In the middle of the battlefield, a bunch of players were huddled together taking cover from an endless stream of light bolts. Tank's shield originally kept them safe from the projectiles, but it broke under pressure from the constant bombardment. Fortunately, Anna jumped in and shielded them with her bard skills, but even her skill couldn't hold them for long.
"I should've brought an extra shield." Tank regretted his decisions.
"Once Anna's shield is close to breaking, I can raise up an earth wall. It won't hold long, so use that chance to move out and find cover somewhere. It will be bad if we're staying close together like this. He can take us all out at once," said Garth. "We need at least one or two people standing by the time the girls locate the reset mechanism."
Wen attempted to aim his gun at Cecil, but the rain of light bolts made it difficult to see his target. He cursed.
From afar, Ileanna and Alice were horrified to see their friends being mercilessly showered with bolts.
"What do we do!? Crud! At this rate, they're going to be fried like yummy french fries!" Alice was in panic.
"We need to distract him." Ileanna turned around to face where Li Yuan was busy crushing his enemies with no remorse. He looked rather bored. "Li Yuan, flashbang!"
Li Yuan threw her a flashbang. She caught it with ease.
"What's that?" Alice asked.
"Just a little helpful device we like to use in fps." Ileanna smirked, pulled the ring, and threw the flashbang at Cecil with all her strength. Of course, it was broad daylight, so it couldn't have blinded him, but the explosion in close proximity was enough to temporarily cause auditory disorientation and stop him from firing any more bolts.
Cecil stepped back and placed both his hands on his ears. For a few seconds, he lost his hearing. He did his best to stop the incoming arrows and bullets from Alice and Ileanna using a shield.
"The bolts stopped!?" Garth took a peek and saw Cecil standing still.
"Let's use this chance!" Wen dashed forward. "Charge at him!"
The others followed behind Wen with their weapons drawn. Pio flew right above them on Molotov, ready to give them support.
"Wen, the girls have the reset mechanism ready," Frisk suddenly announced.
"Activate it now!" Wen shouted in reply.
Cecil looked to his side and saw the players running towards him. He couldn't fight properly with his hearing still recovering from the trauma. He raised his hand to block them with a wall, but nothing happened.
"What!?" he exclaimed.
***
Meanwhile, at the top of the snowy mountain, the girls were down on the floor staring wide eyed at the reset mechanism doing its work. The middle of the room emitted a blue beam of light that extended all the way to the sky. It exerted a strong force that pushed all of them back.
"What's happening!?" Amelie shouted.
"Did we do that correctly?" Luna wondered.
"I hope so!" replied Astrid.
The wave of blue light traveled throughout the world restoring every structure, creature, and player to what it was before the guild war event started. Gone were the gaping holes caused by hackers tinkering with the areas. Gone were the dangerous conditions they had to live in.
The girls were back to what they were before Noctis Noir was established: a level 24 glass cannon mage, a level 40 priestess with low health but gives powerful buffs, a level 29 crusader who can tank but can barely kill anything, and a level 32 assassin with a wealth-gaining build.
Luna cried inside. "I'm back to not being able to kill anything."
"I'm still the same, I guess." Amelie touched her face.
"Yeah, Amelie. You were always consistently a glass cannon."
"It's Chris!"
Lyria attempted to make a portal. It worked. "Ladies, you should head to the battlefield and help the others. I'll stay and keep watch over the reset mechanism. If I need any help, I can always teleport one of you here."
"That's a good idea," said Astrid.
"Let's go take back the cube!" Luna jumped into the portal first.
"I'll leave Rune here with you, Lyria. Just in case you get attacked." Amelie jumped in next.
"Good luck!" Lyria waved.
"We'll do our best." Astrid smiled and jumped in last.
***
"Kimmy!!" Alice exclaimed in horror as her pet shrunk back into a normal cat. She was reduced to a level 1 beastmaster because she wasn't in Aries yet before the guild war event was announced.
"There, there, Alice. This is almost over anyway," Ileanna said as she kept her gun aimed at Cecil.
"They did it!" Pio rejoiced happily while he was face flat on the ground. With the world reset, the dragons also vanished along with the other modifications.
Garth cast a blizzard spell to freeze Cecil in place.
"It's over now, Cecil. It's time you gave back the cube." Wen stood in front of him with his gun.
Luna, Astrid, and Amelie caught up with them. All of them surrounded Cecil.
The ex-guildmaster of Jupiter merely laughed. "You think you've won just like this?"
Wen knew this reaction clearly. He always saw it whenever he and Cecil played board games and Cecil had a trick up his sleeve to flip the tables. Before he could warn the others, Cecil swiftly cast an unknown spell that held all of them in place.
"Of course, I modified the cube to do more than what it does originally. It will quickly restore the modifications as soon as they're removed. No reset function can affect the new cube." Cecil smiled at Wen who was glaring at him. "You did well, but not well enough."