“What do you mean they conquered our church?”

  Stabbyunicorn felt like an ice-cold hand was gripping her heart. Her church. The great cathedral that stood in the center of the city of 641. The heart of the family. The central building.

  "They have it. Since a few hours now. They were suddenly there... went through SyX... then through us... and docked in on the government area. And then they conquered our church," the Sy0 member in charge reported gloomily.

  Stabby had to sit down: "You can't conquer churches. That goes against every convention. It's the most disgusting thing you can do. A church is a sacred place!"

  "I'm afraid RxW didn't care. Jan has tried twice to take back our church. But we can't fill the raids anymore."

  “And now?” asked Stabby in a weak voice.

  "Now RxW has our church in the center of our city. And they're burning the towers around it. We won't even be able to get close to our church."

  “Wait a minute, what do you mean - we won't even be able to get close to the church?” Miss Laura stood in the open doorway, her voice quivering with suppressed anger, “Where are Adam and I going to get married then?”

  “Yes, exactly!” Bunny Bunz objected indignantly, "and where are Maximilian and I supposed to get married? We're mainly here because of the church!"

  “And we're only here for the church!” screamed Laura, "I would never have come to this city if it wasn't for this beautiful cathedral! What will happen to my planned photos in the white dress at the altar? I demand compensation if it doesn't work out! The church is booked and paid for!"

  She dragged Mr. Trump out of the corridor and into the room: “Adam, now you say something too!”

  Mr. Trump looked rather unhappy. He hadn't been the same since he had had to leave his own city and, above all, the White House. He missed his old surroundings, his old life and his position as president more than anything else. He no longer even enjoyed dictating his most important thoughts and guiding principles to cCc Alican. So he kept silent now too, just sighed and shrugged his shoulders.

  “Adam, do something!” Laura shouted angrily in response to her lover's passivity.

  “What am I supposed to do, honey?” sighed Mr. Trump, "We're here now, yes, and the wedding was planned in the cathedral. But if RxW has conquered the cathedral now, we won't be able to get married there. Maybe we'll change our plans? We could also get married on the beach, barefoot in the sand."

  “There's no beach here,” said a member of SyX very matter-of-factly.

  “Well, just barefoot in the sand, in the desert for example!” Mr. Trump wasn't giving up yet.

  “RxW has also conquered the desert,” said the SyX member even more matter-of-factly.

  “Then barefoot in the grass, in the meadow!” shouted Mr. Trump, "I don't care where! The main thing is that I can marry my Laura!"

  “Oh, Adam...” sighed Miss Laura, "you're kind of cute. But I'd still like the church..."

  Saint entered the room, and the very matter-of-fact member of SyX left through the side door at the same moment.

  “We no longer have access to the church,” Saint reported somberly, "and it doesn't look like we'll ever get access again. RxW is making themselves at home in it."

  “Our wedding!” Bunny cried.

  Stabby snorted angrily. "I still can't believe how everything is turning out. We won GW1 after all!"

  Saint's face looked like a thundercloud: "And we have massive problems with betrayal. This city of traitors only has to appear somewhere for our own members to become traitors too. It's contagious, it rubs off, it's a powerful tool. I will burn anyone who betrays us, but there are more and more of them."

  Stabby stared at the map on the table in front of her and muttered: “SyX...”

  "SyX will burn as soon as the bubbles fall. All of them," Saint growled mercilessly.

  "We used to be a family... They say they did it because they saw no other way out. And because the war is lost anyway."

  Saint laughed bitterly. "I don't care about their reasons. They'll all burn."

  He left the room, slamming the door.

  _______________________________________

  The next day was MD, and RxW was, as always, full of anticipation. They had made excellent preparations and were ready in full combat strength and with plenty of manpower. But what a disappointment: the entire map resembled bubble wrap. There was almost nowhere to get through. The raid teams were lurking in every bush, behind every street corner, but the potential victims took meticulous care to replace their bubbles in good time. The few that were without bubbles were in most cases too meaty to raid without too many casualties, and the others were extremely careful about their safety.

