Legend of Dual Blades
~/By The D.D.D.
( Draft ): Prologue
/This is a draft or a raw idea. I'm bad with execution. Anyway, hope someone will read this and enjoy./
Beta Testing Age
The place he was transported to was rather odd compared to what was foretold to be seen in the beginning floor. Last thing that Kirito remember was falling into the sky after being struck by a skeleton warrior, after that he woke up in a place surrounded by fog. He assumed he died and would respawn in the [ Town of Beginnings ] but unfortunately that wasn't the case. 'Maybe it's a bug?' he thought to himself as he walked around the vicinity trying to locate the exit or at least any information to where he currently was.
"Where am I?" he said to himself out loud. Kirito was surrounded by fog, he could barely see anything. It probably had been several minutes since he started looking around for clues or any signs of exit. But there was never any to be seen. He felt like he was looping around in a circle, so he stopped for a while and thought about just re-logging in.
Kirito hovered his hand in the air and summoned his game menu. "I'm just wasting time here. Might as well just restart again," he told himself as he pointed his index finger to the [ Quit Game ] option. But before he could press it, he heard a voice—it said words in a form of a song.
"Beneath the cliff is the [ Barren of Fog ]; where the lost stays waiting to be found. The lily of valleys cries out loud for happiness is nothing but a lost sound," the voice sang with melancholy laced to every word.
The fog started to clear a little bit. Light pierced through the gray clouds and illuminated a female sitting on top of a rock surrounded by some sort of glowing blue stalagmites. He focused my eyes on the one sitting on the rock. The was looking at me with interest as she rested her chin on the palm of her hands. She had a glowing blond hair with deep blue eyes and with a skin as pale a white. Her clothing was simple—or rather it was some sort of a plain short white dress. She was also barefooted.
He started at her for a couple of good seconds before my mind started to formulate thoughts. She couldn't be a player like him. If so, she would at least be wearing an outfit similar to his—an armour of some sort. Maybe she was an NPC? 'Yeah, that's probably the case. Maybe I found a hidden NPC! This is cool,' Kirito thought to himself, a bit excited to his random meeting with the NPC.
"Tell me, are you lost as well?" She asked him, her head titled to the side.
Before Kirito could respond, he saw an enormous shadow behind her radiating a menacing aura. He ran and jumped towards the NPC to save her. Both of them fell down on the dry ground. He immediately regained his focus and looked at the NPC before the attacker. She had a few scrapes but she was fine. On the other hand, the monster was not too happy about them escaping his attack.
"The lost must never be found," the monster growled as its eyes glowed red. The monster was a shadow, it held no form but the aura it radiated was intimidating and menacing. It growled once more. Darkness covered the whole vicinity.
Kirito stood up and unsheathed his sword. He adjusted his form and prepared himself to attack. "I can't see the status or level on this monster. What's happening?" he exclaimed as he started to panic. Normally there was a health and level indicator on the monster, but this one was an exception. Maybe this part of the game was still under construction of some sort and he just happened to get lost in it.
The monster prepared itself as it materialized into a more refined form. It shaped itself into a human like form and summoned dark wings of swords at its command. There was no detail to the new form of the monster, it was simply black along with the summoned swords. "What the hell?" Kirito exclaimed.
The monster didn't waste anymore time to attack Kirito. It sent swords one by one to attack him. Fortunately, Kirito somehow defended himself by sloppily deflecting most of them. The refined shadow laughed as it increased its power and charged a blade at hand. It locked its aim at Kirito and fired the charged blade at him.
One hit will surely kill him. "Shit," he exclaimed as he braced himself.
The sword didn't hit him. He heard a clash of metal. Kirito opened his eyes in surprise to see the NPC he saved had protected him from the attack. "Stand aside. I'll handle this," she told Kirito as she summoned the same bladed wings as the creature had. But she radiated light instead of darkness.
"You are an unwanted creature in my humble abode. I am required to delete you," she exclaimed as she summoned a white sword at hand and head toe to toe against the enemy.
She wielded her blade gracefully as she unleashed an upper slash attack on the shadow. It blocked her attack and sent a sword that stabbed her in the leg. The NPC didn't wince when her leg was impaled. She continued to attack and used her wings to break its defence. Her swords continuously made an upper slash. After the last blade, the enemy's defence was finally broken.
It was as if time had stopped as she gripped her sword tightly before dealing the final blow. She slashed the shadow in half. As the shadow shattered into pieces like a glass, the environment returned to normal. It was the same foggy area Kirito was in earlier.
As the NPC landed down to the ground, she turned around to see Kirito's face in a shock at what just happened in front of him. She walked towards him and offered a hand. He accepted her offer and he stood up with the help of the NPC. Kirito scratched the back of his neck in shame for letting a woman do the saving. Not that there was anything wrong with that.
"Thanks," Kirito said before asking a series of question. "So, uh, what was that thing earlier?" he asked. Normally, an NPC would explain everything after a certain event. Hopefully, at least this would be available for him. Everything else was deprived away from him the last few minutes inside the game—information and exit, he needed answers at least.
"That was a monster that came from your heart," she said as she stared at me in the eye. "It feeds off negativity and grows stronger as you become more confused and afraid."
Kirito gulped down. Was Sword Art Online that kind of game? He knew that the sensors in the Nerve Gear could most likely detect anxiety and fear because of some brain waves or body chemicals. But it was implemented in the game? He didn't expect it from Kayaba Akihiko.
The NPC laughed at his reaction and merely placed a hand on his shoulder. "Do not fear. I am merely joking. It was an unwanted program that must be deleted," she reassured him. But now it made him even more confused.
"Who are you? What are you?" Kirito asked as he scratched his head waiting for an explanation.
The NPC laughed at him once more and shook her head before taking off her hand on his shoulder. She took a step back and said, "Silly, I am no mere NPC. A regular AI would not respond to these types of questions." She summoned her wings made of blades and raised her hand.
The fog disappeared and the environment began to change. The land began to crumble and everything became black. Strings of lines of codes swirled all over the area. Kirito took a step back and gazed everywhere to find every virtual object gone. The bare bone of a program was visible. Lines of codes where everywhere.
He looked back at her, his eyes pleading for an answer.
"I am Cardinal. The Guardian of the world of Aincrad," she gallantly introduced herself as she flipped her blond hair backwards.
Before he could ask nor say anything else, he was interrupted by her.
"I apologize but I cannot let you stay here any longer," she said in sad tone. Cardinal raised her hand and controlled her summoned swords. She sent them flying towards Kirito. But instead of attacking him, it circled around him.
As she slowly moved her hand down she spoke her last words to him, "Good bye, Kirito."
The swords stabbed the ground. Afterwards everything was engulfed by light. Pillars of light came from the swords that she used. Kirito faded into the light, the last thing he saw was Cardinal giving him a sad smile.
It was a familiar smile.
When he woke up, he was out of the game and back into reality. It was a weird phenomenon that he later on asked people in the forums about. Much to his surprise, whenever he posted a topic about it, it simply just gets deleted.
Why?
The beta game ended without anyone else encountering the [ Barren of Fog ] and [ Cardinal ]. Or so he believed.