Ulrich has vanished from his friends in the world of Aincrad and appeared in another VRMMORPG, will he be able to reunite with his friends?
Rated: AU Fiction T
Disclaimer: I don't own anything apart from the words that I write and the characters that I create. Credit goes to the original creator of the SAO universe; credits also to the creators and contributors to the Code Lyoko series and related works.
Author Notes: If you want to understand this story fully, I would highly recommend reading my previous work: Code Aincrad.
I need to give credit to Latiosus for Beta reading this chapter
Alfheim Standard Time: [10:30] August 1st, 2025
Ulrich suddenly vanished from the world of Aincrad because of a mistake in the conversion process to another VRMMORPG according to his friend: Kazuto. After two months of slow reconstruction and transferring, Ulrich materializes in the sky, roughly...two hundred feet above a forest and quickly begins to fall, which is obviously scaring him.
"Ah damn damn damn! There's no way I'm going to survive this!" Ulrich shouts.
Ulrich is still quickly falling and will hit the ground in less than 20 seconds.
"If someone's there, please help me!" Ulrich shouts during the fall.
Right when Ulrich would've crashed to the ground, he gets saved by another player who appears to have wings on her back.
"Are you okay, whoever you are?" The player asks somewhat worried, when Ulrich notices, it's a female player with clothed in green and white with long blonde hair.
"I am now, I'm glad you saved me..." Ulrich says out of gratitude, but slows down when he would address the person.
"My name is Leafa, what's yours?"
"I'm Ul-" Ulrich cuts off but he thinks he should use a different identity for the time being, with Leafa tilting her head in confusion.
"I'm Ulkaios, I'm pleased to meet you Leafa." Ulrich improvised.
"Same to you Ulkaios, are you new to Alfheim Online?"
"So this must be another VRMMORPG, just like Kazuto said" Ulrich says to himself but says out loud "Yeah, I'm new to Alfheim Online, but when I created this character, I spawned in mid-air about to crash, but you saved me from that fate" Ulrich says, looking sheepish.
"I see, it's rare for that to happen to players starting out, anyway, it's only right for me to help a fellow Sylph." Leafa states proudly.
"So...I'm a...Sylph in this world?" Ulrich thinks to himself.
"I don't want to rush you, but we really shouldn't stay here, the Salamanders tend to frequent this area, I just recently saved a Spriggan in this area named Kirito yesterday. He's been staying with me for a little while." Leafa says.
"Kirito?! Is it a coincidence? Is Kazuto in this world?" Ulrich says to himself in shock. "Leafa...you said you saved a player named...Kirito? Could you try bringing me to where he last was?" Ulrich says in a relatively pushy tone.
"Uh...sure, I dropped him off in Sylvain, it's about a 30 minute flight from here…" Leafa trailed off, looking mildly confused.
"...Flight? What do you mean Leafa?" Ulrich asks, utterly confused.
"Oh yeah...you're new to this game, um...there's a flight engine in this game that allows the players to fly, though it's not unlimited," Leafa explains. "It'll take too long if we walk from here to Sylvain, we need to fly if we want to reach Sylvain quickly. Here, let me teach you how to use the flight engine." Leafa continues while walking around to Ulrich's back.
"Wh...what are you doing Leafa?" Ulrich asks slightly in fear.
"Just calm down." Leafa tries to sooth him while walking to Ulrich's back, puts her hand on his back and applies some force.
"He-Hey! What gives?!" Ulrich says freaked out when Leafa started touching his back.
"Relax, what I'm doing is a good lesson for new players, anyway, try to imagine bones and muscle spreading out around here and try to move them" Leafa spoke in a surprisingly compassionate tone, also a tone of an instructor.
"This reminds me of when Yui helped me back in Aincrad..." Ulrich says to himself.
Ulrich summons his dark green wings, following Leafa's instructions and manages to get them fully spread out and instinctively flies afterwards, with Leafa nearby, also in flight.
"You're pretty smart, far smarter than that Kirito, he couldn't even do this on his first try… it took me ten minutes to get him to do this." She laughed as she recalled Kirito's spiraling flight.
The pair flies to Sylvain, the Sylph capital and stop by the inn where Leafa dropped off Kirito. They arrive at the inn to find a player dressed in nearly all black sitting on a small stool at a table.
"Is that...Kazuto?" Ulrich asks to himself.
"Hello Kirito-kun, I see you've logged back in." Leafa says in a friendly tone.
"Ah, Leafa, good to see you, who's your friend?" Kirito asks, Ulrich gasped quietly to himself, recognizing Kazuto's voice.
"This is Ulkaios, he's a new player of Alfheim Online. I saved him in the same general area we met yesterday."
"I'm pleased to meet you Ulkaios" Kazuto says, apparently not realizing that Ulrich is Ulkaios.
