.Hack//Outcast
Prologue
...I wanted...a place to escape...a place to be free...free from the bounds of reality. A place where I can do the things I can't do in the real world...a place where I can escape...a place...where my mind is free...
...Perhaps I've found it...
Episode 1
.Hack//Sign
In the near future...
With technology spreading across the internet, information sharing had a sense of value and importance which enabled easy communication. However, there were a number of cases in which there were communication problems. Crimes committed by network hackers began to spread onto a worldwide scale due to the disperse of secret information. Will we be able to keep track of where this is going?
One such case happened on a certain day when the stock prices repeatedly jumped, which lead to depreciation in the New York Stock Exchange. The hacker who was responsible was detected by the server through the transaction, but he has yet to be arrested. The establishment was under the United Nations WNC (The Worldwide Network Council). The danger in the network still continues to increase.
And it happened suddenly... In the year 2005 the main computer that was connected to the network for the entire world, stopped working on December 24th. The communication controls and the other networks connected experienced a network collision in a worldwide scale. After this incident, the network recovered its performance 77 minutes later. The automatic retaliatory system of the United States began to operate erroneously and was dangerously moving to a point of crisis, which was connected to a terrestrial existence. The "Pluto Kiss" virus which attacked was created by a mere 10-year-old elementary school student...
Among the few, the "ALTIMIT" OS was not affected by the "Pluto Kiss" at all. Eventually, the WNC announced that the majority of the network servers of the entire world will switch to the ALTIMIT OS, in 2007, 2 years after the incident.
In addition, the restriction of the network utilization of entertainment system was removed in the same year, December 24th. Simultaneously on the same day, the MMORPG "The World" was sold. The United Nations declared the safety of the network and "The Mother Mary's Kiss" was named and was known as an international holiday.
And on December 24th of 2007, at exactly 12 o'clock noon, the worldwide simultaneous download of "The World" began. "The World" will bring disasterous incidents years later, without anyone realizing it...until recently...
Location: Unknown
Time: 3:00 PM local time
Date: Unknown
Within a room of a certain house, a boy of an unknown age steps in front of his computer and sits down. He then turns the computer on and the words "Altimit" appears in front of him. As he goes through his emails and the local news he then puts on goggles that covers the upper part of his head. He then picks up the controller that had been on the table and moved the joystick so that he can select the words, "Log in". He press the action button of his controller and his was off.
Mac Anu
When he opened his eyes again, he was within a city that had a Venice-Italy look to it. A large river traced through this city of squared buildings. All around, many player- characters were busy buying items, trading with friends, or just simply chatting with one another. The sky revealed to be a bit clouded and it reflected a universial time, which had an afternoon feel to it. The simulated environment was so real that it had even the most specific sounds and visual sensations to it, such as wind, the sound of foot-steps, the sound of the waters of the river the splashes on the docks, or and the movements of the clouds.
People had often refered to the world as "The Matrix" refering to the movies that were made a few years ago. A world that was so real, that you couldn't tell it apart from the real one. The only difference was the feeling of the environment that surrounds the player of the game. If only he could feel the breeze that gently brushes his character. That was one of the few limitations of the game. But beside that, everything was as real as anyone would want it to be.
The boy looked at himself and see that he was a blademaster, but there was something different about him that was different than other ones. He had a sword sheathed to his right, which might mean that he is left handed, and reflects upon himself in real life that he is left handed. The sword looked like the usual short swords that a typical blademaster would hold, but from the patterns on it and the way it looked it was nothing typical to that of any sword that has ever been held by any other blademaster. On his right side he had another sheathed sword, but it was not a short sword either, it was a katana,
He wears armor similar to that of Balmung one of the legendary warriors of The World, but they were black and his wings that were folded behind him were black as well. His wings were more demon like than that of his counterpart, Balmung. He then steps onto the stone path and walks up to the nearby bridge that overlooks the river that runs beneath it. He stood at the center of it and looked skyward and sigh.
"~Sigh~...another perfect afternoon..." the dark character said. He then looked down and at the river and noticed a gondala floating toward him, "Hmmm."
Standing on the boat was a female axeman. She had small, white angel wings on her back and her hair was green with a touch of blue on it. Her axe weapon didn't look like it could do much and she carried it like a septor that of a queen would hold. The dark character above continued to stare at her, until the girl sensed him watching and looked back up to met his stare. She sensed a shroud of mystery within the false eyes of the character before her, but before she could look more clearly, she was interruptted by another blademaster next to her.
"Lady Subaru?" the red character said, "There is something I must discuss with you..."
Subaru looked down at Silver Knight for a moment before looking back up, but she only saw the bottom of the bridge and looked back down.
Above on the bridge, the dark blademaster walked away and toward the spinning ring that was known as, the chaos gate. As he steps up in front of the gate several rings surrounds him and he disappears from sight and onto a field.
Hidden Forbidden Holy Ground
As he opens his eyes again, he sees before him, a magnificent looking catherial. The entire structure stands on a mountain, like a lonely island in a sea of clouds. In fact, the church was the only struture on the field, and the stone railings prevents anyone from falling. There was only one path to take and the dark warrior starts to walk toward the closed doors.
Inside the large building was fitted the same way as any church would be. Pews all lined up in neat rows, and at the front was an altar. At the altar there were several other unique characters that were much different than the other ones. There wre two that would be very familiar to everyone. They were Orca and Balmung. The others were not regular character models.
Then, all of a sudden, Lios the system administrator appears before the group.
"...It appears that almost all of us are here," Lios said, "Who's here and who's not."
Lios looks around and counts off.
