Creoft stepped through the portal and reappeared in Uskor's subterranean room. The cavern was empty of guards. He took another look at Dailin's maul before putting it away in his inventory. He speed walked through the cave and out onto the surface.

The great city of Uskor was standing as vibrant as ever. People freely walked in and out of the city gates. The chanting voices of merchants echoed from within the city itself.

"Come here! Talrik's Furnishings has all the housing materials you need!" exclaimed one merchant as Creoft walked by.

"Need Potions or poisons? Win your next skirmish with Altruistic Victorians' stash!"

"We have everything from furniture to potions to provisioning recipes! Come complete your collection with the Anglish Traders Union!"

Creoft pushed through the crowds and towards Uskor Castle. Once at the steps he turned and walked to a small stone tower-like building with no walls and a brazier in the middle. This structure was widely known as a transit shrine. Creoft approached the transit shrine, thought of the Town of Initiations and touched it.

Empora was much quieter than expected. The massive town of Initiations was half the volume of Uskor with far fewer people. Even with five million people still around, the place felt empty. Creoft stepped off the transit shrine platform and looked around for the Council's meeting hall.

The houses and shops within the town of Initiations were very colorful and almost unique in every way; a creation that even Picasso would sing praises of. The tallest home was the Council's meeting hall and down the street, Creoft ran. He ran with haste and carelessness towards the meeting hall, pushing aside players and NPCs alike. 'Gotta make it, before sunset' he mumbled under his breath.

Creoft may have left the group early, but the travel time from the northern mountains to the portal and from the shrine to the meeting hall ate away most of the day. It was late in the afternoon when he entered the meeting hall. He pushed the doors in and slowed himself down to a political walk. He took several deep breaths as he made his way to the meeting room.

Inside the meeting room, the voices of the council members were loud and in the middle of a discussion. However, when Creoft pushed through the doors, everything fell silent.

The first man to speak up was Hagtard of the Firesmiths. "If it ain't the prodigal son of Dailin the Warlord, how're the northern winters beyond the portal?"

The other council members quickly followed suit in a cheer of Creoft's return.

"Welcome back to politics, Cro." A woman in purple stood up greeting him. She wore the Tabard of Mystical Entities, a well-known potion, and poison crafter and Enchanter guild.

Creoft waved back with a smile, "Good to see you again, Elvici."

Another woman greeted him as well, adorned in the tabard of Honest Homestead, a large furniture crafting guild. "The man in white stands again."

"Glad to see you're still kicking, Mimi" Creoft then took his seat among the council at the large circular table, crafted by Honest Homestead.

The head of the council stood up. An older male dressed in red and gold and pridefully wore the tabard of the famous Remnants of Rome, the game's strongest fighters guild. "So Creoft, what news do you bring us from the Northern lands? Is there anything of big value out there that would cause someone to slaughter our portal guards?"

Creoft stood up and crossed his arms, "No, Tullus. So far we've not yet discovered anything of major importance out there besides a rumor of a cure for vampirism."

Tullus nodded, "We suspected that these assassins may have followed you, Dailin and Night out there. Did you encounter any other players?"

"We did. Thirteen level fifty players who were previously part of Poison Oath. They called themselves Poisoned Order."

A faint murmur broke out among a few councilmen.

Creoft continued, "We were successful in killing them but such a victory came at a heavy cost. As you've probably guessed by now, Dailin has fallen off your friend's list. During the final fight against the leader of Poison Order, she was lost. She fought bravely and with all her strength. Thanks to her, there are thirteen fewer murderers among the populous today." Creoft then placed her maul on the table. "I request that this is placed in the artifact room in her memory."

Tullus nodded, "Very well Creoft. I'll have it up on display by the end of today."

Janik of the Flügel Der Freiheit guild, the German fighter guild, stood up and saluted Creoft with a fist over his heart. "Honor to you, brother. We thank you and her for your service to Deutschland."

"Oh, before I forget, thanks to the system's design I'm now the head of the Guardians guild. I'll take up this post and exceed Dailin's expectations." Creoft added and then sat down.

"It's good that you brought this up. I have an announcement. With the portal now known to the public, I'm sure it is only a matter of time before people start clambering through to get to the new zone. I want to mobilize the three fighter guilds to clear a path to the next city" Tullus explained. "I want to find the next boss fast and soon. I want to be home before Christmas."

Hagtard stood up again, "But Christmas just passed and we still got almost eleven months before the next."

"I fear that it may take us that long to finish this game. I hope it won't but you never know what goes on in this place. Especially with all the glitches going on now."

Creoft stood up suddenly and in astonishment. "You're experiencing glitches too?"

Tullus tilted his head in confusion, "Have you not heard the rumors... Oh right, you missed the last two meetings. Mimi of the Honest Homestead guild has been the victim of a guild bank depletion. That's a thousand items gone in a split second. There are no logs of any of these items being pulled out.

