The booming was getting louder and the orange light was growing brighter.
"What is this new devilry," Boromir asked.
Gandalf looked incredibly grave.
"Gandalf?" Kirito asked, but there was no response for quite some time.
"A Balrog. A demon of the ancient world," the wizard finally said, barley above a whisper.
"Well shit."
"This foe is beyond any of you," Gandalf continued, then yelled, "RUN!"
Everyone complied. They veered off to the side, running away from the ominous orange light that was getting ever brighter as this Balrog thing approached. Kirito couldn't see anything of it yet, but if Gandalf was this scared, it to be something really bad. He would definitely feel more confident if they had a full strength raid party with them, but they didn't, so running like hell it was.
Eventually they came to a wall with a door in it and begun declining down several flights of stairs, Boromir and Kirito in the lead, Gandalf and Aragorn bringing up the rear, Hobbits "safely" nestled in the middle of Legolas and Gimli.
The stairs suddenly entered a cavern, with a very long drop. At the bottom of said drop were several fires of an origin Kirito didn't want to think about it. Boromir almost fell off at the sudden appearance of a cliff, but Kirito grabbed his arm and only his torch fell over the edge. Gandalf ushered Aragorn to lead them on and that swords were not going to help them at all in this situation.
They turned and continued going down the stairs as quickly as they could, but had to be very careful at the sudden turns to avoid falling to their deaths.
At this point, Kirito could see a long bridge spanning across the large gap. That must be their way out of here.
As they were fast walking down a long strength of stairs with a drop on either side, they came across a break, about 4 feet long, where the stairs had completely broken, leaving a scary looking gap they would have to jump across.
Legolas jumped across first, followed by Gandalf. Behind them, they could head the growling of whatever the hell a Balrog was. To make matters worse, an arrow suddenly pierced the air and bounced off the stone next to them.
Looks like the Orcs weren't totally gone, now having taken positions on a balcony type thing above them and were now shooting arrows and throwing spears at them. Kirito took to using his sword to deflect incoming arrows and spears to keep his comrades from being hit, but a lot of the arrows just missed due to the long distance the orcs were trying to aim. Legolas begin shooting some return fire, making several orcs fall to their deaths.
Boromir picked up Merry and Pippin and jumped, landing safely on the other side of the gap. But unfortunately as he did so, the stone crumbled and on the side where Kirito, Aragorn, Gimli, Sam and Frodo still were, widening the gap from 4 to about 7 feet. A really long jump.
Legolas continued to fire arrows at orcs. Kirito deflected two arrows with his sword that otherwise would have hit Sam's head.
Aragorn threw Sam over the gap then turned to do the same to Gimli. Gimli however, protested this, saying that no one throws a dwarf. He proceeded to jump himself, and nearly didn't make it, only Legolas grapping his beard (ouch) kept the stubborn dwarf from falling to his death.
The stairs crumbled again, another large section of the stairs fell into the abyss, nearly taking Kirito with it, but Aragorn grabbed his arm and hauled him up.
Kirito then had to deflect another few arrows.
They now had about a 12 foot diagonal downwards gap separating them from the others. The orc's arrows weren't helping and to make things even worse, a roar shook the caves, and several stones around the entrance to the stairs fell. A large boulder fell from above and took out a good chunk of the stairs behind them, so they couldn't go back or forwards.
They had to be quick.
Kirito was still busy trying to delfect arrows and was caught off cuard as Aragorn suddenly grabbed him. Kirito half jumped and was half thrown by Aragron. He almost didn't make it. He grabbed the ledge of the stone and dangled for a second, then Boromir rached down and pulled him up.
"Are you alright?" he asked.
"Yeah," Kirito replied and got to his feet.
The area of stairs Frodo and Aragorn were standing on suddenly broke at the base and started shifting forwards. Aragorn grabbed Frodo and rode the momentum of the sliding stairs and it was just enough to get them to land safely on the other side, just in time for the section of stairs they had been standing on to crumble completely and fall.
They continued to decent the stairs. At least Orcs couldn't follow them over that now gigantic portion of broken stairs.
However, Gandalf still seemed to be extremely worried about the Balrog following them. He seemed convinced that the gap in the stairs wouldn't stall the beast for long at all.
Thankfully, the reset of the stairs flew by without incident, they were out of orc arrow range and soon they were on solid ground, with a wall of fire behind them (what was burning?) and were approaching the bridge.
"Over the bridge. Hurry. Fly," Gandalf urged them on as fast as possible.
They approached the bridge and hesitated only a moment. It was literally only about two and a half feet wide and spanned over a huge drop of which Kirito could not see the bottom of.
