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Overheat
Execute Program 13-G
Online: Walking on the Razors Edge
Noire wandered the streets of Torcraft at night alone, her face hidden beneath the large hood of the Manipulator class, her body's curves, her hair, all obscured by the robe of her class outfit. "No luck today either." Noire sighed and shook her head, stopping and looking at a shop that was open only at night for those that preferred a nocturnal routine.
Walking in and coming back out a few minutes later, Noire enjoyed a bag of pastries that she bought just then. She had so much to think about and so much to do that she had disabled guild chat for the time being. And out of loneliness, she had taken to talking to herself to alleviate both the issue of being alone and having difficulty sorting her thoughts and remembering everything she was doing.
"I checked all access points. All closed. That means that Horizon was compromised when we launched it. Was there a traitor among the goddesses? No, that's unlikely. Unless Yellow Heart was sent by Celestia to sabotage the plans of the underworld. But it shouldn't have known about them." Munching on the second pasty, Noire took a turn to the left and heard crying in the distance. "I can't deal with this right now." Turning about and walking in a different direction, Noire headed all the way to central before she had finished has pastries and thrashed the bag by throwing it on the ground, having it despawn about a minute later.
"The question is, what do I do now? The access points were made to check on the world outside without physically leaving. Now that they are closed, I have no way of seeing whether things are improving and how much they have improved. And then there is the issue of the game seemingly developing itself. Nobody could have escaped Horizon, and even if they miraculously did, Celestia would have erased the world already, the servers included." Noire reached the large fountain at central and thought that maybe she could take a peek at Celestia but decided against it.
She was still the Queen of the Underworld and this mess was her responsibility. Even if Yellow Heart was a traitor, she had to find a way out of this. The others didn't even know the specifications of Horizon and explaining those to the goddesses would cause more harm than good. "But what am I gonna do? Overlooking my position as a guild leader, I am technically a regular player without access powers. That was the whole point of Horizon's access point system." Noire clicked her tongue. "I know it has something to do with the towers. They weren't in the game and Horizon was not designed to add gameplay features like that." Noire looked at the sky in the distance. It wasn't possible to see structures from another zone but she knew they were there. "The number of access points doesn't line up with the number of towers at all. And stuffing all the access points into the center tower would suggests Horizon has sentience and is trying to keep us here indefinitely. But it definitely hasn't been taken over by Celestia. Otherwise it would have disabled PVP modes everywhere."
Noire sat down at the fountain and observed the dozens and hundreds of people passing by even at this time of the night. They know nothing about how Horizon works and it is better that way. Noire sighed. The original solution was much more elegant than this. But we ran out of time so we had to do a patchwork rush job. There will be a lot of trouble when we get back out but trouble is better than certain demise.
Noire sat there in silence for a few minutes, just listening to what people were talking about as they walked by. Work, friends, leveling, unions, it was the same things as at any other part of the day. But there was one new thing. The crying girl. Noire had heard it earlier as well and chosen to ignore it, but it was apparently still going.
Drama came with online games as a guarantee but Noire was surprised that someone would be so upset that they cried for this long out in the open. But she didn't have time for this now. She had to find an access point, somewhere, anywhere, and use it to check on the outside world. Access points were two-way gateways that couldn't be used to physically leave the game world but watch and observe the outside. It had the capability to grant admin privileges inside the game as well and Noire wanted to use that to explore the towers and check if there were access points in the center one or at the top.
Opening up her menu, Noire saw that she had another trash mail. She just couldn't figure out who had managed to guess her in-game mail address. Those were privileged information for friends only and she had none. There was also the option to let anyone in the guild see the address but Noire had disabled that on day one. The sender was the same as always, a mess of letters and garbage characters. &15||01R3. Completely unintelligible. The message was strings of letters mixed with special characters and numbers. It almost looks corrupted instead of just trash mail. Moving the mail into the spam folder, Noire closed the menu and got up, walking away, vanishing into the masses of the town.
She herself didn't really know where she was going when the weather system kicked in and switched to rain. Pain didn't really exist in 4GO2 but being drenched and feeling cold was indeed a thing. Noire was lucky that her class outfit not only covered her entire body but also repelled the water. She had an umbrella item in her inventory nonetheless.
Taking a small detour, Noire was annoyed with both herself and the game. She was so close to maximum level but entering the towers was tied to beating the monster kings and getting to 99 itself was tied to that stupid quest that was basically impossible on her own, even as a Manipulator. No amount of hard work would get her there alone. And joining up with other people would inevitably result in a lot of questions asked to which she either didn't have answer or didn't want to answer.
The rain was giving her a headache. It was making the town so much darker by blocking out the sun. Pulling a waterproof wisp lantern from her inventory, a level 50 quest item that provided light in a decent radius at no fuel cost and in any environment, Noire walked down a back alley. If this wasn't 4GO2, I bet there would be hoodlums waiting for a beautiful girl like me down there somewhere. Noire smirked. She wasn't too happy about the way her class outfit covered everything up, considering how good looking she thought she was, but it was too practical.
Walking down the alley, Noire was halfway to the other side when she stumbled over something and hit the ground, her lantern flung across the pavement. Getting up and roughly kicking in the general direction of what she had stumbled over, Noire hit something. Something that replied with a meek Ouch. Jumping away in shock, Noire grabbed her lantern, cleared her throat and shone light on the source of her stumble.
Oh come on, Noire thought and wanted to groan and hit herself. The hell do I do now? Before Noire knew it, she had pulled the Umbrella from her inventory and held it over the girl sitting against the wall, her on her knees, face down, completely drenched from the rain and not even looking up to see who had kicked her.
"What are you doing here, Neptune?" Noire asked with a sigh. "Neptune."
"There is no Neptune here. And please don't interrupt my special waterfall training light edition." Neptune replied with a broken voice in the most humorous way she could. "I haven't reached total water element immunity yet. I need only 268 more hours."
Amnesia. Noire recalled. Linda had reported that to her. And it looked like she didn't recognize her voice at all. But if Neptune was out here, alone, in the rain, pretending to some ridiculous special training, something had to have happened with Makers. Do I just leave her here? Maybe not knowing about me might be better. She did bring this on herself, so it's not my fault, no matter what happens. I should probably just go and pretend I never saw her. Yeah. That's what I'll do.
"What happened? I thought that after you had your memories wiped and I took your goddess powers away, you had started a new life." Noire you idiot! Idiot, idiot, idiot!
Neptune looked up and saw Noire's face. It felt familiar and she realized almost instantly that she must have known her from before between what she said and the feeling of familiarity. "You took my powers?"
"You look the way you do now because of that." Come to think of it, where did I store her crystal? I re-arranged the room a few times to make space for more light novels and manga and games so… where did I… Noire smiled awkwardly and just nodded. I got no idea! "You wanted them gone because… well because of reasons."
"Because I was a monster." Neptune looked back down at her knees, resuming her waterfall training light edition.
Yes. But that isn't the whole story. "A monster of circumstances the world created." Noire tried to cheer her up but it had kind of the opposite effect.
"So still a monster. I wonder how much EXP I would give." Neptune didn't bother to look up and decided to wallop in self-pity for now. Maybe it would eventually wrap around and she stopped caring that she was completely alone, abandoned and hated by everyone in the world.
Noire was starting to get pissed off at her. "What happened to the Neptune I knew that always kept a happy face on?"
