Episode 31: Grandiose escape. (2)

I left the chamber and looked around. I looked at the time, [58min 53sec]. I immediately went with the plan in my head.

(Outside the palace)

All the players from the Eluna Empire's faction are gathered in front of the entrance gate to the palace. A blue-haired guy and a red-haired guy are standing next to each other. The blue-haired guy is wielding two swords and rests one of them on his shoulder.

"Who dares to stole from our empire..."

The red-haired guy is yawning while holding a double-ended sword.

"It doesn't matter. He or she will be dead..."

The blue-haired guy is chuckling mischievously.

"Let's bet who will kill the culprit first, Lothair."

The red-haired guy is raising his eyebrow.

"Are you sure? You're going to lose again, Diamond."

The blue-haired guy is Seven Diamond, the Diamond Clan leader with over 2000 members. Rank 4 on the leaderboard. The red-haired guy is Lothair Ermes, the Cloud Veil Clan leader with over 1500 members. Rank 5 on the leaderboard. They both are the top 1 and 2 clans from Eluna Empire. Diamond and Lothair have a good relationship with each other and their clan members are often playing together. They called themselves, brothers in arms.

[Name: [Valiant] Seven Diamond

Clan: Diamond

Level: 175

HP: 6.355

STA: 422

Status:

STR: 1+105 [ATK : 115+500] [DMG : +25%]

AGI: 100+40 [ASPD : +24%] [SPD : +24%]

DEX: 120+50 [CRIT: 30%] [SDMG: 17%] [CDMG: 50%]

INT: 1+20 [MATK : 31+0] [WIS : 21]

LUK: 1+0 [DDG: 0.05%] [LCKY: 0.001%]

VIT: 10+20 [DEF : 255+70] [MDEF : 255+20]

CHR:1+0 [REP : 1] [FAME : Honored]

ART:1+0 [SMIT : 1%] [ARTIS : 1%]

EXTRA PTS: 0]

-

[Name: [Undercover] Lothair Ermes

Clan: Cloud Veil

Level: 174

HP: 6.735

STA: 463

Status:

STR: 1+50 [ATK : 60+500] [DMG : +50%]

AGI: 200+40 [ASPD : +59%] [SPD : +59%]

DEX: 20+80 [CRIT: 20%] [SDMG: 20%] [CDMG: 50%]

INT: 1+0 [MATK : 10+0] [WIS : 1]

LUK: 1+0 [DDG: 0.05%] [LCKY: 0.001%]

VIT: 10+80 [DEF : 310+50] [MDEF : 310+50]

CHR:1+0 [REP : 1] [FAME : Honored]

ART:1+0 [SMIT : 1%] [ARTIS : 1%]

EXTRA PTS: 0]

-

Diamond and Lothair are mocking each other and then they both turn around. Their online clan members are gathering around in front of the palace entrance. Diamond crosses his arms.

"Alright, boys. We shouldn't be wasting our time any longer. Is everyone here?"

Diamond's clan members are nodding with an agreement. Then Diamond is looking at Lothair.

"What about your men, Lothair?"

Lothair raises his eyebrows.

"They're ready whenever."

Diamond nods and then raises his sword.

"Alright! Let's march! We still have 50 minutes left to hunt the culprit!"

All the players are screaming in excitement and they all enter the palace.

They entered the palace, but it surprised them that the palace was too quiet and there were no lights. The lamps inside the palace were destroyed and they all walked carefully and some of the players used their spell to lighten the palace. Even with the lights provided by the players, it was still too dark to see. Their vision was limited to 2 or 3 meters in front of them.

Diamond looked at Lothair with confusion. Lothair shook his head since he also had no idea what is going on in here. Then they saw so many royal guards dead bodies in the hallway. The further they go, the more bodies they discovered.

Diamond squatting and squinting his eyes while looking at the dead body of the royal guard.

"Who the hell managed to kill so many royal guards in just 10 minutes? We are talking about the royal guards, not just regular NPCs. Their levels are 200 with high stats."

Lothair is on guard while looking at the front.

"I don't know man. It's not Ivonna nor her friends. They all are in the Alliance Kingdom territory right now based on their location in my friend list."

Diamond stands up and looks at the players behind him and then looks at Lothair.

"Could it be them?"

Lothair raises his eyebrow.

"You mean Kingstar and Queenstar? No, they're streaming at the moment with their clan members."

Diamond sighs and looks around.

"So that means, the culprit is not from the top 10 leaderboards, since the rest of them are with Kingstar and Queenstar right now."

Lothair nods with an agreement. Diamond is crossing his arms while thinking.

"Let's split up then. I believe there's more than one player since they can kill so many royal guards in just 10 minutes. Knowing that their levels are not that high compared to both of us. Their levels must be around 130 to 140. We can handle them even if we are splitting up."

Diamond is looking at Lothair.

"What do you think?"

Lothair nods and walks towards his clan members.

"We are going to the east side of the palace and check every room from the first floor to the fifth floor. We will meet on the top floor at the emperor's garden."

Diamond nods with understanding.

