Fire and Brimstone

POV Switch - Heimrich (1st)

I despise these heathens, but most of all their contempt for me.

They imagined that they could constrain me by caging the flesh. But the wrath of the Lord has overthrown their schemes.

The gates of their dungeons have been laid open, their thrones have been set aflame, and the king of their kingdom is slain. Woe unto their kingdom, for it is left without an heir, and their defeated foes of Kekistan now come to ransack its mighty halls and set fire to the towns. Its riches shall be plundered, and its beloved wives shall be chosen among. Woe unto the mighty king who has upset the Lord, for he is slain in the same day as I was imprisoned, and his enemies shall reign over his home for seven and sevenfold years!

Yea, this prideful throne has met even with the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah, which were struck by rain of fire and brimstone, and turned to smoke.

Cursed are its children, for the fire shall devour them fresh from the cradle!

Cursed are its peasants, for their fields shall be overrun by barbarians, and they shall be murdered while their lords hide in shelter!

Cursed are its mighty, for the Lord has struck down their pride, and their daughter shall be forced to service the oppressors until death!

Cursed are its healers, for their worldly healing has not overcome the wrath of the Lord who they neglected!

From the grassy hills outside, I have watched this calamity unfurl, a fate that would have been unthinkable even a day ago. For what men regard as the work of centuries, even the fall of great kingdoms, God has oft performed in an instant. The wind is heavy, and has set the grass to stand on end, but even it cannot put out the fires that have claimed the marketplace outside the castle. They are fuelled by the wrath of the Lord, for his servant was imprisoned, and the kingdom has worshipped its secular arts.

But there remains one more sin, that cries out to the Heavens for vengeance. That is the sin of the man whose hubris rejected the healing that comes from the Lord, and who played a part in my arrest. For, even if he has escaped, my vengeance shall pursue him to the very end of the earth, yea, even to the gates of Hell.

For it is the Lord's will that he be cast into the fire!

Witness the might of the Lord's furnace! It shall not be satisfied until all whom the king loved have been consumed. For the Lord has liberated me, and I shall not use my liberation in vain, but to pour His vengeance upon His foes.

POV Switch - 1st (MC)

I have received a few generous offers for Guilds, but I doubt that I can trust most of them.

After all, most are just asking me to join because I'm strong. They think that they can use me to further their goals. I'm not interested in being a prize mule for some Guild's leadership.

Most of these Guilds will probably not be able to deal with the stress of me joining them. It will bring more scrutiny than they expect, and they'd probably bow to pressure and start trying to distance themselves from me. One Guild even ended their invitation with, 'Come to the Dark Side, we have cookies uwu'. I don't think that they really have what it takes.

A few of the Guilds had the decency to say that they approved of my actions, and wanted to help me out. This included the Laughing Coffin (LC), and the sKinhead Kampf Kartel (KKK) who had defended me earlier. Since I'd be the most important member of any of these Guilds, it's a bare minimum that they don't talk to me about what I can do for the Guild, but about what the Guild can do for me.

That said, I'm not really satisfied with the Laughing Coffin's offer. They seem unwilling to change their leadership arrangements, and it seems that I'd mostly be reduced to carrying out their plans. What makes them interesting is a little note a the bottom of their invitation, 'P.S. We have an infiltrator in KoB, and are working to undermine them. Join us to learn what we know.' It's obvious that the Knights of the Blood have taken a firm stance against me, for whatever reason, and if the Laughing Coffin are working to undermine them then I can respect their endeavour. Further, I'm curious about if they can tell me anything about the Knights of the Blood's plans against me.

However, they are in no position to enter a full-out war with the large KoB, and I don't want to join a risky guerrilla war led by someone else. Further, they seem to seek publicity often, and at the moment it's best for me to lie low and attack when I can.

While the KKK is eccentric, they have offered me the rank of Führer, which apparently means that I will be unquestioned leader. While they are white supremacist, and I am not white, I can understand where they are coming from. They have seen the uncivilized hordes of Japs, blacks and Indians overrun their country with immigration and anime, and despise lower races much like I would. That must be why they are willing to follow my leadership, because I am also from a civilised race.

In addition, they have shown their commitment to helping me out before, and therefore I can trust them more than the other alternatives. They know how respect, and even sacrifice themselves, for a greater man. That shows character.

As such, I have accepted their offer.

More importantly, I managed to fetch a level 20 sword from their Guild treasury. That functions similar to the inventory, you can draw out items wherever you are. Apparently, you are limited to items of a certain value, and to fetch more serious items you need to have more 'Guild contribution' points, whatever that means.

Honestly, I couldn't care less about that, it sounds like a nuisance. I will figure out all of this later.

For now, the sword should be enough for taking on this 'pet tiger,' who is roaring like a fiend and beginning to annoy me.

POV Switch - Yui (1st)

"No, it was Hegemaniac! Your plan didn't work!" I screamed.

"It's the Laughing Coffin. Didn't you see their pamphlet, woman?" Tally replied complacently.

"They lied! Look, it was obviously Hegemaniac, they even found evidence that the killer was looking for a weapon!"

"Be quiet! You're only trying to cast doubt on my ingenious plan! If you're a bad girl, I'll have to put you in the corner!"

"It didn't work, and you can't make me do it again-"

He grabbed me, and dragged me into the corner, where he tied me up in some chains that Xing lent him. What did I do to deserve this? And he's also making me wear just a bikini, in my server's control room of all places! He says it's eye candy to help keep him motivated, since he's doing the heavy lifting.

And now I'm supposed to be sent in to talk to the leaders of the Laughing Coffin? What am I supposed to do, just prance around the server trying to talk everyone into being nice, while barely wearing any clothes?

I was surprised by how nice the conversation with Hegemaniac was, but even he's betrayed me... Just like the Fallen God and Xing. Maybe he couldn't take me seriously in that outfit, or he noticed my misgivings about the whole thing, or he was just lying all along.... But at least Tally didn't have the success he wanted!

I don't know whether he knew, but Hegemaniac has been the only person this whole day to do what I wanted him to.

Admittedly, that's because it was a bad day.

But I don't really have any allies at this point in time. I don't even know whom I dislike more now, Hegemaniac or Tally? I can't even respect the Fallen God, after what he's forced me to endure.

Thinking back, I should have tried to convince Hegemaniac that Tally was the one who had screwed him over. I doubt it would have worked, he'd see through me. But if I could get him to think of Tally as a foe, maybe I could convince Tally to come inside the game to help with his 'persuasion' missions, and then have Hegemaniac kill him? After all, Tally would probably accept, he'd think that he was impressing me...

Uck. Honestly, I hate this whole situation.

And now Tally's just staring at me, and I can barely move. He's literally just standing there, looking me up and down, with a gaping mouth. Surely I couldn't have deserved this, right? It's too much.

But there's really nothing I could do right now. I couldn't even kill myself.

And I guess I should be thankful for the positive attention since everyone else hates me, even Hegemaniac has probably figured out what I've done to him...

All I can do is wait for Tally to finish setting up the meeting with the Laughing Coffin. Since they're not stuck on a rock, he's having to negotiate with the leadership, so that we can meet somewhere. For some reason, they're actually being quite compliant. Are they willing to listen to me?