"She got kicked out of her guild and is now on vacation in Should-have-expected-it land." Neptune replied sarcastically and looked back up. "And you? Aren't you going to tell me what a horrible monster I was and how I don't deserve to be alive and should be eaten by a giant yellow circle of doom?"
"Nobody is going to get a reference that old!" Noire replied angrily. This is why I didn't like her back when I was a goddess! This stupid attitude! Or just this stupidity! "How did anyone even find out that you are Neptune?"
"I figured it out and while I am smarter than Holmes and Sherlock combined, Jene is even smarter than me. She's like Char." Neptune looked still depressed and sad but talking to someone actually helped.
"How old are you?!" Noire lost her temper for a second and took a deep breath to calm down. And just as she opened her mouth, the weather changed from Rain to Downpour a rare subset of rain that increased the intensity of Rain by 500% and added even more dark clouds. "I hate this game." Noire cursed and felt the water penetrate even her water repellant clothes. "You're coming with me, Neptune!" Noire grabbed Neptune's arm and tried to pull her up but that wasn't something the game allowed players to do.
"You're just gonna get dragged into the biggest Red vs Blue ever and I am Red on my own." Neptune looked away. "Unless you have like a rocket launcher with infinite ammo cheat going, you should stay out of this."
That triggered Noire's pride. "Stay out of it? Who do you think you're talking to! You were the one who was all Please take my powers and then you conveniently had your memory wiped! You owe me, a lot! Now get off your pudding butt!" Breathing heavy from shouting, Noire hated how even this Neptune, with none of her memories and a completely different look still got to her so easily.
Neptune was so surprised by this sudden onslaught that she forgot to mope and be depressed for a second. "N-Nepu?!" Neptune wondered if something bad was gonna happen to her if she refused this lady's suspicious invitation. "You seem awfully keen on getting me someplace else..." Neptune opened her mouth and looked at Noire with the face of a girl that was just invited out to the secret make-out spot "You'… you just want my body, is that it?"
"W-R-O-N-G!" Noire turned as red as a blister. "What could possibly give you that idea?! Fine, suit yourself, I am going, going, going, gone!" Stomping away, Noire could sense someone was following her. "What, changed your mind?"
"You're… not gonna ravish me?" Neptune asked with a tremendously suggestive expression, her wet civil clothes sticking to her body, her every curve, giving her a supremely sexy look. And the second Noire hesitated to reply and blushed, Neptune gasped again. "I knew it!"
"That's not it!" Noire shouted. "I'm… I'm the Queen of the Underworld. I got someone way better than you as my partner! She's taller, bustier, stronger, doesn't constantly reference decade old video games and most of all, she's got tact, something you lack!" Noire stared at Neptune. Damn, she does look sexy like that.
"You just thought Damn, she does look super ultra sexy in those wet, slippery clothes- I need to get them off her and warm her with my body didn't you!" Neptune focused on silly banter as hard as she possibly could to drown out the pain she was still feeling from being banned by her guild.
"Did not!" Noire replied while shouting again. "Enough, I am leaving." And once more, Noire felt Neptune following her. "What are you, a clingy puppy?!"
"You were the one who told me to come with you. You're not honest with your feelings at all." Neptune felt like she had done something like this, with exactly this lady, so many times before. "What's your name anyway? Or should I just call you Lonely Girl Picking Up Hot Girls In The Rain?"
"It's Noire! N-O-I-R-E!" She paused and hit herself. "No, I mean, it's Black. Noire was my name before." She just gets under my skin. I would have thrown her in jail already if this was Pyraba.
"So where is your lonely self taking sexy old me?" Neptune ducked and forced herself under the umbrella, rubbing head face against Noire's arm.
"Who's lonely? I am doing you a favor out of the goodness of my pure soul!" Noire was about to give up. "I have a place nearby- And don't cling to my arm!" Noire tried to wrestle free of Neptune, who was clinging to her arm now to stay out of the rain, desperate to occupy herself.
Stepping out of the alley, Noire noticed that some people were pointing at the sky, where a gigantic eggplant was slowly drifting beneath the clouds. What… is that… Noire wondered just as Neptune suddenly jumped on her like a scared monkey. "Get off me! What now?!"
"That… the devil… the devil has come for me… an evil beyond the comprehension of humankind, beyond the depths of depravity and evil, the ultimate disaster that is-" Neptune went on and on and Noire pushed her off, making her land on the flooded pavement.
Sending Neptune a party invite, Noire could see that she wasn't going to get anywhere by trying to drag the girl all the way to the other end of town. "Accept the invite." Noire was soaked to the bones and she was longing for a hot bath, a hot drink and the open fire of a chimney. It was a pity that 4GO2 had no books yet, even though the Print & Press Union was working on it.
"You're not gonna use some pervy skill to take off my clothes, are you?" Neptune asked as she accepted the invite.
"There is no such skill!" Noire had no energy left to be truly upset anymore. "Recall!" Noire and Neptune vanished on the spot, surrounded by blue light for a few seconds. Spawning in a small apartment, living room, kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, Noire switched back to civil clothes, revealing a black and red dress that was not too different from the clothes she had worn as a goddess. "I am taking a bath first. Wait here, I am giving you a towel so you can take off your wet clothes."
"So you do want me to strip after all!" Neptune covered her breasts and turned away from Noire.
"Just shut up!" Noire shouted and immediately, the neighbors started banging on the wall. "You shut up too or I will Divine Light of Aleksandra this entire loft!" Noire shouted in anger and the banging disappeared.
"I got abducted by a scary Manipulator that wants me to strip and threatens the neighbors with total annihilation." Neptune backed away into a far corner of the room. "What did poor, sexy old me get herself into?"
"You-" Noire hit her own face with her palm and gave up. Walking into the bathroom, grabbing a towel from the cupboard, Noire came back into the living room and threw the towel towards Neptune, who caught it with her head, rendering her unable to see for the moment. "Cover up, put your clothes on the iron bar in front of the chimney." Noire said and then pointed her hand at the dry wood inside said chimney that was magically refilled after every use. While it was no actual combat skill but a remotely triggered Living skill, Noire felt incredibly cool for starting a fire with just the palm of her hand.
"Pfffft. Showoff." Neptune complained from below the towel.
"You didn't even see!" Noire retorted and vanished into the bathroom, slamming the door shut. "I hate that girl!" But she is cute. And I haven't really talked to anyone since I got here. Maybe- "N-No, I don't need company. I am the Queen of the Night." Noire tried to convince herself with less than shining success. Disappointed with her own discipline, Noire took off her clothes, which was only possible inside designated housing areas for public order reasons.
Letting the bathtub fill while she put a towel in reach and freed her hair from the hair ties she kept on, Noire wondered what exactly she was planning to do with Neptune. She had to find out what exactly had happened. Considering the personality she was displaying, she resembled the Neptune from before the war a lot. So what had happened to make a girl like that become like the moping mess of self-pity in the alley?
Getting into the tub and sitting there, legs pulled towards her body, arms around her legs, her head resting her the knees sideways, Noire stared at the black towel she had put on the sink, in arm's reach from the tub. Really, what am I gonna do? I can't find any access points, I don't have my powers, Magic isn't here, Arfoire is gone, I can't tell the goddesses about Horizon and someone keeps sending me stupid junk mail. Sitting there, Noire just let her thoughts float at random, relaxing and trying to get a new look at things. Something tickled her feet and she squirmed a little.
