Chapter 91 - 88 : Retreat

(AN : I edited the stats for Rackow's Guard cause I felt it was still weak…Please remember to notify me about any grammatical error)

Back at the main battlefield…

With the lack of command orders and the constant massacre of their fellow comrades, the goblin army was almost decimated with only less than 50 of them left. Some of the players hurried over to get the kill on these guys while the rest decided to take a break from the constant murders and spilling of blood.

One noticeable fact in this war, for the players of course, was that they couldn't loot the bodies of the goblins. Usually when a monster is killed, players are able to loot the body, through the aid of the [Loot] icon, for equipment, weapons or any other valuables. However, they had earlier discovered that the case wasn't so here. There was no [Loot] icon and even if the players personally searched the dead bodies, they couldn't find any treasures. If they tried to use the weapons previously wielded by the goblins, they would receive a System notification that such equipment or weapon was totally useless in their hands. For the metal ones, they would receive a notification stating that every loot was under the custody of the Town government and any attempted hiding or any weapon could lead to being jailed or executed on the spot.

As frustrating as these notifications were, none of the players dared to defy the Town's government especially after witnessing the ability of the Town Head Arman Lagus in battle. The mountain was already badly demolished with the peak turned to rubble.

"Death to the system!!!"

"We want our loot! We want our loot!"

"Shitty game. Rip-off Realm!!!"

With no extra rewards apart from the mission reward, some of the players became dissatisfied and started cursing while some just did so for the fun of it. However, this was only a few of the crowd of players that arrived. Most were already satisfied with the kill rewards and only waited for the mission to be over.

Some of them came up with a few reasonable explanations such as the AI in charge(Heaven System) eliminating the ability of looting dead bodies otherwise all of the players who participated in this war would have ended up as millionaires even if its just in copper coins. Some believed that it was in plot with the story after all the monsters were poor to begin with and also since the Town government lead them to this battle and was already intent on rewarding them, there was no reason for the players to have a share in the goblin army loot.

All that remained now for the players was for the last less than 50 goblins to be slayed, the main boss to be defeated and for the goblin commander to be caught. Two of this requirements could be said to be complete as not only would the less than 50 goblins be decimated within a few seconds but also the explosions that had been going on for awhile at the mountain's top had come to an end. This obviously signified the end of the battle as Lord Midel took a few troops with him alongside the Church's people, as they rushed over to the mountain peak or rather, what was left of it.

As for the death of the goblin commander figure, some of the players were about to head underground to search while others wanted to look for it in the mountain but were stopped by a system notification.

[[ System notification :

Emergency : Lord Midel has just discovered that the goblin forces has a commander figure apart from the Emissary. Find and eliminate this figure before the army suffers more casualties.

Reward : 1000 experience points, 10 silver coins, Loot, 10 kill points.[1]

Failure Penalty : Potential defeat in battle.

Emergency Mission completed by : Team Emperor's Might

Team East Crow

*****

***** ]]

"Whoa! Emperor's Might had actually participated?"

"I know right. I had previously seen the Snow Goddess in battle. She was a strong as she was beautiful."

"Isn't East Crow a second tier guild? Who would have imagined that they will team up with Emperor's Might to take on the commander."

"Indeed. For them to have done so, the commander should have been really strong."

"With this collaboration, East Crow should have risen by a few points in rank. Who knows, they might team up later and this might be the first alliance between two guilds."

"Stop joking around. A super guild wouldn't bother to team up with a 2nd tier guild either way."

"You're right. Seems like I was thinking too much."

"Does anyone know who those censored parts represent? It seems to be two parties or two players?"

Different conversations burst out after the players had gotten a quick glance at the System notification. Although a couple of them were disappointed to have not gotten the kill for themselves, upon seeing those who did, they felt it was better that they actually never looked for the commander.

Unless they had power to show and contend with a super guild, going there might have led to them either getting killed by monsters or fellow players even. After all, the NPCs only aided the players from getting killed by other players in the main battlefield not somewhere underground where no NPC headed. In such a case, they would completely be at the hands of their adversaries unless they wielded the strength to turn the tables or the resources to buy their lives. Despite the ability to revive after death, every player still treasured their lives as a chunk of experience points would be deducted with each death alongside the potential threat of losing a valuable weapon, equipment or even material.

