A/N: The Eidolons are a bit hard to think about. Choosing the proper Eidolons based on the class roles wasn't too difficult, but the problem was choosing the players for it. Lightning and Hope were obviously fitted, but the only ones I can't think of were the Eidolons of Avatar and Witch/Wizard. It's possible they may not be shown in the story.
On to business. In this chapter, it's now the 20th floor, which means the final boss for the Burning Crusade Arc. But before that, the Assault Team needs to find a way to unlock the entrance to the labyrinth.
JUNE 14TH, 2023. FLOOR 20, FOREEVER FOREST.
I'm still a little shaken from my battle against Odin, and worrying over Hope's battle with Seraph. I now have the power to summon an Eidolon. A competition to aid me in combat. That's pretty intense. I thought being a Beast Tamer was more then enough. Silica is certainly the prove of it.
I am right now doing some questing with Rokel. It's been a long time since we even done some adventuring together, since the time when Laughing Coffin wiped out the Lunar Twilight guild. Rokel's been feeling better since the attack, but he's still having fears of adventuring outside from the safety of the towns, it's even hard for him when he's with me or his new guild.
I can understand how he feels, but he does need to face his fears. As do Laughing Coffin must answer for their crimes.
I figure I help Rokel get some encouragement.
I throw myself against the Crimson Snake, which is some flying scale-skin creature with a snake head. I parry its attack and then slash with a Sword Skill. Rokel stays behind at a safe distance, attacking the enemies with his magic. One of the Crimson Snake switches targets to Rokel. I quickly take notice and shift my weapon to a gun, shooting it until it shatters.
We defeat our enemies, and Rokel falls to his knees sighing in exhaustion. "You doing okay?"
"Y-yeah." Rokel says. He sounds tired, but his tone also carries worry. I approach Rokel and sit on my knees in front of him. "I don't think...I'm cut out for fighting anymore."
"Are you still worried about the murder guild?" I ask.
Rokel nods. "I'm...I'm afraid of going out there again. Going out with my guild...I just don't want to lose them."
"I understand how you feel, but you must understand that you can't let fear overwhelm you." What I say is true. I had to face my fear when my parents died, that Serah and I have become orphans. If I hadn't, we would be living in the streets, cold and starved. Maybe even worse. "You're going have to face it if you wish to move on, and be with the ones you love."
Rokel looks at me. He seems unsure if he's able to do that. "That's easy for you to say, Lightning. You're like a...fearless soldier. I'm just some kid."
"Kids can be brave. Espeon is. You're...probably just not as experienced in facing fear. You'll find your courage, it just takes time." I stand up and offer Rokel a hand, he takes it and I help him stand. "Let's keep going."
Just like the 10th floor, the entrance to the 20th floor labyrinth is blocked out, and the only key is to acquire an item known as 'Sphere of the Damned'. It's not a quest, so it must be something that drops in one of the dungeons on this floor. I have a feeling the boss we're gonna have to face is the Damned Lord.
The Assault Team has been preparing themselves for the boss fight. The scouting teams search everywhere for the dungeon, nobody has found it. Once I'm done helping Rokel with this quest, I'll start searching for the dungeon.
What I wonder is who are we gonna go up against in the labyrinth? Maybe that Chaos monster. Since it's the boss of the 20th floor, this is going to be one hell of battle to the death.
FLOOR 20, WESTERN FIELD
From all the information I have gathered, almost half of the floor has been searched for the dungeon. All reported back as false. No sign of it. I teamed up with the Vice Commander to go search for the western area of the floor. It's not likely we'll run into it here, but it could be anywhere.
"How do you think the rest of the team are doing?" I ask.
"Who knows. Nobody send a message just yet." Asuna says. "Why must Kayaba make this difficult."
"I know. You think being trapped and the only escape is clear all 50 floors would be enough." I say. "Once we find him, I'm gonna interrogate some answers straight out of him."
"He's hiding out all the way on the 50th floor, isn't he?" Asuna asks.
Everyone believes that's where Kayaba is hiding, but I believe he's truly hiding out somewhere within the game. In the shadows. Watching us as we press on. I just need to figure out how to find him. If only this riddle Kirito and I found would tell us where he is.
The dungeon we search in is Magister's Terrace, a large mansion filled with the most dangerous monsters of the Legion. It's just Asuna and I. All the creatures are elite lvl 100. We might be able to take them, but it will be a death struggle.
"We're going have to sneak in, undetected." I suggest.
"Way ahead of you." Asuna opens her main, scrolling through her menu until a large black cloak appears in her hands. "Cloak of Invisibility."
