Apophis was filled with rage as he realized the truth about the Coalition of the Eternals: their leaders had never wanted to save their players, after all.
No. All the SuperGuilds cared about were financial and political gain. They'd used Apophis to obtain a weapon of mass destruction, relying on his knowledge and power to do what they were too pathetic to do themselves. They surely wanted the [Pandemonium] so they could return to Cronos I and use it against Eclipse, punishing the guild for humiliating them during the war.
To the SuperGuilds, the spirit of comradeship and the very idea of honor were meaningless and superficial things. If a player became a liability, their SuperGuild would simply fire them and replace them with someone else.
For a moment, Apophis felt angry at himself for not realizing the truth earlier. He should never have trusted the SuperGuilds in the Coalition to be faithful to their players trapped on Terra.
Then why had they allowed Lotus to command the raid? Had the Coalition actually relied on Lotus's talent and focus to allow the mission to reach this point, or was it all for the sake of letting Lucifer ambush her? Whatever the reason was, she was now hanging limply in Lucifer's arms, mutilated and unconscious.
But Apophis couldn't allow his fury to distract him now. Instead, he forced himself to analyze his current situation. He and his forty teammates were all still stunned by the "Electrocution" status. That was quite worrying. Usually, "Electrocution" was a very short-duration status effect… and it usually didn't stun him as heavily as it did now.
Apophis rolled his eyes in his head, unable to do much more to look around him. He quickly saw what he had suspected: several machines created by the Engineer class which generated a constant "Electrocution" AoE. When those fields overlapped, their effects were even stronger, and they'd been arranged so that Apophis was trapped right in the middle of several AoEs.
Until the machines were disabled or destroyed, the status effect would never go away. Joker's strategy had been almost perfect.
For a moment, Apophis tried to think if there was any small possibility of freeing himself. However, even if he broke free, and even if he also freed his companions, the odds were stacked heavily against them. Joker and Lucifer both had their teams in the area, which meant a hundred professional players would attack him at once.
If Lucifer hadn't been involved, perhaps Apophis could have still won. Maybe. But Lucifer's involvement was too much of a complicating factor.
Then even more enemies arrived. Apophis was able to move his head very slightly using all his effort, and he saw Mario and Zelda with their own group of players.
Zelda looked around haughtily. "Do you have them trapped?" she asked.
Joker answered, "My energy impulse generators totally neutralized them when they returned to the surface!" I told you not to worry.
Mario added, "Excellent work. I see you even got that bitch, Lotus."
Lucifer dropped Lotus to the ground, his expression neutral, then wiped her blood on his pants.
As Lotus fell to the ground, Apophis could see her injuries more clearly. She was badly mutilated, missing two legs and an arm. Lucifer had probably torn these off to avoid any chance of her escapes or helping her teammate.
Apophis suddenly remembered his last fight with Lucifer, when he'd ripped off the enemy player's limbs after defeating him. Could it be that this brutality was partially payback for what Apophis had done? His hatred for Lucifer grew even stronger. "Coward…" he muttered.
Zelda drew her sword and walked towards Apophis. An expression of gleeful evil was on her face. "Let's finish this! I'm going to kill that bastard Apophis and pocket his monumental bounty. That'll go a small part of the way to covering the damage he did on Cronos I!"
Joker replied hastily, "Wait, Zelda! We still have enough time to interrogate him and understand how the weapon Apophis brought back works!"
Just then, another group arrived. It was Ceasar's group from Renovatio Imperii.
However, to Apophis's surprise and satisfaction, Ceasar did not look like someone who had just outsmarted an enemy. Instead, he looked absolutely furious.
"Why was I only told about this now?!" Ceasar growled. "I just received a subspace message from my guild leader! Apparently, the entire plan is changing and I'm supposed to help you capture Apophis and his guild!"
The star players looked at each other for a moment. Then Lucifer spoke up, his voice now a little mocking. "Your attitude isn't helping things any, Ceasar. You need to remember where your loyalty belongs. On Cronos I, we lost precious minutes because of your moods! And now, here on Terra, you've been happy to go along with Eclipse's plans without any opposition or thought of how you could undermine them for the greater good of the Coalition. I'm starting to wonder if you're actually a spy for this bastard Apophis."
Ceasar drew his hammer and got into a fighting stance. "I'm no spy! And neither am I a traitor… not to you, and not to anyone I give my word to help!"
Before Lucifer could respond, Mario stopped between them. "That's enough, you two." Then he turned to Ceasar. "Look, we were also informed at the last minute what the real purpose of this mission was. But that doesn't matter. We serve the Coalition, not the pathetic players who managed to make themselves useless by being killed over and over until they hit LvL 1.
"The goal is clear, Ceasar: we must bring a weapon of mass destruction to Cronos I and avenge the affront Apophis made to us during the last war. That's what it was all about from the very beginning, and the rest was just a cover. If you're truly loyal to your guild leader, then you'll obey without any more objections."
All these words shocked Ceasar to his core. Ceasar was one of the rare Horus players who sincerely believed in honor. When he agreed to help someone, he kept his word. By now, he had fought side by side with the members of Eclipse to free all the players on Terra. Though they would probably war against one another in the future, they were his brothers in arms for now. To betray them for any reason, let alone to get information and then to kill them in such a cowardly manner, was totally against his moral code.
