Chapter 57

"Andrew…" What the hell is he doing here?

"Surprised to see me huh? Well that's only the first of many surprises you'll have in the next hour or so." His idiolect has changed as well. Another surprise right off the bat here.

Andrew, or rather his avatar feels different then I would've expected him to. For instance, the way he's talking doesn't match up with his usual way of speaking at all. Neptune's the same way but this is Andrew we're talking about.

The guy literally radiates idiocy and poor judgment. Now all I'm feeling from him is malice and sadism. Not sure how, it just feels that way.

"What is he doing here?" Noire is as dumbstruck as the rest of us.

"I never took him as one to play online games. This is most interesting." Vert joins the confusion party as well.

Andrew's smile beams more as he picks himself up from his slouched position on the throne. "Oh come now, you all know the reason why I'm here don't you?"

He tilts his head to the side to try to look more insane. Newsflash, we already knew you were off your rocker Andrew. There's not much point in solidifying what we already know.

"Not really, but I bet it's just going to make me more pissed off with you than I already am." I really hate this guy. I feel bad for him, but I hate his guts with a passion.

"Why don't you let your girlfriends tell you then? They ought to know the answer."

"W-we know nothing of why you're here!" Neptune is the first to defend against his weak accusation. Although… it sounds like she's worried about something right there.

"Yeah ya dummy. We don't know Jack on why you're plomping down here. But we're gonna kick your but anyway." Ram's first instinct is to bash them in. I think I can get behind that plan.

Andrew facepalms and walks down the stairs leading up to the throne slowly. Looking more agitated than crazy now. A good change of pace for him.

"Why don't you just stop lying to him? He's going to find out sooner or later from Histoire. So why don't you just save him the trouble of finding out on his own?"

Histoire? If I recall that's the name of the voice I hear in my dreams. How the hell did he know what an imaginary voices name was? Let alone, my imaginary voice.

"Why don't you keep your trap shut?! It's time for you to die!" Blanc flies towards Andrew, who's still walking down the stairs slowly. Not even batting an eye at the angry girl flying at him.

"Tch… How predictable" He has the nerve to scoff at Blanc? Now I really feel bad for him… he's going to die by her axe in one hit.

But Andrew still continues his slow tread down the stairs just staring at the ground. Until he holds up his arm and summons an ethereal barrier around himself.

Blanc can't stop at this point; the momentum of her strike continues to drive her forward. All her might in one strike hits the barrier and she bounces off of it like it was rubber resulting in her crashing into the cave wall with great force.

*Crash!* "Dammit! How the hell was that damn weasel able to block that?!" Rule one, never piss Blanc off.

"hahahahaha!" His cackling is getting on my nerves. Soon after he returns to a stern expression. "Pathetic… not even the volatile CPU can touch me…"

CPU? What does a Central Processing Unit have to do with this? I knew he was crazy but to call my friend a computer part is just off the wall.

"Jack…" Nepgear puts her hand on my shoulder. "Whatever happens here… don't listen to him." I'm really confused right now, but I'll trust Nepgear for now.

"Alright Nepgear…" I look back towards Andrew who's standing at the bottom of the steps. I hold up my sword and point it at him. "Now, why are you of all people here? You're not the type to play online games."

Andrew's smile finally goes from ear to ear. Clearly he's amused by something I said, the question being what.

"Oh… this is far more than just a game. Didn't those little whores tell you everything?"

Alright… now he managed to piss me off beyond my limits. "Don't call them whores!"

I charge at him gripping the hilt of my blade with both of my hands this time. I know that he's going to pull something but damn it, I don't make good decisions when I'm angry!

He sighs and looks down when I start running at him. He holds his arm up and forms his hand into a grabbing position. Changing his tactics slightly from his previous barrier. Andrew might be more tactical than I thought.

*Tch* That was a weird noise for a sword hitting a hand to make. Maybe his skin is hardened by magic.

"Ha! Not even the sword of the hero can hurt me!" What the hell is he talking about? Out of all the nonsense he's spewed over the years now's when I really start getting confused by him.

Him holding my blade isn't a big deal. After all, my sword can generate electricity that's stronger than the lightning itself.

