Halkegenia Online v1 – Refactored – Chapter 1
"Kirito."
A voice was calling, and for a moment he thought it might be her.
"Kirito."
The second repetition shattered that hope. The voice was familiar, welcome even, but not the one he had been searching for.
"Onii-chan!"
Kirito opened his eyes slowly and was met by the worried gaze of an unfamiliar young woman. No, not unfamiliar. Those green eyes and long blonde hair belonged to the Sylph swordswoman Leafa, the girl he knew as Suguha in the real world. His sister.
Kirito rose slowly, feeling nauseous. He knew some people could get disoriented using a Nerve Gear or AmuSphere, but it had never happened to him like this.
"What happened?" he asked weakly.
He looked around. They were back at the entrance to the World Tree, statues of the Guardian Knights standing silent sentry before them. Scattered around were the other members of the raid force, a roughly equal number of Sylph and Cait Syth warriors.
"I don't know," Leafa said. "The last thing I remember was Lady Sakuya ordering the retreat, then," she grimaced, "a lot of pain." She looked to Kirito. "Are you . . .?"
"I'm fine," he said. He wasn't. Kirito clenched his hands tight. He may not have made it, but he had proven it was possible. But to do that, he needed to know what had gone wrong.
Kirito stood shakily and looked around. It seemed all of the gathered players had undergone the same horrible experience. Surprisingly, Lady Sakuya and Alicia Rue, the Sylph and Cait Syth leaders respectively, were amongst the first to shrug it off. Lady Sakuya was already instructing the Sylphs who could stand to see to the ones who were still unresponsive, while the Cait Syth struggled with their weirdly skittish mounts.
The Sylph Leader turned to Kirito and Leafa as they approached. "I wouldn't suppose either of you would know what just happened?"
"I was actually hoping you could tell us," Kirito said. "Was it a system crash?"
Lady Sakuya shook her head. "No, there was a crash when the Jötunheimr expansion was released, but that reset all players to their home territory. This is more like what happens when the system shuts down for maintenance." She grimaced. "With the added feeling of being flayed alive."
"Someone needs to call tech support," one winded looking Sylph player grunted. He removed his helm to reveal short grass-green hair and took a swig from his canteen. Water dripped down his chin and splashed on the stones at his feet.
Kirito couldn't shake a sense of wrongness. Something felt, off . . . wait.
"Yui!" he suddenly said.
A small, stifled moan rose from the pocket of his shirt. A tiny girl with long dark hair wearing a one piece dress climbed from his pocket. The former SAO mental health AI looked about as badly off as the players around her.
Kirito carefully transferred the pixie from his shoulder to the palm of his hand, where she sat legs folded beneath herself. "Yui are you okay?"
The pixie nodded as she massaged her temples. "Yes, but I didn't like that feeling."
"You felt that?" Leafa asked, turning to Kirito. "I didn't think navigation pixies were that advanced."
"That's because she's not a navigation pixie," Kirito explained. "I guess you could say she's another SAO survivor."
"Mental Health Counselling Program-001, Yui." The pixie introduced herself properly this time and smiled as best she could.
"A SAO survivor?" Lady Sakuya asked, she seemed genuinely surprised.
Kirito nodded. "I'm sorry if you feel I've deceived you."
The Sylph Leader shook her head. "Not at all. In any case, it appears we couldn't properly repay you for your assistance the other day. But I swear you'll have a place with us once we've regrouped. In the meantime, I need to log out and call the technical support service. There might be bigger problem. I suggest you do the same and get some rest." With that the faction leader reached out with her right hand to summon the user menu.
The menu failed to appear.
"A bug?" Leafa asked. Kirito felt a sinking sensation in the pit of his stomach.
"It must have something to do with the system crash," Sakuya frowned. "Leafa?"
Leafa gestured to bring up her own user menu, and again nothing happened.
"Alicia, can you bring up your user menu?" An edge of concern began to rise in the Sylph Leader's voice.
"You know what? I can't!" the Cait Syth Leader answered back.
Kirito frowned and scanned the corner of his vision. The familiar green and blue life and mana bars were missing. "My HUD isn't working either," Kirito squinted. "How about yours Leafa?"
His sister shook her head. A quick check with the other players confirmed that the problem was universal.
"Yui," Kirito held the pixie close. "Can you get anything out of the system?"
