My standard disclaimer for my lazy writing.
Halkgenenia Online- Chapter 4 Part 1
Kirigaya Kazuto, Kirito, former "Beater" of SAO, and now a swordsman of the Spriggan race transported to the world of Halkegenia, floated silently above the city of Arrun, just above the cloud tops. Translucent black wings spread gently in the breeze, keeping him stationed directly over Arrun's central square. Though much of the city was still in the shadows cast by the World Tree's roots, the early morning sunlight refracted off the morning mist, haloing the top of Arrun Tower in a golden aura.
Kirito had woken before the sun had risen, unable to sleep. He had to keep moving and thinking, anything to feel like was doing something. Helping the Sylph and Cait Syth leaders, taking care of Sugu, and trying to make sense of this dangerous situation, they were the only things keeping him sane.
Kirito breathed slowly and with his right hand reached up towards the summit of the World Tree, fingers spread out as if he could grab hold of the lowest branches.
Something pressed against the tips of his fingers and then inched its way down as he pressed his palm flat. The air before his hand rippled, the subtle visual cue for an out of bounds area. The barrier felt like glass, perfectly smooth and clear, and so insubstantial he could have broken it by accident. Of course, the barrier wasn't a physical thing and could not be broken even with all of his strength, in ALfheim it had been a special game asset as indestructible as any immortal object. The infinitely thin barrier would allow game objects to pass through, but was impassable to mobs and player. Even Yui could not cross its threshold.
He had spent most of the early morning searching back and forth along the barrier perimeter, using some of the floating islands over Arrun to rest his wings. From what he could determine, the barrier was probably a sphere centered on the top of the world tree, which meant that no matter how he approached, he would never be able to get closer to Asuna than he was now. His left hand balled into a fist.
He had harbored a faint hope that when they had been transported to Halkegenia, the barrier would have collapsed or otherwise dissipated. But it seemed just as powerful as ever.
Kirito's best guess was that when ALfheim had been transported, whatever had put them in these bodies and given the World Tree and other game assets physical form, had also interpreted the barrier as some sort of magic. Under better circumstances he would have loved to dissect what that might imply for Halkegenia's magic system. Was magic interpreted like some sort of computer code? If so, what was running that code? And what was the underlying logic? Was it now possible to use that logic to create new spells? Now however, it was just a bitter reminder of what stood between him and Asuna. He would have punched the barrier if doing so wouldn't have broken his hand.
The Spriggan swordsman grit his teeth. "Yui." Kirito said quietly. "Are you still able to detect Asuna?"
The little navigation pixie shook her head sadly. "I'm sorry Papa. I was able to detect Mama's player ID because Arrun's central plaza shared the same server as the World Tree, but now . . ."
"There aren't any servers." Kirito finished. No, Asuna was still there, he was certain of that, certain of it, if the world tree had been transported and Asuna had been there, then it stood to reason she was still someplace among its branches.
"Yui, you said you can still detect Cardinal, right?"
Yui nodded her head, she looked troubled.. "Its a weird feeling." She scrunched up her face in thought, "I don't know if I can describe it properly, the connection seems corrupted, but its definitely still there."
Kirito nodded, he hadn't taken his eyes from the World Tree. The base of the Tree was still out of bounds, protected by the same barrier, which made scaling the trunk impossible, and the altitude barrier would have stopped him besides. It might be possible in this world to overwhelm the barrier with offensive spells, or maybe the Tristanians would have a way of dispelling it. If not, that left the quest, Guardians of the World Tree, as the only way to reach Asuna.
Kirito wasn't so naïve as to think that Lady Sakuya or Alicia Rue would be willing to risk their forces to assault the World Tree again, not when death had become a frightening possibility. Nor was he arrogant enough to think he could ask others to risk their lives for his own goals. Though, his hand brushed against his shirt pocket and the dull silver card, their might be something he could offer in exchange. But he couldn't make that decision for anyone else, he would need to bring it up with Lady Sakuya, and soon.