Ulrich can't stand the thought of Kazuto being unaware of the fact his friend is literally in the same room, so he decides to take steps to prevent this from getting out of hand.
"Leafa, do you think I can talk to Kirito alone for a minute?" Ulrich requested.
"Sure, I'll wait outside for you both." Leafa says before departing.
"What did you need to talk to me about Ulkaios?" Kazuto asks.
Ulrich looks around to see if there's any other players around
"Kazuto, it's me! Ulrich! You know, from Aincrad" Ulrich hissed just above the level of a general conversation, but not quite shouting.
"Wait...Ulrich?! What are you doing here in Alfheim? I saw you vanish in Aincrad nearly two months ago" Kazuto exclaimed, clearly shocked.
"It's been two months? Wow, so I've lost two months' worth of time… Anyway, what happened to Karen and the others?" Ulrich asked.
"We haven't had a chance to meet up yet, I've been undergoing physical therapy since I left Aincrad. However...a good number of SAO players haven't returned to reality actually." Kazuto informed him quietly.
"Who hasn't returned?" Ulrich asks, somewhat concerned.
"Asuna, Karen, Kana, Katsuo, Sylvia, and around 200 to 300 other players have not returned to reality. Agil showed me a picture of Asuna being in this game. If Asuna's here, I suspect the others are here as well." Kazuto revealed his suspicions.
"Have they been able to get together to try figuring out what happened?"
"I have no idea, I just started playing this MMO yesterday after I heard Asuna was here."
"I see, we should get going, before Leafa gets mad at us, anyway for now, do you think you could call me Ulkaios? I'll call you Kirito in public."
"Certainly...Ulkaios..." Kazuto muttered, with a little difficulty, finding it uneasy to call his close friend by this new name.
Kirito and Ulrich leave the inn to find Leafa waiting for them.
"Kirito-kun, you said you wanted me to bring you to Aarun?" Leafa asks.
"Yeah, I have a friend near there, I need to get there" Kazuto says quietly.
"I actually may have friends of my own in this game, I want to try finding them if possible" Ulrich says.
"Do you know what their names are? Or their race?" Leafa asked.
"Not particularly…" Ulrich trailed off sadly.
"That's going to make things difficult, I think there are at least 500,000 players in this game minimal." Leafa says with a small sigh, trying not to shatter Ulrich's hope.
The trio depart to the markets since Kirito has asked to buy new weaponry, and Ulrich is hoping to check out their inventory of katanas if possible. Kirito buys a large 'Black Iron Great Sword', while Ulrich buys a katana with the name: Liberator. Ulrich bought this new katana since he doesn't have any of the items or equipment from Aincrad; but he does have around 800,000 Yuld.
Around this moment, a female player nearby, dressed in primarily purple and red, who looks rather similar to Karen, walks by the stall, which Kirito and Ulrich notice right away. She slows down slightly when she arrives near the weapon stall, apparently looking for wares herself. Ulrich decides to test if the person is who he thinks it is, as he's pretty certain this player is who he thinks it is.
"Excuse me, have we met before?" Ulrich asks the player.
"Hm? Are you speaking to me?" The girl asks absentmindedly not really paying attention to the person talking, until she realizes that they are indeed talking to her.
"Oh, I'm sorry, I've been a little pre-occupied, I'm trying to find some friends of mine scattered all over." The girl says, still not quite paying full attention to the pair talking to her.
"I see…" Ulrich says calmly.
"I'm also looking for a...very good friend of mine as well, but I have my doubts he's in this world to be honest..." she trailed off, blushing slightly.
"Really, what are their game names? If you don't know the ones here in this world, what about the ones you remember?" Ulrich asks calmly, in a tone that he seemingly knows this person now.
"Normally, I'd be hesitant to say, but with game names, I'm looking for players who went by Masaru, Amaterasu, and Elena. With...that very good friend, his name is...Ulrich..." The girl trailed off, her blush having faded while she had been talking and yet when she reached Ulrich's name, she went bright red.
Kazuto muffled his gasp as he recognizes the voice of this character now, alongside the fact she knew Katsuo, Kana, Sylvia, and Ulrich. This girl really is Solaris, or as she was commonly called by her close friends: Karen. Kazuto and Leafa walk toward Ulrich as they finished their shopping.
"What's wrong with you guys? Is it that rare talking to someone from the Imp race?" Leafa sighed. "Ulkaios, I'll trust you to keep Kirito-kun safe; bring him to the tower when you finish this conversation." Leafa leaves the area to get to the tower.
"Wait...Kirito...?" The girl sounded surprised.
"I'm glad to see you again, Karen Koizumi" Ulrich whispered loud enough for her to hear him.
The girl gasps in surprise. Understandable considering how someone knew her real name.
"How...how do you know my name?" Karen tries to talk calmly, in an attempt to disguise her fear.
