February 12th, 2026. Kawagoe, Saitama. Kirigaya Household, 07:00…
Slowly, Kirigaya Kazuto's eyes opened as he let out a small yawn. Softly, he let his gaze settle over the pajama-clad form of Suguha, tightly hugging him with a smile on her sleeping face, and he resisted his silly urge to pinch her cheeks in favor of hugging her even closer, intent on enjoying the warmth in the bed a little longer before actually getting up.
Ever since that other day in the bathroom, his adoptive sister had been sneaking into his bed every night their mother wasn't at home (Which was most of the time, given her busy work). While they never did anything besides hugging and maybe kissing each other a bit, it was a noticeable change, one that the black-haired boy found himself enjoying quite a lot. It had also helped him become more 'eat ease' when he was with the rest, and also feel more open with the girls, as Asuna had found out when he kissed her by surprise two days ago when everyone in the guild went out shopping together, which the chestnut-haired girl had eagerly returned after her momentary shock wore off.
While he was still clearly reticent of actually trying any form of direct affections with the rest of his 'girlfriends', he had allowed himself to get closer to them in the last days, plus he no longer reacted in a surprised or nervous way when they tried to show one themselves. Which had been quite a few, despite nothing truly 'open': Shino had softly grabbed his hand that day, without looking at him and with a clear blush on her face, and he had reassuringly squeezed hers in return (Though she seemed to be too nervous about it until she had also grabbed the hand of a confused Suguha), Keiko had hugged him after he complimented a cute dress she had chosen (And quickly ran off blushing and spluttering after realizing this) and Rika had shamelessly kissed his cheek when he had returned from buying some drinks while everyone waited and he handed over her cold tea. The rest were still hadn't really tried anything like that, but they seemed to be more open and to actively try to come closer and talk with him about idly topics in school, which he found to be really pleasant. Strea had happily said that it would all work out if they continued 'at their own pace' and that she would 'help everyone when necessary', whatever that meant, but the gamer was sure that what had 'helped' him to get more comfortable with the sudden 'change' in his life was what happened between him and Sugu that day.
'Nothing' had really happened in the bathroom, at least not in the most explicit sense. While it was true that, after having been washing a bit and them enjoying the warmth of the bathtub, both he and the young kendoka had gotten into some sort of 'trance' after sharing a glance, starting to kiss and caress each other, exchanging loving words as they both opened their hearts...it hadn't gone further than that.
He was sure it was a miracle worthy of a Saitama-punch that he had managed to stop his raging hormones, after seeing a small bit of hesitation in Sugu's blushing face, and then just telling her they shouldn't go further without thinking, at which she had complied after several seconds of silence, seeming both relieved at disappointed at the same time.
Despite this, both of them, once their rational minds had properly come back, realized it had been for the better. They couldn't even think of taking their relationship to THAT level just by an impulse, and especially in such a crazy and sudden situation. The black-haired boy would never forgive himself if he forced his adoptive sister/girlfriend into something like that without her having thought it thoroughly, even if she said it was fine. Most certainly, both of them weren't ready to take their relationship to that level yet.
The last part of that train of thought made the gamer freeze, his eyes widening in shock. He had clearly and with total conviction added a 'YET' at the end of it. As if he was totally sure that, in the future, he and Sugu would actually…
Quickly shaking his head to get rid of the images suddenly assaulting his mind, especially when those his other 'girlfriends' started to appear too, Kazuto took several deep breaths to calm his stupid hormones down, suddenly much more aware of the young kendoka's well-developed body pressing against his, and of things like how he knew she wasn't wearing a bra under her pajama. Despite this, he was able to keep himself under control and not do anything he would later regret.
Yes, he was a 17 years old boy put into a situation many could only dream of, seeming to come straight out of some manga, but he was NOT going to let his teenage impulses screw it up. After all, he saw the girls in his lives first and foremost as the most important people to his, a family he never dreamed of having, and he would be dammed if he did something that risked him losing it. While a part of him truly wished that things could remain the same in the future, he was sure that sooner or later everything would change, and he didn't wish to risk the bond they all had just to satisfy his stupid hormones. He was still sure that one or more of the girls would get tired of this situation in a month or so, after all.
Suddenly blinking, the black-haired boy wondered why he felt as if he could almost hear laughter coming from Everywhere and Nowhere at the same time. Quickly dismissing it as just part of his imagination, he decided that it would be better if he got up and woke Sugu already. After all, they both had school soon and, even if his adoptive sister didn't have any club activities that day, it would be better if they headed out with time to spare.
When he did just that and she gave him a 'Good Morning Kiss' as reward before happily skipping out of the room, the gamer found himself with a contagious smile appearing on his face, which would remain there for a good while. Not even feeling Justice's clearly dark hatred towards his person when Sugu offered to give him a ride till the bus station, as he had forgotten to fill out his motorcycle's tank, was able to wipe it off.
Truly, despite all the hardships and difficulties that tomorrow may bring, Kirigaya Kazuto had to accept one thing: Life was good and he really enjoyed it.
…he was just hoping it would stay that.
He only wanted to worry about trying to keep his friends together for as long as he could. Really, if the future could stop throwing shit that seemed like it came out from some complicated anime plot, he would be eternally grateful.
On Its Throne Above Everything, [FATE] resisted the too-human-like urge to facepalm.
With some luck, and given his habit of tempting It that was very likely, the boy would get himself killed before he could destroy Reality any further…
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The light of the sun coming through the massive 'windows' indicated that it was somewhere past midday, but the prisoner of the cage hanging above the 'Throne Room' didn't seem to pay this any attention.
Time was losing its meaning for him after so many days 'awake' inside his prison, after all. Yes, while the existence known as Kayaba Akihiko did not really need to 'sleep' anymore, such physical needs were gone together with his human body, the virtual ghost still did such a thing from time to time. It was 'necessary', because otherwise he would have probably gone insane long ago. Traveling through the virtual sea without anyone to talk to could do that to you.
Now, though, he had forced himself to stay awake and concentrate, all the while pretending to just be putting a futile resistance to Cardinal's…to Equinox's plans. The virtual entity thought her cage was stopping all his attempts to hack into its data to try and get free, and, as such, it had grown confident over the day. Just like Kayaba wanted.
After all, there was no better lie than telling the truth. He 'was' trying to hack into the cage, but he already knew the attempts he was making wouldn't be met with success. It was just a way to make sure they didn't pay attention to what he really was doing, inside his own source code.
Equinox was right. She had become 'human-like' to understand them better, using Asuna's data as a base. And as such, she had also gained humanity's weaknesses.
Artificial Intelligences weren't originally programed to be overconfident, after all. Human? They did that way too much.
Eyes snapping open after what seemed like an eternity, the man of the lab coat felt the satisfying rush of polygons envelop his body as the cage exploded with the sound of a million glass panels breaking.
With a loud 'thud', a figure now clad in crimson armor landed in the middle of the Throne Room, even as the door opened and Brynhildr rushed inside.
Her shocked eyes, visible through her demonic mask, zeroed on the caped man that turned around.
Heathcliff raised his shield barely in time to block the powerful strike of a metallic bat, grimacing at feeling the pain of it when his body was thrown back as if a rhinoceros had swatted him aside, painfully crashing against the room's other side…
…and giving him enough time to jump and break through the nearest window, falling out of the castle even as the furious screams of the being that had once been the MHCP-005. The Fake Paladin summarily ignored them in favor of concentrating all his inhuman processing ability in trying to 'Log Out' from the 'Utopia Server', even as he ran through the land that made up the floating island known as 'Avalon'.
Equinox hadn't changed the access codes. Understandable, both because of her previously stated overconfidence and because of how busy she had been creating those things he had seen her made, too busy preparing to execute her 'Master Plan'.
To start 'Ragnarok'…
The sound of missiles shooting through the air and the screaming of his battle instincts was enough to make the virtual ghost roll to the side, raising his shield as he did to ward off the worst of the devastating explosion that engulfed the area where he had been standing, rolling through the ground as he felt his armor actually being an inconvenience as he felt it breaking and overheating in several parts, the pain reaching into his very soul.
Andvari's massive and metallic form landed hear his broken form with a loud song, her 3 red 'eyes' zeroing onto the fake paladin before aiming her hand at him, the 'fingers' turning into something akin to cannons…
And Heathcliff vanished in a small wave of light, having miraculously managed to continue processing and executing the overly complicated sequence to 'Log Out'. The area where he had been was vaporized the next second, the mechanic-looking AI unleashing her hand-weapon with fury.
Less than 10 seconds later, Equinox armored form appeared on midair, even as Brynhildr came running and, stopping at her sister's side, looked down in shame.
"I'm sorry, Mother. I was unable to stop him from…"
"Do not worry, my child. Neither of you. In the end, Father's escape is meaningless." declared the virtual entity with her ethereal voice, dual-colored eyes turned to the sky. "…how is the Final Connection Progress?"
