Hey guys and welcome to chapter 4 of Complete Immersion. I have to thank you guys for the support you've been giving me on this story. This story has surpassed my previous most popular story, 'Where Real Monsters Go', which is something I never expected from this story when I first wrote it. I can't thank you guys more than I already have, but once again thank you.
As you can see, this chapter isn't as long as the chapter prior, but I'm sure you guys will enjoy it just the same. Since this is the first time I'm going to be straying from canon and show some of Lelouch's adventures away from the main storyline. If not... damn.
This story takes place exactly two months after the events of the previous chapter, probably should of said that during the chapter, but I couldn't figure out a way too without summing up the past two months.
Anyways, thanks to monkeinguin for being the 100th favorite on this story, for your prize, you get an imaginary cookie. Thanks to the other 139 others for you support, I would give you cookies too, but I didn't bake that many.
I'm going to respond to your reviews now!
Pltrgst: I apologize for not being able to exceed your expectations, but I assure you that Lelouch will have his moments in the future, just not then. Thanks for getting one positive note in there.
Starkaster: That should be issue should be fixed, but I may of missed some.
TykkiMikk: Unfortunately Lelouch isn't wearing his Zero garb, but something close to it.
NeoNazo: Yeah that's probably true. Once again, I'm not going to divulge into Lelouch's abilities yet.
Note to people questioning Lelouch's choice of being a solo player and being OOC: I have done everything I write in this story for a purpose. That's all I'm going to say.
I'm going to roll the disclaimer now... so yeah.
-Mandatory Disclaimer-
I don't own either Code Geass or Sword Art Online in any way, shape, or form.
-Chapter 3: Emergence of a New Evil-
'I wonder what's going on over there,' Lelouch thought as he looked upon the crowd of players in front of him with great curiosity, 'Crowds of that size just don't appear with no good reason, so what could of caused it?'
Knowing that he would never get answers from this position, Lelouch walked over to the crowd and gently pushed his way through the crowd, which had gotten him more than one insults from the other players, but he simply ignored them and continued on.
After a few moments of pushing people out of his way, Lelouch had finally reached the front of the crowd, where he was faced with quite the troubling situation. There standing in the middle of the crowd were four hooded players, all of them seemingly members of the KOB by the looks of it. By the look of it, they were giving some sort of an announcement.
"I'm only going to repeat myself one more time so listen up," said one of the KOB members, "Over the past month, the number of PK'ing incidents has spiked dramatically due to recent formation of the PK guild 'Laughing Coffin', who is responsible for the complete destruction of a small guild.
The KOB strongly advises that players not travel on paths alone and that you have several antidote crystals with you at all times as these players are known to be very skilled poison makers.
Also note that these players will show no mercy to their victims and will more often then not, make their deaths as painful as possible. That is all."
Lelouch could only frown at the new presented to him, knowing that this was going to be a problem for a solo player like himself. Though he could most likely fight back any PK attempt made on his person, since he was already level eighty, probably making him the highest leveled player in the game up to this point.
But that still didn't make him completely safe from harm, 'Laughing Coffin' could always poison him during a battle with a really difficult mob or when his health is low. That meant he would need to be extra wary about his surroundings, just like every other player.
'Damn, this is going to be a pain in the ass for months to come,' Lelouch thought bitterly, now beginning to join the dispersing crowd around him in leaving the area, but something made him stop in his tracks. There was something inside of him that just couldn't allow the actions of 'Laughing Coffin', that wanted some sort of justice for the players dead at their hands.
Fueled by this strange feeling, the violet-clad swordsman turned back to the KOB members and asked them, "Is there anyway I can help?"
"I'm really not the one you should be asking for something like that, I'm just the messenger, sorry about that," The KOB messenger explained before giving a small bow in apology.
"No problem," Lelouch replied with a soft sigh, making sure to sound extra disappointed, "Sorry to have bothered you."
The violet-clad swordsman began to walk away from the messenger and then counted down from three, knowing it would only take those many seconds for the messenger would call him back.
One...
Two...
Three...
"Hey kid, wait up!" The KOB messenger called to him right on his cue. Lelouch turned on a heel to find the messenger standing directly behind him, saying, "I think I may have a way for you to help."
"Really?" Lelouch asked, feigning a mix of excitement and astonishment that seemed to fool the messenger, "How?"
