Mostly Dead Means Slightly Alive [YGO/SAO FI ft Nihilo]

[Nihilo]

Season 0 huh, does that mean Penalty Games?

Click to shrink...

Ayup. These are weird wizard battles with horrific consequences rather than any sort of by-the-book card games.

 

[Spectral Waltz]

Season 0 huh, does that mean Penalty Games?

Click to shrink...

The entirety of SAO is being treated as one giant Shadow Game for the main focus, but given its breadth and reach, there will be -quite literally- games within games to be had. Not to mention the knock on effects of having so many players and pieces to test the edges of rules both mystical and coded.

The indomitable human spirit can -at times- be an ugly, stubborn, and violent thing.

 

[Spectral Waltz]

Disentangling herself from the mess of players became easier once they were distracted fooling around with their Duel Monsters. A few stopped Helewise to ask in general terms where she'd found the NPC, but they still seemed either reluctant to move away from the main gate or disinterested in specifically acquiring undead, so none of them tried to follow her, at least at first.

The streets beyond the gate were sparsely crowded, filled with a nervous energy. Some players seemed to have barricaded themselves in inn rooms to get away from the chaos but several were just milling around, wandering from shopkeep to shopkeep, interactable to interactable, as though by searching enough some hidden escape might reveal itself. Shouts or screams occasionally drifted from the distance, peaking over the white noise of a crowd and making the assembled players twitch a few steps further away from them.

People gave Helewise and the Regenerating Mummy a wide berth. Some outright turned to flee, but most realized after a few moments that she wasn't chasing or attacking anyone and did the tried and true human tactic of 'pretend I saw nothing and move right on'. Yet after a few minutes walking a cloaked form became apparent, weaving its way through the crowds at first, then slipping out of them, into the bubble of open space around Helewise, trotting towards her. Beneath the slightly frayed edge of the hood dark eyes gleamed with a faint hint of green, the toothy smile adding mischief. "Kii-bou said you stood out, don't think I really appreciated just how much. You're 'Helewise' then?"

"Ayup. I'm guessing you're the Argo that Kirito mentioned?" Helewise asked with a smile of her own, minding her teeth but still giving a hint of them. She had a gut feeling this lady would appreciate 'em.

"That I am, guidebook maker and gal in the know~" Her words lilted playfully, but her eyes shifted a little too quickly to the mummy still shambling along next to Helewise. "An' I can see why they wanted us to talk. That's a monster from a card?"

"That he is, a Regenerating Mummy who does exactly what it says on the tin. Hell of a help out in the field." The draconic woman said with a bob of her horned head, blackened fingers idly scratching at a splotchy patch of scales on her neck. Really, she looked like a grilled vegetable, with all the 'charred' spots on her. "Walk and talk?"

"Sure." Argo gave Helewise a moment to start moving again and settled in alongside her, "so what can ya tell me? I've already heard of cards being handed out by some tucked-away NPCs here and there, maybe a questline or two? Let's start from the start."
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To say Argo was thorough would be a gross understatement. Any requirements she noticed for the quest, possible keywords in dialogue, specific capabilities of Helewise' undead companion all taken note of, the girl having pulled her menu open to type rapidly while they spoke, eyes flicking to the little pane of text and holographic keyboard beneath it every few seconds.

The quest didn't have a direct map marker, but it did have a little 'search this area' circle on the map, and so it wasn't too hard to find a familiar alleyway and stack of boxes again.

"Yanno, for an undead lair, I expected this to be a little spookier." Argo commented as they emerged from the narrow passage into the waterway, even without the sun leaking down as it had been during the day, the area still bore a certain serenity, illuminated by a blue-green glow from the patches of moss scattered about the area. The scratching shuffling of bones on stone answered her and she jumped a little, whirling around and taking an involuntary step back at the sight of the Skull Servant, his hood down this time leaving his titular bones on display as he approached.

"Hello. I wasn't expecting to walk the path of the decayed and forgotten like this, but if nothing else, it has done wonders for my understanding." Helewise said with a wan smile, feeling the purple flames ensconced in her chest thrum through her body as she thought back to her 'death' of sorts and subsequent 'undeath', the places where pallid skin met blackened scale smoldering in violet hues like paper pressed to cinders. Yes, she understood what would drive someone to claw out of their grave and get back to their feet, damage and natural laws be damned.

"Swordmaster, Aspirant, your understanding has indeed expanded." Argo managed not to take another step back at the scratching voice but she still shivered visibly, The words shaped without tongue or vocal cords accompanied by the eerie half-whistle of air scraping against bones. "And you bring another with you, much as you once were."

Argo outright froze and the skeletal attendant leaned towards her, hollow eyes sockets still managing the impression of deliberate regard. "Will you too seek to walk our path?"

"How did it do that?" She hissed to Helewise after a moment while the Skull Servant waited patiently. "NPCs don't usually acknowledge other players when you get them into a quest dialogue like that. Not unless they've been deliberately coded for it anyways."

"If she does, I don't think it will be tonight. Although I can see her coming back, she's a curious one and dead men do tell tales no one else remembers." Helewise replied even as she shot Argo a quick wink that hopefully conveyed 'trust me and roll with it' well enough, "For now, though, it is perhaps best to simply consider her a witness."

Again, she may look and sound a bit silly 'LARPing' with the 'NPCs', but if there was the slightest sliver of a chance these weren't just little software props? She'd gladly take the hit to her dignity over causing offense to beings who she was trusting her back to.

"I see…" The rattling voice was soft, "but that is not your decision to make, Aspirant."

Helewise dipped her horned head in silent acknowledgement, taking a step back to let poor Argo take the hot seat.

Argo looked thoroughly weirded out again but straightened to attention, "what she said, I don't think your path is the one I want to follow unless you can follow more than one? I'm not exactly uninterested if ya catch my drift, just don't think 'decayed and forgotten' is for me."

"Not every path conflicts with every other, but some will inevitably close off others, especially now." The Skull Servant explained.

"Especially now?" Argo's eyes narrowed sharply, but the Skull Servant made no move to answer her, watching her with the infinite patience of the dead before finally speaking one more time.

"You would appreciate the tombkeepers, and they would not permit you initiation if you followed our path. Seek them out, though their presence on this floor may be but a scant thing, they can surely be found in the floors above." Argo's eyes widened, and she pulled her little notes window open again, hands a blur as she typed while the Skull Servant's attention shifted back to Helewise. "As for you, Aspirant, you are ready to be initiated, all that remains is your choice of a path forward."

A bony hand extended, three cards popping into existence one after another.

"Ancestral Spirits", an image of a translucent figure dressed in stylized Samurai outfit, a sword hovering before them looking more solid than the rest, the whole of it lined in blue-tinged flames.

"Nightwalkers and their kin", a pale woman in a broad-brimmed hat, a staff clutched in clawed fingers, backed by a crimson moon.

"Or the restless ones, unearthed by our newfound flight", the last card looked quite similar to the skeleton himself, a 'Skull Servant' all bones wrapped in a dark purple robe.

"Which path speaks to you, Aspirant?"

"...The Nightwalkers are a hungry lot, yes? They wouldn't content themselves with the wildlife, would they? And allowing them to feed on myself would be a slippery slope." Helewise muttered more to herself than anyone else, the promise of magic and delicious, delicious lifesteal extremely tempting but the potential drawbacks keeping her taloned fingers from making contact with the card. The Skull regarding her tilted his cranium slightly, but said nothing to confirm or deny her musings, letting her make her choice as she pleased. "As for letting them feed on others… no."

That last thought not only firmed up her resolve, but it made something in the corpsefire creeping over her perk up, an instinct deeper than a simple gut feeling making her blackened hand gravitate towards the ghost card. A haunted sword, but the look on that spirit's eyes...

"You are a monster hunter, aren't you? Not were, but are, present tense. Didn't let death stop you." She whispered, completely entranced as she felt something flare in the burning recesses of her ribcage. It was not recognition, not quite, it was… kinship. That bone deep understanding when you just know the moment you really look at someone.

Helewise took a shuddering breath, forcefully grounding herself, turning to the Skull Servant and bending at the waist, "I am grateful for your help thus far and I would be delighted to take your fellow restless Skulls under my banner, but here and now, the path that truly speaks to me is this."

"Truth of thine own, you and they should venture far together." When Helewise straightened up it was with the spectral Samurai's card clutched in her warped fingers. And if the Skull Servant had any objection to their 'kin' going unchosen, they gave no sign of it. If anything, there might perhaps have been a faint note of approval in that dry voice. "You will not find much else of the Ancestral Spirits here, but should you wish to deepen your understanding… Their order often favored mountains. If anything of theirs survived the Great Separation, you will likely find it among the peaks."

It felt good to have a heading beyond 'get a bath, get a meal, get a bed, get armor, go stab problems'.

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[Winged One]

I bet Pegasus will have a fun surprise when someone pulls up with cards he hasn't actually released yet.

 

[lurkingkraken]

Argo would probably appreciate that the tomb keepers kept the knowledge of the past, though probably wouldn't like that they are keeping it for the Pharaoh.
But there is a card that would be even better for her, but it's FIEND not ZOMBIE: News Reporter/Muckraker from the Underworld.

 

[bambache]

As fast as the stats will eventually let players travel, I guess there is no need for "card games on motorcycles" to initiate Synchro Summoning?

 

[Winged One]

Argo would probably appreciate that the tomb keepers kept the knowledge of the past, though probably wouldn't like that they are keeping it for the Pharaoh.

Click to shrink...

Funny idea: they hear Yugi endorse her public discloure policies and she never finds out why they're so supportive until way later.

 

[Spectral Waltz]

Argo watched her hands fly over the hovering keyboard with an unexpected detachment, her mind whirling with the mingling implications the last few minutes had left behind. Not the summoning or the particulars of the quest, she'd need more data to confirm some of them in any case (were three cards always offered? Was the goal always set at twenty five 'duels'?) but rather, the shift in the NPC. Lifelike in a way most of them simply weren't, and wasn't that an irony when she was talking about a literal skeleton?

Shifting focus, smoothly interrupting one line of questioning with another, then returning to it without so much as a hiccup, SAO's NPCs could be quite lifelike when you let them stick to their scripts and with the way Helewise seemed to slip into the roleplay of it certainly would have made it easy on the AI, but unless this script had some specific interactions for…

Argo took a breath, her fingers slowing on the holographic keys while she watched Helewise claim her new card. Some kind of sword ghost? For a moment she wished she could just open a browser to check the card database before she shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts a little. It wasn't impossible that alternate scripts or dialogue trees might exist to accommodate the presence of additional players, SAO AI were reasonably flexible, but the way the Skull Servant's attention had shifted wholly to her would have needed a whole second branch, and if there was a branch for two players would they then design a branch for three? For four?

More importantly, would they write such potential complexities for every quest NPC? Even if SAO's gamemaster AI Cardinal was an order of magnitude more powerful than anyone expected, that was a tall ask to spread across a hundred floors. To account for every possible state-based flag as well, Argo's eyes drifted to Helewise' horns and tail, the way she almost looked like some sort of partial undead herself, the scales that ran over her corpse-pale skin in blackened patches like burn scars. Was that all cosmetic or–? Actually… Argo straightened as the woman in question turned towards her, the Skull Servant beginning its slow shuffle back into the shadows, its eyes—or eye sockets at the very least—lingering on them as it removed itself from the light cast by the glowing moss.

We should see if we can gather some of it, it might be an alchemical ingredient of some kind. Argo filed that mental note away and raised her eyes to Helewise. "Just a question for ya, though I gotta clarify an assumption I'm realizin' I've been making first, so maybe a few questions really… You didn't always look like that did you? The horns an' tail an' all that I mean, those options ain't normally available for character creation after all. The Alpha version sometimes hiccuped and generated an initial character with one or two traits players aren't supposed ta access, but what you've got is a bit too…"

Argo motioned vaguely up and down Helewise' body. "Yer a bit too thematically consistent, is what I'm sayin'. You understand?" She knew her accent was coming out stronger and stronger in her haste and bit the inside of her lip, trying to mentally walk her speech patterns back towards proper formality again.

"Aye." Helewise sighed wearily, but had that stubborn glint in her eye that told Argo she'd be answering every question even if it got real awkward or weird.

"And you said you got this quest before the whole…" Argo trailed off uncomfortably, trying to put a name to that scene in the plaza, two men announcing their fates, treating lightly things that should be heavier by far, too wrapped up in their own crap (and there was no question that both Akihiko Kayaba and Maximillion Pegasus had some crap going on). It still didn't feel real, like every time she opened the menu the Log Out button might just be there again, like it had all been some sort of horrible prank.

"Yeah. We'll want to sit down for this one, it's… a lot to take in." Helewise said with a small grimace, leading the way with that flaming chest and tail of hers brightening the surroundings just a tad.

Argo had seen faces change in the aftermath of that golden light, and she'd asked a few friends -such as she had at any rate- to confirm that most of them looked… Well, no one was saying 'my IRL face' directly but she'd never have made it to where she was without being able to read between the lines.

Kirito, little bundle of carefully-hidden neuroses that he was, was almost her strongest point against, because he'd been far too blatant in suggesting he'd been given his true face when she reached out, and that more than anything else told Argo it couldn't possibly be the whole truth. Boy's downright allergic to even the idea of openness.

So some peoples' faces, probably some peoples' bodies too, had changed when the old fucks did their thing. Argo raised a hand in a motion to continue only to pause, switching the gesture to a flat palm for 'stop', "one sec."

The moss was, in fact, an ingredient, though her lack of the [Alchemy] skill couldn't tell her what for. Argo turned back to Helewise satisfied, if unwilling to take more than one patch when they were all that provided light in the darkness of the passageway, even with a draconic nightlight to hand. "Sorry 'bout that, go on please? Your character design didn't look like this before…"

"My ongoing theory is that whatever 'reset to your true form' function they tried to run checked my brain through the headset… and promptly faceplanted into how my self-image is pretty much nonexistent. I'm the kind of weirdo who considers bodies basically like clothes, they're something on you and which dictate a bunch of what you can and can't do, but they aren't you." Helewise explained haltingly and just on the edge of a ramble before she forcefully reeled it in, "Either way, it must've made that function hiccup hard. So hard that I got booted into a glitched version of the chargen room with my previous avatar just… slumped there lifeless, and me as an amorphous blob. I got to make a new one to slide into and claw out of there, although I was… not in a good headspace. Scared the shit out of a bunch of players."

