A/N:
Shoutout to Quality over Quantity for helping with this chapter!
Almost didn't get this chapter done in time, phew! Finals are a bitch, man, but I'll be damned if I miss a single weekly upload after going a straight year with a perfect record.
On with the show!
Yuna moved.
She hadn't even registered that she began to run until she heard the panicked shouts and screams from her guildmates. Even if they caught up to her - a task she had no intention of making easy - they had another thing coming if they were going to bring her back.
Eiji was in trouble.
Yes, for well over a year they'd referred to each other as their avatar names, but he was always going to be Eiji to her. The same Eiji who would walk her home from school every day. The same Eiji who always encouraged her dream of becoming a pop star rather than a classical musician, not that there was anything wrong with the latter. The same Eiji whose courage in the face of paralyzing fear put accomplished warriors like Kirito and Heathcliff to shame, in her unbiased opinion.
The same Eiji she found herself in love with.
She ducked under a snow-covered bough as she kept running eastward. She didn't know when she'd officially fallen in love with her childhood friend, really. Yet here she was, running through a snowy forest in the middle of the night, in a zone known for its unending hordes of reletnless icy zombies, all because her Eiji was in trouble.
How long had she been running?
Seconds? Minutes? Hours? She wasn't really sure.
She had acted on impulse, which even she would admit was very uncharacteristic of her, but she couldn't shake the gut feeling that Eiji was in serious danger. As she bobbed and weaved through the underbrush of the Forlorn Wood, she ruminated on what she knew and what it meant.
Neither Eiji nor his group had checked in for the 20 minutes preceding the SOS. Something had either delayed or occupied them for that entire time; the fact that a message had come through eventually meant that it wasn't something that blocked communications like a labyrinth. They had the ability to send messages, but obviously didn't have the time to. Which probably meant they were in combat.
They also hadn't teleported back to town, either. Kirito and Asuna were incredibly strict when it came to those things. No one was allowed to so much as leave Nelluon Arael unless they had a teleport crystal on their person. Even for recreational outings in a safe zone or even on a lower floor, the dynamic duo of the Renegades cracked down and made sure everyone had a crystal on them. Therefore, Eiji and his group were probably in an anti-crystal zone.
Those two facts were seemingly contradictory, now that she thought about it. The former Moonlit Black Cats had run into an anti-crystal zone, but that had been deep in a labyrinth. Eiji wasn't in a labyrinth - at least she didn't think so - so that meant that the anti-crystal zone was… outside? Since when was that a thing?
"Yuna!"
She almost tripped over an exposed root as she whipped around. As she saw Ducker and Nezha scrambling over roots and branches to meet her, she winced. In her haste, she'd forgotten to bring backup; fortunately, it seemed Ducker and Nezha took it upon themselves to accompany her. She'd no doubt Asuna would have been among them were it not for the fact that she was busy coordinating with Alice and Ikten.
She was probably due for a scolding when she returned.
Great. She loved Asuna like a sister but even she would admit that her "Mama" persona could be downright terrifying when provoked.
"Why'd you just take off like that?!" Ducker scolded between deep breaths. "This floor's a deathtrap, Yuna!"
"Sorry, I just…" She trailed, unable to truly finish her explanation. She eventually gave up with a sigh. "... I wasn't thinking. I just know Naut needs help."
"Well next time give us a heads up before you bolt like that, please." Nezha huffed out. "Asuna freaked out when you ran out like that."
"Sorry." She apologized again. "I've just got a really bad feeling about this."
She took a few moments to explain her train of thought. The brief message, the fact that they hadn't teleported, the long wait for a simple message for help. Slowly, she saw a similar flavor of worry and realization cross their faces as they finally came to the same conclusion.
"She's right." Nezha said, looking around the wood. "We're going to need to move fast. Alright, what's the plan?"
Nautilus counted himself lucky. During the battle of the 25th, he overcame his FullDive Non-Conformity when it mattered most. Ever since, the chains of paralyzing fear and indecision no longer held him captive. Hell, ever since that fateful day, people started calling him "Nautilus the Intrepid Knight." He wasn't fearless, though.