The KOB messenger nodded and explained further, "Information on 'Laughing Coffin' is rather sparse at the moment so any info on them would always be a big help. But you're not going to be able to do much after that unfortunately."
"Do you happen to know why that is?" Lelouch inquired, his tone being filled with curiosity.
"Unfortunately no, when you're just the messenger, you don't get to know the things the higher-ups do," The messenger answered, followed by a lighthearted chuckle, "But if I had to guess, it would most likely be because they don't want anyone dying because they don't want to send players off to their deaths."
"I guess I can see the reasoning behind that," Lelouch replied with a small amount of uncertainty, letting out a small sigh before he continued speaking, "Thanks for the information, see you later."
The violet-clad swordsman didn't wait for the messenger to respond, he simply turned on a heel and began walking away from him. Though he did hear the messenger yell, "Remember to be careful!"
The demon emperor cracked a smile at the statement, finding it rather nice for someone to give a damn about a complete stranger's safety. It was a sentiment that he wasn't offered often, may it be IRL or SAO. Then again, it wasn't like the same thing didn't happen to everyone else, right?
'Where to begin?' Lelouch asked himself, currently sitting up in his favorite hiding place: the large branch of a tree on the first floor, trying to figure out how to being his search for 'Laughing Coffin'. He let out a frustrated sigh as he had only came up with two plausible courses of action.
The former emperor had come up with more than that initially, but many had to be eliminated from contention due to them being either overly dangerous, overly demanding, or overly drastic.
'So I've got two options here,' Lelouch thought, 'Option Number 1: Find a member of 'Laughing Coffin' and interrogate them. That seems easy enough, but since no one knows their set territories, finding a member is going to be rather time consuming and the chances of running across one of the members is slim at best.
Option Number 2: Go to the KOB and ask for information from them. This option could prove to have many more issues than the other option, but it's substantially less reliant on sheer chance.'
The raven-haired teen continued to think it over and after a few moments of deep thought, he finally came to the conclusion that option two was the best option for him at the moment.
Lelouch didn't particularity enjoy the idea of working with the KOB, but he really didn't have a choice in the matter. The only other player who could have any information on 'Laughing Coffin' would be Argo and even he doubted that she knew as much as the KOB.
That meant that he was going to have to go through the KOB if he wanted a shot at 'Laughing Coffin' any time in the near future. He was just going to have to deal with it.
Now that Lelouch came up with a course of action, the only thing left for him to do was to act on it.
The raven-haired teen equipped one of his many teleport crystals and then activated it, "Teleport, Granzam."
If there was a city in Aincard that most resembled the cities of the outside world, it was Granzam. Skyscrapers had lined the sky, vegetation was sparse, and foot traffic was heavy. Everything about the city had screamed metropolis, but Lelouch couldn't help noticing how misplaced the steel city was compared to the major cities prior.
All of the cities before Granzam always had some sort of fantasy aspect to them, something that made them stand out from the cities of the real world, but this city was different.
Almost everything in Granzam reminded Lelouch of the outside world and truth be told, the sudden change had bothered him. It was almost as if Kayaba Akihiko had made this city to send a message to the players, but what that message he didn't know.
The violet-clad swordsman had a few theories on the subject when he first saw Granzam, but he eventually stopped trying to understand the meaning behind the 'Steel City'. His reasoning being that he would be trying to understand the actions of a mad man by doing so.
"But then again, who am I to talk about being a man man?" Lelouch asked himself, minding to keep his voice low enough so no one around him could hear, doubting that the people around him would just allow him to question his own sanity.
But the more he thought about it, Lelouch realized that he shared several things in common with the infamous creator of SAO. For example, both he and Kayaba were incredibly intelligent people who had spilled the blood of thousands of innocent people without any form of remorse.
There was only one real difference between the two, and it was that even with all the blood Lelouch had spilled, all of those lives he had ended, meant something in the end. Something that would save the lives of millions if not billions of people in the future, more than making up for his past actions.
But the actions of Kayaba Akihiko had no meaning to them, he wasn't trying to save lives with this death game. All he was doing was satisfying his god-complex and nothing more. Knowing that information from the beginning of the game, Lelouch had no doubts about who the final boss of SAO was going to be.