"My name is Ulkaios in this world, but you know me as Ulrich." Ulrich states rather proudly.
Karen gasps even louder, she presumed Ulrich was no longer even alive after the incident in Aincrad.
"Ulrich...? Is that really you?" Karen was not able to believe herself in the slightest, subconsciously hugging Ulrich.
"It's me alright, I'm glad I got to see you again Karen." Ulrich says with a tear in his eye, hugging Karen back, also subconsciously.
"If you wouldn't mind, I'd prefer going by our in game names, that is, until we find the others" Karen says quietly, letting go of the hug after saying this.
"Okay then, my in game name is Ulkaios, Kazuto is still using the name Kirito, and what's yours?"
"This character is named Ashikaga" Karen says.
"Alright, Ulkaios, Ashikaga, we should get going, before Leafa gets angry at us" Kazuto says seriously.
"Right, let's get going" Karen says.
Ulrich, Karen, and Kazuto depart to the tower where Leafa is waiting for them. While the trio is walking towards the tower, they get a lot of negative stares from other Sylph players.
"Kirito, can you think of a reason why these Sylphs seem to hate us?" Karen whispered to the Spriggan.
"No clue, though Leafa did mention that I wouldn't be welcome here much, maybe they don't like other races here" Kazuto says quietly.
"It could be why Leafa told me to keep you safe." Ulrich interjected.
They arrive at the tower after 10 minutes of walking, with Karen being the guide, which is embarrassing slightly for Ulrich. They enter the tower to find Leafa arguing with a small group of Slyphs.
Alfheim Standard Time: [12:00] August 1st, 2025
"Leafa, do you think you could leave our party and think there'd be no consequences?" The leader of the group demanded angrily.
"You told me that I could join when I had the time Sigurd, and that I could leave whenever I wished." Leafa replied angrily.
"You're one of our most famous players in our party. If you leave suddenly with no reason, you'll damage my reputation."
"Ulrich, we need to help her." Karen whispers.
"You're right Karen...wait, what is Kazuto doing?" Ulrich whispers back.
Meanwhile, Ulrich and Karen see Kazuto walking towards Sigurd.
"Party members are not items" Kazuto says in his usual calm tone.
"What did you say Spriggan?" Sigurd demands.
"You can't keep players in you party all the time, as if they were your equipment" Kazuto says calmly.
"You dare lecture me you damn Spriggan?!" Sigurd was getting angrier; his hand had strayed to his sword, in preparation to draw it.
"Ulrich, we can't stand around now, Kazuto may need our help." Karen whispers in a serious tone.
"Yeah, let's go." Ulrich whispers.
The pair was on their way towards the group when Sigurd started talking again.
"You clearly must be a renegade player who got kicked out of his own territory!" Sigurd exclaims.
"Don't be mean Sigurd, I'm partying with Kirito-kun now" Leafa retorts straight back to him.
"Leafa, whoever you are," here he jabbed a finger at Ulrich, "do you plan on abandoning the Sylphs and becoming a renegade like this Spriggan?" Sigurd demands with minor confusion at the arrival of a new Sylph, but still his anger burned.
Leafa looks slightly flabbergasted, but regains her composure very quickly.
"Yeah, I'm leaving Sylvain" Leafa resolves angrily.
"I have little loyalty to the Sylphs, so I have no problem leaving either, and my name is Ulkaios" Ulrich snapped angrily, he's pissed that this...Sigurd is harassing Leafa and Kazuto.
"Count me in too Leafa" Karen says.
"Ulkaios...whoever you are, you're coming with me?" Leafa asks in shock.
"My name is Ashikaga, and yeah, I am." Karen states.
Sigurd gets even angrier and draws his sword pointing it at Kazuto, with Ulrich and Karen drawing their weapons as well.
"Don't...even...think about it..." Karen growls angrily, she has no problem fighting other players if they're harassing her friends.
"As long as you were just going to fly around aimlessly, I wouldn't have bothered to deal with this. However, since you aim to be a thief, I have no choice but to deal with you. Since you're here in Sylph territory, you have no issues with dying, right Spriggan?" Sigurd demanded.
Kazuto looks shocked for half a second then merely sighs, probably because Sigurd does not scare him at all after everything he's experienced in Aincrad.
One of Sigurd's colleagues finally speaks out.
"This isn't the time Sigurd, if you kill someone who isn't even able to fight back in front of everyone..."
Sigurd gasps in shock and looks around to the surrounding Sylphs in the tower staring at him. He reluctantly sheathes his weapon, with Karen and Ulrich doing the same, and says;
"Once you leave Sylvain, you had better run and hide Leafa. If you betray me, you'll regret it immediately." Sigurd states in a cold tone before departing with his group.
"Leafa, are you sure about abandoning your territory? I don't want you throwing everything away for me." Kirito says with relative sadness.
