[A/N: So for those who haven't read my other story "The Worldly Travels of Sasuke Uchiha" I recently have graduated highschool. So I decided to get off my ass and update my stories, which since I now have a lot more free time I should be updating more, well either that or exercising or playing Monster Hunter World, a game which I have become absolutely addicted to. btw I might be adding a few monsters from Monster hunter world into the story, but only in the SAO arc, if I decide to add them.
Ok so this chapter takes place at the same time as the red nosed raindeer episode, and for the same reasons.
So yeah, enjoy...]
Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson or Sword Art Online.
April 8, 2023. Floor 11 Taft.
Perseus and Kirito sat next to each other, in the local inn. They had just joined a small guild, small as in there were only 8 people including Perseus and Kirito.
Kirito and Perseus decided to join because they didn't know that they were the beaters, and thought that it would be a good way to lay low, relax and maybe even make some new friends.
"A toast to our new members, Kirito and Perseus." Keita, the leader of the moonlit black cats, announce.
"Yeah!!!" the other three male members of the guild, with Perseus joining in, shouted.
The only girl of the group just giggled.
"..." Kirito stayed silent throughout most of the party.
"Hey Kirito..." Keita said as he walked over to him.
"Yeah?" Kirito asked.
"I was just wondering... what level are you and Perseus at?" Keita asked.
"Oh... um... around level 20..." Kirito lied, in truth they were upper 40's.
"Oh, so you're around our level then." Keita said, believing the lie.
"Yeah, I guess..." Kirito shrugged, commited to his ploy to hide their true skill level, which Perseus noticed and decided to play along.
"Yep, we're about level 23 to be exact. And I just leveled up this morning." Perseus said with two fingers held up in a victory pose.
"Yeah me too." Kirito said, greatful for Perseus' help.
"Wow, that's awesome you two." Keita said, happily.
"Yeah, welcome to the guild you two" The girl, Sachi, said quietly, but still loud enough for Kirito and Perseus to hear it.
"Thanks, glad to be here." Perseus said with a smile.
Kirito, being the socially awkward person he is, just nodded with a slight smile, before he turned to finish eating, unaware of Sachi staring at him.
Several months later.
Perseus and Kirito had been in the guild for several months now, and most of the time they were out with the other guild members either relaxing or helping the other members level up, always leting the other members get the last kill bonus, and in order to level up themselves they would go out for some late night hunting, like they were doing now.
Perseus and Kirito were heading to their usual hunting spot, when they got there they saw someone they hadn't seen since the beginning of the game, Klein.
"Hey Kirito, look who it is." Perseus said, before he ran over to Klein who noticed them and waved.
"Hey Perseus hey Kirito, how've you guys been?" Klein asked.
"... hi Klein." Kirito said, in a quiet tone, which Klein and Perseus noticed.
"Hey are you still depressed that I didn't come with you guys on the first floor?" Klein asked.
"Nah, he's depressed that we joined a guild, and he didn't know that you formed one as well, otherwise we might have joined yours." Perseus said with a shrug.
"Oh ok... wait you guys joined a guild!?" Klein asked.
"Yeah, it's a small guild by the name of the Moonlit Black Cats, but despite them having only 8 members, including us, they're all great friends and are fun to be around, to be honest I might have joined them even if you told us about you forming a guild." Perseus said with a smile, which Kirito nodded at , also with a smile.
"Really? Well they must be dear to you if you'd join them in the first place." Klein said.
"Originally we joined them because we wanted to make more friends, and to have some down time away from the titles of beater." Kirito said, finally opening up.
"So they don't know who you really are then?" Klein asked.
"Or our real levels." Perseus said.
"We've been focusing on raising their levels so they can stay alive, and maybe even join the frontline, like they hope to. So we haven't had the time to tell them the truth." Kirito explained with a sigh.
"Well you better tell them soon, because if you don't both you and your guild will regret it. No secrets among friends, especially the kind that could get them killed." Klein said, in a stern tone.
"Yeah alright... we'll tell them." Perseus sighed.
"Good... and if they find out about your beater status and hate you for it, they weren't true friends, true friends care for each other no matter what. Just think that over, and if they boot you from the guild, you can join ours." Klein told Kirito and Perseus, who nodded sadly at the idea of their friends hating them for their beater status.
Klein said his goodbyes and walked to join his other friends.
Perseus and Kirito looked at each other and sighed, before they turned to walk back to the inn their guild was staying at, their hunting having been forgotten.
When they got back to Taft Kirito received a message from Keita, asking Kirito to look for Sachi, Perseus asked to help, but Kirito said it would be fine and had Perseus head back to the inn.
Hours later
Perseus was just chilling in his inn room when he heard someone walking near his room, he peeked out the halfway opened door and saw Sachi knock on the door and, when it opened, asked Kirito if she could sleep in his room for the night.
Now Perseus wasn't dumb when it came to the signs a women liked someone, it was only when it happened to him that he was completely oblivious.
"Psst." Perseus hissed to Sachi who hadn't walked into Kirito's room yet, she looked at him and got blushed in embarrassment.
Perseus gave her a thumbs up and mouthed, "you go girl." causing Sachi to blush even more, before she walked into Kirito's room.
Perseus immediately burst out laughing, once the door closed.
The others were asleep so he didn't have to worry about waking up them up, plus the doors were sound proof, so once they were closed you didn't have to worry about loud noises waking you up, the only time that you could hear something outside your room is when the door is knocked on.
Perseus went back into his room completely, and went to sleep, they had another big day of level grinding to do tomorrow.
A few weeks later.
A few weeks have gone by, Kirito and Sachi have gotten really close, in fact she now slept in Kirito's room pretty much every night.
Kirito and Sachi had kept their relationship a secret from the others, as they were known to get a little over excited when it came to one of their members having a relationship.
Seriously, the last time a girl winked at Keita, the other three boys, minus Kirito and Perseus, went and ruined it by squealing like a couple of schoolgirls.