Suddenly an insanely close roar reverberated and out of the flames emerged a huge fiery demon monster thing that kinda looked like a depiction of Fiery Satan rose out of the flames.
The Balrog. Where did that come from? Kirito had no idea.
He tried to look at it's HP bar, but his vision was suddenly spammed by dozens upon dozens of full HP bars. Yeah, he wasn't going to be able to beat that.
They kept running and reached the bridge as it chased them.
Boromir and Aragorn, followed by the Hobbits, then Gimli, then Kirito then Legolas, with Gandalf bringing up the rear crossed the scarily narrow bridge. Kirito was very thankful no one here was scared of heights.
They all made it across- wait no, Gandalf had stopped at the halfway point on the bridge and turned to face the demon, who was yet to step foot on the bridge.
"You cannot pass!" Gandalf yelled to the creature.
"Gandalf!" Frodo screamed and everyone halted.
The creature rose up and game off a large display of it's fire. Gandalf seemed undeterred. Kirito looked at the Balrog's HP bars again. There were dozens upon dozens of them. The thing was insanely OP. Surly Gandalf seemed to know about this things insane strength. What in the world was he doing?
Gandalf was still undeterred, "I am a servant of the Secret Fire, wielder of the flame of Anor," Gandalf said as his staff begun to glow brighter, "The dark fire will not avail you, flame of Undun!"
The Balrog drew a sword made of pure fire out of nowhere. It brought the fire blade down on the old wizard, but the light from his staff seemed to act as a force field of some kind and the fire sword dissipated upon contact. HP seemed unaffected. It roared at him.
"Go back to the Shadows."
The Balrog took a step onto the bridge and suddenly equipped a whip seemingly made of fire.
"There's no way that tiny bridge can hold that much weight," Kirito managed to say.
It cracked it's fire whip.
"YOU. SHALL NOT. PASS!" Gandalf boomed and slammed his staff down on the bridge and there was a pulse of bright white light. The Balrog leaned back but was otherwise undeterred.
The monster took another step onto the bridge. It brought it's whip up, but the bridge broke, right in front of where Gandalf had slammed his staff on it, and the monster fell into the abyss.
Gandalf watched it fall for a moment then turned to cross the bridge. But before he could take a single step, there was a crack, and the Balrog's fire whip came up and wrapped around his ankle. Gandalf was pulled over the edge, his sword and staff fell. He was hanging onto the side.
"GANDALF!" Frodo and Kirito cried and tried to go to his aid.
However, Boromir held Frodo back and picked hinm up to prevent him from going to him.
"Aragorn let go, he hasn't fallen yet, we can still help him," Kirito said as he struggled in the hold the ranger had caught him in.
But even Kirito knew a this point, the bridge couldn't hold any more weight, it was already visibly crumbling. Gandalf was going to fall.
Gandalf seemed to know this too.
"Fly, you fools!" was all the wizard said, and then let go. Gandalf fell into the abyss. He was gone.
"NO!" Frodo cried as Boromir picked him up and carried him away from the bridge. Aragorn practically dragged Kirito along, still keeping both the boy's arms in a firm hold as if he expected the black swords-man to rush back and jump after the wizard.
More orc arrows suddenly started flying at them as they accended another flight of stairs.
And then suddenly, they were outside, the sudden daylight practically blinded them and they ran out onto the outside rocky area.
Once they were out and off the front steps, Aragorn released Kirito's arms and Kirito fell to his knees, along with the hobbits. Boromir seemed to have to hold Gimli back from rushing back into the mines, Merry held onto the collapsed and loudly crying form of Pippin, Frodo and Sam cries and sat on the rocks, Legolas seemed to be lost in limbo and Aragon stood with his head bowed for a moment.
Kirito hadn't moved from where he'd fallen to his knees, beside Aragorn. He couldn't help but once again remember the Moonlit Black Cats. Watching them all die. Sachi's last words to him before she disappeared, accepting her fate just like Gandalf just had (though considerable gentler).
God, he swore he'd protect his friend. And now Gandalf, arguable one of the most important people in the Fellowship, was dead.
Aragorn was the first to recover, wiping off his sword and putting it away, he called to Legolas, "Get them up."
Legolas seemed to numbly comply, rousing the Hobbits.
"Give the, a moment, for pity's sake!" Boromir snapped.
Aragorn replied as he grabbed Kirito's arm and hauled him to his feet, "By nightfall these hill will be swarming with Orcs. We must reach the woods of Lothlorien. Come Boromir. Legolas. Gimli, get them up. On your feet Sam.
"Frodo," he called to the hobbit, who was on his feet, but starring numbly into the distance, "Frodo."