Leafa is quiet and merely pushes Kazuto towards the center elevator, and motions Ulrich and Karen to follow. When they exit the elevator, they find themselves on the top of the tower, which offers an incredible view of the surrounding fields.
"This view is incredible..." Kazuto and Karen say at the same time.
"I know right, whenever I come up here and gaze at the sky, it makes everything else feel so tiny in comparison." Leafa says while reaching out to the sky with her right arm. "This was a good chance for me actually. I've been wanting to leave Sylvain for a while now."
"But...I feel like I forced you to leave on a bad note..." Kazuto seemed sad.
Karen and Ulrich glance at Kirito, surprised that Kazuto is being so compassionate towards Leafa.
"I couldn't think of any other way I could leave Sylvain, Kirito-kun." Leafa states, absolutely nonchalant at leaving.
"Leafa, Ashikaga, do either of you know what a 'renegade' is?" Kazuto asks.
"A renegade is a player who abandons their territory. They're greatly hated by other players." Karen looked down sadly; she herself is considered a renegade.
"Leafa, are you sure about this? You're going to rather long lengths for someone you just recently met." Kazuto says in surprise.
"Yeah, but I don't know why players dislike renegades so much, even if they're renegade, they're still a part of their nation." Leafa still sounded as though she didn't care.
There's a little silence before a voice is heard
"Humans are so complex; I don't understand why they desire to seek others to appear in such unusual ways." A small fairy appears from Kirito's coat pocket.
"What do you mean?" Leafa asks.
"Wait...is that...Yui?" Karen and Ulrich muttered to themselves.
"I'd want to express emotion in simple ways." Yui says after kissing Kazuto's cheek.
"That's some AI, she nearly seems human. Are all private pixies like that?" Leafa asked, just slightly curious.
"She's...weirder than most AIs." Kazuto says with a light blush from the kiss, stuffing Yui in his coat pocket.
"I see. The desire to seek others...-" Leafa whispered to herself.
"Not to ruin the moment, but I think we should get going." Karen pointed out, interrupting the conversation.
"Right, let's go" Leafa says before she gets interrupted by a voice coming from the elevator.
"Leafa!" The voice called out, as the elevator door opens.
"Oh, Recon." Leafa asks.
"I can't believe you Leafa; you should've said something before you left!" Recon says.
"Sorry, I forgot to mention it Recon." Leafa laughed.
Recon sighs "Leafa, they said you left our group".
"Well...I did it from the spur of the moment actually... What are you going to do Recon?" Leafa says nonchalantly.
"I want to go with you Leafa but...there's something bothering me so, I need to do a little investigation so I'm going to be staying with Sigurd's party for a while. Kirito, Ashikaga, Ulkaios, Leafa has a tendency to get into trouble, so be careful." Recon says with mixed tones, he must've been in the lobby where they were and overheard the fight.
"Understood." Kazuto, Karen, and Ulrich replied in unison.
"And just to make things a little clear, Leafa's my-" Recon was cut off by Leafa stomping on his foot.
"The four of us are going to be in neutral territory for a while, send me a message if you need anything Recon." Leafa called out, not showing any anger.
Leafa and the others took off from the tower and begin flying away from Sylvain. They fly for roughly an hour when Ulrich begins shaking
"What's going on? I'm feeling a little weak..." Ulrich says feeling exhausted.
"I told you that you can't fly forever, we're probably reaching our limits, let's touch down and take a break." Leafa explained.
"Are you going to be alright Ulkaios?" Karen asked, concerned.
"I...don't know." Ulrich shook his head sadly.
"What's wrong Ulkaios? Are you feeling exhausted?" Leafa asks.
"I don't know. I hate that I'm being a burden though." Ulrich says quietly, he always hates when he's holding people back, intentionally or not.
"It's okay, the Ancient Forest is nearby, how about we stop there." Leafa proposed.
Alfheim Standard Time: [16:00] August 1st, 2025
The group of four decide to rest on a small island among many above the forest. Leafa and Kazuto are still in good shape and decide to hunt some wyverns, with Kazuto using his sword and Leafa demonstrating a unique skill of magic. However, Ulrich is feeling exhausted and Karen decided to sit with him while he rests.
"Ulrich, are you alright? Do you have the same situation as our time in Aincrad?" Karen asks.
"I don't know... I may regret asking this, but I want you to slash me." Ulrich says.
"Are you insane?! If it's the same situation like Aincrad, you'll be in pain if I slash you!" Karen says in utter shock.
"Just do it! Remember that I'm good at minimizing the pain's effects"
"Ugh...if you insist..." Karen muttered to herself angrily, not liking what Ulrich's requesting of her.
Karen draws a small sword she bought in Sylvain for 300 Yuld and very reluctantly slashes Ulrich's arm, leaving a gash of data three inches deep.