So imagine what would happen if they found out about Kirito and Sachi getting together, they probably would have thrown a wedding right there and then.
But right now the guild was in a meeting, the reason? well you'll just have to keep reading to find out.
"Alright everybody I have something to say." Keita announced.
"As of our last grind session, we finally have enough Col. to buy our own guild hall." Keita announced.
"Yes finally!!" The boys, minus Kirito and Perseus, cheered.
"Alright so tomorrow morning I will head out and buy the guild hall we've been looking at for awhile." Keita told them, which they cheered at.
With the announcement finished they all began to have fun, until it was time for them to go to bed.
The next day.
Kirito and Perseus watched with the rest of the guild as Keita waved and teleported to their new guild hall to purchase said hall.
Once he was gone, one of the boys said that they should go to another floor dungeon to get a gift for Keita.
Kirito told them it was a bad idea and they should stick to their usual hunting grounds, but the boy just waved him off and managed to convince the others to go along with the idea, Kirito and Perseus decided to go along in case something bad happened.
"I have a bad feeling about this." Perseus thought, and he had grown to trust the feeling, because when he felt something bad was about to happen, the feeling usually came true, so he had what he needed ready for what ever was to come, but he wasn't prepared for what was about to happen, and when it did it would change him, forever.
The guild walked down the dungeon hallway looking for any monsters to slay for their loot, when one of the members spotted a button desguised as a crystal, which was weird because the entire hall was made of crystal, so how did he spot it?
He pushed the button and saw a chest inside.
"Hell yeah, a treasure chest!!!" the member ran to the chest which was locked.
"Why is there a secret room here, it makes no sense?" Kirito wondered, before he realized.
"No, get away from there it's a trap!!!" Kirito shouted at the boy but it was too late, the boy had used a lock pick to open the chest, only for alarms to go off and the door behind them to seal itself shut.
"Use a teleport crystal and let's get out of here." Kirito ordered.
"Teleport Taft..." The boy who opened the chest yelled only for nothing to happen.
"The crystals aren't working!!" the boy shouted, as golem and dwarf themed monsters began to pour from the walls.
"Then we have no choice but to fight." Kirito said, as he unsheathed his one handed longsword, alongside Perseus who had a shortsword instead.
"Right..." they all said, and also grabbed their weapons.
It was an all out slaughter, their lower grade weapons couldn't even pierce the armor of the dwarves let alone break the stone bodies of the golems.
The first to die was the boy who opened the chest, he was knocked over and stabbed by the dwarves pickaxes repeatedly until he shattered.
The next was the boy who used a sword and shield, he was hit by a golem and was stabbed in the head by a dwarves thrown pickaxe he shattered as soon as he hit the ground.
The next to go was the mace wielder, he was knocked to the ground and bashed by the golem's arms until he too, shattered.
Now there was only Perseus, Kirito and Sachi.
Kirito, who's weapon was a higher class that the other's, having come from a higher floor, was killing any in his way as he raced to Sachi, however he was to late as she was struck from behind and as she died she said something Kirito couldn't hear, before she shattered into blue glass, like the others before her.
For Kirito and Perseus time froze as their minds processed the fact that their friends were dead.
Snapping out of their stupor, they both roared in rage and anguish as they charged towards those who dared to kill their friends.
Perseus was a force of nature killing any who crossed his vision even for a second.
Kirito was also killing anything he saw in a berserker rage.
When the last monster was killed the two collapsed and began to cry, they had vented their rage on the monsters but they hadn't vented out their agony at their friends death.
Perseus, after calming down went over to the chest and glared.
"Whatever is in this chest better have been good enough to have set a trap like this one, and it better be a weapon, because if it is I'm gonna kill Kayaba with it, if he is in this world." Perseus shouted his rage returning before he opened the chest and took out a piece of ore.
The ore was a crystal in substance but, unlike the crystal the dungeon was made out of, the ore was a blood red color.
"That's it!? our friends were slaughtered for a few pieces of ore!?" Perseus raged, before he walked to Kirito and handed him one of the three pieces of ore.
The door opened once the chest loot was claimed. Kirito and Perseus walked out of the door and returned to Taft.
Taft
When they got there, they went out to search for Keita, when they found him they told him everything, how the others had died, and about their beater status.
"You're beaters... you had no right to be with us! You should have never even joined our group, if you hadn't joined us the others would still be alive!!!" Keita shouted at the two of them, before he walked up to the edge of the world and jumped.
"Keita!!!" Kirito and Perseus shouted as they ran to catch him, only to fail.
"..." Their hair shadowed their face as they watched him shatter.
They walked towards the inn and disbanded the guild, as they were the only two members left.
And then, they walked away from Taft, on their way to the meeting where they would join the clearers to fight the boss, several floors up.
After the boss fight the two would continue to travel together until December, where rumors began to spread about two events that would happen on the winter solstice where the prize for both was a revival item.
Upon hearing those rumors they began to level up like crazy and by the time the winter solstice came around they were each around level 60.
Since each event was happening at the same time, one two different floors, they decided to split up and take on each event separately.
The event Perseus was going to was on the 13th floor, the floor that was based off of greek and roman mythology, it was also where Perseus had bought a house near the ocean, because it reminded him of Montauk.
Perseus said his goodbyes to Kirito, ever since the deaths of their guildmates Perseus had become colder than ice to anyone who wasn't Kirito.
In fact when they met up with Argo he was cold to even her, and he thought of her as an older sister.
"Teleport... Athens" Perseus muttered while holding a teleport crystal, and in a blue flash he was gone.
Floor 13, Athens.
Athens was a bustling city on the 13th floor, it was also the area where the event began.
It was also a place Perseus was well known, and well liked. So when the other players saw him walking down the street they were tempted to wave at him, the only reason they didn't was because of the ice cold look on his normally smiling face.
