Chapter 236: Siva’s Favor

After Thorn spoke, he enlarged the same video call again and a panel showing the scene in the city displayed itself that stunned everyone.

In the panel video, Alexander, the God Knight is being devoured by a squid-like liquidized form of the once majestic and feared Battleship Garuda owned by the Alcides Guild.

Garuda is a unique existence in the game and so many people will recognize it in one glance.

Only this time, it looked nothing like its originally majestic and overbearing appearance and was instead reduced into that ruined and ugly form.

“What is that thing?” Niobe reacted.

“It’s obviously the Garuda but…” Ren was also kind of skeptic.

Of course none would believe that it was still the same Warship that had once appeared in the central continent of Zenturo… or in the Eastern Continent of Espada… or in the West Continent of Flowerion… or the Southern Continent, Heartilia…

Every time the Garuda appeared, there is always a war happening.

Its either they came as observers, as aggressors, or they only came to pass by. But no matter what it was that attracts them on each of these event, the very few times that the Alcides Guild had taken action was always filled with the news of their overwhelming victory.

Perhaps… the reason why they are also here in The North is because of the events connected to Siva.

After all, their contractor is a famous man.

Siva’s crew, or anyone else in the world at that, never knew who or what power this Knight Golem symbolizes at the game, but they all knew that this is connected, once again, to that one player that started this series of in-game miracles…

Siva

Everyone was holding their breaths as they watched how Alexander was devoured.

Then a soft moan rang from behind. Scion gently opened her eyes and scanned their surroundings.

As they were moving towards the wall of Apus Epirus, towards an area directly in front of the main palace of the castle base, Scion finally got her balance and saw the unconscious Siva being supported on Thorn’s shoulders.

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“Rex!” Scion cried as soon as she got her bearing.

They landed on solid ground. As soon as Scion touched the floor, she immediately dashed at Siva who Thorn laid on her lap.

Scion caressed his face, fixing the black hair away from his face.

Tears formed on her face as she hugged him.

“Rex, I saw it… I saw what happened to you… he told me things… he told me about this world and your memories. He told me about your and Samantha’s sacrifice… Rex… I’m so weak… I don’t even know how I’d even help you!”

While Scion’s actions as soon as she woke up was rather puzzling, her very words and actions right now spoke of matters that while her player avatar was borrowed by Terra earlier, there was a [someone] who showed her things with regards Siva.

No.

To be correct, this [someone] showed Scion something that pertained to “memories”.

Sivas crew, including Thorn, recalled Terra’s words earlier… regarding a sealed memory and about the war 56 years ago in Terroa.

As they listened more and more, the larger their confusion grew and the more scary the level of an answer the things that will clear this confusion they thought it would be. Thanks for reading on ManaNovel!

“Could it be really possible?” Thorn mused to himself. “Father, what really is Project Salvation?”

Scion didn’t care about the people around her.

She also didn’t mind the ugly and horrifying black smoke skin curse on him, and only focused her efforts to at least making Siva feel that there was still her who will never leave him alone no matter what happens; even if the world turns their back against them both.

One might even think that a mighty goddess of a beauty such as her doesn’t deserve an ugly monster such as Siva.

But everyone in this group also knew that if there was someone who deserved who, then that would be Siva deserving someone like her.

Footsteps could be heard coming in closer from the castle wall.

As Siva remained unconscious, the former members of The Legion got closer to hear and see what the main man of this event had become.

When they saw Siva and the beautiful woman that hugged him, looks of confusion sprayed on their faces.

Some began to exchange whispers and others stared intently at Scion, especially her face.

When she noticed it, Coralline stepped forward and puffed her chest out with a proud declaration; “Whoever attacks first will be burnt to ashes.”

Of course, none of them knew that all of these guys have already agreed to be part of the The Company.

As she spoke, the cape that covered half her arm parted and revealed her dainty little hand that had a wand with a shining tip on it.

She was a Mage of a high caliber. She had ventured alone in The North and thus, she had every right to be proud of herself and be able to stand with her own feet in front of a crowd.

The people did not move against them nor did they step forth in aggression.

They just stood there, looking at the pair, waiting for Siva to open his eyes and log in again and give them the proper orders.

It was Thorn who was still confused with all the things that was happening when another call just happens to patch through.

“Volt.” He called, slightly relieved. “Thank god you called in. How’s the Rewloola?”

