“I'd like to finish by telling you a fairy tale,” said Aglid thoughtfully.

  “There was once a king. He wasn't man enough to stand up to the chimera. So he disguised himself, put on women's clothes and fled his city to become a courtesan to the king of the 652. He told his people that he would return to save them all. And they believed him.”

  Lady Evelyne smiled. “Who are you talking about?”

  “Isn't that obvious? And isn't the more interesting question: why do his people believe him?”

  Aglid stood up. “I'll be happy to let you think about it.”

  He said a friendly goodbye and disappeared outside into the darkness.

  ______________________________________________

  “I don't want to talk about Maximilian!” said an angry Genny, crossing her arms in front of her chest and staring defiantly ahead of her.

  “Neither do I!” said Thunder Boo just as defiantly and also crossed his arms in front of his chest.

  The two of them sat next to each other on the kitchen bench at the kitchen table and looked as if they had been bitten by a huge bug.

  “I had no intention of talking about Maximilian,” Lady Evelyne said carefully, ”is everything okay with you?”

  “Yes,” growled Genny, ”as long as you don't mention that name.”

  “Ditto!” grumbled Thunder Boo and automatically looked under the kitchen table.

  Lady Evelyne had an inspiration. “Oh... are you looking for your missing T4 again?”

  She hastily slapped her hand over her mouth.

  The two remained stubbornly silent.

  A soft, discreet whistle sounded outside the kitchen window.

  Lady Evelyne stepped to the window and leaned out. DmenAce was standing outside. He held his finger to his lips and furtively handed the lady three reports.

  Lady Evelyne looked briefly at the reports and understood.

  “Would you like a piece of cake?” she asked the two stubborn people at the kitchen table as sweetly as she could and placed two plates in front of them.

  Genny stared at her plate in pleasant surprise. A pink wonder with lots of cream was literally smiling at her. Thunder Boo's face also lit up. “What's that?”

  “Raspberry cream cake,” the lady replied softly.

  The two smiled and began to scoop the cake into themselves.

  “Also known as cake of comfort,” the lady continued.

  The two continued munching happily.

  “Or also known as cake of defeat,” the lady finished her sentence.

  The two choked, coughed, dropped their cake forks and stared angrily at Evelyne. “We don't want to talk about Maximilian!”

  “I don't do that at all. But there are different types of cake. We once had cakes of victory, cakes of defeat and even cakes of punishment after the failed kill event. Everyone had to eat a piece of it, and we'd hung the vomit buckets on the garden fence to be on the safe side. Do you remember that, Genny? - We choked down the cake of punishment together, threw up together, then lay in each other's arms and everything was fine again.”

  She placed another slice of raspberry cream cake in front of them.

  “Believe me, after two pieces of cake of defeat, everything will be fine again.”

  “All right!” said Genny reluctantly and began to eat the second slice, ”but only if you stop talking about Maximilian!”

  “Exactly!” echoed Thunder Boo, ”never talk about Maximilian again!”

  “I promise!” laughed the lady, ”but I'll have to write about him. Because this one was pretty good.” She took a quick, furtive glance at the reports. “Credit where credit is due... he made it into the legends.”

  And she noted the name “Maximilian2744” legibly in her notebook.

  ________________________________________________

  “You're a fucking bunch of rich weirdos!” the Synergetics yelled in the direction of the 652, ”tomorrow is MD, we're coming for you! You can't spend anything but money!”

  “That's right!” Thunder shouted back, ”you don't have to spend anything because you have the power of friendship! Unfortunately, we don't have that!”

  “Exactly! You force your members to spend money! You can only join if you're rich enough!”

  “Foot pics and bank balance must be sent to me to join RxW, that's correct!” confirmed Thunder cheerfully.

  “You're ruining the whole game! RxW is actually totally weak, but you're bullying everyone!” roared LittleBMF from [cAS] of 642, ”because of you, the game is no longer fun!”

  “Are we supposed to cry now?” asked Biochest, dumbfounded, ”what does he expect?”