If I can't find any access points soon, I will have to at least enlist Celestia's help. There are no two ways around it. Well, enlist their help… it'll be me offering my help to them and they'll be like part-timers while I still do the important stuff. It's not like I couldn't just get other high level players to help. It's just that they're the best organized and highest guild on the server. Something tickled her feet again and this time she squirmed even more.
"I want to see Uni… I hope she is doing okay. Well, she is my little sister, and she took over my title so she must be doing okay. There is nothing that can keep us Lastation goddesses down." Noire paused and something tickled her feet for the third time and she changed her position, spreading her legs a little to put her feet at the sides of the tub. "I don't really want to see Lowee and Leanbox though. Especially Leanbox. And Kei." Noire sighed. "Kei is going to have a million questions and I don't really want to answer any of them. She wouldn't understand how important it is that someone keeps the Underworld in line. I like ruling Pyraba but I do miss Uni a lot. Not like I could ever tell anyone that."
And for the fourth time already, something tickled her feet. Flinging around and looking at the water, Noire turned as red as the Hot icon on the faucets when she saw another pair of legs poking her own. Looking up, there was Neptune, naked, sitting in the tub, a completely comically confused expression on her face, her eyes turned into big white rings and her mouth shaped like a deformed P.
Noire was so overloaded with embarrassment that it wrapped around and she remained cool. "What… are you doing?"
"It was cold! Even with the fire!" Neptune complained. "And in hindsight I don't mind some touchy feely bits skinship with a cute girl!" Neptune's face turned into one with huge puppy eyes. "No?"
Noire covered her own face with both of her hands and just sat there for over a minute, saying nothing at all. After she finally looked up, Neptune was still there, doing the sprinkling thing with her hands in the water. "I was hoping I was just hallucinating all of this."
"Wow, I've been called cute and sexy before, but nobody thought I was so hot that I could only be a dream before!" Neptune blushed and hid her breasts and put down her legs.
Noire looked at her with the face of someone who had just given up. "Just… I don't care anymore." Noire had only so much capacity for retorts in one day. And she had exhausted them in less than an hour. I'm gonna die from over-retorting. Noire figured and tried to pretend like Neptune wasn't there. At least she wasn't talking anymore.
"Do you not have a guild?" Neptune asked out of the blue. She just needed to keep talking, even if it was about guilds, to stop thinking about the people she wasn't going to see anymore.
Reminder to never be grateful for anything she isn't doing because she will start doing it right after I think about it. Noire groaned internally. "I have my reasons for staying on my own."
"So you're a loner?" Neptune asked and could tell that it ticked Noire off. "There is nothing wrong with being a loner, I'm one too now, we can be loners together. The lonely two. It sounds like one of those walking simulator story games that totally suck though."
"I am asking just in case but there isn't an off button for your mouth, is there?"
Neptune paused and then blushed furiously. "A-Are you asking me to kiss you? I-I'm flattered but I can't! There is actually someone I like! His name starts with P and he is a King. We are totally inseparable, although I haven't really seen him since everyone became a RPG character."
"Pudding isn't written with a K." Noire corrected Neptune.
"Nepu?! How did you know I was talking about pudding?" Neptune covered her eyes. "You can see into my soul through my eyes, can't you! You're mindflaying me right now!"
"It would be mind-reading and that's the wrong class! I told you I was the one that took your powers away. I've known you for centuries, during peace and during the war. We fought too, although I always won."
"That last part doesn't sound like me at all." Neptune retorted and she saw a vein on Noire's forehead bulge. "N-No need to get angry, losing all the time against someone happens to the best of us."
"I didn't lose! Lastation goddesses don't lose!" Noire's emotional state wrapped around again and now she was back to being upset and retorting.
"Okay, okay, whatever you say, Lonely Heart." Neptune said and it ticked Noire off even more.
"Black Heart! I used to be Black Heart! Black! Not Lonely!" Noire shouted again and the neighbors hit the walls again. "I told you to shut the heck up!" Noire shouted. "By the Graces of Heaven, Light of Creation, Of Genesis and Birth- Grant upon me the power-" Noire started her incantation as loud as she possibly could while sitting in the tub. There was a very loud sound of a door being slammed in panic and Noire stopped.
"You're… not gonna blast me with some super chuuni attack, right?"
"It's not a-" Noire vibrated with anger and turned around in the tub, her bare back directed at Neptune. "Get clean and shut up!"
And before Noire could rectify her position of weakness, which she only realized when it was too late, Neptune hugged her from behind, two soft puddings pushing against Noire's back. "Oh, so smooth."
"W-W-What are you doing?" Noire tried to get away but there wasn't a lot of space to move around and getting up and baring everything would have been just even more embarrassing than sharing a bath with Neptune.
"You miss your sister, right?" Neptune sounded a lot different now, deeper, more reasonable, not nearly as quirky.
"S-She's probably doing fine. She's my sister after all." Noire said and still struggled a little to get away from Neptune.
"You're really not an honest person, Lonely Heart." Neptune said and rested her head against Noire's shoulders.
"I told you!" Noire tried to get free but Neptune was holding on unusually tight. What's wrong with her that she's clinging like this?
"I got banned from my guild because everyone found out I used to be Purple Heart. And Celestia is going to know soon if they don't know yet. Everyone will hate me." Neptune's eyes were half closed and she didn't really focus on where she was looking. "I had it all figured out but didn't say anything. I thought, it's not who I am anymore, but I guess it didn't matter. People aren't going to forgive the stuff I did, even if I can't remember it anymore or even if I'm not a goddess anymore."
"Being depressed over it is not gonna help." Noire complained. "There is nothing you can do but hope people will eventually stop caring and move on. It might take a long time, but even though you're not a goddess anymore, you won't age beyond this point."
"Living forever with everyone hating me forever sounds like poop." Neptune complained and finally let go of Noire, got out of the tub and grabbed the towel she had brought in with her. "I'll leave as soon as my clothes are dry."
Noire couldn't stand Neptune behaving this way. This self-pity was just annoying her. It wasn't right. That wasn't how Neptune should be acting. Although she couldn't really tell her that. She had lost her country, then her powers, then her memories and now she lost everyone she had gotten close. That was an enormous amount of loss to endure.
Getting out herself, Noire put on her towel and found Neptune moping in front of the chimney on the carpet. "Hey, stupid Neptune." Noire really just wanted to go to bed now, skipping the drink and relaxing at the chimney. There was no relaxing with Neptune around anyway. "It's a bother but I give you special permission to stay here for as long as you want."
"Why?" Neptune looked up.
"Because I have such a big heart that I can't leave a stupid girl like you suffering on her own." Noire said and sat down on the sofa in front of the chimney, just a little behind where Neptune sat. "Get off the floor, you'll make the wood rot with your wet butt."
Neptune grudgingly got off the floor and sat at the far end of the sofa, the only space to actually sit down. "You can sleep on the sofa for the time being. What class are you?" Noire asked without looking. In hindsight, she really wanted that drink now so she opened her menu and pulled a bottle of scotch from it.
"Dark Knight."
"You have some money then, right?" Noire opened the bottle and took a glass from her inventory. She was going to have to clean out her inventory of nonsense soon.