"Ulrich...how do you feel?" Karen looked concerned at the unreadable look on Ulrich's face
"I feel...nothing, I can't feel pain here!" Ulrich broke into a grin.
"That's wonderful...I was so scared for a minute there." Karen sighs in relief.
"Anyway, Karen, since you're here, were you able to find any clues on where Katsuo and the others are?"
"Sadly no, though, I've been working with a player named Okamoto to try finding them, but we split ways for a while before I went to Sylvain. She told me she was going to wait for me in Lugru, an underground city."
"I see, does that mean you'll need to leave us to find this Okamoto...um, would you mind if I called you Ash as a nickname?" Ulrich asked cautiously at the end, he doesn't want to accidentally get her pissed off.
"Go ahead, Aio, anyway, to answer your question, not necessarily, I asked her to keep in touch with me on occasion. We met about two or three days after I was made a renegade." Karen says.
"Aio? Really?" Ulrich asks disappointedly.
"If you want to call me Ash, I'm going to call you Aio, atleast, while we're using these new names. I could've easily decided to call you Ai, which is a girl's name" Karen smirked at the look on Ulrich's face.
"Okay, okay, I'm okay with Aio, just...please don't call me Ai..." Ulrich pleads desperately.
"Understood" Karen laughed.
"How long have you all been here actually?" Ulrich asks.
"Around two months, I can't recognize anyone from Aincrad aside from voice, to be truthfully honest. So I've been on my own, desperately trying to find people from Aincrad and establish a place for us to meet up." Karen's mood dropped immediately to sad.
"Well, now that the two of us and Kazuto are reunited, we'll do our best to find the others" Ulrich says happily.
"Yeah, we'll find them before too long" Karen says, trying to sound happy.
Kazuto and Leafa touch down on the island looking a little worried about something.
"Ulkaios, Ashikaga, would you mind watching over our bodies while we log out?" Leafa asks.
"Uh...sure, but if you wouldn't mind, could you call us Ash and Aio? We know our game names are long, so we wanted to make things simpler." Karen says.
"Sure, Ash, Aio, anyway, we'll be back later" Leafa says, with Kazuto nodding.
Their bodies remain motionless for a time, the sign of delayed log outs, so Karen and Ulrich exchange more conversation.
"What race is Okamoto? I'm a little curious" Ulrich asks.
"She's a Cait Sith, she's rarely serious, but she's a good friend to have, she knows nearly everything about this game. She's been helping me out in exchange for me saving her life against a very large group of Wyverns." Karen says.
"I see I'll trust your faith in this person Karen." Ulrich says calmly.
"Thanks, she did mention she was going to get a friend to come meet me in Lugru."
"I'm glad you've made new friends here, but I hope we can find Katsuo, Kana, and Sylvia soon" Ulrich says with mixed feelings.
"I miss them too Ulrich, the sooner we're reunited, the happier I'll be." Karen says quietly.
After she says this, she opens her inventory screen and summons two small boxes that appear to have wrapping over it. She hands one to Ulrich.
"What's this Karen?" Ulrich asks with a slight frown.
"It's a bento; I made around three dozen before I went to Sylvain, flying actually makes me feel exhausted after a while. I made this many to prepare myself when I fly a long time. It's also for general consumption, even though our bodies still live in the real world, our minds still work and we need food. Take one, I imagine you're hungry." Karen says, holding back a minor blush.
"I can see how that would work and...I'm glad you always went the extra mile to help me back in Aincrad and now. Thank you Karen" Ulrich says in a grateful tone, blushing lightly at the generous gesture.
"U...Um...it's nothing, I had to do it because in our group of five, the only other master cook was Kana and she was busy taking care of Katsuo." Karen says nervously while blushing, trying to pull off a tsundere-style explanation, which does not faze Ulrich, as he's been around Karen long enough to know when she's lying.
"Still, I'm grateful" Ulrich says.
"So you two really are who I thought you were" The navigation pixie: Yui says.
"Yui, is that really you?" Karen asks in mild shock.
"That's right, I'm glad to see you Karen, Ulrich" Yui says happily.
"Yui, I want to ask you, with your AI background, would it be possible for you to find Katsuo, Kana, and Sylvia?" Karen asks, wanting to get to business as soon as possible.
"Sadly no, I no longer have access to admin controls, all I can access is map data, and character profiles to a VERY limited extent." Yui says sadly, feeling guilty about the lack of abilities she has access to in this world.
"You said you can access profiles, how far can you go with that?" Karen inquires about that ability Yui has.
"All I have access to is character name and the date they joined" Yui says quietly.
"Yui, if you can, could you compile a list of players who joined in the last two months? It would help lower the odds." Karen asks seriously, if they want to find the others, they need to lower the number of variables.