Like he told Sachi, while he no longer let it control him…
"Naut! Behind you!"
He was terrified of dying right now.
Nautilus knew he didn't have enough time to glance behind to survey the threat, so he deflected the jagged sword screaming towards his face and rolled to the side. The sound of metal impacting against ice was proof enough that the Wight behind him had missed. He adjusted his grip on his sword as he took stock of just how utterly screwed he was.
Their exploration into the Forlorn Wood, up until recently, was nothing they couldn't handle. Between himself, Liten, Keita, and Sinon, they were pretty well-prepared for just about any threat that came their way. Liten was a veritable bastion of defense, and between himself and Keita, they were fairly well-rounded in melee capability. Sinon was just the icing on the top of the proverbial cake; her specialized skill set gave them that extra edge whilst exploring this floor.
Alas, like many times before in this damned game, Murphy decided to rear its ugly head.
Sinon was the first to drop, a dart flying out from the dense forest to meet her before she could spot her assailant. Much to their surpise and chagrin, it was poisoned.
The poison wasn't deadly, thankfully, but not only did it slowly tick away at her health, it also slowed her movements drastically. Its duration was absolute bullshit, if he was being honest. Stranger still, even after its major effects expired, Sinon was still slower to move. She just couldn't contribute to fights as effectively.
The same applied to Keita, who was shot with another dart shortly after Sinon. Liten, seeing two of her friends drop from darts that came out of frickin' nowhere, was quick to raise her shield. Similarly, Nautilus was quick to dive behind her shield. Their assailants gave up shortly after; Nautilus would have pursued were it not for the horde of Wights that emerged from the wood at that moment.
That wasn't even the worst part.
The Forlorn Woods - at least the part they were in - was an anti-crystal zone.
Fast forward to now, and Nautilus could only hiss in frustration, annoyance, and fear as he watched the most recent mob of Wights and undead animals - another nice little touch to this floor that made him want to kill Kayaba in his sleep - slowly converge on his party members. It was fortunate that Liten was built so tanky; so far she was doing a decent enough job keeping the horde from landing too many strikes on Sinon and Keita.
As the only real fighter with any mobility at the moment, it was his job to keep the zombies off of them.
"GRAAH!" He roared, charging back in. Sure, the war cry wasn't necessary but it did draw attention away from his friends.
He closed in on a ((Wight)) - the standard icy zombie armed with a rusted shortsword - and thrust, scoring a hit on its shoulder. It reeled before retaliating with a haphazard swing of its own, which was summarily deflected. Nautilus used a shorter sword skill to quickly dispatch his foe before moving on to other prey. Each Wight wasn't difficult in and of themselves to defeat; it was when they assembled en masse that they became a problem.
And right now, there were a lot of them.
"Try the crystal now!" Nautilus shouted, dashing to another ((Wight)) that was sneaking up on a sluggish Keita.
A futile command, a moment's pause, and then a string of curses from Sinon was the answer he wasn't looking for.
"It's the zone itself!" Keita shouted, catching a rusty shortsword with the length of his quarterstaff. He strained against the weight of the Wight bearing down on him. "We have to get out of these woods!"
"Tell that to them!" Liten growled, swinging her mace and caving in the head of a ((Wight Bear)) that crawled too close. "We can't move an inch!"
Nautilus frantically scanned over their surroundings for something, anything that could give them an edge. They could try bottlenecking them into that rocky pass up ahead, but they needed to get there first. Then there was that sheer cliffside to the south; they'd need to be careful not to fall while fighting -
He blinked, and a light bulb went off in his head.
Oh.
That would work.
He leapt forward, driving his boot into a ((Wight)) that was too close to the ledge. A mild *crunch* signaled the zombie's lurch backward and over the cliff edge. Spinning on his heel, he ran along parallel to the ledge, taking every opportunity to punt the frostbitten suckers off into the void.
He looked back. That little tactic was working, but it did nothing against the monsters that were away from the ledge and attacking his party members.
He was about to intercept them when a chakram came flying out of the woods nearby, striking a ((Wight)) and causing it to stumble. Nautilus did a double-take. The only person on the front line who had one of those was…
"Nezha!" Keita cried out in relief.