"Some." Neptune wasn't in the mood to pretend to be happy with this mean girl anymore.
"Go out and buy a bed. I am going to give you a key tomorrow. You don't deserve it, but I am just such a nice person that I'll do it for free." Noire poured herself some scotch and enjoyed the glass.
"You say some pretty damn mean things for allegedly being so nice." Neptune grumbled.
"We used to be enemies. I don't know what you are expecting. And- dammit, junk mail again?!"
"Junk mail?" Neptune looked at Noire with a confused look. "Why would anyone send you junk mail?"
"I don't know. It's always the same nonsense. A bunch of letters, numbers and special characters that look like someone stepped on their keyboard and played Dance dance Evolution-R." Noire was about to move the message when Neptune crawled up next to her, peeking at the static menu. "You can't see the menu of someone else."
"Can you give me a copy of the mail?"
"Huh? What for? I mean, sure, but I don't see the point. What's your mail address?"
"TerminatorOfEggplant at Pudding dot pl." Neptune said and waited for the mail forward that came within 30 seconds. Opening it, Neptune first smirked and then laughed. "This isn't junk mail, Silly Heart!"
"Huh? What else is it then?" Noire didn't believe her.
"Sender, Histoire. Subject: Rescue Me!" Neptune started. "The rest of the message is… lets see… I am stuck at the bottom of the Abyssal Tremor Zone and there is a boss walking over me at all the time! Such impudence of a lowly monster! Noire, I can only contact you because your mail is visible in the Horizon administration profile! Please get me out of here!" Neptune finished reading it. "I omitted a whole bunch of emotes because I don't know how to read half of them. This is some serious chat speak." Neptune was impressed.
Noire just sat there, with a shocked look on her face. "Histoire?! Why the heck is she sending me messages in garbage speak!"
"It's a really old and outdated form of chat talk, I think it was called leet-speak or something like that." Neptune laughed. "Only really old people and little kids use that nowadays! It's on the level of doing Your mother did jokes online when you get owned!"
"You have… some language going there yourself." Noire groaned. "Abyssal Tremors… which zone is that again?"
"I dunno. I never heard of it."
"Deep Search." Noire used one of her Manipulator skills that were not learned from enemies, allowing her to pinpoint any single in-game object, skill or otherwise related thing. "Abyssal Tremor Boss." No results. "Abyssal Tremors." No results.
"Oh, my mistake, that's Abyss of Tremors, not Abyssal Tremors." Nep chuckled as she corrected herself.
"Abyss of Tremors." Noire searched. 3 Results. 3 Zones. "Abyss of Tremors Boss." 1 result. Matching the third zone result from before. "Hey." Noire read the location and relevance data of the zones. "You said you don't know it."
"Never heard of it."
"Then why does it say here it is a level 80 Dark Knight quest zone." Noire glared at Neptune. I hope I am wrong about this, but what if the access points are hidden in zones I cannot access?
"Oh." Neptune had a really stupid smile on her face. "That zone. The deeper two zones are actually not relevant for the quest skill, Eternal Darkside, so I never bothered. Teeheepero."
Noire hit Nep on the head. "You moron!"
"Domestic violence! I am calling the game masters! Jail, jail this violent woman!" Neptune drowned out her bad feelings by acting goofy and focusing on this Histoire. "Histoire sounds real familiar. Is that the maker of a brand of pudding?"
"It's Planeptune's Oracle! Your old Oracle!" Noire was running out of steam. "You can get me in there, right? It's a party quest, right?"
Neptune made a farting noise. "I dunno. I did the quest when I hit 80 and soloed the first zone." Neptune looked to Noire in shock. "You want to take me out on a date?! But a place like that isn't were you should be taking a cute and lovely girl such as myself. I mean of course I can take care of myself just fine, no iffy, but as a first date-"
"It. Is. Not. A. Date!" Noire retorted again and started to wonder why she had brought this girl back with her. But at least she had been useful. If Histoire was out there, chances were good that her powers still worked and she knew everything that happened in the game. "We're going. Now. Get dressed."
"My clothes are totally wet though..." Neptune looked embarrassed. "Wearing metal stuff on bare skin is super kinky… I don't know if I can keep up with your fetishes."
Noire gave up. She had no energy left to argue or retort. "Tomorrow then." Noire said, got up, put bottle and glass back in her inventory and walked towards her bedroom. "I will throw you out on your ass in the cold if you sneak into my room."
"Aye, aye, captain Lon A Li." Neptune replied. "But could I get a blanket or something?"
"There's wool blankets in the sideboard." Noire pointed at the furniture next to the sofa. "Night!" Noire slammed the door shut before Neptune could get out another word. "That woman is killing me."
=== OVERHEAT ===
Starting early in the morning, Ram and Windy in particular were still yawning heavily as everyone assembled in front of the Paladin Seal. "Nepgear, did you take a look inside?" Vert didn't want to run into a super difficult quest blind.
"Yes. It's a wide open room with a single monster at the back. It's level is hidden." Nepgear reported truthfully.
"A boss rush perhaps?" Vert guessed. "Either way, it would make sense if the capabilities of a Paladin are tested to it's limits in there."
"And we specialize in single target tanking." Nepgear glanced at Blanc. "Well, maybe not as well-"
"You protect the party as well as I do now." Blanc admitted.
"Save the flattery for later. Nepgear, I am handing party lead over to you, so take us in after counting to ten. Everyone preemptively buff, we don't know how hard that monster is going to hit.
Rom, Chika, Famitsu and Nepgear used skills in quick succession and Nepgear activated the seal prompt in front of her, teleporting everyone inside.
A beast resemble a giant dog with protruding hons and claws, standing on all fours, was at the far end of the room which was perfectly circular and furnished with an almost blindingly white marble. "Natal, place some traps right here in front of us, layer them all. After Natal is done, Nepgear, engage it. Blanc, you're her backup. Rom, Chika, Famitsu, healing duty. Plutia, Zelena, Kei, you're backup until I call you. Windy, you're going to be on standby in case adds spawn, take them for a run. Everyone else is on damage duty." Vert issued orders quickly and without having to pause for breath.
Natal got to work right in front of the group and placed freezing traps, gas traps, spike traps, all the traps she had available, including premium grade traps that were very costly. "Ready." She announced 75 seconds after starting. Natal was still a very quiet girl that only really talked much with Rom, whom she regarded as her new best friend.
Nepgear walked only a few meters past the traps when the monster detected her and ran towards her. "Holier than Thou!" Nepgear used one of her high level skills, granting her armor holy element, reducing all elemental damage by 75% and physical damage by 25%. Darkness damage was amplified to 200% however.
And the beast ran straight past Nepgear, into the traps, took massive damage and died instantly. And within the second, everyone found themselves back outside. "Was… was that it?" Blanc wondered out loud.
Vert checked the guild menu and shook her head. "We must have failed somehow."
"But… it died." Natal was confused. "I got exp. A little." She checked her inventory. "My traps are still gone."
"So, lets not put traps down this time." Vert sighed. "Rebuff." Walking over to Nepgear, Vert feared that this was not a simple tank and spank quest after all. "Run ahead and just attract aggression. Once you have it, we'll attack it."
"Okay. But isn't it weird that we failed just by killing it?"
"We only lost about 20,000 credits in traps, which is negligible as long as we don't need 100 attempts." Vert smiled. "This is why I had us start early."
