ERA PRIME SYSTEM—PLANET ERA
A Zetark corvette emerged from hyperspace, followed by hundreds of thousands of landing ships.
Apophis keyed into the traffic control channel. "This is the MK.1! Requesting landing clearance."
White's voice came back over the cabin speakers. "This is the Chief Operator. Clearance granted, MK.1! Welcome home!"
The swarm of landing ships followed the lead of their flagship, simultaneously piercing through the planetary atmosphere. The scene was eerily reminiscent of the Battle of Cronos I.
The many noob players on the planetary surface, who were mostly busy with simple quests or grinding monsters, abruptly stopped their activities and stared up at the hundreds of thousands of fireballs coming down from the sky.
By now, the news of Apophis's peacemaking and redemption had spread throughout the game. Players who had previously seen Eclipse as a mere puppet of the Federation now had different opinions.
Of course, they didn't consider Eclipse to be a SuperGuild, and everyone knew it was far from competing with these financial behemoths, but Eclipse's achievements at least gave it enough prestige to be seen as the equal of any ordinary guild and to command the respect of most players.
Especially now that Eclipse had real control over the planet and was slowly rebuilding the paradise that had once existed under the rule of the Republic of Tyo.
So when Apophis appeared again in the atmosphere, the regional and planetary chats became clogged with excited chatter.
"Here it is, the return of the champion Apophis!"
"Please, Apophis, become my master!"
"Apophis, can you give me some money?"
The MK.1 landed near the ruins of Tyo, where the Eclipse guild had set up what looked like the beginnings of a headquarters.
Meanwhile, the landing ships settled down across the continent's various cities and began to unload their troops.
The situation was quite different from the last time Apophis had been on Tyo. He now commanded a powerful armed force made up of 100,000,000 Federation soldiers and 200,000,000 Orc soldiers. They might not be as powerful as a full army of Eternals, but it was a formidable force, nonetheless!
The guild had prepared an honor guard of players who stood on either side of the avenue leading out from the ship's exit ramp. Apophis exited the ship and passed between these two lines of players to meet Lotus, who was waiting for him.
"It seems," Apophis said, "that you've succeeded in your mission and taken over this planet. Of course, you had almost all our forces and the support of the Orc army to help you. I suppose it wasn't a very difficult task, all things considered."
Lotus smirked. "Not that you'd have much experience in the matter, but it turns out that capturing a planet is more difficult than simply ravaging it!"
Both laughed loudly, and Lotus leaned in close to whisper in Apophis's ear. "Welcome home, Alexander. The founding members are waiting for us."
Apophis noticed that Lotus had restored Tyo's city hall and emblazoned the emblem of Eclipse over its front arch, an emblem she'd designed to celebrate taking back the planet.
It was a golden Eye of Horus on a black background, an obvious reference to both the game's name itself and to Apophis, who had taken the name of another ancient Egyptian god.
Lotus led Apophis on a tour of the town hall's new layout—
But then suddenly pulled him aside to a quiet corner where they could exchange a few kisses before the two traveled to the meeting room at the building's apex, where everyone else was waiting.
The four founding members of Eclipse were Chocolate, Hulk, and White—as well as JackRipper, the friend who had lent Alexander the VRI helmet which had allowed him to enter the game again in this new life.
Lotus said, "Well, the first Council of the Founders can now begin."
White nodded. "Let's not waste time. We'd like to congratulate you personally, Apophis. I've watched your fight against Lucifer at least ten times. You almost defeated the efforts of three SuperGuilds by yourself! Nevertheless, we need to be clear about something. You must never use your 'Black Sun' skill again."
JackRipper added, "Yeah, I agree with White. This skill is way too powerful right now. We should only use it as a deterrent. Everyone's going to be targeting our guild, so we really need a deterrent like that! All of us are being constantly harassed for information about you as it is."
Apophis was quite surprised. "What? The SuperGuilds and the first-rate guilds all have their own secret weapons. Why should we give up 'our' advantage?"
Hulk gave a polite grunt. "Perhaps if you take a look at the current bounties, you'll understand."
Wordlessly, Apophis opened the bounty menu.
~1 Apophis (Eclipse): 1,000,000,000 GC
~2 Lucifer (Lord Of War): 200,000,000 GC
~3 Ceasar (Renovatio Imperii): 100,000,000 GC
~4 Zeus (Spartan): 80,000,000 GC
+5 Zelda (Hyrule): 60,000,000 GC
+6 DungEater (/): 60,000,000 GC
-7 Joker (BlackJack): 50,000,000 GC
-8 Mario (Toxic): 30,000,000 GC
-9 Arthas (The Scourge): 20,000,000 GC
~10 Scorpion (Lord Of War): 10,000,000 GC
Apophis's heart skipped a beat.
One billion GC?! What kind of insane bounty was that?!
In his old life, a player who reached that kind of bounty had always become S-Rank… that is, a god.
For a Rank-B player to have that price on his head was unbelievable.
Apophis's first thought was that Lord Of War was behind this. Even though they'd just signed a non-aggression treaty, they could still be piling up funds for this bounty to try to weaken Eclipse in other ways.
Assuming that was the case, Eclipse should start thinking of ways to retaliate.
"I see," said Apophis. "Well, so long as we're vulnerable from this bounty, I'll avoid using my skill if at all possible."
Of course, none of them knew that Apophis's use of Black Sun had been so devastating because he had combined it with ~Universe Editor~, so he was at liberty to use it again in a more discreet manner, without causing such wide-scale destruction every time.
Lotus seemed relieved. "So we agree on that point. Now let's tackle the future, and the details of this new faction of ours, which will rival the one Lord of War just created."
This raised everyone's spirits. As the first guild to found their own country instead of just being content to occupy someone else's, this was quite the historic moment!
Lotus added her thoughts. "To create our own faction, we need 10,000,000 GC, full control of a planet, a guild of at least ten members, and the majority vote of that guild's top leaders. Well, we have all that! The only issue now is the name of our new faction."
Everyone turned silently to Apophis. After all, he was the unofficial guild leader. In everyone's eyes, Lotus was only a steward.
Apophis thought about this for a long time before speaking.
"Well, I guess it's up to me to choose. How about… 'Kingdom of the BlackStar?'"
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