===CH 10===

Celestia

AN: Special thanks to Guest for the second review.

Planeptune; Guild

Alex and Nepgear returned from their Guild Quest and handed it in at the Guild, surprising the NPC behind the counter.

"Oh, you two are back already? were the dragons still there?" asked the NPC and typed the verification code of the quest into her computer.

"They were still there, probably more than just the ones mentioned in the quest." Replied Alex with a smile that made the NPC feel like prey before a predator.

The NPC finished typing on the Computer and a Level up sound played for a second. "Congratulations, Lady Nepgear. Your Guild Rank went up. You are now able to accept SS+ class quests."

"Please contact the Basilicom if any should ever show up again. Quests this hard shouldn't exist." replied Nepgear, breaking the cheerful mood of the NPC

"I take it that nothing about my Rank has changed?" asked Alex

"ah, yes. Everything remains mostly unchanged, it's just verified now." replied the NPC, earning a nod from Alex in return.

"Alright, Let's head back to the Basilicom for the day, it's already late." stated Alex and the two CPUs left the Guild, walking mostly in silence towards the Basilicom.

Their walk was a short one and they arrived back at the Basilicom in no time. The three Neptune's were still playing their game, making their Controllers and Console beg for mercy with their HDD forms. Smashing the Buttons at light speed until faint traces of friction induced smoke could be seen rising from their input devices.

It was a weird sight to be greeted with after returning from a quest. the fact that both Histoire's were watching them in bewildered fascination didn't help either.

"Histoire...s... Shouldn't you... I don't know, maybe stop them?" asked Nepgear in her bewilderment about the current situation.

Alpha Histoire was the one to answer the question. "Under normal circumstances, yes... but even if all three of them are transformed, Planeptune's Share's are actually rising."

"How!?"

"They are broadcasting a Live stream of their Game play to the internep. Almost everyone in Planeptune is watching them play this game, even some people from the neighboring countries are watching." explained alpha histoire and showed her the current traffic stats of the live stream.

"How long do you think they're going to be at it?" asked Alex

"I think their console is going to break any time now." replied alpha Histoire

"Well... It's late, so I'm gonna call it a day." he excused himself and left.

The Next Day

Alex was the first one up and went towards the kitchen, or so he thought.

All three Neptune's were still playing their game with unchanged enthusiasm, but something changed.

"Vert, what are you doing here at 4 in the morning?" asked Alex with a blank expression.

There sitting on one of the armchairs next to the Sofa was Vert. In her HDD form with a green controller in her hands.

"Gaming." was her short reply before returning her focus back to the game. "My Alphadimension counterpart also joined in from the Basilicom back in Leanbox. She broke almost all of the controllers so I had to switch locations."

Alex just shook his head and went back to his task of reaching the kitchen. "Just leave me out of this madness."

"Couldn't sleep?" greeted IF's voice from the kitchen.

"IF" greeted Alex upon entering the kitchen. "No, I just usually get up around this time."

"I thought those four woke you up too."

"No." said Alex while preparing himself something. "So what are you up to so early in the day?"

"I was going to take care of my backlog of Guild Quests, but something urgent from the guild came in just an hour ago. It is rated as S+ and directed directly at the Basilicom... Some of the citizens near PC island reported that a gateway to hell opened up near the VM hills. These reports were followed by sightings of at least 300 dragons."

"Well... I already took care of the dragons with Nepgear yesterday. But the gateway to hell part is new to me." replied Alex, causing IF to drop the Qatar she was polishing.

"You did what!?" she shouted in shock.

"We took care of the dragons. There was this old SS+ class quest at the guild that involved them, we took it and completed it." he waved her shock off as if it just about anyone could have completed it.

"That must have given you a lot of xp"

"I didn't level up, so I guess it wasn't all that much." Alex put away his breakfast utensils. "About the hell part. how do they what to know that there's a gateway to hell on the hill?"

"There's a large rainbow colored beacon shooting towards the sky on the island, and the whole Island reeks of blood and death. The latter part is taken from the eye witness reports, but you can actually see the beacon from here... or at least the dark clouds above it." IF pointed at the large window leading to the Balcony.

There was indeed a gathering of dark clouds in the far distance.

"huh... that's new. Mind if I tag along when you head out?" asked Alex.

"The ferry there leaves in 20minutes. If you are ready by then you can tag along, but I can't wait for you." replied IF and walked over to the Elevator.

"I'm already ready." he said and joined her.

A few hours later; PC Island

The ferry ride was a long and slow one, but the two eventually arrived near the Island and Alex had to carry IF to the Island in his HDD form.

True to IF's words there was a large beam of energy shooting into the sky from the mountain in which the Dragons were trapped.

The two started walking over to the beacon, passing the charred terrain Alex's skill and the dragons left behind.

"Something feels off" stated Alex half way to the top of the mountain.

IF was on guard right away. "What is it?"

"It's the energy from the mountain that feels off..." stated Alex trying to figure out what was amiss with the energy.

"I know. This can't be natural." replied IF

The two continued to climb the mountain to the very top, where the energy was being emitted.

