Author's Note: Thanks for the reviews everybody! I really appreciate the positive feedback. Of course, you're welcome to offer suggestions on where I need to improve. Take it away, Disclaimer!
Disclaimer: Angelglory does not own ".hack/"
Revision: I added more to the end. I thought it was kinda abruptly ended, so went back and added on to it…
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Chapter 2: The Fountain of Youth
When I left that cathedral yesterday, I felt that I saw something that I shouldn't have. Something that "The World" didn't want me to see. No, it couldn't be, I'm just being paranoid…right?
Suma pondered about yesterday's events as his Desktop loaded. The background image was a picture of his character, drawn by himself. After the screen finished loading, he went right to "The World" icon. But before he clicked, he noticed that his mailer was flashing.
"Huh? I have mail? That's weird; I never get mail…" he mumbled to himself.
Opening his mailer, he checked for the new message. Sure enough, there it was. It was a message from Eterni titled: "Root Town"
"Hi, Suma. How are you feeling? Do you wanna play with me today? I'll be waiting in Mac Anu if you do."
Shrugging, Suma closed the mail and logged onto "The World". As he appeared in the Aquatic Capital, a female Heavy Axeman was there to greet him.
"Hi, Suma. I'm glad to see you decided to come," Eterni commented.
The Twin Blade shrugged and crossed his arms. "Yeah…"
"Hey, is something wrong? You can tell me, we're friends now after all," the girl remarked.
Suma laughed at himself. "It's nothing. I'm just not used to having friends," he replied, sending a Flash Mail to Eterni to form a party.
"If you say so," Eterni said back, accepting the invitation to Suma's party. "So, where do you want to go?"
The Scythe rubbed his neck. "Hmm, I don't know. Do you know any interesting Keywords?"
Eterni looked down at the stone ground. "Um, no, not really. Sorry."
Just then, a Long Arm and a Blademaster Gated In. They both seemed out of breath and fatigued. The Long Arm looked back to the Chaos Gate with a look of regret.
"Phew! That was a real close one!" shouted the Heavy Blade.
"But…what about him? He's still on the field," the Long Arm announced. "Shouldn't we go back and help him?"
The Blademaster waved his hand lazily. "Yeah right, I'm not going back there! That monster was way too tough. I'm done for today, anyway. See ya." He logged out.
The Long Arm continued to stare at the Chaos Gate, unsure of what to do. "What should I do? That thing was way too strong for that level field. I can't help him…"
"Um, excuse me," Eterni stepped towards the panicked player. "What are the Keywords to that field you're talking about? Maybe my friend and I can help," Eterni asked politely.
The Long Arm looked back at the Heavy Axeman. "Huh? Oh, well, it's Delta: Entwined Betrayed Wavemaster. If you really want to go, please be careful. There's a really strong monster there. I'd ask to go with you to the dungeon, but I have to log off for now," he answered, logging off shortly after.
"Entwined Betrayed Wavemaster, huh? Let's see what we can do. It sounds interesting enough," Suma commented, walking up next to his partner.
Eterni nodded to her companion. "Right, it sounds like someone is in danger. We should definitely get going." And so, the two warped off to the entered field.
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHIt was a snow-covered field. Stone structures stuck out from the ground; perhaps some civilization long lost under the ice. A fairy orb scouted out the area ahead, and revealed only about four or five magic portals. But for some reason, they all seemed to surround the dungeon entrance.
"Do you see that? I've never seen portals completely circling a dungeon before," Suma remarked, looking at his map.
Eterni shuddered slightly. "Yeah, it's kind of creepy. Like their guarding the entrance or something," she replied.
The two players proceeded towards the heavily guarded dungeon entrance. Their footsteps kicked up fresh snow and left imprints in the white of where they had been.
"Suma, maybe we should just run past the monsters and straight into the dungeon," suggested Eterni.
"I'm all for that," Suma replied, picking up his pace.
As they got closer, the magic portals began to activate, releasing the monsters. Following Eterni's suggestion, the two made a mad dash past the beasts and right into the dungeon.
The inside of the dungeon was all stone. The walls, the floors, everything. Another fairy's orb revealed the map for B1 and another odd set-up…
"What the hell? No portals? Not even one?" Suma exclaimed confusedly.
Eterni shuddered again, holding her axe close. "Something's not right here…"
"Come on, that player still needs help. He's probably in the lowest level," Suma claimed, changing the subject.
The Twin Blade and Heavy Axeman cleared the first floor as fast as possible. But a portal-less B2 would bring up more questions.
"Do you think that this was a set-up? Maybe those players were actually PKers," Eterni speculated.
Suma shrugged his shoulders. "You might be right. Then again, that still doesn't explain the magic portals surrounding the dungeon or the absence of them inside the dungeon," he replied, only making the tension worse.
"…" Eterni became quiet. This whole thing just made her nervous. But why should it? It's just a game…right?
They soon reached B3, the lowest level of the dungeon. The fairy's orb showed about three rooms, all in a line. Of course, the last one had the Gott statue in it. Preceding it though, was a short hallway and a large square shaped room. As the pair of players walked into the hallway, an echo called out.
"Wait," Suma began, "Did you hear that?"
Eterni nearly jumped out of her shoes. "Ah! What, what, what? Hear what?"
The Twin Blade listened closer to the echoes. "It sounds like…someone crying out in pain."
"...Ah! Someone help!..."
"Yeah, now I hear it." That's when it suddenly hit her. "Wait that must be the player that's in trouble!"
Eterni lunged forward, running ahead of Suma.
"Hey, wait up, Eterni!" he called out.
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH"Ah! Someone help!" he cried out.
