2

Tien leaned against the pillar in the empirium room, rubbing his index finger against his chin thoughtfully, a flask gripped tightly in his hands. So tight that his knuckles turned white. He refrained from fuming and kept his boiling anger in check. He did not want to lose his temper in the presence of a black robed wizard, who was sipping a cup of tea, sighing away in appreciation.

"I assume this'd be the work of your men?" Tien finally asked, breaking the silence.

"Why ask while you already answered this question yourself?" the wizard replied before taking a quick sip at his tea. Noting the monk's expression, a mixture of exasperation and rage, not to mention desperation, he almost spit his tea out in amusement.

Tien threw the empty flask onto the marble floor, shattering it into millions of glass shards.

"I thought just as much. The flask, that sneaky alchemist, are enough to tell me tales." He paused for another moment before continuing.

"Say, Sagizelus, which soldier goes to the battlefield with corroded sword, shield and armor? I'm no different from being naked! What do you say, huh?"

"I'd say," the wizard said, resting the cup on a stand. "Join me in a cup of tea."

"What?" The monk was ridiculed beyond measure.

Sagizelus, known to people as Sagi for short, gave a prolonged sigh. Not in appreciation for the tea, but rather at Tien's frantic behavior, which was totally redundant.

"Panic not, monk. You don't need those. Anyway, it's not a bad thing that your battle accoutrements are destroyed."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Tien said, trying not to look provoked, lest he offended the wizard. Instead, he looked questioningly at him.

Sniggering to himself, Sagi said, "Look at it this way. You'll stand to gain, not only now, but at future confrontations. Since the foolish King is closing the guild wars after this round, just go ahead and unleash mayhem. The worst Prontera will ever see since hundreds of years."

"You think you can do away with the suspense?"

"Now, time is ticking away by the moment. Come." He ushered Tien towards him, whispering into his ears. Tien went into a shocked state for a moment, and then choked on his saliva. He continued starring wide-eyed at the wizard for a longer moment, his eye balls almost on the verge of dropping out of the sockets.

"You're not serious... That's obviously not legal! How are we going to control it?"

"There's no official rule against this, so I assume it's against your conscience? Or is it you, being the coward, willingly accept defeat at their hands?"

"Nobody's gonna do it," Tien shook his head as he spoke.

"Do you have any choice now? Would you rather wear your waste metals and shame yourselves? I'm merely supplying you what you're deprived of. These weapons are far more effective, I assure you," Sagi said matter-of-factly. "Remember, you approached me, not the other way round. It's entirely up to you."

The monk swelled with fury seeing the wizard's smirk. Blood rushed to his face, veins could be seen throbbing at his temples. He felt like introducing his fists to the wizard's mouth, but he dismissed the fleeting idea. At this crucial moment, it is definitely unwise to do so. Firstly, his guild's fate is now in his hands. It is solely up to him to take them to greater heights or plunge them straight to the abyss. Secondly, he was definitely no match for the superior wizard who had a great variety of harmful spells in his repertoire. Thinking over the wizard's words, he decided that he must set his priorities right. His guild will come first.

"Come," Sagi said with a sneer. "Join me for tea."

Not refusing the wizard's second offer, he took the cup of tea from Sagi's pale hands and downed the contents in a couple of huge, loud gulps.

Piffy maneuvered himself over the crowded streets, the merchants' persuasion to purchase their goods added to his ire. First, Skull's questioning. Now, merchants' endless promotions to him. How long more it is going to take before I am freed from such irritation, he thought. Shoving away an insistent merchant tugging away at his sleeve, he ran for the eastern part of Prontera, where he resided. He ran down to the end of the street, praying that he outran the persistent merchant. Turning his head back, he saw no signs of him. At least for the moment. Wiping beads of sweat away from his forehead, he continued walking with his head turned back at short intervals, ensuring that he was free from the wild goose chase.

He was hoping to catch a short nap before the guild wars, never expecting a merchant to be in hot pursuit. He made a mental note of the area where most merchants carry out their business, then decided to enter Prontera by a less busy route in the future. Immersed in his thoughts, the alchemist failed to notice a knight just in front of him and his face smashed right into the tough metal plate, slightly breaking his nose. His sight blurred for a while, blood trickling down his nostrils. He scrutinized the knight's face, suddenly a hint of recognition formed in his chubby face albeit he was seeing double.

"That's the third time of the day, Cerberus. Have you... any... idea?"

"Huh?"