  “You can see on the map how scared everyone is,” Marzzzz grumbled at the kitchen table in the morning, looking gloomily into his coffee cup, “this makes for an extremely boring MD!”

  “And why are they scared, huh?” asked ChampagneMami with a slightly snide undertone, "who do you think is to blame, huh? First scaring everyone and then complaining that they're scared doesn't count!"

  “At some point we'll have to punch each other in the face because there's simply no enemy left,” grumbled DmenAce, "the most exciting thing today are these weird trucks! And that on the MD!"

  If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  Lipsyte grinned: "Neigh could fall asleep in the middle of 641 again and wake up at 0, like last time. Neigh certainly likes to do that to build up and please the enemy a bit."

  Biochest poked his head in the door: "Eight arsenals today. Are you all done and ready to go?"

  The raid leaders jumped up and grabbed their gear.

  Biochest nodded to Lady Evelyne, who was standing at the sink, still busy washing up: "You get ready too, please. I want you for the raid lead for the arsenal that has always belonged to Sy0. Arsenal IV."

  Lady Evelyne's plate almost fell out of her hand. The experienced raid leaders giggled. Biochest disappeared.

  “For heaven's sake,” whispered Lady Evelyne, leaving the dishes to the other helpers and running up the small spiral staircase to change her clothes. Luckily Impel came with her and helped her quickly. “Biochest's revenge is really cruel,” she said quietly to Impel, "no one who has a bit of sense in their head wants that man as an enemy. Now he won't even touch Sy0 himself, he won't give them that honor. He sends the kitchen staff and the beginners instead. If Sy0 hadn't already tried to kill me twice, I'd seriously feel sorry for them now!"

  ________________________________

  “Stop the spam!” shouted Lost Reaper angrily from the 641, as once again endless lists of all Thundy's captured buildings ran like credits through the SC, “I reported you all!”

  “You're all ducks!” added Just Nakash in a shrill undertone.

  “Go back to your duck squad and your toxic city!” yelled back GrimmSilent6969 from [RxG].

  “Don't you tell me what toxic is!” yelled Lost Reaper.

  “And don't you use words you can't spell!” yelled GrimmSilent back.

  “BIOTECH from RXZW!” shouted MissMillerxox from [LrN] on 641, "write to me now! Rosa says it's important!"

  “Aren't you going to answer?” asked Lippy, amused.

  “No,” smiled Biochest, "she doesn't mean me. Biotech is my cousin."

  “Ah yes, I see it!” grinned Lipsyte, "and RXZW, that's our uncle faction. Let them answer her!"

  _________________________________

  At SyX, they were busy packing their bags. Secretly, quietly, the leadership and members had decided to leave the city and migrate. An old town, 453, was kind enough to offer them a new home. Lil Arrow carefully folded his various wigs and stacked them between masses of bubble wrap so they wouldn't get crushed either.

  He preferred to keep the powder puff, his main weapon, close to his body.

  Stormborn packed up her lucky little dragon and then took one last look around the abandoned faction base. As always, saying goodbye was a sad moment. She took a quick breath and thought of everything she had experienced here. The idea of true friendship, the ideal of family. The beginning, which had been wonderful and full of fun together. The founding of Synergy as an ingenious, successful association of a group of friends. Then the break when Biochest and Black left the city. The shock at the CVC. And a GW2 that was reminiscent of one fast-paced, horrific ride through a ghost train that never seemed to end. The brief joy of her new account, which she had not been given for long. And in the end, a hopeless situation in which she had tried to make the best decision for her members and her clan. But after Saint's irreconcilable reaction, the only option now was to migrate.

  SyX had no idea what her decision to move to the 453 meant. They gave up the S2 and the potential S3 reward to move to an S4 city. They had experienced the current S2 as “madness” and couldn't imagine anything worse. They had no idea how cruel the S4 world would become. From now on, they would never get another building and would never be able to leave Z1 again. They were doomed.

  But not realizing this, they were hopeful for their time in their new city. And Stormborn quietly closed the large double doors of the abandoned faction base behind them all and then hurried to catch up with their group.

