Guild Wars

When they re-appeared, they were in the Assembly Room of the Rank 7 Guildhall. All the core members were here and waiting for Draco while chatting with each other lightly.

When Draco appeared with the 8 God Serpent Inheritors, the room became silent as old core members basked in the glory of the invincible Guildmaster while newer ones inspected him to see what was so special about the one man who had always appeared in the game's notifications.

Draco also checked out the new faces and raised an eyebrow when he discovered some Lineage members from the Pangu Alliance, but like Loving Aunt said, he didn't have any beef with them. As far as he Draco was aware, they were just basically forced into their situation.

"Welcome all. I am Draco Morningstar, the leader of this guild. Some of you are already familiar with me, having been tutored and fought at my side. Some of you aren't since you've joined during my absence. Either way, you have chosen to throw your lot with my camp, so that is enough to qualify you for what I am about to say." Draco began casually.

He snapped a finger, and the eyes of all the core members here glazed over immediately. Draco had easily pulled them into a psychic illusion where they were disembodied existences who could only watch what was going on like in a flashback.

In this flashback scene, they were floating in the void of the universe. They watched as a giant egg shaped space station crash into Earth, wiping out the ignorant dinosaurs who had been the rulers of this beautiful and lush primal planet.

The world was plunged into chaos and turmoil, but time fast-forwarded and Earth slowly recovered. More importantly, that destroyed spaceship had many clots of lumpy cells spread all over. Some had been flung out of the ship through the cracks, splashing over various vegetation and the corpses of many different types of species.

They soon evolved into modern animals and various plants in the world. The cells that remained in the ship were split into the majority which were all over, and congregated to form the first various human species.

There was a sealed core room where 9 lumps of cells with different colors pulsed and glowed, absorbing ambient Worldly Energy of this primal planet to come together to form 9 different exemplary beings of power far greater than any of the outer species.

Eventually, these 9 left the ship along with all the others, and the ship disappeared into scrap due to erosion. The various subspecies evolved and competed with the other species of Earth to become the top of the food chain.

The 9 main beings started fighting among themselves due to various disputes, causing many phenomena and effects that the subspecies would later record into their earlier mythology. Seeing the damage they were causing, the Primordials of this planet awoke from their slumber in the Earth's core and came to the surface.

The battle was cataclysmic. The 9 fought the various Primordials for years upon years, reaching even centuries. Throughout this time, the planet was ravaged thoroughly, and many species died out. Among the animals, many were cleared out of existence and became extinct instantly.

Among the human subspecies, all the superior strains were eventually killed. Only the Homo Sapiens survived in the end by covering themselves in shit to hide from the after effects of the battles.

Must explain why they're such a shitty species.

In the end, the two parties reluctantly agreed to a truce and the world was sent into a stale peace. As the 9 original humans spent more years, they began to gain more control of their power and decided to leave offspring behind to populate the planet.

Using various methods, they all chose various subhumans and got them to create a genealogy for themselves. The 9 then released their various avatars who roamed the world and spread legends and myths that the ignorant subhumans would take a tad bit too seriously.

Around the time of the French Revolution, the 9 then left the planet and headed to the Gerdo Galaxy without looking back. However, the sequence panned to show that the three at the forefront, Pangu, Lucifer and Amaterasu pushed three orbs of light, one white, one black and one brown onto the planet before leaving.

Fast-forward and the age of technology came, as one of the Primordials sealed the ambient Worldly Energy and absolved themselves from the world. The others were sealed in different locations, trying to break out, and their bloodshot eyes telling of the revenge they would mete out on humanity for this suffering.

The orbs that were previously sent out grew into three babies, one male and two female. Unfortunately, the male got sealed at birth and cast out and one of the females had to go through the excruciating process of bloodline extraction.

Only one girl managed to grow up safe and sound, but she was never fulfilled as her life felt lacking. The babies then grew up into the image of Draco and Eva, but the Pangu girl remained an assumed outline, since Draco didn't know what she looked like.

With a snap, the glazed eyes of the core members were filled with light as Draco released them from the illusion. He then folded his hands behind his back to see their reactions, and found that each of them - except Lineage members - were shocked.

As for the Lineage members, they were first complicated then furious. Soon the others also displayed the same fury after they largely digester what they were shown. It couldn't be helped that they were angry, Draco had implanted these details into their subconscious, so it wasn't just a video, there were details attached.

As such, they knew the depth of suffering that the Pangu girl had gone through and what she must be facing at home. Thinking of how such a young child had to bear such a thing, any sane person would go red in the eyes.