Kayaba Akihiko, a man whose god-complex was so large, he made his own personal world so he could watch its inhabitants struggle through every passing day, would never allow some AI-controlled monster signal its end.
No, a man like Kayaba was going to oversee the duty personally and make sure his world was going to survive, even if it was only a single day longer. Either that or he admits he's a coward who's too scared to receive punishment for his own transgressions.
But truth be told, Lelouch hoped for the prior over the latter. Wanting to know that the man responsible for entrapping him in this death game had some sort of honor and take whatever punishment that befalls him. Maybe then, all of the lives he had taken would mean something.
Now having thoroughly depressed himself, Lelouch let out another sigh and decided to continue on with his original goal of speaking to Heathcliff about the 'Laughing Coffin' situation.
'I should really stop philosophizing about such things, it always ends with me being depressed,' Lelouch told himself mentally, knowing that he should do so to spare his already faltering mental health.
So with that depressing side note, Lelouch continued on his quest to the KOB's base.
A few moments later, the raven-haired teen found himself standing in front of said base. The building was relatively easy to find, considering it was the only building in Granzam to fly flags inscribed with the 'Knights of Blood' logo; a single white sword.
"Looks like I found the place," Lelouch stated absentmindedly, gazing upon the large steel gate that separated the base from the rest of the outside world, "So how do I get inside, I wonder."
The violet-clad swordsman briefly wondered if he could walk straight through the front door, but quickly dispelled that thought, knowing that it was never going to be that easy.
So with that thought firmly rooted into his mind, Lelouch made a quick scan of the structure and the buildings surrounding it, looking for any possible way past the impenetrable gate standing before him.
Unfortunately for Lelouch, there were no obvious ways past the gate. The gate was too tall for him to jump above in a single bound and the building surrounding it were too far away for him to jump across.
Seeing no way past the gate, Lelouch was forced to resort to his earlier strategy of walking up to the gate and asking for entry.
"This is never going to work," Lelouch told himself as he approached the main entrance of the base, questioning why he was even doing this in the first place.
Upon reaching the entrance of the base, a female guard adorned with a full set of heavy armor stationed next to it stopped him as expected, asking him a rather cliché question, "Who goes there?"
"Uh, my name is Lerouge," Lelouch answered, being slightly bewildered by the girl's audacity, but recovered his composure an instant later.
"What's your business here?" the guard asked, her tone being the same as before.
"I want to speak with Heathcliff," Lelouch replied, prompting the guard to open her mouth to retort something before he continued, "He had a messenger come to me a while back saying he wanted to have a conversation with me. I'm simply here to accept the invitation."
The guard gave an owlish blink at his explanation, making Lelouch wonder if she had bought his explanation, but suddenly her eyes widened in realization as she stated, "Oh, you're that Lerouge."
"Sounds like I've been expected," Lelouch told the guard, having a completely calm exterior as he said this, but on the inside he was wondering if Heathcliff had some how managed to anticipate his visit today and lead him into a trap.
The guard muttered something under her breath, too low for Lelouch to hear, and then continued on with saying, "Come on inside and I'll alert Heathcliff of your arrival, he'll most likely meet you at the entrance to the tower."
"Thank you," Lelouch told the guard as she side-stepped out of his path.
The raven-haired teen walked past the guard and into the main courtyard of the KOB base, which was unsurprisingly filled with members of said guild.
'Well this complicates things,' Lelouch said to himself mentally, having not expected the presence of this many members.
But as he studied them, Lelouch noticed something odd about the knights he passed; all of their equipment had some form of wear and tear on them. Making the raven-haired teen assume they had just recently returned from yet another boss fight.
The raven-haired teen contemplated asking one of the players just what had happened, but quickly decided against it, knowing that he could accidentally bring up painful memories for the person by doing so.
Finding himself with no other options, Lelouch walked over to the tower's main doors and awaited Heathcliff's arrival. All the while ignoring the curious glances he had received from the players around him, having been more than accustomed to the feeling at this point.
'It's been a long time since I've had these many eyes on me,' Lelouch noted mentally, sweet nostalgia coursing through him as he had always enjoyed the feeling of being the center of attention, but had strayed from it due to the fact he was a known beater.
Lelouch often wondered how his life in SAO would of changed if he hadn't performed the 'beater stunt' with Kazuto. Since he had a good amount of free time on his hands, he spent that time coming up with rather detailed scenarios of what could of happened.
