A/N: The Wrath Gate was pretty harsh, isn't it? Well, that's World of Warcraft for yea. But it's still an awesome online game. Unlike Warlords Wrath Online where you die for reals. It's been a long time since I've updated the story. How I wish time is on my side, or it works differently. I've got a lot with work, WOW, and six other stories, with two of them near to completion.

Help me.


JULY 30TH, 2023. FLOOR 23, DRAKEREST TEMPLE.

I haven't seen Zane or Wendy ever since that long questline we did. It's kind of stupid how it ends with both the Horde and Alliance forces died by the treacherous act of the Forgotten. And here I thought Kayaba was cruel enough trapping all in here with our life's at stake.

Just yesterday, we took on the raid boss. The Lich Lord known as Kel'Thuzad. He was one hell of a fight, I'll give it that. We've lost 5 players on that fight, with an average over level 116 group in only rare and common gears.

These floor bosses are getting tougher. We need either to maximum the group to 40 players or get better gears.

After the defeat of the boss, a small group of players went away on the next floor to activate the teleporter. I just went back into town cause I was exhausted. I barely made it out with only 30% of my HP.

We are nearly halfway through the entire game and there are less than 7,000 of us remaining. And there are only a few hundred of us left on the Assault team. Most of us are in the DPS classes. We need more tanks and healers in the group.

Even though there are still thousands of us trapped in this game, it's not easy trying to find powerful players for the Assault Team.

About 1/3 of the remaining players are low levels or people who are just living ordinary citizen life's. Not even bothering to go out on the battlefield too afraid to face death. It's pretty understandable. I already imagine Rokel going through the same thing once he realized the truth of Warlord's.

A few hundred are red players in criminal murder guilds. Those kind of people disgusts me. They murdered hundreds of players. Murdered the guild Rokel and I use to be in the Lunar Twilight.

Very few players, probably under a hundred, are solo players. Like Kirito. There's no telling if convincing them to join the Assault Team will be any easy. I even think Kirito is only joining just to look out for his little sister, Leafa.

It's early in the afternoon. After a long sleep, some bunch, repairing my gears, reloading my healing supplies, I head towards the Teleporting Plaza. Today, I've decided to check out on the next floor ahead.

As I reach the teleport, my message icon blinks.

I tap on it and a new message pops open. It's from the Leader of the Assault Team. Heathcliff of the Knights of Blood Oath. We just defeated the 23rd-floor boss. What does he want now?

I read the message.

'Lightning. We are currently working on finding new recruits for the Assault Team after having dealt with losses from floor bosses and murder guilds. Most of the Assault Team are progressing through the new floor and taking care of the situation with the red guilds. I know this is all sudden, but I need you and Kirito to handle the new recruits. We have a full list of players joining the Assault Team and needed to be tested to see if they meet the requirements. The job is easy. Just take them on a dungeon run on the 20th or 21st floor and put their skills to the test. Make sure there's a Cleric with you to prevent any mistakes.

Heathcliff'

I groan. Oh great. I'm stuck working with the new recruits of the Assault Team. If I'm being honest, I have bad experiences dealing with rookies. Back in the real world, Amodar assigned me to a few new trainees due to being due for a promotion. Long story short, they were complete idiots.

But I guess I shouldn't be too hastily. It was only one time. Maybe it'll be different this time. The players here already know how to fight. Those that don't are most likely to be at the low levels on the first 5 floors. I'll also have Kirito with me. Being a hardcore gamer, he might have a better experience dealing with this than me.

What could possibly go wrong?


FLOOR 21, NEXUS ENTRANCE.

I took Heathcliff's advice and asked Hope to join us as our cleric. He pretty must didn't have much to do today. Though I have a feeling being our emergency healer isn't gonna be any better than being stuck in town doing nothing.

Kirito and I stand right in front of the dungeon with the group of new members of the Assault Team. So far, we have two Crusaders, six DPS's: Wavemaster, Swordsman, Avatar, two Dreamers and an Assassin, and just one Cleric.

I can only hope this won't be as painful as the training session with my idiot trainees back in the real world.

I take a deep breath as I face the nobodies. "All right, soldiers! You may know your way around this world...but that doesn't mean you can join the Assault Team with flying colors!" They look at me a bit confused.