After a second or two, Aragorn finally got everyone moving, climbing down the gently grey rocky slope of the mountain, crossing a small stream and heading towards the forest not far from the base of the mountain.
They ran/jogged for an hour or two. The rocks gradually disappearing into flat grass. No one talked as they ran, all still in shock, Aragorn leading the way. Eventually they reached the edge of a forest of large trees and slowed to a walk.. The entered the forest.
Kirito didn't know what kind of vibe the forest was giving him, his thoughts too muddled to really pay much attention to his surroundings, but it wasn't an extremely hostile, nor an extremely friendly vibe. He also vaguely got the sensation of someone watching him as they walked through the towering trees.
"Stay close, young Hobbits, boy. They say that a great sorceress lives in these woods. An Elf-Witch of terrible power. All who look upon her fall under her spell…and are never seen again." Gimli warned.
Frodo suddenly looked very disturbed, frantically looking around him, but seeing nothing.
Kirito definitely knew he was being watched now. And not by whatever Gimli was going on about an Elf-witch. His detection skills picked up several people close by, but only barley. If he hadn't been put on alert by Gimli's little comment, he probably never would have noticed them.
"Well, this is one dwarf she won't ensnare so easily. I have the eyes of a hawk and ears of a fox," Gimli continued.
"There's an arrow in front of you face," Kirito commented blandly.
"What? That's preposterous Kirit–oh," there was in face, an arrow being pointed literally an inch away from the red-haired dwarves face. In fact, the entire company found themselves surrounded by elves, who seemed to have come out of nowhere, arrows ready to fire point blank. Kirito put a hand on his sword and Legolas drew an arrow in response.
"The dwarf breathes so loudly, we could have shot him in the dark," a fair haired elf, who seemed to be in charge of the group of surrounding elves, said as he stepped forwards. Gimli growled in response.
Aragorn gave the elf a small bow and said something in elvish.
"Aragorn, these woods are perilous. We should go back," Gimli said. Aragorn shot him a look.
"You have entered the realm of the Lady of the Woods. You cannot go back," the elf replied.
"You sure about that," Kirito mumbled, really not liking having so many arrows being trained on him when his superior game level wouldn't keep him from being instantly killed anymore.
"Quite, child," the elf replied smugly, "Now come. She is waiting."
They didn't seem to give them much choice but to follow. And while the arrows were no longer drawn, Kirito had a feeling the elves were still very much prepared to kill them at a moment's notice.
They were lead through several twists and turns in the forest and Kirito was pretty sure they double back once or twice. The Elves seemed to be pretty intent on making sure that they would feel lost in the woods and therefore unable to escape.
Soon, they came upon a series of stairs built high into the trees. It was dark by the time they climbed up a set of spiraling stairs and into a large platform that seemed to literally have been grown out of the tree. An outpost of some sort lit by a few small lanterns.
Oddly enough, it was here were they were properly greeted by the light haired elf, apparently named Haldir. He exchanged some words with Legolas and Aragorn in elvish first.
"So much for the legendary courtesy of the elves. Speak words we can all understand," Gimli demanded gruffly.
"We have not had…dealings with the dwarves since the dark days," Haldir replied icily.
"And you know what this dwarf say to that?" Gimli replied then spouted off something in dwarfish that anyone could tell was an insult.
Aragorn sharply turned and grabbed Gimli's shoulder, "That was not so courteous."
Haldir simply turned away dismissively. He briefly acknowledged Boromir, as the son of Gondor, then frowned upon turning to Kirito.
"Who are you? You have a strange…aura about you," Haldir said, looking the child up and down.
"It would be wise not to answer that question," Gimli called, but was paid no heed as he received a warning jab from Aragorn's elbow.
"Haldir, this is Kirito. He is from a far land," Aragorn replied. Kirito kept a neutral face, hiding his confusion.
"What does he mean by a strange aura? Is it because I'm still technically a digital avatar of myself? But how would he know?"
Haldir simply moved onto the Hobbits.
He froze upon seeing Frodo.
"You bring great evil with you. You may go no further," he proclaimed solidly. Frodo looked guilty, thinking that this was all his fault.
Aragorn took to talking to Haldir, apparently trying to make him agree to their passage. Meanwhile, the rest of the Fellowship could only sit and wait for the outcome. Aragorn appeared to be practically pleading, though only Legolas could understand the conversation.
After Boromir had finished trying to comfort Frodo, he moved onto Kirito, who was sitting on the ledge with his legs dangling over. The Gondor man sat next to him.
"Gandalf did not die in vain. He sacrificed himself so we may go forth," Boromir began.
"That doesn't make it okay," was Kirito's almost numb reply.
