Eden arrived at the designated meeting point alongside Barlas. Waiting for them was Jericho, the undisputed power-house of the server. Eden dismounted Thunder, and Jericho immediately extended a heavy, gauntleted hand.
"The infamous Great Eden—welcome to the war," Jericho said smoothly. He glanced past her, his eyes locking onto her companion. "And I see you brought a friend. Barlas."
Jericho shifted, offering the same hand toward Barlas. "No hard feelings, man."
Barlas merely stared at the extended palm, his expression carved from stone. "I am here only because of Eden."
Jericho slowly withdrew his hand, straightening his posture as his smile tightened. "Well, I'm certainly curious how Eden managed to convince you to join the coalition," he said, turning his gaze back to her.
"That is none of your concern," Barlas interjected before Eden could speak.
Clearing her throat loudly, Eden stepped between the two towering men, heavily armored men, both of whose nostrils were practically flaring with tension. "You requested a call for field support. Barlas is part of that support. Are we good?"
"Yeah," Jericho conceded, easing his posture and stepping ahead. "Follow me. I'll introduce you to the strike team."
As they got closer to the group, Jericho called out to announce their arrival. The gathered of high-tier warlords fell silent, turning to evaluate the newcomers.
"Hey, Eden!" called DBoot, a tall, slender warrior with long brown hair cascading over his shoulders. "Glad to see you decided to join the dark side. You can line up next to me—I'll keep you safe."
"No offense, Boot," chimed Stephan, a dark-haired fighter in hardened leather, "but I think you've got stiff competition. Barlas's murderous glare alone is making me wish you your condolences."
The group chuckled, and Jiman added, "Pretty sure the goal today is to crush the enemy server, not each other."
"Unless you're into that," DBoot winked at Eden with a smirk.
Barlas took a menacing step forward, but Eden shifted directly into his path, blocking his advance. "Pretty sure you'll need more muscle before you can offer protection, DBoot. Besides, I prefer heavy artillery."
As if on cue, Barlas stepped up behind her, wrapping his thick, armored arms firmly around her waist. Eden leaned back against Barlas chest, keeping her eyes locked on DBoot with a sharp, challenging smirk.
Jiman burst out laughing. "Told you your arms were slinky, bro! Now you can't even protect the girl!"
The rest of the frontline fighters joined in the banter, breaking the tension—until a woman stepped out from the cluster. She had fiery red hair, piercing green eyes, and wore a deep burgundy gown with a high leg slit that exposed her hip bone with every step.
"I don't see what the grand spectacle is about," Athena purred, sauntering over. "It's not as if she's the strongest one on the board." She reached out, lightly trailing her manicured fingers across Jericho's breastplate.
Jericho recoiled instantly, taking a sharp step back with a nervous laugh. "Woman, I'm married."
Athena chuckled, unbothered. "I know. I was merely inspecting a work of art."
Eden rolled her eyes, her hand dropping to her hilt with lethal intent. "I'm not the server's top seed, but I'm certainly no spectator. Want to test the baseline?"
She drew her blade halfway from its scabbard, but Barlas's hand clamped gently down on her forearm, anchoring her in place.
Athena smiled thinly, waving a dismissive hand. "Simply stating facts, darling. No need to throw a fit."
Eden narrowed her eyes at Barlas until he released his grip, then she snapped her blade back into its sheath with a metallic click. "Save your condescending comments. If you're going to dish it out, be prepared for the consequences."
"Not interested," Athena cooed, turning her back. She glided straight into the arms of Bone—a towering, heavy-set warrior with a tattooed scalp and a massive dragon earring dangling from his left ear.
When Athena pulled Bone into an exaggerated kiss, Eden felt a wave of mild disgust and turned back toward her horse. Thunder, mirroring his rider's distaste, snorted loudly, spun around, and presented his hindquarters directly to Athena.
Eden hid a sudden giggle behind her gauntlet.
Barlas leaned down, his voice dropping to a low whisper against her ear. "Athena has always operated like that. She flirts with every Lord on the grid."
Eden glanced up at him, raising an eyebrow. "Why are you telling me this?"
"So you understand it is her baseline behavior, not personal."
"Meaning you've flirted with her too?" Eden countered dryly.
"No!" Barlas insisted, his eyes widening. "She attempted to engage me, but I ignored her completely."
"I don't need a summary of your past encounters," Eden murmured, turning back to the group. Raising her voice, she called out, "Does this coalition actually have an operational plan, or are we improvising?"
"The plan is: don't go Leeroy Jenkins, form tactical rallies, and survive," DBoot replied with a grin.
