Guild Wars

"Ho! Ha! Hng!"

A mature and heart-pounding voice sounded from the training area of this compound, where one would find a young female elf swinging a glaive around in controlled arcs.

One would first notice her long weapon, with its short shaft made of wood which shone with a light brown color, as well as the blade's end on the top, which was made of a greenish metal that glowed when a swing was executed.

Then one would notice her svelte form, her height towering over most men at 6'4, coupled with her medium armor made of chain-mail at the top covering her abdomen while her mid-size breasts were covered by a full metal breastplate, along with a metallic skirt that reached her lower thigh that showed her relatively shapely behind.

Apart from that were a pair of knee-length metallic boots that were styled like those for cowgirls in terms of aesthetics.

Beyond this, one would finally take notice of her sleek brown hair that reached her back - a strange pigmentation for an elf - her blazing blue eyes that had a mixture of determination and fatigue mixed together in them, all of this buttressed by the typical sharp elven facial features that made their race the epitome of physical beauty in a way.

"Harrgh!" The elf woman cried out as she swung downwards, the blade end of her glaive finally cutting the wooden target into two, a feat that had taken her a lot of effort to achieve.

She panted heavily and accepted a towel from a young elven boy who scuttled over from the side, gazing at the mature warrior with a boyish crush.

Seeing this, Lily couldn't help but smile. She raised her head and absorbed the sight of the village she had been staying in for the past few weeks, her usually tired heart finally feeling some life flow through it.

Lily had joined Boundless on launch day. She was a gamer through and through, and she would never miss out on a chance to explore a whole new type of gaming for any reason, and her choice had proven to be wise.

Throughout all the various events and excitements, she had been there, and she had seen it all. A small guild fighting against a Dragon alone, then two Dragons clashing in the sky, then a magnificent Guild War where the Army of Camelot had been summoned, to an auction where all the big powers came and used a rare resource called 'Aether Crystal'.

The game was like nothing that had come before it. It did not follow the typical logic or the long-since established rules, seeming content to do its own thing from top to bottom without a care for the opinions of its players.

Rather than miff, Lily found this to be more enticing. She was not a child who needed her hand to be held while gaming. Give her an open world, a sensible game model, and a lot of free time, and she would find a way to get things done.

Take her current situation as an example.

Lily had joined the game as a human, since race changes were only acquirable through events or Quests. While others had been grinding typical Quests to level up, the moment she had left the starter village, she had bought a map and traveled to a nearby elven village.

There she had tried to integrate with them, yet the initial xenophobia and racial hatred had been extremely tough to weather. Unsurprisingly, she hadn't been the only one to think of this, as those who wanted to play as elves, orcs or any other race had tried something similar.

However, the initial barrier had not been easy to cross, and those with little patience had given up, returning to the game's normal stream. Those who didn't lack the virtue, had managed to breathe this period, only to find that achieving their target turned out to be far harder than they had ever believed.

Just working hard was not enough, one needed certain talents, a certain personality, and a certain mindset to succeed. Lily was just one of those who had recently managed to succeed.

At least in this village, she was certainly the first one, since the others who had persevered with her were still sporting round ears instead of pointy ones. Many had come to congratulate her with envy in their eyes, wondering how she'd done it.

Well, Lily was not one to share her secrets, but it had been a mixture of clever metagaming, luck and a special ingredient she did not think she could ever disclose in her life.

After completing her training section, she checked her class menu.

｢Name: ElleLeone

Class: War Cleric

Rank: Adventurer (1)

Level: 21

Exp: 2%

Str: 20

Dex: 40

End: 15

Int: 40

Spr: 55

Cha: 5

Lck: 5

Combat Skills: Ground Smash, Partbreaker, Divine Blessing, Side Sweep, Plunge.

Non-Combat Skills: Agitator, Vitality, Offensive Guard, Holy Reduct, Purity's Wish.

Tradeskills: Fletching, Blacksmithing, Cooking.｣

Lily had to admit that she had fallen far behind the mainstream due to her choices, but she didn't regret it. After all, she now had a great point to start off of, becoming an Elf had given her free 30 points in Dexterity, Intelligence, and Spirit.

She then gazed at the lad, who was still waiting for her next word. When she had been human, he had disdained to even look at her, perhaps even being one of the fellows who had disliked her the most.

As the only son of the Elven Chief in this village, his xenophobia had been one of the highest, so his dislike had been a great barrier for her. However, the moment she had completed the Race Change Quest, he had become smitten with her as if she had been a different person altogether.

This amused Lily to no end, but she had other things to do. Now that she had achieved her goal, it was time to go out into the world and carve out a piece of territory for herself.

Her first goal would be to join Umbra. She had seen the power and growth of that guild, so she more than anyone else knew and understood how limitless their future was.

Lily placed her glaive in its sheathe on her back and used a town portal scroll to return to Cario City. She didn't even look at the hopeful lad whose eyes dimmed when she disappeared.

He was lucky enough she didn't hate him nor have any hard feelings for the kind of headache he had given her previously, much less take time to cater to his abrupt feelings.