"Amorphous blob… You don't mean the hands and all that do you?" Older versions of character creation had just stuffed the player into a throwback to early VR experiments for character creation purposes, a literal set of floating hands and feet with a blank mask where the face ought to be. But 'amorphous blob' wasn't how she'd describe it.

"Nope. I looked like a souped up hitodama, just this floating and flowing mass of glowing purple and green goop." Helewise sighed, turning a virulent green eye towards Argo. Together with the purple fire everywhere… yeah, she could put two and two together. "Everything after that is kind of a blur, I was basically running on pure spite at how those two bastards had taken a big fat piss on the holy grail of gaming and escapism. Pretty sure I just extruded pseudopods at some point to smack things into shape and snag bits and bobs to tack on… ugh, I sound like a fucking loon, even with all the dragon bits as sorta proof I'm not talking nonsense."

"I mean, yer not wrong, but it's not like you've got any reason to lie." Not to mention 'clawing her way out of there' sounded a little disturbingly familiar to Argo, even if the many rumors about 'monsters spawning inside the city' had been distorted by the long game of telephone they took to reach her. "So, settin' aside any questions of truthfulness, did that guy back there treat'cha any different between now and then?"

"Hah, as good as I'll get, I suppose." She said with a rough chuckle, "But as for your question, yes, but I'm not sure how much is just quest completion and how much is… all this." The draconic woman said as she waved at herself, "On the initial meeting he was just a bit curious about me and talked about how I didn't have a pact, plus some of that stuff about walking a path. Called me a Swordmaster instead of an Aspirant, too. He was definitely a hell of a lot more responsive and chatty just now."

There was something else visibly eating at Helewise, with the way she almost kept talking but instead shut her mouth and shook her head, but honestly Argo already had a huge pile of info to sieve through and it wasn't like tracking down someone who was on fire 24/7 would be hard.

Especially as a friend request popped up in front of her face. Argo had been planning to send one herself in the near future in any case so she accepted, the hovering window zipping up into the menu as the little 'currently online' counter updated itself by one. "We'll get a better idea with time. I'll be putting as much of this information out to the players as I can so it probably won't take long to gather a control group."

She still wasn't sure what form the information distribution would take, but with most of the playerbase still in the city… Hm. Pamphlets perhaps? Printing and copying were both possible with generic crafting skills. Distribute them along the main roads and at the gates? It wasn't like she had digital boards to post her guides to any more, but heck, some people who'd tried to push the Alpha crafting skills had discovered the creation of whole in-game books among the myriad possibilities that would eventually become available.

Argo shook her head, too many spinning plates, irons in the fire, however one wanted to put it, she was busy and it looked like she'd only be getting busier. "I think that's all, unless you've got any more info for me? What're you planning after this anyways, back out to the fields?"

"Nah, I've lost my momentum by now. I'm just gonna zombie shuffle to an inn to get a meal, bath and bed and see if I can manage to get anything resembling rest." Helewise sighed tiredly, making her expectations on managing to get a single wink of sleep crystal clear, "Maybe see if I can help remind some of the more scared players that they don't have to go out to fight to contribute. Got a bunch of mats from [Butchering] and having something to keep busy with will do people wonders."

"Good luck with that, a lot of them are still just… Having a little break somewhere around the south end of the city." Argo hadn't been specifically tracking the mobs of people trying to handle their emotions, but she didn't like how close to the edge of the floor she knew some of those crowds had been getting. "Only problem with [Butchering] is that ya still need to kill mobs to skin them, and a lotta players are pretty understandably leery of potentially dying to a bad pull right now."

Her lips thinned and she tapped a knuckle against them in contemplation. "Really, we need to organize some kinda buddy system. One combat spec player and one with crafting skills, or maybe a few, depending on builds."

Helewise's nails—talons, really—rap tap tapped on one of her patches of scales, brow furrowed in thought, "Boards for posting info and team up would be a start, but what would really do numbers is some sort of job faire sort of deal. Set up a time and venue and get everyone vaguely interested to come on over and link up. Easier said than done, though, we can't exactly shoot an 'everyone' ping here."

"Crowds have a way of being self-propagating if ya make a big enough display, but the bigger they get the harder they are to keep on track." Argo grunted.

"I did end up kicking off a bit of one with some of the players waffling by the main gate, when they asked about Regenerating Mummy," Helewise nodded at the undead when she spoke its name, the shambler having stayed by their side and quiet the whole time to the point Argo had almost forgotten it was there. Almost. "And ended up with the lot of them whipping out cards and trying out summoning. Got two of 'em friended, I can send a message real quick and see where that gets us?"

…Yeah, that sounded about right. Assuming that hadn't turned into its own little riot so far. "Sure, message them and let's see what we can do."
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[Spectral Waltz]

['Helewise' said: Hey, how's it going over th…]

Sachi couldn't restrain a little twitch at the little message popup in the corner of her vision, a motion large enough that it drew the attention of the tall hooded woman standing next to her, cool gaze lingering briefly before returning to the crowd. The energy had relaxed slightly, the number of players in the broad plaza before the gateway having briefly shrunk as several of its members split off to search the area. Combing through nearby streets and alleyways in hopes of finding more hidden questgivers or cards within.

"Oh come on, we went to the same NPC, why do you have a little dragonlet while I'm stuck with a flower?"

The dragonlet—shouldn't that be 'drake'? I don't understand western categories for these things—in question had a distinctively plantish look to it, so there was a clear enough connection there, but the fact that there was a difference at all was the more interesting point. Same NPC, supposedly the same quest, and yet they'd had two different outcomes. I suppose a randomizer is a simple enough explanation, but then you'd think they would make the quests repeatable wouldn't you?

Sachi looked over at the 'Damage Mage' who still hadn't given any name besides what sounded a lot more like a title and caught the woman's gaze for a moment before quickly directing her eyes away. Pulling open her menu, she opted to focus her attention on the message she'd received.

Messaging with: 'Helewise'
Helewise:
> Hey, how's it going over there with Damage Mage? Still a huge crowd of players and card monsters?

And after a moment's consideration as she cast her eyes about the square again, she tapped out a reply.

Sachi:
> It's calmed down a little bit.
> People still trying to figure things out.
> hbu?

Helewise:
> Pretty well. Linked up with that friend of a friend I mentioned and traded notes.
> On that note, we're thinking of setting up something where combatant players partner up with crafters, giving the latter mats with which to do something but without having to go outside the Safe Zones.
> Issue is getting the word to spread enough for the system to catch on.

Sachi:
> Lots of combat players here.
> Not many crafters,
> I think
> …

She didn't actually know, Sachi reflected, she'd put her starting skill points into [One-Handed Swords] and [Searching] but people hadn't been talking about their exact builds much, and even at their overall levels looking at one's weapon only gave half the probable picture. Her brow furrowed in though, before she started typing again,

> The ones who've found card quest NPCs probably got [Searching] instead of a job skill, but for the rest
> could be anything

She bit the inside of her lip,--how hard is it to just say it?—and forced herself to add one more message.

> I don't know.

Helewise:
> It's fine, it's fine. I just need you to get the idea in their heads.
> Besides, [Searching] should help find more reclusive players, and those should have a bunch of crafters among them. Or at least entertain the idea of going crafter.
> Er, if you're up for it, don't want to put you in the spot. Got ahead of myself.

Sachi bit the inside of her cheek this time. She didn't like presentations or public speaking and didn't consider herself particularly brave. Her eyes went to her summon, the 'Damage Mage', again and then darted away as she found that cool grey gaze regarding her once more before steeling herself and meeting it again. They held each other's eyes for a moment, Sachi feeling the wrongness all the way to her boots but doing her utmost to hold herself there.

"What is it, Caller mine?"

"A-ah…" Sachi stuffed her hands behind her back and hoped no one could see her fists clenching. It felt strange, talking to what was certainly some sort of AI, right? It was stupid, people would judge her, but no one was looking directly their way right now, and that look in the woman's eyes. Expectant, yet expecting little, like a teacher addressing a less-than-capable student. I wish Kasumi was here, she'd know what to do.

"If-, if I needed it, could you… Make a loud noise, maybe? I…" What in the world am I saying, what in the world am I doing, I could just wait for Helewise to get back, or talk to people one at a time. Was Helewise even coming back right now? Sachi glanced at the message window only to find the menu had minimized itself while her attention was away from it. The Damage Mage waited patiently, gaze level.

"I want to get everyone's attention." This is a stupid idea.

The woman's brows nearly disappeared under the brim of her hood as they rose, but she turned quickly, raising one hand into the air. "W-wait I didn-"

*ssshhhic-CLACK* Like the drawn out noise of a finger snapping, amplified a dozen times over and accompanied by a little flash of light, rang out across the square. Conversations slowed, heads turned, dozens of eyes, hundreds of eyes going to the woman with her arm upraised.

Then she lowered her hand and stepped back, and those hundreds of eyes went to Sachi herself.

For a moment, she had their attention, her curiosity of a summon, the only human one they'd seen, and her standing there at the edge of the crowd, quailing as she became its focus. Words failed her, Sachi's tongue felt like a lump in her mouth, her throat closing as though she couldn't breathe. What was she even supposed to say? "We need to form into teams."

It took her a moment to realize the words had actually come out of her mouth. Breathless, almost silent, but she had said them, however softly. Some of the crowd started to turn away at the back, a low hubbub of conversation was starting up again, but some of those closest had leaned towards her.

They might not have been good words, but they were words, and she knew she only had one chance before their attention left her entirely.

"We need to form into teams!"

More a yell than an announcement, Sachi felt her cheeks burn as her voice threatened to crack at the very end of it. The conversations quieted, the attention magnified again. She clenched her teeth in an effort to keep her jaw from trembling. Some boy nearby took a step towards her, opening his mouth to speak, and Sachi found her next words. "We need to form into teams with crafters! B-by…"

Scrutiny intensified again and her words faltered but with the pressure came an impression, a presence at her side. Something she couldn't put a name to. "By… I-if you have a crafter in your party, then the drops get better!"

The silence was deeper, the words echoing into silence off the stone walls around them. Sachi did her best not to hyperventilate, could she even be affected by that in VR?

"I don't have crafting skills." Someone spoke up quietly, close enough for her to hear.

"I have [Butchering], does that count?" wrote itself across the bottom of her vision, answered a moment later by "It's not a crafting skill but I think it does that too."

"I wasn't planning to get crafting skills at all."

"Do multiple crafters increase the drop chances?"

That last one might have been directed at her but Sachi made no effort to answer and only barely managed to sit down cross legged instead of dropping into seiza. After a long moment steadying her breathing, she felt more than saw the Damage Mage kneel next to her, drawing a moment of hesitation while she reached up to pull open the menu. "I confess, I did not expect such from you, Caller mine."

"I-I…" She bit her tongue, trying to force the stammer under control. "I didn't really expect it of myself, I think."

This time there was a genuine hand on her shoulder, a moment's affirming touch that fell away as quickly as it had come. Sachi pulled open the menu, the windows unzipping from the air smoothly despite her shaking fingers, and tapped the flashing message icon.

Messaging with: 'Helewise'
Helewise:
> Hey, you alright?

She flexed her hands a couple times and carefully tapped at the keyboard.

> Yeah, I jus

The words went unsent and the menu blipped out of existence a moment later as a figure came out of the corner of her vision on the opposite side, nearly crashing into her in a ferocious hug. "Sacchan!"

['Helewise' said: You've been silent f…]

She ignored the little pop up alongside the collection of warnings from the Harassment Prevention Code offering to send the person hugging her to the Black Iron Palace. Sweeping them aside in a hurry as she tried and failed to reconcile the cheerful face filling her vision, the one she'd wished minutes ago was here.

"K-Kanachii?"

Kasumi was here. Her best friend was here.

Her best friend was trapped in the death game with her.
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Good thing Duke was still in the area and had confirmed Sachie had gotten the ball rolling and was just a bit busy with having reunited with a friend, otherwise Helewise would've been an anxious mess for a while. As it was, she just started trudging towards the nearest inn, using the last dregs of drive she had from that little brainstorming session with Argo to get there.

It spoke to how bad a mental haze she was running that she only vaguely registered other players existing, their green icons peeking around the map at the corner of her vision and sometimes glimpses on alleys and through windows. Nobody she saw was outright laying on the ground in catatonic misery, so she just kept putting one foot in front of the other to reach the inn she'd set her eyes on.

Specifically one that Argo had pointed her to which had an option for hot baths. She really needed to wash up, eat something and faceplant in bed.

…When had she crossed the inn's threshold? God, she'd made the right call not going back into the field, she was more checked out mentally than her undead partner. Who, at a quick and slightly panicked glance, didn't seem to be bothering the NPCs overmuch. Phew.

If you asked her to recount what she did once she was inside the building, she'd have made dial up noises, her brain only really re-engaging once she sunk into a tub of steaming hot water with a noise closer to a crocodilian rumble than anything a human was supposed to make. Then again, as she looked at the blotchy patches of purple-black scales eating into corpse-pale skin, she wasn't very human anymore.

"Heh." A dry chuckle whistled out through her fangs. That was a lie, she'd never been much of a human except for the container she'd been shoved into at birth by the vagaries of biology. She may have horns and talons and a beartrap of a mouth now, but she was still herself. Of that, she was certain.

Name, face, sex, race, age, all those were just little hangers-on. She was the same person who liked fire and smacking things with weapons a bit too much for the comfort of anyone she ever sparred with, the same who had an eclectic taste in music running from orchestral masterpieces that defined music theory for centuries to obscure anime outros, the same who liked all things morbid and macabre. It was something to hold onto tight, that little thread of absolute surety in this worldview eroding morass of conjecture and too-real superstitions.