Bells began to chime from the tower bellow, announcing the beginning of the day, Lady Sakuya would want to see them soon and he couldn't afford to keep the Sylph Leader waiting. Suguha had still been sleeping peacefully when he'd departed. He was sure his sister would sleep in given the events of the past day, even so, he'd left a note telling her where he would be so she wouldn't worry.
"Asuna, I'll be back soon." Kirito said. "Yui, say goodbye to your Mama, we're going back for now."
The pixie girl nodded reluctantly, "We'll be there soon, stay safe Mama." Yui pushed off from the barrier and flew back to Kirito's side. With one last look Kirito closed his eyes and folded his wings, letting himself plummet towards the center of Arrun.
Kirigaya Suguha woke slowly to the sounds of birds singing and distant bells. The girl curled up tight beneath the covers, she didn't really want to get up, it was nice and warm in bed, and when she got up she'd have to go out and do her morning practice. The dojo was always so cold in the winter. Unfortunately, the world had other ideas and the comfortable warmth beneath her blanket gradually grew into a muggy heat. With a small groan, the girl tossed the heavy blanket aside and sat up blearily rubbing her eyes. She squinted into the morning light. It was too bright, too bright, she could barely see.
Slowly her vision cleared and her mind worked sluggishly to comprehend what she was seeing. She was in a room that was not hers, in a bed that was not her own. To her left, an open window looked out upon a small garden and a cool morning breeze wafted in the scent of a fragrant olive tree. Her eyes opened slowly as understanding dawned and with it dread, she looked wildly around the room, the other bed was empty, but a small note had been left on the nightstand, weighted down by one of the bottles from the night before.
Reaching over, Suguha snatched up the piece of paper. The message was short, which was her brother's style, he'd planned to be back before she woke up, but if she woke early he didn't want her to worry. She put the note down carefully. Her distress from the night before had faded, only to be replaced by a sort of dull resignation. None of this could be real, could it?
But it was, she was certain of that, otherwise she wouldn't have felt so awful. Her eyes strung a little and she felt a few hot streaks run down her cheeks, nothing like the flood last night, just a reminder of how much it hurt. She wiped the tears away with the cuff of her shirt.
She wanted to crawl back under the covers, pull them over her head, and hide until it all went away. But that wasn't going to happen. Instead, slowly, she climbed out of bed, feeling bare feet touch cold hardwood. She stood.
There was a mirror on top of the dresser, with her hair down, Suguha almost didn't recognize her reflection. Kirigaya Suguha had traditional Japanese features, dark eyes, and wore her dark black hair cut short so that it wouldn't interfere with her Kendo training. The girl that looked back from the mirror had long blonde hair that fell past her shoulders to the small of her back, her eyes were bright green. Despite the differences, Suguha could see bits of herself in that face, little pieces of familiarity, like the face of a long lost sister. It was the face of Leafa, the other Suguha that had been born when she'd first logged into ALO.
Suguha remembered that she had been briefly fascinated by her appearance when she'd first started playing the full dive game, she'd quickly moved on to her enchantment with flying through the skies of ALfheim, and by the time she had thought of it again she had grown accustomed to manipulating that face. She hadn't paid it any more thought until now. If what her brother said was correct, this was her real face now, at least for the foreseeable future. Suguha pinched her cheeks and shook her head, too weird.
She stopped. Slowly her hands fell to her sides and she took a breath. Suguha composed herself, she had to be strong right now, she knew she wasn't as strong as her brother, but, maybe if she could just muster a little bit of that strength, then maybe she could move forward. And her brother was here with her, the swordsman Kirito who had survived the death game of Sword Art Online. Lots of people had died in the game that was not a game, but lots had survived too. It was definitely possible. Even if the circumstances weren't exactly the same, there wasn't anyone else she would rather have had at her side.
