Second World

Everyone looked at the chat and was surprised to find out that the speaker was Saint John.

"What the f*ck are you doing here!" Bowler cursed in the chat. "Why are you in our guild chat?"

"Why? Because I am a member, of course," John replied nonchalantly.

"What? How are you a member?"

"Traitor! Hang him!"

"Kick him out!"

"Who invites this traitor back in?!"

Many members started chiming in the chat.

"I did," Jack replied the last question, which shut everybody up.

"Let's leave the questioning for later. We still have enemies to beat back," Jeanny said, keeping everybody on the matters at hand.

*

At the Guild Hall's entrance where Jack stood guard, Killmonger was unwilling to give up. He ordered all the ranged players to attack. Since Jack had to continue standing before the entrance to prevent anyone from entering the Guild Hall, he was sitting duck for range attacks.

Jack cast Magic Wall, blocking all the attacks.

Unfortunately for Jack, his Gold Scale Armor was in cooldown. Otherwise, it would have been a perfect skill to use considering he could not move away. So, he asked Peniel to cast Healing Field at where he stood. With his superior defense and excellent recovery, the Healing Field helped him tank through all the range attacks thrown his way.

Seeing his method was not working, Killmonger decided to take matters into his own hand. He activated his Berserk mode, then asked all melee players to attack while he took point, with the range players providing support.

Jack met them head-on with his sword art.

All his minion was in cooldown except for Tame Pet and summon companion. Those two had no cooldown since they could get permanent death. The only drawback for summoning them again so soon was that whatever wounds they suffered in the previous battle would still carry over.

He didn't think he needed Arlcard's help for these small fries. So he only summoned Therras. The beast ran through the backline enemies who were still sending Jack ranged attacks.

While those range players were interrupted, Jack used his forty-eight burst slashes to beat everyone back.

Seeing Killmonger lose his balance, Jack didn't want to lose the opportunity. He cast Myriad Ensnaring Chains in front of the entrance. Unless more than twelve people rush in at the same time, the chains should be able to serve as a substitute guard for a short time.

Free to move around, Jack's assaults became more deadly. Killmonger tried his best, but he was unable to keep up with Jack by himself. All the others he brought weren't expert enough to provide him sufficient assistance, while Ironhand got his hands full dealing with Jack's Therras Beast.

When Killmonger fell, the others lost their fighting spirit. With a heavy heart, Ironhand issued a retreat. There was no point losing everyone here. Jack let them leave. He couldn't leave the entrance. He had to continue staying guard in case someone used an invisibility scroll to sneak in.

When Ironhand's team was on their way to the exit, they met the ten blood counts. They focused on just escaping. They had to leave behind those that were unfortunate enough to get caught by the blood counts. Coming out to the courtyard, they had to suffer through a hail of arrows from the eagle rider hunters again.

At where the wall gate used to be, a wall of squires was standing guard. These squires were still dealing with assaults from the front, so Ironhand's team had an advantage when they attacked from behind to create a gap to escape through.

Even so, they still suffered many casualties. A decent number of them broke into Heavenly Citadel. Less than ten managed to escape.

*

Manager Steelhand dropped to his knees. His head was down. Even after such a preparation, they still failed.

"Hmph! This is a disgrace!" Prideful Josh uttered. "We are pulling out!" He started sending messages to his guild members to retreat.

The others did the same.

Scarface put a hand on Steelhand's shoulder. "We have done all we can," he said in consolation.

The coalition members were retreating after receiving their leaders' commands. Jeanny asked the others to stand down. Everyone had been tired. If the enemy wanted to leave, let them.

After their forces put a decent distance from the enemy, Steelhand deactivated the platform. All Corporate United's native soldiers were unsummoned back to their guild headquarters. The platform turned back into the Guild Army Summoning Crystal, which Steelhand stored in his inventory.

The coalition forces separated and just left without saying anything.

Seeing their allies left in that way, Scarface wondered if there was any future left for the coalition. This second failure in assaulting Heavenly Citadel was sure to leave a bad taste in everyone's mouth. Third failure if they considered the battle of Crestfall Plain. It would be difficult to persuade them to make another joint attack again. But frankly, he himself didn't think he want to mount another attack anymore.