In many of those scenarios, Lelouch found himself leading a small group of players or even a large guild similar to the KOB. And deep down inside, he wanted nothing more than to live that type of life once again, but that ship had already left the shore.
Then Lelouch noticed a sudden shift in the doors in front of him, forcing him to abandoned the thoughts immediately, he was going to need all of his focus for his upcoming conversation.
The man he was going to meet wasn't just some ordinary player with an uncanny ability to lead troops, Heathcliff was arguably the strongest player in SAO and Lelouch knew better than to show weakness in front of someone who was even in contention for that title.
Once the doors were fully open, the man in question came out of the tower and into sight, four bodyguards accompanying him on all sides step for step until they were standing directly in front of him.
The two bodyguards in front of Heathcliff separated, revealing the famous leader of the KOB, a small smirk on his face as he said in an overly formal tone, "It's quite an honor to finally meet you Lerouge, you've kept me waiting for quite awhile."
"For that I apologize, I've been rather preoccupied as of late, but the only thing that matters it that I'm here now," Lelouch replied pleasantly, "So what could the strongest player in SAO ever want from someone like myself?"
"I could always ask you the same question, couldn't I?" Heathcliff countered sternly, taking him only a second to see through his pleasant demeanor, "So before I reveal my intentions, I would like to hear yours."
"You're quite the sharp one aren't you?" Lelouch asked, being a little impressed with how quick he deduced his real intentions, "I'm looking for information on a red-guild called 'Laughing Coffin' and I hear you're the leading supplier."
"You're not wrong, but what gave you the impression that I was just going to give you this information for free?" Heathcliff asked quizzically.
"The answer is quite simple actually, I didn't," Lelouch answered matter-of-factly, "So considering you know what I want from you, I think it's only fair that I know what you could possibly want from me."
"But of course," Heathcliff replied simply, "What I want from you is a duel."
"A duel?" Lelouch repeated, making sure he had heard Heathcliff correctly.
The leader of the KOB gave a simple nod in affirmation, which only served to confuse Lelouch further.
Lelouch opened his mouth to respond, but Heathcliff cut him off before he could so he could explain further, "Note I'm not doing this for my own entertainment, I simply want to gauge how powerful you are in battle, nothing more."
The raven-haired teen narrowed his eyes at the man in front of him, not buying the reason Heathcliff had given him. This suspicion came from past experience, knowing that people with power never gave information up without having some deeper reason behind it.
"I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to decline your offer," Lelouch stated politely, not wanting to insult the man who was already intent on fighting him.
Heathcliff raised an eyebrow at him quizzically and replied, "If you don't want to fight me I won't stop you, but before you leave, could you give me a reason why?"
"Tell me, what could I possibly gain from having a duel with you?" Lelouch asked, replacing the polite tone he had been using with a much more serious one to get the point across.
Heathcliff didn't answer the question, leaving the raven-haired teen to answer it himself, "Nothing, that's exactly what I would gain from fighting, but you on the other hand would gain information about myself. Now tell me, does that sound fair to you?"
The guards around Heathcliff shifted, most likely because of the sudden change in the teen's tone and overall demeanor.
Seeing this reaction, Lelouch decided it was best to remove himself from the situation so he wouldn't strain the situation any further, "Looks like it's time for me to take my leave, until next time Heathcliff."
The raven-haired teen didn't give Heathcliff the time to respond, he simply turned on a heel and made his way towards the exit, but stopped when the leader of the KOB called out to him, "Lerouge, you wanted information on 'Laughing Coffin', correct?"
Lelouch turned back around to Heathcliff and asked, "Yeah, why do you ask?"
"If I offered you all of the information on 'Laughing Coffin' that the KOB has, would you reconsider my request?" Heathcliff asked, a small amount of curiosity present in his voice.
"Just for agreeing to fight you?" Lelouch inquired, countering Heathcliff's question with one of his own.
The leader of the KOB gave a nod in affirmation, prompting Lelouch to stretch his hand out to the man in front of him and say, "Then you have yourself a deal, my dear man."
-3rd Person POV-
"Well this was unexpected," Lerouge stated absentmindedly, gazing upon the crowds of people staring down at Heathcliff and himself.
All of which were saying things like:
"You're going to get crushed pretty boy!"