"It doesn't feel sinister at all." stated Alex shortly after reaching the top.

"What do you mean? I can literally only smell death and blood since we started climbing the mountain!" asked IF surprised.

"That's probably due to the blood that soaked the entire mountain. Not this energy, this is divine energy, more like share energy if anything." explained Alex after a short analysis.

IF walked closer to the beacon of energy and reached out to touch it. "If this is divine energy, then what-?" the moment her hand made contact with the beacon her entire form vanished in a bright flash of light.

"IF!" shouted Alex and jumped right after her, also getting teleported away in a blinding flash of light.

Celestia

IF and Alex crashed into one of the many islands on which the Console war was once fought. Traces of a fight could be seen almost everywhere. Deep trenches in the ground, destroyed structures and so on. But even in the state it was in, the area around them still retained a somewhat divine feeling.

"Well..." said Alex as he looked around "looks like something or someone took quite the beating up here."

"I think we're in Celestia." stated IF after some thinking about the stories Histoire had once told her. "We should go back, only the four goddesses should be here."

Alex began walking towards the edge of their current island. "Don't worry, technically speaking I'm a god. So it should be fine for me to be up here, you'll probably count as a guest." He then proceeded to jump over to the next island, teleporting IF over the short distance using magic.

Alex went ahead and started to explore the small island they were now on.

"I still don't think we should be here..." muttered IF after accepting the fact that Alex didn't care, and began to explore a little on her own.

A few hours passed and the two came to an important realization.

"There are only ruins up here! Nothing interesting, not even monsters!" complained Alex.

"Can we go back now?... I have a bad feeling." asked IF with some worry.

"Sure, I've seen everything I wanted to see. I'm just gonna leave a mark here before I teleport us back to Planeptune." replied Alex and a large magic circle appeared in front of his outstretched arm

"What kind of mar-?" IF was abruptly cut off by the giant black magic circle.

"Art of Destruction: Singe blade Cremation" A huge black fire sword erupted from the magic circle, cutting through two smaller islands and partially melting them. An oversized handle appeared in front of Alex with the magic circle acting as the guard.

Alex took hold of the handle and raised it above his head. "This kind of mark!" Black magic energy got channeled into the magic weapon like a fire burning on its surface.

Alex swung the sword multiple times around him, leaving countless thin black lines in its wake. "Slash Wave!"

All the black lines released their stored up energy simultaneously, resulting in a good portion of Celestia being consumed by an inferno of black magic energy.

The heat radiating from the energy was enough to turn the sand islands into glass and the rock islands into lava the instant they were hit by the attack.

Alex's sword vanished again together with the black energy around them.

"Art of transportation: Warp!" chanted Alex quickly and saved himself and IF from a lava shower.

Planeptune; Basilicom

Alex's dimensional teleportation magic circle appeared in the center of the living room and spat the two travelers onto the floor.

Their arrival didn't go unnoticed even if the three pudding loving goddesses were mysteriously absent.

"Alex! IF! Where in Gamindustri have you been!?" scolded Alpha Histoire before she even entered the room.

Alex stood up, helped IF up and then turned his attention to his Histoire. "We were doing a quest on PC Island and got teleported to Celestia. We explored the place for a few hours and returned after leaving a mark there for other visitor so that they know I was there."

"A few hours?" her voice was unsettling calm. "You two were gone for more than a week! All of the CPUs were captured while you were gone!"

"How!?" asked Alex shocked and Surprised.

Let it be said, capturing an Alphadimension CPU and surviving the attempt was quite a challenge. Capturing 5 at the same time was bordering ridiculousness. And to top even that, whoever did that took the other CPUs along as well.

Either this new opponent was insanely strong, or the CPUs are all just incompetent.

"We don't know how exactly it happened. Neither do we know how it was even possible in the first place."

"then what do you know?" asked Alex with more than just a little bit of annoyance.

"Histoire and I managed to locate the captured CPUs. they are being held at the Gamindustri Graveyard inside some sort of pyramid shaped construct that radiates dense Anti-Share energy. Based on our energy readings, Arfoire as well as at least 4 other individuals were involved in the kidnapping." explained alpha Histoire and presented him some satellite images of the Graveyard showing the pyramid and a few pixilated individuals within and around it.

"Great. And here I thought I got rid of her for good... Anyway, when do we leave and who comes along to get them back. None of the local CPU can survive long time exposure to Anti-Share energy, so time is a luxury we don't have." stated Alex and made his way towards the Balcony, preparing a teleportation spell.

"IF, Compa and I will accompany you. This dimension's Histoire will stay here and keep us updated if the overall situation changes."

"Sounds good to me."

AN: I managed to add some content to my Profile page.
I'll update my Profile regularly with my current writing progress regarding the next chapter(s) of this story.

The entry is divided into two parts:
- Writing
- Grammar and Spell check

I'll write an estimated Percentage of my current progress behind each point. Writing takes me some time, but the spell check and grammar check part usually don't take more than half an hour.

By the way, I'm taking suggestions on where the story should go in the future. I'm more or less out of ideas, but I have one for CH 11 and possibly CH 12.