Legacy of the Betelgeuse

Chapter 35 - Episode 35: Surrounded.

(At the Supremacist base)

Kingstar and Queenstar with five of his commanders are gathering at the roundtable. Everyone sits in silence and they're looking at Kingstar. Kingstar is looking at one of his commanders.

"You received a message from Seven Diamond and Lothair Ermes, Rein?"

One of the commanders with blue long hair nods. A rank 9 player in the leaderboards, Reinhardt.

"Yes, they gave us a warning. The item that was stolen from the Eluna Empire's palace is Krestan's leg. Then, the item that was transferred to the Alenbeliard fortress is Krestan's arm. I did some research about Krestan's limbs, each sovereignties have one of his limbs. The last limb is in the Alliance Kingdoms, which is Krestan's eye. But I have no idea why someone wants to steal those things. What I do know is, Krestan's limbs are very important items for the three sovereignties."

Kingstar is looking at Queenstar. Queenstar sighs.

"That's it, Rein? Did they just warn us to be aware of it? I would like to see him try and steal it from us. What can a single person do against us?"

The other commanders nod and chuckle with agreement. Reinhardt is looking at them with disbelief. Kingstar is tapping his fingers on the table.

"If it's something important, that means the person who stole Krestan's leg has the quest to retrieve them and give them to Krestan. Does anyone know where this Krestan NPC is at?"

They all shake their heads. Kingstar nods.

"Alright. For now, order the mages that are currently at the Alenbeliard fortress and tell them to stay there for the next few days. We will need their portal skill to enter the Alenbeliard fortress in an instant when an emergency quest appeared."

They all nod with understanding. Kingstar fixes his hair.

"You..."

[Voice of the World]

[Emergency quest!]

[A player stole something precious inside the Alenbeliard fortress. Find the player and the emperor will give a hefty reward to the player who managed to capture the culprit. The culprit will be restricted to leave the fortress for 1 hour by the system. Find the culprit before the time runs out. Every player from the Aarus Empire's faction has to prevent the culprit from escaping.]

[59min 59sec before the quest failed.]

(Somewhere in Eluna Empire territory.)

Diamond and Lothair are helping the newbies on their quests. Then the VoW appears, Diamond is looking at the sky. Lothair grabs Diamond's shoulder.

"We have warned them. Hopefully, they can capture him."

All the newbies are asking a question about the VoW and what it's all about. Diamond and Lothair happily answer their questions. Diamond looks at the sky again.

"It has begun... I hope they can stop him from getting Krestan's limb."

Diamond and Lothair continue helping the newbies.

(Back to Supremacist base.)

Kingstar slams his hand on the roundtable.

"Already?! The Alenbeliard fortress has more than hundreds of soldiers and hundreds of players in there. How can he stole Krestan's arm so easily?!"

Queenstar lifts her hands.

"Order the mages to open the portal to the Alenbeliard fortress, now!"

Kingstar, Queenstar, and the five commanders hurriedly run outside their base. The mages opened a portal to the Alenbeliard fortress. They equipped their best equipment, then ordered all the online members to enter the portal. Currently, there are more than 10.000 Supremacist Clan members that are online and they all entered the portal while Kingstar and Queenstar were watching them.

[Krestan's limbs 2/3 retrieved!]

[You are under restriction by the system. You cannot leave the Alenbeliard fortress and cannot log out for 1 hour]

[59min 59sec until you can leave the palace.]

[Escape from the fortress without getting captured in 1 hour.]

[Failure condition: Getting captured or die.]

[If you failed, your stats will be permanently reduced by 90%. You will be under the blacklist player in the system that prevents you from getting EXP and Drop for ??? time.]

I look around and something is bothering me. Avriel gave me the right coordinates about where are they keeping Krestan's arm, but I never thought that it would be this easy. Not to mention, Ardalec and Diadre are nowhere to be found. They should be the ones who are protecting Krestan's arm, not some knights. Even though there are hundreds of knights around this area, but compared to both of them, they are nothing.

I'm running to the top of the fortress to check the situation around the fortress. When I'm at the top of the fortress, hundreds of portals are opening and dozens of players come out from it every second. Luckily there's no exclusive quest like before. If there is, it's going to be a pain. So all I need to do is to avoid them until I can leave the fortress.

[Voice of the World]

[The culprit is currently at the top of the Alenbeliard fortress. This is the coordinate of the culprit [...]. Hurry, before the culprit move to another area.]

[Every 5 minutes, the system will reveal the culprit's coordinate.]

"Are you kidding me?!"

I immediately leave and find another spot to hide.

Kingstar and Queenstar arrived at the Alenbeliard fortress. They immediately ordered all the clan members to surrounded the fortress from all directions. Each of the commanders will lead more than 2000 players and on their way to the position that they were ordered by Kingstar.

