Lisbeth spawned inside her blacksmith shop, as her usual routine. She looked around her bedroom on top of her shop, which was covered with pictures and memorabilia of SAO and ALO. She stretched her virtual body around as she made her way down to the forgery. She looked at her current projects and wondered if she should finish them. She decided she wasn't going to work on them today. She stepped behind her store counter and pulled her friends list. She was disappointed to see that her main group wasn't online. She leaned over her counter and sighed, "I wish I can do something today."
As if on cue, she received a message. It was from Ferno, the new addition to their group. She resented answering the message, but replied anyway due to her boredom. His message read, "Hey Lisbeth, I have a quest in progress and I need a partner. Wanna come with?" She took a second to think about it, then agreed. He replies that he will meet her at her shop. She takes her mace and shield to the forgery to repair her equipment. She thinks about what type of quest it could be, especially one that only takes two of them. She doesn't remember the last quest that had such a small party. Actually, she does remember. It was back in SAO, when she went on the supply run with Kirito. And she remembers how well that went. All kinds of thoughts surged through her head as the possibility of the quest topic.
She suddenly heard a chime from her store. She rested her equipment and returned to the store. As soon as she walked through the door, she sees a guy eyeing the weapons in the cases and on the walls. His dark brown hair contrasted with his crimson eyes. His black jacket hid his black chest armor and red shirt. His black boots and joggers matched his jacket, and the accent on his boots were the same shade of red. When she closed the door, he turned to her. "Oh don't mind me. Just having a look. Quite fine weaponry you have here." She gave a confident smirk, "Well of course, since I made them." Ferno gave a slight chuckle. He stood up straight, "Ready to head out?" Liz nods. Ferno steps out to wait for her. She locks up and faces him, "So where are we heading?" Ferno smiles devilishly, "To the heavens!"
Later...
Ferno and Lisbeth were flying over a forest, speeding past forestry and eventually arriving at a large lake. They both touch down and Lisbeth stomps in front of him, "So now do you want to explain this quest?" He points to a cluster of rubble in the middle of the lake, "That platform is the start of the quest. I'm sure that the quest briefing will describe more." Lisbeth gives an unconfident look, but rolls with it. They take a short flight to the marble platform in the lake and notice a small angel-like creature. He stood at the center of the platform. He was about a few feet tall and wore a white toga with a green rope around his waist. Ferno approached him and he began talking, "Kind Fairies! My home has been taken over by an evil water goddess! I ask for your help ridding of her, and I assure you your help will not be undermined!" A prompt then appeared in front of them. Ferno touched the blue circle, accepting the quest. The small Angel smiled, then both Ferno and Lisbeth started to glow.
As soon as the light faded, they stood in front of a white marble castle. It would've been beautiful if the castle didn't have patches of dirt covering it and water streams leaking from windows. Lisbeth looked around the castle and noticed Ferno was studying the castle. He was staring intensely at a few spots on the castle. If she was to guess, he was focused on the water streams pouring from the windows. It would be predictable, since Ferno's type is weak to water. She looks at him, "You ready for this?" Ferno turned to her, as if snapping out of a trance. He smiles and nods. Lisbeth pulls her menu down and summons her mace and shield. Ferno simply held his hand out in front of him and closed it like he was gripping a hilt. As she's seen before, the hilt materializes in his hand. The blade quickly forms out of the green jem at the end of it. The red blade glimmered in the sunlight. She noticed that this sword is different than the one he's used before. "Hey, didn't you use a different sword before?" He looks at her then the sword. "Yeah, I got this from a friend. Some time ago." Lisbeth continues to eye the weapon, "Quite the weapon. You should let me take a look at that later." Ferno nods.
Together they run through the open gate and approach the blasted-open castle doors. Throughout the beginning hallway there were giant rocks littered around the floor. Earthen gnomes jumped out from behind the boulders with small axes and hammers. Their glowing red eyes and sharp-toothed smiles stared with unmatched bloodthirst. Lisbeth's mace glowed gold and she thrusted forward hitting a gnome in the face. She then spun, hitting multiple gnomes and disintegrating them into blue shards. "Yeah! Easy!" She yelled. More gnomes rushed from the hallways and corridors, and soon she realized she was surrounded by more gnomes. Suddenly Ferno landed in front of her slamming his fiery fist on the floor. The gnomes around them erupted in columns of fire. When he stood up, the fire disappeared and the gnomes that weren't incinerated were scrambling due to the cinders landing on them. "Let's move!" Ferno called. Lisbeth nodded as she followed Ferno as he ran up the stairs. Ferno assumed that their leader was on the top of the castle, perhaps in the throne room. To avoid being swarmed, they kept moving as fast as they can while slashing or whacking any gnomes that got too close. If they choose to try to group up in front of them, Ferno would simply blast them away with his fire or Liz would slam her mace in the middle, creating a holy shockwave through the group.