"Nataku...Anubis...Jehuty...Artemis...Reaper...Zeus..."
"Well, the rest of us couldn't make it, but we got the two that you wanted." Anubis said who was the one who appears to be a long arm, but he was wearing a strange helmet that looks like a jackal, which goes with his name Anubis. The other strange thing about him was that he was floating a few inches from the ground.
"Ah...I see," Lios said, "Orca of the Azure sea...and Balmung of the Azure sky...huh, hey! We are missing someone! Where is-"
Just then, the doors of the church were throw open as the dark warrior enters. Everyone fell silent as the blademaster walks toward them. A few of them stood at attention as if they were presented before a commanding officer in the military.
"...Did I...miss anything..." the dark warrior said
"No...not at all..." Lios said, "...Azreal of the Azure Earth...Now that we have most of the members of this group we will begin with the meeting...everyone report in..."
Meanwhile, in an unknown dungeon, a wavemaster lies still on the ground, as if he was defeated by a monster. As he awakens he finds that he is covered in a sticky substance of some sort. As he gets up he used his wand as support and stood up. He looks around, dazed. Not knowing what's going on or where he is. He then looks square at the tresure chest before him.
"What...what happened..." the wavemaster asked himself, and then he turned to see someone approaching him.
The figure turned out to be a heavy blader, and a female one, too. She had brown hair and equiped with a typical two handed heavy sword and carries it over her shoulder.
"Well, I didn't know I had company..." the girl player said, "Hi...I'm Mimiru, what's your name?"
Mimirun looks at the wavemaster's staff and sees that it was very rare and intresting looking. Nothing standard looking.
"You're a wavemaster, but I've never seen a wavemaster go off alone in a field before much less make it to the Gott statue...no offense...That means you must be very strong."
But the wavemaster didn't reply and looked at her.
"What? Is something wrong?" Mimiru asked, but the the wavemaster takes out a sprite ocarina, "Hey! Wait!"
But it was too late and the mysterious character warped out.
"What was that all about? All well, at least he left the treasure," she opens up the box and left as well.
Back at the church,
"Alright, you all have your orders and your duties," Lios said, "Anubis, I want you to investigate a field."
"What's wrong with it?" Anubis asked.
"We...don't know..." Lios replied, "All we know that there was an imbalance of equations in that area and then something happened in there that we were not able to idenitfy..."
"I see...then I will go look into it..." Anubis said, and turns to leave, but instead of leaving as everyone else does he just disappears from sight in a flash of sparks.
"I still just can't get used to that," Reaper said as he picks up his weapon from a pew, which was a scythe weapon, a very unsual weapon from a long arm to be using, "Well I'm off."
"Balmung and Orca, I want you two to also look into this matter and find the problem before it spreads."
"Right," Balmung said and they left as well.
"And Azreal, I want you to hunt down a player killer...by the name of Sora." Lios said, "I want you to give him a warning and try to convince him to stop these actions, because they were causing complains from all the players that he's killed in the past."
"...and what if he refuses to change..."
"Then test your powers on him...let him know to be more careful in the furutre to not cross path with one of you..."
"Fine then...and if he's as good as the report has said about him...then it will be fun..." Azreal chuckes a bit and turn to leave.
Though not as seen that often by many, Azreal the third decendent of Finnia, of the Azure Earth. His character base model is very unique from the others, a prototype hybrid of two class of characters. Azreal was to testout the abilities of this new type.
In front of his computer monitor it was like a game and seemed to be some sort of scanning progam and many player characters flashed before the screen, until one particular picuture shows of a twin blader.
"Target found." a female computer voice said, "Player: Sora, type: twin blader, location: Delta server, field key name processing..."
Azreal waited and then words came at him.
"Keywords, Sigma Dolorous Promised Clavicle..."
"Alright...time kick some ass..." Azreal said to himself.
Back at the field where the mysterious wavemaster was, he leans on the wall of a structure and still looked as confused as ever. He keeps talking to himself saying that he did not know what he was doing, or where he was in fact.
From the horizon three heavily armored knights approach,
"Forgive our intrusion," the leader knight said, "We are from the Thirteenth squadron of the Crimson Knights. The Crimson Knights value courage, passion, and magnanimity. We were formed with the goal of helping people in 'The World.' We constantly keep an eye on evil doings in "The World.'" We are investagating fact that he was seen with a PC that looked like a cat, and it is against the rules for someone to fix their character model like that. We are only here for information."
The sorcerer recalls the cat, yet can't remember who or what it was.
"I...I don't know..."
"We are only asking for information, and nothing more-" but the sorcerer once again warps out of the area, leaving the knights to wonder, "We'll need to monitor him..."
Then. all of a sudden Anubis appears behind them.
"Is there a problem?" Anubis asked as he was right behind the three warriors and scared them straight.
"Uh, Anubis!" The leader said, "Nothing is the matter. We were just investagating a matter."
"...And..."
"We were looking for a suspect that has information, but he escaped from us."
"Then, find this character. We don't want small problems getting in the way of our objectives."
"No, sir! We will go right on it!" And the knights left.
Anubis looks ahead at the entrance to the dungeon and sees Mimiru. She was watching the whole thing and then warps out.
Just as Anubis seemed to be alone, a dark shadow grew behind him and he spun around to see an 'Armor Shogun'. It was at least over twice his size, but Anbuis showed no face of fear or surprise, and readies his weapon, which was a long spear.
"I haven't had a battle in a long time sinced my last leveling up." Anubis said to himself.