And they entered again. Nepgear ran up front, her holy buff still active. The monster ran towards her again and Nepgear used a different approach now. "Holy Cross!" The monster got hit and targeted Nepgear, who slowly retreated towards the group while Rom and Chika went up to her.
And suddenly they were all outside, and Nepgear was dead on the ground. "Is this game buggy?" Peashy asked while holding her cannon. "Hey Nepgear, you okay?"
"It hit me for my entire max HP." Nepgear said. "And I had Holier than Thou active."
"Rom, can you?" Vert asked and Nepgear was resurrected.
"Can we figure out what's happening before we go back in? If it dies, we lose. If Nepgear dies, we lose. So, we can't have Nepgear tank it?" Vert summarized. "Blanc, Nepgear, switch spots." Vert asked. "Just rebuff normal buffs, don't use any premiums."
Rebuffing and entering again. Blanc ran up ahead and the monster ran towards her. "Howl of Honor!" Blanc attracted the beast's attention, tanked the first hit that was a measly 500 damage, a drop on a hot stone for Blanc, and then killed Blanc instantly with 1 million damage to the face.
Attempt 4, Blanc and Nepgear advanced together, the former using Howl of Honor to tank the first hit and retreated while Nepgear used Holy Cross to take over aggression. The beast mauled Nepgear with over seven-thousand damage per hit, instantly putting Rom and Chika at their limit.
"Damage!" Vert shouted and Peashy landed the first hit from the back, a cannonball impacting on the beast's head. And everyone was back outside.
"This game is buggy, definitely." Peashy complained.
"Well, we did make progress. Blanc was just instant killed and would still be instantly killed if she had 97% or less damage reduction and we can't get her there even with premium gadgets." Vert noted. Premium was just a label for level 80+ items and skills that had either a long cooldown or required rare ingredients.
Attempt 5, this time Nepgear simply tanked away for nearly a minute while Vert kept everyone else but the healers on standby. "Uhm, Vert, are you waiting for something specific?"
"Yes." Vert replied and just as she said that, the Beast went up on it's back legs, howled and bit Nepgear for 9,999,999 damage, sending everyone back outside. "Are all these quests gonna be like this?" Nepgear asked, slightly demoralized.
"I sure hope not." Uni rolled her eyes.
"Vert." Zelena approached her younger double with the brown on her hair tips. "Isn't it possible that this is actually an endurance quest of no retaliation?"
"You mean, Nepgear and someone else has to tank the beast without dying until it gives up or the quest is cleared?" Vert considered that. "I suppose it is worth a try."
Repeating the process, the beast once more got up on it's behind legs but this time, Blanc took over. And just as Blanc expected, she was hit for ten million damage this time and it sent everyone outside.
"Maybe they need to dodge the attack?" Uni suggested and that was the next thing they tried but the monster just lounged through the air and landed right on top of the designated tank, biting her to death. The next attempt was simply to see sacrificing someone else would work. The monster got up on it's back legs and someone that sounded pretty bored said Whoops. An explosion hit the beast's head, it tumbled backwards and got back on all fours.
"My bad." Peashy said. Everyone expected to be teleported outside but nothing happened. Luckily, Ram and Chika kept healing Nepgear out of habit already because no teleport happened.
"So that is how we get past that." Vert said and watched the monster attack the same way as before. Spending another minute, the pattern repeated and this time Uni battered the enemy with her burst skills, dealing far more damage.
"This is pointless." Peashy said. "Look, it's healing up the damage with every attack. We'll be here for days if you try to kill it that way." Opening fire on the enemy, Peashy and everyone else was surprised when despite the four legged position, they were not kicked out.
"All damage dealers go!" Vert said and immediately jumped into the air.
The HP of the beast dropped quickly, first down to 80%, then 60% and then as it went up on it's legs again and the damage kept coming it fell all the way to 20% HP. Keeping the damage on, the beast died and nothing happened for a few seconds. Then, the walls and the far edges of the floor sprung spikes made of solid light.
"Laser spikes? That… that is so cool!" Nepgear let slip out. And then the spikes started closing in on the floor. "I take it back, this isn't cool at all!"
"What are we gonna do now?" Uni asked, a little desperate for an answer. At the current pace the spikes would turn all of them into Telltale Cheese in about a minute.
Before anyone could come up with an answer, four crystals, colored red, blue, green and brown, appeared in the far corners of the room, surrounded by spikes. Uni and Peashy didn't bother to wait for anyone to shout fire and simply attacked away. The shells and bullets were deflected by an invisible force field around the crystals.
"I think I know what we're supposed to do! Rom, Chika, give me all your heals!" Nepgear looked at the others. "Vert, Dengekiko, Uni, Peashy, please take a crystal each. You have the highest single target damage."
"I have the feeling that stepping into those spikes with our not so great defense is gonna end not so well." Dengekiko said.
"Dying for your Sins!" Nepgear used a skill and a blue-white energy beam established itself between Vert and Nepgear. "Vert, please go!"
Vert unconditionally trusted Nepgear and ran into the spikes, without taking any damage herself. Nepgear on the other hand was taking 1000 damage repeatedly, rapidly. "Dying for your Sins!" Nepgear repeated the skill three more times, binding all of the four damage dealers she had called out.
"This is really harsh!" Rom said as she had to resort to using MP potions to get her MP up. She had a premium skill with low cooldown that was extremely costly but necessary for the situation, healing 50% of damage healed over time every 3 seconds for 9 seconds.
"You can say that again!" Chika realized that defense buffs on Nepgear were not useful so she used her premium skill. "Blessing of True Faith!" The skill reduced all damage taken by the entire party by 20% for one minute but had a 15 minute cooldown.
Vert and Peashy finished their crystals first while Uni finished third. Dengekiko was struggling because while Geomancers were better at single target damage than the Sorceress, they were still far behind the archer classes.
The spikes were without 3 tiles of the main party when damage from Vert suddenly disappeared and two seconds later, Vert landed on the crystal Dengekiko was targeting, crushing it.
And the spikes retracted all across the room. Rom immediately sat down to recover MP and so did Chika. "This has to be it, right?" Uni looked towards Nepgear. All my skills are on cooldown now. If something else pops, we are so toast.
But it wasn't the end. The ground below the party was starting to crack. Spreading out, away from the center, the ground collapsed and revealed a lava pit down below. "Oh this is great." Peashy said sarcastically. "Anyone else fancy a molten lava bath? Warms you right up."
The next set of tiles around the center broke and the party retreated to the far corners. "What now? I don't see any monsters spawning." Blanc asked and wondered if she could actually tank a lava pit but the signs pointed to no.
One third of the room was a bottomless lava bit now. "You think we can stick to the walls with weapons?" Ram asked and wondered if she could freeze herself to the wall. Or freeze a lava pit.
"Denko, can you do something about that?" Vet shouted across the room.
"Eh, that's impossible! I can create and modify most hazards but an actual lava pit just screams death plane to me. Not to mention it would be weird if this required one specific class that isn't a Paladin!" Dengekiko replied.
"That's it." Nepgear realized something. "The first and second part tested my endurance, capacity to think on my feet and my ability to find a worthy party. Because without a party, a Paladin doesn't really serve any purpose." Stepping forward, Nepgear walked towards the lava pit.