The chakram rebounded and landed in Nezha's waiting hand. He glanced over his shoulder. "Guys, I found them!"
Nautilus felt himself relax a little. Not too much, though. They were still being swarmed by frostbitten zombos, after all.
Ducker launched himself out of the woods, dagger in hand, and started to weave his way through the mob of monsters. Nezha followed behind, bouncing his chakram off of any ((Wight)) head within his sight. Then he heard the music.
Music he'd recognize anywhere.
Funny how his girlfriend could heal and inspire hope at the same time.
He half expected her to gently saunter out of the woods, lute in hand, as if the chaos erupting around didn't apply to her. Instead, she ran out of the woods, somehow playing music on her instrument as she made a beeline towards his position. He wasn't sure how she was able to pull off playing an instrument and running, but he wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth. Already he could see his party's collective health bars rising slowly and steadily from the passive healing effect.
"You have no idea how happy I am to see you." Nautilus said, dodging an ax before punting the offending ((Wight)) off the side of the cliff.
"Anti-crystal?" Yuna asked. Apparently she wasn't one for small talk right now. Asuna was rubbing off on her.
"Yep. We think it's the whole forest here."
"Probably. Also, I'm happy to see you too, sweetie."
He was probably grinning like an idiot right now, but he didn't much care. He was just happy to see her. A quick glance at the others confirmed that the added help was turning the tide. Yuna's ((Ballad)) was helping to counteract the residual effects of whatever bullshit poison had hit Sinon and Keita, and Nezha and Ducker's assistance was relieving the pressure off of Liten.
"How long have you been pinned down?"
Nautilus shrugged before parrying a sloppy swing of a ((Wight))'s shortsword. He immediately followed it with a roundhouse kick, knocking the ((Wight)) over the cliff face. "Past 15 minutes or so. Wouldn't have been an issue if Sinon and Keita didn't get shot."
"Shot?"
"Some sort of… POISON!" Nautilus explained, grunting with that last word as he swung at two advancing ((Wights)). His sword cut through one before glancing off the other. Talking and fighting wasn't the easiest thing in the world to do.
"This floor has poisons?!" Yuna cried out in alarm.
"First I've seen of it!" He replied, hacking away at another ((Wight)). As it shattered into pixels, he took a moment to take a breath. "Argo probably knows more."
"Maybe…" Yuna mumbled, clearly deep in thought. Then she gulped. "...Sweetie?"
"Hmm?...oh. Big boy."
He followed her gaze and spotted a larger-looking ((Hulking Wight)) - probably some elite variant, he guessed - shambling towards them, Nautilus ran forward to meet it. It stood easily a good head or two taller than him, and it wore an ugly, decrepit grin on its blackened, frostbitten face. Too big to punt off the side, but he had experience fighting larger foes. He just needed to outmaneuver it.
He feinted a downward strike, only to dodge to the side as the snow beneath him erupted from a massive fist impacting where he once stood. Unleashing a ((Horizontal)), Nautilus let the sword skill carry him across, landing him directly behind the massive zombie. Taking a mandatory moment to recover from the skill, he swung again - this time unassisted - at the giant's back…
…only to be met with a massive shield.
"It's got a shield?!" Nautilus cried out incredulously before renewing his assault. "Oh, that is bullshit!"
"Need a hand, Naut?!" Nezha called out from some distance away.
"Please!" Yuna answered for him, strumming away at her lute as she dodged a ((Wight)) flailing at her.
A chakram whistled through the air before bouncing off of the ((Hulking Wight)) Nautilus was fighting, staggering it just enough where he could land the final blow on its unguarded torso. He skidded to a stop, the momentum of that last strike a little more than he bargained for in this snow.
"Naut, behind you!"
*SLAM!*
Suddenly the world was topsy-turvy as Nautilus tumbled across the snow, bouncing off the ice and slurry like a stone skipped across a lake. He felt himself collide with something squishy, followed by a feeling of weightlessness. Was he… falling?
Then he remembered the cliffside.
"Shit!" He cursed.