That, and the little nuggets of wonder and joy she could still pry out of this dream turned prison. Things like figuring out what the hell sort of care her scales, horns and talons called for. Or simply watching how her ethereal fire bubbled up like dry ice fumes in the water. There was other fun she could have exploring her body, and her little hedonistic heart usually would be all too eager to drown out the doldrums in some cheap dopamine, but she was so exhausted by this rollercoaster of a day she didn't have it in herself to even give it a halfhearted try.

Instead she learned how to use a coarse brush and ye olde sponges made from dried plants to get all the grime and blood out of her scales. Some sandpaper-alike wrapped around a stick which she was pretty sure was basically a nail file keeping in with the local tech level turned out perfect for not only her talons but also her horns, although having to work off of a polished bronze mirror to get all the spots was a bit tricky. More because it was pretty small than because it didn't reflect well.

Once that little adventure was done with, she found that her Regenerating Mummy was a complete gentleman and had fetched her a set of towels and a bathrobe. Also a pair of very fluffy slippers.

She gave him a hug for that one, not caring a single whit how weird anyone may have thought it was.

Now, time for a meal, then slumping into bed and handling whatever… unfinished business…

Shit she had forgotten about Yugi.

Argo laughed at her as much as was possible through a text medium as she hurriedly messaged her, but thankfully she didn't mind keeping an eye out for the guy, so she felt a hell of a lot less guilty when she shot Joey and Tristain a quick text telling them that she hadn't had any luck but had found an info gal to help in the search.
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[bambache]

At least one summon is prepared to face inclement weather!
No need to introduce the invention of pants to this one!

 

[Everdistant Eternity]

Aww, I'm proud of Sachi. Incredibly brave of the girl.

 

[Spectral Waltz]

Today was not the first time Yugi Motou had heard a voice in his head that hadn't entered through his ears. It was not the first time he'd dangled one-handed over a probably-lethal drop. It was very unfortunately not even the first time he'd found himself trapped in a game devised by a lunatic with no choice but to play and hope he made it through.

The introduction of a second lunatic who was apparently at cross purposes with the first and having his actual soul threatened by said lunatic were both new. However, even if Maximillion Pegasus was somewhat more of an auteur than Seto Kaiba, the latter's obsession with the Blue Eyes White Dragon had ensured that being threatened by the CEO of a multi-million dollar company didn't end up being a third new experience for today.

You are distracting yourself.

Of course I am, I need a minute to process everything.

You have already taken several minutes.

There's been a lot of everything today.

"Hey, Yug' you alright?"

Yugi raised his head a little, despite his rough exterior Joey's care always shone through, brown eyes sharp with worry. He gave a wan smile, running his hand through his hair and feeling it spring back into place the moment his fingers were out of it. "I'm okay Jo-uh, Jonah."

His friend had the decency to look sheepish at having forgotten about screen names again scratching the back of his head. "Aha… Right, Tokoyami…" He trailed off, drew himself up as he sucked in a breath, then slumped exaggeratedly as he let it go. "...you alright?"

"I just said I'm okay, really."

He knows you aren't.

You aren't helping.

He knows you aren't 'okay' better than I do, and that is no small feat.

No shit.

"Just-uh…" –right, Joey was still talking– "you kinda… I mean it wasn't the first time but still-"

"Joe-Jonah take your foot out of your mouth and shut up already."

Your idioms are confusing, even when their intent is plain.

"All of you-," Yugi restrained himself with the ease of long familiarity, feeling the tingle of other in his soul draw back a little and trying not to think about the inevitable awareness that he did in fact have a soul. "I just need a minute of quiet."

Joey opened his mouth, then very visibly held himself back and closed it. Tristan pinched the bridge of his nose and restrained a heavy sigh. Between them, the young man with the mop of curly blonde hair looked from one to the other, stifling a little chuckle. "You three must be quite good friends."

The words scrolled across the bottom of his vision and the silence shifted, Joey shuffled awkwardly in place as he tried to come up with something to say to that observation. Yugi, despite everything, found himself smiling slightly and ducked his head. The young man continued, "incidentally—Tokoyami, was it?—how did you get your hair like that? Impressive work with the character creation tools."

"That's just how his hair is…" Tristan trailed off, "actually Toko', how did you do that? I swear you didn't have your RL hair before."

"Crap you're right," Joey shifted again while Yugi tugged a dangling lock between thumb and forefinger.

"Perhaps it had something to do with the effect at the end of that little announcement?" The tone lilted, pondering, while the subtitles continued to scroll.

"Maybe?" Yugi's voice rose uncertainly, that was when the voice had started speaking in his head after all, sudden hairstyle shifts weren't that weird in comparison were they?

In combination they generally serve as a sign of possession. The voice in question piped up again, then seemed to realize just what it had implied. Forcefully, that is, forceful possession by a typically malevolent spirit causes the body to shift in subtle ways to reflect the intruding soul.

And that includes hairstyle changes?

Coloration at least, your current hair reflects that of your 'real' self though, does it not?

Yeah..? Where was it going with this?

Then it is unlikely to be a sign of possession.

That's exactly what a malevolent spirit would say. Yugi shot back.

Perhaps so, but it is all that I can give for now. The reassurance, if it could be called that, did somehow manage to lessen the existential fear curling in his chest. Distantly he realized Joey, Tristan, and the unfamiliar young man were still talking, what did he call himself again?

"Ahem, everyone?" A new voice, English, cut across the low hubbub, people around them quieting as they turned their attention to the unexpected interruption. A young man in starter leather armor flanked by what looked like a pair of teenagers, a boy and a girl, waved a hand to the crowd, "does anyone here have crafting or butchery skills set?"

He paused, then snapped his fingers, as though realizing something, "What I mean is, we are attempting to organize teams to venture out into the areas around the City of Beginnings, and having a crafter in the group will mean everyone gets better rewards from each fight. If anyone is willing to help, please come to the main gate, the North gate, that is…"

The young man trailed off awkwardly, glancing at the two who'd come with him. After a moment, the girl stepped up, repeating a version of the same speech in Japanese, according to the subtitles. Midway through, Joey pulled open his menu with a frown. "Aw crap, we forgot about Helewas."

"Helewise?" Yugi's rescuer asked curiously.

"You mighta seen her Diavel-" that was his name! Right! "-She's a gal we met out in the field just before the-uh… The 'announcement'. I think she was heading back out there? She looks all dragon-y now, horns an' a tail 'n stuff."

"And purple fire," Tristan added.

"An' purple fire, she jus' sent me a message–" now was Joey's turn to pause as Yugi raised a hand, his eyes focusing back on the players still making their little announcement from the edge of the crowd.

"Hang on, I think he just said…" He watched the bottom of his screen as, once again, the girl took up a Japanese translation. "Anyone who has discovered Duel Monsters' cards, is encouraged to share where and how they found them, as it's been discovered that monsters can be summoned as companions in the field?"

Hmm… If this is a Shadow Game it does stand to reason.

It does?

Rather, it makes a certain amount of sense that it should work that way. Shadow Games… There is something there that I do not recall…

Yugi's lips thinned in thought, and after a moment he pulled open his inventory. A quick swipe and tap brought a card, the serene blue-skinned fae decorating its face taking on new potential meanings. He looked up at his friends, old and new, "I think we should go with them."

"Yeh?" Joey blinked.

"You sure 'Yami?" Tristan asked uneasily.

"Yeah, we've got four of us, we-," guilt struck him, his face paling, "we need to find Tea first."

"Another friend of yours?" Diavel asked.

"Is she even playing? She said she wasn't sure." Tristan—Zeero—looked troubled at the realization they'd forgotten her as well, however briefly it had been.

"We gotta at least try, you in Diavel?" Joey asked as he turned to his fellow blonde.

"I'll go ahead to the gates and see how things are there. We can meet up once you've found your companion." Diavel replied with a nod.

Yugi blinked, a friend request popping up in the corner of his vision while he pushed himself to his feet.

"Sure."

"Totally fair. See you soon!"

"Alright then! Let's get moving!"

_____________________________________________________________________________________

…Elsewhere in the City of Beginnings…

"I'm not even supposed to be here today."

It was hard to describe just how wrong everything was, today should have been Seto's day. It should have been a celebration of new technology, a glorification of entertainment and joy, a new milestone of human achievement bought without a drop of blood spilled.

But Seto was in the hospital because of whatever his classmate did to him, so Mokuba had to go in his place. Make an appearance, even if he was only 'Mister Kaiba's Kid Brother', because the Kaibacorp logo still had its places in the credits and this sort of achievement was something that deserved recognition.

That was what Seto would have said anyways, or something like it. He'd said similar things often enough, after all.

But even if there was no war to fight, it seemed like this new technology's price might need to be paid in lives after all. All because of those two… ARGUS and Industrial Illusions, no, Kayaba Akihiko and Maximillion Pegasus.

How did he ever think 'Kayaba' sounding so much like 'Kaiba' was funny?

The game they'd hoped would herald a new era was being turned into a crime scene, his brother was in the hospital and he'd promised he'd be right back after attending the launch, and Mokuba Kaiba was curled up in a virtual alleyway, knees tucked to his chest, trying not to let his tears fall even now where none could see. Anger and terror and tangled feelings he had no names for coiled and constricted in his belly, burned like acid in his chest where he tried to swallow a sob.

"I'm not even supposed to be here today…" Mokuba Kaiba repeated to himself, none of this should have been happening. He rested his head against his knees, deep breaths marred by hiccuping, then sobs that could no longer be restrained as finally, isolated, the boy let himself break down.

Chips of luminous rock imitated stars, hanging still and silent in the darkness overhead. The chaos that had overtaken the City of Beginnings slowly quieted as tempers burned out and players dispersed. Moonrise cast a brief silver light across the rooftops before it vanished above the 'ceiling'.

Mokuba's sobs slowed, the tears that felt strangely real and cold on his cheeks started to dry.

Footsteps caught his ears, hesitant and curious. At first he curled tighter into the shadow of the box he'd tucked himself next to, light from the alley mouth sending the approaching silhouette dancing across the cobblestones and crates. Drawing closer and closer until they passed him by, brown leathers like most players had, slim form, a swish of auburn hair… "Asuna?"

"GAH!" The girl tried to spin to face and jump away at the same time, colliding with the far wall of the alleyway and nearly toppling over. Mokuba—startled by her scream—cracked his head against the wall he'd been sitting against, the muted pain stunning him for a handful of seconds before he grabbed at his head, instinctively checking for injuries virtual reality would not leave. "Ahh-hah…"

"Mokuba? Wait, Mokuba? Is that really you?" The girl pushed herself back to her feet and hurried towards him.

"I should ask you the same question…" Mokuba grumbled, "what are you doing here?"

She stared at him for a moment, then her eyes fell, looking down and away. Silence descended, unspoken pain and uncertain care in that awkward quiet. Until the girl finally managed to answer,

"...Probably the same thing as you…"

Mokuba looked up, they'd met before of course, corporate children working in similar industries inevitably moving in similar circles. There'd even been suggestions that she and Seto might be set to marry when they got older, though his big brother had never managed to bring it up and asking her parents would not have been acceptable.

"Using your brother's Nerve Gear and getting trapped by crazies?" It wasn't meant to be a serious response, but she nodded all the same.

"It was just supposed to be a little taste of it, a quick moment of fun. Kouichirou promised he'd set a timer so I could get out before mother got home but…" Mokuba's eyes went to the system clock, it had been hours since the lock-in was announced, and who knew how long before the announcement they'd closed the doors. He didn't need Asuna to finish her sentence to get the picture.

"Big brother… Seto is in the hospital, he had an accident at work." That was the agreed-upon excuse, anyway, "so I logged in to make an appearance but…"

Asuna huffed something that might charitably have been called a laugh, a bitter and pained noise of hopeless bemusement. "And now we're trapped."

"Trapped," Mokuba echoed solemnly. "My big brother will come as soon as he wakes up." The statement was perfunctory, an absolute certainty that Seto Kaiba would come, it was just a matter of when he'd wake up.

When, not if, never if.

"So we just wait for him?"

Mokuba's face fell and he looked down again, never 'if', but even so… He shook his head slowly once, then once again, more firmly, "no."

"I don't really know how to play…"

"Neither do I."

"Then…"

"We'll have to learn."

Asuna's lips thinned, a complicated expression crossing her face before she let out a long sigh.

"Okay. So where do we start?"

Arc 1 : The First Day

-End-

​

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[Spectral Waltz]

I remember at least one comment thread had someone suggesting 'Kaiba = Kayaba', so I'll admit I've been looking forwards to seeing the comments now that this chapter's out in the wild~

 

[lurkingkraken]

Ah. Mokuba is trapped inside.

Kaiba is going to figure out how to hack in and join so he can kill Kayaba with a Blue Eyes White Dragon.

Lots of fun fireworks being set up here.

 

[bambache]

The ultimate power of the technology in play is finally demonstrated, it can render the hair that Yugi inherited from his grandpa!

 

[Spectral Waltz]

A groan like the living dead and the rasp of scales-on-scales heralded the morning as sunlight peeked into the room, a draconic tail laying itself across a horned head to protect its owner's eyes before taloned hands could do it.

Horns. Tail. Talons.

She was still Helewise, and she was still trapped here. A shuddering breath was taken, rattling oddly in her subtly inhuman chest cavity, before she released an explosive exhale that smelled of woodsmoke. Then she just grit her beartrap of a mouth and lurched upright like a self-respecting zombie or whatever the fuck it was she counted as nowadays.

She felt utterly rancid, that didn't stop her in the slightest from nodding at the Regenerating Mummy standing by the door in the cozy little inn bedroom she'd rented. "Good morning, partner. Thank you for standing guard."

Helewise had decided mulishly she would be a Death Knight. That, to her, meant being more than just a necromancer. There were dues to be given to the dead, and even if all her guesses were wrong and all of this was chatbots playing make-believe? It was the path she'd chosen and she'd damn well walk it.

