(Author's Note: My first FanFiction of 2012. Hope you all enjoy!)
(Also, I DO NOT OWN ANY OF THE .HACK FRANCHISE OR CHARACTERS OTHER THAN MY OC)
[Dot]Hack/G.U. Vol. 4/Release
Chapter 1: Renew
At a certain time, Haseo logged on to 'The World' and entered Mac Anu. Looking around, he thought about what he should do today. "Hm, it looks like Atoli's online; maybe I'll invite her and go on a quest." Haseo said to himself, but before he had a chance to send the invite, a message appeared on his screen.
The message simply read- Come to Δ Hidden Forbidden Holy Ground Right Away. – And that was all.
"Huh, a flash mail, I wonder who sent it?" Haseo wondered. The message asked him to come to Hidden Forbidden Holy Ground, a place Haseo was no stranger to. Over the course of the last several months, Haseo had many encounters, battles, and experiences in that Lost Ground.
It may have been that fact that encouraged him to go, even though he was unsure why it had even been sent, let alone by whom? Nevertheless Haseo put off inviting Atoli and turned to the Chaos Gate behind him. Haseo entered the Area Words and teleported to the Lost Ground.
Once at the Lost Ground, Haseo hurried up to the door of the great cathedral and opened them to go inside. Once inside the cathedral, Haseo looked around, trying to find whoever had sent the message. "So, are you the one who got my flash mail?" A voice spoke up and Haseo looked over to its source.
The character Haseo saw was a human-type character. He had short white hair and black eyes. His military-like white shirt was set in contrast with the large black ribbons rapped in an X over his chest and laced to the back, and his sleeves were cut in two pieces that were clipped together by small rings only on the top side of his arms and he had brown open finger gloves. A transparent, light-blue cape was stuck to his left shoulder using a small gold pin. He had blue pants with more black ribbons laced on them and were tied short halfway past his knees where his brown boots began.
"You sent me that message, who are you?" Haseo asked.
"My name is Renatus." The player replied.
"Why did you send me the flash mail?"
"Well, actually I just sent it to Mac Anu, you just happened to be the one who received it." Renatus answered.
"So you weren't calling anyone specifically, you just needed someone to come over; why?"
Renatus's next statement made it sound like he was ignoring Haseo's question. "Do you know about the story saying there used to be a statue of a girl here?"
"Huh," Haseo muttered, wondering what brought this on.
"Her name was Aura, and she was supposedly the/"
"I know the story; I just don't see what this has to do with anything." Haseo interrupted.
"It's actually pretty important to what I'm going to show you." Renatus said. "Come up here." Renatus took Haseo and led him to the front of the cathedral. "Skeith, Innis, Magus; those are the only three names readable on this pedestal." He said, motioning his hand to the pedestal the girl's statue used to be, and where the Tri-Edge insignia now was.
"What about 'em?" Haseo questioned, obviously not able to tell Renatus about the true meaning of those names.
"It seems there's a lot more to those names than most players believe, since this is the only place you ever see the names."
"Why's that?" Haseo asked, still not understanding where this conversation was heading.
"Well I'm really the kind of person who over-analyses things. So I started wondering what exactly the true purpose of these names was, thinking there's no way the game designers would stick them here for no reason."
"So…" Haseo pushed Renatus to get to the point.
"So I started taking a thorough look around the Cathedral, and you won't believe what I found." Renatus said, and then jumped over the railing separating part of the cathedral. "I guess no one really thought to look over here because they never saw any reason to go past the railing, but come look what I found."
Haseo had half a mind to leave but considering this guy was looking into details involving the Avatars, he decided it would be a good idea to find out just how much he knew. Haseo jumped over the railing and walked up behind the pedestal where Renatus was. "So what is it?" He asked, seeing nothing unusual.
"I found a secret path." Renatus told Haseo, and then reached his hand down to the pedestal, and his hand fazed through it, surprising Haseo. "Come on, fallow me." Renatus told Haseo and walked into the hidden path, which must have been a stairwell because Renatus dropped down more with each step.
Haseo entered the secret path and found it was indeed a stairwell going down in a small dark corridor. "So where does this lead?" Haseo asked, actually becoming curious himself now.
"You'll see. But first let's get back to the statue's myth." Renatus said as they continued walking down the stairs. "As you know, the statue was of Aura, the acclaimed goddess of The World, but at some point in the history of The World, she disappeared."