"Good. With this mission completed, we can raise our popularity and higher new members." Troubled Sword, Hiroshi Daichi, smiled.

. . . . .

"It's over now, give up." Arman stared at the cloaked man who stood in front of him in silence.

Right now, the Emissary's projection was wrapped in golden chains that were formed from inscriptions of Holy words. The haze mist around him had dissipated by 80% and the energy fluctuating from his body had a drastic change compared to previously as it was a lot lower.

Since the main body was currently battling the third department of the Monarch Guards, he had to focus most of his energy on himself. As a result of this, the projection's energy supply took a nose-dive for the worst and so, despite being injured, the Riverdale Trio managed to gain the upper hand in the battle and successfully captured it.

Even though they had captured it, Arman, Bishop Enzo and Deval didn't let their guards down. They stared with their full focus and attention on it, not letting themselves get full of their achievement.

"I have to say that I am disappointed. I was truly looking forward to his revival." The Emissary's projection ignored the trio and stared at the spot directly atop where Sato and the others were.

"It seems this is fate then."

"What the hell are you babbling about?" Arman yelled.

"The balance of the world will soon be overturned. Chaos will rise once again, so will the gods. Lives shall be lost and worlds destroyed. You should have heard about the prophecy right? Foolish priest and leader?" The Emissary replied.

Arman knitted his brows while Bishop Enzo frowned a bit. Deval on the other hand didn't know a lot as he had no actual power nor background like the other two but upon pondering a bit, a look of enlightenment appeared on his face.

"What about it?"

The Emissary then smiled. "You have heard about the future but how much do you know about the past?"

"Would you stop speaking in parables wretched creature!" Bishop Enzo yelled in vexation.

Arman on the other hand frowned a bit. Even though he felt that the Bishop's words were a bit too crude, he was still frustrated at the way the Emissary spoke.

"As expected, you know nothing. Since that is the case, I shall speak nothing." The Emissary smirked. Despite losing and having his projection captured, he didn't seem like he cared neither was he bothered about it. Rather, looking at Bishop Enzo's frustrated look made him chuckle.

"For the somewhat entertaining bout you have given me, I will however, tell you a little something. Take it as a hint from an enemy in arms."

"An enemy in arms?" Deval questioned in a confused tone.

Smiling, the Emissary continued in a charlatan tone "Your enemies are neither demons nor gods but something far greater. By revealing this to you, I'm pretty sure that I will be punished a lot but the better you learn that, the easier it will be to cooperate."

"Cooperate? The Church has no reason to cooperate with a vile creature such as yourself." Bishop Enzo harrumphed.

Ignoring his remark, the Emissary stared at Arman before saying "Child of the void, remember. The name given to me by my Lord is Yan and we shall meet again soon."

As he completed his statement, his body began to crack like clay, bit by bit until eventually, his entire being cracked apart and disintegrated into molecular ashes swept away by the wind.

. . . . .

At the same time, the main body of the Emissary, Yan, suddenly disappeared from the sights of the Shadow Guards.

"He escaped." The eagle masked individual spoke.

"His Highness won't be so happy about this."The tiger masked guard spoke with a vexed mood.

"There's nothing we can do about it. Even when we fought with him, we could barely keep this place intact to prevent the neighbouring countries from finding out. Plus our main mission was to drive him out and learn of his origins; capturing him was but a side mission. Let's leave." Their leader, who wore the fox mask stated before taking a step forward and suddenly disappearing.

The other two did the same and also disappeared. As they left, the power keeping the place intact was lifted up and immediately, the mountain crumbled to dust. Yes, dust and not rumble. It seemed like the two parties had a very serious battle but thanks to the efforts of the trio, they managed to limit the damage to the place. But as they left, the remaining devastating energy from their show of strength earlier alongside their short battle, spread outwards devastating the mountain. This was but the remnant of their powers.. One could only imagine what would have happened to the mountain range if they didn't hold back a bit.