"What happened to make him so cold?" was the collective thoght of the players that occupied the city.
Perseus looked around the city, trying to find the quest giver for the event quest, when he was tapped on the shoulder.
He looked to see that it was Annebeth, who he hadn't seen since the elves quest ended on the nineth floor.
"Hey, long time no see!!" Annebeth said to him.
"hn." Perseus grunted, a cold look in his eye, which Annebeth noticed.
"Geez your so cold, what happened all your friends die or something?" Annebeth said, which caused Perseus to flinch at the reminder, somthing that Annebeth noticed and realized that what she said was true.
"Oh my gods, I'm so sorry I didn't know!!" Annebeth apologized.
"It's fine they won't be dead for much longer anyways." Perseus said in a cold tone.
"... You're after the revival item?" Annebeth asked, which he nodded yes.
"That's crazy you don't know if the item will even work, hell you don't even know if Kayaba was telling the truth about dying IRL if you die in here." Annebeth said trying to dissuade him from getting himself killed by the event.
"... still I have to try..." Perseus said with a dead look in his eye.
Annebeth saw the look in his eye and sighed.
"Fine... go to the palace, the event quest giver is there. Look for a NPC named Orpheus." Annebeth said, and Perseus nodded
"Thank you ... princess." Perseus thanked, and used his old nickname for her.
"No problem, now go and revive your friends... Hero. But be sure to stay alive. If you die I'm gonna use the revival item on you, only to kill you again, you got that!?" Annebeth said.
"Understood, loud and clear." Perseus said, before he ran toward the palace.
A few minutes later.
Perseus made it to the palace, which was at the top of a large hill, and immediately began to search for Orpheus, he found the NPC sulking near a window, looking down at the city below.
When Perseus walked over to him, Orpheus took notice of his presence, and asked, "Who are you, and what do you seek from me?"
Perseus responded with, "I am Perseus and I seek the revival Item."
"I see." Orpheus muttered, before brightening up.
"That is great news, as I too seek the to revive my beloved from Hades' grasp, I could not because I had no one to protect me from the beasts that wander outside Athens, the guards refused to take me dispite me having ordered them to, they are not ready to head to Hades before their time, it seems." Orpheus stated.
"Then I shall guide you through Hades so we may obtain the revival Item." Perseus stated.
"Wonderful, please allow me to gather my lyre, my sword and the map to the entrance of Hades so we may depart." Orpheus said.
"Very well." Perseus said, and a notification that Orpheus had joined the party popped up.
After a few seconds of waiting Orpheus was ready to depart and they left Athens under the cover of the night, unaware that they were being followed.
Outside Athens, a few miles from the city.
Perseus and Orpheus were running at a fast pace, towards the entrance to Hades, when suddenly Orpheus stopped and looked at the map and began to mutter to himself.
Orpheus looked at the map then to the area around him and walked towards a large boulder, the boulder had an omega scratched into the stone.
Orpheus ran his hand over the omega, and muttered, "This is it... the entrance to Hades."
"How do we open it?" Perseus asked, as he walked over to Orpheus.
"I don't know but-" Orpheus was cut off by the sound of growling.
"Hellhounds!!" Orpheus shouted in fear and Perseus unsheathed his sword, this sword was different than the one he had used on that fateful day, the one that cost his friends their lives.
It was made from a piece of the ore he had found in the chest, it was a short sword, the blade was shaped like a Roman gladius, and was as blood red as the ore that made it. The guard was a dark steel color, and the grip was wrapped with leather that was dyed white. The name of the sword was [Dragonblood Render, the ore it was forged from was called [dragonblood crystal]
The first Hellhound came at Perseus from behind and as he turned towards the flying hound, Perseus slashed his sword into the hounds open jaw and split it right in half, from jaw to rear.
While Orpheus was an NPC, he was still an AI and was completely capable of expressing emotions, such as the shock he felt from seeing a young boy kill a Hellhound with a single slice of his sword.
A certain someone hiding in the bushes was also shocked.
"When did he become so ruthless..." the person thought.
Perseus then proceeded to kill every hellhound that came at Orpheus and himself. While he did that Orpheus found out how to open the boulder gateway to Hades.
"I figured it out!!" Orpheus shouted to Perseus, who was still killing Hellhounds with complete ease.
"Well then, open it and let's get moving!!" Perseus shouted back.
"Right!!" Orpheus said, before he took out his Lyre and began to play Music.
The music caused the remaining Hellhounds to slowly collapse unconscious, as they were completely soothed by the sound of Orpheus' Lyre.
"Seriously ... music?" Perseus asked Orpheus, who shrugged.
"Yes, I didn't understand it at first but look, the door's open." Orpheus said as he pointed to the boulder that was now split in two, revealing the dark staircase beneath.
"... right... well done." Perseus said, walking past Orpheus, while patting him on the shoulder, and descended down the staircase, with Orpheus on his tail.
The boulder began to close, but before it did the person hiding in the bushes jumped down the stairs just as it sealed shut.
Perseus led the way down the stairs, which was a spiral staircase, it was surprisingly well lit and Perseus and Orpheus could see well enough to not trip on themselves, or each other.
Neither spoke they just focused on the sound of their footsteps hitting the stone steps with a resounding echo.
Finally they reached the bottom, and what they saw shocked them.
The underworld was divided into sections. One was white and beautiful, and another was dark and desolate. Perseus noticed that each place had signs on nearly every area, except the large pit in the ground surrounded by trees that seemed to be made of obsidian.
Perseus shook his head, he did not come here for sight seeing, he came to revive his friends.
"Let's go... we need to find Hades' palace, he is the only one capable of reviving the dead." Orpheus said to Perseus, who nodded.
And once again they began to walk towards the only place the palace could be, the tall greek palace at the top of a hill... well that was easy to find.
Perseus looked around and thought suspiciously "This is to easy... where are the guards, or even Cerberus. This might be a trap."