[Secured. But more importantly, I’ve got grave news for Siva. Something was happening in the middle of the city. The giant golem knight had been attacked earlier!]

Thorn nodded, “Yeah, we already know.”

[No. That’s not the point here.]

Thorn’s expression changed, “What do you mean?”

[Well, it happened not too long after the call ended earlier. I was watching TDT regarding the latest happenings in the city and as it was showing that golem, the space above his head is suddenly torn apart and this giant ship fell down on it without any kind of warning. It all happened so fast that the golem even failed to react in time! And right after that, the golem knight roared angrily as that squid-ship hit him. He said something about Mefisto and something about him not getting out of this place.]

Thorn frowned. This even in Alexandria is becoming more and more confusing as the time went by.

He looked at the unconscious Siva and couldn’t help feel that it was a pity.

Of all the time he’d collapse…

He massaged his brows but it didn’t help ease the headache that’s building up on him. Although he wasn’t charged by Siva, he still felt that since he had insisted on sticking around with him, he had to do his own part to at least accomplish his goals.

“Volt, can you ask the neutral party inside that ship to maneuver the Rewloola against that golem?”

Volt on the screen thought for a moment before he shook his head and with a wry smile.

[Impossible. Ever since that black missile appeared, I’ve also thought about asking help from these guys. But the captain only laughed at me, telling me that we can’t move the ship because Siva shot down the engines. He’s even threatening to commit suicide. This crazy bastard!]

Thorn paused and looked at Rentaw who found his position somewhere on his line of sight.

A thought hit him. “Wait a moment.”

He swiped the air and made another call. Not long after, Marshal D’Catch’s bearded face greeted him.

[Sir.]

“Marshal, are you familiar with the controls of the Rewloola?”

The man in question paused to think before he gave a nod.

[But although I am familiar with it, the Rewloola is not like any ordinary warship. It was designed by the Supreme Leader himself and given his possessive personality, even though he trusted the Commander’s ability to pilot it, he was still a person and thus he will not just give it away with a risk of it being stolen when it was faced by a strong enemy. Much like how Kladis had put a security self-detonation protocol on my flagship, I trust that he had also given a similar self-detonation function especially to the Rewloola.]

“Can this be remotely accessed and defused?”

D’Catch shook his head.

[No, sir. This is only accessible with the unique signal from the Captain of the ship. In the case of the Rewloola, only the Commander would know of its passcode and the location of its switch. Also, if the Commander died, then this self-detonation protocol would have activated as well.]

“But isn’t it part of Siva’s deal with Kladis that the latter wouldn’t be able to self-destruct the battleship”

[And this is what I meant by Kladis’ possessive tendencies. He’s a pioneer of Terroa and thus he will be aware of it. Much like how many NPCs have skills that couldn’t be learned easily, there are many bomb expert NPCs on his disposal that could create a single-signal signature bomb. I’ve already diffused mine since I voluntarily joined the group but it would be a different talk with the Commander of the Rewloola.

Thorn felt a rock was stuck at his throat. “It was a good thing we didn’t give the command to dismiss them earlier.”

[Aye. But I have a solution, sir.]

“What is it?”

[I believe that if you are the ones to talk to him about it, he wouldn’t sell it. So, let me be the one to talk to the Commander and persuade him.]

“Alright.” Thorn didn’t linger and gave him a nod. He swiped the air and connected the conference call to Volt. “Volt, I need you to activate Real@D mode and let the Marshal take a look of the Command Bridge of the Rewloola and talk to the Commander.”

Volt: [Is this going to help?]

Thorn gave a stern nod. “We don’t have any other choice. We have to take down that thing before it causes more irreparable damage to the city. Who knows if Baron is still there or not…”

Volt nodded.

After this, Thorn looked at Ren, “Can you contact City Lord Billion again?”

*****

Volt gave a stern nod and activated the Real@D rendering mode of their conference call. Thorn and the marshal materialized beside him and with this sight, the Commander of the Rewloola roared angrily at D’Catch.

“Traitor… traitor! The Turquoise Unit was given to you with the trust of the Supreme Leader. But when he needed you most you weren’t only there to support him, you actually fired at his castle!”

The marshal’s eyesight landed on the Commander and a scowl appeared on his mustached face as he replied at him.