The 'Armor Shogun' twirled around its huge swords and charged at Anubis and threw a slash attack at him, but it missed. Anubis avoided the attack with such speed that it seemed that all he did was disappear and reappear to its right. Anubis twirls his spear weapon around and attacks back, stabbing at one of the Armor Shogun's legs, and it fell, then Anubis jumped up and speared through the monster's head.
After that, he dropped back down to the ground and walked away right before the dead monster fell over with a thump and disappear.
"Too easy," Anubis said to himself and walked toward the entrance to the dungeon. From his rear, you can see that his character has a long tail and it swings around as he walks.
Elsewhere, the mysterious sorcerer appears near a chaos gate-and right after him appears Mimiru.
"Hey, you!" Mimiru shouted, "Just what is your problem. What were you doing in there, avoiding the Crimson knights and running away from them"
But the Wavemaster still refuses to answer to her. Then, finally he speaks.
"It won't matter after I log out." he said,
"You can't just do those sort of things and keep running away from the Knights!"
"That will be fun in it's own way," the wavemaster replied as he walked away.
As he walks back to the gate, Mimiru follows him. He then tries to log out, but nothing happens. Then he turns around to face Mimiru.
"You know..." he said, "I don't like you..."
And he again warps away, leaving Mimiru confused.
Elsewhere, at Sigma Dolorous Promised Clavicle, Azreal appears into the field and sets his eyes on finding the character called Sora. As Azreal walks he sees Sora was bothering a group of seemed to be an ok party of fairly good players and was asking for their member's address.
"Come on, I've proven how strong I am, now let's have those addresses!" Sora said being all cheery as ever can be.
"All you've proven s how much of an ass you are," a blademaster of the group said, "Now stop bothering us."
"...Well if I can't have your addresses, then I'll just simply-"
Then, with a flash Sora sped pass all three of them and they turned gray. Then, a line from where Sora had apparently had cut them formed and the three unfortunite victims fell onto the group like broken statues.
"All well, I guess they were good enough for my address after all," Sora said and then took notice that he was being watched and turned to face his stalker. "Alright show yourself!"
Azreal somehow got behind him without him noticing, sword drawn, and pointed it at Sora's back.
"Don't move a muscle..." Azreal said, "Or all those EXP you've earned today would go to waste..."
"Heh, your pretty good to slip by me this far, and unnoticed by me," Sora said seemingly impressed, "You must be a quick, sneaky twin blader like myself to be that tricky..."
"Not quite..." Azreal said and pulled his sword back a bit so Sora can turn around to face him,
"I see...you're a blademaster...I'm truly impressed now...why don't you give me your member's address and we can form a powerful party..."
"I'm guessing if I refuse you will do to me what you just did to those poor pathetic PC's over there." Azreal said
"So you were watching me the whole time."
"I'm here to warn you not to do that again to any more players...or at least restrict yourself to only a very few at a time. The system adminsterator has been getting too many complains about you...Sora..."
"You seem to know me a lot, and I'm guessing from the look of that rare sword that you are holding, that you are more than what your words are."
"I can assure you that I am more than a match for you, so don't even try."
"But that's what I like to do at a lot of things...try!" Sora did a back flip and knock away Azreal's sword and he popped out his own weapons, which were two blades attached to his arms.
Sora thn charges at Azreal with quick speeds that only a twin blader can do, but was surprised at the quick reaction of Azreal as he quickly drew his other sword and defended the attack.
"Your pretty fast," Sora said, "It takes a lot to impress me...still want to refuse my offer to form a party with me?"
Azreal smiled and pushed Sora back and pratically threw him into a tree. Sora's back slammed to the trunk of the nearby tree and it took so HP from his bar.
"Still intend to resist me?" Azreal extends his free hand to his downed sword on the ground and it flew into his arms as if he commanded it to. Sora just smiles and gets into an attack stance, "Fine then...I don't hold back to anyone...even stubborn brats like you."
"Stubborn brat you call me? Oh you'll get what's coming!" Sora again charges at Azreal, but was blocked by one sword and the other one swung to his left.
Sora ducked away from the horozontial attack, but in doing so, Azreal spin kicked him again into a tree, but with such force that the tree failed to stand on itself and fell over.
"Such power..." Sora said as Azreal readies himself and spins both his blades around then stops in another attack stance with one blade pointing forward at him but slightly downward at an angle and the other also pointing at him, but the katana was position over Azreal's head.
Then, Azreal lowers his katana and then lifts his other sword up a bit and then did a revolver attack and Sora backed away as Azreal became a deadly whirl of blades. He tried to block the move but was again knocked back. After Azreal stops he attacks Sora with repeative slashes and chops, but despite that, Sora blocked every attack, but when Sora took to the offensive and tried to stab Azreal, he found it stupid as his attacking blade was chopped off by one swift move from Azreal's katana. In one move after he cuts off one of Sora's blades, Azreal turns to his right and swings around to Sora's back and slices at Sora's back. Sora fell to one knee and tried to get up as Jacen grew nearer to him.
When he tries to stand, he was knocked to his knees and his remaining blade was pushed down so it went into the ground and was stuck. Azreal then holds Sora's head up and brings his katana up to Sora's neck.
"Let this be a warning to you Sora...stop killing players. It's very annoying....there are rules to the game and they have to be obey if the game is to be played right."
"Urg...rules are meant to be broken," Sora said back as he struggles.
"Well then, in that case-" Azreal then cuts at Sora's throat, actually drawing blood, and Sora fell limp and turn gray. Azreal lets go of him and threw him into the dirt. He picks up part of Sora's scarf and wipes off the fake blood from his sword.
Then, Azreal warps out of the field.