Suguha turned and saw her clothes laying where she had folded them the night before. Her fingers played with the hem of her nightshirt, she took another resigned breath and began to undress, casting aside her night clothes, she carefully avoided looking in the mirror while she disrobed, that would still be too much, and started getting dressed.
She heard something land gently on the windowsill, a bird? Sylvain was lousy with small colorful species of sparrow that made their home amongst the bark of the world tree. She'd heard once that the birds around Arrun were supposed to be especially good luck if you could get one to eat from the palm of your hand. It was just a silly rumor, but it lifted her spirits. Smiling a little, Leafa tilted her head to catch a look at her guest and froze.
A dark figure crouched on the windowsill, holding perfectly still.
Suguha didn't hear the figure stutter her name or register the deer in headlights look on his face. The shriek that followed caused birds to take flight for blocks around, ensuring that the whole district would have no good fortunes for the rest of the day.
Suguha couldn't quite remember the series of events that had followed, nor could her brother for different reasons. But from the absent dew milk bottle and the sizable bruise forming on her brother's head, she'd been able to reconstruct them from the results. Yui's testimony confirmed it.
Kirito tenderly probed his forehead as he walked beside his sister on their way towards Arrun tower. After hurriedly getting dressed, Leafa had sorted out the incident with the other inn occupants and a patrol of Cait Syth who had been drawn by the noise.
"Jeez Sugu, I didn't know your thrown weapons skill was so high." Her brother mumbled.
They would have flown, but considering the not inconsiderable force with which Suguha had thrown the bottle, she wanted to have her brother checked out by someone with first aid experience. At least the glass bottle hadn't shattered against his thick skull.
"Knock on the door like a normal person." Leafa huffed.
"You should have closed the window if you were going to change." He insisted. "Someone might have seen you."
"That isn't the normal etiquette, Papa." Yui said sternly. "You should just admit you did a weird thing!"
Leafa paused in mid stride, "No, your Papa's right, sorry", she said and looked down red faced. Strictly speaking she should have known better than to change so casually in a world where everyone had wings, being on the second floor was no guarantee of privacy. She consoled herself with the fact that it could have been worse, at least it had been Kirito rather than some pervert. "Where did you go this morning?"
Kirito's hand fell from his head. "We were visiting Asuna."
"Oh." Leafa said quietly. "Do you have any new ideas on how to reach the top of the Tree."
Kirito shook his head, "Unless we can destroy the barrier, the only way up is still through the Guardians."
Leafa shuddered at that thought. They'd almost made it last time, but it had been a matter of both luck and skill, exploiting the lag generated by the gigantic army of Guardian Knights running on a single server in order to punch through with speed. They had no way of knowing if that would work now or if the Guardian Knights' attack algorithms had changed when they were transported.
It was also possible that the Guardian Knights had all disappeared along with the town NPCs, but there was no guarantee that was the case since mounts and navigation pixies were still present. The only way to be sure was to have someone go and trigger the quest and then run if they saw any Guardians. Kirito seemed to think that there was an autonomy threshold that had come into play when deciding whether or not an NPC was transported over. The town NPCs which were highly scripted had been left behind while mounts and possibly mobs had been brought along.
Leafa couldn't imagine Lady Sakuya risking another attempt on the World Tree until they knew more, much less ordering her forces to their possible deaths. When she had said as much to Kirito, her brother had just nodded.
"You're right." He said. "I can't ask Lady Sakuya to launch another raid just for Asuna." Her brothers hands clenched. "I can't . . . I can't endanger other people for our sake."
"Just for Asuna?"
"I can't be sure, but their could be something else at the crest of the tree that could be valuable if we can access it."
"You mean the Castle of King Oberon?" Leafa asked, her eyes went wide.
"Mmm. Maybe that too." Her brother agreed. "But it could be something even more important." He reached into his pocket and produced a small silver card.
Recognition dawned, "Thats -"
"The GM access card that fell from the World Tree." Kirito said. "I think Asuna dropped this to Yui and I as a message. If Asuna had this, then it should mean that there is an Admin access terminal at the top of the World Tree."