But what was the point? No one had heard and came to his rescue yet, so what was the use of calling for help? No one would come like all of the other times…
His health was slowly deteriorating as the monster clung tightly to his body with its vines. He was veiled with a sense of frailty and weakness as he hung there, suspended in the air. The monster had the head, arms, and torso of a woman yet was otherwise made up of vines. It held onto him, glaring into his frightened eyes.
The vines tightened even more around his body. The pain felt so real. But it shouldn't, this is just a game.
The creature, without warning, broke its gaze and looked towards one of the room entrances. Rushing in was a female Heavy Axeman and a male Twin Blade. Had they heard his cry for help?
"Hey! Are you okay?" the Axeman called out to him.
He suddenly started to panic. "H-Help! Please! I…" Before he could go on, more vines wrapped around him. And he was lost beneath the greenery.
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH"Crap! That thing looks tough," Suma said to himself, as he drew his blades.
Eterni holstered her axe up, prompting herself for attack. "That Long Arm was right. That kind of monster shouldn't be here," she murmured.
The monster slithered towards its new prey. All at once, its vines leapt forth to ensnare the two players. Suma jumped up to meet the oncoming plants.
"Swirling Scythe!" He held his blades outward and spun around vertically at blurring speeds, slicing apart any vine that dared get close to him.
Eterni swung her axe and with a mighty blow bashed all of the approaching vines away from her. "Brandish!"
The Twin Blade, however, was caught in mid-air by a MeJuk Kruz spell. Several branches all converged and collided with him, eating away his health. He was thrown back by the spell and crashed into the ground, skidding back a few feet.
The vines soon after outnumbered Eterni and began grabbing hold of her. They constricted her movement and made her drop her axe. "AH! Suma, help!" she screamed out.
Suma got back to his feet, after chugging a Health Drink, and charged at the beast. "Hold on, Eterni! Swirling Scythe!" he shouted.
He cut into the monster as best he could, trying to free Eterni from the vines. Unexpectedly, a vine latched onto his foot and slammed him into the floor hard.
This is messed up. Monsters aren't supposed to be able to do this or be this smart! What the hell is going on here?
The vines began a strangle hold on the Twin Blade, pinning him on the floor. It was a fine mess they had gotten themselves into. Now they would all be slowly killed by the entanglement.
"Gan Divider!" a voice called out. A large rock covered sword came down and smashed into the monster.
The beast cringed back and tried to retreat, but the sword came back with another attack and slashed it again. The vines released its prisoners and went after the new target.
The sword clashed with the vines, but easily ripped through them. The sword continued forward and soon impaled the monster upon it. It slid off the blade and fell onto ground, vanishing.
The owner of the sword continued towards the Gott statue like nothing had happened. Meanwhile, the three players lay there on the cold stone floor. Suma sat up and watched the silhouette of the swordsman walking away.
A sudden fit of coughing rang out as the player that was trapped before emerged from the dead vines.
He was a Wavemaster with a frail look in his being. His blue hair fell neatly around his face, partially cover his eyes. His hat was green and gray had a cross with four red jewels surrounding it. His hands trembled as they clung to his chest, forcing himself to breath. The emerald robes with a red line down the middle hung loosely over his body and his long baggy gray sleeves cover his hands.
Eterni now sat up and looked towards the Wavemaster. "Hey, are you all right? Are you hurt?"
"I'm…" he began before coughing again, "I'll be okay."
After a few minutes, he settled down and began breathing regularly. "Um, t-thank you for saving me. My name's River," the boy said meekly.
Suma stood up and stretched his arms out. His body ached for some reason. Games aren't supposed to feel this real…something wasn't right. "Nice to meet you, River. I'm Suma the Scythe, and that's Eterni."
Eterni gave a small wave to the Wavemaster as they all stood up now. River looked at Suma inquisitively. "You're Suma the Scythe? I've heard of you. You beat the event before anyone else had the chance to," he murmured. "Thank you so much, Mr. Suma. And Ms. Eterni as well," he exclaimed, bowing with gratefulness to Suma and Eterni.
Suma blushed at the use of River's formalities. "Hey, you don't have to be so polite. We were only…" Suma stopped…
The swordsman came walking back from the Gott Statue. His hair was spiky and blonde, hiding the right half of his face. Teal eyes glanced back at Suma. Most of his body was covered by a large brown cloak, underneath was blue garb and a silver shoulder pad. The sword on his back was very large and proved that he was a Heavy Blade.
The Heavy Blade whispered something to himself as he left the room. It sounded like…
"…Twilight Dragon."
"Something wrong, Mr. Suma?" River asked the Twin Blade.
"Huh? Oh, it's nothing," Suma dodged the question, snapping back to reality.
Eterni dusted her dress off and fixed her hair. "Anyway, don't you think that monster was a little out of place? It even seemed smarter and could do stuff monsters shouldn't be able to do."
Suma nodded solemnly, sipping on another Health Drink. "Yeah, it's not supposed to hurt…but it did."
"…Well, it's no wonder why I was frightened when it had hold of me," River admitted. "Oh, La Repth!"
The healing spell restored everyone's health points some, but the real pain still remained.
"Well, I have to be going," River claimed. "But, please, if there's anything I can help you with. Please give me a call."
Suma and Eterni received River's Member Address.
With that, River vanished. "I have to go too," Eterni remarked. "Bye."
Eterni vanished as well, leaving all Suma alone.
What that guy meant by "Twilight Dragon", I don't know. But I've got this feeling…that it might have to do something with what's going on in "The World".
When I logged off, I saw all over my body: bruises. They weren't there when I logged on…
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHR 'n' R Please. Thanks!