"Let me see..." Yui says while putting her hands on both sides of her head. "There are only fifteen players who started playing within the last two months, but I can see that five of them entered the system through unknown methods."
"Yui, can you tell which players entered the game in that fashion?" Ulrich asks curiously.
"Sadly no, the system of the game won't let me do so." Yui said sadly. "But I can you all the names of the players" Yui continued, "There's you, Karen, Papa, a Salamander named Yamakage, a Leprechaun named Krisaga, a Puca named Minatoya, a Cait Sith named Okamoto, and various other players in the other factions. But Cardinal is keeping all of specifics of their character data encrypted from me..." Yui says calmly and frowned slightly at the end.
"Okay, I know Okamoto first hand, and she's not from SAO, I know that much, I've heard of Yamakage, he's very fierce and has made it pretty high up the Salamander military chain of command, and he's only been here a couple of months. Though I don't know the others... but they match the requirements, so we should begin tracking down Yamakage or Minatoya first" Karen said
"I hate to say it, but I think we should put this conversation aside and try to eat before Kazuto and Leafa return" Ulrich pointed out.
"Right, we'll save it for later" Karen says calmly. "Actually, Yui, are you hungry?" Karen asks worriedly.
"Not really Karen, my conversion into a Navigation Pixie removed my need to eat, but I won't turn down food if you offer it Karen" Yui says quietly and happily at the end.
"Very well Yui, let me bring out a new bento box, but I think it'll be too large considering your pixie form, would it be possible for you to change to human form?" Karen says, opening her inventory window.
Yui changes her to her human form, accepts the bento and begins eating. They eat the food that Karen made and talk more while they're eating.
"Karen, you don't need to answer but, you seemed to know alot about the whole renegade thing, is there a reason for that?" Ulrich asks curiously, he noticed Karen looking down when talking about it back on the tower.
"Well...It happened a few days after I arrived in this world, a few players noticed how talented I was with strategies, so I was drafted into the Imp army. We were fighting a boss in the mountains to the northeast of Imp territory, and...I was placed in a unit who were assigned to act as an aerial distraction for that boss. I didn't even know I could fly, and obviously to that, I didn't know how I could pull off such a thing. I...I left them behind and ran in the direction of Dragon Valley...I received a notice an hour later telling me that I was exiled from the Imp nation on the charge of desertion. I traveled along the northern ends of Dragon Valley when I noticed Okamoto near the entrance to Ruger Corridor two or three days later. That's how I was made a renegade..." Karen says, with her head down in sadness, as these events scarred her, but not as much as Aincrad though.
"Oh...I'm sorry about asking about it Karen...I didn't want to bring up such painful memories." Ulrich says with regret with having to force her to recall things she may have wanted to keep quiet.
"It's no problem, I don't mind talking about such things...as long as its you..." Karen says calmly, but quietly and blushing lightly at the end of her statement.
"O-Oh...I...see" Ulrich says in a mildly embarrassed tone, catching on to what Karen's feeling a little bit.
Shortly after they finish eating the food, Yui returns to pixie form and goes inside Kazuto's coat pocket, and almost immediately after, there is stirring from Kazuto's and Leafa's bodies, which means they've come back from their log out status.
Alfheim Standard Time: [16:30] August 1st, 2025
"I'm back" Kazuto and Leafa both say.
"Welcome back Kirito, Leafa" Ash says.
Leafa and Kazuto stretch their arms a few times when Leafa asks in a casual tone
"Ash, Aio, are you both ready to go? We plan to stop by Lugru; it's a halfway point to Aarun."
"Really? I have friends who told me they'd meet me there" Karen says happily.
"Okay, now we have even more reason to go there." Kazuto pointed out.
They depart the floating island and arrive at the cave entrance; however Kazuto is feeling uneasy about something.
"Leafa, Aio, Ash, do you feel like you're being watched?" Kirito asks.
"Not particularly." Leafa says while Karen and Ulrich shook their heads.
"Maybe it's just me then." Kazuto says.
They enter the caves and proceed at a casual speed. They get roughly half way when…
"Okay, now I'm sure, I'm hearing something from the way we came" Kazuto says out of mild annoyance.
"It's faint, but I can hear something...flapping" Ulrich frowned.
"I can detect players approach from behind us!" Yui says in surprise.
"Yui? How many of them are there?" Karen asks in concern.
"There's twelve of them." Yui says, eyes wide.
"Twelve?! That's too many for a casual group, it has to be a Pker group" Leafa says in shock.
"This game allows PKers? Wouldn't that feature be counter-productive?" Ulrich asks, with the events of Aincrad still very fresh in his mind.
"Not particularly...in fact, in this game Pking is very much encouraged, as a way to build up player skill" Leafa shakes her head.
Leafa flees to an alcove and beckons the others to hurry there, which they quickly do. Once the group is behind the alcove, Leafa casts a spell to cover the area with concealment magic. They hide behind it for a minute when Leafa gasps.
