Wardi and the others found themselves unable to enter the Eastern District. The sheer amount of debris that had broken off from the walls made it impossible to pass through without injuring themselves.

"Bloody hell… Do either of you have any ideas?" Wardi asked.

Lucy looked at the walls, then looked north and south. The fighting appeared much greater on the northern side than on the southern side. "Judging by the amount of fighting that seems to be in the north, may I suggest that we take the Southern District entrance?"

Rhua agreed with Lucy. "Yeah, we should go to the Southern District. We can't climb this, and the other side will be too dangerous."

"South it is. Be on your toes for any potential threats along the way. Got it? Great, let's go!"

The smell of concrete and various other building materials was strong in the air. While his companions couldn't tell what it was, Wardi was very familiar with the smells of construction materials. He tried to identify which materials he could recognise. Hmm, yes, there's definitely asphalt and a little bit of sandstone. I wonder why they chose granite. Now that I think about it, a lot of this wall is made of granite. It's no wonder it crumbled so easily.

The three of them had run a considerable distance. The walls of Eccles Ville could not be exaggerated. It was easily three or four kilometres from where they started at the eastern walls.

"Gosh," said Lucy, panting, "you could just run around the outer walls all day for some good cardio."

Rhua laughed at the terrible idea. "That would be one of the most boring runs I could ever think of trying. All you would see is grey and green over and over."

"Well, it's not such a terrible idea, don't you think? At least it's a bit familiar."

Wardi wasn't interested in chatting during their march to the southern district, because he just spotted something concerning: "Both of those have merit. But we need to stop right now!"

Wardi pointed to the numerous homeless people that appeared to be rushing towards the sewer gate of the Southern District. Lucy was the first to comment regarding the sight.

"I don't think I've ever seen so many homeless people outside in one day." Lucy was more curious than anything else. Her companions, on the other hand, were much more questioning. Lucy noted that Wardi placed his hand on the hilt of his rapier, and he began to speak.

"This is not a normal situation at all. There's no reason for so many of them to just be charging like maniacs into that place. I think something's happening."

Rhua couldn't help herself and spoke up. "Come on, bud, that's stating the obvious. Look at everything we've just seen. It's absolute bloody chaos everywhere!"

I know that. You don't have to bloody say it out loud. Sheesh. Wardi was not amused by the comment his companion just made, but he did not vocally express it. With a wave of his hand, he slowly beckoned them to follow him along the walls, keeping close to the grey and black bricked, mossy walls of Eccles Ville.

Vibrations occasionally rattled the wall, and dust fell and coated the trio. But Wardi hushed them with his finger; they needed to remain silent in this situation.

Hundreds of homeless had rushed into the sewers; the footsteps of so many rumbled the floor ever so slightly, and Wardi was able to pick up on it. Free food inside? Someone having a get-together? The homeless in this world are so different from back home…

They crept in closer, step by step. Nobody seemed to be coming outside, and Wardi noticed something else. "Strange, isn't it? There doesn't seem to be any noise going on inside the sewers right now, especially considering how many we've seen rush inside," Wardi whispered, concerned about what that might entail.

"Actually," Lucy spoke up, drawing the attention of the other two, "I think I can hear footsteps inside."

Wide Scan.

Wardi unleashed his ability into the sewer tunnel. Through the ability, he was able to determine that there were several bodies unconscious on the floor and two humanoid figures walking towards them slowly.

"Be on your toes. There are people inside."

Wardi unsheathed his rapier, Rhua took out her sword and shield, and Lucy quickly joined them by taking out her wand.

"Haha, STUPID HOBOS."

It was impossible for the trio not to recognise that voice, and Lucy couldn't help but shout in response. "Horace!?"

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

"WHAT THE FUCK!?" Horace piped.

"Oh shit, it's the others!" The trio heard MC cheer.

The pair rushed outside of the sewer entrance, looking around to find the other trio. The five of them erupted with joy in their hearts and smiles on their faces as they spotted each other. MC and Horace ran over, and the other trio matched their energy. They embraced in a group hug, jumping around and patting each other on the backs.

Rhua was the first one to ask the questions. "I'm so glad to see you both again. But where have you been? We've been trying for days to get in contact with you." With a smile still on her face and Horace feeling ever so guilty, he began to turn away, hoping MC would answer for him. And of course, being the bro he was, he was going to answer.

"Jeez, haven't we been busy? I'm sure you three have some stories to tell as well, right?"

Wardi, buzzing with delight that he'd found his best friends again, responded, "Absolutely, you would not believe some of the shit we've dealt with recently…"

Both sides began to share snippets of what had happened in their time apart as separate trios. MC described how after they separated, they found themselves going through Spook's Woods and encountering the infamous Heehee'er. They eventually came across a cabin that was never there before, and the cabin drew them in and took them to some sort of pocket dimension.