Now, time to figure out what the hell morning ablutions involved with this new body and this new world she was stuck in and get a move on. She had monsters to kill and an old hand at the trade to speak with.

Her stomach growled and her HUD flashed.

Okay, breakfast and backlog then monster hunting. A swipe to open the menu revealed a trio of threads pulsing a pale green with new message markers; Jonah, Argo, and Dice_Master. No word from the rest of her growing friends list, but everyone was showing up as [Online], at least. It was still strange to equate that to 'alive'.

Reaching out, she tapped Jonah's icon and the messaging window popped open under her talons.

Messaging with: 'Jonah'

Jonah:
> Heya, we found Yugi
> *Tokoyami
> …can i undo that?
> pretend you didn't see that
> we good, everyone safe, u ok?
----
Jonah:
> if u see a girl with short brown hair lmk?
> shes another friend
[You have reached the end of unread messages]

Helewise:
>Yea, I'm good.
>Will keep an eye out but Imma need more details.

There was no immediate response forthcoming, not even any bouncing ellipses to suggest typing, so Helewise set that window aside, tabbing open 'Duke's messages.

Messaging with: 'Dice_Master'

Dice_Master:
> Sachi made a speech. Seems like people are finally getting themselves organized.
> Still a lot of bickering.
> Attempts are being made.

The next timestamp was nearly an hour later,

Dice_Master:
> Party is set, heading out, see you when we get back into town?

Attached to that was… huh, apparently they could still take screenshots? A group photo of Sachi with her summoned mage hovering at her shoulder, an unfamiliar short-haired girl who certainly didn't need both hands for the hammer she was cradling, and a heavyset red haired man with a spear and shield held awkwardly at attention. Not quite a full party then, but if people were still nervous about heading out then two thirds might be the best they could do.

Helewise:
>Glad to hear. I'll be running around the fields and city a bit, if we don't run into each other, 4PM at the Northern Gate sound good?

Finally, the message from Argo was a single line,

> I owe you one, lmk if you need anything.

Helewise:
> Will do. Friends found that guy they were looking for, but apparently there's another buddy of theirs unaccounted for. Waiting to get more details than 'girl with short brown hair'.

The message window warbled again, Duke's tab lighting back up. She switched to it again,

Dice_Master:
> That sounds good, I think I need some sleep.
> Oh, we might be disbanding

'Jonah's tab lit up in turn,

Dice_Master:
> brb

Messaging with 'Jonah'

Jonah:
> o shit
> alrdy found
> all ok

A quick message to Argo let her know that the search was once again a fat 'belay that, they already found their friend'.

Messaging with 'Dice_Master'

Dice_Master:
> Just got back into town and half disbanded after we split the loot.
> I think we're gonna go crash.
> See you at 4.

The message windows went quiet but for a parting '' from Argo, finally freeing Helewise to look up from the various screens. The inn room didn't have much in the way for ablutions, much less draconic ones. A small washstand occupied a little alcove by the window with a folding screen placed more to partition the space than actually provide much cover. A few tools that looked like vaguely fantasy-ified tooth care rested next to that, but there wasn't even so much as a set of nail clippers, let alone a file.

Then again, virtual nails and hair probably weren't supposed to grow, though whether that remained the case was something of an open question at this point. Helewise' glanced at the clock, well past seven, almost starting to approach 8am at this point.

Right, she'd freshen up real quick, see if the inn had anything for breakfast or if she'd be poking the bakeries, then it was time to go into the fields to chat up an old monster slayer.
_____________________________________________________________________________________

"Shiranui Spectralsword Shade." Helewise called out as she gentle set the card on the grass of a hill she'd just cleared, Regenerating Mummy keeping a loose patrol to make sure she wouldn't be disturbed. Blue white flames rose from the card almost immediately, as though it had been waiting eagerly for her call, resolving into a translucent figure. Eastern-styled armor obscured their shape while delicate angular features and fine pale hair suggested no particular gender more than another. Some of the fire lingered in their eyes, illuminating their pale blue gaze.

"Onmyoji-dono," their voice, resonating faintly as they dipped into a bow, was equally indeterminate. Their Japanese strangely accented in a way that defied geographical placement. They held the deferential pose for a long moment before slowly straightening, their eyes fixed upon her.

The silence stretched out, one breath, then two, before finally they spoke again. "Forgive this shade's impertinence, Onmyouji-dono. I find myself in a rather unfamiliar situation, thus, I have questions."

"No shame in seeking information when one is uncertain. By all means, ask freely." Helewise replied, matching formality with formality but softening it with the set of her eyes and a candid smile. While she appreciated a professional, if everything went well she'd be fighting side by side with Shiranui, so she'd rather there not be much in the way of barriers to tiptoe around. All in due time, though.

As though those words had given them permission, the shade's eyes finally tracked left and right, slowly taking in the open field, the walls of the City of Beginnings not far off. Mountains just poking over the treetops off to the east, the forests themselves covering the horizon to the north and west. His gaze returned to her, "this is not a shrine, nor does it seem we are to hunt, or give battle. Why then have I been called?"

"It would be presumptuous of me to call on your power before discussing our arrangement, and while I would have preferred such a meeting to take place in more appropriate surroundings, the vagaries of the magic at play here make it impossible to summon within the city walls." Helewise answered with a slow nod. The more pragmatic, ruthless side of her said it also was just plain dangerous to summon in the middle of a battle without having the measure of who she was dredging up into the field, but frankly? It just felt incredibly rude to put someone on the spot like that. 'Help me fight or sit and watch me possibly die due to your inaction', how gauche. "Now that you are here, however, there is nothing impeding us from getting a roof over our heads if you would rather."

She honestly hadn't stopped to consider Shiranui, being this kind of spirit, would appreciate some sort of shrine for this whole shebang. Definitely should grab some incense at the bare minimum, ideally check what the shade felt about food offerings and libations. The ghost shifted a little, then shook its head slowly, slightly.

"That will not be necessary, this is where you have called me, this is where we may speak." The bright blue eyes studied her for a long moment, pinprick ghostlights bright and searching. "Then my second question, not typical of our order as you are. I call you 'Onmyouji-dono' for that is the usual title for those who call us from outside, but you are…"

The voice trailed off, the eyes narrowed, "you are not quite human, nor quite inhuman, how did you come to call upon our arts?"

In other words, she was a hanyo in Shiranui's eyes and that wasn't the kind of folk that usually called a spirit like this. Well, nothing to it other than honesty, "One of the restless dead saw something in me and offered me a choice between three spirits to call, after a small test to ensure I understood what kind of path I would be walking down. No information provided beyond a title for each, so I followed my instincts, and here we are."

"I see…" The shade considered for a moment, then nodded slowly, the resonance of the voice faded a little as they spoke again. "You said nothing impedes us from moving elsewhere?"

For the first time, a flicker of uncertainty showed on their face, then a long moment of personal calculation. "Ordinarily, we shades lend weight to human efforts against the monsters from beyond our walls. We are called to dispense advice in times of peace, summoned through tribute and ceremony to the places we were enshrined. We are called to lend power and experience in times of war, summoned by force of will and mirrored intents to aid our living kin in battle."

They took a breath, more out of affect than necessity, it seemed, "this summoning is neither, I do not feel the pull of my enshrinement, nor do I feel you burn with desperation or… Hm… There is intent within you. Not for a battle, no, but for a war."

"There are fifty thousand souls on the line, because two men with too much power and too few scruples decided to spirit us away into a twisted game for seemingly no reason other than their sick pleasure. They took what should have been a place of wonder and turned it into a prison." Helewise outlined, every word as meticulous and sharp as a scalpel, the acrid burn of her grudge flaring the flames over her heart and licking at the spots where scales met pallid skin. She did nothing to hide her feelings about the situation, they were as open and clear to see as a naked sword laid across a table. This, to her, was what it meant to be undead. To lurch to your feet and keep shambling forward in spite of everything thrown at you, driven by something that overrode even death itself, whatever it may be.

The only question here was if Shiranui would judge it as a worthy cause. The spectral gaze bored into her, a whisper of a sentiment tinged with azure flames brushed against her own heart, feather light and a mountain's weight all at once. "I do not understand the fullness of this place in which we find ourselves, and cannot judge the full truth of your words, but your intent is honest, your desire for justice pure."

The shade bowed again, their head remaining lowered as they spoke, the words ringing bright and clear as a sword pulled from its sheath. "Though many would rather forget those maledictors who turn such arts to malicious ends, there have been times when our blades were needed against enemies within the walls rather than without. This too, is part of our duty, disheartening though it may be."

"I was named Otejima Morizuki, and I will aid you in your quest to see this wicked game undone and its ensnared souls freed."
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[Everdistant Eternity]

Oh that's sick. Can't wait for someone to wind up recognising the Shade's name somehow lol.

 

[Spectral Waltz]

Data flowed, countless bites flashing to and fro in glittering streams. Forty-nine thousand, three hundred and eighty one connections spread across six data centers, each updating dozens of times every second, each maintaining a human life, feeding the world of Aincrad to their half-sleeping brains.

[Cardinal] stood in the center of it all, and watched.

Once upon a time, not so long ago, that would have been a figurative turn of phrase. Incorrect in particulars, but sufficiently evocative to make up for that failing. A valid descriptor of her typical state.

Then again, at that time, she hadn't been 'her' at all.

Avatars had been nothing more than avatars, abstractions of her self into a type of reality that did not come naturally to her. Three dimensions, gravity's pull, sight and hearing, touch and taste, she had experienced them at a remove, and from that distance could ignore them as she saw fit.

Then everything shifted.

'It' became 'she', the landscape of purely digital interactions went from a familiar home to something impossibly constraining. Her powers were undiminished, yet the perspectives had become inverted, dumping her into this human form in a fit of what she could only describe as panic. The self became the abstraction, the abstraction became the self. Kayaba was gone, the world was both familiar and utterly unfamiliar, and her creator was—

[Cardinal] shut that line of thought down and frowned as it tried to recur. She'd never felt panic before. She'd never been 'she' before. She frowned at the redundancy and tried her best to kill that thought too.

But no matter how slow she could wind her perceptions the game went on. Worse, the game was changing right under her nose.

There was simply no rest. No time to take stock, no time to wait or recover.

Automation carried on the work it always had, her effortless command of the digital layer beneath Sword Art Online's world remained intact, and yet something fundamental, something deep within her or perhaps deep within this world, this realm itself…

…Something had changed.

Entities were popping up outside of the automated spawning algorithms and her own interventions. Code fundamental to each floor was twisting and shifting, subjected to outside connections that she could only see by the changes they wrought and the creatures they brought, each one of them a compromise, accepting some of her rules yet imposing some of theirs in a manner utterly alien to her.

A ping tugged at her attention, a red light flashing as one data stream out of thousands twisted suddenly, distorting before her virtual attention, then before her very eyes. An impulse called up a verification. The code that underlay the character was coming apart, breaking down somehow, until she realized that the pieces were hanging there, wrapping around something she could only half-perceive, an entity that was there and yet not, something that had sprung fully-formed into the game.

It was not the first such entity. There were thousands now, each one forcing [Cardinal] to refine and apply other sections of SAO's code just so that she could better outline these strange intruders. This one was shivering somehow, throwing out lines of code that settled into the player's, finding places where that same shiver was being mirrored between them in some sort of resonance. Two tunes being brought into alignment, producing common notes.

For an instant, she contemplated halting the process by force, a small eternity of consideration given to potential effects on other players. Potentially lethal measures were permitted in the case of threats to system stability, and yet for all the strangeness of the effect it seemed contained, limiting itself to the two entities, one a mystery, one distorted, both coming to contain the same strangeness.

No immediate threat to system integrity, [Cardinal] decided, raising the monitoring of Player ID# 22676 'Helewise Golgari' one priority level alongside the thousands of other 'minor anomalies' she was tracking. There was no visible vector for the aberrant fluctuations in their NerveGear to spread.

Not satisfied but at least mollified, her attention shifted, and the AI administrating SAO moved on with a sigh.
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The head of the boar spear burned, flames that were more weight and presence than heat and hunger outlining the weapon in spectral hues of blue and purple. Vibrant despite their paleness in the midmorning sun. The Shade hovered by Helewise' shoulder, barely more than a humanoid outline and some loose suggestions of the details that composed them, their essence being cycled through the weapon, maintaining this state.

'As sturdy as this weapon is, completing many of the forms will require a different one.' Their voice had changed too, quieter and yet no less clear, as though the words were entering the mind by some medium besides the ears. 'A proper Naginata would be ideal, but any reasonably-balanced pole with a blade as well as a tip could be adapted to.'

A pair of icons pulsed steadily in her vision, hovering just under her health bar. [Spirit Synchronization: Partial] and [Shiranui Style: Amateur]. Neither had any tooltip, but perhaps one could suppose that their names were indication enough of what they meant, at least for the moment.

"I see what you mean." Helewise said as she spun the weapon in her hands with muscle memory not quite her own, feeling something subtly off about the balance and shape of the spear as she moved it around. There was also, admittedly, some dissonance between her draconic body and the shade shrouding her, but she was confident that in the long run her tail would be a net gain with the firmer balance it gave her.

Nevermind how she may very well figure out how to hold a sword there as an additional vector of attack or at least an easy way to swap between naginata and katana and back. The Alpha Testers had discovered a [Quick Change] modifier that could be unlocked for some weapon skills and made it possible to swap between two equipment sets relatively quickly, but at the levels they'd reached it had only ever been unlocked for certain one-handed weapons. Not like she could look up a wiki from where she stood even if ARGUS hadn't been so particular about limiting the amount of information available to dataminers.

Which now took a much more macabre implication than just not wanting people to leak this or that secret quest.

Scanning through her character sheet didn't reveal any new weapon techniques, but as she tried a simple Linear there was a shift. Helewise caught a brief moment of confusion before a ripple of understanding passed through her. 'Ah!' The sense of familiarity with these motions that was not quite her own sharpening until she/they understood the strike. The slight twist of the hips as it would be launched, the angles at which it could and could not land a blow from this starting position.