"Yeah, I have a friend who thinks she might have left because she lost hope and gave up on The World."
"That's not a bad guess," Renatus replied. "In accordance with The World myths, a lot of people might think that."
"But you don't think so do you? You think there's a bigger story behind the disappearance of Aura don't you?" Haseo asked, thinking to how Renatus said he over-analyzed thing.
At this point Renatus stopped walking, and when Haseo looked forward he saw they had come to a door. "That's right, and what's beyond this door is what convinced me of that. Perhaps it wasn't that she had lost hope for this world…" Renatus said and opened up the door to the next room, and Haseo followed. "Maybe she left in order to give this world more hope." Renatus finished on the other side of the door, and what Haseo saw in this hidden room astounded him.
In this underground basement hidden in Hulle Granz Cathedral, the statue everyone believed to have been completely removed was now in front of Haseo and Renatus. The statue of Aura, who was assumed to have vanished from The World long ago, was right in front of them suspended in the air by chains. But that wasn't all; behind the statue of Aura were eight smaller statues on individual pedestals. "Hey, what are those?" Haseo asked.
Renatus looked over at the statues in question, and then replied without looking back to Haseo. "From what I understand, they're called 'the eight phases of Morgana'." He said, and Haseo almost jumped at hearing a regular player use the term.
Yata had told Haseo that the Avatars were supposed to be the 'children of Morgana' and that they were marked with 'phases' numbered 1-8. Haseo's Avatar, Skeith, was the first phase: The Terror of Death. And Ovan's Corbenik had been the eighth phase: The Rebirth. Haseo though was wondering how these statues were related to them, when he saw them they reminded him nothing of the Avatars; but taking a closer look now, he saw a resemblance in some of them.
Haseo remembered he was feigning ignorance and spoke to Renatus. "Eight phases of Morgana?"
"Skeith, Innis, Magus, Fidchell, Gorre, Macha, Tarvos, Corbenik." Renatus replied, shaking Haseo as he revealed he even knew the other five names. "One of these names is inscribed on each of the pedestals. They are the phases, apparently." Renatus said, and then began to walk over to the statues, which were lined in two rows of four. Haseo fallowed and took a closer look at the statues.
The one marked Innis, Fidchell, and Corbenik reminded Haseo nothing of the actual Avatars. Innis's statue looked like it could be a geometric plate or puzzle piece, Fidchell's looked like some strange water pump, and Corbenik's seemed to have the shape of a bean or maybe it was supposed to be a kidney.
However the Magus's statue reminded Haseo of its tail, Tarvos's reminded him vaguely of her wing, and Gorre's had two faces, which made him think about the Avatar's twin aspect. Then there was Macha and Skeith, which had the greatest resemblance to the Avatars. Macha's looked like a cat in a dress, which was almost exactly what the Avatar looked like. And Skeith's statue had a form very near what the Avatar's was, and it held a weapon, although it was not the scythe Haseo used.
"I still don't get it, why did you send the flash mail at all?" Haseo asked Renatus.
"I'm just about to get to that." Renatus said and walked past the statues so he was in front of Corbenik. "I sent the flash mail because I came across this." Then Renatus pulled out his weapon, a Steam Gun, and struck Corbenik's statue, after which a blue orb appeared in front of the statue.
Haseo realized what it was immediately. "Uh, a warp point!" He said.
"That's right; Corbenik's statue is the only one that operates like this however. None of the other statues could be used as a warp point."
"That still doesn't explain why you sent the mail." Haseo noted.
"The reason was that I can't use this warp point by myself. Apparently there needs to be two people to be used. No more, no less." Renatus explained. "It's possible I may have found an extremely secret quest, so I wanted to give this warp point a try and see where it leads. So what do you say, will you come with me?"
Haseo was very reluctant. All of this had to do with the Avatars, meaning what lied beyond that warp point could be far beyond any normal players' capability. If he really wanted to find out for himself, he could always turn Renatus down and come back later with someone from G.U.; but Haseo was afraid if he did turn Renatus down, he would just send his flash mail to some other random player, which would be twice as bad.
So long as Haseo was careful and made sure Renatus was safe, it should be alright. And since it would be more dangerous for Renatus without him, he decided to go. "Alright then, let's see just where this warp point takes us."
"Good, put your hand on the warp point." Renatus told Haseo and did so himself. Once Haseo added his hand, the warp point activated and the two of them were teleported out of Hulle Granz Cathedral.