Oh yeah, I remember those. Cloak of Invisibility is an item used to turn it's wearer invisible. Or in groups, anyone within the shroud. But those using it need to be careful. The enemy may not be able to see us, but they can still hear, feel or smell us. We need to keep our distance from them.
"Let's go." Asuna and I huddle close and she applies the Cloak of Invisibility on us. We sneak right in the dungeon, pretty much risking our lives just to discover if this is the one that has the Damned Lord.
This dungeon is crawling with multiple demons, some of which disgusts me at the very sight of them. Asuna and I sometimes come across tight places we can barely squeeze through, undetected. Traveling through this tunnel is the hard part. We never came here, so the entire map is undetected. What I wish to do is take the direct path that'll lead us to the boss.
We nearly got caught by the Inflamed Legion, but we finally reached to the end of this dungeon. Asuna and I stand by the corner, watching closely.
At the end of the room, is the Damned Lord. Right in front of him is a large image of the monstrous demon, Chaos. "There he is." Asuna whispers.
"He must be the one. Let's report this to the team." I say.
"Yes." Asuna takes out a Teleport Crystal. "Teleport: Sun's Reach!" The Teleport Crystal gets us out of the dungeon safely, and back into town.
FLOOR 20, SUN'S REACH
We spread word about the location of the boss we have to kill for the 'Sphere of the Damned'. I'm going with the group soon to raid the dungeon and kill the Damned Lord. Once that's done, we'll clear this floor, taking down 40% of the game. How much longer are we gonna be trapped in here? It only took us seven months to come this far.
A year? Two years?
No matter how long it takes, we will free ourselves from this death game.
I just hope Serah will be waiting for me on the other side. I can only imagine what she's doing.
When the team is ready, I meet them by the entrance of the town. I see who are in my group: Silica. Asuna. Hope and Lisbeth. "Lightning. You're right on time."
I look at the whole team. "Glad to see everyone's here...Rokel's not coming?"
Silica shook her head. "No. He's still afraid. He can hardly come with me and the rest of the guild for our usual hunting ground." Pina calls out in agreement, with the sound of depression.
"I can't say I blame him. The poor kid does need some help." I say.
"We'll worry about him later. Right now, we must reach the Damned Lord and defeat him." What Asuna says is true. That said, we ready ourselves and make our way back to the dungeon.
FLOOR 20, MAGISTER'S TERRACE
Fighting in this dungeon is pretty tough. Lisbeth is holding the front line while Asuna and I stand right behind her. Lisbeth is blocking all the attacks then switches for Asuna and I to attack in between the monsters attacks.
Silica stays close to Hope. The three of us have everything under control here, since this is a dangerous place, at least one of us should stay close to the healer and protect him. Silica can feel herself being flustered and embarrassed around Hope. She reminds him so much of Rokel.
It's one thing for me to think it, but Rokel's girlfriend makes it seem strange, and probably uncomfortable for Hope since he already has Vanille.
"Lisbeth! Switch!" Asuna shouts. After blocking the attack, Lisbeth jumps back and Asuna takes her place and strike the enemy. I focus on the Abyssal Inferno. Parry each of its attacks then counterattack when it has an opening.
Demons here are a hard fight in this dungeon. We try our hardest to avoid attacks, and Hope would heal us up whenever we are at low health.
Right after we've finished this fight, we take a quick break to restore our energy. "The boss's room is just down this hallway. Once we get there, we switch to defensive, learn it's attack patterns and abilities, then we attack."
The Damned Lord must be very powerful since he's the key to unlocking the 20th floor boss.
After resting, we approach the room. there is only one group of wizards, witches and demons. They are not gonna stop us so easily. Lisbeth holds off enemy attacks while Asuna and I attack from the sides. We focus on the targets Lisbeth is focused on. Don't want the enemies focus on us when we steal their threat.
With the group defeated, an event triggers with the Damned Lord.
"My lord...I have brought this entire world to its knees...Lands shattered. It's people enslaved and tortured. All under your name." The Damned Lord says.
Image of Chaos growls before speaking. "You have done well indeed, Gul'damn. But you have forgotten one small detail: The invaders from the Dark Portal! Because of them, the Draenei and Orcs are working together once again. We have lost the Naga and the Battlesong Clan!"
"I am well aware of these...outsiders, my lord. But I can ensure you that the army will not be able to withstand the full might of...wait...What is this?" The Damned Lord turns facing us.
"Invaders? Here!? Destroy them, Gul'Damn! Or I shall siphon away every essence of your life from your body!" Chaos says, then it's image fades away.
