SSG 230

On Apollo’s orders, the remaining forces gathered in his city, Delos. However much they tried to scrape together their remaining troops, their fighting strength was still painfully lacking.

Still, Apollo’s grim demand that they not lose this city made the guild members steel their resolve.

But strangely, the Reckless forces made no move.

“What are they up to?”

“No idea.”

Apollo asked his subordinates, but of course none of them had a clear answer.

For an instant, a faint hope arose that maybe things would end without another battle. But there was no way those people would do him any favors.

And reality soon showed itself, when some people teleported inside the castle.

“Someone’s teleporting in!”

“Is it the enemy?”

“No, during a war, enemies can only teleport outside the walls.”

“So they must be allies.”

Subordinates murmured at the sudden appearance animation. Apollo watched closely.

‘…Pyton?’

It was Pyton, a fellow deputy guild master of C.O.T.S., who had teleported in.

Perhaps he’d come to help.

But there were too few of them for that.

He’d brought only about five others. Each was a high-level player, but not enough to influence the course of the war.

“Apollo! Where are you, Apollo!”

Pyton shouted loudly. Normally, Apollo would have frowned at such behavior in his own city, but this was no time for that.

He rushed over to Pyton.

It felt humiliating, like he was now Pyton’s underling. This feeling only grew stronger when Pyton crossed his arms as Apollo approached.

But Apollo forced down his anger and lifted his chin as if he had nothing to be ashamed of.

Of course, for Pyton and his group, who knew the true situation, the display looked entirely pathetic.

Mad Hammer watched from atop the wall.

He noticed Willy among those with Pyton.

The two were known rivals within C.O.T.S.

But now, their situations were completely different. Mad Hammer scowled, while Willy looked utterly at ease.

“What’s going on?” Apollo asked, glancing at Pyton’s group.

“There aren’t many with you for reinforcements.”

“Let’s skip the niceties. Neither we nor the situation is in any mood for friendly chats, so let me get to the point,” Pyton said, looking Apollo straight in the eye.

“I’ve negotiated with Aiden of Reckless.”

“What?”

“We’re ending the war by ceding Delphoi and Delos to Reckless.”

“……!”

For a moment, Apollo thought he’d misheard. But judging by the shocked faces of Asclepius and the other subordinates, he hadn’t.

Naturally, anger surged up.

“What the hell are you talking about?!”

“Sound like nonsense? Too bad for you. But it’s already decided.”

“Who gave you the right to make that kind of decision?!”

Delphoi and Delos were the most developed among the four cities under Apollo’s control.

Just from the names, which were both related to Apollo from mythology, you could tell how much effort he’d put in.

But Pyton was unphased.

“Wasn’t it you who decided and acted on your own first? Commander of the Mordin invasion.”

“That was—”

“Going to make an excuse? Go ahead, I’ll be quiet. I’m curious to hear what kind of sophistry you come up with.”

“…Watch it, Pyton.”

Apollo growled. Pyton’s eyebrows twitched.

“…Did you say watch it?”

Pyton’s voice began to rise.

“Who went to war without even consulting the other guild members? Who threw away all our power by getting thoroughly wiped out in defeat? Thanks to you, it wasn’t just your own cities, you handed over the coordinates for every C.O.T.S. city to Reckless. And you still have something to say? Your shamelessness is astonishing.”

“….”

Even Apollo couldn’t answer. Pyton knew more about what had happened than expected.

“…Did you hear all this from Aiden?”

“Who else would I hear it from? Don’t worry. Your subordinates are so annoyingly loyal, they didn’t say a word to me. Idiots. There’s a time for loyalty and a time not for it.”

Pyton glared at Apollo’s men, who avoided his gaze.

“In any case, it’s already settled. Vacate the two cities immediately.”

“I can’t! Do you know how much effort went into those cities! We should fight back, together—!”

“Fight? Are you talking with any idea how much of the guild’s strength we’ve lost because of you? And even if we somehow fend them off, we don’t know the coordinates for any city but Mordin! They’d just keep picking us off!”

“We can do what they did! To get here, they must have used teleport crystals too! We just have to grab those and—!”

“You really think they haven’t prepared for that?! Aiden even spelled it out—said all their forces arrived via Mordin, so don’t bother with any tricks!”

“…!”