.........….

"How glamorous."

Appearing in Cario City's Portal Center, Lily couldn't help but marvel at the aesthetic of this medieval design that had elements of fantasy in it. She had played other FIVR games before Boundless, but she could never get used to how perfect this game was.

Before she could even take a few steps, a few serf players ran up to her and surrounded her.

"Beautiful madam, you must be here to sign up for the Umbra guild's recruitment, right?" One of them asked hurriedly.

Lily narrowed her eyes as she assessed these fellows. Seeing that they likely couldn't even harm her in her sleep, she folded her arms and replied.

"That's right."

The fellows were excited, looking at Lily as if she could be their next ticket to the lottery.

"And.. And miss, do you have any… specialties?" Another asked carefully.

Lily was confused. "Specialties…?"

"As in, like, you know… do you possess a quality that is unique to you that no other human has? Outside the game, I mean." A third serf added after reading lines from his interface.

Hearing this, Lily's heart thumped greatly. Something she had that no other human had… yeah, she had something like that.

As stated before, the reason Lily had gotten to become an elf so fast was because she had three things, her ability to meta the fuck out of any game, a bit of her special luck, and…

'Say it, Lily. And me.' A sultry voice filled with malicious vibes sounded out in the elf's mind, a place where none of these clamoring around her could hear.

In Lily's mind's eye, she saw an endless, chaotic void filled with churning elements. From the edges of this void came a slender greenish-yellow dragon with the most lustrous scales and the most human-like features on her face.

With two huge curved horns and two lustrous eyes that glowed with a purple light, Tiamat the Dragon Goddess of Chaos looked less like a typical dragon, but more like the design of a 3D artist that drew porn of dragons, i.e a scaly artist.

She was distinctly Dragon enough to look the part, but had a certain overall aesthetic that wouldn't make a human man with at least, 20% degenerate genes in him, not feel attracted to her in this form.

Lily saw Tiamat and tsked. "It's you again."

Tiamat laughed, a very shrill and majestic tone that sounded like the laugh of a high-society noble lady full of arrogance.

"What, you still hate me? Why do you blame me for that?"

Lily glared at Tiamat with slight hatred. "You ruined my youth!"

Tiamat flicked her claws lazily. "You ruined it yourself by rejecting what I gave you."

Lily was speechless. "You made me a cruel bitch like yourself for the entirety of my life!"

Tiamat scoffed. "That whore Nuwa was the one creating the vessels for the God Serpents and dared to make herself a perfect Inheritor. So what's wrong with wanting a perfect Inheritor for myself?"

Lily was tongue-tied by this. Tiamat had already told her of her origins and what she meant long ago. Lily had been crafted with the ideal form Tiamat wanted as a human, as well as the ideal personality.

So for most of her life until she struck 16, Lily had been the typical sexy class belle who was also an insufferable bully. No one really made her that way, and she never even understood why she had to behave like that.

What changed Lily forever was when she was in high-school, and she had made a mistake while bullying some nerd kid and ended up crippling him due to the passive strength Tiamat provided, as she was beginning to awaken at that time.

Yes, it is as you might imagine.

Fast as a bullet… no even faster, the friends who had laughed with Lily as she bullied losers looked at her like she was a stranger. The cronies who had worshiped her began spitting endless vitriol.

Lily was confused. She couldn't understand how everything had switched up so fast. After that incident, all those who she had bullied came forward to testify against her, and the school had no other choice but to expel her. Adding insult to injury, her parents, who were tired of her shit, took that chance to disown her in name.

Her father hit her for the first time that day and threw a bag of money at her, telling her to get out of their sight while her mom was crying and shaking her head, but was not disagreeing with her father.

Lost, hurt and tired deep down, Lily rented a small studio in a cheap area and settled down, spending her days just lying in her bed thinking dully. Eventually, her mind reached its limit, and she asked herself the key question.

'What am I even doing?'

In those days, she had a lot of time to think about her life and what she had done, and the more she thought, the more she realized that it couldn't go on. Something was wrong with her, so she considered seeing a shrink.

Right up until you know who woke up and dragged Lily into her mindscape. Tiamat hadn't even greeted Lily, but had initially fought to take over her body, hoping to squash Lily's soul forever.

Unfortunately for Tiamat, Lily had persevered. Tiamat didn't give up and always attacked her Inheritor whenever she was distracted or weak, trying especially when she went out in public or was physically busy.

However, Tiamat's mistake was that by doing so, Lily developed a strong mental resistance to control, and soon was able to weather Tiamat's attacks even while asleep.

Seeing that force had failed, Tiamat tried negotiations. She came and revealed herself as the Dragon Goddess of Chaos and her true self, so Lily should accept her so that they achieve perfection together.

Once again, Lily was a gamer. She had seen this kind of deception plot a hundred times and had always insulted characters who fell for it. Had she acted no better than those badly written characters, she would truly deserve to be erased from existence.

