Rueful

"Hmm. . . this has ill signs.", Averoth crouched by the remnants of a village.

During Travis' trip to Origin's Last Light he stumbled across rising smoke from a ruined village. As he investigated Averoth appeared and looked about.

"Ill signs as in?"

Averoth stuck out his tongue, "Demon summoning. A rather crude way to do it, but this way you can summon a powerful one."

"Sacrifices?", Travis connected the remaining dots.

"It's more efficient to use stronger sacrifices, but quantity does also work.", Averoth poked a finger through a pile of ash.

Falling into thought Travis tried to remember anything like this happening previously. Although the method of demon summoning was close to being publicly revealed. The same method Travis used to enter the Demonic Plane. Was this the catalyst to that happening?

Digging into his memories Travis attempted to remember what exactly he was doing during this period of time in his previous timeline. Slowly he came to realize that he was spending a lot of his spare time grinding with his Guild. During this point until the event of Averoth's Vault he wasn't nearly as knowledgeable of the upcoming events. As far as he could remember there was only one semi-major thing remaining before Averoth's Vault was opened.

Granted, that was if his actions didn't expedite the vault opening. 

"With a village worth of sacrifices they could easily summon a decent Demon.", Travis thought aloud.

"Unless they're hunting down multiple."

This was a reasonable deduction, so Travis opened the forums and began searching. Sure enough there was a decent amount of posts complaining about the hunts going on in the beginner villages. Travis noticed a few players called for Dot. 

A sigh escaped his lips. His original goal was still preventing the Guilds from monopolizing resources. Not protecting the average players from the Guilds! 

Still, to think a Guild was behind this. Considering the amount of affected villages, it made sense. Travis looked through the information and found the name of the Guild responsible. Rave. . .

This name wasn't familiar at all. Did they fail the summoning in the past? Or was this another butterfly effect? Considering the chaos he spread in the Demonic Plane it was likely certain aspects leaked through into the Mortal's Domain.

A screenshot was provided in a relatively unpopular post. The Rave Guild Leader, holding a flesh and skin book. Travis was able to make several assumptions based on this image alone. First the book was the main catalyst for the summoning, and the Guild Leader needed to be near the slaughter in order to count the sacrifices. Considering the lack of bodies in the village, it was likely the Rave Guild Leader collected the bodies and sacrificed them during or after the raid.

This many could summon a High Class Demon of the Third Stage.

"So, are we ignoring this?", Averoth stood up and looked towards Travis for his answer.

"It doesn't concern me. . .", Travis wanted to prioritize the finding of Origin's Last Light.

"Then let's get moving.", Averoth pretended to dust off his hand before walking out of sight.

Travis moved his gaze to the chaos. Strangely he found himself thinking of the words Akiol directed to him a while ago.

-<"What price did you pay to obtain that power?">-

Audibly clicking his tongue Travis pulled out a teleport scroll and returned to the beginner village he started his journey in a long time ago. Purchasing several teleport scrolls to other villages he began to rapidly use them up, searching one village after the next.

In one village he spotted the Rave Guild starting their attack. Several players and NPCs fleeing. Suddenly a few players slowed their sprint and looked dubiously at Travis. Their eyes staring at the mask before someone asked incredulously, "Dot. . . ?"

"Keep running.", Travis said with a cold tone.

"Haha. . . hahaha! It's you! It's really you! The bane of Guilds! The One Many Army!"

Saying nothing Travis walked towards the Rave Guild's initial assault. His War Sight unleashed and the lower leveled assaulting players collapsed dead instantly. Travis knelt near a body and realized that a lot of these players weren't even First Stage. 

"Forcefully recruiting the new guys?", Travis mumbled.

Having entirely annihilated this attacking group Travis teleported to more villages. Each time he came across the Rave Guild he wiped them out with the unleashing of his War Sight. It seems their efforts were ramping up, a lot of the villages were already burned down. 

By the 106th starter village he came across a Second Stage player. Immediately wiping out the lower leveled goons he suppressed the Second Stage. Gripping them by the neck he raised them upwards, "Where's your leader?"