"You haven't seen all of my surprises either!" I grip the hilt even tighter and the red lightning generates and transfers to his body. I don't think any amount of magic will stop a body from being a natural conductor.

*Zap!* His body overloads ands he's send back a couple feet with a small explosion at his hand.

"Gah! Not bad, you've managed to harm me-." He's cut off short by me launching another attack. This time I only use one hand to swing my sword. I have my reasons for that.

Andrew blocks all of my attacks with raising his forearms each time I change the direction of my swings.

*Clash!* *Clash!* *Clash!*

He might be blocking my strikes now, but when he drops his guard I have one hell of a present for him.

"Forget hitting me with that blade of yours. As long as I have my power you can't touch me!" His hubris will be his downfall.

We lock eyes in the heat of battle. To the sidelines I can see all my friends looking at me worryingly. I hate to worry them, but he demeaned my friends with false insults. I can't let that stand.

It just so happens that I spot an opportunity to strike. Drawing my blade back, I swing it horizontally faster than I've swung so far tonight. He puts up both his arms vertically to block.

The magical barrier around his skin takes the brunt of my attack. After my sword finishes its swing the barrier around him dispels and his arms are sent to the side leaving his side wide open.

With lightning fast speed, I draw my revolver from my side and fire three shots into him. Not having any defenses left or time to block some way, he becomes seriously hurt.

*Bang!* *Bang!* *Bang!*

All three bullets make contact with him. Well at this distance it'd be nearly impossible to miss. I have seen crazier things happen before.

Two of the bullets went into his chest while the third hit him in his right side. Not the most painless thing I could think of for him… yet not the most painful.

"Guh! Damn… at this rate, it looks like I'll have to call out one of the big guys…" Being himself and saying things that nobody else understands I see.

"Don't! If you do that then the world will be in danger!" Neptune tries to plea with Andrew to not do… something. I'm starting to think that they know something I don't know.

"Ha, what's the matter? Something that scares even the regal CPU?" There he goes throwing around that term CPU. I don't see how computer parts have anything to do with this fight.

Andrew cuts off his laughter and gets serious all of a sudden. He widens his stance and holds his arms out in front of him. Then, shadows gather up and rise from his feet.

Nepgear drops her gun blade and looks at him with fear and dismay. Rom and Ram do the same and hold each other for comfort. Blanc pats them to reassure that it'll be alright. Even when the same look is plastered on her face.

Above him, a heart shaped object made of stone floats. There look to be lines where the vessels would be but instead they're empty. He then starts to chant incantations of some kind.

"Come forth deity bound in earth. Punish those who are ignorant to your wisdom and power. Take these souls as an offering to grace us with your presence. Come! And send these pathetic worms to oblivion!"

A portal opens up from under him, but he somehow floats over it. Then, a lot of green wispy objects come flying out of it and enter the stone heart.

Wait… those are the souls he mentioned in his chant a second ago. He's putting souls, as is souls that used to belong to people in a heart? Calm down Jack, calm down… it's just a game after all.

"What do you think Green Heart? These are the souls that my master took when she conquered your pathetic country." Who the hell is Green Heart? But from the looks of it Vert is looking bothered by this display.

The souls stop flowing into the heart and it goes silent for a moment. Then the heart starts to beat, the lines in the stone glow purple.

"Ha, well you all shall meet an unfortunate end. Fortunately your souls are strong enough to please my master. I wish I could see you all die suffering… but I have more important issues to attend to."

Andrew starts to sink into the stone of the stairs. About halfway through his vanishing act I run after him to attempt to finish the job.

"Wait! Come back coward!" I arrive at the scene too late though. And he leaves the area. I can't even see him on the minimap anymore.

The cave around us begins to shake vigorously. Darkness gathers around the stone heart and a physical form takes shape. The outline anyway appears to be a spider.

Its final form changing happens and it sits still for a second, remaining a black spider. Another crash happens and red lines appear on its body, as well as ten eyes illuminate.

"Damn, it's a Bound Deity!" Blanc yelled at the shadowy spider, or as she referred to it as a Bound Deity.

"Tch, looks like we don't have a choice… we have to fight this thing!" Noire sounds slightly worried, but determined to see this thing dead.