  ___________________________

  “Epic and poetic” were the two expressions some people used when Lady Evelyne successfully conquered Arsenal IV. However, it must be said that this was not too difficult, as there was no resistance whatsoever. So, strictly speaking, you could have sent the donkey - alone - and he would have done it too.

  The most interesting thing was the discussion about whether arsenals should be conquered naked. DmenAce was of the opinion that this should definitely be done, especially if the raid lead was female. Krypt thought it was amazing that everyone wasn't doing it anyway. And Ridley69 confirmed that he had read in the rules that conquering arsenals naked was the norm and could give an extra boost. Unfortunately, Lady Evelyne stubbornly refused to conquer any arsenals naked, so the Thunder brothers had to leave it to their pure imagination.

  Things got amusing at Arsenal VII when a tiny member of Sy2 actually took it for his faction while RxW was still busy with the other arsenals. Tommy Shelby then briefly resolved the situation on his own without any further resistance.

  Darkevil at least managed to zero Samuel L. Catson in between, much to Black's delight, and some small members from the side factions of the opposing cities were also careless.

  This led to ExtaZzZy from [KN69] on 642 and Baby Lulu from [LrN] on 641 generating angry star chats against RxW in SC. Lipsyte, who had a good heart, politely asked what exactly the speakers meant. Maximilian rolled his eyes, “I don't think we wanted to know!”

  “Your opinion is not wanted!” ExtaZzZy nagged towards Maximilian and then towards Lipsytes: “You are a faction of ***!”

  “I can't for the life of me make out what it's supposed to say,” Lipsyte sighed, “but since the faction here is made up of a bunch of cunts, it's probably true.”

  “RxW are weak ducks and all cowards anyway, weak ducks only attack mansions without bubbles!” shouted Just Nakash between them.

  “I wonder how you're supposed to attack villas WITH bubbles too,” scoffed a fellow reader, “please tell me how it's supposed to be different!”

  “That's 641 logic,” grinned Marzzzz, “you can't understand it and you don't have to.”

  “Tip of the day,” KinguRenja interjected, "never rely on 641 logic, otherwise you'll end up like me. It's actually not that bad to wander through a war zone at night. Until you come across a landmine. And well - this body part on me was only optional anyway!"

  __________________________________

  The mood in Synergy's meeting room in City 641 was sombre. The various family clans were slowly thinning out. Some had moved to the 453, others to the 657, and it was not clear where some of them had ended up. Not everyone had left. But the general exodus seemed imminent.

  Kir Bear was barely present, only popping in briefly. Jan, Saint and Maximilian were trying to keep everything running somehow for the sake of their friends. And many of the others present were simply at a loss.

  “They've conquered three of our luxury hotels as well as our church,” Stabby summarized with a helpless glance at the map.

  “And where are we supposed to spend our wedding night?” asked Miss Laura threateningly, “it's all booked and paid for!” She turned angrily to her fiancé: "Adam! You say something too!"

  “It's all booked and paid for!” said Mr. Trump hastily, "we have a deal! It was a great deal! You can't just break it!"

  Stabby pushed the card over to the two of them: "We still have one hotel. You can have the suite there for your wedding night."

  “But it's not as nice as the one in the south that we originally booked!” scolded Miss Laura, "Adam! Now do something!"

  “This suite is not as nice as the one in the south that we booked!” Mr. Trump quickly explained, “We demand that we get the original suite!”

  Stabby laughed bitterly. "Then I'd suggest you just try to conquer it. Have fun!"

  Miss Laura grabbed Mr. Trump by the hand and angrily left the meeting room with him. “This is a disgrace,” she scolded, "next time I'll use a professional wedding planner. They're all dilettantes here, they look much better on the outside than they are on the inside!"

  “Don't get upset, honey,” said Mr. Trump somewhat helplessly, "look, it's just a goddamn game. The best thing about all this nonsense anyway is that we've found each other here. The other stuff doesn't matter."

  “Oh Adam,” Laura sighed, “no matter how shitty everything has turned out here - I know at all times that I love you, and why I do.”

  And so the two of them sank into a long kiss, no longer caring about what was going on around them. Because their love was as durable and infinite as the bubble wrap on the map.