"Janik's Second in command had his armor go missing in the middle of combat with a rank two boss and died because of it. Several members from Elvici's guild have been suffering from visual spasms. An unending flashing of thousands of colors at once."

"I do know of these glitches. Tangurple, a member of my guild and a close friend to Dailin suffered from that visual spasm and Falcher caught it as well simply by touching him." Creoft added. "Tangurple also mentioned he had sound issues, called it 'Ear Rape.'"

"Then this glitch is getting worse by the day. I don't know when or where this glitch started, much less how but there must be some way for us to fix it." Tullus then turned to Creoft, "Creoft, do you know of any ways for this glitch to be fixed."

"Even in all my years of programming, I don't know how to fix a coding issue from within the game itself. Seeing as how we're stuck here until we win and I don't have my admin privileges, my best guess would be that it'll be something we have to suck up and deal with for the time being."

"I don't like that idea, Cro." Elvici chimed in. "I don't want to end up dead because of a glitch."

"No one does but unless one of us coughs up admin privileges, we can't do anything."

The room fell silent. Tullus then took the reigns of the meeting once again. "Creoft, you said the group that attacked you was called Poisoned Order, right?"

Creoft nodded in agreement.

"Did they tell you of any plans that they had?"

"She did, yes. As you all remember, Reztri was killed in combat by Dailin during the Council's final raid against Poisoned Oath. A redheaded woman fled that fight and vanished without a trace. The leader of Poisoned Order was known as Wincubus. A now psychopathic woman who wanted to bring fire and brimstone to this council. She was the wife of the Poisoned Oath leader, Reztri."

The Council had a gasp of surprise. Janik then commented, "She wanted to kill us because we killed her husband. She has no idea that he murdered?"

"I'm not sure of that. I was not graced with an opportunity to interrogate her."

Tullus spoke up, "I find it hard to believe that she only rallied twelve combatants to her side. Even with less than five million people left, I doubt her numbers were that low."

Creoft nodded, "She said that those twelve were her best soldiers. I too believe she has more in her guild as well."

Elvici was a bit more curious, "those twelve fighters she brought with her, how good were they?"

Creoft wasn't sure where she was going with this but answered anyways. "Four of us, the perfect raid group, one enchantress, two DPS and a tank were able to win. We were a few levels higher than them but it was still an even match especially considering the gear they had."

Elvici shook her head in disagreement. "Those weren't her best fighters and I guarantee she wasn't the leader of Poisoned Order. Twelve men should not fall that easily to four."

Tullus questioned her, "What are you getting at?"

Elvici stood up and equipped her staff. "Creoft, were you followed here?"

"How could I have been? I took the transit shrines."

Elvici opened her hand and threw a small ball of Mage's Light up into the air. It exploded and activated its revelation ability, an area of effect spell that reveals stealthed mobs and players. Behind each chair was a warrior dressed in sickly green robes with hoods hiding their faces.

Instantly, the council members launched out of their chairs and huddled up on the table. "Who are you and what do you want?" Tullus demanded.

Another person whose robes were black with red trim emerged from a lesser lit area of the room and uncovered their face. It was another female but she wasn't human. Instead, she was a Tasaki. The body fur was a flame orange with a white stripe down the middle. She grinned and revealed her canine teeth. "Tsk, tsk. You want to hunt down my organization?" she asked tauntingly as more warriors revealed themselves.

Elvici chanted some arcane words and out of fiery portals, a hellhound and a rocky atronach of lava emerged. "If it weren't for this city's safe zone protections, I'd slaughter you."

Creoft equipped his claymore, "You know her, Elv?"

"Her name is Alma," Elvici replied with a growl.

The fox lady nodded in agreement, "Yes, I'm known as Alma and I run the Poisoned Order. Oh, and by the way Creoft, I thank you for dealing with my darling little traitor it was very helpful."

Creoft's facial expression shifted with much curiosity, "Wait, what?"

"Wincubus was a separatist and thanks to you, the Poisoned Order will be stronger, more unified. This council will fall and the people will be free to explore, be free to be them." Alma chuckled with a movie-like psychopath undertone to it. "My numbers grow by the day with more defectors from your little empire. The time for revolution is coming, guardians. Are you ready?" She snapped her fingers and all the robed warriors activated their stealth modes and vanished without a trace.

The room was dead silent for several minutes as no one dared to move a muscle much less say anything. Elvici cast a few more Mage's Light and fortunately, the hooded warriors were gone. Everyone jumped down from the tables but didn't get reseated, instead, Tullus dismissed the council for the week.

On his way out, Creoft was stopped by Elvici. "What do you need Elv?"

"If you encounter Alma before I do, make her suffer a slow and painful death."

"What did Alma do to you?"

"Many horrid things, betrayal, slaughter, the list goes on."

"Rest assured, Elv, Alma will be dealt with..."