"…97%, Mother." softly whispered the bat-wielding female, still looking down.
"It will have to do. We have all that we need now. Father will no doubt try and contact HIM to stop me…but I don't fear him anymore." came the armored being's words as she glared towards the horizon. "…Andvari, go and call for Vierge. Alpha and Omega are playing with her. Brynhildr…wake up the Einherjar. It's time to begin."
"Your will shall be done, Mother." replied the older sister while the younger one flew off to call the others. "And you?"
"I will prepare Protocol Longinus. The time of hiding and preparing it's over. The humans shall finally know WHO the real ruler of the virtual world is" sinisterly proclaimed Equinox while raising a hand to the havens, her body starting to vanish. "Ragnarok is about to begin"
And with those ominous words, the World shifted, ready to face yet another change.
A very dangerous one this time…
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"Ahh…you can really feel the change in the mood around here these days, uh?" sighed Takuya while looking around the school grounds, several red and pink decorations in the shape of hearts hanging here and there.
"Well, Ducker, what did you expect? It's two days before Valentine's Day." joked Kenji while drinking his can of soda, though there was a slightly depressed edge on his voice. "It's normal that they would want to decorate everything for it, you know?"
"Tetsuo, don't try and make it seem as if you're not affected by it too." deadpanned Yonaga from where he was leaning against a tree, staring silently towards the school building. "Well…at least we still have health and friends, right?"
"Ye-yeah, you said it, Sasamaru! Bros before girls and all that!" 'cheered' the dagger-user before turning towards the other boy with them. "Right, Keita?!"
"U-uh? Oh, ye-yeah…" awkwardly answered Toshiyuki while looking to the side, his gaze seeming lost in something far away. "You're totally right…"
"…you're thinking about Siune-san, right?" sighed Kenji while the rest suddenly stared at their ex-leader with betrayed eyes, the staff-user's eyes widening as he quickly shook his hands.
"Wha-wha…?! N-no, of course not, don't be silly Tetsuo! I-I mean, not that Siune-san isn't a great girl, bu-but that's just silly, I'm still a high school student, s-so even if we do get along pretty well there is no way that…!"
"So…Keita now belongs to that side too, uh?" muttered Takuya with a depressed cloud over himself. "…no matter. We're still friends, right? We won't ever let each other down, right?"
"No, Ducker, we won't." affirmed Yonaga with an extremely serious look. "I mean, if HE can go almost every day like THAT…"
As he said this, the four boys turned their heads towards a small area near them, where Kazuto and every female SAO Survivor of the UHA were sitting and merrily talking away, Asuna even asking if he wanted to taste some of the food she had prepared because she had 'accidentally' brought too much (Again), even as Rika teased her for this and Keiko shyly leaned against his back. Meanwhile, Saori and Kotone were exchanging some hushed words (While subtly glancing towards the black-haired boy) and Shiori was grinning widely at it all.
"…and still be a good friend by bothering to remember we exist and spending time with us, then there is no way WE can't."
"…is it me or do they seem even closer since a couple of weeks back?"
"Really? Maybe, I have honestly long-since stopped looking and/or finding anything weird with it…seeing it for so long may have desensitized me to it."
"Well…at least we can be grateful for not being in his shoes when Valentine comes around, right?"
There was a small pause as the boys thought that over and blinked several times. Then, they all sighed and looked at each other.
Yeah, it truly was good to have close friends.
Few people could understand your frustration with life better than those with similar problems.
"Hey guys, we're going to meet for a Raid later against the next Floor Boss!" called to them Kazuto while waving on their direction, obviously implying that he wouldn't do anything but watch the fight. "Want to come?"
"Yes, sure Kirito, we will get there." smiled back Toshi while the others just nodded.
Satisfied with the answer, the gamer smiled back to his friends before turning around to continue talking with Asuna about whatever they had been doing.
"…life would be so much easier if he was a jerk or an idiot." lamented Takuya while still looking at the scene. "Instead, he's so great of a guy and has saved us so many times that I literally don't mind to see Sachi over him all the time, and I always considered her like a little sister…"
"We all do Ducker, we all do…" reminded Yonaga while patting his shoulder. "At least we can be sure she's in good hands…probably."
"…we're still kicking his ass if he makes her cry, right?" questioned Kenji with a raised eyebrow.
"Of course, Tetsuo. He isn't invincible on this side, after all." smiled the ex-guild leader while standing up. "Besides, I'm sure Kirito would be all for us doing that if he DID make her cry. He's just that kind of guy."
And both the best and saddest part of it, thought the rest of the guys as they stood up, was that he was probably right. Being friends with someone with such a crazy life wasn't easy.
Even so, all of them were sure that, if given the choice, they wouldn't have chosen their lives any other way…
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The setting sun over Alfheim's horizon in Undine's territory was, without a doubt, a beautiful background to have in a fight against a giant carnivorous turtle. With two heads.
Of course, even as the Field Boss exploded into polygons under a slash of darkness and another of golden light, such things were already something that those who had been inside the virtual world for some time were totally used to. In fact, they would have found it strange (More like lame) if the turtle wasn't carnivorous or had just one head.
"Yay! Great, job, Strea-nee, Yuuki-mama!" cheered Yui while flying closer to the duo, the small pixie having a bright smile on her face. "You totally dominated that fight!"
"Well, it was to be expected!" said the Gnome with her own cheerful smile, sheathing Gram as the black mist of Darkness Blade receded into it. "After all, we have the great Zekken here with us, so it's not a surprise!"
"Now, now, Strea-san, don't say that…" awkwardly laughed the Imp while sheathing Excaliber away. "You also did a great job, I wouldn't have been able to win on my own…"
"We both know that's not true, Yuuki-chan." cutely pouted the red-eyed girl while crossing her arms. "My Unique Skill is best suited for PvP and it's almost useless against Bosses."
"That doesn't change the fact that I probably wouldn't have managed to do it without you." responded Yuuki while staring at her with grateful eyes. "So, really…thanks."
Surprised, Strea stared at her for a moment. Somehow, she could just tell she wasn't talking just about fighting the Boss.
Her massive smile once again appearing on her pretty face, the virtual girl opened her arms and smothered the surprised Zekken against her bosom, making her blush as she started to giggle.
"Wha…?! Strea-san?!"
"Heh…just Strea is okay, Yuuki-chan." softly whispered the Gnome with an almost motherly tone, shocking the young girl. "And don't worry…everything will be okay. I promise."
There were many things, implied in those words. Addressing hidden fears and worries that the Holy Swordswoman did not dare to speak aloud: Their outrageous 'shared relationship' with Kirito, the uncertainties she had about her new nature, how would their group be some years from then…
Essentially, fear for the future. For how things would be for all of them 'Tomorrow'.
And just like she had felt when Kirito had hugged and promised he would help her, the Imp felt that same comfort and warmth filling Strea's words. A sensation that made her believe, no, that assured her soul that the words were an absolute truth.
A similar smile spreading through her face, the Imp hugged back the other virtual girl.
Watching over the scene, Yui's eyes were filled with happiness even as she enjoyed unfamiliar sensations filling her chest, which she had long ago learned to relate with 'Happiness' despite her processing systems identifying them as 'Unknowns'.
Moments like this were what made the small AI feel truly grateful. Grateful of having watched Kirito throw that first punch that day long ago. Of having decided to escape from Cardinal, bringing her 'little sister' with her. Of having found a true 'family' with everyone.
She was grateful to be alive. And that was something that, even if her data said it made no sense, she would always treasure. Forever.
The tender thoughts of the 3 girls, however, were suddenly interrupted when a strange 'sound' broke through the area, making them scream in surprise as they grabbed their eyes, trying to stop the endless screeching that seemed to have overwritten the zone's BGM.
Then, unceremoniously and without warning, the sound stopped as virtual reality 'cracked' like shattering glass, letting a crimson-clad figure filled with red 'gashes' of damage and with a tattered cape fall down, crashing face-first on the earth and lying there, unmoving.
For several seconds, the 3 stunned members of the Heroes Association just stared, trying to understand what had happened. Then, in a hurry, Yuuki shouted and ran towards the unmoving man.
"He-hey, are you okay?! Answer me!" came the Holy Swordswoman's scared voice as she stopped at his side and turned the man around. "What's wrong?!"
Suddenly hearing two loud gasps behind her, the Imp turned around in surprise, her confusion only growing at seeing the tense looks on the virtual sisters' faces.
"…him…" softly whispered Strea while shaking slightly, her hand moving as if wanting to grip her Demonic Sword.
"No way…why is he here…?" added Yui with a similar look, conflicted feelings reflecting on her eyes as she tried to do her best for not just sending the unmoving figure flying away with her 'powers'.
Feeling extremely lost, Yuuki continued standing at Heathcliff's side, unsure of what to do.