"Maybe you should dial down on the soldier talk," Hope says.

I don't listen to him. If I'm gonna test these guy's skills, I'm gonna act the part as the strict soldier. "Now. In order to join the Assault Team, you must meet our standards of elite hardcore players. That means you must act fast, learn fast, be fast and you gotta eat fast."

"That last part doesn't even make any sense." I hear Kirito whisper. If he's trying to make sure I don't hear it, he's failing.

"I heard that!" I say, not even turns my attention to the Black Swordsman. "Anyways. Today, Kirito and I will be your supervisors. Give that there are 12 of us, we'll split the team into two groups."

Hope and I take a Dreamer, the Avatar, the Assassin, and a Crusader while Kirito takes care of the rest. I feel much safer with Hope as our supported healer over some stranger trainee. I almost feel bad for Kirito. Almost.

Once we are inside the dungeon we make our progression. I mostly just stand from behind, right next to Hope, while observing the other players.

The enemies we face are the Blue Dragons and human Wavemasters. They are tough. Good enough for teaching this group. I'll admit Heathcliff has some good instincts.

The Crusader does his job, holding off the enemies. The Assassin attacks from behind of his target. Both the Avatar and the Dreamer stand back at a good enough range. It's all going pretty well. They are even keeping the damage to a minimum. All Hope is doing is just standing right beside me.

The group is doing an okay job so far. But we've only cleared the first floor. It's going to get tougher as we go deeper.

We make our way down to the final floor of this dungeon. Down here, the enemies are pretty tough. Probably as hard as the enemies on the next floor. I even decided to jump in and attack the enemies. The enemy damage has grown hard. The Crusader still takes all the blows and only gets his health dropped into the yellow zone. But Hope decides to step in and heal the group.

I go face to face against a Wavemaster. It casts dangerous fireballs at me. I dodge the incoming balls. in between the enemies casting time, I strike my Gunblade at her. After striking at the enemy, I do sweep strikes on the legs, cutting them off, and then cutting the enemy from right waist to left shoulder blade.

The Wavemaster shatters in defeat.

After earning my share of the results, I let out an exhale and sheathe my weapon. Then I turn to the team. "All right. Great job so far." The team seems pretty excited. "But it's not over yet. We now have the final boss of this dungeon. And from what I have seen, she is not an easy fight."

What I say is true. I have faced the floor boss once, after clearing the 21st floor. One thing we've noticed is that once we defeat the floor bosses, an extra dungeon appears on that floor. One that's just as difficult as the elite labyrinth. It's kind of like a group version of that raid.

But with our gears and level, the dungeon is as easy as a normal one.

We all stand right in front of the doorway to the boss room. This is it. Placing my hand upon the door, we open it.

Upon opening the door, an icy mist blows out into the hallway, leaving all of us with a chilling presence. Everyone other than I was left shivering. The cold doesn't bother me. I even start to think the freeze in here is supposed to leave the players vulnerable.

We walk inside. Up ahead, there's nothing but darkness. Then the room lightens up, revealing a large red dragon encased in an ice tomb in the center. The large dragon stands frozen in the tomb. Eventually, the ice starts to crack.

We all brace ourselves. The fight is about to begin.

The ice shatters, unleashing a storm of ice shards and cold winds. The dragon lays on the ground at first, then slowly, painfully, stands on her paws, glaring down at us.

Her name, Keristrasza, and her three health bars appear.

"Everyone! Ready!" I shout. "Charge!"

With the Crusader, Assassin and I charge in. The spell casters chanting their spells. Hope ready to heal and support. We all dive in and take on the dungeon boss.


FLOOR 24, HAILIN.

The 24th-floor is like the other floors below: A frozen wasteland. However, this one is more like a frozen jungle of some sort. It's mostly forests covered with two kinds of trees. Dreaded trees that are nothing but leafless branches completely covered in ice and snow. Large heavy-leafed trees covered in mostly snow.

We defeated Keristrasza in no time at all. After our run, we waited outside of the instance for Kirito's group. Once he is done, we teleported to the town on the 24th floor.