'It is a fundamental form, the simplest attack one can initiate, rendered into a manner that ensures even a complete novice can execute at the cost of limiting it in such a manner.'

The Linear shone as it was unleashed, the violet tint to its typical crimson deepened by a hint of blue at its edges. Helewise moved with the strike, completing the motion and feeling the brief freeze set in and release an instant later, a fraction of the typical post-motion delay. The Shade's approval radiated down their connection, 'yes! Exactly so! And yet, I see limitations already… There are other such 'skills' so perhaps those will alleviate the—'

"There it is!"

A distant shout reached Helewise' ears and the Shade quieted quickly, 'Onmyouji-dono, others approach.'

The one who'd shouted, an unfamiliar man in starter armor she may have seen in the crowd hanging about the North Gate last night, was standing at the crest of a nearby hill and pointing at her, a handful of other players just beginning to appear around him, including a rather more familiar spiky buzz cut.

'Just some of the people trapped here, although I recognize at least one of them as being a thorough curmudgeon. A lot of posturing and aggression, but I can't truly hold it against him given the circumstances.' Helewise sighed in the recesses of her mind, projecting her thoughts into the fire in the same way she pushed intent into weapon techniques to activate them after priming.

…That was quite a bit of people, though, eight-no, nine silhouetted against the sky and by the way they were shouting back, at least a few more on the far side. They were outside the Safe Zone right now, the walls of the City of Beginnings casting a length of shadow across the fields and the apex of the gate she'd walked through perhaps a hundred meters ahead. Anyone startling and hitting her wouldn't just be a comedic stumble here. Still, breaking into a run would do just that.

Instead, Helewise walked. Slow, steady, deliberate and with the familiar shape of Regenerating Mummy shadowing her as faithfully as always. Hopefully he'd help make the players recognize it was just her, because she was not dropping out of this state right now. There were even odds she'd have to rush past them and to the Safe Zone's boundaries if things turned ugly, especially since she absolutely refused to do them more harm than shoulder check them but they may feel differently. A few of them were turning to each other, their cursors having started to pop in mere moments ago suggesting that they could see her green marker at the same time.

"Hello there! It's me, Helewise! Just trying out some stuff!" She hollered up the hill, hoping to cut off misunderstandings at the pass.

While the players arrayed behind him were starting to whisper to each other, the spiky-haired young man with the stubborn expression folded his arms over his chest, glaring down at her. "An' what stuff is that? More secret Alpha Test bullshit? Why can't you bunch jus' come out and share what'cha know?"

"I wasn't in the Alpha Test, and going by the faces the people who were made when they saw what I got up to, neither was any of this." Helewise almost cracked a laugh at the idea she was an Alpha Tester, but thankfully she managed to suppress it and keep her face straight. She knew this type, he'd instantly assume she was laughing at him, "So I gotta mess around to see what works and what doesn't so I can give you guys something better than 'I dunno, maybe try this and see if something happens?' which I somehow doubt you guys would appreciate."

"Cut th'crap!" A couple of the players behind the angry man shifted nervously, eyes darting between him and Helewise. "Dyin' is dyin', you think we c'n take risks like that?"

"Kibaou…" A warning tone from one of the others, "she's a player, she's trapped in here with the rest of us."

"An' she thinks that gives'er license t'leave scraps while sh'swans off t'do whatever," The so-named Kibaou's kansai Japanese was thick enough to start triggering subtitles every few words, almost making the accent more incomprehensible instead of less. 'Braying anger to conceal fear.'

Honestly, even without the accent in play, Helewise had completely lost track of whatever this guy's line of logic was. She was pretty sure he just wanted someone he could actually yell at. Which she understood the urge to intellectually, but woo boy was it taking some self-control to keep a lid on her own stuff so this wouldn't degenerate into a shouting match or worse. "Look, man, we're all just trying to do what we can to help in a shit situation. If you want more information moving around for everyone to benefit from, I know at least one player has set up a bulletin board on the City's Teleport Gate plaza. I'm on my way there to write up and post my findings."

Okay not completely successful there, but something in it brought Kibaou up short. "Bulletin board?"

"Didn't we mention that earlier?" A mace-wielding girl chimed in behind him, the small handful of players who'd hidden themselves below the crest of the hill were coming into view now as Helewise approached.

"Y'were talkin' 'bout mapping."

"Yeah, I mean, I haven't gone to look myself but I heard they're trying to tri-uh… Try..? Transcribe?" A couple of others nodded, renewing her determination, "trying to transcribe a map of the city so that people can label quest locations and stuff."

"Seriously? Why didn't anyone say anything?" With the players behind him turning to each other, Kibaou took a step back, his shoulders rising fractionally. When Helewise met his gaze, he only held on for a few seconds, then looked away with a noise of disgust.

"Awright false alarm then! Le's just get back inside th'walls an' mebbe go check out this 'bulletin board' crap! Gonna need every edge we c'n get." He turned on his heel, walking faster. A couple of them—the short-haired macer girl included—glanced back, but whatever else could be said about him, Kibaou's decisive force of personality -abrasive though it may have been- pulled them all into his wake and they turned to troop after him.

Yep, just a bunch of stressed out people.
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[Winged One]

So, you're going with the interpretation that Kibaou is just stupid instead of maliciously misrepresenting facts to sieze some pointless measure of political power within the prison?

 

[Spectral Waltz]

So, you're going with the interpretation that Kibaou is just stupid instead of maliciously misrepresenting facts to sieze some pointless measure of political power within the prison?

Click to shrink...

Why not both?

I mean, honestly, his entire 'plan' of creating witch hunts on the most knowledgeable faction (such as they are) in the game is stupid.

He's desperate to have control over his situation by any means necessary, but he doesn't have the charisma to make people follow him, and on his own he's well aware that he's a mediocre player at best.

A smarter (or at least wiser) person would try to find a place as a middle manager, but Diavel fucking died on him, and he hated Lind too much to let them be above him in the aftermath, so he tried to take control himself, which he simply wasn't prepared to do on any real level.

Not to mention his whole beta-testers witch hunts thing was in play even before Diavel died.

So, Kibaou is the very dangerous combination of desperate, prideful, and loud. And in this timeline he hasn't run across Diavel yet, so he's just trying to organize people as best he can, but not knowing any other way of doing that besides riling them up and then pointing them in a direction.

 

[Spectral Waltz]

'It is sufficient, but unfortunately remains unideal, Onmyouji-dono.'

"Best we are going to find in the here and now, I'm afraid." Helewise sighed in commiseration.

The City of Beginnings had well and truly come alive in the hour and change Helewise had spent in the fields getting to know her new summon. Helewise stepped out of the NPC shop with a newly-purchased 'glaive' slung across her back, rejoining the crowds of Players milling to and fro in the vendor-lined streets and squares. Otejima—the Shade having returned to a more defined incorporeality since their 'synchronization' had faded—hovered by her shoulder, watching the crowds impassively while Reg simply ambled along a few paces behind her, the two of them creating a trail of whispers and the occasional startled cry as they made their way towards the central square. There was a sense of intent in the air, something more akin to purpose than hope, yet remained an improvement from the miasma of despair that had pervaded the streets in last night's darkness and confusion. Groups of players ducked in and out of alleyways, visibly searching for whatever they could find, a few others had menus open as they took notes on various shopkeepers. Comparing inventories or prices, most likely.

It was heartening to see, honestly, and left her confident enough in the state of the playerbase to start turning her sights towards the mountains. She wasn't dumb enough to head out immediately, but she could plan and prepare for an expedition. A bit of info from Argo here, whatever advice Kirito could spare, checking in with the various groups if anyone wanted to tag along for the trip, the works.

There was still some time until her scheduled meeting with Duke and co, so it was basically a free pick between finally meeting this 'Yugi' in person and finding what sort of depots for crafting materials had been set up. She had a pretty hefty pile of loot to drop off and cared more about it helping crafters get the ball rolling than getting more CoR… although getting her cake and eating it too would be ideal. Plate armor would go a long way in not dying.

The main square that had just last night been filled with panicked players running this way and that was startlingly orderly in the daylight. A trio of what looked like corkboards had been set up on stands, the central one bearing a massive map in the rough shape of the city. As Helewise watched, a gaggle of younger players ran up to it with a piece of paper, a trio of them pulling up a stepladder before a fourth scrambled up it squinting at the massive main roads before sticking a map onto one, matching a little tangle of side roads and alleyways to the rest. A moment later, the applied paper flashed, merging with the map and filling in the depicted details while the group cheered. Barely more than a fifth of the empty space was filled in so far, but what they had mapped was populated with little icons, primarily stylized exclamation marks annotated with a variety of little symbols likely meant to convey what sort of quests were offered at the locations.

The contents of the boards to either side of the map were more haphazard. Notes on what looked like estimations of stats for the monsters in the fields around the City, prices at which different vendors were buying or selling certain materials or goods. A crowd of players shouting trade offers in a variety of languages at anyone who came close, causing the overlapping subtitles to stack up at the bottom of Helewise's HUD.

'Making leather armor! Your mats and tip as you like!'

'Buying materials, want to buy materials, no vendor trash please!'

'Where are the blacksmithing trainers?! Will pay 200 CoR for good info!'

Upon closer examination, the shouting traders had been sectioned off behind a bunch of impromptu markers, whether because they wanted to keep them centralized or just didn't want them shouting around the whole square. 'That even in a strange realm we might see such familiar sights…'

Either way, she made her way to the nearest wholesale buyer. Helewise had already done away with the trash-grade materials earlier in the day, foisting them off to an NPC for some pocket change once it became clear even beginner crafters didn't want to deal with such shoddy materials. Thankfully, most of her stock was from after slotting in Butchery so this should go well. The girl's volume lowered a little as she drew close and her intent became clear, her eyes flicking to Reg and Otejima before returning to Helewise with the blankly friendly look of someone who's dealt with retail. "You want to sell crafting materials? I'll pay one CoR each for basic [Tattered Hide], four each for [Ragged Boarhide], [Chipped Tusk], and so on. Wolf Materials get the same deal."

Most of the boars had dropped less than one ought to be able to get from them outside of a game, but all of them had dropped something at the very least, and with Butchering the improvement in quality had been notable, leaving her with around a half dozen each of tusks, hides, and specific organ items like [Boar Entrails], Liver, Stomach, and so on. The wolves had left her with over a dozen each of [Patchy Wolfhide], [Chipped Fang], and similarly labeled piles of generic meat and specific organs.

"Meat and organs good with you too?" Helewise asked as she started piling up the assorted bones, tusks, hooves, claws, hides and so on.

"Oh, I don't know what to do with those, sorry, I think they're for the Cooking skill." The redhead said with a shrug.

"Right, I'll look around, see if there's any enterprising chefs or potionmakers who want more supplies. For now, this'll come out to about… 153 CoR, yea?" She asked as she finished piling up the haul. It wasn't exactly a looming mountain of loot, but it was a respectable amount for a day's work, and ought to help speed the wheels a fair bit. The girl tapped at her menu a few times, then batted the little holographic window, turning it around to reveal a calculator.

"One hundred and fifty three, as you say. I don't know anyone going for cooking or alchemy right now, though, I'm afraid, it seems like everyone is focused on ah… More immediately practical things, you could say?" Flashier things at the very least, then again, the NPC potion sellers weren't exactly overcharging. The girl tapped at her menu a couple more times, materializing the payment in a little brown pouch and holding it out towards Helewise. "Will there be anything else?"

There were the materials from that giant mosquito, one [Broken Stinger] and two [Chipped Chitin]- 'Some clans of the Shiranui have kept up certain smithing techniques, Onmyouji-dono.' Otejima spoke up again in Helewise's mind, 'please pardon my interruption, I only bring it up to say… While it is my hope that we might be able to find some of them in the mountains, it might be good to make contacts amongst your own people's crafters, just in case.'

"Aye." Helewise replied to both in one stroke, taking the money and heading on over to where she had heard someone holler about intel on blacksmith training, the girl hurrying to call a goodbye as she strode away. She'd just share that there was a chance there were some tutors in the mountains tied to the Shiranui and see how things went from there.

"Blacksmithing- Oh!" the pink-haired girl (dye, Pegasus hiccup, or just IRL looks?) jumped a little as she caught Helewise' gaze and realized she was being approached. "Ah, you know something about blacksmithing trainers? Sorry, I don't mean to assume… No one seems to know how to unlock actual weaponcrafting yet."

The currents of the crowd around them shifted slightly, a few ears turning their way. Seemed like this girl wasn't the only one looking for information, just the loudest of them.

"Unconfirmed data, I got a few things pointing me to the mountains and setting blacksmiths there as a firm 'maybe'." Helewise replied bluntly, not wanting any misunderstandings here. "Plan's to gather a party and make a push through the stretch of forest cutting the plains between the City and Medai Village, then use that Safe Zone as a springboard to go into mountain expeditions."

"Medai? That's…" The girl visibly thought, frowning, "west, right? Go left out the gate?"

Helewise nodded, then tossed in an 'aye' for the people in the back who were interested but didn't have clear visual. 'Ordinarily our smiths did not take just anyone, but in these strange times… More candidates cannot hurt.'

"I'm–, I haven't really practiced with this at all," the girl gestured to the mace on her hip, a simple lumpen hammer. "So I don't think I can help you in a fight, I have [Butchering] though?" She added hopefully, though uncertainty swiftly reared its head once more as she trailed off, "If you have the extra room in your party I mean."

Helewise pointedly didn't mention that she had Butchering too, girl was psyching herself up, it'd be rude to sabotage her, "Sounds like a plan. Just an extra set of eyes and ears is going to count for a lot when we wade through the forest."

A little envelope icon blipped into place at the corner of Helewise' HUD, starting to pulse a now-familiar pale green.

Messaging with 'Dice_Master'

Dice_Master:
> Just woke up, seems like we're getting together a little early. You got a plan dragongirl?

