By the third day in Evansly, Eden's rise in power had become impossible to ignore. Her stone walls loomed heavy and fortified, her expanded castle dominated the landscape, and her troops marched with a hardened, disciplined edge. Messages began flooding her terminal—most of them pleading for military intervention from struggling alliance members. Her army had grown beyond the leading member of the alliance.
Among them was a private summons from the alliance leader, Menki.
Sighing, Eden surmised the intent: He's likely worried I'll abandon the faction now that my personal power is scaling exponentially.
Tucking the scroll away, she signaled her army to halt their patrols and fall back toward the citadel. To project strength and deter the vultures circling the borders, she kept her territorial shield humming at maximum output—a heavy administrative cost, but necessary until her foundation was unshakeable.
After resting, she adorned herself in formal, polished command regalia and dressed Thunder in ceremonial armor. Her troops unfurled their crimson-crested banners, flanked by the secondary standards of the Dark Warriors alliance, marching in a tight, intimidating formation directly toward the leader's domain.
Upon arrival, Menki—clad in dark, soot-stained metal armor—stood waiting at the gates. He greeted her with a slow, measured bow, his eyes tracking the scale of her garrison. "Is this your entire army?" he asked, his voice strained.
Eden looked back at her ranks, pride flashing in her eyes. "This is my vanguard, not the totality of my forces."
"Are you not afraid of drawing an unmanageable counter-attack?"
"Why should I be?" Eden replied, her tone laced with cool distrust. "My walls are reinforced, and my shields are active."
Menki raised his hands defensively, offering an uneasy smile. "I meant no offense. I was merely surprised to see your entire vanguard mobilized."
"You are the leader. I assumed you wanted an inspection of our military readiness," Eden said smoothly, dismounting from Thunder's saddle.
"Yes... about that. I wanted to discuss structural leadership," Menki murmured, gesturing toward his fortress.
They retreated to a private office lined with trophy weapons harvested from regional monsters and walls plastered with plaques designating regional R4 officers.
"How can I be of service?" Eden asked, taking a seat across from him.
"Please, call me Menki," he replied, clearing his throat before pouring two goblets of wine. Keeping his expression rigid, he continued, "I requested this audience because our alliance is fracturing. Members on the frontier are under constant assault, and our core forces are too overextended to protect them."
Eden leaned forward, narrowing her eyes. "What do you mean, 'front lines'? Is there an active war we haven't been made aware of?"
"Our members are being systematically picked apart on the borders," Menki confessed, a heavy weariness weighing down his words. "We need your military might stationed centrally to deter them."
"And you want me to relocate my forces to the exterior?" Eden challenged, her tactical instincts flaring. "I cannot pick a fight with every scavenger on the server; our members need to learn how to defend themselves. Every casualty drains resources and forces lengthy recovery windows. As our leader, your job is to educate them on survival metrics and tactical response, not rely on a single shield."
Menki stood up abruptly, pacing toward the window. "I know. But you are the strongest among us. You have a duty to carry the weight."
"I am willing to help, but for how long?" Eden pressed, her voice dropping into a stern, pragmatic register. "If my army is bled dry protecting a passive populace, I become vulnerable to the exact same vultures. That is a losing strategy."
Menki took a long swallow of his wine, staring into the dark glass. Through the reflection, he watched Eden—unyielding, razor-sharp, and completely unintimidated. He placed his goblet down with a soft click. "Thank you for your time, Eden."
Rising from his chair, Menki walked her to the gates. Eden felt a sudden flutter of guilt. Did I overstep? Was I too harsh?
Before mounting Thunder, she turned back. "If your castle ever faces a breach, do not hesitate to call on me."
Menki offered a warm, tired smile and a single, solemn nod.
As her army descended the winding trail into the woods, Menki stood on his parapet, watching her silhouette vanish into the tree line. He pulled a cigar from his tunic, sparked it, and drew out his digital passport.
With a few taps, he systematically stripped his executive contracts from his remaining garrison troops. He navigated to the alliance governance board, hovered his cursor over Great Eden, and took a slow drag.
"You'll make a fine sovereign," Menki muttered softly to himself. "Too bad I'm too tired of this world to stick around and watch."
He hit the transfer authorization, followed by Leave Alliance.
Turning away from the balcony, Menki walked back to his study just as the heavy iron gates of his courtyard were blown inward in a cascade of splinters and fire.
Heavy hooves thundered across the stone as cavalry units from FTG Barlas flooded the compound, torches tossed against timber buildings while infantry looted the treasury. Heavy footsteps echoed up the stone staircase.
A high-ranking general clad in gold-filigreed plate armor pushed open the study door. He paused, looking at Menki, who sat undisturbed with his glass of wine. Slowly, the general unlatched his helm, revealing his face.
"You deserve to see who ends you," the general said.
Without a sound, Menki's vessel was unmade. Flames swallowed the fortress, reducing the domain to ash and rubble by nightfall.
Back in her own quarters, Eden tossed fitfully, plagued by an uneasy premonition. In her sleep, she kept picturing the dead, hollow look in Menki's eyes as she rode away.
When Uriel woke her the following morning, his cadence was unusually stiff. "You have urgent administrative matters awaiting your attention, my liege. Your people require your direct guidance."
Frowning, Eden sat up. She had queued her manufacturing tasks the night before—what could possibly be an emergency?
Stepping into her office, she stopped dead in her tracks. The room had physically expanded. Along the back wall ran a new tier of administrative plaques, mirroring the exact layout she had seen in Menki's fortress.
Settling at her desk, she sifted through a stack of frantic physical dispatches. Every single message from her alliance members asked the same terrifying question: What happened to Menki?
A separate notification flashed from Corruption: Congratulations on your ascension to leadership.
Eden's breath caught. She slapped open her digital passport.
There it was, glowing beside her name: Leader of DRK.
It took a grueling hour to process the influx of panic across the alliance network. Finally, Uriel materialized near the desk. "My liege, broadcasting a general alliance directive would circumvent individual messaging fatigue."
"You could have suggested that one hour ago, Uriel," Eden muttered, pinching the bridge of her nose before opening the broadcast console.
" Greetings from your fearless leader,
Forgive me for a belated response in addressing all your inquiries. I was unaware that Menki had appointed me his successor. Our last conversation was regarding the alliance defense. I have sent a scout to his castle coordinate and am awaiting to see what happened to him. He left the alliance before I can reach out to him. In addition, my first order of action will be to implement alliance rules and select a leadership board who will help in making this alliance strong. Please reply only if you have interest in the position. As for the rest, please wait for another alliance mail to address all questions.
Regards,
Great Eden"