He could only glance up - or was it down? - before he crashed into a small outcropping that jutted out of the cliffside. Knowing that if he didn't do something, he would fall again, Nautilus reached out to grab something… anything to halt his forward momentum. He felt a branch or root start to graze by his fingers and grabbed onto it with all his might, jolting him and his passenger to a stop.
Wait, passenger?
"Ow…"
His eyes snapped over to see Yuna clutching his midsection from behind like it was a pillow.
"Yun', are you okay?" Nautilus whispered in an attempt to keep his voice down and emotions in check.
"Just dandy." She chuckled bitterly, letting go of her impromptu Nautilus-shaped pillow. She looked around. "This isn't good."
He couldn't disagree. Their fall brought them about 30 feet down the cliff face. The slope - if it could be called that - was more a sheer wall than it was a climbable surface, and the way down looked just as perilous. Maybe the snowy trees below could offer some semblance of cushioning if they decided to jump down, but that was a risky prospect that he didn't feel like chancing. Above, they could hear the sounds of combat dwindling as their friends undoubtedly were finishing off the last of the ((Wight)) attack.
Nautilus pushed himself up, helped his girlfriend to her feet, and promptly wandered over to the cliff face leading up. He frowned, resting his hands in his hips. "Don't suppose you have any rope on you, do you?"
Yuna shook her head. "Even if I did, we'd need a grapple to make the most of it."
Where was Lokuss when you needed him?
"Hey" Nautilus shouted up. He waited a moment before trying again. "HEY!"
Keita's head peeked over the rim of the cliff. "There you are! You both okay?!"
"We're fine! Do you have any rope?!"
Keita's head turned back, and Nautilus could hear hushed conversation. The raging blizzard didn't help things on that front, admittedly. "Nope! Do you have a grappling hook?!"
"No!" Nautilus answered, feeling a twinge of annoyance. If they had a grappling hook, they would have used it already!
A gentle hand rested on his shoulder, and he could feel himself relaxing at her touch. Yuna gave him a fond look that was a mixture of understanding, fondness, and exasperation. She looked up the cliffside. "Go back to town and get help! We'll be fine for now!"
"You sure?!"
"I don't think we're going to get attacked down here!" Yuna shouted up, gesturing at the small bit of rock they were standing on. "There's no room for standing or attacking down here!"
Keita had a conflicted look on his face, and kept glancing back over at the others up there with him.
"Go!" Yuna prodded. "Before more ambush you! Just hurry!"
"...Alright then!" Keita shouted down. "We'll get some help! Keep safe!"
"Roger!" Nautilus yelled up the cliff.
The muffled *crunch-crunch* of retreating footsteps in the snow sounded their retreat, leaving Nautilus and Yuna alone on the cliffside. Suddenly, the forest above and below seemed so much more quiet, if that was even possible. Eerily quiet. Unsettling. It was a cliché'd 'too-quiet' that had every hair on the back of his neck on high alert. The trees around them didn't even rustle in the wind, strangely enough.
Calling the wind itself 'biting' would be doing it a great disservice. Every time it blew past, a chill ran up - and back down - his spine. The specialized winter clothing on this floor only helped so much, though it would be so much worse without it. Inwardly, Nautilus was cursing himself for not stocking up on more torches before they left. Conditions out here necessitated fire sources, or else they'd actually feel cold and begin to suffer from a "freezing" debuff.
"Brr…" Yuna shivered, hugging her arms together as the wind blew past. "Eiji, do you have a torch?"
Nautilus opened his inventory and scanned through it. He frowned, then looked over it again.
"Nothin'. Sorry, Yun'."
They sat there for a few awkward moments before he realized something. Were it not so damned cold, he'd facepalm but he wasn't sure he'd actually feel it at this rate. The cold was making his extremities numb, and it was starting to worry and piss him off.
He scooched over and draped an arm around his girlfriend. Thankfully, their avatars gave off heat so they could feasibly share warmth. Would it stave off the debuff? Maybe.
Was it an excuse to cuddle with his girlfriend? Absolutely.
"Much better…" Yuna cooed as she snuggled into his side.