The leader of Avenger, by the name of Cerberus, stopped in his reply when he realized the alchemist was on the verge of collapsing. Piffy then passed out and the knight's muscular arms caught him up quickly and firmly. Hauling the small-sized alchemist over his shoulders with one arm without the least effort, he headed for Piffy's house, chuckling to himself along the way, partly because of his foolish friend, and partly at the notion that victory over their antagonist, State Overlord, was inevitable.

A horn blared loudly, catching everybody's attention, as well as giving a handful a brief shock. Some complained openly about the horn being piercing to the ears. The people stopped their activities and saw a formally dressed announcer gathering them closer around him.

"Good afternoon. Yes, each and every one of you may be anticipating the monthly guild wars, am I right? Sad to say, this month's guild wars will officially be the very last and final round before it is closed permanently. The event will commence in an hour's time. All guilds participating in the event should get ready by now. That's all for now. Best of luck, people," the announcer announced with much pleasure and enthusiasm.

Skull came just in time to hear the announcement. The vile assassin glanced around the busy crowd, scanning the area for Pay and Manald, but no avail. Sighing in frustration, he dodged and bent in the humid crowd without anyone noticing him, emerging out of it and found a person looming over him, obliterating the sunlight. That person was about half a head taller than he was, heavily armed to the teeth. Elevating his head reluctantly, more so because he could not care more about facing a pest barring his way through, he looked menacingly into the slits of the crusader's helmet, his flaming eyes glaring at him, challenging him. Recognizing the crusader as his arch-rival many years his senior, who was recruited to be a member of State Overlord not long ago, he glared with more ferocity than he could ever muster.

Recalling the times when he was barely eleven, the same crusader had cheated his sister out of money, feelings and ultimately, life. The crusader's name was Galor. This name etched deep into his mind, never able to forget it for the rest of his life. Galor was a deceitful man, not to mention cold-blooded. Cheating his sister's feelings time and time again without remorse, he dated every other girl he could find. He patronized the pub frequently, gradually getting involved with innumerable trouble and tavern brawls. Skull's sister actually lost her life defending him in one of those fights. When she passed away, he merely said, "That's none of my business, she willingly died for me." At that time, the enraged Skull threw a fist into Galor's face, who managed to intercept the blow and gave a hard toe kick into Skull's gut, sending him flying a few meters back.

Skull's hatred bubbled to the brim, on the verge of spilling out without control. The more Skull was reminded of his sister's death, the more he wanted this man's head at his katars. Until now, he would not forget the vicious kick he received.

Words need not be spoken. Skull withdrew his bloody katar out of nowhere in such a swift manner that it seemed to materialize onto his hands.

"No! Not here!"

Manald appeared out of the crowd together with Pay, screaming for the assassin to back off. She hoped to catch Skull by surprise so the hunter could tug him away from the man.

"Settle this later, but not here. This is not appropriate, damn it. Don't start it now," Pay said in a firm tone.

Despite his guild mates' pleas, he did not avert his acid stare. Shaking his head in disdain, Galor sneered behind the custom made helm of his and stalked off.

"You're too impulsive, you'll gain nothing out of it except making a fool out of yourself, heard me? Don't let him have the upper hand," Manald advised.

"That was uncalled for," Pay added.

"We gotta be heading to Piffy's for a final round of meeting."

Pleading the obstinate assassin to follow, the duo pulled Skull away and led the way to Piffy's home. It was tough persuading him, let alone pulling him away as he stood with fists clenched tightly, not budging one bit.

"Sorry, a little disturbance out there," Manald apologized as the three of them barged into the alchemist's house, the hunter gasping for air as they sprinted the whole journey. Instead of seeing maps and plans laid across tables and discussions taking place, they saw Cerberus, their leader, tending to Piffy who was lying on his bed with strips of red cloth sticking out of his nostrils. Both hunter and priestess laughed aloud.

"Is that blood?" Manald asked.

"Think you might be filling us in?" Pay inquired, trying hard to control his mirth.

"Got a broken nose there, no big deal," Cerberus explained.

"No big deal! Why don't you try it?" Piffy hollered, more blood flowing out.

"He keeps saying this is the third time of the day, what's this all about?"

Pay shrugged his shoulders. Manald crossed over to Piffy, offering to heal him of his ailment.

Skull merely snorted, much to Cerberus's confusion.

The house was small, barely able to house eight people. It contained a tiny living room, a kitchen and a bedroom with a toilet. Piffy's bedroom had tall shelves of books standing against the four walls, making the cramp bedroom look smaller than ever. His collection of books included those on the subject of alchemy, forging, catalysts for concocting a potion and more. Dust and mould blanketed the books, making visitors to the room sneeze uncontrollably.