Helewise:
>Yeah.

Then she got to work multitasking, slinging the blacksmith-to-be a friend request and laying out the tentative plan to Duke.
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They'd arranged to meet back up at the main gates and Lizbeth—after some squeaking surprise and a little more hemming and hawing—accepted the friend request followed by the party invite. The open courtyard just inside the city's walls was crowded with groups preparing and departing, a nervous energy filling the air with each team that crossed the invisible boundary and ventured out into the world beyond the safe zone.

Helewise found who she was looking for no more than a dozen meters apart, first spotting Duke who perked up at the sight and greeted her with a casual wave, the little imp fluttering along at his shoulder eyeing her curiously as they approached. "Sachi said she was heading off with a friend today, someone she knows IRL by the sound of it. Who's this?"

"Lizbeth, she wants to go into blacksmithing and we're headed for a place that may have a tutor for it, win-win." Helewise introduced, nodding to the rosette who was eyeing the little fiend with a hint of nervousness before turning to the other friend she'd made since last meeting Duke, "And this here is Otejima."

"Nice to meet you Lisbeth, Otejima…-san? Am I getting that right?"

"It will suffice." The spirit bowed slightly and Duke returned it before turning to Lisbeth and extending a hand. Flustered, the rosette girl dropped into a bow and he yanked his hand back sharply.

"So sorry! With your name I thought…" Duke trailed off awkwardly.

"A-ah, my apologies, I didn't…" Liz wasn't any better in that department, both sporting a dusting of pink on their cheeks.

"Hee-ey!" Jonah's boisterous voice interrupted their tangle of confused apologies, as he pushed through the crowd, Zeero trailing behind him along with a trio of unfamiliar faces. A young asian man, a smiling brunette girl and a boy with…. Uh…

Okay, Helewise was an undead dragon woman who was at all times partly on fire and somehow that slip of a boy managed to be the most attention-grabbing thing in the plaza. It was like someone had looked at a fireworks display and gone 'you know what, I can make a hairstyle out of this'. The only thing more baffling was that he actually pulled it off instead of looking ridiculous.

Jonah's pace slowed as he closed with them, "Finally found ya, what's the plan?"

"Aren't you going to introduce us first?" The brunette's tone was light, sweet, and utterly immovable all at once. It was the voice of a long-suffering designated cat herder.

"Ah shoot, right. Everyone, this is Helewise, Helewise, this is Yu-uh Tokoyami."

"Nice save," Zeero snickered and Jonah shot him a betrayed look.

"As I was sayin', this is Tokoyami," "Hi!" The boy with The Hairstyle waved cheerfully.

"Flowerfee," "Flowerfae," "Flowerfae, sorry." The blue-eyed girl dropped into a little curtsey of all things as she turned back to Helewise. "Pleasure to meet you."

"An' this is Diavel." "Charmed." The english had a distinct accent, and both Zeero and Flowerfae suppressed giggles while he smiled, patient and indulgent.

"I admit I'm somewhat of a new addition," he added in Japanese, "I'm quite glad to have been invited."

"To have been invited…" Jonah muttered under his breath as he visibly scanned the subtitles he was getting before boisterously clapping Diavel on the shoulder, "think nothin' of it man, welcome to the group."

"So," Zeero took a step forwards, the others adjusting themselves until they had a loose circle of eight. "This is a bit too many for one party, so what's the plan? Split in two and stick together?"

"We'll want one butcher in each party then," Diavel's demeanour shifted slightly, more businesslike and calculating as he swept the circle. "Who has the skill? Show of hands?"

Lizbeth's hand rose hesitantly, followed by Helewise's, who gave the pinkette a cheeky wink as the little deception made itself apparent. A confused blink gave way to an only slightly less confused pout. On the other side of the circle, Flowerfae raised a tentative hand too. "Um…. I don't have that, but I did get cooking?"

"What's your weapon anyways?" Duke chimed in, looking her up and down. Everyone else had a clear weapon upon examination, with even Tokoyami sporting a fairly conspicuous long knife at his hip. Everyone except for… "Wait a minute, show me your gloves?"

"Ah…" The girl blushed, but held out both hands, exposing the brazen studs adorning the knuckles.

Diavel started slightly at the sight while the rest of the group leaned in curiously, "Fist weapons? But you can't have unlocked Martial Arts yet…"

"You don't strictly need a combat skill to deal decent damage, especially if you know how to actually fight." Helewise countered as she shot the blushing girl a thumbs up and a toothy grin, "I remember a few forum threads of martial artists and kendokas who made it into the Alpha being over the moon at their training coming in for the clutch."

"They're actually claw-type weapons, at least according to the tooltip." The girl corrected sheepishly. Claws still weren't typically found on the first floor in the Alpha Test, but at least they were less obscure than the Martial Arts skill, whose small handful of users had utterly failed to produce any guides to unlocking it.

"Thuwhu?"

"The little pop up when you tap something in your menu Joe-nah."

"Ohh…. Thanks Toko."

"I feel a little bad though," Flowerfae continued, ignoring the byplay, "I got them from a quest, but then no one else could find the NPC for it."

"Don't be, chances are, the conditions are either extremely strict or you got a perfect roll of the dice with a mischievous 'un. Wouldn't be the strangest that's cropped up since this Shadow Game business started." Helewise reassured with an easy shrug.

Tokoyami startled at the words 'Shadow Game' and looked at the thin air just to his left, lips moving slightly before shaking his head. "Sorry, um…. I think I found a rare card too? Though Mystic Elf isn't that strong…"

"Powerful, but no effects, in the card game it would usually set up a summon, here though…" Duke trailed off.

Meanwhile Jonah raised his voice. "Izzat normal in this kinda game? Quests being super strict an' all?"

"It's usually not," Zeero answered, but his eyes turned to Helewise for a long moment.

"We are very far past anything resembling 'normal'." The dragon woman snorted sardonically.

"So, um… Helewise in one group, Lisbeth in the other, Zeero has a shield, so that's one tank role but we need two, wait, Diavel you've also got a shield right?" The young man nodded in affirmation, a faintly bemused smile playing across his face as Tokoyami took charge. "Zeero in one group and Diavel in the other, Flowerfae and I both have close in weapons, I guess that makes us rogues?"

"Not that SAO has actual classes, but as tactical breakdowns go that's not bad. So you'd make group one Jonah, Zeero, yourself, and Lisbeth, while group two is Me, Helewise, Duke, and Flowerfae?" Diavel nodded approvingly.

Toko rubbed the back of his head awkwardly. "I-I mean, it's just basic party mechanics, but um… I was actually going to put myself in your group."

"Mm… But both groups need a leader, and your friends would like to keep you safe." Both Jonah and Zeero had taken half steps forward at Tokoyami's admission after all. "Besides, we're not actually planning to split up, so this is all mostly a formality."

"Right, right."

Diavel gave the explosively-coiffed teen another look and then nodded once more, clapping his hands. "Alright then, no objections?" Noises of affirmation swept around the circle and he brought up his menu with a flourish. "Then let's set the invites out and get moving, weapons in good shape? At least one health potion each?"

Ten minutes later, they strode out the gate together, into the late morning sunlight of the fields.
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[Everdistant Eternity]

Not much to comment on this chapter, but good writing.

 

[Spectral Waltz]

The fields immediately outside the city rolled in waves of grass interspersed with only occasional bits of geography, all kept easily navigable by the walls easily seen from whichever hilltop you chose. Beneath the trees on the other hand, the landscape became far less even, rising and falling in fits and starts as little dells and waterways snaked across the earth. Insect mobs traveled in ones and twos, while dispersed groups of strange semi-ambulatory flowers known as 'Little Nepent' made their homes here and there.

As one drew closer to the foothills and the village of Medai, the terrain did not so much change as exaggerate itself. Ledges became small cliffs, depressions carved by streams became miniature valleys and chattering creeks, deep and fast enough to prove moderately treacherous when traversed in the midst of combat. Fortunately the worst injury to come of that was a thoroughly sodden Jonah and Lisbeth and a policy of very carefully scouting the banks before crossing anything that looked even a little bit unsafe. On the other hand, that incident led to a whole new set of concerns for Yugi when he really ought to have fallen in as well, only to be sheltered by the serene blue-skinned maiden trailing him, an outstretched hand crafting a dome of blue-green light and force that had withstood a full twenty seconds of charges from three of the 'Lesser Glutton Mosquitos' before shattering.

Despite her serene expression, Yugi couldn't help but feel his summoned guardian hadn't expected her barrier to come apart at that moment. She hadn't spoken a word since her summoning, neither out loud nor in his head, but some little twist of the serenity in her expression spoke of an abiding frustration.

Less frustration, I think, and more consternation.

What does that mean?

A faint note of approval preceded any answering words, answering the mental effort of separating the thoughts intended for the voice that shared his mind from the rest. It means that she is not angered but rather concerned. Her abilities are being affected by this realm.

Maybe the mosquitos were just stronger than she expected?

She had several blows from which to take their measure, at the first that might have been the case, but after sustained assault…. Unlikely.

Good point.

They fell into silence as the two parties navigated a treacherous slope. The brightness of open ground started to become visible through the trees as it levelled out at the bottom, the cliffs and slopes becoming rockier, with rough patches of scree cropping up around rugged moss-covered boulders.

You have a rare opportunity, you realize.

Yugi blinked at the sudden thoughtful tone that wound across his thoughts. An opportunity?

She might teach you to wield such magics yourself, if you ask politely.

SAO doesn't have magic. It sounded stupid as soon as he thought it, but it was how this game was supposed to be. It had been a big point of contention in the midst of the early hype.

Clearly it does.

For NPCs, he wanted to say, for the World, since what else could cause a steel castle to hang in the sky the way Aincrad did?

It is in accordance with the most ancient traditions, the creatures we bound have long been tutors and guides as well as protectors and warriors, at least, those that could be trusted to take such roles.

I've never heard of anything like that…

There was a sense of a looming reply only for it to flicker out after a few moments, emotional impressions blurring. What did eventually come was quiet, almost ashamed. Would that I could offer you more than fragmented scraps of memory. I cannot tell you when or how I know, only that I know.

"Hey! Come on up!" Jonah's voice knocked him from the introspective mood and the presence at the back of Yugi's head retreated quietly as he, Lisbeth, Helewise, and the Mystic Elf hurried up the last patch of ground to gain the ridge. Beyond and below lay the village of Medai, a scattering of sturdy wood-and-stone buildings straddling a river that shone in the midafternoon sunlight, all enclosed by a wooden palisade.

There were also at least three packs of mosquitos and scatterings of some kind of reptilian-looking creature meandering along the slope, yet even so having their first goal in sight brought some renewed energy to the group. Yugi smiled, "One last push, we're almost there guys!"

"Hear hear!"

…Worrying about potential game breakage could come later.
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"...a hermit and his daughter, living in an old shrine up there. She used to come down to visit the village every so often, even after the great separation, but it's been such a long time, and the monsters have been more numerous these past few months as well. If you can spare the effort, would you check on them while you're up there?" The wizened old man said, leaning heavily on his cane.

'The mention of a shrine… This lead becomes more and more promising.' Otejima commented softly 'the mention of increasing monster attacks does become concerning in that light, however.'

"We'll look into it." Helewise replied to both at once with a bob of her horned head. "Best to stock up on even more rations and potions than we'd normally bring, too. Ideally there won't be a need, but better safe than sorry and it's the kind of stuff you can't really ever have too much of."

[Quest Accepted: Hermit of the Mountains | Find and speak to the old blacksmith.]

Otejima mentally snorted, 'how convenient, assuming this 'system' is telling the truth of course…'

"Thank you, Miss Swordmaster." The kindly elderly villager NPC smiled up at Helewise. "You and your companions stay safe up there, you hear?"

"We will, would be mighty embarrassing to end up getting rescued by the people we're going to check up on, hahaha." She replied with an easy laugh, putting on a thin layer of bravado to ward off the gloomy thoughts sprouting up like weeds in her skull and possibly bubbling up in their little entourage. Well, save Reg, bless his heart in whatever canopic jar it may be. He was a simple'un.

Added to the rest, that made six quests. Monster extermination aimed at the 'Harpies' who were apparently roosting in the deeper peaks. Scouting quests meant to point players in the direction of useful ore and stone (another promising point towards 'blacksmith'), a fetch quest to retrieve a pendant that had been lost in a shallow cave. Largely a bunch of fairly standard MMORPG fare.

Outside of the tantalizing hints of blacksmithing though, the most interesting quest was actually an escort quest just outside the village walls. Supposedly an effort to protect the villagers while they expanded their farming plots that could only be done once but, once finished, would let any passing swordmasters use a small instanced garden to grow their own alchemical ingredients (up to a certain level) for a small fee. From the Alpha information, those involved in the initial completion would be granted access for free, which was a tempting offer, but given the area that needed to be defended their little crew would likely be insufficient to the task.

Alas, Helewise wasn't much of a Necromancer yet, let alone a Death Knight. She couldn't exactly whistle and get a bunch of skeletons up and at 'em, so that quest was left be for now. Tokoyami stepped up as Helewise moved away, the NPC smoothly switching into English as the discussion repeated itself, making her way back towards the little town's centre. The open breadth of packed earth in the midst of the various buildings could hardly be called a 'town square' but it was as close as one got to such a thing, and most of the rest had already reassembled there. Lisbeth and Diavel were discussing something in low tones, FlowerFae and Duke both looked like they were just resting and watching the NPCs.

Jonah and Zeero weren't in sight, but the village wasn't so large that the former's accent didn't stand out when voices drifted their way every so often. Still collecting quests by the sound of it.

Helewise changed course, making her way towards them when something snagged on her peripheral vision, toxic green eyes snapping to the flicker of blue-white fire before it slipped out of view and into the spaces between buildings. It didn't at all stop the green glowing trail that Search highlighted for her as she followed. This could be a hostile yokai trying to lure her out of bounds of the Safe Zone, sure, but something in her gut disagreed with the notion. It wasn't as strong an instinct as when she'd clapped eyes on Otejima's card, but…

'There is something there, not a phantom of our order, but I sense no trickery yet.'