  “Well, we still think the game is funny!” DmenAce yelled back, ”very much so!”

  “You only live in this game! I'm offering you the chance to meet me in real life! I'll smash your faces in! Come here and we'll have it out in real life, if you dare!” LittleBMF shouted.

  Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  “Exactly!” joined BadMuthaFka from the same faction, ”meet me in the gym! If I win, I'll own your accounts! If you win, I'll be your farm!”

  Biochest looked extremely amused. “ Dude! You'll become our farm anyway... we don't have to meet anywhere in RL for that!”

  Stabbyunicorn from 641 shook her long blonde hair and shouted: “Come on, who wants to join me, I bought new bedding and decorations for my prison cell! Why don't you just let me take you prisoner voluntarily so I don't have to fight! It's also totally cozy and nice in my place!”

  “Nobody wants to be with you!” shouted the donkey, ”simply because everyone here is gay!”

  ________________________________________________

  The massacre day started after the reset with the usual nastiness.

  First, poor RenaissancE was bashed. And as if that wasn't enough, RxW's attackers also renamed themselves “Who are you???” and launched a gold box with the code “Who the hell is RenaissancE?”. A big blow for someone who cared so much about his own fame and notoriety! However, RenaissancE could take comfort in the fact that even bad publicity was publicity. His fame would rise in any case! There was no way those bastards from RxW could prevent that!

  The leadership of Oof on the 656 demonstrated solidarity with their new ally and renamed themselves “Light”, “Love” and “Peace”. Vind Tr?uble Turf even managed to write a few new love letters to his unforgotten Genny at the same time. The Alpha Dragon from the 642 incidentally revealed that he was an IRL truck driver, which made those who knew the secret code laugh out loud. MightyGuySensei from the same city wrote and sent out new fan mail.

  And then Sloth and Maximilian (yes, the very Maximilian whose name must not be mentioned...) of all people made a terrible mistake and picked the wrong victim.

  In the shadow of 656, a city that was now clearly weakened, the old samurai Irrr of [oAo] stood calmly and serenely, his gaze fixed on the distance. His breathing was steady and calm. He was completely focused, wasting no movement until it was necessary. The double attack from Sloth and Maximilian of the 641 rushed in with incredible force. And a tenth of a second before they struck, the samurai drew his katana-ken in one fluid motion and decapitated the raid leaders. Both of them.

  With a calm movement, he then wiped the sword clean and slid it back into its sheath. He hadn't even lost his breath in the process. And not a hair of his neatly tied braid had slipped out of place. With a slight smile, he stepped back into the shadows.

  _____________________________________________

  Sloth, or Doink as he now called himself, couldn't believe what had just happened.

  A moment ago he had had a head. Suddenly he had none.

  The attack should have been successful, and it should have been perfect. He should have hit it. But then it had gone “DOINK!”. It's probably the sound you hear when you drop your house key on the grating of the drain cover in the street... and it disappears jingling into it before you can even grab it.

  DOINK. The sound it makes when you suddenly run out of UB.

  DOINK. Bloody hell!

  _____________________________________________

  “Sloth and Maximilian are both without an UB today!” the 652's leadership informed their people, amused. “They're in jail of Irrr on 656.”

  The Thunder brothers roared with laughter.

  Biochest threw his arms in the air in horror. “I taught them all that! The main raid leaders don't perform high-risk attacks in front of the MD! Otherwise they'll miss the arsenal fight! Did they even listen to me on the 641? I feel like I was talking to the wall!”

  “Irrr is a tough opponent!” said the lady sympathetically. “That's one of the three Asian generals we had on the 656. Irrr, frogland and Ace. They all have their main accounts elsewhere and are no strangers. They deliberately play a weak city with secondary accounts to hone their skills. Of course, they're completely underestimated on their secondary accounts... other people have fallen into that trap.”

  Several Thunder brothers snorted. “Yeah, us for example. Insane losses in GW 1. Several million T4s gone like nothing...”