Meanwhile somewhere else, the same mysterious wavemaster wonders around in a field. He was now riding a grunty. As he rides across the dark landscape the grunty accidently bumped a wall.
"Hmp, how stupid," the wavemaster said.
In another part of the field, the sun was rising, which actually shows that it was sunrise according to local time. The wavemaster stands before a small pond and then throws an object into it which awakens a grandpa.
"Did you drop a silver axe in here...or did you drop a golden axe?" asked grandpa, but it received no reply but was attacked by the wavemaster who tried to wack at it.
The wavemaster fails the attack and finds himself being laughed at by a buff male warrior. The warrior was a blademaster and had the looks of Orca on him.
"Hello, I'm Bear...you must be a newbie if you are off doing that to a grqandpa." Bear said, "I like to do things like that when I'm irritated, too."
As Bear is talking to him- once again he warps out of the area, which confuses Bear a bit.
"Oh, I wonder what that was about?"
Then a female sorceress walks up behind him.
"Bear, why did you run away from the battle?" the female wavemaster asked
"What BT, are you hurt? Should I heal you?" Bear replied
"No, I've already healed myself, thanks for nothing," BT said back.
Back at the root town, Subaru was riding on her boat again and talks to the one called Silver Knight.
"There has been some strange activities that are arising in The World." Silver Knight said.
The boat continues to sail through the river. They then went past Azreal, who suddenly appears on scene and finds himself again staring at Subaru when he walked passed the boat and ran into the mysterious wavemaster again. He bumps into him abruptly disrupting his train of thought.
"Oh sorry," Azreal politely said, but the boy didn't reply and walked passed him and then ran into some Crimson kinghts and was chased toward the chaos gate and warped out.
Azreal looked at the scene with intrests, but he moves on.
Again the young sorcerer is at a warp gate, once again attempting to log out, when Mimiru appears. They exchange glances, and then he finally speaks to her,
"...Can I ask you something..." Mimiru just looks at him, "Is is possible that you can't log out of The World?"
Mimiru was confused by the question.
"I just did after the last time we met, and that was yesterday. I just logged back on right now."
"Oh," he walks away from her, but she follows
"What? Are you unable to log out?"
"...maybe..."
"I've never heard of anyone unable to log out of the World. Have you been up to something, because you know that those Crimson knights won't like players that do stuff like that."
"I...I don't remember what I did."
"You'll be alright after you reset your terminal. Though I think you might damage your character and start all over again."
"Uh, can you not bother me with my problems." And he tries to run away, but Mimiru runs after him. "Stop following me. I just ignore you when I see you then,"
The boy stops and Mimiru looks at him, then slaps him in the face. Then
"Hey you can't act like that! The net and the real world is basicly the same- and the same manners apply." As he was about to cry Mimiru gives up and walks away, "Whatever, bye then."
As Mimiru leaves, the boy holds his face and was confused about something.
"Why...why does it..."
Elsewhere, Silver Knight walks with Subaru to a merchant NPC, and they were talking about a problem.
"It was the item's fault for the data crash, then," Subaru said
"I'm sorry, it was my friend's fault for being careless. He said the character was a girl and that she somehow messed with her character model and gave it the face of a cat."
"Cat?" that alerted the knights.
Elsewhere, the mysterious wavemaster, now alone, drags his staff around with him. He was in a cave and thinks to himself about what Mimiru said to him.
~Why don't you just reset your terminal~
"I...but I'm not in front of a terminal, so....where am I?"
We now see that he is back in the same cave as where he first started, looking at the treasure box. He recalls opening it and then something happening. As he nears the treasure a small cat character appears floating above the treasure chest, undoubtedly the PC the Knights are looking for.
"Maho..." the boy wavemaster said
The cat tries to open the chest as the sorcerer runs up to him, as the cat disappears.
"Hey...what do I do?"
He opens the chest and out of it comes a partial tablet that is glowing with a very bright light. As he touches the partial tablet a voice speaks to him and says,
""I've been waiting for you... ...for a long time. I need you, just like you need me. Let us walk together. So long as we walk together, I will protect you." The table flashes, and then disappears.
He looks at the same treasure chest again and then starts to walk out. As he walks out of the cave a Crimson Knight at the entrance meets him. It revealed that it was Silver Knight. The Wavemaster gets a bit annoyed and took out another sprite ocarina.
"That won't work," Silver Knight said, as the wavemaster then runs back into the cave, Silver Knight jumps after him and attacks him. "I've put up a barrier around this field, so you can't escape with that. Now tell me what I need to know."
He repeatedly attacks, and the sorcerer keeps defending.
"Why did you fled that time!"
"Cause I think it would be fun to keep you guessing."
"I'll stop bothering you if you tell me about that cat PC, and what it is." But the wavemaster still refuses to answer him, "Fine!"
Silver Knight threw the boy into a wall and jumps at him to strike. As Silver Knight is about to make the finishing blow, a large blob of a monster that looks like a giant barbell, with a ring in the center, appears and knocks Silver Knight back.
"What...what is that thing?!" Silver Knight asked, but then the monster shoots a small stream of itself through Silver Knight and he was killed.
The sorcerer stands and recalls the statement "So long as we walk together, I will protect you."
Sometime later, the lone sorcerer now is sitting on the banks of the river in the city, and thinks to himself.
"I am here...it's better here than the real world. At least I won't be able to go back to that shitty world." he said to himself. As a small beetle comes running along, he stands, "this is... not that bad"
And he smashes the little bug with his staff.
The real world- cars outside of a house, siren's from police cars are heard. We see the interior of the home where a young child is lying unconscious on the floor, as the camera pans across the floor to a pair of headphones, and all we hear is static.