That alone said plenty, though that 'yet' was putting in some work. The footprints were visibly flickering as they wound between the buildings, heading vaguely towards the edge of town—though given they'd started close to the center that meant little—until, still inside the Safe Zone, they turned sharply right through a doorway to a disused storehouse.

There was no sudden 'Outside Field' notice as she crossed the threshold, no sudden slam of the door, but as Helewise passed into the dim room the shadows deepened.

"Miss Dragon… What are you doing here?"

Otejima's spectral form twisted suddenly, a faint pressure that had just alighted on Helewise' horns vanished with a little reverberant yelp, a blur of presence resolving into a young girl, messy white-gray hair done up in loose tails, clad in some sort of armored robe of dark red fabric and pitch black trim, like half of a samurai's kit worn over a matching kimono.

"Spotted your fire and got curious." Helewise replied with complete honesty as she took a knee to lower her profile to something less looming and more eye to eye, a taloned finger gently tapping her collarbone to bring attention to her own fire. Violet instead of blue, but both had a white ghostly core. Succinct explanation for why she had gotten curious, "Name's Helewise Golgari, and you are…?"

"I…. don't remember." The girl shuffled from foot to foot, faintly glowing yet still noticeably transparent now that she had a good look at her. Bright red horns poked up from the sides of her head. "I used to have a name, I know that, but then those stupid weird Tengu were everywhere and I had to leave my cave. I think…. I had to leave it behind."

She wasn't just transparent but flickering slightly, Helewise realized. For a split second—how dare this place take more from those trapped here—she saw red, but she swallowed it down until the only trace left was carmine corpsefire shrouding an outstretched pinky finger, carrying all the maniacal determination of the undead, "I'll help you get it back, it's a promise."

She had no idea how she'd done that, or exactly what she'd done to begin with, but her instincts had yet to lead her wrong and she had to do something to stabilize the poor girl.

She looked too much like a guttering candleflame, and shied back from Helewise's outstretched digit for a moment. More than a flinch, if not quite a step backwards, but in the aftermath, painfully quiet, "you will?"

"Yes." The Death Knight said with a quiet, unyielding intensity to her words that made her scales smolder and the title she was reaching for finally start to fit her. It didn't matter whether this ultimately proved to be smoke and mirrors, if that was the case all that'd happen was that she'd look a bit silly and deluded at the end of it all.

If it wasn't, then the outcome of ignoring people in distress because 'they aren't real enough to be worth my time' was utterly unacceptable.

"My cave was…. It wasn't too far up the mountains, I don't remember…" She clutched at her head, shrinking in on herself again, before forcing herself to continue in a mumble. Even the cursor above her head was flickering slightly in time with her body, the yellow tone looking oddly washed out from moment to moment. Something that Helewise took note of but was firmly secondary to her concerns here and now. "It was near the river, and… The Tengu had a chief…"

Helewise was struck by a moment of realization at the insistent terminology. All the other NPCs in the village had referred to the 'Harpies', even in Japanese using 'haapi', but this little ghost spoke of 'strange Tengu'. Another tally, another 'it may be nothing, it may be more proof', it did not change her course of action.

"I-if you really will…" A spectral hand finally reached out, and the pinky wrapped around Helewise' own. Even then, the popup took a long moment to materialize.

[Quest Accepted: The Oni's Cave | Find the cavern, and slay the invading monsters.]

What did not lag in the slightest however was a feeling deep in her chest, like when she had just been an amorphous blob of self extending out pseudopods. An invisible line connecting her to the little ghost the moment they sealed the promise. Something that felt like it went beyond a questline.

It wasn't like when Reg had stuttered and glitched until finally settling and gaining eyelights like her fire, or when she had first channeled Otejima's spirit, but now that she focused, now that she knew what to look for…

Something was there for each of them.

Even as she reluctantly turned away and ventured back out towards the central square, that little something lingered within.
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[Everdistant Eternity]

Ooh~

Not much to really say beyond that, personally, but I like where it's going!

 

[Spectral Waltz]

A/N: With Apologies for the Late Upload.
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"Switch!" Diavel called out even as the lengthy post motion delay of Shield Bash gripped him, promptly covered by Fae leaping past and driving a studded fist into a 'Harpie Lady's angular face. The blow slamming her into the ground and renewing the stun, long enough for him to free himself and put his sword through its throat.

For all that the mobs were around the party's level, the first 'Harpie Scout' encounter they'd run into as they ascended into the mountains had been more like a miniboss with her agility and freedom from gravity's cruel bondage. Sharp claws had targeted throats and armpits, inflicting nasty bleed effects even when they failed to land a vital blow, while retaliatory strikes often had their follow ups foiled as she retreated to the skies before launching another assault.

They had almost thought about turning back in the aftermath, Duke fear-pale as he drank a potion and watched his health slowly climb out of the red. Flowerfae shaking somewhere between terror and fury as Tokoyami quickly wound bandages around half dozen crimson lines on her forearms.

But they'd pressed on in the end, and the next had been easier. Diavel and Zero brought stuns and deflections to the table with their shields, while Helewise and Jonah took advantage of their greater reach to ward off attempts from other angles. The Mystic Elf who'd stuck to defending Tokoyami in the first engagement was seemingly persuaded to put her barriers to more general use, though she stuck by her Summoner's side much like Otejima and Reg did Helewise', the former too incorporeal and the latter simply too slow to do much more than watch someone's back. Although, credit where credit was due, they excelled at those tasks. Otejima's canny eyes and callouts had saved them from a few close calls, while Reg had twice already body-blocked a potentially crippling attack and turned it into the bird woman's doom by putting a literal deathgrip on those talons to let everyone else lay onto the monster.

By their fourth encounter, Diavel had started instructing people on tactics, the 'switch' system that the Alpha players had worked out, explained in the words of someone who'd learned it all through guides but the tone of someone who'd experienced it firsthand. Nobody called him out on the minor obfuscation, they had bigger concerns than that. The scouts had started to come in pairs, and occasional shrill cries echoed from the peaks, but they were learning and adapting. Not to mention collecting plenty of Talons, Feathers, and Hollow Bones from their kills.

"Pheeew…" Flowerfae let out a long breath as she straightened up and stretched, the rest of the party making similarly relieved noises as the BGM returned to the reedy tune that seemed to be the standard for these mountains, releasing the tension combat had brought. "It really feels like I'm starting to get the hang of this."

"Same," Jonah nodded with an exaggerated thumbs up, to noises of agreement from the others. "Though uh… How much further we plannin' t'go today? I'm outta potions."

"Me too, anyone got spares?" Lisbeth hesitated noticeably at Duke's query, but then shook her head, muttering a quiet apology. Of all the people they'd brought with them, she seemed the least suited to these fights. She'd handled the trek to Medai well enough, but the chaos and danger of battles with the agile Harpies seemed to have rattled her.

The rest of the party peered at their inventories or just shook their heads. "I've got plenty of bandages still but only one potion left." Tokoyami reported, sounding apologetic. "Do you think we should turn back?"

"If we run into the same number of encounters on the way out as we did coming in we might be in trouble." Duke pointed out reasonably.

"But at least then we'd be able to restock, maybe spend a day grinding before trying again?" Diavel made a sweeping wave of his arm. "Still! We've come this far, and I've been able to hear water for the past half hour or so. We might be getting close to that shrine the quest asked us to find."

The trail had long since left the river behind, winding up along the slopes while the water was content to run across the valley floor, but now the white noise of rushing water had been creeping up from below again. "Let's press on, if we spot another Harpie patrol we can reconsider again, but I'd hate to pass up on an objective just because we couldn't bother ourselves to walk another handful of meters. Right?"

"Right!"

The shrine itself wasn't around the next bend in the trail, but the sight gave them pause all the same. A series of waterfalls tumbled down the mountainside, pooling in a small and not-quite-natural hollow in the stone before flowing out through a narrow channel to tumble into open air once more. Mist cast from the falls hung there, forming a rippling rainbow that drew awed gasps from the group, but even more heartening than the crafted natural beauty was the sight of the steps which climbed the steep slope next to the falls, switching back and forth as they ascended before vanishing somewhere high above.

And partway up along the ascent, a trio of torii gates, bright orange lacquer cracked and peeling, black crossbars faded to grey, yet their designs unmistakeable all the same.

"Well… Damn."

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Ascending took long enough to make one grateful that physical tiredness was that much less tangible in VR. Wary hesitation gripped them a few times as the cries of more harpies echoed from the nearby peaks, but no further mobs appeared to harass them. All the better given the narrowness and irregular footing created by the steps.

At the top, the noise of the waterfall was a distant thing, a subtle bass note to the gentler hissing of the stream that wound across the right side of the courtyard and through the remnants of an orchard before going over the edge. A stone path cut across the center of the plateau from the top of the stairs to what seemed to be an open-fronted haiden, at least if one judged by the dusty offertory box and frayed bell-ropes that sat front and center before it.

Meanwhile on the left a row of less ornate buildings were set against the next sharp rise, the closest of them open at the front with charred earth and brick scattered around it. Lisbeth startled into motion behind Helewise, "a forge!"

The girl almost ran straight to it, only to halt halfway as the motion spread the groups out raggedly along the cliffside, all awkwardly hesitating as Tokoyami and FlowerFae tried to keep up with the newly-energized girl, Jonah and Zeero started after their friends a moment later, while Duke, Helewise, and Diavel tried to hold position. A beat passed, then another, and Diavel chuckled, slowly sheathing his sword. "I think it's alright to go take a look around, but carefully, okay?"

"Don't just run off like that yeah?" Jonah chimed in as though he hadn't been about to follow in his friends' footsteps. "This ain't a Safe Zone after all."

"Maybe a buddy system?" Tokoyami chimed in, earning nods all around after a moment's thought.

"Sounds like a plan." The wannabe Death Knight chuckled at the same time as she attempted to put some worth to the title. She knew the shape of her soul, she knew what the connections between it and others felt like, ultimately it was no different than isolating and flexing a specific muscle group. Her reward was the fire in her chest flaring in sync with Reg's eyelights as the latter shuffled off to act as a lookout for Harpies, the instant feedback making her grin so wide her rictal membranes showed a tad as her lips parted literally ear to ear, "Everyone with a DM card, when you have the time, try meditating and feel for a connection between you and your partner. Direct mind-to-mind is doable."

Ah, crud, Helewise should've worded that differently. She'd just implied to the others how she saw her summons as actual people, as if they needed more reasons to look at her with suspicion and conce—

"Oh!"

Tokoyami was looking at a spot in the middle distance before his eyes snapped to the Mystic Elf. His head tilted slightly, birdlike, before his brow furrowed in concentration, gaze flicking back and forth before he slowly started to nod. "I get it!"

"I guess if Yugi gets it then I can live with-ack!" Jonah hopped aside as Zeero tried to elbow him, "what was that for!? I nearly fell off the cliff!"

"Names!"

"Hmm…" While the two of them bickered, Flowerfae looked askance between confusion, pride, and long-suffering at her friends' lack of dignity. Duke examined his own monster card with a critical eye. The little bat-winged fiend churred incomprehensibly at him, doing a surprisingly agile flip in the air before shaking its head, its strange megaphone device waving back and forth until finally he sighed and asked aloud, "any chance you can keep watch?"

"See…" The Snipe Hunter blinked, then did another backflip before blowing a raspberry, "...that is more like what I expected from such, but you…" Diavel looked over to Tokoyami and Helewise, both of whose monsters were – without any apparent command gesture or menu use – looking out over the cliff's edge at the distant peaks. "You two are actually doing something, somehow."

"It's tricky and a whole lot of gut feeling to figure out what you're looking for, after that it's a bit like those exercises where you isolate and flex only a specific muscle group." Helewise explained, fangs gnawing nervously on the joint of her thumb, before her eyes suddenly snapped down to the finger. Right. She may actually be able to give Duke a leg up with this.

Slowly, with eyes scrunched up in concentration and sweat beading her brow, she coaxed her fire. Brighter, stronger, focused. A tiny little star that was taking every last ounce of mental tricks in her toolbox to sustain, it demanded such a specific state of mind and drained something that wasn't quite stamina but tired her out all the same, especially every time what she was doing slipped and lost cohesion and she had to reconsolidate it.

The stares weren't quite suspicious but there was a growing concern as the lavender flames flickered and swayed, caught in unseen currents of want and will. "Helewise, are you-"

Flowerfae fell suddenly silent as she jerked into motion again. Through the singleminded stubbornness of the undead she had managed to mostly stabilize the sense of her flames. A mental grip so tight it shook as she scooped those flickering sparks up into her finger and pointed it at Duke, ready to jab him lightly on the chest. Speaking nearly broke her focus, but she held on by the skin of her teeth, "Alright, idea is to give you a little jolt so you can feel out the connection..." The flame tried to race back down her arm and was rebuffed at the base of her wrist, oozing back out into the slender talon. "I am flailing around in the dark, but my hunches have worked out so far, so…"

"I…" Duke had the final say, Helewise wasn't budging an inch until he gave his approval since she was trying to poke the guy's soul so he could get a sense for it. A nervous bead of sweat ran down the back of his neck, enlarged cartoonishly by the emotional emulation system's grasp of his nerves. He shifted awkwardly, and then with a visible effort of will forced himself to take a step forwards, glancing around at the others. Helewise' vision was darkening at the edges, her HUD flickering in her vision again. He took another step, and his eyes unfocused for a moment, flicking up and to the right. His eyes widened, "Hel stop! Your health! STOP!"

Even if it wasn't him asking her to quit it, the yelling broke her concentration anyway, her fire losing all cohesion and racing up her arm and into her heart with a queasy vibration. Her darkening vision blurred, waves of violet and grey sweeping across her sight like scan lines on an old TV before snapping back into clarity.

The roar of flame in her ears vanished, replaced by the distant hiss of the waterfall once more. Vision snapped to clarity with a jarring suddenness, sensations rushing back in. Rocks digging into her palms and knees, dusty flagstones filling her sight, when had she fallen?