He voiced his concerns to Orpheus, who nodded.
"Right, I'll be careful." Orpheus said, only to step on a skull with a sickening crack.
The sound made the undead nearby look at them and they noticed they had flesh.
One large skeleton, with a large ruby set upon it's forehead, pointed at them and howled in a raspy tone, before it charged.
"Orpheus..." Perseus said.
"Yeah?" Orpheus asked in a worried tone.
"... you had one job..." Perseus said before he unsheathed his sword and charged to meet the skeleton hord head on.
In a matter of seconds the entire skeleton was reduced to a large pile of bones, with Perseus standing upon it.
"Amazing..." Orpheus breathed out.
Perseus walked down from the pile of bones and approached Orpheus to tell him to keep moving, when the ground began to shake, and Perseus turned to to pile to reveal...
Olympus - IRL.
Hermes was in his office, going over the recent internet delivery requests, when he got a notification, he opened it and gasped at the contents before he grabbed his snake phone and ran to the Olympian council camber, while having George and Martha, the snakes on his phone, call all of the other Olympians.
While he waited he used his powers to manifest a device that he had helped Hephaestus build, it would allow them to view the world of Aincrad using the internet and godly powers as a catalyst.
The device took the form of a bronze orb, that when activated would project a number of screens that would play live feed from Aincrad to the Olympians in the room, even without the need of a boss fight to view it.
Hermes was planning to give each Olympian, including Hestia, Chiron and Hades, one of them so they could check up on the demigods in the death game.
Speeking of which, said gods just arrived in the throne room.
"Hermes you better have a good reason for calling us here." Zeus said, still mourning over his daughter.
"Wait is that..." Hephaestus asked, which Hermes nods at.
"I was doing my deliveries via the internet when I got a notification about Aincrad, it seems that Poseidon's son has taken on an event, and has just encountered a miniboss." Hermes explained.
"So... what does it matter if fish face's son is fighting or not." Athena snarked.
"Because the prize of the event is an item that can revive the dead..." Hermes told her with an annoyed tone, this time every god, including Hades, who was allowed on Olympus this time of year, leaned forward.
"Why would he be after something like that?" Hades asked, Hermes just shook his head.
"No clue." Hermes said, he hadn't been using the device to watch them, because he had his duties to attend to.
"Then what is the name of this event?" Hades asked.
"Uh... It's called the Lyre of Orpheus ... oh boy..." Hermes sighed.
"Hmm..." Hades hummed in amusement.
"Oh! I remember Orpheus, he was so sweet until his wife died!" Aphrodite squealed.
"Yes, well right now they are in the Aincrad version of the underworld." Hermes said.
"Well enough talking, let's watch the fight already!!!" Ares shouted.
"Shut up Ares." Everyone, except Aphrodite, deadpanned.
"hmph." Ares pouted.
"Just play the video Hermes..." Zeus sighed.
"Right..." Hermes agreed and activated the machine... and a image appeared in the air...
Aincrad - With Perseus.
Perseus turned to see the bone pile had begun to combine into one giant skeleton, with the name, [Skeletal Wraith Lord Lvl 70] above it's head and it had four green health bars beside it's head.
The head of the ruby gem skeleton was in the center of it's forehead. For a weapon in had a large club made of an obsidian tree it had yanked out of the ground, in it's right hand.
Once it finished standing it looked at Perseus and roared, though it was more like a raspy screech.
Perseus didn't react he just stared at it coldly, before he charged.
Olympus.
"That idiot, he's gonna get himself killed..." Athena muttered.
"No he won't ..." Ares denied in a calm and serious tone, which shocked Athena.
"What!?" Athena asked.
"Look into the kid's eyes." Ares pointed out, which she looked and saw the cold look in his eyes, it was like being frozen in a glacier.
"So cold..." Athena muttered.
"Oh Percy... what happened to make you this way?" Poseidon wondered in a worried tone.
Aincrad With Perseus.
Perseus charged at the Wraith lord and jumped onto the arm, the one with the club, that the Skeleton had sent to intercept his charge, and ran along it towards the head, but he was knocked away by the other hand.
He landed on the ground, crushing a few remaining bones in the process. Perseus then brought his sword up and parried a heavy strike from the skeleton, but the impact caused him to go flying once again.
Perseus looked at his health and saw that it was just above halfway full, and grit his teeth.
"Hey Orpheus, do you think you can distract it for a few seconds." Perseus asked.
"No sorry, my music doesn't seem to work on it, so I am afraid I am ultimately useless." Orpheus lamented.
"I see..." Perseus said, he was about to charge the skeleton when a voice rang out.
"He might not be able to distract it but I might..." The voice said, it was a voice that Perseus knew well.
"Annebeth...!" Perseus shouted
"Yep." Annebeth said with a wink.
"What are you doing here!!" Perseus shouted at the girl who was currently jumping around the skeleton, keeping it's focus on her.
"I followed you! Now hurry up and get what you need to do done, I can't hold him off for ever!" Annebeth shouted.
"Right, but this is not over..." Perseus said, before he began to equip something he rarely, if ever used.
Little known feature about Aincrad, you can in fact dual wield weapons, but just not longswords, since shortswords are Perseus's main weapon of choice, he could use dual wielding, he just only did it during extreme occasions, like now.
After he equipped the dual shortswords skill, he equipped his second best weapon, which was a bronze Xiphos, a weapon that could be found on this very floor, and one that Perseus has leveled up at the blacksmith many, many times.
Next he equipped the Unique skill he had somehow came across, [Dual Element] it was a skill that allowed him to use two elements on his weapons, per blade.
And his prefered elements were Ice and Lightning, which he used dual element to add them to both blades.
"Ready, get away now!!" Perseus shouted to Annebeth, who nodded and jumped away.
Perseus charged at the Wraith lord, his two sword began to glow ice blue and spark with blue lightning.
