An hour had passed before any signal was received. A messenger from one of the roleplay guilds came high knee-ing through the tick swamp muck. He cried out, "Go now! The Meeting... It's begun!"

Tullus jumped down from his high rock and hit the ground with a muffled thud. "Attack!"

The crowd of two thousand players moved with haste wasting much of their stamina on sprinting through thick swamp muck. Roughly only a quarter mile away was the small hut where the meeting was only just beginning.

The interior was heavily darkened, a house item was blocking the window and the light. A timid young male held his flax hat close to his chest. "H-H-Hello?"

A black and red throne was pressed against the back wall and sitting on it was a woman dressed in black robe, decorated in blood-like crimson colored trails. Beside her stood two equally horrifying guards. She stood up and raised her arms towards the heavens, "You have cried out for justice and the Mother of Darkness has heard. Through your voice and will, the contract will be performed without fail. So say-ith the Mother. Do you have the payment?"

The young male nodded his head and very shakily dropped the sack of coin on the nearby table. "You-you-you'll k-k-keep this a secret?" he timidly asked.

"All requests for the Mother's wrath are hidden from those who'd want to know. Your plea for justice is quiet and no one else will know."

The young male nodded, "is there anything else I need to do?"

"The Mother has nothing else to ask of you. Keep your mind focused and your eyes sharp. She'll always listen for more requests."

The young male sighed with relief and started making his way towards the door. As he opened it, he saw a distant mob rapidly approaching the hut. "The Protectors are coming..." he mumbled under his breath. "Perfect, the messenger made it." he closed the door and turned around, quickly re-tuning himself to the fearful man. "Before I go, I have one more question."

The woman looked over her shoulder at him curiously. "Ask away, the Mother listens to all questions"

"Ar-Are you the Mother of Darkness?"

She nodded and grinned revealing her fangs. "I am her. Why do you ask?"

"Y-You-You seem like a mother. I've always wanted to meet you."

She cocked her head slightly making faint gestures to her guards.

The young man threw off his cloak revealing the red and gold trimmed robes of a Remnants of Rome soldier. "Because today is a good day to die."

Outside the hut, the armies came en masse and hastily encircled the tree which the small house was carved into. Creoft stepped forward and shouted, "Attention murderers, you are surrounded by two thousand soldiers..." his voice trailed off at the sound of cackling and maniacal laughter.

The door opened and two heavily armored men emerged with the dark-robed woman behind them. She was chuckling and looking around at the army. "Tullus? Where are you, honey? I see your dogs but not you. Even with two thousand men beside you, you can't face me?"

Creoft slammed his foot into the ground, "Shut up! Sheathe your weapons and come quietly or we'll slaughter you."

The woman looked up towards the trees with a faint smile and then turned to Creoft, "Oh darling, you know I can't do that, I have a title to uphold. And besides, I think I have you outmatched."

From the trees fell a few hundred men and just a little way to the south was another marching army. From within the ranks, a male shouted, "Holy shit! These guys are level one hundred!"

Creoft growled and Tullus marched forward from the ranks. "I see the monster from the abyss has a few high profile friends. Even so, you won't be getting away."

She laughed, "I doubt it too, but in this event, I'll be making sure you go down with me." with a sudden whisk of her hand, she was hidden by a magic-based cloak. Her two guards whipped out their demonic blades and shields and attacked Tullus and Creoft. The dozen shrouded warriors attacked the rear flanks of the armies, actively hunting the healers. Chaos ensued among the ranks as some members turned on one another. The playing field shifted with the sudden revelation of insiders.

Creoft and Tullus took on the two guards and eventually won. Around them, however, the fighting only worsened and only seconds later, the reinforcement army arrived. More players around level one hundred mixed themselves into the battle taking on two or more combatants.

Creoft shouted above the clashing of metal, "Tullus! We need a new plan!"

"Rally your guild to the north, get them to break off and run to the north," Tullus commanded.

Creoft nodded and ran over to his contingent of soldiers who were actively fighting. "Guardians! Retreat to the north! Go now!"

At first, no one acknowledged the order but as Creoft kept repeating it, more took off into a full sprint to the north, away from the combat. Soon enough many were running away. Unfortunately, the level one hundred players were very strong and slaughtered quite a few of them. Creoft tucked tail and ran with the last of the guild.

Up north, slightly away from the battle, the Guardians were slowly recovering from the surprise; many retooling their skills and abilities. Creoft watched the battle from afar, catching a glimpse of Janik's guild retreating as well. Creoft jogged over to Janik and stopped his retreat. "What's Tullus doing?"

"I do not know. Something about delay," Janik replied.

"Son of a bitch. Come on Janik, reorganize your men and we will strike again but from the flanks. Head east, I'll come from the west."

Janik nodded and ran over to his fighters spouting off many German words most of which Creoft didn't recognize.

Creoft returned to the guild who were just started to calm down. "Come on men! We have more fighting to do. Tullus won't hold that line for much longer. Follow me!" He ran towards the southwest and slowly but surely, the guild fighters followed him in a massive line. When they reached the right flank of the attacking army, Tullus has been surrounded and bubbled in along with many seemingly exhausted fighters. On the other side, Creoft could see Janik already charging his battalion falling in behind him. Creoft waited a minute for the stragglers to catch up and then ran them into the fight.

The Poisoned Order combatants fell into disarray with the sudden attacks at the flanks and rear, splitting their forces among the three fronts. Janik pushed hard and spearheaded his way through them. He was the first to get on the inside with Tullus and aid him in his fight. Creoft stretched his lines slightly to prevent escaping but faced heavy resistance. The remaining level one hundred quickly fell to the flanking attacks.

In the aftermath of it all, Creoft, Tullus, and Janik counted up their numbers. Creoft turned to Tullus, "The Guardians have lost 63 men."

Janik added, "Fluegel Der Freiheit lost 34."

Tullus was reluctant to say his number. "197..."

Creoft then looked around at the scattered players arguing over conquered loot. "The good news is we now have gear that matches the strength of Poisoned Order and they've lost over 300 killers"

Janik nodded in agreement. "What about crazy lady?"

"She vanished before we could do anything. My guess is that this was her attempt at destroying us. I want to say the Poisoned order is defeated."

Tullus shook his head, "I hate to rain on your parade, but they are not defeated until she is dead. As long as she can continue to use that alias, she still has power. The problem now is, where do we find her?"

"I doubt she'll be doing public appearances again anytime soon. Do we have any guards stationed at the portal in Uskor?"

Tullus shrugged his shoulders, "To my knowledge, I have not stationed anyone at the portal, not since the mass execution down there the other week."

"Then I think I know where she could've gone. C'mon, we need to get to Uskor and block that portal before she gets there."

"I do not agree." Janik objected, "She may already fled to new zone."

"Possibly. Then we need to get there even sooner and cross over. Tullus, I believe it's time to explore Ashua."

Tullus nodded, "Alright. Help the men divvy up the loot and get them to Uskor. We'll enter the portal tomorrow. Don't bring the full guild, just a group of your best. It'll be faster

The next day came within the blink of an eye and Creoft was the first at the portal with the guild. Janik's words still rang in his mind, "She may have already fled..." The thought along troubled him. She may have been by herself upon fleeing but she could raise an army of three hundred in less than six months, he feared what she could do in just a day or two's time. Creoft decided not to wait around for Tullus and Janik. "Guardians! We'll meet up with the other guilds at a later time. We're going through the portal now."

With his hand-picked combatants, Creoft entered the portal into Ashua.