][][

Kirito watched as the smile on Asuna's face vanished and before she could say anything his help screen alerted him that several of the guilds were now under the control of the people that were one step below the guild leaders.

"Asuna?" Kirito began to ask his wife but Healthclif teleported in front of them before looking around and finding Asuna sitting next to Kirito

"Asuna, I need you to take control of the guild while I'm gone, the rest of the guilds are doing the same thing," Heathcliff said to Asuna before turning to look at Kirito

"What's going on?" Kirito asked Heathcliff

"To be honest we don't know, but it looks as if something might be planning to invade. The guild leaders are the strongest amongst the players so we're going to go and deal with whatever treats we can find so we can at least slow down whatever's coming" Hethclif answered Kirito

"Wait if your not sure then wouldn't this cause more problems, if you're wrong?" Asuna asked Heathcliff

"Your right, but here's a question, are any of us mentally prepared to fight a war?"

"Asuna half of the players are still hoping to go back home, the other half have already given up, but both believe that this place might be our new home at least for now"

"Aincrad was our prison, but it was also something familiar to us, now it and our bodies are gone..."Heathcliff didn't say anything after that he and for a long moment the three of them shared a look and an understanding formed between them

Up until now no one voice the real reason why the players didn't just do what players usually did when they play a game, meaning start to explore and then leave an area to get more items or rise in the ranks of a guild.

Even now none of them had dared to say it, but Heathcliff had hinted at the reason.

They were all exhausted, they were told that if someone managed to beat the game then they could all go home, but instead, they ended up here, a place where lizardmen walk amongst humans as if they were friends and where the stuck up elves, weren't stuck up and asked Humans for help rather than chose to die before asking the lower races for help.

None of them were even sure if this place was real or not, for one nothing was indestructible anymore, and everyone could get hurt by anything.

In Aincrad you couldn't just destroy a part of a building, now anything broke if it was hit hard enough, even their powered up bodies could be hurt by anything, for example, someone scratched themselves on a broken tree branch something that shouldn't be possible in a game, not even in the one they are or were traped in.

Yet here, there are magicians and monsters, add to that all of the things that followed the players to this place.

Nither Asuna nor Kirito wanted to admit it but the Guild Leaders were right, none of the players are prepared to fight any battles at the moment, even the players like them who go out and do missions are only doing it because they want to stop themselves from thinking about the situation they're in.

Yet in all of this, the guild leaders had no choice but to dig their heels into the ground and keep both the players that are exploring and doing missions as well as the none combatants in cheek and give them some kind of direction, so they were being pushed even more than everyone else.

"Okay, do what you have to do," Asuna said to Heathcliff and the man did not say anything he just walked away leaving them behind

[][]]

The sent of filthy air from inside of the guild mixed with the repugnant stench of the town as they stepped outside of the guild, this was or soon will be their curse, to live amongst lesser beings.

One that she both welcomed with open arms yet was repulsed with at the same time.

Her people as well as herself had brought the hatred of every other race upon themselves with both their pride and complete dismissal of the problems of every other race.

Yet to think that even the other elven kingdoms would turn their backs on them, on her.

The other kingdoms needed someone to shift the blame to and her people were perfect for it, after all in the end out of all of the elven races hers was the only one that didn't have half breeds amongst them and her people kept themselves separate from the rest of the world.

Granted her people as well as herself could have aided the other races in their struggles but they were constantly attending to the other kingdoms' needs, to be able to help any of the other beings in anything.

Perhaps there was the rare fool amongst her subjects that would have helped those that sought her people's aid, but that didn't matter anymore, whatever and whoever her people belonged to or represented was lost now, for even their gods had turned their backs on them.

Yet in these lands filled with dangers, they found a goddess that welcomed them with open arms and helped her people rest- calm down and relax.

Yet the goddess never spoke to any of them she merely greeted her people with simple or overly flamboyant gestures before beginning to hand them food and signaling them to sit and rest next to the human cattle.

For a moment after speaking with the knight that wore the metal armor that had been crafted to resemble stone, she soon saw her people relaxing next to the goddess as he walked amongst them.

For a brief moment, she was tempted to kill and chase off all of the humans that were sitting at the goddesses' side, yet those thoughts were quickly crushed the mommet she felt her heart nearly stop.

It was then that she had the goddesses' complete and undivided attention.