When he got to the Wraith he fully activated one of the sword skills of the lightning/ice tree of [Dual Element] skill.
Perseus slashed down with his left sword, the Xiphos, and an arc of frozen energy and blue lightning erupted from the sword, and hit the club in the Wraith's hand and shattered it, Perseus then spun around, like a twister, and more arcs of frost and lightning attacked the Wraith, and broke it's left arm, which reformed from the boned around it.
Perseus's attacks gave him the appearance of a frozen Hurricane, which was completely decimating the body of the Wraith lord, bones flied everywhere as he continued to attack, until the sword skill was complete, when it was finished Perseus froze, the lag finally kicking in, this was Annebeth's que to rush in and grab the motionless Perseus and jump away to hide behind a large rock.
"Perseus... that didn't work... what ever that was... what do we do now?" Annebeth aske the now moveable Perseus.
"The forehead the Wraith had a skull with a ruby there, that was the only skeleton with a gem on it's head, I think that might be a weakness." Perseus said, still in his ice cold tone, Annebeth nodded.
"Good idea, you go out and attack it and I'll go for the gem, sound good?" Annebeth asked, which Perseus nodds at.
"Good plan." Perseus complimented.
"Of course, plans are my specialty." Annebeth said, with a smirk.
"..." Perseus stared at her for a few seconds before he did something he hadn't done since the black cats died, he smiled.
"Right..." Perseus said.
"Are you ready?" Annebeth asked Perseus, who nodded.
"Then... Go!" Annebeth shouted.
Perseus charged out of the cover towards the Wraith, and began to attack it, when he noticed that the Wraith only had two health bars left, it seems that Perseus' attack was rather effective, but Annebeth had a plan so he won't attack it like before, he'll wait until she was ready.
While Perseus kept the Wraith focused on him Annebeth charged at the Wraith from behind, and jumped up onto it's back and began to climb towards the head.
When Annebeth found the gem she signaled to Perseus, who nodded and jumped back, and waited, the Wraith now only had one health bar left.
With a yell, Annebeth plunged he long bladed knife into the Wraith' gem, and upon doing so the Wraith froze, seemingly unable to move, then the Wraith's skeletal body began to collapse to the ground.
Annebeth was unprepared for the rather high fall that came with destroying the Wraith lord's body.
So Annebeth was prepare to hit the ground rather hard, but Perseus rushed in and caught her, bridal style.
"Just dropping in?" Perseus asked with a smirk.
Annebeth just blushed and stood back on the ground.
"Please don't do that again." Annebeth asked.
"Do what?" Perseus asked not sure what she meant.
"..." Annebeth just stared at him with a raised eyebrow, did he really not know what he just did.
Before she could say something the ground rumbled again and Perseus sighed.
"Here we go again..." Perseus said.
"Yep," Annebeth said as they turned to the newly risen Wraith lord, who no longer had a skeletal body, now it had a ethereal body that befitted the name of Wraith lord.
It's body was see through and looked like a black skeleton with a black robe covering it. It's face was a black skull that still had the ruby on it's head.
"Ok so the ruby didn't work... my bad I guess." Perseus said, before he ran to cover with Annebeth right behind him.
"Alright time to change this up..." Perseus said, as he opened the menu and changed Ice in the equipped elements to the light element, it seems that it would be the best element to fight the Wraith. The he changed the weapon he was using from dual shortswords to a bow and arrow.
The bow was a pitch black color and seemed to suck in the very light around them.
"Since when do you use a bow?" Annebeth asked.
"Since the beta, I just prefer to use swords most of the time." Perseus explained, which Annebeth nodded to.
"Alright, let's go." Perseus said.
"Right" she said before she charged out to distract the Wraith for Perseus.
Perseus stood on top of a nearby boulder, and began to charge his arrow with light and his bow with lightning.
Little known fact about the bow, when it comes to Aincrad, you can't use sword skills on the arrow, in the normal sense, the only thing you could do is coat the arrow or the bow in the skill to enhance their normal capabilities, or give them a new one, like what Perseus was doing now.
He was coating the arrow in light to damage the Wraith, and the bow in lightning to enhance the speed and force the arrow would fly at.
The process took a few seconds, but by the time it was finished, the arrow was glowing bright enough to light the caverns known as Hades, and the bow was covered completely in lightning.
"Annebeth get away from it now!!!" Perseus shouted, she girls did as told and jumped back to where their chosen cover was.
"Hey bone for brains!" Perseus shouted at the Wraith, which drew it's attention.
"I'd say see ya later but after this there won't even be a soul for Hades to judge, so bye!" Perseus said as he released the light covered arrow at the gem in the Wraith's forehead, shattering it completely, and in a flash of gold light, the Wraith was torn apart.
Once the light died down it revealed Perseus, who was still in the same position as before, with the bow pointed at where the Wraith used to be.
"Wow..." Annebeth breathed in shock, she didn't expect it to be torn apart like that, killed yes, torn completely from existence? not so much.
Perseus turned to her and Orpheus, who had been hiding throughout the entire battle, then he turned to the palace and began to walk.
Annebeth stared as he left, until he stopped and looked over his shoulder.
"You coming or what?" Perseus asked.
Annebeth beamed at him and ran to walk right beside him.
"It's so great to be able to team up with you again!" Annebeth told him.
"Same hear..." Perseus muttered, but Annebeth heard him and smiled.
Orpheus just remained silent through the rest of the treck to the palace.
Olympus
The gods watched the battle with serious faces, even Apollo though he was barely able to contain his excitement.
When Perseus unleashed his [dual element] dual sword skill, which Zeus noticed included some lightning, the gods were shocked at the speed and furiosity the attack had, it made him look like a Frozen Hurricane.
Poseidon smirked at the way the combo matched with his heritage.
Once the attack was over, they saw that Perseus had locked up.
