In Blackridge, a Beginner Fortress was under siege.

Outside the stone walls, amid the shifting lines of her assembled forces, stood Xandria. The banners of dozens of guilds fluttered behind her, their symbols stitched hastily together under a single command. At her side, as he always was, stood her Vice Leader, the man who had remained with her through every rise and near-collapse, watching her back in silence.

"Is the message out?" Xandria asked without turning her head.

"Already in Marcus Skeiner's ears," he replied.

She gave a small nod. She never asked how. Trust was something she gave sparingly, and once given, she did not second-guess it. He stood half a step behind her, eyes resting on her profile with a focus that bordered on intensity.

Xandria turned suddenly.

He startled, straightening at once and looking away.

"What?" she asked, brows knitting together at his reaction.

"N nothing," he said too quickly, the words tripping over each other.

"If it's nothing, then why are you acting like that?" she pressed, studying him for a moment before shaking her head. "This location is secure. We're done here. Move on to the next target."

She shot him one last puzzled glance and strode forward, her troops shifting instinctively to follow. Orders rippled through the ranks, and the siege line began to reorganize with practiced efficiency.

Her forces had grown into something formidable. Dozens of guilds, driven by fear or desperation or sheer opportunism, had thrown their lot in with her. Each victory fed the next, momentum building until even she found it intoxicating. Blackridge had no Blade Syndicate presence, no Renegade Alliance foothold. She had never imagined the region would open up like this.

At first, she had assumed the Steele Consortium's aggressive recruitment in Blackridge meant they intended to dominate the area. Instead, they had simply drained it dry, funneling manpower south toward Springhaven. The result was a vacuum, one with no established power capable of slowing her expansion. More than once, she found herself grateful she had chosen to align with the Renegade Alliance when she did.

That thought made her glance sideways at her Vice Leader. It had been his suggestion, after all, to foster a relationship with Druid God. Granting Ethan that favor back then had quietly rewritten her future. Without it, the Nocturne Order would almost certainly have been erased during the Fortress Wars. Submitting to another guild would have shattered her pride, and she knew she never would have accepted it.

On the surface, the Northern Frontier Region had settled into a stable balance. The Renegade Alliance held the Harmony City region. The Blade Syndicate was entrenched in Springhaven. And the Nocturne Order, once overlooked, had emerged as the dark horse, advancing through careful opportunism and relentless pressure.

Everything was in place. She had little to fear for now. The Blade Syndicate was tied down in Springhaven and unable to project power northward. By the time they finished consolidating their gains, the Renegade Alliance would have completed their own internal cleanup. Ethan would never allow the Blade Syndicate to turn its full attention on her unchecked. Consequences could wait.

For now, her objective was simple. Expansion.

Advanced and Mid-Tier fortresses were still risky targets, but Beginner Fortresses were plentiful. She would take every one she could reach, carefully preserving the siege engines within. Those machines would be indispensable when the time came to challenge Mid-Tier fortresses. She was following the safest, most conventional path to victory in the Fortress Wars, and it suited her just fine.

---

Back in Springhaven, Zachary stood beside Marcus Skeiner as they reviewed their next move. In a characteristically extravagant display, Marcus had acquired a strategic hologram of the region, a translucent projection that filled the council chamber with glowing terrain and fortress markers. The thing was obscenely expensive.

Zachary sighed when he saw it. The funds, after all, had come straight out of his own accounts. Over eight thousand coins, wasted on a map limited to a single region of war.

Marcus, oblivious to his irritation, pointed to the northernmost Advanced fortress in Blackridge, now clearly marked as occupied. Xandria's conquest. Then his finger shifted to a nearby Beginner Fortress, almost hidden in its shadow.

"This one," Marcus said. "The Nocturne Order was originally aiming here."

Zachary studied the projection and nodded. From that Beginner Fortress, the Advanced Fortress was fully visible. The terrain matched Marcus's intelligence reports perfectly. His confidence in Marcus's information rose another notch.

Seeing the agreement, Marcus grinned and zoomed the hologram back toward Springhaven. "I'm planning to take this." He indicated a Mid-Tier fortress. It was not the closest option, but its capture would place immediate pressure on the Advanced fortress to the far west. With two more Mid-Tier fortresses secured, the area could be fully encircled. Siege engines stationed there would be able to assault the Advanced target without long, vulnerable marches. Since siege equipment moved painfully slowly and could not use teleporters, the advantage was decisive.

The plan was obvious, but solid.

Zachary was just about to voice his approval when shouting erupted from outside the chamber.

"Boss! Boss! Someone's here to see you!"

The title, of course, belonged to Marcus.

"Does everyone think they can just stroll in and meet me whenever they feel like it?" Marcus snapped. "Tell him to get lost."

He fancied himself a warlord, surrounded by flatterers and ceremony. Seeing him required appointments and layers of permission, a sharp contrast to Ethan's complete lack of pretense. Though in Ethan's case, meeting him was arguably even harder, considering he might as well have been a ghost.

The messenger hesitated. "Uh… he says his name is Meatball. He says if you see him, he'll gift us an Advanced fortress. If not…" The man trailed off uncertainly.

"Meatball?" Marcus scoffed. "That Renegade Alliance guy? Gift us an Advanced fortress? Does he think we're idiots? That Renegade Alliance trash has their heads in the clouds. A guild traitor coming here to posture? What's he going to do if I don't see him?"

He was already storming toward the door when the messenger spoke again.

"Boss… I think you should hear this part. He also said the Nocturne Order's Advanced fortress was the leftover from his practice run."

Marcus stopped mid-step.

"Say that again," he said slowly.

"He said the Nocturne Order picked up what he left behind after he was done playing around."

"Let's go see him," Zachary said calmly as he stepped out of the chamber.

Marcus's expression shifted. Curiosity overtook his anger as he followed. He might be loud and vain, but he had learned one hard lesson in Ethereal. Luck was power.

The Renegade Alliance was living proof of it, packed with players blessed by absurd fortune. People complained endlessly about unfairness, but fairness had never existed in reality. Opportunity and chance were currencies like any other. Ethereal, a complete virtual mirror of the real world, obeyed the same rules. Hidden Side Quests were the clearest example. A good one could launch you into the stratosphere. A bad one could bankrupt you without mercy.

This Meatball had reportedly fallen out with the Renegade Alliance. Marcus had wanted to track him down and recruit him, but the outbreak of the Fortress Wars had pushed that plan aside. Now the man had come directly to him.

'Perfect timing.'

The rumors were impressive. A hidden class. The ability to summon undead creatures, potentially a hundred at once. Their individual attack power was said to be unimpressive, but numbers had a value all their own. At the very least, they would make excellent suicide squads. Using real players for that role was costly, and Ethereal had countless situations where only sacrificial waves could break deadlocks or probe lethal zones.

"Bring him in," Marcus ordered.

He turned and walked back into the council chamber, Zachary close behind.

***

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