"It's good to see that you all bear the fury necessary. In due time, I will dispatch you to raid the Pangu Lineage and rescue the girl." Draco notified them as he nodded.

Surprised, Misery asked. "Huh? Then what about you?"

Draco gazed at Misery with a smile. "We have bigger foes who only Eva and I can tackle. I will investigate the Primordial who sealed Earth's energy along with my God Serpents and Aaron."

Draco then walked up to Misery and patted him on the shoulder. "Misery, I sense that you are the most powerful of the non God Serpents. You will be the general of this attack, and AP Berzerker will be your vice."

Misery adopted a serious expression, one rare for him and nodded. "Leave it to me. I'm also ex-military, so I'll make sure everything is done according to protocol."

Draco seemed satisfied. "As far as I can tell, it's impossible for you to fail. But to be sure, I heard my avatar promised to teach you all control when I came back? Let's begin then."

Draco the snapped his finger and the bodies of all the core members and God Serpents exploded into bloodmist. Hovering in place, preventing them from respawning, was their Immortal Soul as a player, as well as something else.

Draco could never have sensed it before even if he channeled all his power and his means, but with 100% bloodline purity, he could easily identify the connection between the game and their minds. Nevertheless, what he still failed to see was the connection between the game and their souls.

He would likely have to ascend beyond 100% for that.

With his Dark Angel ability, the mindscape was like his backyard. He grasped the minds of all the core members and spread a wave of tenuous energy towards them.

In the real world, all the core members displayed endless pain on their faces in the pods as their bodies twitched and shook. The AI was aware of what Draco was doing, so it singled an alert for more NuSmoothies to be injected into the specified pods by the staff of the Purgatory office.

The staff were confused as to how this was an issue, but the alert did not state that the players were in danger, and the pod's transparency was covered up by the AI remotely to prevent a panic. Interrupting this now would do more damage than enduring it ever could.

"Hmm, most of them have mastered Tier 2 Body of Godliness and Void of Perfection. Kiran, Essence, Sublime, Cobra, Bella and Tunder have even reached Tier 3 Void of Perfection, though they're still at Tier 2 Body of Godliness. As I thought, this Misery fellow is special, he alone is at Tier 3 for both aspects." Draco commented as his eyes flashed.

As for the newer ones like AP Berzerker and the God Serpent Inheritors, they were not even Tier 1. After all, they had not been present during the First Inter-Player International Competition.

Draco continually released wave after wave, striking the minds of the core members directly in the real world. This was something he could only do because the AI permitted it. If Draco tried it on another player, the AI protocols forced it to block such things, even if it was on Draco's side nominally.

He could do this to the core members, because they basically willingly - and without any coercion - waived their human rights in the Umbra contract.

What, why are you surprised? You thought all these mindboggling benefits and near infinite sponsorship in terms of money, equipment and information came for free?

No such thing on this Earth, my brother.

Draco continued doing this for about 6 hours, in which he stopped and released the minds of the group. Their bodies reformed as Draco used his own Nuwa abilities to revive them in-game. When they came to, all of them fell on their butts as they could barely maintain their balance.

It was a mixture of grogginess and the fact that they had been disembodied existences for such a while and were suddenly given corporeal forms once again.

Draco smiled. "All of you should now have Tier 3 Void of Perfection at the least. Those with bloodlines from Lineages should have Tier 4."

The group got to their feet and listened to Draco with haggard expressions, but their minds suddenly exploded with power as their domains spread out wantonly. Suddenly, their fatigue disappeared and was replaced by endless intelligence, sharpness and wisdom of the like they never felt before.

If before, their brains were working at 10%, it was now working at 70%! It was the difference between using a salon car to drive over a several bumpy and rocky road versus a clean highway with a sports car.

Feeling all the mental domains brush over him and try to encompass him, Draco simply and spread his own out. Immediately, the excited and wanton core members displayed expressions of shock, as they were easily suppressed.

Immediately, their excitement cooled and the reign in their domains, turning them from active to passive. After all, it was a bit much to suddenly spread out their mental domains without regard for those within, but it was just a simple gaffe.

Draco curiously wondered how the True Humans from the Gerdo galaxy handled this problem. Was everyone forced to use passive Control? It was an interesting thing to find out one day.

For now, though, Draco continued to speak. "As for the Body of Godliness, you should immediately break through to the same realm as your Void of Perfection the next time you log out and leave the pods."

"I have also included all the common techniques and applications for the various stages of Control that Eva and I have discovered, so make sure to practice them and master them, otherwise you can only use your high-level Control abilities crudely." Draco advised gently before leaving the Assembly Room with a snap of his fingers.