Legacy of the Betelgeuse

Leo was woken up by the rumbles and the ground shaking while Hans was still asleep. Leo checked on the fight and Trevor seemed to be staying on Azrael's back. It seemed that he got the exhausted debuff on him and he couldn't do anything else except to keep Shazjae busy. Leo looked at the debuff duration, and its 30 minutes left. Leo woke Hans and they both walked around the walls and towers to check the ballistae and trebuchets conditions. After knowing that all the weapons are fine on their side, they both watched Trevor while waiting for the others to enter the city.

Ivonna and the others stood in front of the marked ground that Kingstar made with his sword. They waited and looked at the time impatiently. Everyone was anxious for some reason. It was either because Shazjae might be using another skill that could wipe the players or because the invasion is about to end in less than a day.

Ivonna looked back and saw all the players stood behind her. Francesca then walked toward her.

"We are all set. We can enter the city as soon as the debuff disappears."

Ivonna looked at Francesca and nodded.

"Yeah, but what concerns me the most is Trevor's condition. If he died before the debuff aura disappeared, even if it's just 5 minutes left, Shazjae could leave the Cruzm Kingdom and if that happens, we are done. We can't keep up with him no matter how fast we are chasing him."

Francesca nodding in agreement.

"But you don't have to worry. Trevor isn't like any other player, he's different from all of us. I'm not saying that I'm depending on him that much and throw all the responsibility to him, but he has proved to us that he can do the impossible ever since we met him. He knows what's he doing and he's good at that."

Ivonna sighed.

"Do you think the reason Becker chose him to be the beta tester is to guide us the players through the hard times in the game when the game is officially released? Because, if it was me or any of us, I don't think we can be as good as him."

Francesca scoffed and nodded.

"Yep. If it was me, I would tell the world that I'm the best player in the game and took everything for myself. I would look down on all the players since I'm more superior to them. I mean, Trevor did that as well, but his purpose is to gain those advantages to help us in a time like this."

Ivonna nodded in agreement. When Ivonna was about to open her mouth, Kingstar and Queenstar approached them. Kingstar looked at them both.

"Have you bring the barrels with you?"

Ivonna and Francesca nodded.

"We did. Francesca and I brought 50 barrels each."

Kingstar nodded and then lifted his hand and started counting with his finger.

"You, Francesca, Ruscheller, Chelsea, Aspen, Maine, Me, Alexa, Diamond, and Lothair. We have 450 barrels of sulfuric acid. I think this is enough to do some damage to Shazjae from the inside."

They were talking about their strategy on planting the barrels of sulfuric acid, but then a strong wind hit them, and not just them but also all the players outside the city. They covered their eyes from the dust bust then they looked at each other and Ivonna received a message from Leo.

[The debuff aura disappeared! You can get inside the city now.]

Ivonna looked at Kingstar.

"It's time."

Kingstar nodded. He walked forward and looked at the mark he made on the ground under his feet. He gulped and took a step forward past the mark. Kingstar smirked and then looked at the player and shouted.

"The debuff aura has disappeared! Everyone! Move!"

Kingstar looked at Ivonna and then all the players entered the city.

Ivonna and the others ran as fast as they could, and as soon as they entered the city, everything has flattened to the ground and so many holes on the ground from the fight between Trevor and Shazjae. That place is no longer a city, but just flat land. They all prayed that the ballistae and catapults are fine and can work properly.

When Ivonna ran toward Shazjae to check on Trevor, she received a message from Leo and Hans. They wanted to see her and Francesca under the tower as soon as possible. Ivonna and Francesca looked at each other and then they told Kingstar that they need to meet with Leo and Hans because there was something important. Kingstar understood and told them to meet at the meeting point as soon as possible. They both nodded and then left to the tower.

Ivonna and Francesca arrived at the bottom of the tower and they saw Leo and Hans waited for them outside the tower. Ivonna and Francesca approached them while they caught a breath. Leo and Hans looked at each other and nodded. They both grabbed the sack of black powder from their inventory and showed it to Ivonna and Francesca.