The pixie placed her hands to her temples. After several moments she looked up and shook her head. "I'm sorry Papa. I can definitely detect the Cardinal System, but my access privileges have been limited. I can't access any external networks via your Nerve Gear either."
Kirito frowned. "This can't be what I think it is," he muttered. "It's an impossibility." Maybe it could happen to just him, but everyone else was wearing an AmuSphere. His eyes turned to Leafa and then came to rest on her forehead.
"W-what is it?" she asked.
Kirito stepped forward and poked her gently on the side of her head. "Ow!"
"I just noticed, you cut yourself."
"Yeah, when I got up after whatever happened I bumped my head. Why?"
"You're bleeding."
Slowly Leafa touched her forehead. She felt something warm and viscous brush against her fingertips and when she examined them it was . . . blood. Her blood.
"W-what is this?" she asked, voice shaking. She understood what she was looking at, but she didn't quite believe it.
"There's something I want to try," Kirito said. Unsheathing his sword he took the weapon in one hand and attempted to bury it in the hard bark of the World Tree. The tip of the heavy blade sank less than a centimeter into the surface before coming to rest. What was shocking was that it had cut at all. The World Tree was a permanent fixture of ALfheim and thus was protected by its classification as an "Immortal Object". Yet for whatever reason Kirito's blade had been allowed to do damage.
"That shouldn't be possible," Sakuya whispered.
"But it did just happen," Kirito said, feeling about the same as Sakuya and his sister looked. "And an impossibility cannot be disregarded when we have just observed it. Other things are wrong too."
"Other things?" Leafa asked.
"I don't know if you would notice, the environment feels too . . . real. Computer resources are limited so things have to be done to simplify the gaming world." Kirito squatted down and ran a hand over the bark of the World Tree, feeling the roughness as it varied beneath his fingertips. "No, now that I think about it. You would only notice if you were a total immersion junky."
"That's quite a leap Kirito-kun. ALfheim is a game. No matter how realistic it's just data on a computer."
The Spriggan stood and nodded. "I agree with you completely. Which is why I'm waiting for someone to come up with a better idea than my poor imagination."
A distant scream cut off Lady Sakuya's response. The sound had come from below them. Down amongst the buildings of upper Arrun.
"What was that?" Leafa leaned towards her brother.
"We need to check it out," Kirito said. "I'll go."
"Me too," Leafa decided.
"Then I shall accompany you," Sakuya said. "Alicia, can you see to things here?"
"What? You're heading out?" Alicia asked.
"I'll be back soon. We need to know more about the situation. Organize anyone else who arrives and wait to hear from me."
"Right," Alicia replied doubtfully.
"So, the user menu is down, we can feel pain, and everything is too real." Sakuya took a breath and assumed a meditative expression. A look of relief washed over her as the profile of four sweeping wings extended from her back. "At least some things still work."
"Do you really want to risk that?" Kirito asked. "We still don't know what's going on."
Lady Sakuya bit down on her lip but nodded. "We need to move quickly. It may not be our responsibility, but faction leaders are expected to look out for the other players," she replied smiling. "Besides, I don't fancy walking all the way in these clogs."
The Spriggan just smiled and re-sheathed his sword. "Shall we then?"
The trio extended their wings and kicked off lightly, separating from the ground, and began gliding downwards towards the stirring city.
The light seemed to be cast for ages, far longer than a normal summoning.
Was this even a summoning? Kirche wondered, engulfed in light and noise. What crazy thing had the Zero done this time?
Worse than the light was the shaking and the strange keening noise that filled the air. The earth trembled as if the fiercest earthquake was going on. Kirche didn't dare open her eyes to the blinding light.
And the noise, it wailed like a banshee's call before fading into the harsh roar of a river and then rising in pitch to assault the ears in a series of warbling cries. The assault on her senses was so violent that her ears grew numb, and it was not immediately apparent when it came to a stop.
"Miss Zerbst?"
Kirche opened her eyes and looked up. Professor Colbert was standing over her, the Zero held in his arms. "Miss Zerbst, are you alright?" Beyond the Professor Kirche could see clear blue sky and the academy buildings; it didn't look like the world had come to an end.
Everything seemed normal enough. At least, the school was still standing, and in the distance she saw the other students unharmed. It was sort of disappointing really. A big light show, earthquakes, noise, but nothing to show for it.