The kitchen was used as an experimenting room rather than culinary purposes. Piffy strictly barred anyone who tried to enter the kitchen, for that person would inexorably discover himself being washed with foul-smelling chemical solutions, or half buried in an avalanche of test tubes and flasks. Cerberus had once entered the kitchen without warning, accidentally knocking over a bottle cramped with baby argiopes, ending up doing a wild dance in a desperate attempt to shake off those prickly worms off him. From that accident onwards, Piffy had since kept a closer eye on the knight, even though he dared not venture into the kitchen for the rest of his life.

Cerberus stood up, his head almost touching the ceiling. He looked over to the door, to find the assassin leaning against the wall with arms crossed over his chest, ostracizing himself from the rest. The knight did not bother to question him of his predicament, for Skull's expression was a revelation of what might had happened. He went over and gave Skull a pat on the shoulders.

"Where are Sagi and Nimmber?" Cerberus asked for the wizard and rogue's whereabouts.

Skull shrugged his shoulders and gave him a "don't bother me" look.

"Speak of the devil," Pay said, overhearing Cerberus's question.

The wooden door creaked open, the black robed wizard, Sagi, entered first, Nimmber tagging behind. The female rogue flashed an impish grin, causing Piffy to think that it was directed at him. But he discarded that assumption as he realized that she was referring to her "zeny hunt" outputs, holding up four bulging pouches.

"Where'd you go, Sagi? Everyone's waiting," Pay asked.

"Helping out a band of novice nearby. They got ambushed by a Phreeoni. I just made a clean work of it," the wizard said, telling them his already prepared explanation, or rather, lie.

"Oh. Since when were you so helpful towards novices?" the hunter replied rather dubiously.

"We'll go for celebration once we win the competition, all right?" she squealed excitedly, swinging the stolen pouches around her fingers, an indication that she will bear the costs with her recent "earnings".

Most of them readily agreed, except for Skull and Piffy, who kept silent. Cerberus gathered his guild around the table, at the same time laying out the plans he had drawn out.

"Come on, we have to hurry within these half hour," Cerberus urged. "Skull, come over here."

"I can hear you," the restless assassin croaked.

"That, of course, but how are you going too see these plans from there?"

"I don't need plans, Cerberus. I see no necessity for such discussion. Let me tell you this, my only plan, my only job, is to rid of Galor's existence," he whispered dangerously, yet audibly. Finishing his piece, he walked out of the house, slamming the wooden door hard, wooden flakes drifting onto the floor.

"Hey! You're gonna pay for the damages!" Piffy screamed.

Nimmber sat staring with mouth hanging open, muttering something that sounded like "wow".

"Is he having mood swings, or what?" the auburn-haired rogue said.

"You heard the man, he met Galor just now," Sagi answered without interest

Manald started after the assassin, asking him to return. But Cerberus held her back, giving her a reassuring nod.

After the conclusion of the quick and final discussions, the guild prepared themselves, changing into their battle attire. Cerberus, the knight, looked at each and every one of his members, smiling to himself. They must emerge victorious and make the State Overlord bow in defeat, for this was the last guild war for the year as King Tristan the Third announced the closure of the guild wars, because people were getting injured or killed unnecessarily due to it.

Cerberus felt safe with his friends fighting side by side with him. He had Sagizelus with his Staff of Soul, wielding devastating magic that would knock one out instantaneously. He had Skull, the devious and scheming assassin, sneaking his way around and ambushing his adversaries, forcing them to forfeit with his katars pointing up their neck. He had Nimmber, the mischievous rogue hiding beneath the grounds, disrupting opponents. He had Manald the recently promoted priestess, backing them up with her elixirs and curative spells at her lips. He had Pay, one of the best and recognized hunters of Prontera, knocking down ranks of his enemies with his custom-made Arbalest and letting fly those deadly missiles. Last but not least, he had his long time friend, Piffy. The alchemist was in charge of the guild's economy and weaponry, not to mention, possessing the laudable talent to mix any kind of potions, be it acid formulas for battle, or detergents. He too knew a great deal about weapon forging, occasionally offering his services to his guild members only. Pay's powerful Arbalest was one of his works.

Cerberus dwelled on the notion of their upcoming victory again, never expected that his guild was going to fall apart. He may not have the chance to fight along side with them anymore.