In the morning before Jack found Alonzo's lifeless body, Jeanny and most of her guild members were gathering outside Wicked Witches' headquarters in Aurebor Dynasty. They had received news that today would be the day the World Ruler was attacking. They and the Offline Beasts members had been helping Wicked Witches in preparing their defenses.
Offline Beasts had come to give aid as a repayment for Wicked Witches helping them during their headquarters' defense. Even though the defense had failed, they were still grateful enough for the assist.
In the few days prior, Jeanny had been touring around the Aurebor Dynasty with her sister, Jennifer, to meet the leaders from the other guilds who had been attacked by World Ruler before.
She might not have the tactical mind as John, but she had a different gift. She could bring people together. She had been trying to persuade these other guilds to come together to oppose World Ruler.
However, it seemed that World Ruler had quite an effect on them. They didn't outright express it, but Jeanny could see that they were afraid of World Ruler. Each one of them only said that they would consider sending help but none of them promised it. Jeanny was rather impressed that one guild could intimidate the others to such an extent. Even their guild which was the number one guild in Themisphere didn't have such an effect.
After the tour, she was informed by Jennifer that the World Ruler's method was indeed very overbearing. If any of the guilds they had hit dared to retaliate, they would focus on that guild. Keep on killing the guild's members until they couldn't afford to buy Amulet of Rebirth again and would still continue until most of the members fall back to level 1. Each of World Ruler's members had generally higher levels and better equipment, so it was not a difficult task for them.
Normally, when a guild targeted another guild in this way, their own development would be hindered. Because they couldn't spare the manpower to do guild quests and leveling ups and such. That's why not many guilds preferred such an open and continuous conflict. It would just be a lose-lose situation for both guilds and benefit others who were not in the conflict. However, even though World Ruler persisted in such a conflict, they still could somehow develop at a rate not slower than the others.
Hence, those guilds who had lost their guild hostage token could just choose to bear with it and move on.
"There is no need to feel depressed. Mother had actually proposed we band together to take on World Ruler, but they had also refused then," Jennifer said to her sister. They were on the wall gate, overseeing the others as those players and guild soldiers organized themselves according to their instructions.
Jeanny sighed. She had indeed hoped that she could bring everyone together.
Even so, Jennifer actually thought those leaders who heard Jeanny's persuasion almost agreed to send help. At least those guild leaders didn't reject the request directly. It was a better reaction compared to when Nova, their mother, proposed for their guilds to work together. Jennifer had always known Jeanny to have a knack for persuading people. She used to be jealous of this talent her sister possessed. But now, she was grateful for it, even if it failed to persuade those guild leaders.
She looked at the players Jeanny had brought here to aid them in their defense. That talent of hers had amassed such a great number of people. Some of these players were even remarkable experts. Too bad the most remarkable of the bunch couldn't attend.
"Are you sure Storm Wind is unavailable?" Jennifer asked.
"His real name is Jack," Jenny informed. "Unfortunately, no. If our enemy attacked during the night, he might come to assist, but sadly our enemy decides otherwise."
The enemies had amassed some distance away. Jeanny and Jennifer could see them from the wall. Although most of Aurebor's landscape was forestry region, Wicked Witches' headquarters was located in a large clearing with a small lake to the side.
"They are pretty haughty to attempt no concealment in their assault," Jeanny remarked as she looked at the enemies amassing far away.
"They are indeed haughty. They thought that there is no chance for them to lose in a direct clash," Jennifer said.
"Really? I thought your guild soldiers are rather good, to be honest," Jeanny said as she looked again at the guild soldiers around her.
Wicked Witches had around 15,000 guild soldiers. Several of Wicked Witches' basic guild soldiers were upgraded versions. They had two types of unconventional units. One was a large living tree. Like the treant summoned from Druid's exclusive spell, but larger. They were Forest Elementals. Jennifer and her team had acquired this special unit insignia as a reward from a very difficult guild quest. The insignia of this Forest Elemental was unique-grade.