"Stop! I don't want to go through all of that again!" Chika shouted and wished she could cast a paralyze spell or something on Nepgear.
"No, I believe she realized what this trial is about." Zelena figured that this was the only logical solution to the situation. "This is one of the defining elements of the Paladin class." Zelena explained while Nepgear stopped at the edge of the lava pit and the floor beneath her started to crumble. "Sacrifice."
Plummeting to her death, Nepgear fell into the lava and felt like she was drowning in boiling water sprinkled with a lot of muddy spheres. And then she fell through the pit, hitting the floor below, a room without exit or entry other than the lava pit. Checking her HP; it was precisely 1.
"Everyone jump!" Nepgear shouted from beneath but it didn't look like anyone could hear her. Switching to guild chat, she found it disabled. I guess this is past of the test then. Nepgear hoped that they would realize that they just had to jump down.
The pit widened for another 30 seconds before Peashy landed right on top of Nepgear, having sprinted towards the pit and jumped in just because. "Peashy could you… get down from me?" Nepgear ached under the girl.
"Vert and Blanc landed next to the crashed Paladin a few seconds later. The rest of the party followed shortly thereafter, Rom and Natal being the last to arrive, just ten seconds before the pit would have swallowed them whole.
"Something makes me think that if we hadn't jumped, we would be back outside." Blanc used a few potions to get her HP back while, and so did most of the others as it was unreasonable to expect Ram to heal everyone to full.
"I believe this test was partly to try Nepgear's readiness to sacrifice herself for the party and then a test on how much the party would believe in her. Although I believe it would have been a better test of faith if the victory condition was simply to stay alive until the very end." Zelena smiled at Rom when she got healed. "Thank you."
"I wonder how much money I can get, selling information on how to beat this quest." Kei already ran numbers in her head and for just a moment she smiled, in a very sinister way that was usually reserved for villains.
"I don't think we are done yet." Blanc looked around and saw nothing special. "It's just an empty room though."
"It isn't empty." Natal spoke up, which was unusual."There are markings on the floor."
"They look like skill symbols." Blanc stood right on top of one. "They can't expect you to have every single skill. That would go directly against the freedom of choosing your skills freely."
"It's one of every skill." Nepgear said while looking around. "I'll use a few." Looking for the emblem for Holy Cross, Nepgear found Uni standing on it. "Uni, uhm-"
"A-Am I in the way?" Uni said and tried to jump away when Nepgear grabbed her hand and kept her on the emblem and instead squeezed herself on top of it, next to Uni, who was fidgeting on the spot.
"Holy Cross!" Nepgear cast the skill and her MP were reduced but nothing happened. Instead, the emblem lit up in a pale light.
Moving to another emblem nearby, Nepgear used Defender of Light and then Defender of Justice on two more emblems. The others sat down, away from the emblems, watching Nepgear activate the 9th emblem. "I hope she does not need to activate them all." Zelena said and looked to Chika.
But as soon as she activated the 10th emblem, having Holier than Thou and Dying for your Sins still left, the emblems all reset and the room filled with light. "Anyone else blind now?" Peashy asked casually, unable to see a thing.
Wa wa wa, did I do something wrong? Nepgear couldn't see where she was going and so she just stayed put. Eventually, a loud fanfare played, the light dissipated at first and then converged on Nepgear and exploded in a final flash, leaving Nepgear, the Paladin with a special golden, spherical shaped, flat aura beneath her feet.
"That is so fancy!" Ram was the first to say it and immediately walked in a circle around Nepgear. "I want mine too!"
"We should go find your seal quest." Windy suggested and took a look at Nepgear as well. "It really does look quite fantastic." Windy smiled. "You'll be the center of attention everywhere you go." Windy smiled even more, knowing that Nepgear was definitely not going to appreciate that.
"Does it stay on in civil mode?" Blanc walked up to Nepgear and waited for her to change clothes. But before that could happen, they were teleported outside.
"Congratulations on becoming the first Level 99 character in 4GO2, Nepgear!" Vert smiled wide. "I'm sure you will be a great contributor to the other trials and especially boss hunts."
"Something's happening." Peashy pointed out just as a video feed popped up in front of everyone, showing the final sequence of Nepgear reading level 99. A small text explanation was supplied in a description box next to the video feed. "The first level 99 Paladin has been born. Paladin Nepgear of Celestia has ascended to greatness. It says."
"We can read." Kei said curtly and was disappointed there was no screenshot option, but having been there was just maybe good enough.
"What now? Honestly, that was way uneventful all things considered." Peashy shrugged and looked to Vert.
"I'd like to go to a dungeon to test my new skills. And help those of us who aren't 98 yet to get there." Nepgear had a constant smile on her face. "Ah, Blanc, I totally forgot about your question." Nepgear called up her menu and switched to civil mode. The aura disappeared together with her class armor. "Thank goodness, I was worried how I was going to sleep with something so bright at my feet all the time."
"I guess you can still go on dates without people recognizing you too much now." Blanc glanced towards Uni, who avoided the gaze of the Lowee goddess. "But getting our lower level members some exp is actually a good idea." Blanc agreed. "We'll put the 98's all in one party and have those below in a party with the damage dealers."
"That sounds profitable for me." Kei was more than satisfied with an arrangement like that.
"You leech." Mina whispered to Kei who blushed so slightly that it was difficult to notice at all. "Always stealing my things."
"Mina!" Kei whispered back as energetically as she could without raising her voice. "Don't bring that up." Nervously glancing at the others, they were all occupied with forming new parties and looking at Nepgear's flashy aura, now that she had put her armor back on.
"You are wearing my panties, Kei." Mina reminded her girlfriend of that little mishap that had happened earlier that morning because Vert had woken them up so early.
"You'll get them back, just not now." Kei tried hard to keep her nervousness under control but it wasn't often that she was in such a peculiar situation.
"Kei, Mina, you are part of the EXP party." Vert approached them and waited for Uni to invite them.
"I will take them back myself, later." Mina whispered just before she accepted the party invite.
=== OVERHEAT ===
"I told you we can't take that boss." Noire complained and tried to hit Neptune but it bounced off the helmet. "What the heck is a level 105 boss doing in here?"
"But we took off 30% already." Neptune smirked under her helmet.
"After dying five times!" Noire complained loudly and really wished she could just slap Neptune silly.
"You're 98, so it doesn't matter if you die, right?"
"We still have to walk back down here every time. And that second zone is just crawling with monsters." Noire was really sick of escorting Neptune through that. But the only reason she even managed to get there was because Neptune was the party leader. A Manipulator alone couldn't get access to the Abyss of Tremors.
"I still think that skill you're using to kill stuff is super overpowered." Neptune complained. "That's gotta be a developer only skill! A cheat! Cheating!"
"It's a level and intelligence based skill that eats through my MP like a beam knife goes through butter." Noire sighed. "And it hurts my throat too. Roar of the Banshee can get you level ups really quickly but it's going to be useless in endgame."
"Why? It just kills everything instantly." Neptune wondered how something crazy like that could possibly be useless.
"It hits three times per second and each hit has an instant kill chance but only on enemies that aren't immune and the chance is based on some kind of formula of my level, my intelligence, enemy level and their intelligence. And guess what. Endgame enemies are either going to be immune or have so high stats that I will burn through my MP and all my MP potions before I kill even half."
