There was not much suspense in the fight. The demon was a level 60 boss. Although the strength of bosses could scale with the number of enemies they faced, there was an upper limit to it. Facing 400 players the demon stood no chance. It was quickly overwhelmed.
"Tsk, that was quite easy. Is that all the chaos faction has to offer?"
"They probably never expected us to appear here."
"Maybe. It is really shocking that the order faction managed to sneak traitors in here."
While the players were chatting, Cyclone rushed towards the demon's corpse, eager for loot. However, when she retracted her hand there was only a simple looking, black stone in her palm.
"What is this?"
"That's the key."
Cyclone pondered for a moment before realizing what Liam meant. She looked towards the strange black pillar up ahead. Just now a few players were standing around it, studying the pillar. Someone drew their sword and delivered a blow. They were immediately hit with a powerful backlash, losing half their HP.
"Careful!"
"We can't get through this thing."
"What should we do?"
Before the players could find an answer themselves, Liam and his friends approached. Cyclone held her chin high as she placed the black stone against the magic pillar in front of her. The dark magic instantly fluctuated and disappeared. A pillar made from translucent, black crystal standing within an eerie, bloody magic circle got revealed. Rolling waves of frost spread, sending chills down everyone's spines.
The players shivered, but it was not because of the frost. Instead, everyone was hit with in instinctual, primal fear as they laid eyes on the black crystal pillar. Or rather on the small vial embedded deep within.
"What… is this? I can't stop my legs from shaking."
"Air, air. I'm not getting any air."
"You know what… I think I forgot something on my fridge. Ehm, I mean in my oven. Yeah, that's right…"
The players couldn't help themselves. There was no way to defend against what seemed to be spiritual attack. Even Liam was affected. However, compared to the others he was already prepared and could thus adapt swiftly. The fear didn't hinder his movements. He took a step forward and swung his sword. With the sound of glass braking, some of the crystals broke off.
The sound woke everyone up. Noticing Liam's action some brave players gritted their teeth and attacked the crystal pillar as well. Under the cooperation of more than twenty people the pillar naturally didn't hold on for too long. A large hole was dug into the pillar. Liam signalled the others to stop and reached inside, retrieving the black vial embedded in the pillar.
"Ew. Looks disgusting…"
Fortune was the first to comment as the players crowded around Liam, staring at the vial with curious expressions. Surprisingly, using [Inspect] only returned a bunch of question marks. The players felt unsatisfied but at that moment their task updated, stating that one power source had been destroyed and asking the players to safeguard the vial for now.
"Still no answer, huh?"
"It seems like they don't want us to know…"
"Sucks. But there's nothing we can do about it. Come, let's find the other power sources."
As the task changed, the players quickly moved on. Liam and his friends were at the back of the room and had to wait for everyone to pass through the teleporter. Thus, they still had some time to talk.
[Cyclone: Expert, don't be so mysterious. Tell us what's in that vial, ok?]
[Bleary Mirage: Don't you want to find it out yourself?]
[Balm: How could we? Through guessing?]
[Balm: It's a viscous black liquid… A power source. Don't tell me it's oil?]
Liam couldn't help but laugh when he saw Balm's guess. However, this quickly drew the piercing gazes of Cyclone, Fortune, and Balm. Noticing his friends looking as if they were about to fight him, he soon stopped teasing them.
[Bleary Mirage: Ok, ok. I will tell you. The liquid in the vial is blood.]
[Cyclone: …]
[Balm: …]
[Silver Blade: …]
Suddenly all of Liam's friends joined in, sending him three dots. Liam was taken aback. He coughed awkwardly before continuing.
[Bleary Mirage: … it's the blood of Gnemotrimn, one of the strongest devils of his time. Among the chaos faction he has quite the transcendental status. It's probably equivalent to the most prominent gods of the order faction.]
This revelation brought quite the shock to Liam's friends. Not necessarily because of the devil's status. Rather it was something else which left them baffled.
[Balm: The blood of a devil who has died who-knows-how-long ago can fuel a barrier which even the three commanders can't break through?]
[Fortune: Insane…]
[Watchful Eye: Impressive.]
[Cyclone: Aren't we waging war against the chaos faction right now? How are we supposed to win against the devils if they are so powerful?]
[Bleary Mirage: That's nothing for us to be concerned about. The order faction naturally has their own trump cards. We just need to accumulate points.]
The friends gradually suppressed the shock in their hearts. At this moment the likes of Silent Acacia and Quickstep had it better. Since they didn't care about the story, they had a more detached perspective. No matter how strong a devil was in the story, wasn't it just a matter of levels in the end? Once they reached level 100, would there be any opponent left they couldn't defeat?
While everyone was occupied with their own thoughts the other players had gradually left the room. Liam woke up his friends, leading them towards the teleporter. A moment later they were back in the warehouse. Sounds of battle reached them from outside. As they left the building, they realized that the chaos faction had caught up with the order faction and battles had erupted everywhere in the core area.
Getting entangled in battles was actually unnecessary for the order faction. Many players knew this as well. However, they couldn't find the power sources before they were attacked and now they were stuck in this situation. Yet this was about to change. The players who just came out of the secret room spread the news about the process and finally everyone understood that the power sources would be so deeply hidden. Thus, the order faction did their best to avoid getting entangled in fights and instead thoroughly searched all the buildings.
It didn't take long for a second power source to be found and destroyed. Everyone could see the barrier defending the tower start to fluctuate. Its recovery rate was already slowing down. But it was not something the players could destroy. Thus, the search continued. Players of both sides kept dying. The blue progress bar stalled while the red resource bar shrank slowly. However, the order faction remained confident, clearly having the upper hand.
After a while Liam led the members of Dream Avenue towards the third power source. They were slightly delayed by the chaos faction, prompting a few players to sacrifice themselves to hold the enemies back. The others vowed to remember their names, advancing with fervour, completely caught up in the dramatic war. Soon, they destroyed the third power source. And simultaneously another group led by Silken took down the fourth power source.
"Hm? Did something happen?"
"I feel like something changed…"
The players outside were puzzled, only feeling that a certain pressure had appeared in the air.
"The tower!"
Finally, someone figured it out. A shocked exclamation attracted everyone's attention. Turning towards the tower they realised that at some point the barrier had silently disappeared, revealing the black behemoth. The invisible pressure came from a person in a black robe sitting on a small skeletal dragon which hovered in front of the tower. One look at him and the players felt all the hairs on their bodies stand up.
"Haha, Dragon Slayer Velge has come out. You better run as long as you can, order faction losers. If the commander decides to deal with you, you are dead!"
The chaos faction players let out threatening shouts. They had to vent their emotions.
Just now, the results of their tasks came in. For the task of holding back the order faction everyone only received a C or D. The point reward was ridiculous. In fact, the chaos faction players were quite puzzled. Although they had no previous experience with the tasks, even they could tell that the order faction was inexplicably fast this time. It was incredibly frustrating. After all, the more time they bought, the longer their siege weapons could fire at the army outside, causing losses to the order faction and depleting the red resource bar. But now…
The chaos faction players stared at the skeleton dragon in the sky, hoping that the commander could vent some frustration for them.
Just then all the players of both factions received a new task. It could be summarized in a single word: Run!
"Hm? Strange, why would such a task appear?"
While some people were still dazed, others didn't question the task and hastily escaped in all directions. Liam urged Dream Avenue, returning through the gate they came from. Thousands of players scattered like insects after their nest had been attacked.