[Commander, it’s not that I betrayed the Supreme Leader when he gave me the command to block the target's advance… it’s just that, the person he gave the task to command us to had even stupidly resolved himself to order me and my men to die a pitiful death in exchange for a few minutes for their plan to succeed. If I was given the order to peacefully resolve the issue and retreat if necessary, then I would have followed it within its every word and achieved my goal to buy time. But I was given the order to self-detonate all for the glory of The Legion’s fake and shallow ideals! You tell me. You trained these men and shared the blood and sweat of the battlefield with them. Are you just going to follow an order to die meaninglessly like that?]

The Commander laughed derisively, “Fool! Those men that you were talking about aren’t even real! What are you so attached to them for? If you’d only followed the order, we could have won and wouldn’t be bound like this…”

The Real@D rendering couldn’t spread more than ten meters from the originator but this distance is enough to fill an entire 20m diameter around Volt who had put himself at the center of the bridge.

[You are blinded by your arrogance, Commander. Donar… no, Siva is a man who fights a bigger battle. His war is larger than any of us, and most especially you, can ever imagine. My choice couldn’t even be more correct when I left The Legion. I will use my abilities for a more noble and righteous cause than just plainly slaughtering my enemies in an empty battlefield of fame and glory. Please, just be cooperative and don’t make this hard on us… I know you’ve put a lot of effort on training those men as well. Don’t let them die an ant’s death.]

The Commander was about to retort but he saw the look of seriousness on the Captain’s face and he frowned at this.

“Are you seriously bullshitting me with these kinds of talks about noble causes and things? Are you in the middle ages? Are you a knight in shining armor? The hell with noble cause and shit… we are just here to enjoy the game. I enjoy this game because I am being paid to play this game under the command of that Kladis. But if I wasn’t then I wouldn’t even bat an eye about stealing this ship and roaming this world myself.”

[You’re being paid?]

A look of genuine surprise was on the Captain’s face as he heard this.

Even the Commander was surprised as well.

[You mean you’re not?]

D’Catch was taken aback. He looked back at Volt who looked at Thorn. The three of them looked at the Commander with great confusion.

“Heh. Why am I surprised? You’re so honest and so easy to manipulate. You’re overly passionate to your ‘role’ as a Captain of a flagship and you even followed orders as if you’re a real captain of an entire fleet! Hahahaha…. How funny… how ironic it is… Aaaaahahaha.. the great Captain of the famous Turquoise Unit, full of medals and so many accomplishments to his name but all of them are done for free in the name of The Legion…”

As D’Catch listened more, the more he found himself to have been very stupid in the past.

Now he knows why at times, when he tried to talk to his peers in The Legion, they’d sometimes mention things like ‘wages’ or something.

He thought then that it was in terms of adding more units to his fleet, but in actuality, it was more of a case of real monetary credits.

He felt stupid now that he realized why each time he mentioned this ‘wages’, he’d get a hearty laugh from them. Now he realized that… he has been ostracized and no one even went to help him gain a little bit of dignity for himself.

To those peers… he was a walking clown.

Although he doesn’t need it, it’s still humiliating enough to realize that his zeal and passionate performance to his ‘role’ in The Legion has been a laughing stock to these guys.

Right now, he felt indignantly incensed but… there is a more pressing issue at hand and he can’t lose focus here.

With a clenched fist, his gaze became grimly serious as he glared at the Commander.

[Commander, I thank you for enlightening me regarding this issue. But right now, lives are at stake. I implore you to lift the self-detonation lock and give us the switch so we can save the city for further destruction. By doing this, the people will remember your name as a reasonable hero that helped us in the most important time. Even Siva will feel compelled to owe you a favor.]

The commander was startled.

Siva will owe me a favor?

This very notion could imply many things.

Right now, he was a famous man connected to a Grand Quest. If Siva could owe him a favor, he can request to be part of the Grand Quest and get enormous rewards that could even become bigger than the money promised to him as the ‘wage’ for being an outstanding Commander of The Legion.

It was this very notion itself alone that’s enough to actually entice his very being.

He didn’t have to think for a long time. “If I tell that to you, you must first free me here and promise me that you will include me in your Grand Quest.”

Thorn replied, [We can’t promise that to you at the moment because Siva… is offline.]

The Commander glared at him, “Then at least you make a contract that states you will include me in the future. Unless I get that contract, I won’t even move an inch from here.”