"What is it Leafa?" Ulrich whispers.
Leafa notices a red eyed bat in the distance, runs out of the barrier and casts a projectile spell to shoot down the bat, which succeeds.
"That was a high level fire elemental tracer" Leafa says in fear.
"Fire elemental so...that means..." Karen says, trying to figure out what that means and gasps, knowing the answer.
"We can't stay here! Get to Lugru!" Leafa shouts to the others while running.
Alfheim Standard Time: [18:30] August 1st, 2025
The group runs to Lugru as fast as humanely possible, they make it to the far end of the bridge to the city when they start hearing voices not far from them.
"That's Lugru, we need to hurry! If we can get inside the city, we'll be safe from PKers as long as we stay inside!" Leafa shouts.
They make it to the gates of the city but a large earth wall rises in front of them, preventing them from entering.
"We're trapped...We have no choice but to fight the Salamanders" Kazuto says with annoyance in his voice.
"We need a strategy... Kirito and Aio are good melee fighters, Leafa, I imagine you're a talented mage and healer right?" Karen says trying to devise a strong strategy, knowing she has less than two minutes, three at the max.
"Yeah, I'm a decent mage and healer, but what are you trying to do Ash?" Leafa asks.
"I'm trying to think of a strategy for us to fight the Salamanders, anyway I'm okay with healing magic but I'm very good at offensive magic. Leafa, I want you to handle healing Kirito and Aio while they fight the Salamanders and barriers on them and me. I'll use my own magic to assist you." Karen says with her pride on the line.
"I recognize that strategy Ash, you certainly changed it a bit, but I recognize it" Ulrich says.
"Okay everyone, take up formation!" Karen says with pride.
Karen and Leafa stay near the stone wall while Kazuto and Ulrich step forward to begin the fight. A force of twelve Salamanders charge towards Ulrich and his group.
"Okay guys just follow my strategy and we should win, but try to anticipate their actions" Karen says.
The vanguard of the Salamander task force appear to be three heavy shield users, backed up by six mages and three healers.
"Kazuto, if you can, I want you to distract the shield users while I try to jump over them. The biggest challenge to that is the mages, they could blast me and stop that from happening but, it could work" Ulrich whispers to Kazuto.
"If you think you can pull it off Ulrich, then go ahead and do it, I got your back" Kazuto whispers to Ulrich with a thumbs up.
Kazuto charges at the Salamanders to create a distraction for his friend. After the diversion is created, Ulrich uses his sprint skill and uses the speed to jump over the Salamander vanguard, which surprisingly succeeds, and the mages aren't able to blast him quickly enough to force him back in front of the vanguard.
"Distraction successful, start phase beta!" Karen shouts.
"Got it!" Ulrich and Kazuto shout, seeing very powerful magic of various elements sent by Karen, flying above them to the mage group, but it is deflected by a barrier the mages created.
Ulrich quickly uses his katana to slay all three members of the vanguard since their attention was on Kazuto. Ulrich and Kazuto then rush towards the mages; however, they keep using magic to push them back in sequence and to protect themselves from the hostile magic from Karen. Because of the systematic magic sequence the Salamander mages are using, Ulrich and Kazuto are quickly sent back to where Leafa and Karen are.
"Aio, try to buy me some time, I'm going to cast a spell!" Kazuto shouts.
"Got it!" Ulrich shouts.
Ulrich charges at the mages trying to buy time for whatever Kazuto is preparing. Although Ulrich is doing his best to buy time by deflecting as many spells as possible, he's getting sent back repeatedly because of all the powerful spells being targeted directly at him, which is taking its toll.
"Kirito, I can't keep this up much longer! Remember that I can only take so many of these!" Ulrich shouts.
Thankfully, because of the time Ulrich bought for him, Kazuto successfully casted the spell and transformed into a monster that resembled the Gleam Eyes from floor 75 of Aincrad. Upon the spell's success, Kazuto charges at the Salamanders and begins slaying them all, but right when Kazuto would've grabbed and finished the last mage in the group.
"Kirito-kun, spare that Salamander, we can get information from him!" Leafa shouts.
Kazuto releases the player who is surrounded by Ulrich, Leafa, and Karen, with their weapons pointed at him.
"If you want us to spare your life, tell us who sent you here!" Karen says in anger.
"I'd rather die!" The Salamander says.
"Why you..." Leafa says angrily.
"That was more fun than I thought. Though, if I was on my own, I wouldn't have survived a minute" Kazuto says rather amused.
"Hang on, Kirito-kun!" Leafa says in shock.
"Give me a little bit of time." Kazuto says calmly. "I have an offer for you; this is the equipment and money I got from the Salamanders. Answer me truthfully, and you can have it all" Kazuto says very happily.