However, they couldn't train many of this special unit, only six. These units needed a special material to train. This material was called living tree heart, a super-rare grade ingredient that could also be used in alchemy. Ever since infusing the Forest Elemental insignia with their headquarters, they only managed to find six of this ingredient.
The other unit type was Dryad. They were female-like creatures with leaves for hairs. Their skin was coarse, like tree skin. The garment they wore resembled tree branches with leaves which appeared as if an extension of their bodies instead of something they wore. They carried a long wooden staff. They were support units that cast spells that buff allies and debuff enemies. They also had limited healing and curing capabilities.
Wicked Witches had one guild hero and one guild guardian. Their guild hero was a level 58 rare elite elf named Wyn Arrawin. She dual-wielded small crossbows for weapons. Their guild guardian was a giant stag. When the players used their Inspect on this stag, they saw the name was Forest Lord. It was also a rare elite grade at level 60. It had thick white fur and extremely large antlers. Wisps of mana could be seen constantly swirling around these antlers.
"Only rather good? Which means you think your guild has better units," Jennifer said.
"Sister, I don't mean to belittle…"
"I'm just teasing you," Jennifer said with a laugh. "You are always so serious. But then again, I do know your guild army is much better than us. Too bad you can't summon them here."
"Yes, too bad. For a guild conflict, the defenders can only use their guild army and only one guild from the offenders can summon the guild army," Jeanny agreed. "Is the World Ruler's guild army truly that good?"
"You will see… Looks like it won't be long now," Jennifer said as she turned her gaze back to the enemies in the distance.
*
On the opposite side from Wicked Witches' guild headquarters, a regiment of five thousand players was gathering. Most of them were World Ruler members. A small portion was Death Associates, while another smaller squad was World Maker.
At the center of this regiment was a group of the leaders, gazing upon those they were about to crush.
"Look at them scurrying, haha," One of the men within this group laughed. He was a level 57 Inquisitor that goes by the alias Lead Designer. He wore a God-eye monocle.
"Hmph! Whatever their struggles, it's meaningless. We will crush them under our feet," a woman at the center of the group said. She also wore a God-eye monocle. She had a beautiful face. Yet this pretty face seemed to only be able to display one expression, aloofness. Every time she looked at someone, there was always disdain.
This woman was the leader of the World Ruler, Mistress. She was level 58.
She looked at everything in disdain because she considered by right this world was hers. She was the eldest child of the owner of the Trigitech Corporation. The same corporation that developed the Second World game. She was the owner's daughter whom Wilted mentioned to have conspired with Apollyon, A.K.A. Master, to turn the real world into a world based on a game her corporation was developing.
Master had promised her a place by his side but she couldn't bear to be someone's shadow. Hence, Master let her create her own guild. The ones who followed her were mostly the staff of Trigitech. Mainly those who had been working on developing the Second World. Thus, many of the members of this guild knew the internal workings of this world. That's how they had been able to progress so fast, by using the knowledge of the game they worked on.
"But I admit it is surprising to see they possess the forest elementals," Lead Designer said. "Too bad they don't know the place to harvest the living tree hearts. Otherwise, they might cause us some difficulties. With only six of that unit, it is hardly a challenge."
Mistress turned to Lead Designer with displeasure. "Larry, you still dare to mention that? I have told you that I want that unit, but you let another guild get their hands on that unit's insignia first. Do you want me to punish you again?"
Larry was the real name of Lead Designer. The fellow was not actually the lead designer in the Trigitech Corporation. The real lead designer was Wilted's partner. Larry, however, was jealous of Wilted's partner and had coveted the position for some time. His choosing of the alias Lead Designer was one way to realize this dream of his.
"I'm sorry, ma'am!" Larry said apologetically. "The trigger to the guild quest that rewards that insignia is rather random. We have tried several times to trigger it, but I never expect another guild had triggered it by luck and successfully completed it first."
"Hmph! You know I dislike excuses," Mistress said. "Forget it. Let's just crush this eyesore of a guild. Summon our guild army!"
"Yes, ma'am!" Larry took out the guild army summoning crystal and looked for a suitable place to place the command platform.