"Yes...master." The Damned Lord becomes targetable, his name, cursor and three HP bars appears. "So...you outsiders dare invade my sanctum and stand before the most powerful Wizard ever! I will enjoy breaking you apart!"
We ready ourselves and the battle starts. Lisbeth holds off boss;s attacks while Silica, Asuna and I observe the fight, closely and as carefully as we can. The Damned Lord has powerful abilities.
Chaos Bolt for unavoidable, unblock-able damage.
Anguish, damage overtime that effects the whole party.
Hellfire for an AOE attack, for about twenty yards, damage increasing overtime.
Summon Doomguard, summoning minions to aid him in battle.
That's about it, and we switch to assault. "Now's our chance! Attack!" Asuna commands.
Silica and Asuna attacks The Damned Lord from behind. I attack him from the front, taking his melee hits, sometimes parry them, and attack whenever there's an opening, then I command Lisbeth to switch whenever he casts Chaos Bolt. Everytime he summons a Doomguard, Lisbeth holds off the boss and the rest of us takes down the Doomguard.
"You cannot stop the Legion! We are immortal!" The Damned Lord says.
I just laugh at his little comment. He actually thinks the Legion are immortal. Hope has no trouble with healing us, even during the Hellfire or Anguish. For Hellfire, we melees just run away as fast as we can before the damage gets worse.
The Damned Lord's health reaches to the yellow zone, and a new ability comes at us. Really caught us by surprise. "You think of us defeated so easily?" The Damned Lord channels dark magic, lifting us as we're shrouded in the black energy. Our HP's drain dramatically and I feel like I'm being hanged. Can't breath.
After a few seconds, The Damned Lord finishes the spell and all the darkness that hangs us explodes on us. In the end, we all fall to a red zone on our HP's. Lisbeth puts on all of her defenses to block the Damned Lords attacks, while Hope quickly heals us back to full health.
"A new Ability. This is going to be hard." Asuna says, and I agree.
After recovering, we continue our assault on the Damned Lord. Soon, Hope is starting to lose mana, we need to kill the boss quick.
Once we get the Damned Lord into the red zone, it gets worse. "I am the Lord of the Black Council! Lord of the Inflamed Legion! I am all powerful!"
Now The Damned Lords abilities are cut in half, during each of his spells even more then usual. Hope can't keep up with his healing, so he summons his Eidolon Seraph. I too summon my Eidolon, Odin, to help put more damage on this monster.
Odin and I work together facing The Damned Lord. Summoning our Eidolons doesn't make any changes with the enemy attack patterns. With Seraph present, Hope's healing has become more powerful, and his MP is recovering wonderfully.
Odin and I are both the ones who are attacking hard on The Damned Lord. Asuna and Silica are also DPSing, but not as much as we are. In the end, Odin in I both perform his powerful ability. Zantetsunken. I perform swift powerful blows. After sixteen hits, Odin and I switch and he spins, slashing at high speed. If this was like a show or some comic, the screen glass would shatter to show his power. Then, after charging my weapon, I give the final blow.
From the start, nothing happen, then after three seconds, The Damned Lord suffers the damage.
He is defeated, and the Eidolons vanishes.
The Damned Lord is on his hands and knees, panting. He is beaten. "No...No...This...can't be. I refuse...to lose by...by a bunch of...outsiders." The Damned Lord uses his staff for support. He's soon on his feet, but doesn't have the energy to continue to fight.
That's when an image of Chaos appears. "Foolish Wizard! You have failed!"
The Damned Lord turns in fear at his master. "No...Master please!"
"You have prove you are unworthy to be apart of the immortal Legion! We are scourge of a thousand worlds, and you were beaten by mere mortals!" Chaos says.
"This is...only a minor set back, master. Just give me another chance, please..." Chaos quickly interrupts The Damned Lord.
"NO MORE CHANCES! You made a pact, Gul'Damn! And now you must pay!" Chaos shouts. This is going to be bad.
Chaos creates powerful, twisted dark magic on The Damned Lord. The evil orc rises, screaming in agony. Silica and Hope are both scared, they're hugging each other in fear. Asuna and Lisbeth are both shocked. Fel fire burns all over the Damned Lord.
Other horrible things happen, most of which I'm pretty sure is illegal to talk about, even in a game, but in the end, The Damned Lord is reduced to dust, and a shadowy sphere is left behind, planted on the dust. That must be the Sphere of the Damned.
Chaos turns his attention to us. "As for you, wretched worms. I shall deal with you myself! Come to my lair...if you're brave enough to face the Heart of the Legion."
The image of Chaos fades away. Even when he's gone, we are still frozen in fear.