Arkell stepped into the treasure room. He had made it. And he had beaten the red-clad twin blade to it. He stepped up to the altar with the chest.
"All mine." He said, and went to open the chest.
"Hey!" A voice shouted behind him. He turned and scowled. It was the twin blade. "The treasure's mine." Hikaru said, looking around for the glitch. Nothing. Arkell laugh was barely audible.
"Nah. I think I got it today. Sorry." Arkell replied. Hikaru went to protest, then sighed.
"You..come here for the glitch?" Hikaru asked. Arkell seemed to take a second to register Hikaru's words.
"What glitch? I typed in random keywords." He said, taking the random piece of equipment that lay inside. As Hikaru went to explain to the red and white steam gunner, the clacking of footsteps alerted the two to a pair of other players.
"Oh. Looks like someone beat us to the treasure, Haseo." Atoli said, entering the area, Haseo in tow. Hikaru turned, and Arkell did not.
"Yeah…looks like it. Who got the treasure?" He asked. At this Arkell turned and pushed a thin lock of dark red hair out of his face.
"I did." He said to Haseo. Haseo's red eyes darted between the two in front of him. The one closest to him, clad in reddish metal and a twin blade, had short charcoal hair, and his armor consisted of a single triangular pauldron on his right shoulder, with ringmail all the way to his elbow, at which a plate gauntlet encased his lower arm and hand. Covering his torso was loose fitting grey cloth held in place by a leather strip going from his right hip to left shoulder. His legs were baggy red pants to his knees, where thin shin greaves and boots made up the rest. His right arm was simply bare with a fingerless glove. The other, a crimson headed steam gunner, wore a loose white-grey tee with crisscrossing veins of red on it, like a web. A small, cape-like piece of cloth came to a steep triangle point near the back of his knees. He also had thinly armored gloves on each hand, the metal shiny and silver. His lower portion consisted of regular white pants with the same pattern as his shirt that ended tucked into grey shoes.
"Well…Ce'la vie, I guess." Hikaru said, his blue eyes rolling towards Haseo.
"Aw….crap." Blackrose said, coming into the ever growing group. "We were beaten here…" She muttered, Kite bringing up the rear. Kite looked at them.
"Oh…oh well. Aren't we here for the glitch anyway?" He said. Blackrose's sigh turned into a gasp.
"Yeah. Seems like they are, too." She said. Atoli's eyes lit up.
"You're here for the glitch, too? Wow, it must be really well known!" She said. Haseo crossed his arms.
"Yeah….." He said. Arkell's face became dominated by a quizzical look.
"What glitch?" He said, Violet irises scanning the other players. Blackrose stepped forward.
"Don't you read the BBS?" She said. Arkell rolled his eyes and snorted.
"No. It's just..idle chatter for those who can't seek out stuff on their own." He replied. If blackrose took offense at his tone, she hid it well.
"I'm just here because Atoli suggested the place." Haseo said. It was a bit of a lie. Atoli spent five minutes dragging him there. "I don't read the BBS, for the same reason as you." Arkell nodded, as if acknowledging Haseo's intelligence.
"I'm here because of boredom and…uh...Some eavesdropping." Hikaru said, pushing his shoulders back and yawning. Behind his M2D, Masai's eyes drooped. It was 1:00 AM in Kyoto. Kite looked around.
"Well…where is the glitch?" He said, inspecting the room. Kite took several steps forward, and the moment he stepped on the carving on the floor that everybody else was on, the area began to shake. Hikaru stumbled.
"Holy crap what was that?" Hikaru said, the floor vibrating. Then, a sound like stones grinding deep in a cavern sounded and turned into a voice.
"The four…Are…Here…." It rumbled, the sound of its voice shaking everybody to the core. Haseo looked around, trying to pinpoint the voice.
"Who's there?" He shouted over the rumbling. "Show yourself!" But to no avail, the thunderous voice that had spoken seconds ago was nowhere, and the shaking slowly came to a halt.
"What was…that?" Kite questioned, to no one in particular. "It sounded like..I don't know…" A terrible thought ran through Arkell's head, but he put it to rest. Omicron was dead. Always would be, would never come back. His memories of the tragedies caused by that single, terrible, evil AI were too horrid to pause on. "That was no glitch."
"No kidding." Hikaru said to Kite, who had a finger to his chin. Haseo, arms crossed and all, shifted from one foot to another.
"Well…I think...I'm...gonna go." He said. Atoli nodded. "It's..uh….bit weird."
"Yeah…." Kite said, still looking around. Arkell shook his head.
"Well, go. I'm staying and looking around." He said. Kite did a look around one more time, then shrugged.
"Wasn't the glitch I heard about." Blackrose said, crossing her arms. "And who are 'The four'?"
"Unless someone has a piece of knowledge about it, I think it was just a vocal glitch. Not what I came for, but an entertaining glitch nonetheless." Hikaru said, warping out abruptly. Haseo rolled his eyes and did the same. Blackrose and Kite were the last to go. Arkell, once they were gone, he crouched down, running his hand over the floor carving.
"Where….have I seen this before?"