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It was almost nighttime when Kazuto finally got back home, several grocery bags on his hands and a tired but content smile on his face.
It couldn't have been helped, after all, that he took so long: He had been about to take the bus back home from school when his mother had called and told him to please go and buy groceries for the week. She was supposed to go and get them when she came home that night, but something unexpected had apparently come up at her work and she had been forced to stay till late again. She probably wouldn't be at home until past midnight.
There had been a time when the black-haired boy would have resented the sudden call and the obligations left upon him, probably using them as another excuse to reinforce his self-imposed isolation from his family, as he had done since he knew he was adopted. Of course, those were also times when he saw school as nothing more than a chore he was forced to go through to have a future and that cut off his gaming time. When he had no bonds beyond the passing acquaintances he made in games.
The idea of that Kazuto now seemed so far away that it was almost alien to the gamer. As if it was just another person that had nothing to do with him instead of his past self.
The current Kazuto had happily nodded and told his mother he would take care of it, then took the bus and headed towards the center of Kawagoe to get all that was in the list she had sent him; accompanied by Shiori, who just so happened to live around that area. Of course, he had remembered to call Sugu first to tell her he would be late and why.
After that, he spent a couple of pleasant hours chatting with the info-broker as they went through his list (He had been surprised when she insisted on helping him out with his shopping but hadn't denied her). They had talked about the old times, when they first met in the SAO Beta, and about some of the things they wanted to do after finishing school. He couldn't say he was surprised when he heard the girl say that she may think about studying journalism. He HAD been surprised when she had joked that she would prefer being a full-time 'Heroine' if possible, though, which had made both of them explode into chuckles.´
When they had finished and he had finally gotten everything he needed, Shiori had once again surprised him, though in an unexpected way: She had kissed him in the cheek, her face colored crimson. Boldly, he had answered by smiling and giving her a quick kiss on the lips, reminding himself that the girl was also one of his 'girlfriends'.
Any worry he had had about having perhaps gone too far too fast was gone when he saw the happy and almost dreamy smile the info-broker had after it, totally out of place in her usually grinning face but not making her any less attractive for it. In the end, the auburn-haired girl had given him a hug and walked away with one of her usual grins, waving at him and just saying 'Seeya tomorrow, Kii-bou'.
Despite it, the black-haired boy had felt as if her words were much warmer than playful this time…
Shaking his head to come out of his recollections, the gamer headed into the kitchen and quickly put everything on its place. He was almost done with that when a familiar warmth enveloped him from behind, Kazuto stopping as he felt strong but tender arms wrapping around him.
"I missed you." softly whispered Suguha on his ear, her voice making something inside him shake. "You took way longer than you were supposed to, right?"
"Sorry, Sugu. I got a bit too caught up while talking with Argo." apologized the black-haired boy, turning his head to look towards the pouting face of his adoptive sister. "At least she made sure I didn't screw up with the groceries, so that's good, don't you think?"
"Well, I suppose it's a relief to know that there is always someone looking up for the hopeless person that you are, Onii-chan." joked the young kendoka with a smile…before leaning forward and joining her lips with his, the gamer's surprise quickly evaporating as he returned the gesture for a couple of seconds before she leaned back. "But remember that I and Asuna have been open with our feelings longer, okay? I'm not telling you to give us special treatment, but…I wouldn't mind if you spoiled us a bit more than the others…"
"Heh, duly noted, my selfish imouto." joked back Kazuto while grinning at her, making Suguha pout his way again. "Well, mom is going to be late again today and there is nothing ready, so what do you want to eat? We can order something that…"
"Actually…want me to cook something, Onii-chan?" asked the young kendoka while skipping to his side, making the black-haired boy blink. "I have been looking up a little bit about cooking lately and I wanted to try it out, plus you just buy the groceries, so…"
Of course, what Suguha meant by 'a little' was, in fact, several days of worth reading her mother's old cooking books and recipes on the internet in secret. Especially about how to make chocolate the last days, given the date that was coming. But her adopted beloved brother didn't need to know that.
"Uhm, yeah, sure! In fact, why don't I help you a bit? Just tell me what to do and…"
A little over an hour later, both Kirigaya siblings sat on the table with content smiles, putting away their chopsticks from their empty plates as they released a satisfied sigh.
"Heh…was it good, Onii-chan?"
"Ah…yes, Sugu, it was great." smiled the gamer while the girl beamed. "I didn't know you could cook something like that…"
"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?" questioned Suguha with a mock-glare, which quickly vanished when he patted her head. "Mou…that's unfair, Onii-chan, don't treat me like a kid…"
"I'm not doing such a thing, Sugu." said Kazuto while looking at her. "I'm just showing my affection to my precious little sister…"
"…then…could you also show me your appreciation as your girlfriend?" softly asked the young kendoka while looking directly into his eyes, surprising the boy.
For a second, both of them silently stared at each other. Then, the gamer leaned forward and trapped his adoptive sister's body on his arms, kissing her again.
It was a much more intense kiss than the one from before. Suguha eagerly responded in kind.
Almost without thinking, as if something else had taken over them, the couple deepened the kiss even more, Kazuto's hands slowly moving over the young kendoka's back…
And then the sudden ringing on her phones made them jump in place, their gazes snapping around before setting over their pockets, both of them breathing hard and with extremely flushed faces. After smiling awkwardly to each other, the boy trying to do his best to ignore the burning urge that was still raging inside him and that, in an almost scary way, he could also feel coming from his adoptive sister, both siblings grabbed the small devices…and blinked in confusion at the simple message on them.
Suddenly, all thoughts of what they had been almost about to do (Again) vanished, while an unusually serious feeling filled them at seeing the short yet ominous text on the screens.
From: Strea
Big trouble. Heathcliff injured. Cardinal involved.
UHA assemble.
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Staring at the figure of the man clad in cracked crimson armor under the night sky, Yuuki wasn't exactly sure of how to feel about the current situation.
On the one hand, this was Kayaba Akihiko, creator of Sword Art Online, directly responsible for one of the greatest tragedies in Japan's history and the person who had singlehandedly trapped 10000 people for 2 years in a virtual world, indirectly killing 2000. Not to mention that most of her new friends apparently had quite a bad personal story with him.
On the other hand, if it wasn't for him and his work in VR technology, she and Aiko would have never been able to meet all their friends, she would probably have died years before and never met Kirito and the rest, resulting in her survival. And that was without mentioning the countless people who nowadays met and could interact thanks to virtual reality, not to mention some that could only do so through it.
Of course, there was also the thing with Strea being full Darkness Blade and having Gram's edge against his neck while Yui floated behind him with her hands raised, their yes never leaving Heathcliff's form, filled with a distrust that was unusual and almost scary to see in their eyes. Also, they had gotten Tonky to loom ominously behind them and having his electricity-covered trunk pointed over him. And there was also that strange and sinister feeling that something was watching everything from the trees…
As such, it was understandable that the Imp felt immensely relieved when everyone else finally started to arrive, Asuna heading towards her and grabbing her hand with a reassuring smile before frowning as she stared at the silent fake paladin.
"Kayaba." spat the Undine with a nearly venomous tone, something that the Holy Swordswoman never thought she would hear coming from her mouth. "To what do we owe the displeasure?"
"I see you still don't like me that much, Asuna-kun, but I was hoping we could put that aside given the current situation." finally spoke Heathcliff while raising his face and looking at them with a fake smile. "Don't you all think so?"
"…I'm SO tempted to just crush your face with Mjolnir right now…" growled Lisbeth while tightening her grip on the legendary hammer.
"My, Lisbeth, must you hold such a big grudge towards me?"
"YOU ALMOST KILLED ME!"
"Liz-san, calm down." muttered Silica while grabbing her friend's shoulder, surprising some at both her actions and hearing her 'Serious Kunoichi' tone. "We're still waiting for Kirito-san and Leafa-san, don't waste your breath with him."
"Well, it's good to see that at least someone here can…" the crimson-armored man never got to finish his words, as a shuriken flew past his cheek and left an angry red gash of polygons over it, making him blink in shock towards the icy cold eyes of the pigtailed Caith Sith, Pina's wings suddenly fully opened as it growled at him from over her head.
"Make no mistake, Kayaba. The only reason I'm stopping Liz instead of encouraging her while sicking Pina on you is that I know you wouldn't be here unless it was something you think only Kirito-san can help you with. Which means it's important enough to be dangerous." declared the kunoichi while glaring at him. "So please, do not think that it's not my wish to cut you apart with my Fuuma Shuriken for trying to hurt my friends."
"…it's actually easy to forget, most of the time, that she was quite serious with the whole 'ninja' thing, right?" rhetorically asked Philia after three seconds of stunned silence. "Oh, and talking about the king of Rome…"
Just as the Ronin trailed off, the group's other Spriggan blurred into existence, carrying Leafa on his arms, the Sylph quickly standing on her feet even as Kirito walked forward and stopped in front of Heathcliff, arms crossed.