"You don't stand a chance!"
"I hope Heathcliff doesn't mess you're pretty face up too much!"
"I apologize for this," the sound of Heathcliff's voice dragging Lerouge away from the cheering of the crowd, "I didn't know this many people would show up."
"There's no need to apologize," Lerouge replied, a small smile creeping onto his face, "Truth be told, I kind of like having the attention."
"Then why be a solo player?" Heathcliff asked suddenly, a question Lerouge had been asking himself over the past nine months, "From what I've heard you have everything needed to be in a guild or even lead one, so why play solo?"
"Some events that have taken place in the past has made it impossible for me to do so," Lerouge explained simply.
"Are you talking about being a beater?" Heathcliff asked softly, which was the obvious answer if someone knew enough about his past endeavors in SAO.
The raven-haired teen simply shook his head and answered with, "It happened IRL."
Heathcliff had opened his mouth, probably wanting to question him further, but wisely closed his mouth. He simply opened his personal menu and sent a duel-request to him, reading:
Duel Request
Sender: Heathcliff
Duel Type: 1vs1/half-loss.
Accept/Decline
The violet-clad swordsman didn't hesitate a moment and immediately pressed 'accept', starting the 60 second countdown to the beginning of the duel.
Lerouge watched as Heathcliff unsheathed his one-handed straight sword from its sheathe in his tower-shield, a weapon set known Aincard round as 'Liberator'.
Prompting the raven-haired teen to unsheathe his own weapon, a silver rapier with a crimson flower as its hilt, known only to select few as 'Crimson Lotus'.
The two stared each other down as the seconds ticked by and when the timer had reached ten seconds, the crowd began counting down with the timer.
The two combatants prepared themselves for the upcoming duel by getting into their respective stances and listened to the crowd's chanting.
"3... 2... 1!"
On the count of one, Lerouge shot towards Heathcliff with all of the speed he could muster and stabbed, managing to catch his adversary by surprise.
But Heathcliff had managed to regain composure fast enough for him to block the incoming stab with his shield, giving him a clean shot at the raven-haired teen's newly exposed side. So he took advantage of this opening and slashed at Lerouge with his sword.
To Heathcliff's surprise, Lerouge easily parried the incoming swing and sent a series of lightning fast thrusts into his shield, managing to block each and everyone.
Having enough of being on the defensive, Heathcliff swung his blade at Lerouge's throat, forcing the raven-haired teen to jump backwards.
The attack didn't stop the raven-haired teen's assault one bit because on the moment he landed, Lerouge shot towards Heathcliff once again and slashed at him furiously. But this time the leader of the KOB had been prepared for the onslaught and had did the same as he did, their blades continually colliding into each other with the same loud clang.
Then suddenly Heathcliff swung at Lerouge's exposed side with the shield in his free hand, but the raven-haired teen had some how managed to react fast enough to duck underneath the swing.
Seeing a rare opening, Lerouge took a step forward and stabbed at Heathcliff's exposed stomach. The raven-haired teen smirked at the opening, knowing that Heathcliff would never be able to move to block or dodge the attack.
But to Lerouge's surprise, Heathcliff's shield had moved from its original position to right in front of the teen's rapier in an instant, nullifying the attack completely.
Before the violet-clad swordsman could question what had just happened, Heathcliff swung at him with his sword, forcing Lerouge to jump back and out of the way of the incoming blade.
"I must say, you're reaction time is quite impressive," Heathcliff stated, not leaving his defensive stance the whole time.
Lerouge let out a snort and replied, "Thanks."
Once their brief conversation had concluded, Heathcliff immediately charged at Lerouge with blinding speed.
The raven-haired teen almost seemed prepared for the charge because when Heathcliff attempted to bash Lerouge with his shield, he simply jumped up and over the leader of the KOB, landing behind him in a crouching position.
Not wanting to give Lerouge any reprieve, Heathcliff turned around and charged at him the moment he landed.
The crowd watched Heathcliff in anticipation as he neared Lerouge. He raised his sword high in the air, ready to bring it down upon his vulnerable opponent's back, which would guarantee a win for the leader of the KOB.
"Check," Lerouge stated suddenly, turning around with stupefying speed and stabbed at Heathcliff's newly exposed stomach.