"Oh no..." Poseidon muttered, only to sigh in relief when he saw Annebeth save him.
Athena smirked when she and the gods saw Annebeth save Perseus, and was about to mock Poseidon, when he turned to her and thanked her.
Athena was at a loss for words, he had only thanked her a few times in her immortal life and those were during times of war.
Now Athena didn't have it in her godly heart to mock him, and just settled on watching the fight.
The she watched as Annebeth and Perseus began to plan and smirked again, they watched them attack the Wraith, and saw how Perseus distracted the monster, while Annebeth climbed up to the gem in the forehead, and stab it.
They saw the Wraith collapse and how Annebeth fell... only to be caught by Perseus, who was smirking.
"Just dropping in?"
They heard him ask, and Hermes, Apollo and Aphrodite, couldn't contain their laughter, though in Aphrodite's case it was a squeal.
Athena glowered at the sea spawn, for flirting with her daughter.
"Please don't do that again."
They heard Annebeth tell Perseus, they also noticed the blush on her cheeks.
"No keep doing it!" Aphrodite, Hermes and Apollo said.
"Do what?"
That instantly shut the laughing/squealing gods up, as they looked at Perseus, who seemed genuinely confused.
"Holy crap... Poseidon's got himself a flirt so natural that the kid doesn't even know he's doing it." Hermes muttered.
"Huh, I thought that right was only reserved for my kids..." Apollo said.
Poseidon shrugged and said, "No almost all of my children have been good when it comes to women, to the point that they get hounded by them, I can guarantee that Athena's daughter will have some competition in the future."
The gods all look at Aphrodite for confirmation, as women and love was her thing, Aphrodite just giggled, and winked.
Her response caused every god to drop their jaws.
They just decided to turn back to the fight, and they saw the Wraith had returned and saw Annebeth distracting it while Perseus prepared his... bow?
"Hey wait, didn't Apollo put a curse on Poseidon's kids using bow after Orion?" Dionysus asked.
"You did what!?" Poseidon roared at the, cowering, god of the sun.
"It was after Orion, I was pissed at him because he tried to rape little sis. Besides it only prevents them from knowing the right way to use one, I guess since Aincrad gives the knowledge on how to use their weapons, it neutralized the curse." Apollo explained, which calmed the sea god down, just in time too, because Cuba was about to be hit by a tsunami.
"Apollo... I'm not your little sister, we're twins, and I was born first." Artemis muttered, not really mad at her twin.
"Still..." Apollo said.
"Guys watch fish face jr." Ares told them, ignoring the glare from Poseidon.
They all watch him get the Wraith's attention and release the arrow of light, and it hit the gem on the head of the Wraith, shattering it and completely obliterating the Wraith, in a bright flash of light.
"Hmm, impressive shot." Artemis said.
"Definitely a good shot." Apollo agreed, with his twin.
They saw Perseus begin to walk toward the Aincrad version of Hades' palace, leaving Annebeth just staring at him.
"Hmph, not even a thank you." Athena frowned.
"What do you expect from a male, too absorbed in their pride to even thank someone who helped him." Zoe, Artemis' lieutenant, said, from experience. She had been there, in the room, since Artemis showed up.
Aphrodite shushed her, drawing a glare from the maiden.
The other gods watched as Perseus stopped walking and looked over his shoulder and asked.
"You coming or what?"
Aphrodite squealed, causing the other gods to cover their ears.
They saw the grin on Annebeth's face as she ran up to him.
It's so great to be able to team up with you again."
The gods heard her say, while holding the squealing Aphrodite to keep her from jumping at the screen in excitement.
"Same here ..."
They heard Perseus mutter, this time they had to tie Aphrodite down with some chain Hephaestus had on hand, why he had them they didn't ask.
"You stay away from my daughter sea spawn, or else..."Athena thought, as she glared at Perseus, ready to unleash her motherly rage at her rival's son.
Aincrad With Perseus
Perseus stopped walking and shivered, something that Annebeth noticed.
"What's wrong?" Annebeth asked.
"I think someone's mother just threatened to kill me..." Perseus said.
"No way that's crazy, who's mother would want to kill you of all people." Annebeth waved off his concerns.
"Yeah you're probably right..." Perseus agreed, and began to walk again.
Olympus.
The gods had all calmed down, except Athena who was still glaring at Perseus, and they watched as Perseus stopped walking and shivered.
"What's wrong?"
They heard Annebeth ask.
"I think someone's mother just threatened to kill me..."
They heard Perseus say.
The gods all turned to Athena, who was shocked that he had sensed her theat from inside a videogame.
"No way that's crazy, who's mother would want to kill you of all people."
They heard Annebeth say.
"Athena!" all the gods, even Hestia, deadpanned, causing said goddess to pout at them.
Aincrad With Perseus.
Perseus, Annebeth, and Orpheus finally made their way to the palace gate, where the skeletal guards were standing.
Orpheus walked up to the guards and said, "I am Orpheus, and I seek an audience with lord Hades, let me and my companions pass."
The guards looked at each other, then to the group, and pointed their spears at them.
"Of course that would be too easy." Perseus said, as he unsheathed his sword and destroyed the skeleton, then he opened the door.
Inside of the palace was rather beautiful, red silk banners, gold plated floor, tapestries with tortured souls being ripped limb from limb, ok that last one wasn't as great at the rest of the palace but hey, it was also framed in solid gold.
"Wow... Kayaba was really going for the whole "god of wealth" portion of Hades' myth for the theme of this place..." Perseus said.
Annebeth hummed her agreement.
"Yes, everything is very shiny, but we must press on, my beloved Eurydice awaits." Orpheus said, in a excited and snarky tone.
"Right, let's get moving." Perseus said before he walked to a large set of doors and opened them, by kicking them down, somehow.
"Did you just kick Hades' door down!?" Annebeth asked in shock.
"Yeah, so what?" Perseus replied, not seeing the problem.