She looked up into the perpetually-night sky wistfully. He joined her, looking up at the artificial night sky. Despite the snow storm raging throughout the floor, it seemed this spot had just the right conditions to view the sky above. He felt her shift a little.
"...Hey, Eiji?"
"Hmm?"
"What do you think's going to happen when we get out of here?"
He looked away from the night sky and over at her. "What do you mean?"
She shrugged, though it was more of a shiver than anything else. The cold seemed to be getting worse, he realized. "I mean, what do you think we should do when we get out?"
"Celebrate we're alive?"
She lightly smacked his chest. "Other than that."
He shrugged this time. "I don't know. Try to be n-normal again?"
She smiled. "Maybe. It'll be an adjustment, though…"
"...Going from fighting for our lives, living without a government, and without any f-formal education for at least a couple of years?" He said, finishing her thought.
"Yeah, t-that."
"I'm sure w-we'll figure it out."
Another stiff breeze, and this time both Nautilus and Yuna shivered.
"I-is it m-m-me, or is it g-g-getting c-c-colder?" Yuna stammered out.
Nautilus glanced up at his health bar and saw that the freezing debuff wasn't going away. Its duration kept refreshing - which was no surprise, really - but there was something much worse happening.
It was stacking.
"It's getting worse, Yun'." Nautilus said, tightening his grip on her.
Yuna frantically looked around before her eyes landed on the cliffside behind them. "Let's try g-g-getting closer to the cliff. We'll be less in the open that w-way."
"H-how's that going to help?"
"That means w-w-we won't be as exposed to this c-cold air, Eiji."
"...L-l-lead on."
Extricating herself from her boyfriend's vice like grip - which Nautilus would assert was due to the cold - Yuna dragged Nautilus over to the rock face before sitting the both of them down. Almost immediately, they clasped onto each other in a desperate bid for warmth.
It didn't help.
While they were now partially shielded from the wind, the cold rock to their backs almost seemed to sap their warmth just as fiercely. Nautilus clutched tighter, futilely hoping that the act would transfer heat better between the two of them.
"Eiji… you're squishing me a l-l-little."
"I'm not letting you freeze."
"What?" She asked, looking at him dumbfoundedly. "It's cold, Eiji, b-but I don't think we're going to - "
"Look at the debuff, Yun'." Nautilus said. "It's draining our health as our temperature drops. I don't know when Kayaba decided to make temperature a thing, but now it's kicking our asses."
He heard her growl, a sound he didn't expect to come out of his soft-spoken, gentle girlfriend. "That man is a sadist."
"We'll have to use our potions." He grimaced, taking stock of his meager three. He hoped it would be enough. "They'll have to last long enough until help arrives. How many do you have?"
"One."
"One?! You just came from town! How do you only have one?"
"My group just rotated off of guard duty, Eiji." She explained, and he couldn't help but wince. "I shouldn't even be out here. Asuna's going to have my hide after this."
"Here, then." Nautilus said, fishing out one potion and offering it to her. "Take thi - "
"Here." She said, pushing the potion back and shifting herself so that she had her back to him, so that he was hugging her from behind.
"Yun'?"
"I've got a better idea."
She pulled out her lute, and Nautilus felt the need to facepalm… again. Of course! She could heal without potions! Her ((Ballad)) skill wasn't as potent as, say, Pina's healing breath, but it was a constant source of healing over time. In theory, it would be enough to slow - if not counteract entirely - the draining effect of the debuff. The best part about the whole thing? He got a free show out of it, too.
She began to strum her lute, and an unfamiliar melody began to play.
"This one's new. What's it called?"
Yuna looked over her shoulder and smiled, and he felt a warmth in his chest that made him forget all about the cold.
"Smile for You."
"You offered me your gentle words.
And embraced me in times of loneliness."
He felt her lean back into the hug. He adjusted his arms so that they wouldn't interfere with her playing.
"There were sad times,
But we shared the short-lived
Joys of spring between the two of us."
He frowned as memories of his time here in Aincrad, many of them morose and heartbreaking, creeped their way into his head. The tragedy of the 25th. The loss of the Cats. The petty squabbling over the resurrection item. That frown began to soften into a nostalgic smile as his mind turned to more pleasant memories. Kirito and Asuna's wedding. His and Yuna's first kiss. The countless mornings as everyone assembled in the guild hall for breakfast, forgetting for a brief moment of their captivity.