"So are we going to take the boss on? If that Pudistoire is down there, we need to kill the boss anyhow." Neptune continued on.
"You asked me and then you didn't even listen! You ungrateful little-" Noire bit her thumb. "You are insufferable!"
"So, about the boss-"
"And who the heck is Pudistoire? Does your brain only register everything new as pudding?!" Noire hit Neptune again and, again, it did nothing.
"The boss-"
"Yes, we are going to kill the stupid boss, let's go!" Noire shouted and pushed forward.
"I was gonna suggest I pull it away while she grabs the Pudistoire." Neptune shrugged and ran after Noire.
Dying several more times and walking back every single time, Noire just sat at the entrance to the zone, annoyed with herself. "It healed itself." Noire eventually, said, not even looking at Neptune. Getting up, Noire sighed. She was already tired of this. "I'll lure it away, you go to the spot it returns to and get Histoire out of there."
"Run in, rescue the pudding, get out, understood." Neptune bumped her chest with her fist. "Do I come and pick you up? I don't have any Leaves on me though."
"Here." Noire dropped two leaves, just in case.
Starting the operation, Noire cast a projectile spell on it, attracted it's attention and then ran. The zone was too small to properly kite the boss and it was fast too, which made things even more difficult.
Neptune immediately headed for the area the boss kept patrolling. "Histoire, where are you? We're here to take you for a drive!" Neptune shouted and there was no answer. Histoire is kinda long. Isn't there a way to shorten it? Histo. Toire. Hire. Hsti. Oh that is a good one. But lets change it to make it cuter. "Histy? Histy, wherever you are, come out?" Neptune turned on the spot and kept scanning the ground. "I should have brought a flashlight. Or torches. Like 100 torches." Neptune contemplated where she was going to get a 100 torches right now. Turning on the spot again, Neptune felt like the ground beneath her was a little too soft. "Did I step into boss poop? Super gross." Neptune took a step back and looked at her foot but there was nothing on it.
Taking a closer look at the spot she had just stood on, Neptune glanced away. I didn't see that. I didn't see anything. I most certainly did not step on a little girl and a book in the middle of a dungeon. Maybe I shouldn't haven eaten that mushroom pilaf earlier. Maybe they accidentally used the not so good kind that makes you see- Neptune got on her knees and picked up the little girl, who was strangely somehow attached to the open book. "Oh, she's dead." Neptune said and realized then that talking while dead was actually a civil skill gained during the tutorial. "Let's do this." Using a life tree leaf on Histoire, Neptune was shocked when the girl suddenly started shouting and wildly flailing.
"Behind you! Run, run!" Histoire shouted and Neptune only glanced back but saw the boss approaching. Running as hard as she could with her agility, Neptune ran straight out of the zone and stopped only when she was on the other side. "Phew. I was worried we would both be killed again."
"You're… so tiny! So adorable!" Neptune tried to hug the book girl but she floated out of Neptune's reach.
"Please refrain from hugging me! I am very delicate!" Histoire paused. "And level 1."
"So adorable!" Neptune couldn't contain her enchantment with Histy. "Oh shoot, I forgot about Lonely Heart." Rushing back into the zone, the boss was back at it's patrolling point, Neptune kept going along the walls and eventually spotted Noire. "Sowwy, got a little caught up with this super adorbs special character I found." Neptune paused. "Oh that's probably Histy then!"
"Just resurrect me already." Noire was annoyed beyond any reasonable extent. But it sounded like they found Histoire at least. Noire only vaguely recalled what Planeptune's Oracle looked like. She had only met her that one time but she had left somewhat of an impression.
Back alive, Noire used potions to restore her HP and followed Neptune back to the second zone, where Histoire was waiting for them. "Please don't abandon me here. I will really die. Again."
"Isn't she super adorable? I am gonna keep her." Neptune proclaimed and was promptly ignored.
"Ignoring pudding heart over here, Histoire, why were you in that cave?"
"That is what I would like to know!" Histoire started to pout and emit small steam clouds from the top of her head. Neptune was burning to know how she was doing that. "At one moment I was in the records room, the next a big monster is stepping on top of me. You can see what happened next."
"You've been here all this time?" Neptune asked. "What did you do about… the toilet."
Noire groaned. "I regret not talking with Histoire in private now." Noire looked at the tiny girl. "I was hoping to use your powers to locate something, Histoire."
"Ah. That might pose a problem." Histoire bowed to Noire. "I am limited to only basic functions as you can see right now without the assistance of Celestia. I am really sorry to disappoint the Queen of the Night."
"You can tell who I am?" Noire was surprised by this.
"Of course. As the Tome of the World, your position, Lady Arfoire's and The Grimoire of the World are all intricately connected. You exist as Lady Arfoire's proxy who by herself is an aspect of Lady Byoz, the true goddess, much as I do and Croire does." Histoire paused. "Although Lady Arfoire caries the greatest power among us aspects."
"If you know that much, do you know what happened with Celestia?`" Noire was dying to know the details of that.
"As a matter of fact, Celestia has denied both me and Croire access as of late, which had become a worrying matter for both of us."
"So it isn't just a glitch in programming?" Noire had a really bad feeling about this.
"This is merely conjecture but I believe something or someone, possibly even from beyond our dimension, is affecting Celestia to behave in irrational ways. I also believe that they are unable to obtain full control which would explain the necessity of altering Celestia's programming and shut out it's administrators." Histoire looked to Noire.
"Someone from beyond our dimension?" Noire was put on alert by that statement.
I should not have said that. Histoire thought and shook her head. "It is merely a hypothesis. In truth, Croire and I were only able to formulate educated guesses as to what could be the cause and those are the scenarios we deemed most likely."
"Histy." Neptune interrupted the serious conversation. "Do you have an owner?"
"I am not a pet!" Histoire replied angrily and small clouds popped out of her head. "I might be much smaller than you but outside this game I am far more powerful than you, Neptune!"
"So, that's a no? Can I keep you?" Neptune's eyes were beaming with anticipation.
"I thought that with this different appearance, your personality would be different as well but it appears I was mistaken." Histoire shook her head and shrugged before returning her attention to Noire. "I am under the impression that it was Noire who brought everyone here?"
"By using Horizon, a special program we bounced off the UMD, Lastation's satellite weapon." Noire explained briefly. "I will explain it to you in detail later but I believe we should relocate somewhere else. This does remind me, Histoire, why didn't you simply respawn?"
"I tried! It would not let me! It kept displaying a warning label that I do not have a save point set." Histoire flailed around with her small arms. "It was quite the inconvenience!"
Noire walked off with Histoire floating next to her, leaving Neptune behind. "Hey…" Neptune stood there, slightly annoyed. "You can't just leave me here." She started running towards the other two. "Wait for me!" They were completely ignoring her. "Wait!" Neptune caught up to them but she was still being ignored. Noire got all three of them out safely. Neptune in particular acted as a shield for Histy when one particularly obnoxious enemy refused to die to Noire's Banshee. Discussing and explaining the situation of Horizon on the way, Histoire saw the prickle they were all in.
"I'll escort you to the next town so you can set a save point there. If you want I can help you level after that." Noire offered her help. "We won't be able to share exp until you're within range of 30 levels of me since every level beyond a difference of 10 reduces experience gained by 5%. So we have to get you to 68."