"D-Dot?! I thought you weren't- cough- I thought you weren't helping the players!"

"I'm asking the questions.", Travis replied.

"As if I'll-"

Slamming the player into the ground Travis pinned them with his foot. Pulling out an orb he gently tossed and caught it, "Know what this is right?"

"You think you can threaten me with an Orb of Greed?"

Travis was still number one ranked on the bounty hunt. Occasionally a few players would still try to claim this bounty, and among their deaths he would pick up an Orb of Greed. He actually held quite a few. Rarely did he find a need to use one though.

Leaning closer Travis shattered the Orb of Greed, "Threaten? I just wonder how many it'll take to set you back a Stage."

"As if! You know how rare those things are?!"

Pulling out several more Travis replied calmly, "I'm often hunted with these. How many do you think were dropped?"

The player gulped and laughed nervously, "You won't hunt me down that many times."

"Really? I think my reputation proves how dedicated I can be. I hunted the whole player base before. What makes you think you'd be an exception?"

"H-He's in White Sand.", the player finally cracked, "Now please don't kill me, I'm close to-"

Unleashing an [Everdeep Blast] point blank Travis finished off the Second Stage player. Glancing at the items Travis found nothing of worth and searched through his teleport scrolls. Finally finding one leading to White Sand he activated it. Looking about in the village he spotted the warlock attired of the Rave Guild Leader. A large fireball threatening a semi-collapsed girl.

Extending a hand out Travis unleashed another [Everdeep Blast] to eradicate the large fireball. A sigh escaped Travis' lips, "About time I found you."

Unleashing his War Sight a monarch pointed a boney finger towards the Guild Leader. Condensing its full might onto the player he watched as they fought against the pressure. Walking over he unsheathed Lumen. Although holy energy was meant to do more harm against the Abyss, as the Demonic Plane was a form of subsidiary of the Abyss the holy energy was still somewhat effective against certain demonic energies.

Travis used his [Truth: Revealing] on the Guild Leader and glanced at his status. For a Third Stage it was kind of mediocre despite Yams being an early Third Stage. Although perhaps it was Travis' being used to individuals being on crazy levels. 

Lumen flashed and Yams dropped the book. A deep cut forming on Yams hand, sizzling from the holy energy. Reaching out Travis grabbed the flesh and skin book and inspected it. Flipping through its pages he Travis found the summoning circle and requirements. 

Indeed, they were trying to summon a High Class Demon. This came to no surprise, this amount of sacrifices had to be for a High Class Demon after all. What Travis was more interested in was the summoning method. The utilized summoning circle was essentially a direct copy of the one he used to enter the Demonic Plane.

Which meant the method of summoning demons did originate from the Rave Guild! Or perhaps specifically from this book! Travis closed the book in satisfaction. Yams didn't say a word, originally Travis thought it was due to him being entirely countered. However this was a side effect of {Ternary Scale: Alecto}, once the madness ended they would be lost for a few minutes and would remain silent.

Not like he planned on sparing Yams anyway. Travis stored the book in his inventory and extended a palm outwards. A ball of Abyssal energy formed as he charged up an [Everdeep Blast].

A sweet voice called out, "Wait a second."

Still charging the beam Travis looked towards the source and saw the low leveled player struggle to stand. Using [Truth: Revealing] for their status Travis was befuddled for just one moment. This player was clearly a level one right? So what were these bonuses?!

"Master of Arms?", Travis found himself asking.

"Haha, so you're able to tell? That's fascinating."

Identifying the First Stage weapon the player held Travis felt odd. So he asked cautiously, "Who are you?"

"I go by Rue."

Travis looked at their username. The words "Rue Fool" came to sight. Rue Fool. . . rueful? 

"Then Rue, what do you want?"

"Two things.", Rue finally managed to get her legs working, "I want that book."

"That's not happening.", Travis felt no desire to hand over something that valuable.

"Secondly.", Rue entirely ignored the rejection, "A man named Akiol said he wanted to talk to you."

Travis felt the hair on his arms raise. Another, another strange individual and it's still connected to that Akiol!

Why was it always that Akiol?!