"You shouldn't burden yourself with the dead."
"Easier said than done."
Before the conversation could continue, Haldir announced, "You will follow me."
They did so wordlessly. They spent the night on another nearby outpost and the next morning they got up and continued to walk through the large forest. They were probably still using tactics to make sure that they would never find their way out if anyone decided to try and run off.
They walked all day. Haldir seemed very eager to announce his home, the "center of elvendom on middle earth" upon their arrival. By the next night, just after the sun had set, they reached their destination and begun to come upon several dwellings and structures within the trees Once again, they climbed a huge staircase that spiraled up around a giant tree up to a platform in front of one of the largest, and quite beautiful, elven tree dwellings.
Suddenly, two people appeared at the top of another stair case, one male and one female elf, both fair haired and pale skinned with blue eyes. The she-elf was arguably one of the most beautiful people Kirito had ever seen. Light seemed to radiate off her, quite literally. The fellowship seemed to be in awe of her arrival. This was Lady Galadriel, as Haldir announced earlier.
Suddenly Kirito felt something brush against his mind, then a soft female voice reverberated through his skull gently.
"Kazuto Kirigaya. You have come so far without ever meaning to. You are so strong, yet long to become the best, as to protect all those you love and care for. Do not worry young Kirito. The one you love will soon return to you, and in the end, you will play a vital role in several conflicts that will protect all those you seek."
The presence in his mind was gone just as soon as it came. The she-elf's eyes sky blue eyes momentarily connected with his Onyx, and then moved on, scanning the entire Fellowship.
The male elf next to the she-elf spoke out loud first.
"The enemy knows you have entered here. What hope you had in secrecy is now gone. Nine there are here, yet ten set out from Rivendell. Tell me, where is Gandalf? For I much desire to speak with him. I can no longer see him from afar."
Kirito wasn't sure when Galadriel started speaking but soon, the words, "Gandalf the Grey did not pass the boarders of this land. He has fallen to Shadow."
Legolas seemed to gather the courage to speak, "He was taken by both Shadow and Flame. A Balrog of Morgoth. For we went needlessly into the net of Moria."
The grief was quite clearly written on everyone's face. It was suddenly very hard to keep eye contact with her.
"Needless were none of the deeds of Gandalf in life," Galadriel replied, "We just do not yet know his full purpose….do not let the great emptiness of Kazhad-Dum fill your heart, Gimli, Son of Gloin. For the world has grown full of peril and in all lands love is now mingled with grief."
"Without Gandalf, hope is lost. What now becomes of this Fellowship."
"We keep going, just like always," Kirito thought determinedly, but could not trust himself to open his mouth without breaking down. However, Galadriel did briefly look at him, with almost a smile on her lips before addressing the entire Fellowship.
"The quest stands upon the edge of a knife. Stray but a little and it will fail to the ruin of all….Yet hope remains while the Company is true. Do not let your hearts be troubled. Go now and rest, for you are weary with sorrow and much toil. Tonight you will sleep in peace."
With that, Galadriel all gave them another award-winning gentle smile, and then ascended back into her home. A rather delux tent was set up for them, complete with plush pillows, soft blankets. Kirito placed his coat in his inventory for now.
Suddenly a gentle singing in elvish filled the air. It was a beautiful song, despite the fact that Kirito could not understand it.
"A lament for Gandalf," Legolas commented.
"What do they say about him?" Merry asked.
"I have not the heart to tell you. For me, the grief is still to near."
Outside, Aragorn tried Boromir to rest, as the Gondorian, despite everything, could not seem to find it in him to relax. Apparently Kirito wasn't the only one who gotten a private message in his brain. Boromir's was about Boromir's father and hope, but it was hard to Boromir to comprehend, because of how much pressure his father put on him to make everything perfect and such. And then sentiment about Gondor.
Meanwhile, Frodo went on a walk, and encountered Galadriel. In her Mirror eh saw many things; the distraught faces of his friends, the Shire, just how the left it and then the images for violent. The shire burning as orcs chased and imprisoned the poor defenseless hobbits, huge battles, countless people dying, and the shire became huge and desolate, and then the flames of the dreaded Eye of Sauron.
When he returned to camp, he spoke no word of this.
…
Meanwhile, Kirito sat next to a small stream near their given tent. He had brought up his menu and had finished doing an inventory check, everything was in order. For a moment his eye strayed to his Relationship status. Asuna's name still appeared. He smiled a little. He'd only noticed it recently, but since Asuna's name hadn't been erased, she had to still be alive. That made him incredibly happy. It was good to know that someone was okay.