The Salamander player looks around and asks
"Are you serious about this offer?" The Salamander asks, his resolve starting to waver.
"I am" Kazuto says, rather mischievously.
Leafa and Yui look away in utter disappointment, with Ulrich and Karen looking for a way to take down the earth wall, also disappointed in Kazuto at the moment.
Karen and Ulrich's POV:
Karen and Ulrich are inspecting the stone wall blocking the gate to Lugru to see if there's any way to destroy it. Ulrich slashed at it repeatedly with a sword Karen had in her inventory to no results, and outright shattering it upon the eighth hit, with Ulrich looking guilty now.
"Um...sorry Karen..." Ulrich says sadly, and quietly about the fact the sword broke, not wanting this heard beyond the two of them.
"It's no problem, I bought that sword as a cheap, throwaway weapon, you know that I don't use swords, I always use my trusted spear" Karen says proudly, doing two full spins for comedic effect before putting it back in her inventory.
"Anyway...melee combat won't do any good against this wall...what about magic?" Karen says in mild anger over the plan of melee failing, and then begins casting an incantation for a simple fire spell, and when it hits the wall, it merely leaves a scorch mark. "Well...that didn't work...you might want to step back a little Ulrich, I'm about to use dark magic here..." Karen says in a grave tone.
Ulrich steps back in fear when Karen begins the incantation for a high level dark magic spell results in a large dark crimson fireball being formed which is sent to the wall and erupts into a dark inferno, which surprisingly is able to destroy the wall, with Karen collapsing apparently out of exhaustion.
"Karen, you okay?!" Ulrich asks worriedly.
"I'll be fine with a little rest...using dark magic on that level causes penalties, it also takes alot out of me..." Karen says weakly.
"I'll believe you, but don't push it okay, I don't want you to get hurt..." Ulrich says in concern over his friend.
"...Thanks Ulrich..." Karen says in mild joy, looking away to hide her mild blush.
Kazuto, Leafa, and Yui's POV:
"Are all men like that?" Leafa says, disappointed.
"Daddy's rather blunt like that, Leafa..." Yui says with a sigh.
Kazuto and the Salamander player agree to the terms so he spills his guts about what he knows.
"Earlier this evening, my group leader: G-Takusu, err, the leader of the mage squad, contacted me in real life and told me to log in to meet up with the group. When I logged in, I was told that a group of twelve was going hunting for a group of two. I thought it was a bit overkill but G-Takusu said you were the ones who defeated Kagemune, so it made sense." The Salamander player explains.
"Kagemune? Who's that?" Kazuto asks.
"Kagemune is the Lancer Squad leader. He's famous for hunting Sylphs, but yesterday, he got wiped out in battle and fled back to Gadan. I presume it was because of you." The Salamander continues.
"But why did G-Takusu come after me and Kirito-kun?" Leafa asks.
"I have no idea, but this order came from Yamakage, our best major in the military, he said something about you all interfering with our plan." The Salamander says.
Since they brought the wall down, Ulrich and Karen walk toward Kazuto and Leafa, hoping they've gotten something useful from the Salamander, with the two of them overhearing when this Salamander mentioned G-Takusu.
"Plan? What plan?" Karen asks.
"Do you think they'd tell someone at the bottom of the totem pole like me about important plans? But from mere sight, it's something major in scope. When I logged in earlier, I saw a huge number of us heading north being led by Major Yamakage and General Eugene." The Salamander explained
"Are they...going for the World Tree?" Leafa asks.
"No way, we all agreed we wouldn't try that until our entire army was outfitted with ancient class equipment. We're saving up so we can pull that off. That's all I know about this topic, honest."
The man then whispers to Kazuto. "You weren't lying about your offer from earlier… right?"
"Yeah, I never lie about trades." Kazuto states with far too much pride for the circumstance they were in, that leaves Leafa and Karen utterly disgusted, with Yui and Ulrich shaking their heads in disappointment over Kazuto's actions here.
They part ways and begin the trek to Lugru.
"Kirito-kun...I may regret asking but...did those players...taste like anything?" Leafa asked, slightly curious and yet disgusted at the same time
"They had a texture like yakiniku just before it's burnt." Kazuto says in his usual, blunt tone.
"Uh… actually, never mind. Don't say it." Leafa made a motion for him to stop with her hand, not wanting to hear more.
Kazuto turns his head with an evil glint in his eye and suddenly grabs Leafa's left arm.
"Wh-What are you doing?!" Leafa shouts in her mind.
Kazuto suddenly chomps on Leafa's left hand which causes her to yelp. This results in Kazuto getting heavily slapped, bright red hand mark appeared on his cheek due to the absurdly accurately effects of the game and nearly gets sent off the bridge and into the river.
(A/N: I left this cliffhanger intentionally; I find it's fitting for him to suffer this way.)