To be continued
Prologue
...I wanted...a place to escape...a place to be free...free from the bounds of reality. A place where I can do the things I can't do in the real world...a place where I can escape...a place...where my mind is free...
...Perhaps I've found it...
Episode 1
.Hack//Sign
In the near future...
With technology spreading across the internet, information sharing had a sense of value and importance which enabled easy communication. However, there were a number of cases in which there were communication problems. Crimes committed by network hackers began to spread onto a worldwide scale due to the disperse of secret information. Will we be able to keep track of where this is going?
One such case happened on a certain day when the stock prices repeatedly jumped, which lead to depreciation in the New York Stock Exchange. The hacker who was responsible was detected by the server through the transaction, but he has yet to be arrested. The establishment was under the United Nations WNC (The Worldwide Network Council). The danger in the network still continues to increase.
And it happened suddenly... In the year 2005 the main computer that was connected to the network for the entire world, stopped working on December 24th. The communication controls and the other networks connected experienced a network collision in a worldwide scale. After this incident, the network recovered its performance 77 minutes later. The automatic retaliatory system of the United States began to operate erroneously and was dangerously moving to a point of crisis, which was connected to a terrestrial existence. The "Pluto Kiss" virus which attacked was created by a mere 10-year-old elementary school student...
Among the few, the "ALTIMIT" OS was not affected by the "Pluto Kiss" at all. Eventually, the WNC announced that the majority of the network servers of the entire world will switch to the ALTIMIT OS, in 2007, 2 years after the incident.
In addition, the restriction of the network utilization of entertainment system was removed in the same year, December 24th. Simultaneously on the same day, the MMORPG "The World" was sold. The United Nations declared the safety of the network and "The Mother Mary's Kiss" was named and was known as an international holiday.
And on December 24th of 2007, at exactly 12 o'clock noon, the worldwide simultaneous download of "The World" began. "The World" will bring disasterous incidents years later, without anyone realizing it...until recently...
Location: Unknown
Time: 3:00 PM local time
Date: Unknown
Within a room of a certain house, a boy of an unknown age steps in front of his computer and sits down. He then turns the computer on and the words "Altimit" appears in front of him. As he goes through his emails and the local news he then puts on goggles that covers the upper part of his head. He then picks up the controller that had been on the table and moved the joystick so that he can select the words, "Log in". He press the action button of his controller and his was off.
Mac Anu
When he opened his eyes again, he was within a city that had a Venice-Italy look to it. A large river traced through this city of squared buildings. All around, many player- characters were busy buying items, trading with friends, or just simply chatting with one another. The sky revealed to be a bit clouded and it reflected a universial time, which had an afternoon feel to it. The simulated environment was so real that it had even the most specific sounds and visual sensations to it, such as wind, the sound of foot-steps, the sound of the waters of the river the splashes on the docks, or and the movements of the clouds.
People had often refered to the world as "The Matrix" refering to the movies that were made a few years ago. A world that was so real, that you couldn't tell it apart from the real one. The only difference was the feeling of the environment that surrounds the player of the game. If only he could feel the breeze that gently brushes his character. That was one of the few limitations of the game. But beside that, everything was as real as anyone would want it to be.
The boy looked at himself and see that he was a blademaster, but there was something different about him that was different than other ones. He had a sword sheathed to his right, which might mean that he is left handed, and reflects upon himself in real life that he is left handed. The sword looked like the usual short swords that a typical blademaster would hold, but from the patterns on it and the way it looked it was nothing typical to that of any sword that has ever been held by any other blademaster. On his right side he had another sheathed sword, but it was not a short sword either, it was a katana,
He wears armor similar to that of Balmung one of the legendary warriors of The World, but they were black and his wings that were folded behind him were black as well. His wings were more demon like than that of his counterpart, Balmung. He then steps onto the stone path and walks up to the nearby bridge that overlooks the river that runs beneath it. He stood at the center of it and looked skyward and sigh.
"~Sigh~...another perfect afternoon..." the dark character said. He then looked down and at the river and noticed a gondala floating toward him, "Hmmm."
Standing on the boat was a female axeman. She had small, white angel wings on her back and her hair was green with a touch of blue on it. Her axe weapon didn't look like it could do much and she carried it like a septor that of a queen would hold. The dark character above continued to stare at her, until the girl sensed him watching and looked back up to met his stare. She sensed a shroud of mystery within the false eyes of the character before her, but before she could look more clearly, she was interruptted by another blademaster next to her.
"Lady Subaru?" the red character said, "There is something I must discuss with you..."
Subaru looked down at Silver Knight for a moment before looking back up, but she only saw the bottom of the bridge and looked back down.
Above on the bridge, the dark blademaster walked away and toward the spinning ring that was known as, the chaos gate. As he steps up in front of the gate several rings surrounds him and he disappears from sight and onto a field.
Hidden Forbidden Holy Ground
As he opens his eyes again, he sees before him, a magnificent looking catherial. The entire structure stands on a mountain, like a lonely island in a sea of clouds. In fact, the church was the only struture on the field, and the stone railings prevents anyone from falling. There was only one path to take and the dark warrior starts to walk toward the closed doors.
Inside the large building was fitted the same way as any church would be. Pews all lined up in neat rows, and at the front was an altar. At the altar there were several other unique characters that were much different than the other ones. There wre two that would be very familiar to everyone. They were Orca and Balmung. The others were not regular character models.
Then, all of a sudden, Lios the system administrator appears before the group.
"...It appears that almost all of us are here," Lios said, "Who's here and who's not."
Lios looks around and counts off.
