Chapter 481: Was it really hopeless?
If Damon was not wrong, then the curse on him, the last minute armies and rallying the masses shouldn’t be the only things he needed to care about today. There should be something else. Something that he was not aware of yet and something that would be revealed soon enough.
Damon let the view sink in for a moment longer. The light side had the numbers, the gear, and priests who could call down holy fire. The players had levels, skills, and reckless hunger. From above it looked hopeless.
But was it really hopeless?
With a smile, he folded his wings and dropped down toward the ground, creating a Blood Gate to the Blood Hall the next instant. It was time he returned to his throne.
Damon stepped through the Blood Gate and landed in the middle of the big hall along with the elven girl.
Kate met him first, eyes red from worry. Mark stood behind her. Varnyx bowed low. So did Ellora, Kaelthorn and Riven. There was also Meira, Sylvara, Nevin, a few other ice clan members, Blood Wraith and Phoenix. Everyone was surprised to see Damon suddenly appear in the midst of the mayhem but they were also clearly relieved.
"Big bro! There you are! You really know how to make an entrance!" Blood Wraith was the first to react and immediately started to rush to Damon but Kate bet him to it and ran to him first.
She hugged him tightly and then without caring about all the eyes on them, kissed him several times on his face and then attacked him with her lips on his lips. She only let him go after a few good seconds.
"Where the hell did you go? Are you fine? What happened?" She aksed, completely breathless.
Damon blinked, a slow smile spreading across his face. He ruffled Kate’s hair and answered casually. "Everything is fine now. I am here. I am sorry to have worried you all."
Kate didn’t let him go that easily. Her eyes were wet, but fierce. "Don’t you ever disappear like that again," she snapped, then softened. "Promise me."
Damon did not say anything. He couldn’t promise her something like that so he could only gently pat her on the head, hugging her closely.
"So what are we going to do now?" Mark walked over. "Are you already aware of the situation outside?"
Phoenix cleared her throat and added. "I was just telling them that you all should not even be fighting this battle. If you haven’t noticed until now, let me be clear. The hidden families have decided to make their big move. They are using this battle as a spring board to become public and claim their rightful place in the hierarchy. You guys do not stand a chance. It is as simple as that."
Damon nodded.
"I am sorry, Blood God. I don’t want to be the one to bring down your battle spirit. But I want to advise you to take the best route here. I don’t know what delayed you or held you back. I am glad you are finally here. However, that doesn’t change anything. Even you are not enough to change the tides of this battle. You can see that, right?"
"Yes. I mostly agree with you." Damon unexpectedly answered. "You think I don’t know how bad it looks?" he said. "I know. The outcome today could only be our loss. They have us completely surrounded. I am all for running but what if we gave it one shot first?"
He then took out teleportation scrolls and started distributing to everyone. "These will take you all straight to the crimson mountains, the main base of the vampires. These are powerful teleportation scrolls and even though I personally haven’t confirmed it yet, I am pretty sure they will work even if we are currently standing in the light faction continent."
"If you feel like you are losing or dying, don’t hesitate and use these scrolls to teleport to safety. They are easily interrupted, so I suggest returning to the blood hall first or using some sort of absolute defense or stealth or reflection skill before activating the teleportation scrolls. Now with this said... shall we start working on our enemies? I think we have waited long enough."
***
Meanwhile, outside Neira city, three people stood side by side on a flying disc of sorts overlooking the massive numbers of players and Npcs gathered outside the small city.
One was wearing a golden mask that covered his face, other was wearing a black mask while the third proudly displayed his flamboyant orange hair.
"Are you sure that he is still trapped? Are you absolutely sure?" Reynard asked.
Viola did not respond anything. She only continued to look into the distance silently.
"Come on, princess. Give me the deets. Do you feel that the curse is still active? Or did he somehow get out of it."
"Maybe you have a tingling sensation somewhere in your body that tells you if your curse is active or not?"
"What about that guy, TotallyNotAGod? Have you heard from him? Alrin or Aiden or something? What does he have to say about your curse?"
Unable to bear his incessant pestering, Viola finally snapped and answered. "I spent ten years of my life on that curse. Do you think it would be so easy to break out of it? First, think before you speak and better yet, just shut your damn mouth and stop yapping."
With that she turned and walked away to stand a bit farther away.
Reynard’s face turned unsightly but he quickly suppressed his annoyance and acted as if he did not care. "What do you think Michael? What are the odds that the princess screwed the pooch on this one?"
Michael did not directly respond to him. The mask on his face remained as indifferent as ever as he calmly spoke. "How does it matter if he is trapped or not? Even if he is here, he wouldn’t be able to lift a finger against our preparation this time. In fact, don’t you think that it is better he is here. That way we will be able to show everyone once and for all where we stand and where he stands."