Leo looked around and then gave the sack of black powder to Ivonna.

"Take these..."

Ivonna furrowed her forehead and then grabbed it. She opened the sack and she was surprised to see black powder inside the sack. Ivonna looked at Leo with confusion.

"How did you get this?"

Leo and Hans just told them that they found it laying on the ground near the armory when they were checking around the city to see if there was something good for them to take. They lied about it and made it into a believable story. Leo and Hans then gave all the sacks of black powder to Ivonna and Francesca.

Leo then looked at them both.

"You need to keep these hidden because if Kingstar and the other players from the other factions saw you both had those with you, they would be so pissed if we had them in the first place but not mentioning or using them. As you know, those black powders are precious to the Alliance Kingdoms, so it's still wrong to use them, without their permission. You can put them down before you put the barrels and covered them with the barrels so nobody knows about them."

Ivonna nodded.

"Got it. Thanks for these. It really is going to help us a lot."

Leo and Hans nodded.

"Good luck out there, both of you. We can only give you support from a distance."

Ivonna and Francesca nodded and then left to the meeting point.

As soon as they both arrived at the meeting point, Kingstar and the others were looking up and with their mouth wide opened. Ivonna and Francesca looked up and put their hands above their eyes because the sun was blinding them. When their vision became clear their mouths were also wide opened because Shazjae's right hand has lost all of his fingers.

Ivonna looked around.

"Where's Trevor? Does anyone see him?"

Aspen looked at Ivonna and pointed at the east.

"Chelsea carried him there, he looked very bad..."

Ivonna immediately ran to where Aspen was pointing while everyone looked at her.

Ivonna looked around and then she saw Azrael staggering and then laid down on the ground. Ivonna approached Azrael and rubbed his head gently while she looked around to find Trevor, but then she saw Chelsea in between the building's debris. Ivonna then approached her. As soon as Ivonna got closer to Chelsea, she saw Trevor laid on the ground looking pale while he groaned in pain.

Ivonna squatted down and put her hand on Trevor's shoulder.

"Trevor? Why are you groaning like this?"

Trevor smirked and raised his eyebrows.

"I went Real-Mode so I won't be forced to fall asleep by the system. So, yeah... I can feel the pain, the soreness, and the stiffness from using Real-Mode. But at least it only stimulates 60% of the real deal."

Before Ivonna could say a word, Trevor raised his hand.

"Don't worry, I have my reason. So just let me rest a bit."

Ivonna sighed then she looked at Chelsea.

"You can stay here with Trevor, Chessi. Transfer me the barrels in your inventory."

Chelsea nodded and the Ivonna left.

Ivonna told Kingstar that Chelsea had to take care of Trevor and then they all started to go and climb Shazjae's body using the rope they made yesterday. It was way faster than have to climb the body and they were all glad to make those thanks to Aspen's idea that Kingstar thought it was useless.

It took them 2 hours to reach the back of Shazjae's head because of the turbulences from the bolts and boulders hitting Shazjae's body, and then they entered the hole.

They reached the wall of tissue and Kingstar looked at everyone.

"So, this is the border between his neck and the back of his brain?"

William nodded.

"Yes, I believe if Shazjae is a human being, we are at the trapezius muscle of a human body. So we are very close with his brain. If we used all the sulfuric acid, we will deal a lot of damage to him."

Kingstar nodded.

"Okay, this is perfect. We are going to plant all the barrels here, and then we leave this place as fast as possible."

Everyone nodded and then started putting the barrels down.

Ivonna and Francesca looked at each other and nodded. They put the sacks of black powders secretly and then covered them with barrels. Thankfully nobody noticed and everyone was busy placing the barrels.

Kingstar took a deep breath and exhaled deeply.

"Alright, we have placed all the barrels. Now, we just need to blow those up."

Everyone nodded. Kingstar then grabbed a torch and lit it up.

"Eat this, you f*cker..."