"Before my time comes to an end,
I searched for the words I wanted
To leave behind to that person who's ever so far away
I simply repeated 'Thank you'
That's all that needs to
Reach your heart."
Something about this song was simultaneously joyful and somber. It was a contradiction. Hope and resignation. Happiness and sorrow. As much a swan song as a celebration of life.
"O heart, please fly far away
Through the sky,
And convey this smile to my dearest
I hope that I can leave behind
Ever so gently
Only a warmth in your chest
That's like the vestiges
Of the fading spring…"
It was tragically beautiful, and he was the only one to hear it. He'd no doubt she would play this again at some point, but he felt honored to be the first to experience it.
"Smile for you…"
As the melody came to a close and Yuna finished her song, his first reaction was to start clapping. He then realized that, given the fact that his arms were currently wrapped around her shoulders and neck, that would be a bad idea. Instead, he settled for a gentle squeeze through the hug. She reached up and clasped his arms with her own.
"That was beautiful, Yun'."
"Thank you." She whispered.
"What made you decide to write that one?" Nautilus asked, silently noting that the song had refilled their health somewhat. "That one was… I don't know, sadder than your other songs."
"I wrote it in for the friends we've lost." She explained. "It's a reminder that while their deaths were devastating, I don't think they'd want us to stay sad. I think they'd want us to remember to smile. Remember the good times, in spite of the bad. That song is my way of paying tribute to their memory."
"A beautiful ballad, indeed."
Their heads whipped upward, and a pair of grins followed. Rappelling down the cliff was Kizmel, descending down the rock face with all of the elegance of an elf. She landed in front of the duo, dusted off her hands, and procured a torch. A moment later, and its warmth began to seep in and dispel the freezing debuff.
Kizmel gave the two a knowing look, her hands on her hips in a way that was clearly reminiscent of Argo or Liz. Frankly, it was a little disconcerting. Ever since she'd learned of the nature of her existence, Kizmel became increasingly more like a sponge around others, adopting more and more human mannerisms. Nautilus suspected it was in an effort to prepare herself for potentially venturing into the real world, but he wasn't going to draw attention to it.
The Dark Elf placed two fingers into her mouth and whistled. A few seconds later, two ropes unraveled down the length of the cliff, waiting to be climbed. She gestured towards the ropes even as her eyes seemed to delight in the way Yuna and Nautilus were squirming under her gaze, embarrassment reigning supreme after being caught in such a tender moment.
"You two are very fortunate we followed after you." Kizmel chided them.
"You followed us?" Yuna asked.
Kizmel nodded, even as she ushered them towards the ropes. After tying the ropes around their waists, she continued. "Indeed. We'd just returned from defending the town when we heard about your… rescue effort."
Yuna winced, and Nautilus's eyebrow raised in mild intrigue.
"That was reckless, Yuna." Kizmel sternly scolded as the trio were pulled up the cliff face. "I understand wanting to mount a rescue effort for your beloved, but you could have waited for us to properly recruit volunteers."
"Wait, you just ran off?" Nautilus asked, slack-jawed at his girlfriend. "What were you thinking?!"
"You were in trouble, I just knew it!" Yuna retorted. "We arrived in time though, didn't we?"
Nautilus was about to answer when several pairs of hands grabbed them and hoisted them up the rest of the way up onto the cliff side. Dusting himself off, he noticed Lokuss as well as Silica, Geeou, Liten, Sinon, Nezha, Ducker, and Keita were the ones to haul them up. Naturally, the trio of familiars - Pina, Fafnir, and Gryd - was also present, rounding out their group to a grand total of 14. He gave the group an appreciative nod before having to shield his eyes from a particularly violent gust of snow and slurry.
"We'll never make it back to town like this! We need to take shelter until the storm passes!" Kizmel shouted over the roar of the renewed blizzard. "Lokuss, you found a cave nearby, yes?"
The loremaster nodded before waving everyone over, away from the cliffs.
"This way!"