"Do you think it would still work?" Leafa asked.
"I don't know. What would it even do? There's no underlying game engine to manipulate, but at the same time, maybe it can do anything. We can't tell until we find it and try it out." Kirito put the card back in his pocket. "But . . . Sugu . . . Do you think this would be worth fighting to the top of the world tree? It's just, I can't be sure anymore." Kirito looked uncertain.
Leafa reached out and squeezed her brother's hand. "I don't know either." She said gently. "But it might be worth a try."
They continued on in silence, Arrun looked just as abandoned this morning as it had the day before, but in the early hours that seemed more natural and their walk was uneventful. There was a great deal of activity in the square when they arrived and curiosity got the better of both of them, they ran the rest of the way to the base of Arrun tower.
Lady Sakuya was directing the gathered players, the forces under her command, initially comprised of Sylph and Cait Syth players loyal to their respective factions, had swelled to include members of every race. Strong Gnomes were busy hauling supplies while the smaller Imps, Spriggans, and Leprechauns took inventory. Leafa even spotted a few Puca players sitting atop the nearby buildings where they could use their sound based magic to project messages across the city. A crowd of Salamanders, Sylphs, and Cait Syth were gathered around Lady Sakuya listening intently as she spoke.
"Leafa-chan, Kirito-kun, Yui-chan." The Sylph Leader greeted, at some point Lady Sakuya must have found time to rest, she was looking much more alert then she had the night before. "I'm glad you decided to join us just now."
"Has something happened?" Leafa asked.
Lady Sakuya nodded. "Last night, I had Alicia Rue use her moonlight mirror ability, we got through, first to Freelia and then to Silvain."
Kirito and Leafa both stood straight.
"W-wait, then that means . . . Did all of ALfheim get transported?!" Leafa asked.
"It would appear to be that way." Lady Sakuya observed. "I intend to leave early for my meeting with Professor Colbert and the Headmaster, hopefully they can help make sense of this and also contact their government so that we can avoid any conflicts. We could only maintain the mirror for a brief time but our forces in Silvain reported a nearby town and sightings of mounted figures reconnoitering from the North East. Freelia made similar reports and also claimed to have made contact with the captain of a ship."
"Then what about the other Capitols?" Kirito wondered aloud.
"That is still unknown." Sakuya said. "But I suspect we will find that they have been transported as well, this could be a problem."
"It's way too many people." Kirito said.
Leafa understood. At the moment, Arrun contained just over four thousand players and enough food to feed them all for two or three weeks depending on how long they were willing to keep feeding the dragons and other pets and mounts. The other settlements would have their own food supplies but they would also need to be supplied from outside before too long. On a slow night, ALfheim's Japan based servers would have anyplace from forty to eighty thousand people logged in at once.
At the same time, each additional settlement that had been transported was another chance for conflict in the ensuing confusion. They had been lucky that Professor Colbert had been a teacher and willing to listen to their earnest words, their first meeting could so easily have ended in violence. Other places might not be so lucky or so inclined to a peaceful resolution. She couldn't imagine the Salamanders being very diplomatic.
Lady Sakuya nodded. "That is why we must move quickly, if this situation is not handled with care we will have a much larger crises on our hands. Kirito-kun, Leafa-chan, please may I request that you come with me to the meeting."
"You're heading out now?" Leafa asked.
The Sylph leader nodded, "Now that you're here. I will be taking a small retinue but I'd like to avoid bringing any obvious guards."
"They already know us, and Kirito and I are strong fighters." Leafa reasoned.
The Sylph Leader nodded. "Exatly. This matter requires discretion both in matters of diplomacy and security, I can't think of anyone better to accompany me."
"We accept." Her brother said automatically. "But before we go, there is something I want to discuss with you and Alicia Rue, in private."