"... you know what... nevermind, I just remembered who I'm dealing with..." Annebeth said.
"uh huh, yeah love you too dear, now let's get a move on, we're burning virtual daylight here." Perseus said, oblivious to the blush on Annebeth's face due to his comment.
"Idiot..." Annebeth muttered to herself, still blushing.
Olympus
Apollo, Hermes and all the other gods were rolling on the floor in laughter, even Hades and Zeus although they were just chuckling lightly, due to Perseus having kicked down Hades' door and the comment he made when Annebeth, somewhat, insulted him.
"Poseidon y-you gotta let me meet this kid of your's, he's a genius, Haha!!" Apollo laughed.
"Maybe when he comes to know about us and if he ever comes to visit, then you can meet him, but don't corrupt him." Poseidon agreed, with a warning tone.
"F-fine... but he and I will be buds!!" Apollo yelled in conviction.
The only one who wasn't laughing was Athena, who was glaring at the image of Perseus, but the others were having too much fun to remember that she was there.
Aincrad With Perseus.
"Yo Hades!! ya there!?" Perseus shouted through the 'dust' of the destroyed door.
"... It's official ... he's crazy ..." Orpheus muttered.
"I guess living in a virtual world will do that to a person." Annebeth responded.
"Indeed, wait what!?" Orpheus asked in a confused tone.
"Nothing..." Annebeth said.
"Who dares to kick down my door!!" Virtual Hades bellowed, once the 'dust' cleared.
"Tis I Perseus and mine faithful companions Annebeth and Orpheus, we seek that which is in your possession... 'sup." Perseus said in full mock the omnipotent being mode, the one that we all know and love.
Annebeth stared at Perseus like he had grown another head.
"Yep definitely nuts..." Annebeth muttered.
"I see, and what is it that you seek?" VHades inquired.
Orpheus rushed forwards and bowed to Hades and spoke.
"Lord Hades, I am Orpheus and I seek to revive my beloved Eurydice, I beg of you please release her from death's grasp." Orpheus pleaded.
"Give it up Orpheus he's Hades, a god, he won't give in to the cries of a human..." Perseus said, as he readied his two shortswords.
"Very well..." VHades said.
"There see he refused... a wait wha..." Perseus said confused.
"I said that thee may have thine wife returned to thee." VHades told them in a bored tone.
"Thank you lord Hades, I am very greatful." Orpheus said, with respect.
"However Orpheus, I must warn you... do not look upon her until you are both once more in the light of Apollo's chariot. For should you look upon her in darkness before you return to the surface, you will lose everything you love." VHades told Orpheus, and only him, in an ominous tone.
"Yes milord Hades I understand..." Orpheus stated, calmly but inwardly he couldn't wait to return to the surface with his love in hand.
"Very well..." VHades said and waved his hand, but Eurydice did not appear in the room.
"She waits outside of my palace, now begone mortal, I have dinner plans." Hades told them and with a wave of his hand they were teleported out of the palace.
"Eurydice!!" Orpheus shouted out, with his eyes closed to not look upon his wife.
Perseus and Annebeth kept their eyes open.
"Orpheus!!" a woman with long green hair, deep tanned skin with a small circle on her forehead that was covered in shadows, rushed said man and embraced him.
"You came to Hades... for me?" Eurydice asked in shock.
"Of course, there is nothing I wouldn't do for you my love." Orpheus, who still had his eyes closed, whispered to her.
"Oh Orpheus..." Eurydice muttered.
"Hey love birds, I know that this is a great time for a reunion, but can we get moving to the surface so we can actually revive your wife." Perseus said.
"Right we must leave now to revive you completely." Orpheus told her, eyes still closed.
"Right..." Eurydice said.
Orpheus felt for her hand and grabbed it, and then he turned away from her and opened his eyes.
"Onwards my friends!" Orpheus shouted before he charged back toward the entrance to the underworld, the one they had entered through.
"We better follow him." Annebeth said, which Perseus agreed to and the both took off running after Orpheus.
When they caught up, Orpheus and Eurydice, were almost to the exit, which had reopened.
Orpheus stepped into the light and began to turn to his wife, who was still covered in shadows.
Perseus noticed and shouted, "Orpheus no!!"
But it was too late, Orpheus had already seen his wife's shadowed face.
Perseus and Annebeth ran to Orpheus, who had fallen to the dirt, and stood in front of him.
Perseus finally saw what that dark circle was, it was a ... red gem.
"Oh fuck me, not you again..." Perseus said, realising the true identity of Eurydice, or rather the Wraith lord.
"What is it?" Annebeth asked, and Perseus pointed to the red gem.
"Oh... so the Wraith lord was actually Eurydice's soul." Annebeth said in realization.
"yep..." Perseus said.
So...run?" Annebeth asked.
Perseus looked at her with a raised eyebrow, then to the Wraith and said, "Nah... we'll be fine!"
Annebeth sighed and took out her long bladed dagger, and held it in a defensive, reverse grip, position.
Perseus just unsheathed his two shortswords and charged at the Wraith, intent on giving Annebeth enough time to climb up to the gem, like before, when it had a skeletal body.
Perseus jumped midcharge and spun in the air (like Levy from attack on titan) and the once full 5 health meters was reduced to 4.
Annebeth tried to climb it, while Perseus attacked, but due to the ethereal body it possessed she kept passing through it, until she realized that they were in a forest surrounded by trees.
Seeing a rather large and sturdy tree behind the Wraith, she charged and ran up it's trunk before she pushed off into the air, right above the Wraith's head.
Spotting the gem, Annebeth activated a sword skill and she dived down towards the gem, blade aimed directly at it.
While she did that, Perseus was hacking away at the Wraith, gradually depleting its HP to the final meter, when he saw Annebeth dive at the gem, he jumped back and waited for her to hit the gem.
When she did the gem shattered into two pieces, and the Wraith shattered into blue glass, this time the Wraith will not be coming back.