  “That's in the past,” consoled Lady Evelyne. “Would you like a piece of cake? And may the name Maximilian be mentioned again?” she asked with a sideways glance at Genny.

  Genny grinned. “Now yes!”

  _____________________________________________

  Lil Arrow on 641 was outraged beyond measure.

  Even the constant re-powdering by his R4 make-up artist didn't help the red blotches on his face from indignation.

  “I've written to Thunder and a few others from RxW,” he informed his leader Sloth, his voice quivering with anger, ”to see if we can't work out some rules for the arsenal. I told him what rules we have for arsenal combat. No attacks on grey and so on.”

  “And?” asked Sloth in a weak voice. He still wasn't feeling well again. The loss of his UB had hit him hard.

  “He told me he didn't care about our rules! And he laughed at me! And everyone else I wrote to laughed at me too! It's outrageous. These clowns and jokers from RxW spoil the game and make a mockery of everything, so serious play is no longer possible!”

  “I also asked there,” sighed Saint, ”if we could agree on the rules.”

  “And?” croaked Sloth desperately.

  “The boss hasn't even spoken to me personally. But he has told me through his negotiator that there is only one rule: That we bend over and don't beg for lube.”

  Lil Arrow swooned.

  _____________________________________________

  Stabbyunicorn galloped first through the desert, then across the green meadow of 656. It was meant to be, it had to be, that she could save her leader's UB! It was up to her now... she was one of the last remaining raid leaders...

  With the courage of desperation, she jumped over the last wall, determined to do whatever she had to do.

  Next to her, a swift movement was more likely to be sensed than seen. A firm grip on her mane, then on her horn, froze her in place. The samurai stood right beside her, holding her without the slightest discernible effort.

  “Girl, would you like to keep your horn?” he whispered gently in her ear.

  Stabbyunicorn gasped in shock.

  Irrr smiled and drew his sword. “If you want to keep it, you should return to the 641 very quickly. If not, I'm going to turn you into an ordinary horse here and now. I'm sure Candycane will be happy to ride you afterwards, he has experience.”

  Stabbyunicorn fled. She galloped back to 641 as quickly as possible. At least she had tried! She could take credit for that. Kir Bear, on the other hand, hadn't even come online yet.

  _____________________________________________

  All hell broke loose in front of the White House on 642. The noise was so enormous that Mr. Trump was disturbed in his Oval Office and went out into the corridor to see what was going on.

  “A demonstration,” his head of security, Miss Laura, told him with a frown, ”We're keeping them at a distance. But a few people are going pretty crazy right now.”

  There were even chants outside now.

  Mr. Trump opened the window.

  “RxW, we love you!” chanted several members of TTH, holding up banners and posters that read: ‘Thunder for president in 642!’, ”Down with the A0L dictatorship! RxW is freedom!” and ‘RxW are the best!’.

  “This is treason!” Mr. Trump yelled angrily out the window, ”You belong to our city!”

  “Yeah, but we've been mistreated by you all along!” yelled back Voodoo Ulya from TTH, ”We're just waiting for RxW to come and kick your ass! And then we'll go to them!”

  “Have you completely lost your minds? They don't even want you!” Mr. Trump got upset, ”Please don't imagine that you're allowed to join RxW! They'll put you in some wing and you'll do the menial jobs like kitchen work and stuff like that!”

  “Hey!” came the indignant cry from the direction of 652, where Lady Evelyne had torn open the window, ”don't tell any untruths here! I'll do the menial kitchen work! We'll do that ourselves!”

  “You stay out of this!” raged Mr. Trump, ”This is an internal matter for the 642!”

  “Yeah, obviously not if your townspeople think we're better than you!”

  Mr. Trump slammed the window shut and turned to Miss Laura. “Burn those guys from TTH out there. All of them!”

  Miss Laura sighed. “Chief, they have cake bowls on their heads...”

  “Then burn their posters and banners! Burn something! I want to see fire!”

  And while Miss Laura dutifully made sure that all the posters and banners were burned, another wonderful day of massacre came to an end. But it was not to be the last in this GW...