With that, we all spread out into our teams of two in varying positions in the cave. Now that I think about it, this place kind of looks like an arena.

Rom and Ram position themselves in the back of the room to play supporting roles during this battle. While Blanc and Vert take a front position to get some hits in.

Neptune and Nepgear take the front spots as well to deal the most direct damage. Noire and Uni stand somewhere in the middle to protect both lines of defense. And Martin and I Stand in the middle ground as well.

"So, the CPU's have brought humans into this fight? How pathetic…" It seems our spider friend has the ability of speech. Albeit in a very dark tone that echoes a lot. This can't be good.

"S-Silence! We're here to fight not talk!" That's pretty aggressive even by Neptune's game standards. Something fishy is definitely going on here.

Neptune and Nepgear fly up to the spider's left and right sides. As they go in for a dash attack, a red barrier suddenly stops them in their tracks.

They bounce off of it like they weigh nothing and crash into the cave wall leaving noticeable craters.

"It is impossible for ones with such little power to harm me. Why don't you all give up now before you embarrass yourselves even more?"

"We haven't even started yet ya dummy! Just you wait!" Ram's ready to go, but soon stops herself when she remembers that they are a supporting role in this fight.

Neptune and Nepgear recover from their fatigue and fly back down to us. Next Noire and Uni fly up to join them in the fight.

Nepgear and Uni fly back a little and aim their weapons at the Deity. Neptune and Noire fly forward instead and ready their swords for an attack.

*Bang!* *Bang!* *Bang!* Uni fires her large weapon at the Deity. But her bullets are absorbed by that shied of his. I'm not even sure if she did any damage to it at all.

*Bang!* Nepgear uses the laser on her weapon. Much like Uni's attack, the beam bounces off of its barrier and hits the cave ceiling.

Pieces of the ceiling above fall over the Deity, but even then they just slide down the barriers side. Damn that shield is strong; I don't think we've even been able to scratch it.

"Now it's our turn, ready Noire?" Neptune and Noire must have some wicked combo if they're going to try out. But the result will most likely be the same.

Noire gives a simple nod before they fly off. They stop abruptly in front of the Deity and launch their attack.

"Assault Combo!" Neptune and Noire yell in unison.

Neptune sticks her arm up in the sky and summons three giant pixilated swords. Noire draws her sword back and it's engulfed in rainbows.

Neptune swings her arm down and the three large blades hit the Deities barrier. Noire then performs a horizontal slash and strikes the barrier at the same time.

Unlike the attacks up to this point, this one pushes the Deity back. It's only moved slightly but it's a start.

"If that's all you can do then you have no hope of defeating me. I'll show you what true power is."

All eight of its large legs spread out and push themselves into the ground. It shoots the traditional complete spider web from its mouth at an alarming speed; it was so fast that only a few of us could react.

*Stzzzz!*

Martin and I react quick enough to evade the silk covering. Vert also evades the web attack, but the same can't be said for her partner Blanc. And Neptune and Noire are the last of us to not get hit by the web.

Nepgear, Uni, Blanc, Rom and Ram are all trapped under a thick layer of spider silk. From the looks of it, it's slowly eating away at their health while the Deity steps back to recharge.

"Nepgear!" I run over to where she's trapped and start slicing at the web. The progress is slow, but the web seems to be breaking. That doesn't stop her health from draining though.

Rom and Ram freeze the web around them and break free. Blanc simply uses her raw power to tear the web up.

Uni uses what looks like a fire shot to burn the web around her. A smart tactic I'll give her that. As soon as she breaks out, I manage to free Nepgear of her binds.

"Is that all you've got you overgrown spider?" Uni's getting sassy with a god. Not the best idea.

"My power far exceeds yours. One with lust in their heart cannot hope to win."

The Deities eyes turn a new shade of red. Suddenly, a crimson aura appears around Uni, engulfing her with its blazing light.

"Turn your lust into the will to take that which is yours!" Well shit… something else over the top is going to happen.

Uni turns around to face us. Her eyes are glowing red and it feels like there's another presence within her.

"Nepgear… die you traitor!" Uni holds up her large cannon… thing and fires at Nepgear. Nepgear of course is shocked by her best friend attacking her and only manages to put up a last second block.