"Nataku...Anubis...Jehuty...Artemis...Reaper...Zeus..."
"Well, the rest of us couldn't make it, but we got the two that you wanted." Anubis said who was the one who appears to be a long arm, but he was wearing a strange helmet that looks like a jackal, which goes with his name Anubis. The other strange thing about him was that he was floating a few inches from the ground.
"Ah...I see," Lios said, "Orca of the Azure sea...and Balmung of the Azure sky...huh, hey! We are missing someone! Where is-"
Just then, the doors of the church were throw open as the dark warrior enters. Everyone fell silent as the blademaster walks toward them. A few of them stood at attention as if they were presented before a commanding officer in the military.
"...Did I...miss anything..." the dark warrior said
"No...not at all..." Lios said, "...Azreal of the Azure Earth...Now that we have most of the members of this group we will begin with the meeting...everyone report in..."
Meanwhile, in an unknown dungeon, a wavemaster lies still on the ground, as if he was defeated by a monster. As he awakens he finds that he is covered in a sticky substance of some sort. As he gets up he used his wand as support and stood up. He looks around, dazed. Not knowing what's going on or where he is. He then looks square at the tresure chest before him.
"What...what happened..." the wavemaster asked himself, and then he turned to see someone approaching him.
The figure turned out to be a heavy blader, and a female one, too. She had brown hair and equiped with a typical two handed heavy sword and carries it over her shoulder.
"Well, I didn't know I had company..." the girl player said, "Hi...I'm Mimiru, what's your name?"
Mimirun looks at the wavemaster's staff and sees that it was very rare and intresting looking. Nothing standard looking.
"You're a wavemaster, but I've never seen a wavemaster go off alone in a field before much less make it to the Gott statue...no offense...That means you must be very strong."
But the wavemaster didn't reply and looked at her.
"What? Is something wrong?" Mimiru asked, but the the wavemaster takes out a sprite ocarina, "Hey! Wait!"
But it was too late and the mysterious character warped out.
"What was that all about? All well, at least he left the treasure," she opens up the box and left as well.
Back at the church,
"Alright, you all have your orders and your duties," Lios said, "Anubis, I want you to investigate a field."
"What's wrong with it?" Anubis asked.
"We...don't know..." Lios replied, "All we know that there was an imbalance of equations in that area and then something happened in there that we were not able to idenitfy..."
"I see...then I will go look into it..." Anubis said, and turns to leave, but instead of leaving as everyone else does he just disappears from sight in a flash of sparks.
"I still just can't get used to that," Reaper said as he picks up his weapon from a pew, which was a scythe weapon, a very unsual weapon from a long arm to be using, "Well I'm off."
"Balmung and Orca, I want you two to also look into this matter and find the problem before it spreads."
"Right," Balmung said and they left as well.
"And Azreal, I want you to hunt down a player killer...by the name of Sora." Lios said, "I want you to give him a warning and try to convince him to stop these actions, because they were causing complains from all the players that he's killed in the past."
"...and what if he refuses to change..."
"Then test your powers on him...let him know to be more careful in the furutre to not cross path with one of you..."
"Fine then...and if he's as good as the report has said about him...then it will be fun..." Azreal chuckes a bit and turn to leave.
Though not as seen that often by many, Azreal the third decendent of Finnia, of the Azure Earth. His character base model is very unique from the others, a prototype hybrid of two class of characters. Azreal was to testout the abilities of this new type.
In front of his computer monitor it was like a game and seemed to be some sort of scanning progam and many player characters flashed before the screen, until one particular picuture shows of a twin blader.
"Target found." a female computer voice said, "Player: Sora, type: twin blader, location: Delta server, field key name processing..."
Azreal waited and then words came at him.
"Keywords, Sigma Dolorous Promised Clavicle..."
"Alright...time kick some ass..." Azreal said to himself.
Back at the field where the mysterious wavemaster was, he leans on the wall of a structure and still looked as confused as ever. He keeps talking to himself saying that he did not know what he was doing, or where he was in fact.
From the horizon three heavily armored knights approach,
"Forgive our intrusion," the leader knight said, "We are from the Thirteenth squadron of the Crimson Knights. The Crimson Knights value courage, passion, and magnanimity. We were formed with the goal of helping people in 'The World.' We constantly keep an eye on evil doings in "The World.'" We are investagating fact that he was seen with a PC that looked like a cat, and it is against the rules for someone to fix their character model like that. We are only here for information."
The sorcerer recalls the cat, yet can't remember who or what it was.
"I...I don't know..."
"We are only asking for information, and nothing more-" but the sorcerer once again warps out of the area, leaving the knights to wonder, "We'll need to monitor him..."
Then. all of a sudden Anubis appears behind them.
"Is there a problem?" Anubis asked as he was right behind the three warriors and scared them straight.
"Uh, Anubis!" The leader said, "Nothing is the matter. We were just investagating a matter."
"...And..."
"We were looking for a suspect that has information, but he escaped from us."
"Then, find this character. We don't want small problems getting in the way of our objectives."
"No, sir! We will go right on it!" And the knights left.
Anubis looks ahead at the entrance to the dungeon and sees Mimiru. She was watching the whole thing and then warps out.
Just as Anubis seemed to be alone, a dark shadow grew behind him and he spun around to see an 'Armor Shogun'. It was at least over twice his size, but Anbuis showed no face of fear or surprise, and readies his weapon, which was a long spear.
"I haven't had a battle in a long time sinced my last leveling up." Anubis said to himself.
