Unital Ring II: The Virtual Study Society

by whitworth5274

In the wake of Unital Ring's rise, Kirito, Jaymes, and their friends are threatened by a new enemy-Mutasina, a mysteriously powerful witch and leader of the Virtual Study Society who has roped in one hundred ALO players under her control. But the troubles don't end there: Someone outside Rath has logged into the Underworld, and to investigate, Jaymes will need new friends.

4. Mutasina the Black-haired Witch

Instead of going home, Argo convinced us she needed to return to the Stiss Ruins to check on the quest's progress and, more interestingly, sneak into a strategy meeting being held by players at the ruin's center by ten o'clock.

Kirito Town (Name Pending) has been attacked twice, two nights in a row, and the only information we have is that they know of Kirito. The first attack and my team's journey pinpointed that the attacks were exclusively from former ALO players. Argo's earlier information about how someone from the second attack exposed our town's location to the whole world means we should expect another soon.

After some discussion on how to get to the meeting, Philia and Alice decided to stay behind in one of the abandoned houses with Kuro while Argo and us boys go on an infiltration mission. Kirito got rid of his metal armor as it'll expose him for not possessing starter gear, replacing it with a linen hooded cloak. I deliberated over whether to keep my gear, but it's GGO's starter gear, not ALO's. I covered my clothes with a cloak while Alice made Argo a hooded cloak of her own. Now we were with the Argo of old, minus the whiskers. I wanted to gather some dust and draw them with a finger over Argo's face to complete the look.

The north side of the Stiss Ruins was just as empty as the town Crimson Squad spawned in two nights ago. I wonder what lead to the fall of the two civilizations. The Patter had a similar fall from grace, but they survived the ordeal, whatever it was; the Ornith and the Bashin don't seem to have such legends, at least that we know of. We didn't encounter a single player coming into or leaving town either, which is weird considering five thousand ALO players spawned here after the conversion, and it's nine pm. For us students, this is prime-time gaming hours.

"Oh, that's because the north gate isn't popular," Argo answers.

"Huh? Popular?"

"According to that same wiki, at least. The pathways are too complex, so it doesn't offer easy access to the city center, plus the mobs don't show up very much north of the ruins. That's why I chose it as our meetup point, actually."

"Aha...but even still, not a single person...?"

"Listen, Kiri-boy. Not every ALO player—or player from any other Seed game—is still playin' this thing. In my mind, it's less than half...maybe a third. Everyone else is just bidin' their time, waiting for this situation to resolve itself. That includes the fairy leaders in ALO."

I considered that not every player would join in on Unital Ring, but it makes sense. To the average player, this is nothing more than an incident to be resolved. Only the hardcore gamers could be enticed by a sudden new game and try to reach the "land revealed by the heavenly light." Those are the same class of nutcases who ventured out to the frontier outside the Town of Beginning in the days the first few days of SAO, myself included.

Not that I care now whether they join, but the half of Crimson Squad that isn't with me haven't reported entering Unital Ring. When I sent the message to abstain from coming online, they followed along, yet by now, I at least expected Fukaziroh, Pitohui, and M to join the survival game and Llenn if she's coerced into it. But Pitohui and M are busy with a tour; I know Llenn well enough to know she's not addicted as the rest of us; as for Fuka, if she's here, she's one of the five thousand fairies as ALO is her main game. I never met her ALO avatar, nor am I bothered to do so. Itsuki and Bazalt Joe will most likely abstain from Unital Ring for their reasons.

After passing the north gate, we left Alice, Philia, and Kuro behind and then entered the winding streets of the Stiss Ruins. I quickly understand the player base here; the area is too complex for a low-level ruin. Thankfully, the place isn't filled with centipedes like the ruins I spawned in. Argo leads us spectacularly through until we come to a waterway. Beyond that, civilization.

Iron torches light the street ahead of us. Shops line up the road, and commuting around are players and NPCs. It took me a moment to distinguish between who was a player and who wasn't, given that cursors don't appear in UR when you focus on a target, but the NPCs looked the same, pale to the point I assumed they were Roman-styled zombies. As for the shops, they sold low-level materials, none of which matched Sinon's grocery list for me.

"The Bashin looked so hale and hearty, but all the NPCs here are really pale," Kirito mutters.

"I mean, I get it. Yer bound to get pale, livin' in a place like this."

"Honestly, they seem like a different race altogether. What race are the NPCs here?"

"Dunno... It's almost impossible to tell what any of the NPCs are sayin'. Talk to 'em, and you'll see. The only exceptions are the shopkeepers."

"Ahhh, I see."

"Maybe the Learned ability is something to invest in." I learned some Ornith and Patter, though I leave translating the people of UR to Strea and Yui for now. Being bilingual in English and Japanese has merits, so what's another language? I learned ALO's complex spells and learned how to speak as an Underworlder would in terms of diction, so it can't be an arduous task to try to communicate with the other races. Who knows if Strea or Yui will be around when I need them?

At the end of the road appears a great arch. Pass it is a grand circular space, surrounded by castle manors and churches. In the center is a structure with numerous arches on the outside. It looks just like the Colosseum in Rome, but in a worse condition as it is half-collapsed like the rest of the place.

"...Is that the place for this so-called friendly meetup?"