"What the goodness Uni? Why are you attacking me?"

"Because you always get everything that I never get. Main character status, a sister who loves you on the outside, and the greatest guy in the world!" That thing is definitely controlling Uni.

Because the Uni I know wouldn't just outright say what she's thinking. She'd bottle it up and tell only one person in secret.

"Heavens, this battle is becoming more troublesome by the minute. Perhaps I have to use that power…" Vert trails off into her thoughts.

If we could somehow manage to break the Deities barrier then we could get some strong hits on him. The biggest challenge is just that, destroying the barrier.

"Vert, don't do it. Doing that may be fatal at this time." Neptune in her serious mode tries to talk Vert out of doing whatever it is that she's thinking about.

All the while Nepgear is running away from Uni in the background in a comedic way. Sometimes I wonder if all this seriousness is for naught.

"Uni, I don't want to hurt you!"

"Well I want to hurt you, and take what should be mine! I should be the one with Jack. I should be the one who he loves more than anyone else!"

I think I'm beginning to see how the Deity operates in battle. It uses moves to trick the opponent and control them by amplifying their greatest desires. However there's one setback I've noticed with its moves.

It needs focus to maintain control over its victims. Which means that it can't defend right now. I've got a plan of attack then.

"Nepgear, keep Uni distracted for a little longer ok?" I'm starting to formulate a plan. The only downside is we'll need something powerful enough to deliver the finishing blow.

"Ok, Ah!" When she gave her response one of Uni's shots went right passed her.

"Goddammit! Just go on and use it already before we all die!" Blanc

Vert nods and she begins to glow a bright green aura. Already I can feel power well up inside of her.

"Next form… activate!" A large flash of light engulfs the whole room.

When the light clears, we can see that Vert's appearance has changed. Her hair is darker green. As well as her chest is completely covered up by a grey shirt of sorts with a black jacket of the same length. Her lower half is only covered by really short underwear if you could call it that, which is also grey with black on it.

Vert smiles and holds her arm out. Holographic panels appear before her. She swipes her arm to the left and four of the many holograms go with her. She catches each of them on her feet and then hands. It's almost like she's selecting armor from a game inventory.

On her head a headset forms and what looks like a cybernetic unicorn horn is attached to it as well.

She then crosses her arms the throws them out in an X formation. Another flash of light happens and machines appear and on part of her chest an X logo makes its way.

Another X forms on her breasts but this one isn't a symbol; it's another piece of clothing going over the grey area. And I'm not sure how, but her breasts seem to have grown larger.

Again, spinning her arms around, a new spear appears before her and she catches it with grace. Twirling it around a few times in the air, she gives off her final pose.

"Now, time for you to perish into dust."

"Vert! What is that?" I ask out of curiosity.

"It is a next form transformation. When one of divine blood reaches a high enough level, they can take on this form for a short while. In all fairness, I can end him with my EX Drive if that barrier were to be removed."

I've got her covered there. Remember that item William gave to me with the purchase of my current sword. I haven't really thought of it until now, but this is the perfect time to use it.

Taking it out of my inventory, I remember what it is exactly. It's a large rifle, capable of penetrating the toughest of surfaces and barriers if given the right ammo.

The best part is, those soul shard bullets are the right size to be used in this thing. The plan is simple, I shoot out the barrier and then Vert finishes this bitch off. All the while Uni doesn't kill Nepgear.

Speaking of which…

"Uni! P-please stop this at once!"

"Stop running away! Fight me like a man!" She's still being controlled by the Deity I see.

"So, the CPU reveals her transformation to an unsuspecting mortal? You must really be desperate." The Deity speaks to us again. It can't do much right now since it needs to keep focus for the mind control. Let's disrupt its focus then.

Mounting myself on my stomach, I position the rifle and load in one of the three soul shards. Taking aim, I fire it at the Deity who doesn't even flinch.

"Stardust Shot!" *Bang!* I fire the first shot. It's very bright and has almost a comet tail after it.

*Crash!* The barrier around the Deity becomes visible for a brief second upon impact. I notice that it cracked a little bit, but not enough to call it a victory.