They climbed and climbed until they arrived at the throne room. The room wasn't really much of a room, but a patio. The throne sat on the end of the platform, with no walls around. Only small marble fences surrounded the platform. Large columns patterned in the fence, and they connected to nothing since the roof was open, exposing the throne room to the warmth of the evening sun. On the throne sat a woman draped in a blue and white elegant robe. Her hair was the color of the lake where they started. Only difference was that at the ends of her hair water dripped and vanished. She sat on the throne cross-legged, resting her head on her fist with her eyes closed. Her other hand tapped the armrest opposite to where her head rested. Once we got closer, she opened her eyes opened up and both Ferno and Lisbeth noticed her eyes were a strong blue. "She'd be beautiful if she didn't stare so coldly at us." Ferno whispered.
"So, it is you who dares assault my castle." Ferno gritted his teeth. He knew this was gonna be fighting an uphill battle. He knew he had the elemental disadvantage. "And for mindlessly slaughtering my children, you will pay your time." She held out her hand and summoned a blue lance. She pointed up and gnomes started to fall from the sky, simply from out of thin air. "Hmph, if it's just your underlings we're fighting, it seems like a waste of time." Ferno said confidently. The water woman simply smiled and slammed the end of her lance in the ground. Suddenly the gnomes became bubbled from water. The water bubbles popped and Lisbeth noticed that they were no longer a dirt brown, but a water blue now. She looked at Ferno whose eyes were lit with worry, despite his determined look. She knew she had to fight harder to compensate for Ferno's type disadvantages. She leaped into the air to slam the crowd with a holy blast. But as she flew, her eyesight suddenly was tinted blue. She felt like she lost her ability to breathe. She realized she had a water bubble around her head. She landed writhing, struggling to inhale air. She then realized she can breathe, but whatever substance was around her was putting her to sleep, perhaps to simulate drowning. She tried to look at Ferno, but only to see him swinging his blade and missing every swipe. He was constantly doused with water, which apparently prevented him from igniting his fire. The last thing she saw before slipping to unconsciousness was Ferno being swarmed by gnomes.
Lisbeth woke up coughing up water. She opened her eyes to see Ferno's crimson eyes staring down at her in distress. The darkness of the room they were in highlighted his gaze even more, similar to how a fireplace sets the tone of a cabin. After what seemed like eternity staring at each other, Ferno says, "Are you okay?" The question snaps her out of her hypnotism and she begins to blush. Ferno jumps back as Lisbeth jerks up, still coughing. "Yeah, I'm fine," she says through a waterlogged voice, "where are we?" Ferno sits leaning against the wall and looks around, "A jail cell it seems. They suppressed my fire abilities and threw me in here." He looked down at his hand. "I was powerless. I couldn't fight. Even now they don't care enough to block my fire-using abilities, since they know I can't hurt them with it." He summons a small flame but shortly kills it. "Anyway, as soon as they threw me in here, they tossed you in here as well. I saw that your head was drenched and you weren't moving. I then realized that your health bar was going down. So that gave me the conclusion that you got a drowning affliction. And so naturally, I um...assisted you." He began to turn red and looks away. At first Lisbeth was confused as why he didn't continue. Soon, she realized why he didn't need to say anything. "Thanks, at least. I don't know if I would've woken up if you didn't help." Lisbeth said. She then realized she's still sitting in the middle of the room.
She gets up and sits herself in front of him, just to burn the sight of flustered Ferno in her head. She gets the gist that Ferno is a cool and collected person. Since she gets a kick out of taunting Kirito, Ferno just becomes another victim. Seeing him embarrassed is amusing to her. Ferno then looks at her, still slightly red. She smiles devilishly, "So, can I ask what did you do to help?" Ferno looks away again, "You know, what to do when someone almost drowns." Lisbeth keeps her gaze on him, "Actually, I don't quite know what you're getting at." Ferno swallows and quietly says, "CPR." Mentally, she wanted to hide her face. She was incredibly embarrassed that Ferno did something. But she knew he was just as embarrassed about it as her, "Oh Ferno! I didn't know you can be so bold. You should at least take me out to dinner first." Ferno turned as red as his flames, "It was only to get you of the status affliction!" Lisbeth leans back, "And you know, that affliction fades with time. So I would've been fine without your emergency plan." Ferno stared at her, "So that means…?" Lisbeth simply nodded and put a finger to her lips. Ferno's face was a mixture of a flush and blush. Lisbeth simply laughed at his reaction.
Ferno shook his head and rubbed his face, "A-Anyway, we have to figure out how to get out of here." Lisbeth stops laughing and nods, "I agree, but how do we get out of here?" Ferno thinks for a bit, then says, "You're a Leprechaun right? Why can't you use Earth?" Lisbeth simply shrugs, "I've always used Holy-based sword skills, so I haven't really had a problem with not using Earth." Ferno sighs, "Well now we need to tap into your Earthen roots." Lisbeth looks at Ferno in confusion.