The 'Armor Shogun' twirled around its huge swords and charged at Anubis and threw a slash attack at him, but it missed. Anubis avoided the attack with such speed that it seemed that all he did was disappear and reappear to its right. Anubis twirls his spear weapon around and attacks back, stabbing at one of the Armor Shogun's legs, and it fell, then Anubis jumped up and speared through the monster's head.
After that, he dropped back down to the ground and walked away right before the dead monster fell over with a thump and disappear.
"Too easy," Anubis said to himself and walked toward the entrance to the dungeon. From his rear, you can see that his character has a long tail and it swings around as he walks.
Elsewhere, the mysterious sorcerer appears near a chaos gate-and right after him appears Mimiru.
"Hey, you!" Mimiru shouted, "Just what is your problem. What were you doing in there, avoiding the Crimson knights and running away from them"
But the Wavemaster still refuses to answer to her. Then, finally he speaks.
"It won't matter after I log out." he said,
"You can't just do those sort of things and keep running away from the Knights!"
"That will be fun in it's own way," the wavemaster replied as he walked away.
As he walks back to the gate, Mimiru follows him. He then tries to log out, but nothing happens. Then he turns around to face Mimiru.
"You know..." he said, "I don't like you..."
And he again warps away, leaving Mimiru confused.
Elsewhere, at Sigma Dolorous Promised Clavicle, Azreal appears into the field and sets his eyes on finding the character called Sora. As Azreal walks he sees Sora was bothering a group of seemed to be an ok party of fairly good players and was asking for their member's address.
"Come on, I've proven how strong I am, now let's have those addresses!" Sora said being all cheery as ever can be.
"All you've proven s how much of an ass you are," a blademaster of the group said, "Now stop bothering us."
"...Well if I can't have your addresses, then I'll just simply-"
Then, with a flash Sora sped pass all three of them and they turned gray. Then, a line from where Sora had apparently had cut them formed and the three unfortunite victims fell onto the group like broken statues.
"All well, I guess they were good enough for my address after all," Sora said and then took notice that he was being watched and turned to face his stalker. "Alright show yourself!"
Azreal somehow got behind him without him noticing, sword drawn, and pointed it at Sora's back.
"Don't move a muscle..." Azreal said, "Or all those EXP you've earned today would go to waste..."
"Heh, your pretty good to slip by me this far, and unnoticed by me," Sora said seemingly impressed, "You must be a quick, sneaky twin blader like myself to be that tricky..."
"Not quite..." Azreal said and pulled his sword back a bit so Sora can turn around to face him,
"I see...you're a blademaster...I'm truly impressed now...why don't you give me your member's address and we can form a powerful party..."
"I'm guessing if I refuse you will do to me what you just did to those poor pathetic PC's over there." Azreal said
"So you were watching me the whole time."
"I'm here to warn you not to do that again to any more players...or at least restrict yourself to only a very few at a time. The system adminsterator has been getting too many complains about you...Sora..."
"You seem to know me a lot, and I'm guessing from the look of that rare sword that you are holding, that you are more than what your words are."
"I can assure you that I am more than a match for you, so don't even try."
"But that's what I like to do at a lot of things...try!" Sora did a back flip and knock away Azreal's sword and he popped out his own weapons, which were two blades attached to his arms.
Sora thn charges at Azreal with quick speeds that only a twin blader can do, but was surprised at the quick reaction of Azreal as he quickly drew his other sword and defended the attack.
"Your pretty fast," Sora said, "It takes a lot to impress me...still want to refuse my offer to form a party with me?"
Azreal smiled and pushed Sora back and pratically threw him into a tree. Sora's back slammed to the trunk of the nearby tree and it took so HP from his bar.
"Still intend to resist me?" Azreal extends his free hand to his downed sword on the ground and it flew into his arms as if he commanded it to. Sora just smiles and gets into an attack stance, "Fine then...I don't hold back to anyone...even stubborn brats like you."
"Stubborn brat you call me? Oh you'll get what's coming!" Sora again charges at Azreal, but was blocked by one sword and the other one swung to his left.
Sora ducked away from the horozontial attack, but in doing so, Azreal spin kicked him again into a tree, but with such force that the tree failed to stand on itself and fell over.
"Such power..." Sora said as Azreal readies himself and spins both his blades around then stops in another attack stance with one blade pointing forward at him but slightly downward at an angle and the other also pointing at him, but the katana was position over Azreal's head.
Then, Azreal lowers his katana and then lifts his other sword up a bit and then did a revolver attack and Sora backed away as Azreal became a deadly whirl of blades. He tried to block the move but was again knocked back. After Azreal stops he attacks Sora with repeative slashes and chops, but despite that, Sora blocked every attack, but when Sora took to the offensive and tried to stab Azreal, he found it stupid as his attacking blade was chopped off by one swift move from Azreal's katana. In one move after he cuts off one of Sora's blades, Azreal turns to his right and swings around to Sora's back and slices at Sora's back. Sora fell to one knee and tried to get up as Jacen grew nearer to him.
When he tries to stand, he was knocked to his knees and his remaining blade was pushed down so it went into the ground and was stuck. Azreal then holds Sora's head up and brings his katana up to Sora's neck.
"Let this be a warning to you Sora...stop killing players. It's very annoying....there are rules to the game and they have to be obey if the game is to be played right."
"Urg...rules are meant to be broken," Sora said back as he struggles.
"Well then, in that case-" Azreal then cuts at Sora's throat, actually drawing blood, and Sora fell limp and turn gray. Azreal lets go of him and threw him into the dirt. He picks up part of Sora's scarf and wipes off the fake blood from his sword.
Then, Azreal warps out of the field.
Meanwhile somewhere else, the same mysterious wavemaster wonders around in a field. He was now riding a grunty. As he rides across the dark landscape the grunty accidently bumped a wall.