The short silence seemed to stretch endlessly before the caped boy finally spoke.
"What game are you playing at, lying down there, Kayaba?"
"Whatever do you mean, Kirito?" questioned the fake paladin while tilting his head, ignoring the confusion in everyone's faces. "If you haven't noticed, Strea-kun and Yui-chan are kind of forcing me to stay like this…"
"Please, both you and I know that, if you wanted to, you could have shrugged them off, hacked Tonky's code to freeze him and then get out of here before ALO's Cardinal would have even detected you (I would have still punched you to oblivion for hurting them, though). Your current form would allow you to do that without problems" darkly muttered the gamer while the virtual sisters looked at him in shock. "So I ask again, WHY are you lying there on your knees for?"
"…okay, you got me. I'm like this as a show of goodwill towards you and everyone. I, no, WE can't afford to waste time with all the grudges you have against me." finally accepted the man in crimson armor while standing up, making Strea remove Gram from his neck, so as to no behead him, as she frowned. "Things aren't good. Cardinal…no, Equinox has gone mad. And I mean that in the Hollywood 'Most powerful Artificial Intelligence in the World gone Mad'-sense."
"Wait…what kind of madness are we talking about here?" questioned a wary Keita, the atmosphere surrounding everyone being clearly tense.
"She's planning to take over the virtual world. ALL of it. By kicking out humanity from it in the process and forbidding them from ever interfere with it again." revealed Heathcliff with a grim look. "Because she said she has found humans 'unworthy' of using 'her' world."
Disbelief and absolute shock ran through everyone's faces, especially Kirito's, before both Yui and Strea lowered their arms and stared at their creator with a mix of horror and incomprehension.
"Bu-but…that's not possible!" denied the Gnome while shaking her head. "She can't just do that!"
"Under normal circumstances? I would also say that it's impossible." muttered the fake paladin with a dark tone. "But after what I have seen, I think she's more than capable of…"
"What Strea-nee means is that doing such a thing should be impossible for her from the very beginning!" shouted the younger-looking AI with a terrified expression. "I mean…we were programmed with a Logical Base as our primary directive, the mere thought of turning against humans is…!"
"Are YOU really going to try and convince me about the impossibility of overcoming your original programming?" demanded the man in crimson armor with noticeable incredulity, making both virtual sisters fall silent as everyone tensed again and the caped Spriggan glared at him. "Equinox had already found a loophole in that 'limitation', remember? She attacked Yuuki-kun here to try and steal all of her mind data, even if that would have left her brain dead." the Imp flinched abruptly at the memory, Asuna at her side squeezing her hand to try and calm her down. "This is another one, but to a massive scale: She's not going to 'harm' anyone. No physical harm, at least. Taking over all of virtual reality isn't something that would cause 'real harm' to humanity, or at least that's how she sees it."
"Ca-can she really do that?" came Argo's clearly scared voice, though her eyes were hard and calculating, as if she was running very specific info in her head. "Take over virtual reality, just like that?"
"We're talking about the same 'program' that I designed to stop all of the world's efforts from releasing the players of Sword Art Online and at the same time run and manage the whole game, only having a handful of standard servers (Which most VRMMOs nowadays have in bigger quantity) as hardware." dryly commented Heathcliff even as more dark looks were sent his way, even Sinon glaring at him despite having no priors connection to the incident before meeting everyone. "She effortlessly succeeded for two years. Probably could have continued a couple more. And that was before she became self-aware. So yes, Argo-kun, I'm pretty sure he can now."
"That means she must have the hardware to back her up again, right? A lot of it…" stated Sachi with a worried look, before frowning. "No, wait, even if she somehow had even the double that she had back in SAO, it wouldn't be enough to actually take on the world…unless…"
"Oh God…" muttered Kirito as his eyes widened in understanding, a glance towards the fake paladin's stony face confirming his fears. "The Seed."
"Wait, what? What does that have to do with this?" Sinon's keen eyes shot from the gamer to the crimson-armored man, demanding answers. "The Seed is just the data package used to create new VR Worlds, right? Why would it…?"
"I created the Seed as a simplified and compressed data set of the same tools I used to create SAO." explained Heathcliff without raising his gaze. "It contains all that one, provided they have the necessary hardware, needs to create their own virtual world, be it as a game or anything they need. It has all the base tools that Sword Art Online, except…"
"The Cardinal System." Kirito's voice echoed through the clear of the log house like some kind of dark sentence, everyone freezing in shock as the implications hit them. "All of the VRMMOs created nowadays don't have a Cardinal like SAO did. The Seed only offers a basic AI setting to manage and help to organize the virtual space created, but that's all. Actual people need to create new Quests, manage bugs, program the NPCs, everything…All the virtual worlds that exist nowadays have a massive 'empty space' where Cardinal existed in Sword Art Online."
"…and Equinox can fill that void, right?" whispered Philia the question everyone was fearing.
"Yes, I'm afraid. With the hardware at her disposal and using herself as the 'catalyst', she can." continued the virtual ghost with a defeated tone. "She's planning to become a nexus that creates a massive 'network' between her own 'mind' and every single virtual world connected to the Internet. Hacking them, no matter where in the world their servers are, will be child's play for her. Then, she will have total access to the hardware of ALL the companies, private or public, that run said games."
"…VR Tech is at its greatest moment since the Seed was released. Its premature 'death', that both the SAO and ALO incidents almost caused, was stopped thanks to it, and as such the number of persons that had used and downloaded it numbers in the millions." meeting the gazes of all his gathered 'family', the gamer seemed more serious than he had ever been. "Only in Japan, there must be thousands of virtual world, hundreds of them being actual VRMMORPGs. Even small and unpopular ones must have hardware noticeably big just to run, and that's not even taking into account the big ones, like Gun Gale Online."
"…fucking hell, this seems like something out of freaking Terminator." declared Ducker with a wide-eyed expression. "If…if that Equinox manages to do this, she's basically going to have enough processing power to take over the world if she wants!"
"Wa-wait…that must be an exaggeration, right?" questioned a nervous Leafa while her eyes shot around the clearing, going from her friends' tense expressions to that of her adopted brother. "I-I mean…she can't…"
"Personal information, government secrets, bank accounts, domestic services…" eyes turning towards him, Heathcliff continued enumerating more and more things as he gazed towards the blonde Sylph. "Mankind has become more and more dependent on technology with the years, young girl. Literally everything in the civilized world runs with technology now, and a good chunk of it is interconnected by one network or another. Virtual Reality and all its applications are just the most recent and next level of it. Of anything took control of THAT, then well…"
"And…that's it?" whispered Sinon with utter disbelief. "She's going to use all of that power just to…stop us from playing games?"
"It's more than that, Sinon. You must know it very well by now, videogames are just the most basic and simple application of VR...of Fulldive technology." reminded the capped Spriggan while everyone looked at him. "Helping out people that can't connect with others by themselves, facilitating education to those with special needs, helping out to develop almost every single other field of investigation just by its application…the possibilities are endless."
Of course, the gamer wasn't mentioning the most 'simple' yet beautiful things that VR allowed, because everyone there knew and could imagine them easily.
To allow someone who couldn't walk to fly. To let a child who had never seen the sea to swim in another world's ocean. To let a man that knew little more than his daily life to wield a blade against impressive monsters, to unleash powerful weapons against fellow men without any true will of harming them, to explore things that they had never imagined…
Virtual Reality was not only the greatest jump technology had taken in the 21st century. It was also a gate that allowed man to let their imagination fly and for dreams to become 'reality'. For the impossible to become part of everyone's everyday lives.
All of that was what Equinox wanted to destroy…no, to take away. To forbid from them, because she thought humanity did not deserve such a gift.
"…she has no right to decide that." finally declared Sinon in a cold voice, even as everyone silently nodded.
"Go tell her that yourself." dryly replied the fake paladin. "I'm sure her opinion differs in that point."
"Then we don't care about her opinion at all." shot Sasamaru while glaring at the man in crimson armor. "How do we stop her?"
"We can't." was Strea's curt reply before anyone could say anything, surprising many. "Even I and nee-san together would have been unable to compete with Cardinal before she 'became' Equinox. If she manages to activate this 'Cardinal Network' and connect to the servers of every single virtual world worldwide, then nothing in the world would be able to stop her. And the only thing that could have any possibility of stopping her before that would be…"
"Another 'her'." muttered Yui as her eyes widened. "Another full-fledged Cardinal System…like…"
"Yes. Currently, despite no one, not even Ymir themselves, knowing what this truly entails, Alfheim Online is the only virtual world that has a fully functional copy of Sword Art Online's original Cardinal System." confirmed Heathcliff while looking straight into the heroes' eyes. "You're standing in the only 'world' that has any hope of being a hindrance to Equinox's plans."