The area the two of them found themselves in next stunned them both. It stunned Renatus because he had never seen anything like it; but it stunned Haseo because he had. "What is this place?" Renatus asked, more curious than frightened as one might have expected.
(Is this, an Avatar Space?) Haseo thought to himself. The space only Epitaph Users could see that the Avatars fought in that was outside the normal parameters of the game; that was were the warp point had taken them.
However, that knowledge brought up a question, since only Epitaph users could see the space, what exactly was Renatus's question referring to. "Well this is quite an unusual and barren area." Renatus said casually and walked forward. "What do you make of it?"
"Well, it is pretty strange. Do you think it's another kind of Lost Ground?" Haseo asked, trying to be as vague as possible since he could not see what Renatus was seeing due to the Avatar Space.
"I'm not sure, the Lost Grounds have always been unique, but have you ever seen one that had nothing in it?" Renatus said, and because the description matched to the Avatar Space, Haseo got a bad feeling. "I mean look around, there's literally nothing for as far as the eye can see; we don't even have a visible floor to stand on, like we could fall down at any moment."
Now Haseo was really worried, from what Renatus was describing, he was able to see the Avatar Space. But that just couldn't be possible unless he were an Epitaph User, which was impossible since he knew all eight of them.
"I don't even see a warp point for us to go back through, there's literally nothing here!" Renatus shouted, but for some reason sounded almost joyful.
"Not nothing boy," A voice suddenly sounded out, which made Renatus and Haseo jump with surprise, looking around for the source of them voice.
Then something began to materialize in front of them, and it was huge. Haseo and Renatus watched carefully as the thing revealed itself, but when it did, Haseo became utterly speechless. The being in front of them was none other than the Avatar Corbenik, but of course his left arm was no longer infected with Aida.
In contrast to Haseo's completely petrified reaction, Renatus spoke calmly. "Wow, what do we have here?"
Corbenik turned to Renatus. "What do you think I am? I am the eighth Phase; Corbenik: The Rebirth." Corbenik informed Renatus. "To think the first one to find their way here would be a regular player. It's almost laughable." Corbenik said, and then turned to Haseo. "But at least this boy has brought with him The Terror of Death."
Haseo took a step back at being addressed. "You… know who I am?" Haseo asked.
"Of course I do, I was there all the while watching as Ovan nurtured you to destroy him." Corbenik told Haseo, which made it obvious.
"Hey now, hold the phone, are you saying you know this huge monster?" Renatus asked Haseo.
Corbenik sighed and looked back to Renatus. "Already I've grown tired of you. A regular player such as you has no business being here." Corbenik said and lifted his hand, appearing that he was planning to destroy Renatus's character.
Seeing that scene, Haseo was taken back and remembered how an attack from an Avatar could put a player into a coma. To stop that possibility from happening, Haseo yelled at the top of his lungs. "HEY!"
Corbenik stopped with his hand held high and looked at Haseo. "Hold it right there! I don't know why he can see you, but I'm not about to let you make him a Lost One!" Haseo yelled, and then yellow light tattoos shined all over his body. "Come on, come on, I'm right here… Skeith!" Haseo screamed, and he became his Avatar, Skeith.
Without even wasting a second, Haseo plowed into Corbenik to get him away from Renatus, and Corbenik struggled for a while to get him off, and by that time they were far from Renatus. "So you are able to harness Skeith's power even here?" Corbenik said, confusing Haseo.
"What does that mean?" Haseo asked.
"You really don't know anything, do you? Well, I suppose it would take someone like Ovan to be able to grasp the situation easily." Corbenik explained. "Let me spell it out for you, this is the place where the Avatar's reside. It is our 'home' in terms that make more sense to you. Here we reside physically, and we can only leave this place when an Epitaph User calls on us to use our powers. But even then we are forced to be merely puppets, our consciousness is suppressed and our bodies are still bound to the space."
"This is where you come from? You're saying the Epitaph Users draw the Avatar's power from here?" Haseo confirmed.
"That is correct." Corbenik replied.
"That still doesn't explain it, why wouldn't I be able to use Skeith?"
"You're dumber than you look boy." Corbenik criticized. "You should not be able to use Skeith's power here because here we are stronger and more resistant to the Epitaph User's calls. While you are here, there is a choice of us lending you our power; where as outside when you call us we cannot deny your call." Corbenik explained. "Simply speaking, you are only able to use Skeith here because it is the furthest space from his own and he simply has not gathered enough strength to resist you at this length just yet."