Well then, maybe the Zero didn't screw up so . . . Kirche noticed that Professor Colbert was staring past her. She turned around slowly . . . badly. She looked up, and up, and up, and up.
"That's some tree," she said quietly. Though, did it still count as a tree when it was larger than some mountains? Didn't that make it some sort of geological formation? Maybe she should have paid more attention to her Earth magic lessons.
It was a tree. At least, it had a trunk, branches, and leaves like a tree. But the trunk had to be almost a mile across, and several miles high, composed of a strange arrangement of spiraling segments curving around each other and tapering in a corkscrew fashion. The branches had to be half a mile long and hundreds of feet thick, and the twigs were the size of airship masts. The few clouds in the sky cast shadows that barely reached half way up the trunk.
The Professor turned slowly, unwilling to pull his eyes from the sight. "Come along Miss Zerbst, we should get Miss Vallière to the infirmary . . . yes the infirmary . . . at once." By the time they arrived back at the Academy building the faculty was out in full force, mingling with the confused students.
Colbert left Louise with a pair of water mage students who promised to take her directly to the infirmary and then proceeded hurriedly towards the main hall. Kirche felt a tugging on her blouse and looked down to see that Tabitha had appeared at her side.
"Oh, Tabitha, are you alright?"
"Mmm," the small girl nodded, "not hurt."
"Yeah, that was some show, but it doesn't look like it did much damage," Kirche agreed.
"Big tree," Tabitha said.
"You noticed that too?" Kirche asked.
"Louise's summons?"
Kirche stopped. "I don't know . . . Maybe."
"Unknown," Tabitha nodded. "Need more information. Reconnaissance."
"You sure are talkative," Kirche said. "Sure you haven't gone over your word quota for the day?"
"Special circumstances," Tabitha said, and then her lips twitched. "Make it up tomorrow."
The faculty not occupied by overseeing the students were gathered together in the main hall. Old Osmond was at the center of the chaos directing faculty, servants, and students alike. Kirche followed Tabitha as she walked right into the heart of the chaos.
"Volunteering," Tabitha said.
"Ah, Miss Tabitha." Old Osmond lifted a thick brow. "Yes, you're rated as a Triangle class correct?"
"Headmaster, with all due respect," Professor Colbert said, "Tabitha is one of the students who just completed her summoning. She shouldn't be using magic until she is comfortable with the refinement of her elemental affinity."
"Know the risks," Tabitha said quietly.
"This is a very peculiar situation and we need every available mage to navigate it safely," the Headmaster surmised. "What remains is to get the lay of things. The faculty are stretched to their limit, which is why I would like to enlist the aid of your students."
Colbert sighed. "You may be correct Headmaster. Very well. But if that is the case I insist that I go with her. I am a fire mage, I'm used to dealing with poorly restrained magic."
"There is no need to worry of that," Osmond waved. "You were my first choice to lead them. I would suggest that you select one or two other students or faculty to take with you. Miss Tabitha is skilled with both wind and water, so perhaps an earth mage to round out your party?"
"If Tabitha is going then I'm going too," Kirche announced.
"Miss Zerbst?" Osmond said. The wizened old mage stroked his beard. "Is this acceptable to you, Professor?"
"Miss Zerbst is a skilled fire user," Colbert agreed. "But we still need an earth mage and the current student body doesn't have many to spare."
"There's that wanna-be Casanova Dot mage with the golems," Kirche said. "What was his name again, Grammond?"
"Guiche de Gramont," Tabitha offered.
"Yeah that's him. He's not very strong, but isn't a Dot that can manage golems like that pretty skilled?" Kirche asked.
"I suppose he will have to do," Colbert said. "Miss Tabitha, Miss Zerbst, please find Mister Gramont and report to the front gate. Leave your familiars here for the time being. You haven't had time to properly bond with them."
They found the youngest Gramont son busying himself in an attempt impress a group of first and second year girls with varying degrees of success. A skinny blond young man, he wore his shirt unbuttoned in what Kirche could only describe as an underwhelming display of masculinity.
The boy loudly protested as he was dragged off by the duo but perked up when Kirche explained why. Hardly for chivalrous reasons of course.
"I, Guiche de Gramont now depart, my skills as a member of the Gramont family are desperately needed elsewhere fair ladies. Farewell!"