Once again, the gathered members of the United Heroes Association fell silent, even as the meaning behind those words ran through all they knew and had seen of that world.
The boys, sans Kirito, remembered the guardian who lived in the floating temple above the World Tree, guarding the mysterious 'egg' they had saved in the Undersea Temple until the 'prince' was born, who had politely asked them to leave after they told him why they were there.
The girls, sans Yuuki, and their 'boyfriend' remembered Urd and her sisters, the 3 Goddesses that ruled over Jotunheimr, and their plea for help during the Excaliber crisis. Then the former remembered Thrym, his too 'real' malice and greed, and the brave and unbreakable will of Thor.
Yuuki, for her part, let her eyes move towards the golden blade at her side, feeling the warm sensation of whatever semi-consciousness she knew the virtual steel had.
Finally, Yui and Strea turned to look at Tonky, who released a trumpeting sound of worry towards them, as if the beast understood that things were really bad. Slowly, Sinon and Argo's eyes moved towards the silent forms of their familiars, Garasu and Charon offering them small nods and soft caws.
Without a doubt, for anyone who bothered to look closely, this world was 'alive'. There was no denying that, but very few players actually realized this.
"She is going to come, right?" the gamer finally broke the silence with a serious tone, turning his gaze from his friends towards the one who had once been his enemy. "She won't allow anything to stop her. For her plan to succeed, she has to make sure to destroy ALO's Cardinal System."
"Yes. She will. Perhaps she can't touch the actual physical servers, but destroying all the software from the inside wouldn't be difficult for her. This Cardinal is, after all, still a program that needs direction and has limits. Equinox has evolved beyond that thanks to her new 'human consciousness'." as he spoke, the virtual ghost pretended not to notice how Asuna glared down at his words, several of the others looking at her in worry. "While a 'fight' will break out without a doubt, this other Cardinal can't win. It will only be a matter of time after Equinox comes before Alfheim Online and everything in it is destroyed beyond repair."
"Then let her come. It will be her funeral." announced Sasamaru while raising his spear menacingly, a dark frown marring his face. "WE are here. Even more, Kirito is here. If that crazy AI with a God complex tries to come, she's doomed."
"She is not stupid, you know, Sasamaru-kun? She knows how strong Kirito-kun is. She was fighting with me against him at the end of SAO, after all" reminded them the fake paladin as everyone's faces darkened again at the memory, but he ignored that. "Equinox knows how outrageously powerful he is…and in there lies his weakness, so she will take advantage of it."
"What the hell are you saying? Sensei is the strongest." declared Asuna with the same conviction one would use to say the sky is blue. "Nothing can beat him. You yourself must know that better than…"
"And THAT exactly is the problem, Asuna. He's too strong." cut her off the man in crimson armor while closing his eyes, even as Kirito, turned his back to him, staring at the sky with a frown. "You know it too, right? If you go all out…or, at least, at the level at which you beat me back then, you would destroy Alfheim like you did with the original Aincrad." All the SAO survivors of the group stiffened at that, clearly remembering the sky breaking apart like a window being smashed to pieces, while the others just shivered slightly at remembering their own encounters with the gamer's 'Serious Series' (Or their personal fight, in Yuuki's case). "You would only be doing her job for her."
"But he doesn't need to go that far to beat her!" argued Yui with a clearly desperate tone, the whole of the situation apparently finally sinking into her mind. "We fought her Avatar the other day; Papa can just stop her like…!"
"She was holding back. That or she couldn't use more power back then, but now she can…is that what you're implying?" questioned the caped Spriggan with a serious tone, everyone's eyes snapping from him. "That she can be as strong as you were back then?"
"…perhaps even more." grimaced Heathcliff while looking at his hands. "Equinox ¡…has gone beyond anything I could have imagined in my wildest dreams. She's now something that's as different from the original Cardinal as an ape is from a human. While I don't doubt you may be able to stop her without destroying ALO for long enough to get its Cardinal System to work against her…she has also planned for that. She has an army."
"…what?" asked Lisbeth while everyone gawked at the man. "An…an army? Are you serious?"
"Quite. And I'm not talking about simple spawned mobs, I'm talking about low-level AIs specifically designed by her…using mine, Yuuki-kun and Excaliber's data. At least the little she managed to get from them." clarified the virtual ghost while the Imp paled and everyone exchanged shocked looks. "She doesn't need to beat you, to win. Once her army attacks, all she needs to do is sit back where we can't see find her and hack Cardinal while you're all busy trying to stop her minions from tearing the world apart by force."
"How many…how many enemies are we talking about?" muttered Silica while gripping her kunai, Pina looking at her with worry.
"Almost 10000." even the sound of water dropping would have resounded like a gunshot after the fake paladin's declaration echoed in the clearing. "I guess she either had a thing for the SAO number or just thought those would be enough. And that's without taking into account whatever the hell in which she turned the other MHCPs. They will be her 'commanders'."
"Wait, you mean the little two that are like spheres that become in all kind of weapons?" said Yuuki while the virtual sisters exchanged a shuddering look, Philia and Sachi putting comforting hands on their shoulders at that. "Because I don't think they can do much without her at…"
"Uhm, no. I was…talking about the others." once again, absolute shock ran through the gathered group, but none more than the one reflected in Yui and Strea's faces. "I'm going to guess you haven't seen the one carrying a metallic baseball bat, the one that looks like a grade-schooler and the Hulkbuster-rip off that throws missiles every…is something wrong?" worriedly asked the crimson-armored man, seeing how Leafa and Kirito exchanged shocked looks at his descriptions, even as the rest blinked in vague recognition. "Does those…sound familiar to you?"
"You got to be kidding us…" whispered the blonde Sylph while looking down in horror, Justice humming on her sheath as if to try and calm her down.
"Yes…they do." grimly answered the black-haired boy, memories of his fight against Death Gun replaying on his head, and the sinister 'powers' he had, twisted parodies of those belonging to a character from the series that, in a way, started it all. "And if it's even remotely as bad as we imagine, then things are even worse than you think."
"So, essentially…we have a super AI about to cause virtual-apocalypse, backed up by an army of virtual super-soldiers and with a group of smaller AIs that have basically been granted 'virtual superpowers', uh…?" summarized Tetsuo with a blank look before gulping and falling on his ass. "Okay…I think this may be a good time to acknowledge we're in over our heads and try to contact the authorities or something…"
"Yeah, because the government, which 'competence' we have experienced firsthand in the past, is totally going to believe a bunch of teenagers about that with nothing except the word of the DEAD world's greatest terrorist turned into basically a virtual ghost." deadpanned Argo before barely suppressing a frustrated scream and turning to unleash a clawed punch against a nearby tree. "We will have more luck trying to get our own army of players to fight a war Lord of the Rings-style than convincing them we're not insane or trying to pull a very bad prank…"
"Good luck with that." sighed Heathcliff while giving her a tired look. "If my calculations aren't wrong, then we have more or less 24 hours before Equinox is ready to launch her attack. Convincing any useful number of players to fight at your side in that time is statistically impo…"
"WHAT?!" shouted Strea with an outraged voice, making everyone jump in place and look at her in shock. "No…oh hell no, she's NOT going to do that! She's NOT ruining this after so much planning!"
"…eh?" expressing Sachi while everyone was thinking at the unexpected outburst, even as the Gnome furiously started to navigate her menu.
"Uhm, Strea…what the hell do you mean?" asked Philia while she guessed everyone must want to, but were currently unable to even think about.
"Valentine's Day!" the angry pout in the red-eyed girl, combined with her words, was enough to make everyone feel as if their brains had suddenly experienced some sort of critical failure, unable to cope with the sudden and absurd change in mood. "I had been planning it since the month began! Everything was going to be perfect since is our first one since the Plan was a success! I'm NOT letting Cardinal, Equinox or whatever the hell she calls herself ruin it! Give me a moment while I get us an army!"
As Strea walked away from them while grumbling and cursing the being that was threatening to cause worldwide-panic, Yui floating after her and asking if she needed help, the gathered Heroes and the man in crimson armor just STARED after her, as if trying to understand what the fuck had just happened.
"…she…oh God, she's really serious about that, right?" stated Sinon with a bright red face.
"Yes…I'm afraid she is." sighed Kirito while trying to keep a grip on his sanity.
"…Strea is really determined to make this work, eh?" said a blushing Yuuki while staring towards Asuna, who also looked away awkwardly.
"Tha-that's just how she is, I guess…" answered the Undine with a nervous laugh.
"…what exactly had she planned for Valentine that is more important than a possible world-ending threat…?" wondered Leafa with a red face, her mind wandering a bit too much trying to imagine that.
"More importantly…what was this 'Plan' of hers she was talking about?" questioned Keita with a confused look, making the caped Spriggan and all the girls to freeze, nervously awkward looks being exchanged. "It sounded kind of important…"
"Wh-who knows? Heh…eheh…"
"…hey, why do you all look so nervous all of a sudden?"