"Yeah, that's standard doctrine," Jiman agreed.
More high-level warriors continued to flood the staging area, their respective guides hovering nearby or waiting by their mounts. It was an intimidating display of mythical assets and custom avatars. Yet, Eden noticed a distinct absence: no representatives from the FOX alliance were present.
"Why hasn't FOX dispatched their representatives?" Eden asked Jericho privately. "Are they sitting this server war out?"
Jericho scanned the crowd before answering quietly. "There's heavy friction between them and Sentinel. They claimed they'd breach the enemy server on their own vector."
"Who is Sentinel?"
Jericho gestured toward a lone, cloaked figure sitting on a boulder at the far edge of the clearing, quietly drinking from an iron mug.
Before Eden could ask more, several warriors pulled Barlas away to question him on his unit builds. Jericho stepped closer to Eden, a subtle grin touching his lips. "So... you and Barlas, huh? How did that materialize?"
Eden let out a long sigh, wondering if the server's top ranks would ever tire of gossiping. "I'm essentially his nurse. He needed a secure territory to recover after his keep fell, and we're solid allies."
"I think he disagrees with the 'just allies' assessment," Jericho smirked.
"Regardless, none of this sandbox is real," Eden said, her voice dropping into a somber, serious tone. "We're all just trying to navigate a way home. The mimic replacing me on Earth forced a brief system override yesterday—it needed me to authorize an administrative disciplinary form at my hospital. My supervisor knows my behavior is off. I couldn't even explain where I actually was. I could only process the prompt to say I agreed to the terms and would improve performance."
She stared down at her gauntlets, a cold dread creeping through her. "This place... it's eroding reality. Where is the actual line?"
Jericho went quiet, the playful banter evaporating. "I guess you just have to remind yourself every single morning."
A harsh, brass horn shattered the silence, echoing across the valley. The server war had officially commenced. A system-wide prompt flared holographic blue before every participant:
[CROSS-SERVER WAR INITIATED: VALKARIES]
You have been issued 3 Travel Tokens to the enemy domain.Defeated enemy combatants will drop their remaining travel tokens upon total vessel suppression.Victory Condition: The server with the lowest aggregate casualty count at the end of the timer wins.Defeated players enter a 7-day recovery lock, during which asset restitution requires gold or event rewards (Diamonds, Recovery Elixirs, Resource Craters, Teleportation Wards).Top Tier Rewards: Sovereign Skins, Citadel Blueprint Upgrades, and Royal Decrees.
Before Eden could fully process the rules, regional rift portals tore open across the perimeter, and several assault squads immediately plunged through the light.
Barlas moved to her side instantly. "I'm heading out with you. Where are we dropping?"
Eden looked across the clearing. Jericho was already locked in a duel, with a massive smile, husky opponent who had breached their side of the rift—the apex titans had found each other instantly.
"We strike their territory directly," Eden decided. "We cover each other's backs."
Both pulled a shimmering travel token from their inventory and tossed it skyward. Twin beams of light struck them, atomizing their forms and scattering them across the enemy server's geography.
When the light faded, Eden hit the ground on a desolate, rocky ridge.
"Commander," Uriel's voice chimed beside her.
"I thought I ordered you to remain cloaked," Eden said, startled. A boss dropped a rare cloaking crystal during one of the raids, but she decided to have Uriel use it instead.
"The cloaking crystal's concealment automatically resets upon crossing server boundaries," Uriel explained.
Eden quickly re-engaged the crystal and cloaked her guide once more. Uriel was the only human-type guide she had ever encountered across the entire player base, and she refused to expose his unique administrative properties to rival scouts until it offered a decisive tactical advantage.
Her console chimed with a priority ping from Barlas: Where did you drop? Open your map and forward your coordinates.
Eden pulled up her local grid. Barlas had landed relatively close, but staying stationary in unmapped hostile territory was suicide.
Meet me at these grid markers instead, she messaged back, pinning a canyon pass.
Mounting Thunder, she spurred the stallion into a trot. "Uriel, maintain full cloaking protocol."
Unbeknownst to her, a high-altitude enemy scout had already flagged her arrival.
Stationed on a neighboring ridge was Draco, a high-ranking combatant from the Valkaries server. His alliance had strategically deployed defensive strike teams around predicted portal drop zones, planning to consolidate their forces via rapid-teleportation wards the moment an invader was sighted.
Instead of signaling his team to execute a mass deployment, Draco watched Eden's solitary figure ride across the ravine. Intrigued by the solo rider—and eager to test his personal power rating against an unknown invader—Draco broke formation and began hunting her from the shadows.