The raven-haired teen felt the beginnings of a smile grow as his blade rapidly approached the stomach of his opponent, but forced it down. Knowing that the duel would only be over when the word 'winner' was seen over his name.
And for the second time in the duel, Heathcliff's shield suddenly shifted from one position to another almost instantly, but this time it didn't stop Lerouge's attack, not even close.
But to everyone's surprise, Heathcliff's shield shattered upon impact, giving Lerouge's rapier a clear path to his stomach and this time it seemed like the blade was going to hit home.
-Lelouch POV-
Lelouch's let out a loud sigh at all the stares he had been receiving from Heathcliff's guildmates as he passed them. All of which knowing about the results of his with their leader.
But the raven-haired teen didn't know what had bothered them so much, Heathcliff had won the duel, but they continued to stare at him like he had won. Then again, he did come extremely close to winning.
When his blade was about to pierce his adversary's stomach, Heathcliff's sword went through his left shoulder and down his chest, doing more than enough damage to win the duel.
Losing the duel hadn't bothered him too much, Lelouch was going up against the strongest player in the game, no one had expected him to win in the first place.
Truth be told, he wasn't even fighting at his full capacity, something that Heathcliff was bound to point out at some point.
For the second time today, Lelouch found himself staring at the doors that lead inside the KOB base, waiting for them to open and reveal the same exact man.
"Hey you," Lelouch heard an unfamiliar say from behind him, turning around to see who had called him, finding a rough-looking man standing behind him with a wide smile on his face, asking, "You're that guy who almost beat Heathcliff aren't you, Lerouge right?"
To say the man looked unique would of been a gigantic understatement. The man had thick, shaggy, curly orange hair that went down his face and formed a kind of goatee.
Lelouch blinked at the question, but knowing that the man would find out who he was by asking any of his guildmates, he answered truthfully, "Yeah, that's me."
"Nice to meet you then, the name's Godfree," the man stated, extending an open hand, gesturing his want for a handshake.
Wanting to be courteous, the violet-clad swordsman firmly took Godfree's hand and shook it, replying, "Lerouge, but you already knew that."
"So what brings you to the base of the KOB, Lerouge?" Godfree asked him curiously.
"Heathcliff promised me information if I agreed to duel with him," Lelouch replied simply, "I'm simply here to collect."
"Are you talking about the information on 'Laughing Coffin'?" Godfree inquired, voice still having the same amount of curiosity.
Nodding in response, the raven-haired teen raised an eyebrow and asked, "He told you about that, huh?"
Godfree opened his mouth to respond, but was stopped by the sound of the steel doors in front of them slowly opening.
"Speak of the devil," Godfree replied, rubbing the back of his head as he continued, "I should get out of your hair and let you two speak, it was nice meeting you Lerouge, by the way."
Godfree than proceeded to let a hand out towards him, making his want for a handshake before they parted ways rather obvious.
Not wanting to seem rude, Lelouch took the hand offered him and shook it lightly before replying with a simple, "Likewise."
With that Godfree walked away from him, prompting Lelouch to turn towards the doors with just enough time to see Heathcliff's figure appear behind a crack between the said doors.
"It's nice to see you again, Lerouge," Heathcliff greeted in a curt tone, making it clear he didn't want to spend too much time speaking about this, "Come inside, we have much to talk about."
Lelouch gave a hesitant nod in response before following the leader of the KOB inside, making it clear to Heathcliff that he still didn't trust him.
The look on Heathcliff's face made it clear that he noticed the hesitation in his nod, prompting him to ask, "You don't trust me to fulfill my end of the bargain?"
"You shouldn't feel too bad about that," Lelouch began simply, a wryly smirk creeping its way onto his face as he continued, "I never trust anyone to actually do what they say they're going to do."
"Does this have something to do with whatever happened to you IRL?" Heathcliff asked curiously, "Because it's not normal to have someone so young to display such levels of distrust to their fellow man."
"Yeah, you could say that," the raven-haired teen answered simply, a small amount of irritation rising up inside of him at Heathcliff's attempt to dig into his private life in the real world, "And you act like there's something wrong with being cautious."
"I don't see anything wrong with being cautious from time to time, but there's a thin line between being cautious and being plain anti-social," Heathcliff countered, his bluntness taking me by surprise momentarily.