There isn't much to say. I told my group they did very well and then I have sent the results to Heathcliff. Once that's done, Kirito and I worked on the next group of players signing up for the Assault Team.

After a long day of recruiting new members, I am completely exhausted. Some of the groups after the first ones weren't so bad. But there were 2 or 3 who weren't...exactly Assault Team material. It's a good thing I choose safer dungeons otherwise a few players would have been killed.

I slump back on my chair, letting out a tiresome sigh. "Oh boy. I'm exhausted."

Kirito just smiles while chuckling. "What's the matter? A few players wiped out the great Lightning?"

I just groan tiresome. "You know...you're lucky I don't have the energy to care or hurt you."

"Asuna did say black is the lucky color of the week," Kirito says.

At the moment, Kirito and I are having a meal at a restaurant. We both agreed to split the bill. Our order is placed and we are just waiting for it to come. Honestly, I wish I could just get this dinner over with so I can lay down and die on my bed.

"Hey, Lightning. Did you learn anything from the new players?" Kirito asks.

"Other than few were boneheads, not really," I say.

"No, not that. I mean..." Kirito is quiet at first, then leans in to speak quieter. "Anything mysterious."

I suddenly get my second wind. Kirito is talking quieter and he has that serious look on his face. It can only mean he's talking about anything about our mysteries involving the secrets of this game, including Kayaba's intentions and disappearance.

"What? Did you learn something?" I ask.

"I don't have any evidence about it. But I found something from one of the players that might be connected to our goal." Kirito says. I don't say anything. "The Dark Knight from the third group turned out to be related to one of the beta testers, one of the few who reached beyond floor 30."

"How is this related to discovering the truth about Warlords Wrath Online?" I ask.

Kirito has that smile on his face. "I'm glad you asked...You know Kayaba disappeared weeks before the release of the game?" I nod. "Well, from what I've heard. This beta tester was running a few of his favorite dungeons before the Beta Testing ended. And just days before it ended, he discovered something strange in one of the dungeons on the 28th-floor."

Something strange. It's accurate but I'm not fully convinced. "Strange how?"

"Whenever the tester returns from his adventures, he'd tell his brother about everything he's done. What he's seen." Kirito says. "From what the Dark Knight mentioned, this dungeon he was in: He knows everything about that dungeon. Inside and out. All the treasure chests. Secret rooms. mob patterns. boss tactics. You can even say he's the best source of information about the dungeon."

Kirito looks around to make sure no one is eavesdropping before he explains more. "He found a secret room...One he had never seen."

"Could that just be a coincidence? Like he has missed the room during his adventures?" I asked. It's true that some spots can be missed when you're journey through certain places multiple times. I've done that a few times during my patrol missions.

"Normally, I would agree. But it's what he discovered that surprises me." Kirito says. "Inside that secret room, there were some writings on the wall. A script of one of Kayaba's other games. And, just like the one we found, the words were out of place."

My mind runs deep in this thought. A script from one of Kayaba's games? I suddenly remember the one we have found in the dungeon on the 19th floor. It was in a secret room. And there were misspellings and misuse of words. But during the beta test, a secret room suddenly appears with that kind of script? And just days after the game's maker suddenly disappeared? The connection is running deep.

As if he read my mind, Kirito speaks. "Doesn't that sound suspicious? It sounds like it could be another riddle from Kayaba."

"Yeah...you could be right," I say. "It's like he's trying to tell us some riddle."

"A secret message," Kirito says.

Maybe if we can get the next part of the script, we might be able to decipher the riddle. "Where is this dungeon?"

"I don't know. I didn't come close to that floor. We're gonna have to find it once we hit the 28th-floor." Kirito says. "Assuming it's still there."

Well, we have a lead on the mystery. The only issue is getting to that floor. And forming a group for that floor. Well, I trust Hope. Asuna seems serious but I'm not sure if we can bring her along.

That's something we'll decide once we get there.

After dinner, Kirito and I paid the bills then we went out separate ways. I returned to the inn to get some rest after a long day.

Tomorrow, I begin adventuring on this new floor. Over eight months trapped in here and we are already on the 24th floor. We are getting closer and closer to the final floor. And with it, we will face Kayaba Akihiko.

He will soon face us and answer for his crimes.