"You saw that tree right?" Kirche growled once they were safely out of earshot.
"The one visible over the Academy wall?" Guiche asked. "Of course."
"We're supposed to go take a look."
"That hardly seems like a task for three mages," Guiche commented.
"Four," Tabitha said.
"Pardon?" Guiche asked.
"Professor Colbert is coming with us to supervise," Kirche explained.
"Is it really expected to be dangerous?" Guiche asked, his enthusiasm ebbing.
"Summons are unpredictable," Tabitha said.
Guiche turned to Kirche for an explanation.
"Tabitha and I think it may be the Zero's summon," Kirche said.
Guiche said nothing. Then he snickered.
Kirche pursed her lips. It was not as though she had not been expecting it. "I wouldn't believe it myself, but Louise collapsed from exhaustion without even failing the summoning spell. What if it just took longer?"
"You joke," Guiche said. "The Zero can't do anything right. What would this say for her power?"
"Who knows," Kirche said. "It's big. But it's a tree! Who's ever heard of a tree familiar!" she cried.
"Gustav II," Tabitha said. "Summoned Ash Oak."
"But he was the only Dot to ever become a king," Kirche huffed. "And it wasn't even a very big Ash Oak! He may have also been insane."
At the Academy gate they found Professor Colbert saddling and preparing horses. Three were large powerful Gallian steeds, the last was a smaller Tristanian pony.
"I trust you're all familiar with riding?"
The three nodded simultaneously. Tabitha and Kirche looked the horses over and then exchanged glances. Without saying a word they mounted the two remaining Gallians, leaving the pony for Guiche.
The boy huffed but took to the saddle without further complaint. Professor Colbert clicked his tongue and gently spurred his horse into an easy gallop, setting off in the direction of the great tree.
The further they descended into Arrun the more apparent it became things were very wrong. The bustling streets of ALfheim's largest city lay empty. The side streets were silent and the NPC shops and stalls lay abandoned. It was, Sakuya decided, like a ghost town.
At least at first.
Slowly the Sylph spotted movement. People wandering the streets, a few drifting above rooftops on uncertain wings. Initially aimless, they had begun to gravitate slowly towards one another, attracted by their common center of mass. The city square was a natural place for players to meet up, and so it was an equally natural place to go now.
Arrun was neutral territory and thus open to all of the factions. No matter which way she turned Sakuya could see representatives of all of the races in a single glance, from her own nimble Sylphs, to stocky Gnomes and martial Salamanders.
The situation in the square was already growing chaotic. Players were shouting and arguing amongst themselves, far from the relaxed atmosphere that had permeated the city earlier that day.
As they set down many of the surrounding players noted their approach.
"Wait, is that Lady Sakuya?"
"What, Lady Sakuya?"
"The Sylph Leader never leaves Sylvain, there's no way she'd be here."
"No, I saw her arrive, with an army of Sylphs and Cait Syth."
"Didn't the Cait Syth and Sylph form an alliance? I saw it on the message boards!"
Gradually the chaos died down. Sakuya walked to the center of the square, all eyes following her and her companions. Some hoped she knew things they didn't, others just wanted someone with authority, be it real or make believe, to take charge.
"I am Lady Sakuya, leader of the Sylphs," she called out in a loud clear voice. "I understand that you have all undergone a traumatizing experience not less than half an hour ago. I confess that I know no more than any of you. I urge you all to remain calm."
"Remain calm?" a stocky man, a Leprechaun by his build, called out. "We can't log out. Isn't that how the SAO incident started?"
Sakuya hid a grimace, she'd hoped that word wouldn't come up. The fear and anxiety that name spawned made the crowd a riot waiting to happen.
"Enough!" Sakuya boomed, face turning stern. For the Sylph players it was rare to see their normally serene leader suddenly so serious. It was enough to bring them to stark attention, and gradually the other players began to follow their example.
"If I can speak, Lady Sakuya," Kirito stepped in to join her at the center of the crowd. Sakuya gestured for him to continue.
"Good evening everyone. My name is Kirito." The Spriggan nodded to the gathered crowd. "I . . . I might as well just say, I'm a SAO survivor."
The crowd began to murmur amongst themselves. "Kirito? Kirito? Isn't that one of the names that got leaked out of the SAO incident?"
"They say he beat Kayaba Akihiko."