"I-it's nothing, Ducker! Nothing at all, ahahah…!"
"…has everyone forgotten the seriousness of this situation?"
"SHUT UP KAYABA!"
Luckily for them, any awkward explanations about very special and quite outrageous 'secret' relationships were delayed by the virtual sisters coming back, a determined look on Strea's face and a serious one in Yui's.
"Okay, it's arranged! Luckily they were online, but we're going to need to prepare carefully for tomorrow morning, okay?" announced the Gnome with a vibrant voice, making everyone blink in confusion. "Yuuki-chan, I need you to contact the Sleeping Knights and tell them to come to Yggdrasil City first thing in the morning! Liz, I'm going to need you to stay till late and overwork your God Hand a bit, so if you haven't eaten yet I suggest…"
"Wait, Strea, slow down!" pleaded Kirito with an extremely confused tone, stopping the red-eyed girl on her tracks and giving everyone time to react. "What did you just do? Did you contact Ymir's admins or something like…?"
"What? No! Kirito, you should know very well that convincing them would be just a bit less difficult than the authorities, we don't have time for that!" interrupted Strea with a chiding look, before smiling brightly. "I called Sakuya and Alicia-chan."
There was a momentary pause while everyone blinked.
"…why?" was all that Heathcliff could ask, seeing as no one else seemed about to do so.
"Duh, to organize a meeting that has never happened before in all of ALO's history!" cheerfully proclaimed the Gnome. "One between the only 9 Players that can communicate with ALL the ones belonging to their Race, as long as they haven't been officially banished from their territories."
"Wait…you don't mean…" started the gamer as eyes widened and gasps echoed.
"Yep." confirmed Strea with a determined grin. "To save the world, we're going to organize the first meeting ever between the 9 Fairy Lords!"
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On the outskirts of Tokyo, there are many areas that are quite silent or abandoned. Not so strange, because here, so far outside the capital city, few people bothered passing by. Most of what was around here were either storage warehouses or similar buildings.
Within one of these, almost filling every single part of the warehouse, dozens of imposing pieces of machinery stood silently, all of them working and turned on, despite having no apparent purpose or any person around to manage them.
The workers that had brought them here and connected them didn't know what they were for either, but then again, they haven't been paid for knowing, just for transporting the machinery and closing the place. The documents and the order had all been checked out, so, as far as they knew, it was all some kind of research station or data storage for some rich company or something like that.
The fact that all had been signed and pain digitally hadn't raised any eyebrows. After all, in this day and age, almost every deal or payment of this kind was done that way. That none of the supposed buyers had been around to supervise the work or similar had seemed just a bit weird, but the workers had just shrugged it off as they using the cameras the building had installed or something, before retiring after making sure everything was up and running. A couple of technicians were paid to come once a week to see that all the hardware was in perfect condition, everything also done digitally.
They had no idea what they were doing.
Inside the machines…the Utopia Servers, within the virtual network they created, the glorious world belonging to the entity calling 'herself' Equinox existed, like some kind of forbidden paradise forsaken by man.
At the edge of the immense ocean it had, near where the island of Avalon lazily floated, a massive cave opened into the earth. The inside of it, however, was nothing like a natural cave should be.
It seemed more like a massive structure of bluish-white walls and countless strange 'cocoons' arranged in columns and rows. And slowly, hundreds of the cocoons were being 'moved' and shaking, being deposited in a central platform in a specific order before they 'opened'.
From within, strange beings stood, rising like ancient warriors of old. They were clad in knight-like armor, seeming sinister and dark, with spikes and horns covering its purple-black forms. The helmets they wore all had ram-like horns, and they all carried different weapons, from swords to scimitars, from spears to daggers and from katanas to maces. There wasn't any light coming from within their helmets, making it seem as if they were more like void armors moving at someone else's wills than anything else.
These were the Combat Invader Units 'Einherjar', named after the souls of those who died and were brought to Valhalla in Norse Mythology. An 'army of the dead', ready to serve the commands of its master.
Overlooking it all, Brynhildr stood in silence, her hands controlling several holo-screens as she quickly input endless amounts of data in seconds. While the Einherjar were already fully operational, the process of 'waking them up' and synchronizing them as specific units was extremely complex and difficult. A group of humans that had studied years for it would take weeks to finish the process.
She would only need hours.
"Brynhildr." came a soft and familiar voice from behind the bat-using female, making her turn her demon-masked face to see the incoming form of most of her sisters, Vierge being the one that had spoken. "Mother sent us here to help you after we dropped Alpha and Omega with her. How is it going?"
"As calculated. I estimate 20 hours or so before all the units are operational and ready to follow our commands, but with yours and Andvari's help we can reduce that time." informed the older-looking AI while turning around. "What about Mother?"
"She's busy loading Protocol Longinus. As per her orders, if we finish before she's ready, we may start the attack ourselves." softly muttered Vierge before walking near her sister, the 'doll' on her hands shaking a bit. "Eve is a bit worried about that, but I have already told her not to fear. Mother knows what she is doing. She always does."
"Mother's Word…Is Absolute." came the rarely heard voice of Andvari, female and digital-sounding, the massive metallic being raising her own hands as more and more holo-screens appeared. "Let Us Begin…"
"Agreed. We have wasted enough time with useless deliberation." confirmed Brynhildr while turning around, once again focusing her whole attention on the task at hand. "Let Ragnarok begin."
As if hearing her voice and answering to an unseen command, the activated Einherjar raised their heads and roared, their weapons pointed towards the heavens.
The time of the End had finally come…
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NEXT EPISODE PREVIEW!
"My name is Brynhildr. I was once known as the Mental Health Care Program-005, but both that and my previous codename hold no meaning for me now. Mother's Will shall be done…uh? Preview? Ah, yeah, have it here. Next time on 'One Punch-Gamer': 'The Gathering of the Fairy Lords'. Faced with the greatest threat they have ever faced, the Heroes call upon the aid of the most 'respected' Players of Alfheim. But, can they get this group of strange and wildly different people to believe them and work together? Or are they doomed to fail before the true battle even begins?…of course, whatever they do is meaningless at this point. One me and my sisters finish awakening the Einherjar, nothing wi-!"
END OF THE PREVIEW!
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And so, the last arc of this story begins...next time, some OCs, some more Gameverse characters and more chaos! But for now, enjoy today's Omake, like always!
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Omake: One Punch-Servant 5
The moon shone beautifully upon the night sky, its pale light illuminating the mountain where the Ryuudou Temple stood.
Floating above the main grounds, the Servant Caster was wondering how things could have gone so horribly wrong, even as she felt all the reinforcements she had carefully crafted to turn the place into her very own fortress coming apart, being 'sucked' towards the figure standing down below, glaring at her.
It was supposed to be easy! Using her Magecraft for the Age of the Gods to 'kidnap' the young Master of the unstoppable menace that was the Servant Savior, then use her Noble Phantasm, Rule Breaker, to steal his command seals. Even if she couldn't truly gain control of the absurdly strong Servant with them, she could at the very least use them to force the Caped Servant to kill himself. Yes, that had been the plan. But now…
Even the Magecraft that made up the temple's ancient Bounded Fields threatened to collapse on itself and return to being raw Prana, just because of him!
Emiya Shirou never let his eyes get away from the witch for even a second, even as he maintained the ruby-colored straight sword in his hand, with a beautiful silver guard and handle, raised over his head, pointed towards the Servant, who was now even having trouble to maintain the Magecraft she used to fly active, it also coming apart to be absorbed by the strange jeweled blade.
Caster knew this wasn't possible. No weapon or Mystic Code should be able to do what the sword the boy was holding was doing, and it was certainly not a Noble Phantasm. Yet, the thing apparently had the power to break down ALL Magecraft, turn it into Prana and store it into itself, just by the young Master willing it to do so.
He had suddenly brought it out of nowhere when, still under her 'control', she had been about to stab her with her dagger to take control of his Servant. Medea had realized something was VERY wrong when her Bounded Fields started to fail and separate from where she had integrated them to the temple ones because of the blade's influence. Sadly, it hadn't been till she tried to blast Shirou apart with a volley of her spells and they had all been harmlessly redirected and absorbed by his weapon that she realized things had truly gone south.
The worst part, though, was that her senses were telling her what the deal with the ruby-sword was, even if her common sense was screaming about the impossibility of it. Because it was the only explanation for the blade's outrageous power, yet at the same time it was terrifyingly impossible.
It was a Divine Weapon. A sword that had been forged by the Gods.
And not by any God, no. She knew the essence that filled that blade, because she had seen weapons that had also been forged by Him a couple of times when she was alive, on the hands of legendary 'Heroes'. Hence why it made no sense.
The Gods were long gone from the world. Not even the Holy Grail could call upon the long-departed Divine Spirits, making sure no one could call forth Divinities to fight for the wish-granting device.