Seeing this confusion in Ceasar's eyes, Lucifer gave a victorious smile.
Joker cleared his throat. "If you two are finished, we have a mission to complete. Our corvettes are waiting for us to leave this damn planet. All the pieces of the plan are in place with the Imperium, so we'll have no problem leaving."
Ceasar glanced towards Tiberius, his second-in-command. "I'm logging off right now to confront the guild executives. Protect my body until I get back!" Ignoring everyone else, Ceasar laid on the ground and disconnected from the game.
Joker laughed. "Is he serious?! He's really going to confront them over this?"
Lucifer said blandly, "Ignore him. He's an idiot. Anyway, you're confident that the agreement with the Emperor of the Imperium is solid? He will truly let us go?"
Joker replied in a confident voice, "Yes. After all, I'm providing him with the Terra resistance on a silver platter. There will be millions of players who will have no choice but to join the Imperial army or see their characters locked up in prison forever. On his side, he's guaranteed us a safe passage out of Terra and a promise that he won't try anything against the Cronos system."
Lucifer nodded. "Perfect." Then he glared down at Apophis. "Well then, Apophis. I leave offer two courses of action: first, collaborate with us and tell us how to use the weapon you found. If you do this, I promise that we will free Lotus and your teammates. Second, you refuse, and I kill your friends one by one. They'll respawn at the Valor Temple, where the Imperial Army will be waiting."
A contract appeared in front of Apophis.
╔══════════════╕
╟─╼Exchange Offer
╟─╼[Buyer] Apophis
╟─╼[Seller] Lucifer
╟─╼[Buyer Gets]: the seller offers to remove any hindrance and guarantee protection for 1 day to players belonging to the guild "Eclipse," except for the player "Apophis."
╟─╼[Seller Gets]: the buyer commits to reveal all known information about the item [Pandemonium].
╚═══════════════╛
Apophis gritted his teeth in fury. This kind of agreement was enforced by the game itself. If he failed to uphold his end of the bargain after agreeing to it, he would be banned from Horus altogether. Though he didn't want to agree, what other option did he have? His movements were still 99% restricted.
In a last-ditch effort, Apophis tried to activate ~Susanoo~!
Nothing happened.
Apparently, Joker's trap was so powerful that it prevented him from accessing all the Cosmic Energy required to activate the Skill.
But Apophis could still access a tiny amount of Energy, as well as moving his hands just the slightest bit! Could he move them enough to activate ~Waterbending~? He used every bit of his strength to shift his body just enough to hide his hands from Lucifer—then managed to activate a very weak version of ~Waterbending~!
Lucifer was beginning to lose patience with Apophis's silence, but before he could act further, Zelda stepped forward."Look," she said, "you can see very well that he's not going to speak. He's probably trying to stall until the mechas outside break in and crush us! Why don't you just channel some Vital Energy into this [Pandemonium] thing and see what it does?"
Joker replied quickly, "We can't simply do that. There's too much of a risk that we accidentally break or even activate it."
Zelda laughed mockingly at him. "Coward!"
Despite his paralysis, Apophis laughed loudly and harshly. "What he's saying should be basic common sense! You'd know that too, Elizabeth, if you were a real VRMMORPG player and not just a spoiled little bitch!"
Zelda, who was a high-born woman and extremely proud, stepped in front of Apophis and put her foot on his head. "Poor little worm. How disgusting."
Suddenly, an explosion shook the warehouse!
Joker asked, "What the hell is going on?!"
Lucifer answered, "It seems that the Raid group is in disarray. The line has broken and the last non-combatant players are running away."
Joker replied, "I guess the Assault Mechas will be here soon. We should leave as soon as possible." Then he turned to Zelda. "Come on, let's finish the mission."
Zelda turned to Joker and said, "And the object he brought back?"
Joker replied, "We don't have time to get the information now. We'll study it in detail on Cronos I."
By this point, Apophis had managed to summon a small pool of water around himself. Nobody noticed. At this point, he used every bit of his strength to ignite the water with black flame!
By reflex, Joker crossed his arms to shield Zelda. A shock wave of scorching air slammed into him…
…And shattering the glass ball of [Pandemonium] he'd been holding in his hand.
In a fraction of a second, an intense ray of overwhelming energy shot out of the sphere and pulverized the ceiling of the warehouse, piercing the sky above.
The energy released by this beam blasted outward in cataclysmic waves, shaking the planet on its axis and creating an earthquake that would have registered as a 9 on the Richter scale.
The huge ecumenopolis of the city-planet, the center of civilization for space humans, trembled from its roots. Huge skyscrapers capsized like gelatin towers, and the winding highways and railroads that crossed the surface tore apart like papery spiderwebs.
The trillion civilians in their underground bunkers were crushed under the collapsing planet, millions at a time.
But this catastrophe was only the beginning. After a few minutes, the energy beam accumulated in the sky, creating a dimensional rift. A huge black circle appeared, several hundred kilometers from end to end…
…And one of the most frightening growls imaginable was heard all over the planet.