So she ignored Tiamat, while the Dragon Goddess whispered sweet nothings, using carrots, sticks, and even boulders to try to move Lily. Once again, the mistake Tiamat had made was revealing herself too early, as Lily discovered she could use a set of strange new powers without the permission of the so-called Dragon Goddess.

Seeing that it had reached this point, Tiamat had given up and had come clean about everything, aware that her dream had been squashed. Tiamat was partly angry and partly amused that her Inheritor was so quick-witted, and came to respect Lily a bit.

Once Lily had learned the truth, she had naturally been furious that she had been passively manipulated to be that way all her life. After that, she had cut Tiamat off and strove to find her own way in life, which led to the current her.

This was about 3 years ago. Not once had she spoken to Tiamat since then, and had used her powers minimally. Still, she couldn't switch off the passive benefits it gave her, like great strength, speed and intellect, perfect elemental affinity, and a crazy healing factor.

As for her active powers… oho, now those were quite horrifying. As the Dragon Goddess of Chaos, Tiamat could bend reality in unpredictable ways. Imagine Lily snapped her fingers and you turned into a microwave, fully alive, and fleshy instead of metallic.

It didn't matter how illogical, her powers of chaos would make it work. That was the bend reality part. This was why Tiamat was number in terms of power below the Black Dragon, because only Destruction could destroy Chaos.

Order - which was part of Nuwa's attributes - could only suppress Chaos or be suppressed by it. Due to this, Lily hardly used it because she never knew what she would get.

'Hahaha, that's the fun of it all. This boring world is too steady and orderly. It is necessary to introduce a bit of Chaos within, don't you think?' Tiamat laughed gaily.

Lily ignored her and focused on the serfs who were still chattering around her.

"Enough!" She silenced them all with ease, her height which towered over most of them putting them to silence.

"Right, so what exactly is Umbra looking for that they sent you lot?" Lily asked brusquely.

"People with special abilities and a special physique, I guess?" One serf player replied with uncertainty.

'That sounds like us, no?' Tiamat stated by the side lazily.

Lily frowned. "And how do I show my… special physique?"

Hearing this, it was like the serfs had been injected with steroids, they all clamored to lead Lily away to wherever such registration was, but they could hardly move her with her special physique.

Seeing that they were getting in each other's way, disputes emerged as to who found Lily first and who would get the reward, until the first blow was thrown. Then it quickly became a street brawl, one which grew in size as innocents were dragged in by mistake.

Lily herself had long extricated herself from this nonsense and had summoned her Uncommon Lioness mount. It wasn't rare for players to have mounts at this stage, especially thanks to Draco's efforts in bringing them forward.

A day 1 player like Lily not having a mount would be a sacrilege to her skills. She rode the streets and Cario City, enjoying the sights while thinking of her next step, especially what Tiamat had once told her about 8 others like herself and a progenitor they were supposed to serve.

Just like the other Inheritors, she wasn't exactly averse to being led, especially if what Tiamat had described the Progenitor to be was true, but like the others, she wanted to see Draco for herself.

Soon, she came upon Umbra's registration. She dismounted her lioness and ignored curious looks from players due to her race change, which was one of the few achieved since the game began.

Rather, Lily felt her blood strangely beginning to boil slowly as she approached the Rank 7 Guild Hall. An aura was radiating outward from within that spoke to her very soul and made it feel respectful.

Tiamat who had been lazy suddenly perked up, her spikes and ridges becoming erect as she felt that aura. Her eyes glistened with a mixture of respect and reverence, something rare for this cruel and unruly Dragon Goddess.

'He's definitely in there. He's passively releasing his aura to call out to us, so he's aware of the God Serpents. Let's go in, no one should be able to stop you.' Tiamat stated seriously.

Lily was about to move when a form materialized beside her. It was a handsome man with dark black hair and eyes filled with murder and belligerence. He was certainly nice to look at with how skintight his suit was, displaying manly curves that were slightly feminine.

"Follow me." Cobra instructed Lily with a curious glance.

Lily shrugged and followed Cobra into the building, passing the receptionist lady and right into the elevator. There was no conversation between the two in the meantime, as Cobra was not comfortable with women and Lily was being overwhelmed by the aura that was getting stronger.

When they reached their target floor, Cobra led Lily towards a door where the Guildmaster and Vice Guildmasters had their offices, not that either one of them really made use of it. When he pushed it open, Lily gasped at the sight of the luxury decor.

Then she gasped again when she saw the most handsome man seated calmly in a chair, flanked on both sides by two other hunks, both of which radiated a smaller, but still as potent aura as the man in the middle.

Draco noticed Lily enter and smiled. "Thank you for your work, Cobra. You're free to leave."

He then turned to Lily. "I'm happy to meet you, Inheritor of Tiamat. You've come at a great time. Please take a seat. This here, is Ouroboros' Inheritor, Connor Baines, and this here, while not an Inheritor of the God Serpent, houses the Aurora Dragon, Aaron Black."

Before Lily could sit down, Tiamat spoke with a weird tone.

"Ouroboros, that passive fellow who acts like he's an old man? And the Aurora Dragon?! That weird son of a bitch who Lucifer released permanently?!"