He gets up and sits on his knees in the middle of the room. He looks at Lisbeth and gestures for her to sit in front of him. She obliges and kneels in front of him. "Okay, this may be a bit weird but bear with me." Ferno says. Lisbeth looks at him with humor, "Oh, still keeping your game up?" He turns red again and holds out both of his hands, "Give me your hands." She resentfully joins hands with him. He exhales and closes his eyes. Lisbeth does the same. She begins to notice that his hands begin to feel warm. They get warmer and warmer. She opens her eyes and notices a small fire circle forming around them. She begins to feel nervous but doesn't let go. The air around her begins to grow hot. Slowly and slowly the circle around them grows bigger and more intense. Outside the cell she can hear the gnomes speaking and yelling, banging on the cell bars. She notices one of them open the door and step in but is blown back by some force. She looks back at Ferno and sees the focus he's giving off. She closes her eyes again and a sudden rush of emotions fill her. Care, fury, compassion, passion, warmth, intensity. She wonders if this is from the fire. She notices that Ferno's hands are hot, very hot. But she can't compel herself to let go. She opens her eyes once again and sees that they are now enveloped in a twister of fire reaching to the roof. Gnome chatter can be heard outside but she can't see them due to the intensity of the flames. The air swirls around them like a strong gust. She stares at Ferno who's clothes and hair were being whipped around by the twister. She should be afraid that he wields so much power, despite it being virtual. From what she heard from Leafa, managing this power requires copious amounts of discipline and will. The fact that these flames are so powerful shows what a person Ferno is. Suddenly, Ferno opens his eyes and stares into Lisbeth's. She notices this is a different intensity than what she saw earlier. This is no longer a fire in a fireplace, but a massive blaze destroying a forest. His eyes glowed a sharp red. She keeps staring into them. She suddenly feels a rush of power, almost like something has ignited inside her. The fire fades from an intense red to a light brown. It no longer looks like they're in a fire funnel. Instead, it looks like they've been trapped in a sand twister. The warmth in Ferno's hands are no longer painful. She feels the surge of power coursing through her body. She smiles as she looks at Ferno.
The gnomes outside the cell scramble to try to put out the fire, but freeze in confusion once the fire faded brown. Some gnomes bringing buckets see their brethren looking inside the cell. Suddenly an explosion of dirt fills the hallway and disintegrates the gnomes that were caught in the blast. The gnomes not caught run away in fear. Lisbeth steps out of the cell. Her eyes glow a soft brown. Ferno gets up but feels exhausted. He could never be not tired from those rituals, even if he does them for a million years. He struggles to stand up but Lisbeth holds out her hand and helps him up. She holds out a potion, "Here, drink this. We have a water goddess to defeat." Ferno smirks and drinks the health potion, feeling revitalized. "Alright, let's do this."
The goddess sits at her throne, pondering at what to do with the intruders. A distant rumble grabs her attention. She supposes it's nothing and shuts her eyes. A few minutes later an explosion shakes her throne room. When she opens her eyes, she sees Lisbeth standing before her with Ferno next to her. " I see, so you fairies managed to escape. No matter. I will finish you myself." Once again, she summons her lance and instead of summoning minions, she prepares herself for battle. She stands up from her throne as Ferno and Lisbeth ready their weapons. The goddess was not much taller than them, so physically they stand a fighting chance. Ferno watches as her health bars fill up. 4 green rectangles floated above her head. He exhales and prepares himself for battle.
Ferno runs forward towards the enemy. The goddess lunges forward, but Ferno parries it perfectly. He jumps out of the way as Lisbeth swoops in for the attack. Instead of doing a Holy-based attack, she jumps up and slams her mace on the ground. In an instant, two blocks of the flooring rise up and crush the goddess between them. The goddess breaks free, but Ferno notices is does a large chunk of damage. The goddess spins her lance over her head and swings it in front of her, summoning a large wave of water. Ferno tries to summon his wings, but they wouldn't materialize. Figures it would be a no fly zone. He braces himself for the water. Lisbeth suddenly jumps in front of him and holds her shield up. The small iron guard suddenly explodes into a shield made of ground and she uses it as a dome, protecting both of them from the attack. Once the water stops, the earth shield retracts and reforms into her typical iron guard. Ferno notices that her eyes are still glowing brown. He also notes that her MP bar is full and pulsating. He assumes this must be some sort of overdrive mode that comes with awakening. It's how long it last is what he worries about. The goddess recoils, stunned, "How-how did you survive?" Ferno runs at her once again. The goddess slashes but Ferno parries. He switches with Lisbeth and she performs a devastating combo. Ferno watches as Lisbeth slams, swings, crushes, and bashes the goddess with unrelentless power. She slams the goddess with her shield and she flies towards Ferno. Ferno readies a fire blast as Lisbeth raises another marble block. He blasts the goddess with so much power she flies forward, slamming into the marble column. The rock cracks under the heat's impact.