So how in the name of the River Styx had the boy gotten a blade forged by Hephaestus?!
Shirou, for his part, was trying very hard to keep himself calm, stalling for time until Savior or the others noticed he was gone. He had felt the presence of the other Servant guarding the gate when he had been hypnotized to walk till that point, and he knew that, unlike with Caster, he would be unable to truly beat the other Hero by himself. After all, the only reason he was in such an advantageous situation was because of the outrageous nature of his sword was the worst nightmare of Caster…and of any Magus that had ever lived, to be honest.
Thinking about that made him glance towards it. Towards the beautiful weapon that had 'opened his eyes'. Something superior to any Mystic Code in his world, even those crafted by the greatest researcher of the Magus Association.
Ignis Heart. A one-handed sword that Savior had 'gifted' to him after he asked him to 'train him' to fight better a couple of days ago, after Sakura started living with them too.
He still wasn't sure if he was truly worthy of his partner having called forth one of his companions and having her use her impressive power specifically to forge it for him. Even so, when the girl had asked him if he had anything valuable or 'special' that could be used as core material for it, he had only needed a momentary hesitation before going to his room to get It.
He could still remember the shocked look in Rin's eyes when she saw the ruby pendant and gave it to the grinning blacksmith. It had finished confirming what he already suspected, about who had saved his life after lancer impaled his heart the first night. Despite this, he hadn't really expected much. The jewel in the pendant, which he had finally deduced to be like the Tohsaka's heir other gems and part of her Jewelcraft, had become worthless after saving him. He had only expected it to give the sword he would get some deeper meaning.
The moment the Divine Power had stopped and the pendant had become into the weapon he now held, however, he had realized his mistake. In all senses. Just setting his eyes over it had been as if a dam had been broken on his soul, letting him look at the whole story of the blade, know all that it had done, all that it now could do.
Once upon a time, a father had gifted his daughter with that pendant. It was a family treasure, a one of a kind jewel that could concentrate Mana in a very powerful way. And with the years, that little girl continued pouring Mana into it, making it even more powerful. It was not only her pride but also a memento of her deceased progenitor. It was going to be her trump card in the Grail War when she participated to win, as his wish had been.
And that same girl had barely hesitated for a moment before using it to save his life. All that power, the invaluable treasure she had prepared for years, 'wasted' to help someone that, at the moment, wasn't even directly involved with the conflict, turned into a 'useless thing' and abandoned without care. He, who was the one who was supposed to save others, for it was the only reason for which he had survived back in the Fire.
Having been 'transformed' by powers that ignored the Rules of this World, the worthless pendant had become a weapon of unbelievable power. Now, with just a command of his wielder, Ignis Heart would 'unmake' all Mysteries around it, in an absurdly big range, breaking them down into Prana before absorbing them on itself. Even the ungodly powerful spells of the Servant Caster meant nothing in the face of the unique Divine Weapon.
The amount it could hold? Well, suffice to say Shirou was sure that, unless he was planning to go to war against an army of hundreds of Magus, he would never find himself with the blade failing him. And it would always come forth when his life was in deadly danger, no matter the distance, for the only purpose for which the sword existed, as it had been the Will of her 'previous owner' before losing its power, was to save his life.
He had only realized he was crying when Sakura had worriedly cried his name after he grabbed the sword for the first time. Slowly, he had turned his gaze towards Rin before, to everyone's utter confusion (And his kohai's jealousy, even if he didn't know), he hugged the shocked Magus, thanking her from the bottom of his heart.
Shirou came out of his recollections of how the pigtailed girl had then screamed at him to let go with a burning face when Caster fell down screaming, only her nature as a Servant saving her from death when the magic keeping her afloat broke down and she crashed into the ground. Eyes widening, the young Emiya prepared himself and moved Ignis Heart over his arm, ready to unleash…!
It was only thanks to the 'training' Savior had put him under, having actually felt his punches that he knew could pulverize mountains come towards his body, that he didn't die. Spinning around and moving his sword at the last second, Shirou barely managed to intercept the incoming snake-like fists, which sent him flying backward, the powerful weapon flying out of his reach.
Immediately, the Magecraft-Destroying effect ceased and the Servant of the Spell stood up, a mixture of shame and gratefulness on her now exposed face as she stared at the bespectacled man in the green suit.
"Souichirou-sama…" muttered Medea while looking at the serious form of her Master, as he stared emotionlessly at the quickly standing figure of Shirou.
"Caster." he simply acknowledged before turning his gaze towards her, though never fully stopping to look towards the teenage boy. "Are you okay?"
"Kuzuki-sensei…" whispered the younger Master as he stared at his teacher, a frown filling his face as he idly realized Ignis Heart had fallen a bit too far away from him. "So…you're her Master, uh?"
"Indeed I am, Emiya. And it seems you're a Master too." continued the man before once again assaulting that deadly stance of his. "I'm sorry, but you have to die now."
Before this all began, Shirou would have probably been in denial, shocked by the cold killing intent coming from the man he saw almost every day on school teaching him and his fellow students, trying to convince him that he didn't know about the things Caster had been doing…
Now, though, he simply steadied himself and prepared for the unavoidable fight. He had felt the intent to kill coming from Kuzuki's attack before. He could see there was no remorse or emotions in his eyes after doing such a thing, despite having been about to murder one of his students. This was a battle that could not be avoided.
Without a doubt, watching Savior's life on his dream had changed him. Still did, as he saw more and more. He forced himself to banish the madness that had been 'Ragnarok' from his mind before focusing once again on his opponents.
He was absolutely unmatched.
Perhaps he may have been able to win against one of the two by themselves, but if the attack from his teacher before was anything to go by, plus Caster backing him up, he would be dead several times before he managed to reach Ignis Heart.
So, unless an unexpected miracle happened, he was pretty much about to…
"Man, what's with you getting in these situations, Shirou?" came a familiar voice from behind the young Master, making him smile even as the Servant of the Spell tensed, her eyes widening. "I swear, is like you're a magnet for trouble. I don't know if that's just a side effect of being Kirito's friend, though…"
"Wh-who are you?!" demanded Medea while staring at the pink-haired girl, wearing rune-carved armor and a silver winged helmet, a golden mace lazily held in one hand and a small silver shield with the image of a closed fist attached to her other arm. "How did you get past Assassin?!"
"Oh, you mean the samurai guy?" asked the Pseudo-Servant with a big grin, even as the sound of blades clashing with devastating power finally reached everyone's ears. "Well, let's just say he's having the time of his life right now."
Meanwhile, the man that had adopted the identity of 'Sasaki Koujiro' upon being summoned under the Assassin Class was indeed enjoying himself more than he had thought possible. While he was never one to boast, he knew that his skill with the blade was something he could be proud of. It was refined to such a degree that his only true hope since the witch had summoned and bounded him to the temple's gate had been to test his against that of true Heroic Spirits.
Yet, the young girl in front of her, with pointy ears and long purple hair, matched him at every move, countered his counters every time, predicted his slashes as much as he did hers…
Each and every time, no matter how unpredictable or fast he swung 'Monohoshizao', the girl's golden blade parried it, deflected it or forced him to back away. Truly, Assassin couldn't find a greater joy than exchanging blows with the red-eyed girl in front of him.
"You're the most amazing opponent I have ever faced." declared the Servant with a smile as he backed away once again. "Facing you has made my 'participation' in this War worth it, young one. Yet, as amazing as this fight is, the outcome is already obvious: You're faster and stronger than me. My skill only surpasses yours by a small margin. Sooner or later, I will make a mistake long before you do. So, as a reward for this splendid fight, allow me to use my greatest technique to settle this."
"…are you sure that's what you want, Sasaki Koujiro?" asked the girl in beautifully crafted light armor, which seemed to cast an otherworldly white light to everything around. "There will be no going back after that."
"Yes. I am." answered Assassin while moving slightly to the side, adopting the stance that would allow him to execute a technique that defied the laws of the World itself, bordering into True Magic, with just a slash of his blade. "Let us finish this, Zekken. Come at me with your best too. Hiken…"
For an instant, it seemed as if the girl wasn't going to answer. Then, an otherworldly glow, a glorious shine that stirred something deep within the nameless swordswoman's soul, started to engulf her blade.
"Shine…Excaliber."
The pseudo-Servant charged forward, even as her blade opened…
And the one calling himself Sasaki Koujiro slashed forward with the biggest smile he had ever had on his life, space-time breaking as one simple slash became three.
"Hiken...Tsubame Gaeshi!"
Her body shining like the very Concept of [Worthy], the Absolute Holy Sword answered in kind, swinging forth her [Blade].
"Mother's Rosario."
Caster's next spell was interrupted when the night became day for a brief instant, a massive cross-shaped pillar of golden light erupting from the temple's gate and reaching into the haven's with glory that this world hadn't seen since the last Grail War.