Despite the Goddeses' calm nature, her eyes were anything but calm, as she walked and gently gave both her people and the human's food and water the goddess yes never stopped looking at her.

There was an unspoken threat, no warning and for a brief moment, she swore the goddess called out to knights that wore the same armor like the ones she had left behind.

The men arrived faster than any human should have been able to and stood in front of the goddess who finally averted her eyes and greeted her servants.

No words were spoken, she merely touched the men's faces before her own began to change.

One moment the goddess had the physical appearance of a human woman, the next she looked exactly like an elf queen, no she looked better than an elven queen, finally, she looked almost like a Nymph.

She never changed, one moment a person looking at her saw the face of a human, they blinked and the face of the goddess was now that of an elven woman.

"So that's what's going on," one of the knights said as he stood in front of the goddess.

The man spoke in such a disrespectful manner yet the goddess merely laughed, despite making no sound, both the goddesses' expressions and gestures said she was laughing without restraint.

"Greate now we are all going to end up wondering if the girl we're talking to is your a woman that wants to be with one of us," the man said yet the goddess immediately stopped laughing and seductively moved from one knight to another.

None of the men reacted to her attempts to get them to react yet one of them stepped forward.

"Okay let's do it, I'll marry you but I want you to act like a proper wife, that mean's fulfilling all of the duties of a wife, "the man said as he walked up to the goddess and while placing a ring on his hand

He removed his helmet dropped it on the ground and quickly graved the goddesses hand ad was about to place a ring on her finger.

The goddesses expression changed and she quickly lost her smile, now her expression resembled that of someone that was panicking, and as the knight placed the ring on her finger.

The goddess opened and closed her mouth as if speaking.

'Oh so you were just playing with our hearts" the knight said as he stopped himself and removed the ring from the goddesses hand

Yet as the man turned around he removed the ring he had put on earlier before turning round and graving hold of the goddess once more.

"No,' he said with a serious tone in his voice.

"I ][][][Knight of the Army have decided that you ][][] will be my wife," the knight said as he placed the ring on the goddesses hand

Everyone present watched as the goddess looked at the man and then at the ring in her hand with a shocked expression, then she quickly took a deep breath and pointed at the ground.

Everyone present watched as the knight did as he was told before the goddess of relaxation sat on his lap.

The goddess began to lif one finger after another as if she was setting some ground rules.

"Waite let me stop you there, I'm not wearing my ring so we aren't married," the knights said to the goddess who immediately made the trees around them grave a hold of the knight.

The rest of the knights began to cut away at the branches and tear the trees but they were quickly pushed away.

Yet despite all of the insanity happening in front of them none of the humans or elves watching all of this happen felt any sense of danger.

Everyone watched as the goddess forced the ring onto the man's hand before both rings jumped vanished from their fingers, appeared next to the pair, grew pair of tiny legs, and walked away while holding hands with each other.

They stopped walking and pointed at the goddess then pointed at the traped knight.

t was as if the rings spoke in a way no mortal could hear, yet after the words were spoken the goddess freed her trapped knight and sat near him, the rest of the knights quickly surrounded the man before chastising him for playing with the goddesses feelings.

Even as she walked into the human's town she remembered all of this for two reasons, the goddess had sent her a warning in two forms.

She welcomed all to her garden to relax and heal themselves while she was remarkably close to her servants to the point where she would toy with them and they would toy with her as if they were children that didn't take things as seriously as they should.

The goddess would quickly react to any threats to those that sought her aid, the fact that the goddess had split herself into a being that had two separate natures was something she wondered if she had forced the goddess to do or if she had always been this way.

It didn't matter anymore she had left her people behind to rest under the goddess's protection while she came to negotiate with the guild.

As she and her escorts walked out of the town they notice that the two knights banished from where they had been seated, it was no doubt a form of teleportation magic, but to think that the humans could use such blessings as casually as the pair had just done.

As she stepped out of the ton she began to hear whispers in the air.

Magically spoken words were being carried from far away lands to distant kingdoms, as she listened she heard bits and pieces and hart filled with fear.

A dark fleet sails to an unknown place, it brings death to any island or hips it runs across, while twisted horrors march from one land to another, yet they only stray from each other when they need food.

There are warnings that an ancient horror stirs as if reawakened by something someone.

Magicians and cultists alike had begun to move as if someone -something was urging them forward.

Her heart beat faster and faster as the words of the gods that turned their backs on her people reached her ears.

"War," they said before abandoning her once more