Kingstar is tightening his gauntlets.

"Let's see who dares to steal something from the Aarus Empire. He will not be able to escape."

Kingstar and Queenstar immediately walked inside the fortress from the front gate. They both went to the latest of the culprit's coordinates and started to search for the culprit from there. It surprised both of them because the fortress is so dark and there are no lights.

A message appears in front of Kingstar.

[(Fourth Commander) Reinhardt: We lost contact with the fifth team.]

Kingstar and Queenstar are looking at each other and immediately open the clan chat.

[Clan Chat:

Kingstar: Who is here in the fifth team? Reply immediately!

N: My friend is on the fifth team.

Kingstar: I asked who is in the fifth team! Don't reply if you are not part of the fifth team!

O: I'm in the fifth team, sir Kingstar. A player just appeared and killed most of the team members. Commander Grim Rime died and currently, we are running away from the area ordered by Commander Grim Rime.

Kingstar: What do you mean Grim Rime is dead?! Where are you at? Give me the coordinate! How many have fallen so far?

O: I don't know sir Kingstar, it's too dark in here and I believe more than hundreds. Here is the coordinate [...]

Kingstar: Hold your position until I get there!]

Queenstar is looking at Kingstar with worries.

"How could this happen? Grim Rime has the best equipment from the rest of the commanders, so how can he died so fast."

Kingstar sighs.

"Those bunch of noobs must have made him get killed. I shouldn't have to bring these newbies with us. For now, just let's hurry up to the coordinate that he gave."

Queenstar nods with understanding.

They arrived at the west side of the fortress, and they didn't see anyone and didn't hear anything. It was dark and silent. Kingstar asked the guy in the chat but he didn't respond. Then a VoW revealed where the culprit is at. They both immediately ran there.

A message appears in front of Kingstar.

[(Third Commander) Grim Rime: Kingstar, I'm on my way to the coordinates that the VoW provided.

Kingstar: Meet me there! We are also on our way there.

Grim Rime: Roger that.

Kingstar: What happened to you back then? Did you die?

Grim Rime: I hate to admit, but yes, I died. He took me by a surprise. The culprit is wearing a hooded robe, a mask, and a red scarf.

Kingstar: I see, then don't die again this time.

Grim Rime: Roger that.]

Another message appears in front of Kingstar

[(First Commander) Alec Stovankov: We managed to surround the culprit! Come here quickly, Kingstar.

Kingstar: Great! We are on our way there. Grim is also on his way there.

Alec: Understood. Reinhardt is also on his way here.

Kingstar: Nice, we can end this now. Don't let him escape!

Alec: Understood!]

(At the south side of the Alenbeliard)

At the narrow hallway where the Hooded guy is at. Alec and his team are surrounding him and are blocking his way. Some of the players are holding torches to light up the hallway.

"You can't run, you b*tch! There's no way for you to escape from this place."

The hooded guy tilts his head.

"Who said that I'm running away? Look around you, it is you who got baited to follow me here. What makes you think that you can win against me in this narrow place?"

Alec is about to open his mouth, but the hooded guy just disappears into the shadows. Alec looks around and the other players are also looking for him. Then a scream is coming from far behind. All of them immediately turn around and slowly the players from far behind are backing off and pushes the other players.

The narrow hallway is suddenly become cramped up. Alec is pissed.

"Stop... f*cking... pushing each other!"

Alec grabs the heads of the players in front of him and pulls them away. Alec walks past the cramped hallway. Since he can't see anything that's in front of him and keeps trying to walks past the players, he notices that the hallway is no longer cramped. When he pulls the last of the player's head, he's standing still with disbelief. Hundreds of players are dead and laying on the ground. The hooded guy is standing in the middle of the dead bodies of the players.

Alec is gulping nervously, but he chuckles to pretend that he is not.

"Not bad..."

The hooded guy raises his eyebrow and tilts his head. He walks towards Alec slowly. Alec unconsciously walks back. The hooded guy scoffs.

"What's so funny?"

Alec is smiling widely. The hooded guy turns around and he sees Kingstar, Queenstar, and the rest of the Supremacist Clan's commanders. Kingstar is glaring at the hooded guy.

"You're finished..."

The hooded guy puts his hands up with the daggers in each of his hands then tilts his head.

"Is it though?"

(At one of the kingdoms of Alliance Kingdoms)

Ivonna is sitting inside a bar on her own while looking at a message from Diamond and Lothair. She closes the message and opens her friend list. She's glaring at Trevor's location then looks straight. She exhales deeply and closes her eyes. Then she leaves the bar while clenching her fists.