"Alright I get it; you're saying the real Skeith is somewhere nearby and if he had any more power he'd leave me to be a sitting duck instead of letting me fight you. But that still doesn't explain why Renatus could see you."
Corbenik sighed, like it was a chore to explain all this to him. "Because when you use our power within the normal parameters of The World, our space is place parallel to them, allowing for only Epitaph User to see them. But here you are outside the normal parameters, coming here physically means forfeiting that invisibility and any player will be able to see this space and us." Corbenik explained.
"So how do we get out of here?" Haseo asked.
"As an Epitaph User you are able to leave at any time you wish. But any regular player that enters here can only leave by my consent. Which I could have done before you attacked me." Corbenik said suddenly, surprising Haseo.
"Wait you mean, you don't intend to fight?" Haseo asked, seeming surprised at this.
"You really are dumb. Ovan was my Epitaph User, that means he and I are alike. Do you really think Ovan would have done that boy in with such a simple reason?"
Haseo actually had to think about this. No matter how close he and Ovan were, he had always been a mystery. Haseo wasn't completely sure what Ovan would have done in Corbenik's place, but he guessed it was safe to assume Corbenik was telling the truth.
At that point, Renatus got close enough for his voice to reach Haseo and Corbenik. "Hey, what are you doing!" He asked. "I was looking forward to fighting this special boss! And what exactly is that form you took?" Renatus said, aiming his statements and questions at Haseo.
Because Haseo believed Corbenik was safe, he took his attention off of him and looked toward Renatus. However, to his surprise, Corbenik suddenly flew strait past him and at Renatus. "Since you don't know I'll tell you, that is exactly what Ovan would have done." Corbenik told Haseo.
Haseo was shocked; Corbenik lied to get Haseo to let his guard down. No, actually Corbenik hadn't technically lied, he just didn't answer Haseo's question directly; and that really did sound like something Ovan would do.
Renatus stopped himself when he saw Corbenik charge for him, and immediately brought out his Steam Gun, but Haseo knew it would do little good against an Avatar. "You idiot, run away!" Haseo screamed at Renatus and charged to try and intercept Corbenik.
However, Haseo suddenly reverted back to his character form, losing Skeith's power, and would no longer be able to reach Renatus in time. Corbenik had said if Skeith had any more strength he wouldn't be able to use the power, and apparently he had gotten what he needed. Haseo went wide eye as he could now do nothing but watch a Player become a Lost One.
Renatus however did not back down. And when Corbenik neared him, he prepared his gun to shoot. "I understand you're not something regular players can defeat from what I overheard." Renatus said to Corbenik. "But that doesn't matter to me; I've got to at least try." He said and pulled the trigger, but the bullet that came out didn't make the giant known as Corbenik flinch.
Instead, Corbenik came to a complete halt in front of Renatus. It had not been due to his attack, or anything wrong with Corbenik, it had merely been that he decided to stop after hearing Renatus's words. "You do not even flinch, no matter who or what you're fighting. Now who does that remind me of?" Corbenik muttered to himself, and it almost sounded like he chuckled.
"What's the matter, loss your nerve?" Renatus asked.
"Very well then!" Corbenik suddenly shouted and thrust his palm at Renatus that was bigger than him on its own.
Still, Renatus showed no fear and swung the blade of his Steam Gun so that it would clash with Corbenik's palm. And when it did there was a moment of stalemate, and then Corbenik vanished from sight.
Seeing this, Haseo didn't know what to think. There was absolutely no way Renatus actually beat Corbenik, but there was also little chance Corbenik had decided to flee. And despite how awestruck he was, Renatus still maintained his calm composure and walked over to Haseo. "Hey, are you alright?" He asked.
It took Haseo a moment to reply because of his shock, but when he did he was screaming. "No I'm not alright! What the hell did you just do, there's no way you could have beaten an Avatar!"
"So you do know about all this; I thought as much." Renatus said, still not even fazed by all that had happened. "Anyways I'm not sure what happened, Corbenik just vanished. I didn't beat him though, that's for sure. But while he's gone we should look for a way out right?" Renatus said.
Haseo looked at Renatus and wasn't sure what confused him more, Corbenik's actions or Renatus's reactions to them. However he didn't even have time to think about what to do next, because next thing he knew he was being warped out of the Avatar Space and appeared in front of Mac Anu's Chaos Gate.