The Sylph Leader nodded hesitantly when she saw the troubled look on his face. "It will take a few minutes for the rest of my retinue to prepare their equipment." Lady Sakuya turned to the gathered faeries. "Novair, see to the final preparations."
The three Faeries departed for the top of Arrun tower and the offices that had been set aside for the private use of Lady Sakuya and Alicia Rue. When they arrived they found the Cait Syth leader laying drowsily on a couch.
Leafa cast a worried look at the Cait Syth and then to lady Sakuya. The Sylph Leader shrugged. "We drew straws on who would take the night shift, Alicia lost."
"That's why Sakuya-chan gets to go play diplomat this morning." Alicia said and yawned sleepily, exposing needle like canines.
"What is it that you wanted to tell us?" Lady Sakuya asked.
Kirito and Leafa looked at each other and then back to the Sylph leader. Kirito took the GM card from his pocket and showed it to Lady Sakuya.
"What is this?" She asked, curious.
"A GM access card." Kirito said.
Lady Sakuya looked surprised and even the exhausted Alicia Rue sat bolt upright.
"Where did you get this?" The Sylph Leader touched the card carefully as if it would disappear if she wasn't careful.
"It's from Mama." Yui said.
The Sylph Lord looked confused, "I don't understand." Lady Sakuya said, "Yui-chan, you said your Mama is the person you're trying to find at the top of the World Tree."
Yui nodded sadly. "Before this all started, I detected Mama's player ID, we couldn't reach her because of the altitude barrier around the World Tree. But she must have heard us because she dropped this."
Lady Sakuya shook her head in disbelief. "You two really are full of surprises." She said.
"If Asuna was able to get this, then it probably means there's an admin access terminal someplace within the World Tree."
Lady Sakuya exchanged glances with Alicia Rue. "Kirito-kun, you do realize how valuable, how dangerous this thing might be?"
Kirito nodded slowly. "That's why I brought it to you. If the different aspects of ALfheim have become real, that means that this city, the World Tree, and these bodies are no longer just data on a server. An admin terminal may be completely useless, but it may have been transformed into something capable of effecting the real world." He hesitated, "It may be worth risking another attempt on the World Tree."
Lady Sakuya took the card carefully and examined it. "Alicia, what do you think?"
The Cait Syth leader seemed to uncharacteristically hesitate. "Even if it is, I don't think we can do it right away even if we wanted to." Alicia said. "Right Sakuya-chan?"
Lady Sakuya nodded. "I understand that this gives us a good reason to unite to reach the top of the World Tree." Sakuya said. "But there are much more pressing matters at hand. We have to consider the welfare of every player. And if the game has become real", Lady Sakuya bit her lip, nobody had been willing to test it, but amongst the former players there was an unspoken acceptance that death was now an all too real possibility.
Kirito's head sank. "I understand. Just, please, consider it soon, if this world has become real, then there's no way to tell how long Asuna, Yui's Mama, can survive alone at the top of the World Tree."
Sakuya gave him a grave look but nodded. "I understand, Kirito-kun. And as you say, it may be worth risking everything for. But it isn't my decision to make alone, nor is it one we can make hastily. Please, I ask you for just a little time." She handed the card back to Kirito, placing it back in his hand and then folded her own hands around his. "Yui-chan told me about Asuna-san. She must mean a great deal to you. Until the day that we can stand at the top of the World Tree, please hold onto this. It belongs to you, and I wouldn't trust it in the hands of anyone else. In fact, you should tell no one else that you have this, if people knew such a thing existed . . ."
"I understand." Kirito said. "It's a dangerous thing to have. I wasn't even sure I should show you, but it seems like I'm running out of options."
"I agree with Sakuya-chan." Alicia said, "Its definitely worth a shot, but we'll need to be extra prepared with how dangerous it will be. We can't make any promises, but if it can be done, the Cait Syth will have your back."
"And the Sylphs will be at your side." Lady Sakuya added.
Kirito put the card away once more. He close his eyes. "Thank you." He said softly.
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