Second World-Novel



When Master arrived at Lefkauselis, he first surrounded the city with a portion of his army before preparing the bulk of his army to charge the entrance. 

Both his and the enemy's guild armies were still on cooldown, and so were their country guardians. So, it was all down to the force of the native army and the players who participated. He had confidence his army will win in a direct confrontation.

As his army was about to charge, the gate to the city opened. This caused Master to halt the charge.

A white flag was seen above the opened gate. Even Linda was confused by this event.

'What is this? Does John try the empty castle tactic?' Linda thought. She didn't believe her son to be that shallow. This tactic only worked if one had a strong reserve and the opponent had no prior knowledge of the trick.

She knew John should know that she knew about such a tactic. Hence, it didn't make sense to use it. Both Themisphere and Hydrurond also no longer had any reserves inside Hydrurond territory. They would have used it in the battle a few days ago if they had.

Still, out of prudence, she advised Master to send one small detachment to enter the city. One that won't make any difference even if this detachment was obliterated.

Master sent one of the six Liguritudum guilds to enter the city and checked. Being used as such cannon fodder, this displeased the guild. Even so, they dared not disobey.

They rode their steeds and entered the city, only to find out that it was mostly empty. There were no troops. Even the civilians seemed lacking for a city of this size.

An official of the city who had chosen to stay behind came to meet the guild players. The official was then taken to Master. Master learned then that Queen Aldryth and her force had left for Themisphere with Jack.

This surprised him immensely. He understood the characteristic design of the draconian race was unreasonably prideful. To persuade them to retreat to another country was a possibility he never thought of.

"It seems that the Themisphere King's persuasion ability was something we need to take into account in our future planning," Master said.

"I never imagine him as someone with a silver tongue," Spring Crown said.

"He made his case mostly with his deeds rather than his mouth," Linda said. "Those deeds could persuade even this hard-headed draconian race, but I think the princess who was now a queen was also a factor. She was different from her mother. We probably should have targeted her first in our serial killing ploy."

Long, who heard that, uttered, "Speak for yourself. It's already difficult murdering high-ranking officers stealthily in a settlement. Even I can't pull off murdering the princess."

"What's done is done. No need to mull over it," Master said.

"Should we chase?" Linda asked. "They took civilians. Their marching speed should be slower than ours. We still have some Army Haste magic scrolls."

Master pondered for a while before answering, "No. That Themisphere King also has something that increases their marching speed. If we chase, we might engage them in the middle of the Khan region. I'm sure they had called the reserve army in Themisphere to come to meet them halfway. We won't have the advantage in number then."

Linda nodded. She agreed with the assessment. "In that case, I will divide our troops to head to the rebellious settlements to subdue them."

"Go," Master gave his approval.

Linda went and organized the army.

Master took a deep breath. He knew plans easily went awry, but this still frustrated him. He planned to absorb the Hydrurond army into his. He failed that after conquering Messephyria because he was unaware of the descendant rule.

He hadn't given up yet on getting Hydrurond's army when the battle near Daboga Marshland took place. That's why he had his force focus on the Themisphere army, he didn't want to kill too many Hydrurond soldiers.

Once he decimated the Themisphere army, it would be easier to box in the Hydrurond army and take out the queen with a precision strike. Once the queen was out, the system would force the low-ranked soldiers to switch to his side. So would the rebellious settlements, he didn't need to expend his time and force to take over those settlements.

Now, he had to do that manually.

"Never mind," He said to himself. "This is just a slight delay."

---------------

Khan region and Jagara regions were the two regions between Themisphere and Hydrurond. Khan region was smaller and thus required less time to travel. This was also the region Jack currently used to lead everyone to Themisphere.

His runestone of Marching was floating alongside him. The runestone glowed from a constant injection of willpower. It hastened the movement speed of the massive force. Even Aldryth's force and the Hydrurond civilians received the increased movement speed. They were all currently considered to march under Jack's lead.

Grace rode alongside Jack. The two chatted most of the time, catching up on the things that had happened. The others intentionally left them some spaces and blocked anyone who was imperceptive enough to wander near them.

The two touched on the subject of Godkiller at one point in their conversation.

"I am worried," Grace said. "Greed mentioned that Fear produced that weapon out of instruction from Master. What if he can make more? Won't the other Gods also be in danger? If Master took out all the Gods except the ones who support him, he will be unstoppable."

  "Hm… You are right," Jack said. "Let me ask the specialist."

"Specialist? Who?" Grace asked.

"The person who designed this game world, of course," Jack answered.

Jack sent the message without delay.

"How is your battle against Master going?" Wilted sent a reply. "I heard about Messephyria falling. The last I heard is you continue to march your army into Hydrurond."

"We lost," Jack answered. "But we saved the Hydrurond's queen. I'm currently bringing her and her army to take refuge in Themisphere. Why don't you just come here and join us in battling Master?"

"I'm causing mayhem in Liguritudum, remember?"

"Can't you take over Liguritudum when Master is away?" Jack asked.

"I don't have a functioning army. What I have is just some of the disgruntled natives who used to be Liguritudum's officers, but our number is too small to take over the capital. Master left a million troops stationed around the country."

"Then you should just come here and join us. It will be more effective than that little mayhem you do."

"What do you know? This little mayhem is what prevents Master from amassing more armies and having the resources to conquer other countries faster. You should thank me for doing this and buying you time."

"Okay, okay. I didn't call to argue with you. I want to ask about the Godkiller."

"Godkiller? What is that?" Wilted asked.