Of the three, Lucy was the most intrigued by this. She made a note of it in her status window. "How bizarre. I wonder who they were. They must have been doing it for a long time if they had that many ghosts; did you see?"

"They had a lot more than that, I can assure you. Things from other worlds, too."

"DAMN RIGHT," piped Horace.

Wardi spoke on behalf of the other trio. "You know that Rising Dawn group? Well, we finally encountered one of them in person, and I hope we never have to again." Lucy's face began to droop. Sadness was written all over her face.

"Dude… We're only standing here now because Bompeeyo saved our asses. If someone hadn't disconnected his pirate cell AGAIN, he never would have come to the indirect rescue of us."

Horace, feeling overwhelmed with guilt, couldn't help but speak about what happened. "OK, please don't be mad at me…"

Rhua had no expression on her face now. She knew that something had happened. "What is it, Horace?"

"Well, I may or may not have accidentally set my system window to D-N-D, not knowing what D-N-D means…"

All four of them looked at each other with confusion on their faces. This was because there was a minor, non-mentioned update that the gods did not tell anyone about. It happened on the first day of the year 2048, and the only reason Horace noticed it was because he was tinkering with his system window at the time.

"So basically… DND IS THE FEATURE THAT LETS YOU BLOCK ALL INCOMING AND OUTGOING TRANSMISSIONS ON THE SHELL NET. HAHA PLEASE don't hurt me!"

As a group they synchronised, slapping themselves in the face; jaws dropped from what Horace just told them. "I've been with you this whole time, and I had no idea you did that. Why the bloody hell didn't you say anything, you doughnut?" MC growled at Horace, who was kicking the floor like a child.

"Well, I didn't realise what it was at first. It was only after a couple of days of having it active in my system that I realised what it actually does, and at that point I was so embarrassed. I was hoping this would all just blow over, ha ha ha…"

Rhua hysterically began to laugh. "HEEEE YACKAAHA! Only you would do something so BLOODY stupid, Horace." Horace turned bright red from embarrassment and flopped to the floor face first.

Unfortunately for the reunited group, their reunion would be short-lived.

Gunfire shot straight past the five and into the base of the wall, exploding and crumbling a huge portion of it. They had to dive at the sides to avoid it.

"Shit, we need to get out of here," Wardi ordered. The four of them quickly followed him, as the gate to the Southern District was still open.

The gunshot continued to shoot past them. Despite looking around, Wardi and Horace couldn't tell at all where it was actually coming from. They couldn't even see the bullets. They were travelling at such a high speed; it was far beyond what they were capable of identifying.

MC shouted, "Fucking hell. Who'd want to be after us this badly?"

Rhua responded, "Have you made any unwanted friends or, even worse, made yourselves glaring targets of unwanted individuals recently, boys?"

"Definitely NOT," piped Horace.

Among all the madness, it had dawned on Wardi that nobody had asked the glaringly obvious question yet.

"So where the bloody hell is the walking flavour enhancer? I haven't seen him yet. Is he not with you?"

"OH SHIT!" MC cried aloud. "Now you're not going to like what you hear next."

"Do go on," Wardi said.

"Well, we had to separate of our own accord in Ecclesville. Dilly has got himself on the XOF news network. He managed to trespass into their compound, and now they are running a story claiming that he was sent to Ecclesville from Areya as a type of GMO bioweapon. And it did not help his case that he had been in his transformed form while he was doing this and scaled the top of a building with a certain someone we have been looking for for a while."

"I am impressed the guy has been able to cause such a media frenzy," Wardi replied.

Rhua was laughing intensely; Lucy was in a state of shock. "That's our boy!" piped Horace.

Lucy spoke up, concerned for their companion, "I know he has a fantastic memory, but where exactly would Dilly go in Ecclesville? He has never been there before."

***

Lurking far away in the background, a certain someone was stalking the party. Oh, my special little sausage. Look how much you have grown up already. I should probably try to challenge you even more. Hehe. Hey you little shit, don't you go running into Ecclesville just yet. I haven't tested you enough, my boy.

The person began unloading even more insane shots from afar. It was lucky that she informed the guilds well in advance so there would be no reports of her actions, because right now it appeared as if the Southern District walls of Ecclesville were currently being bombarded by a one-man army.

Sure is going to cost me a lot to fix, but never mind. Hayle can cover the costs, the lazy shit… What am I saying? I love my hubby.

***

Far beneath the city, a swirling gale vortex floated in the air, adjacent to a swirling gorthen equivalent.

"Yeathe, are you ready, sister?"

"I am, Solin. Let us depart for the great event, dear brother."

The two swirling vortexes began to condense, shrinking down and vibrating manically. A bright light of green and brown erupted out. A green flea and a brown tick broke free of the vortex, no bigger than a fingernail and a mafon berry.

They rapidly began to expand, growing far beyond the size these creatures would normally reach…

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.