Thinking about Gandalf was making him miss his old friends. Klein, Ageil, Silica and Lizbeth, his little sister/cousin Suguha who was back home IRL. And of course, Asuna.
As he was scrolling, he decided to bring up the maps he'd scanned in to review. He wondered if the elf people knew he had been mapping out the entire forest as they walked through it. He also had Moria Mapped out. Just in case an all.
His finger accidently brushed against the Aincrad file he had and the maps of Aincrad appeared. The Hobbits, Legolas and Gimli, who had been watching him fiddle with his Menu since he opened it, took interest.
"Where's that?" Pippin asked when the overall hologram of the Aincrad Castle appeared.
"That's Aincrad, where SAO took place."
"The place where you spent the last two years?" Merry asked.
"Yep," Kirito replied and zoomed in a little.
"It's a building?" Gimli asked confused.
"Ehh, kinda. Technically. The Interior didn't really look like a building most of the time though."
"Why is the building only three fourths highlighted?" Legolas asked.
"Because we only made it clearing to the 75th floor before we encountered Kayaba, we never got to map out or see the final 25 floors. Lucky too. With the difficulty of the game rising so quickly near the end it probably would have taken another few years and a lot more lives to get out if we hadn't managed to end it there."
"Why would it take you so long just to clear one floor of a building?" Merry asked confusedly.
Kirito selected the first floor of the castle and enlarged it.
"When I say floor, I mean like, entire ten-ish mile radius of ground to cover," Kirito replied, "Just finding the location of the next boss monster we had to beat in to progress always took at least a few days."
"A few days? Wouldn't you have been out sooner if each floor only took a few days to complete?" Legolas asked.
"I wish," Kirito sighed, "The game was designed so we couldn't just automatically go for the Boss Monster. We needed to upgrade our equipment and increase our level. The game got harder as we progressed, which meant way stronger minor monsters in the way of the Boss, plus extremely strong Boss Monsters. If someone tried using level 1 gear, on like even just, Floor 10, their chances of survival were practically zero. And if we didn't Level up, we don't have as much HP, which depleted really quickly on the higher levels."
"What's HP?" Merry asked.
"Heath Points. Literally a life line. When players go up again monsters in the game, any damage we take lowers our HP. If they take more damage that HP and it hit zero before they could heal and replenish their HP, well, permanent game over. Level 1 players start with 250 Max HP, and each time they leveled up, the max HP points would increase. Essentially, the higher the level, the safer. But we always had to keep leveling up because monsters on the higher levels could do more damage. And of course if we wanted out, we had to go clear said higher levels. Survival all depended on your numbers, regardless of actual stamina, for better or worse."
"That's awful," Legolas said.
"Designed by a psychopath with a god complex," Kirito shrugged.
After that little note, they decided that was enough talk of that, and settled down to sleep. The Lothorien Forest seemed to have a magic calming effect or something, because it was the first time Kirito fell asleep quickly and sleep completely soundly, without a single thought or nightmare about Sword Art Online.
They awoke the next morning, well rested, and while the grief of Gandalf's death was still there, it had been soothed greatly. Then they prepared to depart. Apparently they were going to take canoes down the Great River for the next stretch of their journey, which would save a lot of time compared to walking.
They were also given gifts before they departed. Each Member of the Fellowship was given a cloak with a Green Leaf fastener pin, promised to keep them warm and camouflaged from prying eyes. While they were green, they seemed to blend with the environment like a camo blanket, and oddly also didn't clash with anything the fellowship wore.
They were also all given a supply of Lambas Bread, an okay tasting cracker-like bread said to be able to fill a stomach with a single bite. Handy for when they weren't going to be in good hunting grounds.
Pippin ate four for breakfast.
In addition, they were all given an individual gift.
Legolas got a new bow, made of the finest materials. Frodo got a phial of starlight, said to help him on the quest somehow, Sam got a fancy elven rope incapable of fraying or breaking or untying when it wasn't supposed to, Merry and Pippin each got a dagger to aid them as well as a belt. Gimli, upon and awkward request, got three golden hairs from Galadriel's head, now kept in a small locket around his neck.
As for Kirito, he was given a sword, of fine Elf making, but unlike most Elf swords, it was made to be heavy. How Galadriel knew that Kirito both preferred heavier blades and was a master dual wielder, he didn't know, but he was grateful. It was the same length and weight as his black sword, and made of a very light colored silver metal. The Fellowship, having seen him Dual Wield back in Moria, approved. It was given a dark brown sheath and crossed his other sword across his back, as once done with his Dark Repulsor blade.
Kirito didn't know what Galadriel gave Aragorn, because he didn't see him carrying any physical object, but he seemed to be grateful.
And then it was time to set out.