"There's no way this kid is that Kirito."
"Wait, didn't someone with that handle defeat General Eugene?"
"That's definitely impossible."
"Pics or it didn't happen!"
The Spriggan allowed the murmuring to die down. "It probably seems hard to believe that a SAO survivor would want to play another VRMMO, but, how to put this?" The Spriggan screwed up his face in concentration. "From my experience, whatever is happening now doesn't feel like the SAO incident at all. But if this really is like what happened in SAO, players panicking and acting foolishly is definitely more dangerous than the game."
Lady Sakuya nodded. "Which is why I would like everyone to remain calm until we can determine what is happening." Sakuya touched her right forearm with her left hand, recalling the pain that had burned through her body for that brief instant. "Even if death is impossible, we should avoid needless injury until the situation is understood. I would also like all of the Sylph and Cait Syth players to do their best to serve as role models in keeping order at this time. Are there any questions?"
There were many. The gathered players began to shout over one another. Sakuya did her best to answer those that she could, like what the Sylph and Cait Syth were doing about the situation, while trying to reassure the players about those she could not, like what had happened and when would they be able to log out.
In the end, Sakuya's perceived authority held enough sway to calm the crowd and coax them to disperse back to homes and inns to wait out the crisis. A handful of players remained in the square afterwards. They were of no particular faction, Sylphs, Salamanders, and Undines were the most common, but the odd Leprechaun, Imp, and Spriggan also attended.
"May I help you?" Sakuya asked.
A slender Undine with wild azure hair stepped forward as spokesman. "Lady Sakuya, we thought we should bring this to you." The Sylph Leader nodded for the man to continue. "We'd just arrived in Arrun when whatever happened, well, happened. We noticed that the terrain outside of the city, doesn't look right."
"As in improperly rendered?" Lady Sakuya asked.
"N-no." The Undine shook his head. "I mean, the lay of the land is completely wrong."
Sakuya bit her lip meditatively. "Have you told any of the other players?"
"No my Lady," the Undine said. "We didn't want to start a panic. I think most of the other players were too shaken to notice just yet. Just what is happening?"
Sakuya shook her head. "I wish I knew. Thank you for this information. We will be sure to investigate."
A large Salamander player wearing the heavy armor of a tank build stepped forward. Beneath his helm his face was covered in a fiery beard and his golden eyes glinted like stars. Kirito and Leafa both tensed up, ready to move to protect the Sylph Leader. Their concern proved uncalled for.
The Salamander stood to his full height and saluted smartly. "Ma'am." They were treated to the bizarre scene of a Salamander standing at military attention before the leader of his faction's mortal enemies.
"Y-yes?" Sakuya recovered quickly.
"I would like to help reconnoiter the area. Until the GMs contact us we have only ourselves to figure out what's going on. In real life I served in the JGSDF until last year and . . . " The man took a breath. "I was playing ALfheim with my niece and nephew. They're new Sylph players ma'am."
Sakuya understood immediately. "I'm sorry, but I can't access the faction controls or I would find them for you. Were they with you before?"
The Salamander shook his head. "We were supposed to meet up here to do the quest "Hunt for Nine Eyes". They told me they were traveling from Sylvain."
Sakuya nodded. "It appears that all of the players have been reset to the nearest town or safe zone. If that's the case, they may be back in Sylvain or one of the neutral towns. Do you have their user names?"
"Balandene and Bardiche," the man said. "And I'm called Carmond."
Sakuya nodded. "Balandene, Bardiche, Carmond. I will instruct my faction to keep an eye out for them. In the meantime, is your offer of assistance still open?"
The man nodded solemnly. "With the user menu down we'll have to rely on our own senses."
Sakuya turned to Kirito and Leafa. "Kirito-kun, Leafa-chan, I would like to request your help as well."
"Us?" Leafa asked. "I'm sorry Lady Sakuya, but Kirito and I need to . . ." The Sylph stopped as she felt her brother place a hand on her shoulder.
"It's alright Leafa."
"But . . . Asuna," she said.
"The World Tree will be here when we get back," Kirito said softly. "You were right . . . I can't do it alone. And I can't do it blind either. We need to know what's happening. We accept your request Lady Sakuya," Kirito said.
The Sylph Leader nodded. "Carmond, will you accompany us?"
The big Salamander nodded, and as a group they extended their wings and took flight.