They both walked their separate ways. Diamond and his clan members are walking to the west side of the palace and looked at every room. Unfortunately, since the players who have the skill to give vision for the others reduced by half, they barely able to see 1 meter from in front of them.

Suddenly they heard a scream from behind them. Diamond turned around and he couldn't see anything. He checked at each of the party leaders and asked if their party members went missing. One of the party leaders lost 10 of his members. Diamond went back to find the missing members because he thought that the culprit was with them the whole time.

Diamond is gripping his swords so tightly.

"There's no way someone can kill 10 people in a minute..."

They were all surprised to see the players' dead bodies. Then Diamond ordered some of the players to revive them. Another scream came from behind them. They all looked back and saw a guy wearing a black hoodie and red scarf that covered his face just killed 3 of the players. He has daggers on both of his hands.

Diamond immediately runs to the front. He looks at the guy in front of him.

"You did this?"

The hooded guy shrugs and tilts his head.

The hooded guy runs towards them without saying anything. Diamond slashes him but he dodges his attacks and walks past him. Diamond turns around and dozens of players are surrounding him and attacking him, but none of them manage to land a single hit. Diamond is watching his clan members getting killed one by one. Magic, arrows, daggers, swords, and all other weapons are thrown at him but none of them land on him. Diamond opens his friend list.

[To Lothair Ermes: Go to the first floor west side. Now! We found the culprit and I might need backup!]

The hallway suddenly becomes pitch black. The players that giving vision for the others are dead. Diamond screams.

"Hear my voice and come towards me!"

Sadly his voice is not being heard because the screams from the other players are overwhelming his voice. Diamond has no idea what to do in this kind of situation.

Slowly his eyes are adapting to the darkness. But it's too late for him since the hooded guy is staring at him as if he knew that Diamond can see in the darkness now. The guy runs towards him, but this time he has two chained sickles on his hands. Diamond can't follow the guy's movements at all.

[421]

[430]

[420]

[432]

[1232]

[804]

[819]

[822]

[402]

[417]

[424]

[You died]

[4min 59sec to self-reviving / Go back to the spawn point]

Diamond is laying on the ground since he entered the spectating mode. He's watching his clan members getting massacred by the hooded guy.

(Who the f*ck is that guy?! How can he killed all of us without even getting any hit!)

After the hooded guy killed all the Diamond Clan members, he approached Diamond. He wrote something on the paper and put it beside Diamond. Then the hooded guy has gone into the shadow.

(Second floor east side of the palace.)

Lothair and his clan members are checking every room and they see dozens of royal guards dead bodies in the hallway. Lothair exhales deeply since he's getting nervous with the atmosphere. Then a notification appears in front of him.

[Message from Seven Diamond]

[Go to the first floor west side. Now! We found the culprit and I might need backup!]

Lothair's eyes are wide open and turn around.

"Boys, go to the first floor, now! They found the culprit!"

They all nod and hurriedly run back to the first floor.

Lothair is running at the front with a player beside him giving him a better vision. Then Lothair stops and covers his mouth with his hand. Hundreds of players are laying on the ground dead. Lothair looks around and orders his members to get closer and revives all the players. Lothair is standing beside Diamond and protecting the player who's reviving him. He looks down and he notices there's a piece of paper beside Diamond. He picks it up and reads it, then he suddenly clenches his fists furiously.

After they revived all the players. They're resting for a bit to recover their HP and stamina. Diamond is looking for Lothair since he's nowhere to be found. Diamond approaches one of Lothair's clan members.

"Where is Lothair?"

The guy is pointing at one of the rooms. Then Diamond walks inside the room that the guy is pointing at. He sees Lothair is reading a book. Lothair notices and approaches him.

"Read this..."

Diamond is tilting his head and sees a piece of paper in Lothair's hand and grabs it.

[I still have 30 minutes before I can leave the palace. It was fun. I'll be waiting at the emperor's garden. Are you ready for a rematch?]

Diamond is laughing with disbelief. Lothair is looking at Diamond with confusion. Diamond sighs and shakes his head.

"Lothair, you won't believe what I'm going to say."

Lothair raises his eyebrow. Diamond continues.

"He massacred all of us in less than 10 minutes. He killed me in less than a minute! We didn't do any damages to him. He dodged all our attacks even though he was surrounded by hundreds of players."

Diamond chuckles and shakes his head. Then he looks at Lothair.

"It wasn't 'them'... it's only one guy. He did all this on his own..."

Lothair nods with understanding.

"You won't believe what we just saw on the second floor. Dozens of royal guards are dead in the hallway, way more than in the first floor."

Diamond closes his eyes and sits on the ground.

"Who is he?"

Lothair shrugs and shakes his head.

"I have no idea. I haven't encountered with him, so I can't tell."

Lothair is offering his hand to Diamond. Diamond looks at him and grabs his hand. Lothair grabs his double-ended sword and looks at Diamond.

"Let's go to the emperor's garden and take your revenge. With our full force, he won't be able to make it out alive."

Diamond nodded and then both of them left the room.

Diamond Clan and Cloud Veil Clan are on their way to the emperor's garden on the top floor of the palace.