"Hmp, how stupid," the wavemaster said.
In another part of the field, the sun was rising, which actually shows that it was sunrise according to local time. The wavemaster stands before a small pond and then throws an object into it which awakens a grandpa.
"Did you drop a silver axe in here...or did you drop a golden axe?" asked grandpa, but it received no reply but was attacked by the wavemaster who tried to wack at it.
The wavemaster fails the attack and finds himself being laughed at by a buff male warrior. The warrior was a blademaster and had the looks of Orca on him.
"Hello, I'm Bear...you must be a newbie if you are off doing that to a grqandpa." Bear said, "I like to do things like that when I'm irritated, too."
As Bear is talking to him- once again he warps out of the area, which confuses Bear a bit.
"Oh, I wonder what that was about?"
Then a female sorceress walks up behind him.
"Bear, why did you run away from the battle?" the female wavemaster asked
"What BT, are you hurt? Should I heal you?" Bear replied
"No, I've already healed myself, thanks for nothing," BT said back.
Back at the root town, Subaru was riding on her boat again and talks to the one called Silver Knight.
"There has been some strange activities that are arising in The World." Silver Knight said.
The boat continues to sail through the river. They then went past Azreal, who suddenly appears on scene and finds himself again staring at Subaru when he walked passed the boat and ran into the mysterious wavemaster again. He bumps into him abruptly disrupting his train of thought.
"Oh sorry," Azreal politely said, but the boy didn't reply and walked passed him and then ran into some Crimson kinghts and was chased toward the chaos gate and warped out.
Azreal looked at the scene with intrests, but he moves on.
Again the young sorcerer is at a warp gate, once again attempting to log out, when Mimiru appears. They exchange glances, and then he finally speaks to her,
"...Can I ask you something..." Mimiru just looks at him, "Is is possible that you can't log out of The World?"
Mimiru was confused by the question.
"I just did after the last time we met, and that was yesterday. I just logged back on right now."
"Oh," he walks away from her, but she follows
"What? Are you unable to log out?"
"...maybe..."
"I've never heard of anyone unable to log out of the World. Have you been up to something, because you know that those Crimson knights won't like players that do stuff like that."
"I...I don't remember what I did."
"You'll be alright after you reset your terminal. Though I think you might damage your character and start all over again."
"Uh, can you not bother me with my problems." And he tries to run away, but Mimiru runs after him. "Stop following me. I just ignore you when I see you then,"
The boy stops and Mimiru looks at him, then slaps him in the face. Then
"Hey you can't act like that! The net and the real world is basicly the same- and the same manners apply." As he was about to cry Mimiru gives up and walks away, "Whatever, bye then."
As Mimiru leaves, the boy holds his face and was confused about something.
"Why...why does it..."
Elsewhere, Silver Knight walks with Subaru to a merchant NPC, and they were talking about a problem.
"It was the item's fault for the data crash, then," Subaru said
"I'm sorry, it was my friend's fault for being careless. He said the character was a girl and that she somehow messed with her character model and gave it the face of a cat."
"Cat?" that alerted the knights.
Elsewhere, the mysterious wavemaster, now alone, drags his staff around with him. He was in a cave and thinks to himself about what Mimiru said to him.
~Why don't you just reset your terminal~
"I...but I'm not in front of a terminal, so....where am I?"
We now see that he is back in the same cave as where he first started, looking at the treasure box. He recalls opening it and then something happening. As he nears the treasure a small cat character appears floating above the treasure chest, undoubtedly the PC the Knights are looking for.
"Maho..." the boy wavemaster said
The cat tries to open the chest as the sorcerer runs up to him, as the cat disappears.
"Hey...what do I do?"
He opens the chest and out of it comes a partial tablet that is glowing with a very bright light. As he touches the partial tablet a voice speaks to him and says,
""I've been waiting for you... ...for a long time. I need you, just like you need me. Let us walk together. So long as we walk together, I will protect you." The table flashes, and then disappears.
He looks at the same treasure chest again and then starts to walk out. As he walks out of the cave a Crimson Knight at the entrance meets him. It revealed that it was Silver Knight. The Wavemaster gets a bit annoyed and took out another sprite ocarina.
"That won't work," Silver Knight said, as the wavemaster then runs back into the cave, Silver Knight jumps after him and attacks him. "I've put up a barrier around this field, so you can't escape with that. Now tell me what I need to know."
He repeatedly attacks, and the sorcerer keeps defending.
"Why did you fled that time!"
"Cause I think it would be fun to keep you guessing."
"I'll stop bothering you if you tell me about that cat PC, and what it is." But the wavemaster still refuses to answer him, "Fine!"
Silver Knight threw the boy into a wall and jumps at him to strike. As Silver Knight is about to make the finishing blow, a large blob of a monster that looks like a giant barbell, with a ring in the center, appears and knocks Silver Knight back.
"What...what is that thing?!" Silver Knight asked, but then the monster shoots a small stream of itself through Silver Knight and he was killed.
The sorcerer stands and recalls the statement "So long as we walk together, I will protect you."
Sometime later, the lone sorcerer now is sitting on the banks of the river in the city, and thinks to himself.
"I am here...it's better here than the real world. At least I won't be able to go back to that shitty world." he said to himself. As a small beetle comes running along, he stands, "this is... not that bad"
And he smashes the little bug with his staff.
The real world- cars outside of a house, siren's from police cars are heard. We see the interior of the home where a young child is lying unconscious on the floor, as the camera pans across the floor to a pair of headphones, and all we hear is static.
To be continued