"She can share with me from 61 on." Neptune smiled. "Tho, it would be more like me feeding Histy tiny girl sized chunks of exp."
"Playing the game aside, I believe that if I had access to the latent powers of at least four goddesses, of any kind, I could possibly draw remnants of their power out to do a single Library Access." Histoire noticed the confusion in Noire's face and the lack of understanding on Neptune's. "Library Access is the ability I was given by Goddess Byoz. Generally it takes 3 days to boot up the infinite library of the 108 stars and search all records, but I believe that within an artificial confine such as this, the speed will be greatly boosted." Histoire hesitated a moment. "I shall refrain from boring you with the details of the exact mechanics."
"Considering that all the access points are gone from where they should be, I have a pretty good idea where they are now." Noire opened up her menu, enabled multi-view and pulled up the map of the places she had explored. Her map completion was 82% despite the entire map being lit up and filled out. "This is the Overworld of 4 Goddesses Online 2." Noire switched map modes and the map separated in dozens of layered maps. "This is the dungeon map. Look at the center." There was a stack of 21 dungeons, unexplored and locked off. "The towers." Noire cleared her throat. "That is what the players are simply calling these. You can only enter them after your guild has beaten a corresponding monster that is extremely tough."
"Ah, I know about these, Noire. I actually have the complete documentation of 4GO2 memorized." Histoire looked to Neptune. "Unlike the goddesses at Planeptune, I prepare for all eventualities."
"You're just saying that because Planeptune goddesses are great enough to just roll with things." Neptune preferred to not think about how she might have treated Histoire as Purple Heart.
"The only thing you Planeptune girls do is roll around." Noire thought of what her sources reported on Plutia and Nepgear. A lazy-bones and someone who spoiled the lazy-bones out of a weird mixture of respect, admiration and natural inclination to spoil people. "Anyway, I think all the access points were sealed off in the center tower that can only be entered, presumably, once a guild has scaled all the remaining 20 towers. I cannot fathom how long that might take which is why I am looking for an alternative way out of here."
"I think you're just out of luck there." Neptune's goofy wall came down for a moment. "If something was enough of a smarty pants to re-allocate all your access points or whatever, it will have made damn sure there is no other way out here but to climb that tower."
"Her crude language aside, I dread I have to agree with Neptune. An altercation on this magnitude is unlikely to have left a way open for us to exploit and gain the ability to check outside. At best, I will be able to use my Library Access to search for alternatives but I am afraid that you should at best have tempered expectations." Histoire fidgeted on her book.
"I've been wondering about this, but if you are this powerful, why was Planeptune struggling in the war?" Noire had heard of the Tome of the World but as far as she could tell, she had never taken part in any kind of military operation.
"Because my reason to exist is to preserve and record history. If someone, by any means, were to temper with the past by traveling back in time, I would be able to use my full power to rectify that intrusion." They don't need to know more than that. Histoire looked at Noire. "And please do not ask me if such a thing has happened before. I cannot answer such a question without disrupting time."
"Time is just a big wibbly-wobbly mess. Like a carpet made of bubbles, kind of. Right? I remember seeing that on TV." Neptune commented and was promptly ignored again.
Noire opened her guild menu and looked at the members list and levels. "It will take months for my guild to scale that tower. Maybe longer even." Noire shook her head. "We cannot leave Celestia to it's own devices for that long. If what you said is true and someone is manipulating Celestia, we have to at least send you outside so you can find out what is happening."
Even if I am sent back to the physical world, Celestia has shut off my access. At best I could contact the overseers but that is dangerous on it's own. "Before we can decide who to sent out, we are required to scale that tower." Histoire figured out how to open her own menu. "It has been a long time since I have actively played a game myself."
"You two should try and join up with Celestia then. They got one level 99 and they killed the Inquisitor King already." Neptune intentionally excluded herself from that idea. "It would be cool beans if I can keep using your place, tho, Noire."
"There are no running costs so be my guest." Noire closed the maps and looked in direction of where the Torcraft zone was. "Joining with Celestia..." I do want to see Uni… "That is not something the Queen of the Night should be doing."
"They are the only guild that are going to get anywhere close to clearing those towers in the foreseeable future. Don't be such a stuck up. The worst they can say is no, and you probably saved their bacon a few times already, right? They'll listen. It's not like you're the evil queen and they're snow white."
Noire looked at Neptune with an awkward expression. Is this girl serious? There are so many issues to consider. The Queen of the Underworld can't just walk up to the Goddesses of the Surface and ask for a guild invite!
"Oh, right you are the evil queen!" Neptune faked a shocking realization and walked off. "But you should try anyway. I'm going back to town. Nice to meet, err, see you again, I guess, Histy?" Hanging her head for a moment, she forced herself to at least leave with a smile. "See you around, Noire."
"What are you going to do? I understand your position is very difficult as a former goddess and with Celestia, but Neptune is most likely correct."
"For now, nothing. They haven't really touched any of the other Kings so even if I were to go and join them, it would only accelerate things by a lot." Noire opened her menu again. "It would probably create a great deal of trouble if I invited you to The Black Lands but I can at least friend you. To stay in touch and get your level up to speed."
That is some ego… but I remember that was a trait that all Lastation Goddesses carried to some degree. Histoire thought. "Are you sure about letting Neptune walk away like that? Was she not your enemy?"
"I am not a Lastation goddess anymore." Noire held off on what she was doing and looked to Histoire. "And even if I still was, would you prefer I had Lastation restart the war with Planeptune the moment we leave the security of this place?"
"No. The last war was the second worst in the history of Gamindustri. The death toll was the highest and I never before did I see weapon development moving as quickly as that. Goddesses were supposed to be guardian deities. Not entities of destruction." Histoire floated a little away from Noire. "A goddess had never taken the title of Queen of the Night until you did, either." Not to mention incident with the Lyrateils and the Overseers.
"Magic started the war because the four country peace was threatening to snuff out progress and competition or slow it to a crawl." Noire didn't really agree with that way of doing things but it wasn't exactly wrong. "I would force change by threatening the economy and the safety of data. A war on paper."
Histoire fell silent for a moment. "It appears we have gotten quite off topic." Why does this feel so strangely normal?
"What class are you anyway?" Noire knew that people who were forced into the game without having a character prior were just shuffled into the base classes based on physical and mental capacity.
"Ah, one moment please." Histoire opened her menu and took a few wrong turns but eventually arrived at her info sheet. "Student, it appears. My, that does coincide with the class I would have taken if I made a character."
"Before we do anything, we should have you clear the tutorial quests." Noire decided that it was best to never skip a solid foundation. "The tutorials are in the capitol zones and the closest from here is Lastation." Noire felt nostalgic about it. The zones didn't appropriately represent the size and complexity of the capital cities but that was asking for too much of a game anyway.
"I agree that would be best." Histoire floated in the wrong direction for a little bit before turning around. "It is that way, yes?"
Following the floating girl, Noire wondered if her appearance was going to raise a fuss. And there was one more thing that concerned her. Neptune. I can't stand her but I can't stop thinking about how I am basically throwing a sad puppy out in the rain. And that makes me dislike her even more! I am the Queen of the Night, not a glorified Planeptune babysitter! Noire let out a sigh and when Histoire turned around, floating in the same direction as before, simply backwards, Noire just shook her head.
For now, she is staying at my place. I'll think of what to do with her later.
=== END OF LINE ===