The Dark Lord is Back… We won the battle, but lost the fight…

At this point, the battle seemed won… But this was not the case… In fact, the Dark Lord Equiliser made a dramatic return just as TkIMO was sent to the underworld by the server guardians. Equiliser seemed prepared to win on this occasion. He told everyone straight out that TkIMO was a useless servant and that he would have to build the 5 gate cross himself to free his friends from the underworld… He did just that…Deadeyedyk, Ruif, GreenJelly, Curse, and TkIMO all came through the gate. Interestingly, ReBeL was left behind. At this point, Equiliser left with his villain friends, most likely in need of restoring his strength after 2 months in the underworld. TkIMO was left with the task of guarding the 5 gate cross and conquering the entire Battlecity map, which he failed at miserably. He was eventually orbed by ~Warlord~ and thus sent to the underworld for the second time in the same night, this time with no portal through which he could return.

Back to the beginning! TkIMO was the Dark Minion. He attempted to build the 5 gate cross, but was destroyed. However, although people fought the evil forces bravely, none paid close enough attention to the clues left by Cerberus… Cerberus was worried that Equiliser was planning to sneak passed him and rise to the battlefield during the exchange of souls. When a person is sent to the underworld, a temporary passage is opened connecting the battlefield to the underworld. Many have tried to rise through this opening, but Cerberus has always caught them because he can tell the difference between a new soul and one which has suffered the torments of the underworld. However, when ReBeL was sent to the underworld, Cerberus became suspicious of something he had never before imagined… what if ReBeL could convince the Admins that he had not cheated… If he could return to the battlefield after suffering in the underworld, he could then be sacrificed and sent back to the underworld. Then, during the exchange of souls, Cerberus wouldn’t be able to notice any difference between the souls of ReBeL and Equiliser. Since the process happens so fast, the inability to distinguish between the two would most likely mean that the escape would go completely unnoticed.

So why did TkIMO fool the community and get himself on the Battlecity staff? Because he did in fact want to make an update to the game. He made the South East corner of the map yell with the screams of those who perished anywhere on the battlefield. Since this corner is where the passage to the underworld is opened during the exchange of souls, he hoped that the screams would further distract anybody on guard. Secondly, he required an Admin account, because only Administrators and Server Guardians can send someone to the underworld. Therefore, without his admin account, he would not have been able to sacrifice someone to open the passage for Equiliser.

Cerberus, who knew loosing a prisoner was unacceptable, decided to try and warn us about this in a way that would not directly let people know he had left his watch post. Therefore he began leaving clues… and when ReBeL failed to convince the admins of his innocence, he left more clues indicating that Cokesplash had been to the underworld and could be used as a sacrifice instead of ReBeL. He tried to warn us about the sacrifice which could let the Dark Lord rise… Unfortunately, in the process of leading us to his clues, he was murdered by Naters who had been ordered to do so by sin38.

Of course, using the exchange of souls for the rise of the Dark Lord was just a backup plan. Only Equiliser was powerful and quick enough to rise through such a passage. The other villains would all be left behind. The real goal was to open a permanent passage in the center of the battlefield, which everyone in the underworld could use. With Cerberus out of the picture, any player sent to the underworld would then be able to return immediately. It would be impossible for the admins to ban anyone. Therefore, TkIMO’s primary assignment was to build the 5 gate cross, which was in reality the union of 5 gates, Andorra-la-Vella, Posadas, Buenos Aires, Huambo, and Rio Cuarto.

Once again, clues were left warning us of this. Cerberus constantly left an “x” symbol underneath TkIMO’s tank to warn us that TkIMO would build the 5 gate cross. He also told us exactly how he would build the cross. Everyday, he dropped 5 orbs in the shape of an “x” on a different CC that would be used for the gate. In fact, the cross left on Buenos Aires and Rio Cuarto were actually found and reported. The cross on Huambo was found by Jross, but never reported, and the cross on Posadas was never discovered. Cerberus was killed before he could leave a cross on Andorra-la-Vella. Cerberus knew that the gate could be built, and was worried this could also be how Equiliser planned to return. He was confident he could hold back the other villains, but Equiliser worried him and he thought it best to simply make his return impossible by preventing the opening of any gateways by warning us ahead of time.

So.. this brings us back to how Equiliser came back last night. TkIMO was defeated. He failed miserably. After being orbed, the server guardians are warned, and thus they prepare to take the soul to the underworld. The process takes about 2 minutes, which is why before Equiliser was sent away last time, we got to hear him threaten us and warn us that he would return more powerful than ever. In the two minutes before being sent to the underworld, TkIMO did succeed at one thing. He brought Cokesplash to Buenos Aires and sacrificed him seconds before he was sent away. Cokesplash was thus sent to the underworld and Equiliser rose through the opened passage easily, since without Cerberus, nobody was on guard.

Many people were celebrating the victory against TkIMO! For a few moments, it seemed as though evil was defeated. Then, everything turned for the worse. Equiliser appeared in Buenos Aires, and warned that he would build the 5 gate cross himself since TkIMO was a worthless servant deprived of any useful skill or talent. People were caught off guard. They soon realized that the battle was far from won, but by the time they returned to Buenos Aires, thousands of plasmas were already waiting.

People soon organized some very good attacks against Equiliser, who was obviously much more powerful than TkIMO. They used buildings to block plasma fire, and hit Buenos Aires hard. However, while everyone was fighting there, Equiliser was building the 5 gate cross. One by one, he surrounded the cities he needed with defensive weapons, then placed 5 orbs on the CC in the shape of an “x”. He first conquered Andorra-la-Vella, which was in fact liberated by some brave heroes soon after. However, Equiliser had some unexpected help. Some players who misunderstood the clues, actually assisted him. They decided that to stop Equiliser, they had to destroy the cities that were part of the cross. Rio Cuarto was therefore destroyed by people trying to stop Equiliser, who in fact made it much easier for Equiliser to surround and conquer. Huambo, which I believe was the team that destroyed TkIMO initially, put up a very good fight, but eventually were destroyed and conquered once plasmas infested their base inside out. Posadas also put up a good fight, but were unable to resist and Andorra-la-Vella was re-conquered to complete the 5 gate cross.

After conquering a city, Equiliser actually told everyone he had done so. However, everyone insisted on hitting Buenos Aires rather than destroying the 5 gate cross. Once all 5 CC’s were conquered and had the 5 orbs on them in the shape of an “x”, Equiliser announced his success to everyone with an evil laugh. One by one the villains rose to the battlefield. Equiliser then left to regain his strength, asking TkIMO to guard the 5 gate cross in his absence, and to try and be useful by conquering the battlefield completely. TkIMO attempted to follow his masters orders, but was soon overwhelmed and orbed by the brave ~Warlord~.

It is still not known why ReBeL was left behind.

As a final note, the admins would like to apologize to Cokesplash for having him sent to the underworld yet again. Once we realized what had happened, we had you set free immediately. Also, TkIMO is of course no longer on the Battlecity staff. All his privileges have been removed due to his recent crimes. Although Cerberus is not in the underworld to keep watch, TkIMO is still currently stuck there after being destroyed for a second time in a single evening.

Although we failed to stop the evil forces from returning, the Battlecity Admin team would like to reward the brave heroes who managed to destroy TkIMO. If TkIMO had not managed to sacrifice Cokesplash after the initial victory, we would have in fact succeeded. If only we had understood the clues.. we could have protected Cokesplash and kept him away from TkIMO.

So yes, 1000pts reward to ~Warlord~ and his team of StarGaze, Naters20 and Tony9 for bravely defeating TkIMO after the return of Equiliser and thus destroying the 5 gate cross.