The fifty million players were arrayed in front of the city, waiting for the signal to start the assault.
In front of them, barely a hundred thousand Tyotting soldiers stood to defend their city.
Despite the speech they had heard recently, their morale was extremely low, and everyone among them was fully aware that they were totally under-equipped. Theirs was a pacifistic civilization, not accustomed to waging war on anyone.
They knew in their hearts that they were probably going to die that day. At least they would have a chance to protect their families.
An eerie silence settled in. One could hear the wind blowing between tall buildings as the two armies stared one another down.
But one player did not wait for the command to attack.
It was Apophis.
He stepped forward from the ranks of the Eternals, his body covered in black flames.
Apophis raised both his hands up to the sky, and a spiral of black flame concentrated between his hands until it had grown to a whole meter in diameter.
Apophis hurled this huge dark fireball at the Tyotting fortifications, creating a gigantic explosion that razed most of the bunkers on the south side of the city!
Everyone stared at the result with amazement. "Who was that lunatic?!" people exclaimed.
Apophis wasted no time, but charged the fortifications alone.
Caesar had no choice but to order his guild forces to follow.
Seeing thousands of players rushing forward, weapons drawn, everyone else quickly followed suit! They formed a human wave that rose to collapse and swallow the city of Tyo.
The defenders were surprised to see such a lack of military strategy. They were still embedded with machine guns, after all, which they'd installed in all the improvised bunkers at the city's entrance.
The defenders immediately unleashed their machine guns, raining deadly bullets upon the countless charging players.
The carnage was indescribable, worse than any battle in the Second World War.
"Waaazaaa!" the Tyottings and players seemed to roar together, their voices distorted and suppressed by the inhuman buzz of bullets slamming into the Eternal ranks. Thousands of players fell every second as the naivety of their unprotected charge became apparent.
The Eternals were not soldiers, after all. They were ordinary people, teenagers and adults who played this game for fun and money.
The Tyottings were fighting for their very lives.
Despite the staggering losses in the attackers' ranks, they eventually reached the first wave of fortifications.
The massacre of defending forces was brutal and quick. Many of the defenders were militia not used to combat, while plenty of the attackers had already attained their classes at lvl 5.
The fortifications fell, one after the other. The streets ran red with blood as mutilated corpses filled the streets.
Once this information reached the government, the President made an announcement over the city's loudspeakers. "Dear citizens, our defenses have fallen! The enemy has entered the city! I proclaim the unconditional surrender of Tyo!"
The loudspeakers repeated the surrender message over and over, but hardly a player cared.
They were here for two reasons: EXP and GC. What did they care about the surrender of computer programs?
So they began an unimaginable massacre.
Apophis took advantage of the fact that everyone else just wanted to plunder the city. He was there to find the shipyard, after all. He wasted no time in heading to the city hall where he knew the President and the government of the Republic of Tyo could be found.
***
Antanria, who stood at the top of a hill outside the city, looked on in horror at the incomprehensible massacre perpetrated by the people she only knew as Apophis's civilization.
Tears ran down her face without cease.
Why was such indiscriminate violence being used against these peaceful people? Antanria remembered all the Tyottings she had met during her walks with Apophis and in the hotel. They had been some of the kindest people she had ever met.
The image of the ice cream sellers came into her mind, and she imagined their gentle faces being shattered by Eternal bullets.
Without question, the Fall of Tyo would haunt her memory for a very long time.
***
Apophis arrived at the city hall, which was protected by the Republican Guard.
He massacred them without mercy, then penetrated through the city hall to reach the urban archives of the city.
Ignoring the shouting and flames which raged outside, Apophis quickly read the city maps, seeking anomalies that would allow him to find the Zetark shipyard.
Nothing immediately gave him the answers he sought, but he 'did' find an ancient text mentioning that the city's initial construction site had been moved ten kilometers south of its initial location, because an anthropological society had protested their building directly on top of the ruins of ancient settlers which the founders had intended as their initial building location.
Well, that was clearly the answer. Apophis stopped for a moment to ponder the uniqueness of this civilization, to have had such a mind for scholarship even so early in their existence.
Well, it didn't matter much now. Nor did the city matter to Apophis.
He had his true destination, and it was time to go find it!
"Ceasar," he said into the guild communication channel. "I quit." Then he used his menu to leave Renovatio Imperii and headed for the outer boundary of fallen Tyo.
Whatever Ceasar said in reply, Apophis was no longer in the channel to hear it.
