kururin found herself in an unfamiliar space, luminous stars flood not just the sky but everywhere, colorful dust and mist drift out and about interacting with each other forming a bright illusory scene.
On the nebulous domain, an ornate round table stood, ten stalwart chairs awaited at all sides and at the end, a high back chair resembling a throne sat, and on it, a man wearing a frock coat and a bowler hat rested.
So this is 'his' kingdom...
kururin thought, in absolute awe. The man at the end of the table was familiar to kururin, it's the head of the company, a hidden organization she recently joined in.
"Good morning Sir Null"
kururin greeted using the lord's honorific name. They decided upon on the ruins prior to their disbandment, the lord doesn't want to be named so kururin suggested null.
kururin believes that the man she calls her lord is a greater being, a person with a hidden storyline, she suspects that her lord is a being that is recovering, gathering strength and biding 'his' time...
I don't know when, but I look forward to the day my lord can rise again...
"Good morning, Miss Arthur"
Sir Beholder replied, contrary to sir null, kururin's code name is miss Arthur, directly mirrored at the guild she created called The Knights of the Round.
A new face...
Miss Arthur noticed another presence on the other side of the table, a small and nonmoving existence it seemed to be unconscious, just like the lord, the entity is covered in darkness, just like a locked character in games.
Noticing Miss Arthur's curiosity Sir Null explained,
"Let me introduce you to this honorary member... due to unforeseen circumstances, we are forced to accelerate the gathering's schedule."
Sir Null said nonchalantly, which made Miss Arthur's curiosity burn even brighter
Unforeseen circumstances? Did the lord encounter an old enemy? Now that I think about isn't the atmosphere of Sir Null somewhat different today??
Various theories and deductions bloomed in Miss Arthur's mind, Sir Null can tell but paid it no mind, instead he continued,
"The focus of the gathering for today involves a certain event..."
Cillian has long deduced which organization is responsible for the tragedy of the settlement, he remembered that in the near future where the players venture out of Lennitz, the players would discover a ruined settlement.
It doesn't have anything special about it except the vast amount of infected level corrupted abomination in it, which makes it an ideal place to grind levels.
A famous player known for investigating and exploring abandoned places was intrigued about the history of the settlement so he documented it in his kyuutube.
Upon further investigations he concluded that a cult sacrificed the citizens of a village to conduct a certain forbidden ritual.
There is only one organization bold enough to attempt this type of thing under the orthodox churches' noses, The Infernal Void Order
The infernal void order is an organization under the demonic faction, they were established shortly after the end of the age of cataclysm.
They worship an outer god called The Infernal Void, a deity that holds the authority of the Radiant Genesis also known as nuclear fusion, the very process of how stars generate heat and light.
It's something we have no chance of fighting right now... but I'll remember this, I'm someone who never forgets any kind of favors.
Cillian thought, however the fact is the company is very weak right now, but that doesn't mean he'll just let them be.
After a long silence Sir Null spoke,
"To the south of Lennitz, follow the road to Aurich, after passing the fourth stagecoach stop go left, before long a ruined settlement will appear.."
Hearing Sir Null speak, Miss Arthur gulped, she has experienced this before, Sir Null is about to drop another useful hint for her!
I need to memorize this..!
"In that ruins lies a lot of infected ranked abomination, clear it for me, im sure it will be helpful to your group.."
Hearing his words, kururin froze, she knew exactly what Sir Null is hinting at
It's a grinding spot! Did he accelerate the gathering just to tell me this!? How generous! But why does he want us to clear it?
A being as great as him wont normally bother with a random settlement ruins.. he didn't even mention wanting any artifacts if we discovered any.. wait no.. I'm thinking about this wrong..
The essence of our organization is mutual benefits, but it seems like I'm the only one benefiting here..
Before long a lightbulb appeared on kururin's head
How could I not realize!! Mister Null tasked us to clear it to make it seem like were doing him a favor in return but in the end his main purpose is to help us!! I wont ever forget this favor my lord!!
After the ruins, Miss Arthur did a more deeper research about Ceres from it she stumbled upon a lot of player footage.
Videos upon videos of players getting annihilated by the corrupted abominations, traps and various other things, it almost seems like the world is hostile to the players.
It made her realize how easy she has it on her very first ruin exploration, she was absolutely carried by Sir Null! in which she was very thankful for, but it made her realize how weak she is, if she wants to stand beside her lord, she must be strong!!
This is why she is even more thankful for the information that Sir Null generously gave her, with this The Knights of the Round can quickly catch up with other guilds!!
Seeing Miss Arthur smile, Cillian was satisfied, he originally thought the ritual that the infernal void order did on the settlement was a god descension ritual, it turns out it was a ritual to summon Infernal Void's spawn.
There's only one reason why an outergod's spawns would descend without their god... To gather more sacrifice..
Cillian easily deduced the order's goal, It all makes sense when you think about it, the cult killed all the horses and people on the stagecoach stop.
It resulted in the stagecoaches being forced to reroute to the ruined settlement where they'll be lulled by some sort of spell not even noticing anything before dying and ending up as a charred corpse..
I seriously need to thank the kid for waking me up...