Lelouch knew that the man had a point. He was displaying anti-social tendencies ever since he arrived in this world, but who could blame him after all he had to go through in his previous life.
The raven-haired teen had grown up in a family where even closest family member would betray you for a better position in line for the throne. He lead a terrorist organization that would eventually sell him out to said family.
Even his best friend sold him out to his bastard father for a position as the seventh knight of the round and then unwittingly set in place the pieces of Lelouch's downfall by accidentally leading his half-brother Schneizel to him during what should have been a private meeting between the two of them.
Lelouch was even betrayed by his own mother, who should have been dead, but who ended up transferring her own consciousness into the body of a girl named Anya, allowing him to believe that she was actually dead and ended up getting shipped off to Japan a month before Britannia invaded.
Something that she was very much aware of at the time, but did nothing to stop it. Which simply meant she had abandoned them in a war zone to fend for themselves, not caring if they lived or died.
Now that he looked back on it, Lelouch noticed that he had been betrayed by almost everyone important to him at one point or another. Which meant that the caution he displayed when he talks to people who are essentially strangers could be justified to some extent.
Not wanting to stay on the topic any longer than they already did, Lelouch asked, "Are you going to give me the information you promised me or are we going to spend the entire night talking about my inability to trust people?"
"Truth be told, I'd like to get to know you better," Heathcliff replied, his tone sounding rather genuine.
"I'm flattered."
Heathcliff ignored his comment and finished, "But like you, I don't have all night so follow me please."
Lelouch let out a small sigh of exasperation and followed the leader of the KOB into his guild's domain and through hallways that were teeming with members of aforementioned guild. The raven-haired teen took note of the route they were taking and began formulating an exit strategy, not wanting to be caught with his pants down if his earlier suspicions proved to be correct.
He knew that he wouldn't be able to be killed inside the base as it was in a safe zone, but that didn't mean that the KOB couldn't corner him and force him to do something that he really didn't want to do.
Eventually, the two came to a door quite a distance from the main hallway, something that only served to increase Lelouch's earlier suspicions. He waited for Heathcliff to open the door and enter into the room beyond before following, ignoring his body's clear want to flee the situation immediately.
The room beyond the door was rather unusual, it almost had nothing inside, other than a single wooden table in the center of the room. Heathcliff immediately went over to the table and looked over to him, waiting for him to follow.
Lelouch's eyes shot around the room, looking for anything that pointed towards a trap, but walked over to Heathcliff upon finding absolutely nothing. A small trade-request appearing in front of him the moment he stepped in front of the silver-haired man.
Trade Request
Sender: Heathcliff
Accept/Decline
Lelouch pressed the green accept button and found two crystals placed in Heathcliff's trade-screen: on being a screen-shot crystal and the other being a message-record crystal.
The violet-clad swordsman shot a questioning look at the leader of the KOB and asked, "This is all of the information you have on 'Laughing Coffin'?"
"That is unfortunately," Heathcliff answered solemnly, "Information about the red-guild has been rather hard to get ever since they first popped up back on New Year's Eve."
"Do you know why that is?" Lelouch asked as he pressed the 'accept' button, wondering how a simple red-guild managed to elude the sight of strongest guild in all of Aincard.
"My subordinates and I have come up with a few theories," Heathcliff answered before letting out a sigh, "But nothing concrete yet."
The violet-clad swordsman opened his mouth to ask about said theories, but immediately thought better of it because he really didn't want to spend another second near Heathcliff.
Lelouch had never actually talked to Heathcliff before today, but he had heard the rumors about him and most of them made him sound like he was the epitome of perfection as a fighter.
At the time, the raven-haired teen thought that the players spreading the rumors were the man's groupies and over-exaggerated his abilities to make him sound invincible in the public's eyes. To put it simply, Lelouch was beginning to believe those rumors, especially after experiencing those abilities for himself first hand.
One of those abilities being the ability to move his shield from one place to another in less than an instant, something that was even faster than thrusting a rapier which was the most instantaneous actions a player could perform in the game and that itself was what was bugging Lelouch.
Such an action shouldn't of been possible in SAO. The system just couldn't handle that type of speed, barring some type of glitch or lag spike which would imply that Heathcliff expected all of those attacks he blocked to happen before Lelouch even attempted them.