Apollo fell silent. Pyton sighed. Seeing his rival defeated was satisfying, but the guild’s losses were so severe he couldn’t enjoy it.

“This war is lost. Reckless promised to stop attacking if we gave them Delphoi and Delos. They’ll also release any captured forces from our other two cities.”

“You trust their word?!”

“We have to. Unlike us, they have credibility. Besides, they know if they break the agreement, they’ll have to fight a full-scale war against us—and that would cost them dearly too. Neither Aiden nor Reckless are the reckless type who’d break it easily.”

“So, high casualties? Not defeat? Did I hear wrong?”

It sounded as if Pyton believed the outcome of a total war would be massive damage to both sides, with C.O.T.S. still losing.

Reckless was strong, but still a small guild. They couldn’t be compared to the largest guild in Ark, C.O.T.S.

“They were only weaker because they had fewer members. Now with the city update, their numbers are no longer a handicap. Their number of cities was already suspiciously high. And they took in advanced refugees early, too. Still, our guild was bigger, with more cities—so we maintained the edge….”

Pyton glared at Apollo.

“Guess who ruined that. Do you really have anything to say about the negotiation?”

“….”

Apollo could not answer. Pyton, glaring coldly, turned away.

“Handing over the cities is only about concluding this war. That doesn’t mean you’re off the hook. You’ll answer for this afterward. Until then, stay quiet.”

“…What if I refuse?”

“Don’t push it, Apollo. My faction has five cities. Taking your two weakened ones would be nothing.”

Even weakened, Apollo’s faction still had strong players. Since C.O.T.S. didn’t have as many advanced members as Reckless, that loss hurt more.

So, even with the sudden power imbalance, Pyton hadn’t simply crushed Apollo by force—otherwise too many would have quit the guild in protest.

But if Apollo kept resisting, Pyton wouldn’t hold back any longer.

That last warning made that clear.

Apollo understood.

“….”

There was nothing more to say.

Pyton used a rainbow crystal.

Now that the main obstacle to ending the war had been removed, it was time to close things out.

But that wasn’t the end. There was all the cleanup left to do. Even though it was a game, Pyton felt a headache as he teleported away.

---

The Reckless guild members gathered at Mordin. The day had been exhausting, with the large-scale C.O.T.S. event and the work of mopping up after, but everyone’s faces were bright.

“Hehehehehe!”

“Hehehehehe!”

Barbarian and Incendiary were giggling. They looked like something out of a shady scene. Normally, someone would say something, but no one did now.

Judging from the others’ faces, even if they weren’t as expressive, everyone felt the same.

“Okay, focus up, please.”

Aiden clapped to gather attention.

“I know everyone’s in a good mood, but we still need to wrap up properly. Doesn’t it feel better to celebrate after all the tasks are done?”

The guild members gathered around Aiden.

“Let me start with this: we won this war!”

“Yeahhh!”

“Whooo!”

The members pumped their arms and cheered. There were no outsiders, so no need to hold back. Even when the war ended, for a while no one else could access the city, so it was all but theirs.

There were NPCs around, but no one in Reckless was delicate enough to care about a bunch of data bits.

“On a day like this, it’s a shame there’s no booze. Instead, have some of this.”

Cookingday handed out his trademark potion cocktails. Normally, people would have made jokes about this being pointless, but everyone was in such a good mood now that they simply downed the potions with cheer.

Aiden watched them joke and laugh for a while, and when things quieted down, he spoke again.

“We gained a total of thirteen cities in this war.”

“Wow!”

“Woah!”

They already knew, but hearing the number again was impressive. Even before, Reckless had been one of Ark’s top guilds by city count, but now they’d gotten even more from just this one war.

It was thanks to having taken all the cities from the four invading guilds.

C.O.T.S. still had some power left, so Reckless only took two cities by negotiation. From the others, they took absolutely everything.

‘They teamed up with Cots to come after us. We should take every single thing we can.’

Aiden had easily dismissed the requests for mercy from those three guilds.

“For now, let’s give one city to each guild member.”

“Haha! There are huge guilds out there desperate for even one city, and we’re getting two each!”

Other players would be green with envy.

“But, since Yuseong and his city contributed the most to this war, Yuseong gets an extra city.”

In other words, Yuseong would have two cities.

No one objected to this plan. The guild members nodded in agreement.