"Do not feel ashamed, you're only a mortal after all. Being a divine beings toy."

"Shut up!" Noire shouts at it. God she got angry from an absurd comment.

Noire flies towards the Deity with a speed greater than I've seen this entire battle. She begins to swing her sword violently at the cracked area, but ultimately does no good.

"Forget what he's saying, it's all nonsense anyway!" Blanc joins the angry party.

"More lies to cover up your sins."

I have no idea what the hell is going on between everyone here, but after this is all over I need to talk with everyone about this. Call it a hunch, but this whole battle can't just be coincidence.

"Jack, load the second shot. I'll amplify it's magical properties." Martin pitches in his assistance.

I put in soul shard bullet number two and wait until Martin gives me the signal. After a second of incantations the barrel of my rifle glows and it's ready to be fired.

"Shooting Star Shot!" *Bang!* The bullet flies out being more luminous than the last one. And midway through it's flight it breaks off into five different same size shots.

*Crash!* *Crash!* *Crash!* *Crash!* *Crash!*

When the dust clears from the impact, the entire barrier is almost depleted. All we need is one more good shot and Vert can work her magic.

"Please hurry it up… I cannot maintain this form for much longer."

"Alright, loading up." I load my final soul shard bullet into my rifle. These things take so much integrity out of it that it just might break after this shot.

"Everyone! Uni's slowing down." Nepgear calls to us.

Sure enough, Uni isn't chasing Nepgear as harshly as before. It must be that the Deities putting in more effort to maintain its defenses now rather than mind control.

I look down the sight of my gun and see the target in clear view. Time to end this battle and get some answers.

Martin pumps more magic into the soul shard for the most powerful bullet that I could ever shoot.

"Shooting Quasar Shot!" *BANG!*

It was even brighter than the Shooting Star Shot somehow, and was loud enough that it shook the very foundation of the cave. A few rocks fall from the ceiling and damage the barrier slightly.

"CRASH!* The impact broke right through the barrier and dealt a substantial amount of damage to a god. Now it's Vert's turn.

"EX Drive activate."

Vert throws her spear down and it disappears into thin air. From behind her, countless green portals appear with spearheads starting to come out of them.

In the blink of an eye all of them and many more behind them launch out into a barrage that deals a lot of damage to the Deity. But even after so many spears hit it, its health bar is still only in the upper red.

To my surprise though, her EX Drive has an additional phase to it. She raises her right arm up and clenches her hand into a fist, causing more green spears to surround the Deity in a sphere.

And finally, a beam of green light descends onto it making all the spears break into miniature explosions on the unprotected Deity.

We watch as its health bar depletes fully and it sinks into the shadows. Or so we thought…

"Argh! If I go down then I shall take that which is most precious to the manipulating goddesses!"

A single stand of enchanted spider silk shoots out of its mouth and latches onto my left arm. Before I could react, I was being pulled into oblivion by it.

"Jack!" Everyone yells in unison.

I don't want to go down like this, but this damn spider silk takes forever to cut through, there's no time to do that. Unless…

I look at my left arm as I'm being pulled away. There really is only one option here…

"Ah! Damnit it hurts so damn much!" I took my sword and cleaved my left arm clean off. As we speak it's still attached to the string of spider silk.

The Deity finally descends fully into shadow, but not before giving off a colossal flash of light that blinded my character too.

"Damn…" I hear blood dripping out of what used to be my arm, and on top of that, I'm blind.

I hear the sound of people floating towards me as well as what sounds like a transformation reverting, probably Vert's.

"Jack… when we log off… there is much we need to discuss with you." Vert speaks to me before my character blacks out.

I take my gaze away from my computer screen to face my friends around me. All of them look really worried. But that's not even the strangest thing.

They all look guilty of something…

A/N: Hey guys, sorry for not posting in a while. It was a combination of writers block, revision, new ideas and overall self doubt in my writing. But aside from that, I hope you all enjoyed the extremely long chapter.

In other news, the story is really picking up now. Just wait until the next chapter, that's when things get really good. It might be a while considering my schedule these days, but I promise to have a chapter within two weeks this time.

Thank you all for reading, review any questions and concerns or even PM me them. I'll always respond to them But until then, see you in the next update.