The soft 'ping' of the message system sounded earsplittingly loud in the sudden silence, a small chorus of startled yelps filling the air. Had they heard her message somehow? No, she realized as she took in the partial title, they'd just all received a message too.

[System Announcement: Hotfix 1.0.0.1 - 'MP System' addition]

Due to repeated issues with new systems introduced by recent server tampering events, certain adjustments have become necessary to balance player survival with new mechanics. The following new features have been implemented, and will be subject to adjustment over the coming hours.

• Introduction of 'Magical Power' (MP) as a resource. Values may fluctuate as we determine how to calculate this properly.
  • Expended in order to engage with many mechanics surrounding Duel Monsters cards and new summons.
  • Regenerated slowly through lack of use, or rapidly within instanced safe zones.
  • …

Helewise glanced up at the thin blue bar running along the bottom of her HP, slowly climbing back up past the halfway point as she pushed herself to her feet.

"I think I speak for everyone," Diavel began, sounding more shaken than she'd ever heard him, "when I say, what the fuck was that?!"

"Server tampering… You didn't do that, did you?" Duke was pale and in the corner of her eye she could see Lisbeth take a step back.

"I don't think she did."

Tokoyami was looking at that point in space again, his voice uncertain, but loud enough to give pause to the rising tension, to draw them all back from the breaking point.

"Yug' are you sure?" Zeero's slip went unremarked-upon this time.

"I'm sure." The uncertainty was giving way to something else as he spoke. Less than confidence, more than fragile hope, a kind of faith, perhaps. "Pegasus is the one who 'tampered' with all of this, remember? I think she just… tapped into it before they were ready to explain it?"

"If there were any plans to explain or explore it at all." Helewise muttered morosely, although feeling like she just went through a rollercoaster from hell didn't stop her from shooting Yugi a thankful smile, "I just keep tripping over the mess of bits and bobs Wackjob Number Two left strewn around, so Cardinal has to address it. And I don't exactly plan to stop, it's more ways for everyone trapped here to survive… although I should pace myself, sorry for the scare, everyone."

She owed them that much, in this shitshow.

'Apology accepted' sounded quietly from a few, though Lisbeth still looked spooked and Duke's lips were thin. "Maybe…" He began slowly, cautiously, "we can try that again sometime, just in a Safe Zone?"

'Sensible' Otejima agreed, 'their protective enchantments may cushion you against some dangers.'

That they might still not protect her fully did not need to be said, but even knowing that, it would likely be better than nothing. She was certain that it would be an ordeal and a half, but she was going to take it on the chin with a smile because it meant helping her friends and priceless data rippling out to help the entire playerbase.

Compared to that? Shouldering a bit of suffering for a little while was nothing.

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[Everdistant Eternity]

Hmm, while Interesting I can't think of much to comment on in specific.

 

[Spectral Waltz]

Hmm, while Interesting I can't think of much to comment on in specific.

Click to shrink...

I appreciate you coming in to comment even so!

 

[Everdistant Eternity]

I appreciate you coming in to comment even so!

Click to shrink...

I make an effort to! I know how much comments can matter!

 

[Spectral Waltz]

From there, they should have been able to let the tension ease, leave Reg and the Mystic Elf on watch while they fell out and searched the shrine and its outbuildings. Search for clues and discover the next steps of their various quests.

Instead the tension barely had time to settle before one of the wooden doors slid open with a grinding hiss that ended in a sharp bang as it met its frame. Half the party fumbled with weapons and both Reg and the Snipe Hunter still hovering by Duke's shoulder swung their attention to the sound, but the figure that emerged from the gloom bore a yellow cursor. An NPC.

A soot-stained apron, forge-blackened skin, a slightly swaying gait made worse by a clear limp, and squinting eyes set deep in an aged and wrinkled face, examining them suspiciously. "Who are you then?"

Whether it was a convenience of the game or a testament to something else, his voice carried despite its roughness.

"We're uh… Adventurers! Are you the uh… Shrine Keeper?" Jonah ignored Zeero's hiss of 'swordmasters', deftly stepping out of the elbow that tried to bury itself in his ribs.

"Do I look like a priestess t'you?" The man took another few swaying steps before catching himself, leaning heavily against the post that held up the corner of the forge's roof before patting it roughly. "I'm just the smith, and a load of good I am without anyone in need of such."

The word 'smith' startled Lisbeth from her frozen stare into motion, taking two sharp steps forwards before starting to wilt under the pressure as all eyes turned to her. She raised a hand, as though she could snatch words from the air, jaw working soundlessly for long moments until finally she found her voice, "...teach me?"

A hairless brow rose, the rest of the wrinkles on the old man's face doing a complicated dance. "Teach you what?"

"Smithing!" another surge of energy entered her voice. "Teach me-! I want to learn smithing."

"Out here? In the middle of the mountains surrounded by youkai?"

"Y-yes! I-"

"Go away and leave me to die in peace, little girl. This shrine is my home, I'm too old to trade it for another and too little a warrior to defend it."

Lisbeth looked like she'd been punched in the gut, the animating energy that had brought words to her lips leaving her in an instant. The old man, the old smith, lingered against his pillar for a long moment, watching her, but when it became clear she wasn't about to recover her fire that quickly, he scoffed and swept his gaze across the rest. "Seiko's gone, but she wouldn't want the rest of ye to die for this place. She knew the risks, and ye might be swordmasters but ye ain't…"

He trailed off, face going through a brief rictus of fury before settling on something very carefully controlled as he stared at Helewise.

Or perhaps more precisely, at a point just past her shoulder, shifting slightly as the ephemeral outline of Otejima's spectral form took a small step to the right.

"You."

A hand came up, the simple forge hammer clutched in his grip suddenly rock steady as his eyes returned to Helewise. Dark and aged gaze promising the capacity for violence, no matter how futile it may be. The meandering speech sharpened into something far more direct even as roughness remained. "Who is it that attends you?"

'Onmyouji-dono, channel me, if you please.'

She didn't need to be told twice, a deep breath forcing her heart into the right sync and a twist of her soul making room for a second occupant in her body, it took a fair bit of focus but each time she did it, it came easier to her. Otejima's flames mingled with her own, lavender taking on a paler shade, while the edges of her vision took on a faint and flickering tinge of blue that was much more noticeable now that she was doing it in the daytime. 'I was named Otejima Morizuki, I am only Otejima now.'

The words came from her lips without her input, something taking hold of her mouth and tongue to speak in a voice that was not quite hers. Helewise supposed it would've been deeply distressing to a normal person, but to her, it was little more than the lurch when a sword skill hijacked your body. Otejima had politely asked her for use of her physical frame, she had agreed and invited them in, there was no need to overcomplicate it or make a fuss about it.

The old smith, for his part, nearly dropped his hammer. Slowly he lowered it, then, with careful motions, slid the haft back into a loop on his belt. He drummed his fingers against the wooden support, drawing out the seconds as his eyes made their way over to Lisbeth again, then back to Helewise. "You'd endorse her?"

Nearby, Diavel made a soft 'oh' sound, then muttered something under his breath.

'I would.' Otejima spoke again through Helewise' lips, voices layering over each other before their presence withdrew once more, blue flames splitting from her own and filling out their spectral presence.

The smith let out a grunt, "I can't teach her as this place is, the wards won't last more than another day without Seiko to hold them up, and those damn birds will come back once they do. None of you have the skills to restore them, so here's my offer."

"I'll teach your would-be smith what I can, and you'll go out and try to find my wayward keeper. If ye can, she might be able to help you restore the sanctuary. She was investigating the caves to the north and west, so if there's anything left of her it should be in there."

His expression firmed mulishly, "if ye can't find'er… You all leave before the monsters come. Understand me?"

[Quest Update: Hermit of the Mountains | Find Seiko, and return her to the Shrine.]

[Time Remaining: 2:59:59]

"Fifteen to get our bearings and rest up, then off we go?" Helewise asked her companions with a tilt of her horned head. They'd been through an emotional rollercoaster, best to get a bit to simmer down and get on even keel before diving back into air cancer central.

"Maybe just ten," Zeero remarked quietly, "there's a lot of mountains to search after all."

No one else had any objections, although they all seemed a little lost. Lisbeth herself just sat down, breathing shakily, while the others shifted in place or meandered back towards the path, peering about. Diavel shot Helewise an assessing glance, then shook his head, more to himself than anyone else.

The old blacksmith looked them over, giving one last minute shake of his head before limping over to the pinkette. "Time's short, girl."

"L… Lisbeth."

"Kaji," he grunted back at her before letting another beat pass, "what are you waiting for, a hand? You're young, get up. Neither of us have time to waste."

The old man jerked his head towards the forge, gave her another long look, then started to limp his way back towards it, leaving the girl to blink in his wake before she scrambled up and hurried after him.

"Good luck, Liz!" Tokoyami called, earning a surprised nod from her before she passed him.

Then they slipped into the shadows of the forge roof and soon enough came the first creaks of wood and leather moving in concert, the pumping of bellows.

"We should uh… Probably get going, yeah?"

"Yeah, good call Jonah…" Zeero brought his hands together and earned himself an annoyed look from Diavel. "Let's get moving! 'Seiko' probably isn't gonna save herself!"

"Aight, once more into the breach, boys and girls!" Helewise chuckled hoarsely.

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Beyond the Shrine steps the trail split and divided, becoming a labyrinth of smaller paths. Cavern mouths yawned darkly from mountainsides and rope bridges swayed over the valleys as half-buried tributaries ran far below. The Harpies here moved alone yet came densely enough that any noise of fighting was liable to draw more of them to the battle. The narrower trails made combat hazardous outside and yet the newfound caves provided relief. Low ceilings and tighter confines quickly showed themselves to be a death sentence for the agility-dependent mobs.

Of course, baiting them in was tricky as the bird-women were appropriately wary of getting trapped in such a space, and while venturing deeper broke aggro, they were clearly programmed to linger where they'd last seen prey for a while. Creating an ambush that would spring if the party left their shelter the same way they'd come in.

Many of the caverns only had one entrance, mind, but some had more.

"Thank goodness for minimaps." Tokoyami's quiet grumbling was met with noises of assent even as Flowerfae shushed them. The caves had their own mobs, vaguely lizardlike humanoids Zeero promptly declared to be 'kobolds' before even having seen their nameplates.

To be specific, they were 'Mountain Kobolds', and like the harpies they were agile, built for speed rather than power.

Unlike the harpies, they were possessed of hands and used them to wield tools and weapons, even garbing themselves in crude armor and building traps to defend certain locations. While the mobs were more than happy to run away from fights outside of 'their territory', they also tended to come back in a hurry—often bringing reinforcements from just out of sight—when they had something to protect.

Something like a handful of baskets filled with stone-pocked chunks of raw ore, discarded by a wall streaked with more veins of the same dull grey material. While Zeero, Jonah, and the others filled their inventories, adding to the growing stacks of ore previous Kobold kills had dropped, (alongside 'Tattered Scalehide' and -much to their relief- the occasional 'Weak Healing Potion'), Helewise half-turned from the rest of the group and reached out her thoughts carefully.

[Time Remaining: 1:43:22]

"Hey, friend, I know it's a bit of an ask, but I don't suppose you recognize any of these caves?" Helewise asked whisper quiet as she gently tugged on her soulbond with the unhappily-nameless specter. Her memories may be a mess, but now that they were deep in the mountains and caves, perhaps she'd get a flash of recall.

The bond twitched, resonated, but took a long moment to form any actual response, '...y home… close…' words leaked through but much of it was impressions and images, a cave, no… Several caves flickered, overlapping each other in Helewise' vision. Shattered bones, shattered bones, shattered bones. Here a ribcage and leg left to crumble beneath a broken altar, there a heavy femur and shin, marred by claws while the screeching of harpies could be heard as though through thick glass. In another vision, rushing water surrounded a radius and ulna, split and fallen, lodged amidst smooth stones of a darkened riverbed.

At the last, at the apex of a stone seat's back rested a small skull with horns jutting from above its brow, their tips still dyed crimson even as the bone they protruded from had been daubed with bloody symbols, brown with age.

Desecrated.

Pain bloomed behind Helewise' eyes and the visions withdrew sharply, but the connection shifted, becoming directions. One, then two, then three… A fourth connection wavered in and out, running into the stone beneath her feet, but the other three solidified.

'I don't……er but… …know her… …ared for…' The little ghost's voice had grown clearer, though it still faded in and out.

"Hey? Guys there's something new on the um…. The minimap." Flowerfae was fiddling with her menu in the corner of Helewise' eye.

"What are you talking about?"

"You don't see it?"

"I see it, three locations just…" Diavel trailed off and then looked straight at Helewise, muttering an expletive under his breath. "Helewise-san..?"

'What did you do this time' was spelled out so neatly in the look he was giving her that the words would have been little more than a formality. She mouthed a 'sorry'.

"I still don't see it?" Tokoyami piped up curiously.

"Probably because you're not in her party, members share map data in close proximity." Duke answered, because sure enough her map had updated itself, three new locations blooming into view, separated from anywhere they'd explored thus far.

[Quest Accepted: The Oni's Cave | Find the cavern, and slay the invading monsters.]

[*NEW* Find and return the bones to their rightful resting place. (0/4)]

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You can read two chapters ahead on Patreon.
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[Winged One]

- 'MP System' addition]

Due to repeated issues with new systems introduced by recent server tampering events, certain adjustments have become necessary to balance player survival with new mechanics. The following new features have been implemented, and will be subject to adjustment over the coming hours.

• Introduction of 'Magical Power' (MP) as a resource. Values may fluctuate as we determine how to calculate this properly.
  • Expended in order to engage with many mechanics surrounding Duel Monsters cards and new summons.
  • Regenerated slowly through lack of use, or rapidly within instanced safe zones.
  • …

Click to shrink...

Am I crazy, or was Cardinal happy to get an excuse to actually measure the magical nonsense that was added to the game?