But from what Lelouch saw during their duel, the silver-haired man was relatively caught off-guard by the attacks that the sudden position change occurred which meant that either Heathcliff had found a way to cheat or had the reaction time of a super computer.
The raven-haired teen personally believed that Heathcliff was doing the prior because the latter was almost physically impossible. Of course there could have been several other reasons that lead to the sudden spike in speed one time, but very few things could of explained it happening twice.
Lelouch was tempted to come out and ask Heathcliff about it, but immediately thought better of it since there was no guarantee that the silver-haired man wouldn't have him killed for stumbling upon his secret. And even if he decided to explain the whole thing, there would be no way of telling if he was lying or not.
'Dammit!' Lelouch cursed mentally, forcing himself to not frown at the situation in front of him, 'Either I call him out on it and face the real possibility of him killing me in the near future, or I don't and let him continue playing with an unfair advantage while everyone around him actually earns their keep.'
"Lerouge, are you okay?" Heathcliff asked suddenly, forcing him out of his thoughts, "You've been staring off into space for quite awhile now."
Lelouch blinked once before replying, "Yeah, I'm fine just got caught up in some passing thoughts."
"Were you thinking about what happened during our duel earlier?" Heathcliff asked him, making the raven-haired teen's eyes widen in shock before recovering a moment later as the silver-haired man explained further, "I'm sure someone as sharp as you would be able to notice the sudden spike in my speed, so tell me what are you going to do about it?"
'So he figured it out,' Lelouch thought with a small amount of irritation, a small part of him being impressed of how easily Heathcliff managed to figure out he knew his little secret.
Though the question Heathcliff raised did make Lelouch think about what he was actually going to do with the information. He really only had two options: expose the man and hope that players would just believe it as the truth, or allow him to continue cheating.
Either way, Lelouch to have to greatly rely on the fact Heathcliff wasn't the type to have people assassinated so he decided upon a course of action.
"The honorable thing to do would be to expose you and let whatever happens happen," Lelouch began in a tone akin to someone alerting another of a deceased relative, "But I'm not someone who's prone to doing the honorable thing."
Heathcliff opened his mouth, but promptly shut after a second. Lelouch guessed that the silver-haired man wanted to ask him what he meant by 'not someone who's prone to doing the honorable thing' and then thought better of it.
"I see..." Heathcliff trailed of as he cupped his chin, apparently going to put a good amount of thought in his words before he continued, "Looks like I was wrong about you."
"Wrong about what exactly?" Lelouch asked curiously, wondering what he had meant by that.
"Nothing," Heathcliff answered simply, waving off the question as if it was never asked, "Anyways, I think you should be on your way now, it's getting late."
The violet-clad swordsman narrowed his eyes at Heathcliff, his ever paranoid mind wondering if the silver-haired man had planned something.
"It is getting pretty late," Lelouch agreed awkwardly, his narrowed eyes never leaving Heathcliff as he continued to speak, "I guess I'll just show myself out."
The raven-haired teen turned on a heel and immediately walked towards the door, walking a little too quickly to imply that nothing was wrong, but thankfully Heathcliff seemingly didn't notice.
Lelouch made a bee-line to the main doors the moment he stepped out of the room, not wanting to stay around if Heathcliff had planned something. Surprisingly, he didn't run into one complication on his way to the doors, something he didn't know to take as a good or bad sign.
The moment he reached the doors, the violet-clad swordsman equipped a corridor crystal, a crystal that could teleport a player anywhere just as long the player had set the crystal to a marked location the player had been in previously, and held it out in front of him.
"Corridor open," Lelouch stated, activating the crystal, prompting the usual blue pixels to begin forming around him.
But before the pixels fully enveloped him, the teen took a glance over his shoulder and let a thought run through his mind, 'Looks like 'Laughing Coffin' aren't the only people I'm going to have keep an eye on from now on, isn't that right Heathcliff?'
-End-
That's it folks. I'm sorry that you all hate me now after seeing the quality of this chapter. It really isn't my best work at all, probably because I suck at dialogue only scenes and there were a lot of dialogue scenes in these chapters.
Anyway I'm sorry for making the chapter shorter than the others, but most filler chapters are going to be like this. But I promise the next chapter will be much longer than this.
Still SAO 2 comes out close to this date, go watch it now!
Review, follow, favorite and everything in between. See you guys next time!
Also happy fourth of July! USA! USA! USA!