Lisbeth jumps next to Ferno. The goddess gets up using the staff as her support. Lisbeth looks at Ferno, "Ready for this?" Ferno nods, "You bet I am." At the same time, Ferno and Lisbeth charge the wounded goddess. Ferno slashes her with a fire-covered blade while Lisbeth encases her mace in solid rock to slam the goddess with. The force of the attack blows the goddess back into the throne. The goddess remains motionless. Lisbeth raised her fist, "We did it!" Ferno holds his hand out and Lisbeth high-fives him. Lisbeth suddenly falls forward, Ferno barely catching her, "Hey! You alright?" Lisbeth holds his shoulders and attempts to balance herself. She looks at him, "Yeah, just really tired all of the sudden. Guess that battle took everything from me." Ferno noticed her eyes were no longer glowing brown. Ferno helps her sit down on the marble flooring and he takes a seat next to her. "Now you know how I felt after the boss of our last quest." He laughs as he hands her a health potion and they relax, after a long quest.
The moon turns over the horizon and the sun begins to rise. Neither Ferno or Lisbeth realized how high up they are. They could see a large portion of the forest from one side of the platform while on the other side is the lake, which is where the sun rises from. "Wait," Lisbeth starts, "Why haven't we gotten a mission complete screen yet?" "That's because it's not over." The goddess says in her weary state. Both Ferno and Lisbeth turn to see the goddess raise her hand and a sudden rush of water sweeps them away, both caught off guard. Them along with the goddess are forced off the platform and sent on a freefall to the lake below them.
Naturally, both Ferno and Lisbeth begin panicking. Both try to activate their wings but neither want to appear. In the midst of flails, Ferno grabs Lisbeth and points towards the sunrise. The sun has touched the water from their angle and is now reflecting off the water's surface. Lisbeth admires the beauty that this quest's ending has showed them. This scene reminds her of her quest with Kirito, back in SAO. There, they had a similar experience. Total freefall, admiring the landscapes of the game. She smiles at the memory of her experience and feelings then and now. However that moment of calmness is disrupted by the realization they are going to hit the water at an incredible speed, probably enough to kill them. Together, they brace for impact.
Suddenly it feels like the wind reverses its direction. A strong gust slows them down and another begins to slowly float them to the platform in the middle of the lake. The water goddess, who was falling with them, fell into the water and disappeared. They touched down on the platform softly and are met with the same angel from the beginning of the quest, "Thank you Fairies, you have saved my kingdom from the water goddess. She always attempts to take my throne. But with your help she is foiled once again." Lisbeth stutters in confusion, "You're kingdom? What do you mean?" Without saying a word, the Angel glows and begins to grow. Instead of being two feet tall, it is now a seven foot tall woman with green hair and eyes. She smiles kindly at us and disappears in an angelic light. Ferno looks up and notices that the castle that was once there has been replaced by clouds.
Both Lisbeth and Ferno return to Lisbeth's shop. Upon landing, Lisbeth turns around, "You know Ferno, I thought I was going to have a boring evening, but that quest was a lot of fun." Ferno smiled, "That's great. I had a lot of fun too. Maybe we should party up for more quests, Lisbeth." Lisbeth nodded, "Anytime, oh and just call me Liz." Ferno gives her a thumbs up. Before she could return to her shop, Ferno stopped her. "Hey Liz, think you make a custom order for me?" She turns around and nods. She quickly enters and unequips her armor and weapons. "Welcome to Lizbeth's Blacksmith!" she greets. Ferno laughs and approaches the counter. "I'd like some armor made from this material, please." He pulls down the menu and displays the item to her. "Aquatic Alloy? That's a water-based material, are you sure?" Ferno nods. "I was wondering if you can make a chestplate with water resistance." Lisbeth stares at the item, then nods. "I think I can do it, but it will cost you, and take some time." Ferno scoffs, "Easy enough. How much do I owe you?" Lisbeth looks at him slyly, "Oh it's not a monetary value. I have a quest that gives some rare material as a reward. Accompany me tomorrow, and that will be payment enough." Ferno smirks, "Sounds like a plan." Lisbeth smiles, "I'll let you know once the armor is finished." Ferno nods and walks off, "Seeya Liz!" She watches him fly off, then turns to go back into the forgery. She uses the material to begin crafting armor. Now this, she thinks, is a project I don't want to procrastinate. She smiles at the thought of the nostalgia today has brought her. "Yeah," she says to herself, "Maybe he isn't so bad after all."
AN: Sorry for the long wait! College started and I've been ridiculously busy, but thanks for sticking around! Till next time!