapon, it cut through the first monster with ease. Not only that, but the monster burst into silver mist, clearly slain with the single stroke.
“Eight, nine, ten, eleven people casting anti-spirit enchantments.” The girl on the rooftop said calmly, even as several people with bows or staves turned to face her. “I’ll need to kindly ask you to stop.”
Her eyes seemed to glow as she emphasized the final word, the scepter in her hand shining bright. Those eleven exorcists felt their bodies freezing up, suddenly unwilling to obey their commands. With their chanting ended, the silver glow on the weapons of the troops began to slowly fade.
However, at this time, the army had naturally identified this elven girl as a very real threat. Spells and arrows were launched at her without mercy, though she paid them no mind. With a wave of her scepter, a powerful barrier flashed into existence around her.
“My name is Dana Jafer. By order of the Keeper, it’s time for all of you to die.” She lifted up that scepter again, and a massive spell diagram began forming. Its range seemed to cover the entire town, and was completed at a much faster pace than the mirror that the Keeper himself had used.
“Evac, now!” Grayson shouted, but his order was not even needed. Fleece had already begun her preparation, the energies of the spatial warp gathering around the army. They could fight back against the spirits of hell, they could fight back against the small girl even. But if they allowed a spell of that magnitude to fire, they might not be able to resist it.
As such, Fleece pushed herself to her limits to pull them out of the battlefield even before identifying the nature of the spell that Dana wished to hit them with. In the time she would have taken to do so, the spell could have already launched.
Thankfully, she seemed to make it in time, as nobody was left behind when the spell triggered. Though, there was no column of fire, no blinding light of destruction. The massive spell summoned rain that fell over the city, while the spirits of hell retreated into their portal.
Meanwhile, there was a robed mage among the army, a man who did not notice a pale blue rock that had been quietly slipped into his pocket during the chaos. A rock that caused a small patch of dampness to emerge in the dark blue robe.