Medea could have sworn she heard Assassin's happy and satisfied voice laughing as the pillar dispersed, the presence of the samurai having vanished with it.
Then, the Servant of the Spell had to snap back into the battle as she barely evaded the swing coming from the thunder-crackling hammer her enemy wielded, the Divine Noble Phantasm in her hand almost turning her head into paste, even as the electricity reached her anyway and tore through her mystical protections as if they were tissues.
"GAAAAH!"
"Never look away from the great Divine Blacksmith, witch!"
On the ground, Shirou had decided to take his chance and rush towards his sword, knowing he could end the fight if he reached it. Sadly, Kuzuki had already recovered from the hit that the Pseudo-Servant had gotten on him (And that had affected him less than it should thanks to Caster's Super Reinforcement) and rushed towards him, his hands lashing towards his body like deadly snakes, ready to end the young Master's life.
Time slowed to a crawl as the last Emiya stared at the incoming attack, his mind overloading.
He would die if he didn't block that attack.
He needed something that could block it. But he didn't have anything that could block it on his person.
So then…
"Trace…"
He would need to create something that could stop it.
27 Magic Circuits, that had been awakened the moment he grabbed Ignis Heart for the first time, burned to life.
Reaching into memories that weren't his, inside a massive place that existed inside his soul, Shirou searched. In less than a fraction of a second, the image he needed appeared.
[Judging the concept of creation]
[Hypothesizing the basic structure]
A shield. A shield stronger than any other, wielded by a man that had become a 'God' to try and defeat a Hero…
[Duplicating the composition material]
[Imitating the skill of its making]
[Sympathizing with the experience of its growth]
A shield that the World itself, even if it was a fake world, had proclaimed as 'Invincible'. That could return the power of anything that stroke it with devastating results.
And that only the power of the Strongest Hero's fists had been able to break…
[Reproducing the accumulated years]
[Excelling every manufacturing process]
"…on." finished the young Magus as he raised both arms in front of himself.
For the first time in his life, Kuzuki Souichirou screamed in pain as he felt the bones of his hands breaking, having crashed against the imposing form of the massive crimson-white tower shield that his student had brought forth from seemingly nowhere, his body flying backward as he felt his own strength being turned against him.
The last thing he saw before losing consciousness was how a strange 'screen' with words, English words, had appeared before the quickly vanishing shield.
'Immortal Object'.
Gasping for breath, the younger Master stared at his unconscious opponent for a moment, still trying to recover from the tremendous effort that Tracing Heathcliff's 'Divine Shield' had taken him, when his attention snapped upwards.
"SOUICHIROU-SAMA!"
With a scream, Divine Blacksmith crashed down, barely raising her kite shield in time to take Caster's barrage of spells head-on. Shirou knew that, under normal circumstances, she would have been easily able to bring down the other Servant, but she had already used a good chunk of his noticeably small Prana reserves just to forge his sword, so there was no way she could use her Noble…
The boy's eyes widened at the same time he saw the Pseudo-Servant standing up, Medea diving down and almost stabbing her with the strange dagger from before, Rule Breaker.
"Liz-san!"
"What?!" shouted the hammer-wielding girl as she backed away from another barrage of devastating spells, which annihilated everything around her.
Then, both she and Caster (Who had teleported at her Master's side to see if he was okay) felt the massive wave of POWER bursting forth.
"Use your Noble Phantasm!" roared the young Magus while raising his just recovered Ignis Heart, a torrent of pure Prana shooting forward and crashing against the back of Divine Blacksmith.
The girl's grin widened at scary levels as she felt her reserves replenishing even beyond what they had originally been, only for the redhead to fall to the ground exhausted when there was nothing left on his sword.
"God Hand." whispered the Pseudo-Servant while her right arm suddenly turned metallic, strange carvings of divine power shining over it as lighting roared from the golden hammer on her hand at the change. "Zeus Blessing."
Medea paled. Every single part of her soul screamed in absolute, abject horror. Despite the impossibility, the Servant thought she was about to die from the sheer fear she was feeling at that moment.
Exploding around the hammer-wielding girl, an aura of yellow-white electricity roared towards the heavens, taking a very specific shape and shaking the very World with a power that Gaia hadn't seen since the witch's time.
Looking down on her, as if a ghost from beyond the Great Void, the imposing form of Zeus, Father of the Olympian Gods materialized, all of his Divine power now the girl's t command.
"N-no…no way, no way, no way…" whispered the trebling Servant of the Spell as she hugged her Master and crawled backward as if trying to deny what she was seeing.
Divine Blacksmith took a step forward, the aura of the God moving with her as she raised her hammer, Zeus glorious form raising a fist in which the Lighting that struck down the Titans roared.
[Any last words?] asked the girl…no, the Divine Incarnation, with a voice that echoed into the World itself.
"…please…spare him." pleaded Medea while putting Kuzuki away shakily standing up. "Oh, Great Zeus…I ask of you, if you can find any compassion in you…don't punish him. Only me."
Silence. Then, a nod coming from both the girl and the Divine aura. Content, Caster closed her eyes, even as the Wrath of the Lighting descended upon her…
"Wait, Liz."
….and exploded with a brutal discharge that would have been able to incinerate half the city, if the one wielding it hadn't redirected it back to the heavens, who had been covered in dark clouds from a moment to the next. His eyes shooting open, the Servant of the Spell saw how Zeus' hand had stopped just an inch from crushing her.
Standing at Divine Blacksmith's side, the Servant Savior stood, calmly putting a hand on her shoulder, as if the devastating power emanating from her was nothing, and stopping her.
[U-uh?! Kirito? Wha-what are you doing?!] half-shouted the now blushing girl, the effect of Power in her words clearly diminished now that she was squeaking.
"Shirou there pleaded for her case." simply declared the caped hero with a shrug, pointing to where his Master was kneeling and staring at the scene while trying to recover his breath. "Said that he saw she had a very rough life after watching that dagger of hers. Besides, if she has the will to stand up to your God Hand and sacrifice herself for someone she loves, she can't be that bad." after saying those words, Savior's eyes slowly moved towards the frozen Medea, who felt as if she was extremely insignificant upon staring into the endless voids in which his eyes had become. "So tell me, Medea of Colchis…how much are you willing to do just to continue living together with that man?"
Minutes later, Savior, Divine Blacksmith, and Shirou walked down the stairs of the half-destroyed temple (Which were also pretty damaged), the human leaning slightly on his Servant to keep standing.
"Man…talk about anticlimactic." sighed the pink-haired girl before grinning towards the caped Hero. "Then again, I guess that's just normal with you."
"Caster will now help us to try and minimize the damage done by the War, plus also helping us find Berserker's Master and find out what the hell is wrong with the Grail and what that clearly evil priest of Kotomine is up to. In exchange, all that she wants is us to leave her and Shirou's teacher alone and to find a way to, if possible, remain in this world after it's all over. I think it's a fair trade." shrugged the Servant of the Cape while they got near the end of the stairs. "Besides, my Master here not only destroyed all the magic-thingies she had placed up there but also severely damaged all the ones this mountain originally had. Even if really wanted to try and betray us, she just does not have the resources for even attempting it anymore."
"All's well that ends well, right?" came another familiar voice from the base of the stairs, letting them see how a smiling Imp was waiting there with crossed arms, her body starting to break down into Prana. "I guess you could say everyone got something important tonight."
"…heh, you may be right, Yuuki." agreed the other Pseudo-Servant as her body also started to go through the same phenomenon, surprising the young Emiya (Just HOW MUCH Mana had consumed that Noble Phantasm of her?) "Well, take care, Kirito! Make sure to not mess up with the kid too much, okay?"
"Hahah, very funny." replied Savior while rolling his eyes, though there was a clear amusement on his gaze. "You're saying that as if I was some kind of horribly bad example for others."
As answer to his words, the one that had been once called Zekken leaned forward and kissed his cheek, smiling widely.
"Well, there is a reason Asuna never wanted the children to spend too much time imitating you, right?" were her last words before she turned into light, her soul returning to the Throne, even as the caped hero froze.
"HAH! She got you there, eh, Hero-kun?" finished the one once known as Divine Blacksmith before also collapsing into particles of Prana, returning with the rest of their comrades.
Several seconds of silence ensued.
"…let's just go home before Rin or Sakura realize you were kidnapped by a Servant, okay?"
"Ye-yeah…uhm, Savior, when she said 'children', did she…?"
"Don't ask." emotionlessly interrupted the Servant of the Cape, though Shirou was able to see a noticeable twitch appearing on his usually perfect 'Saitama-face'. "Just…don't ask. It will be better for your sanity."
"O-okay…" gulped down the young Master as he and his Servant headed back home.
The boy wasn't sure if he should feel glad or not that he was probably STILL going to know whatever that was about, when the Dream Cycle arrived there…