Annebeth landed softly on her feet, grabbed the broken gem and walked to Perseus. When she did a large box appeared above them.
It read:
[Congratulations!
You have defeated the Lyre of Orpheus event boss, return to Athens and talk to Orpheus to claim your reward.]
Annebeth and Perseus looked around them for Orpheus but he was no where to be found.
They looked at each other and sighed.
"Let's get this over with so I can go home and get some 'sleep' ." Perseus said.
"Agreed." Annebeth said.
They both take out a teleport crystal and teleported back to Athens, to find Orpheus.
When they got back to Orpheus' palace they saw him surrounded by a horde of female NPCs, very angry and violent NPCs, each held some form of bladed weapon, from hatchets to butcher knives.
Perseus rushed forwards and began to push his way to Orpheus, who was now missing all of his virtual limbs, and his Lyre lay beside him.
"Hey Orpheus!!" Perseus shouted.
"Ah, you're back *cough*" Orpheus muttered before he coughed up 'blood'.
"You're gonna be fine, okay, you'll be fine, we're just gonna have to get you patched up." Perseus said, knowing that this was part of the event and decided to just play along.
"No... I'm afraid that this is the end for me, young hero." Orpheus coughed out.
For a second Perseus saw the deaths of the Black Cats, and a single 'tear' fell from his right eye.
"Young hero... please... take my Lyre... perhaps it will be of... some use... to... you... sigh..." And thus were, the last words of Orpheus, before he shattered into blue glass.
Perseus stood, grabbed the Lyre and walked to Annebeth who noticed that the Lyre had a slot that seemed perfect for a large diamond... or a red gem.
"Hey let me see the Lyre... I wanna try something." Annebeth said.
Perseus shrugged and threw her the Lyre.
Annebeth caught it and took out the broken gem, and held the pieces to the gem slot. Suddenly the gems pieces shot out of her hand and placed themselves into the gem slot, and fused together, the Lyre was complete.
"Ok that was kinda cool." Perseus said.
Annebeth handed the Lyre to Perseus, who checked the item description.
When he did his heart sank, and it clearly showed on his face.
"What is it!?" Annebeth asked
Perseus, a lifeless look in his eyes, showed her the description, and she gasped.
The reason? The lyre only works on someone who dies within 10 seconds.
"Perseus..." Annebeth said as she turned to him, only to find him walking away, a grim aura surrounding him.
"..." Annebeth reached out her hand to him but hesitated to call out to him again.
Annebeth soon lost sight of Perseus. After a few minutes of just standing there, staring at where Perseus had went, Annebeth sighed and went to her house in the city.
Later that night, Athens, with Annebeth
Annebeth lay on her bed, she just stared at the ceiling as she thought about Perseus. She was worried about him, she didn't know what he would do after he found out the truth about the item. And that's what worried her.
Annebeth decided to find him and stop the idiot from doing anything stupid.
She looked at her friends list for Perseus and found him at the beach on the edge of the city.
Annebeth immediately left her house and ran to the beach.
The Beach, Athens
When Annebeth arrived at the beach, she immediately began to look for Perseus. After a few minutes of searching, she found him sitting on the roof of a small house, but it was still large enough for thee people.
He was looking at the sea, as the 'sun' started to rise.
Even if he was only 11 years old, Annebeth could still say that Perseus was handsome, with his messy black hair and sea green eyes, and the way the rising sun's rays seemed to make him glow...
Annebeth blushed and shook her head violently, trying but failing to disrupt her previous train of thought.
"Now's not the time for that, I have to cheer him up somehow..." Annebeth thought.
Annebeth walked up to the cabin and used her extremely high AGI stat to jump to the rooftop.
She landed right beside him and sat down next to Perseus.
Neither said anything at all.
Annebeth sat next to him, and stared out at the sea, until she tapped his shoulder, this caused him to look at her only to be engulfed in a comforting hug.
Perseus's eyes widened and slowly tears began to flow from his eyes as he began to cry.
"There there... everything will be alright." Annebeth spoke soothingly.
"No it won't, my friends are gone, the only person I have left in Aincrad is Kirito... and he's taking this worse than I am." Perseus sobbed.
"You're wrong..." Annebeth soothed.
"Huh?" Perseus sounded.
"You haven't lost everyone, you have me... and like you said Kirito as well, and isn't that enough for now?" Annebeth asked.
Perseus stared at her with wide eyes before he hugged her.
After he stopped crying he smiled softly at her.
"Thank you, I guess I really needed to hear that." Perseus told her.
"No problem..." Annebeth said.
A few moments passed before Perseus realised something.
"Oh shit! Kirito!" Perseus shouted.
"What!?" Annebeth asked.
"Remember when I said Kirito was taking the deaths harder than I was." Perseus said.
"Yeah why?" Annebeth asked.
"Well one of the members was his girlfriend." Perseus explained.
"oh..." Annebeth said.
"And he went after a different revival item for the same reason as I did." Perseus told her.
"Oh!" Annebeth realised.
"I need to go after him..." Perseus said.
"Right ... go get him but be safe." Annebeth told him.
"I will, thanks." Perseus said before he teleported to Taft, leaving Annebeth alone on his roof.
Annebeth sighed, before she began to blush, and muttered, "Idiot..."
Taft
Perseus appeared in the city and immediately check his friends list for Kirito's location, he was in their hotel.
Perseus ran to the hotel and went for Kirito's room, he found the door slightly open and was about to go in when he heard the sound of humming and crying. Perseus looked into the room and saw Kirito at the desk listening to a small black box hum.
Perseus left the room and went to his own and went to sleep, letting Kirito listen to the box's humming.
[A/N: Finally finished, 10K words holy shit man.So I changed my name to True Emiya, mostly because DarkRavenEater was beginning to sound like a chuuni's special technique.]Read Review and Flamers... you know the drill.