Luckily, they still had that quest with the third prince that tied everyone in the coalition. He figured they should just focus on that quest.

*

Once the coalition army left the territory, a voice notification was heard by every member of Everlasting Heavenly Legends, informing them of a successful defense. Every participating member received a generous amount of contribution points while the guild received a sizable number of reputation points, pushing them ahead of the others. Added with the reputation points they received for successfully destroying Saint Edge's guild core, their guild should be able to level up again before the others.

Everyone cheered after hearing the notification. They had managed another successful defense.

Jeanny and some of the core members entered the Guild Hall, finding Tip, Jack, and John were waiting for them inside.

"What the hell! You better have a good reason for us to not just kick you out of here!" Bowler said to John.

"I will gladly do the kicking," The Man added.

"Now, now, be reasonable. I know you are all upset," John said calmly.

"You bet your ass we are upset!" Bowler hissed.

Jeanny went to Jack. She was curious about John as well. But to be frank, she was also upset. She couldn't bring herself to talk to him, so she came to Jack instead. Before she asked about John though, she thanked Jack first, "Good job on destroying our guild hostage token," she said.

"It wasn't me," Jack said.

"Wasn't you?" Jeanny asked.

"Yeah. It was him," Jack said and pointed to John.

The others who were still cursing and scolding John stopped after hearing Jack's words.

Jeanny asked Jack again, "What about Saint Edge's guild hostage token?"

"It's him as well," Jack answered.

The others looked at John.

"See. I never betrayed you people. It's all my strategy to successfully acquire Saint Edge's guild hostage token," John said.

The others were unwilling to trust his words, but the fact was indeed so. Their guild hostage token was no more. They instead got another guild hostage token. There were two of them now inside this Guild Hall, netting them continuous resources from two of the wealthiest guilds.

"Explain yourself," Jeanny said to John.

"My ploy is to gain their trust. What better than to let them see I betray you people? With their trust, I managed to trick them into leaving me alone inside their Guild Hall, which allows me the opportunity to do what I need to do."

"Why didn't you let us know?" Bowler complained. He was still feeling bitter with this guy.

"Friend, haven't you heard the saying, to deceive your enemy, first you have to deceive your friend? If I have told you people of my plan. Will you all still act so convincingly? Will Jack rush out to attack Saints Seat? Will he fight so heatedly? Will he be able to kill me knowing that I am still a friend?" John asked.

"Oh, believe me, dude. I will still happily kill you even if I know the truth," Jack said.

"Well, then it will be happily, not furiously. Your act will then not be so convincing," John countered.

"So that's the real reason you called me back? To be part of your ploy?" Jack asked.

"Of course. You are an integral part of my plan. I need to make sure you are available before I proceed."

The others were quiet after hearing John's explanation.

"Well. All's well that ends well, I say," Jack said. He was not the kind to dwell. Since John had proven that he didn't actually betray them, Jack could forgive him.

"I know you will understand, friend," John said to Jack.

"I just need one thing from you," Jeanny said.

"Oh? How can I help?" John asked.

The answer came to him in the form of a hard punch to the face. John reeled back from the impact. "Ouch! What was that for?!" He exclaimed.

"You try this kind of stunt again, it will not be just a simple punch. Remember that!" Jeanny declared.

"Uh, yes, ma'am," John said while massaging his jaw.

"Hehe. I will have to have mine as well," Jack said. He cracked his knuckles.

"Hey, hey! You have already done worse to me! You killed me, remember?" John protested.

"Hm'¦ Well, I suppose I did. Okay, I won't do anything to you. But, the others'¦" Jack looked around at the others in attendance.

Bowler caught his meaning, he immediately exclaimed in joy," Haha! That's right! You let each of us punch you one time, and we call it even!"

"Agreed!" The Man said as he copied Jack in cracking his knuckles.

"Hey, hey, wait! Don't you'¦ ouch!"

"Hey, enough'¦ Ow!"

"I'm serious'¦ Oof! That's too strong'¦!"