"That's it," Argo says. She gestures for us to come close and whispers, "Listen, if anyone asks ya what team you're with, just say Announcer Fan Club. That's the loosest group of 'em all, and they barely keep track of membership, so it's the least likely ta get us exposed."

"Fine with me."

"Aha...And just so I'm clear, the announcer in question is the voice that spoke to everyone on the first day when the grace period ended, right? The 'all shall be given' person?"

"Well, I didn't hear it."

"Oh, right."

"I think they're not affiliated, Kirito. I mean, broadcasting your own message in a game has never been done before."

"True. These guys gotta be down bad if they're making a fan club for a voice. We don't even know if the voice belongs to a human or a god or a devil or if it's even in a humanoid shape or not."

"That's probably what they like about it. If I had ta guess."

"It's always the death games that bring out the locos." We follow Argo toward the colosseum's main gate, then enter a dark tunnel. On the other side are not the stands but the arena grounds. With us in the one hundred and sixty-foot space is around a hundred players in starting ALO gear. Cloth, leather, and chainmail gear dominate the area, and now I'm happy that my gear, which is futuristic military attire, is packed away.

We find a spot at the far wall away from everyone else, not that the congregating mass takes notice of us. While Argo and Kirito converse, I glue my eyes to the arena's north side, where a decorative stone stage sits. I'm hit with a case of deja vu as I patiently wait for the meeting to start of the strategy meeting for Illfang the Kobold Lord. Koharu and I were invited to the village of Tolbana by the leader, Diavel, to join the first attempt to beat the first floor's boss. There, we listened to Diavel's motivating speech, reunited and partied up with Kirito and Asuna, and watched as Agil defended us beta players from the antagonistic Kibaou. That was nearly a month into SAO; this meeting is three nights into UR. I'm impressed they rallied this quickly.

Murmurs hover over the crowd as the appointed hour comes close, and four people climb the steps to the stage's right. One is a tall man with studded armor and a sword of the one-handed class. The second man has scale armor and a scimitar. The man behind him is in cloth armor and possesses a two-handed sword on his back. Behind him is a slender figure hidden by a white hood. A very reliable instinct tells me it's a woman.

Kirito wanted to get closer, but Argo and I denied him. We both have espionage experience and all we need to hear the speakers speak. We must avoid drawing attention to ourselves, primarily since one of us is a known figure. At that moment, the first speaker, the one-handed swordsman, begins the meeting.

"I'm the person who set this informal event up. I'm Holgar, and I run a group called the Absolute Survivor Squad! Many, many thanks to you all for coming together! Let me introduce these other nice guys who set up this gathering! First of all, the leader of the Weed Eaters, Dikkos! Next, the leader of the Announcer Fan Club, Tsuburo! Lastly, the leader of the Virtual Study Society, Mutasina!" The cheers for the men had high energy, but the cloaked figure's identity only drew confusion amongst the crowd. The appearance changes everything; Mutasina drops the hood, revealing that the figure is indeed a female. From this distance of one hundred and fifty feet, all I can tell is she has long black hair and ivory-white skin.

I agree with the cheers and whistles of the overwhelming number of men. She's beautiful. If Asuna is admittedly the most beautiful girl I've ever seen (and before you give me hell, both Koharu and Lisbeth have stated as such) with a probable competitor in Eydis, Mutasina's giving them a run for their money. If I got a closer look, I could make a proper assessment.

Holgar continues his speech. "We're going to be leading the discussion today! Unfortunately, they're saying Team Fawkes got wiped out last night, so they're not here! Unfortunately, I don't know the details, either. Apparently, the people in Fawkes invited some others to leave the ruins with them last night, and it seems like they got into a group battle somewhere to the north and lost."

The crowd gambles it was the Bashin; Kirito, Argo, and I say nothing. But Kirito and I trade glances. I bet he caught the words in my eyes. It's an assumption, but the location and timing of Team Fawkes' fight correlate to the battle we had the previous night. I bet the hundred el silver coin we took them out.

"At any rate, all I can tell you, for now, is that Unital Ring isn't going to be simple or easy! This is the third night since the incident started, and there still isn't any sign of restoring the game, according to Ymir! So let's reach the land revealed by the heavenly light, us ALO folks, and solve this thing from the inside!"

"Did our invite get lost in the mail?" I murmur to Argo and Kirito. Granted, everyone except those who were with me the first two nights is from ALO. I don't know how things are on the GGO side of things, or even SA:O's, but if Team ALO is gearing up to advance, I'm sure Kirito and company wouldn't mind helping out. We have an established town surrounded by plentiful resources.

If we aren't attacked again, of course.

"The intent of tonight's friendly meeting is to deepen the ties and information sharing between our four teams, who have decided to play cooperatively! We've got food and drink, too, so charge up your TP and SP all you like! As long as you like rabbit meat and the local grasses and fruit."

"I wonder if the meat's S-ranked? Maybe I'll get a taste now," I comment as wooden wagons enter the arena grounds from both sides of the stage. They look to be correctly cooked as the food's contained in pots and dishes, and the aroma of seasonings diffuses around the grounds.

Kirito snorts at my aimed comment of the past and says, "Where are they getting those spices?"

"They're selling 'em at the market outside... Sure ya don't wanna eat before we go?"

Kirito gives the smirking Argo a fixed look. "I'm not interested in giving you evidence for your 'Kirito is a glutton in the virtual world' theory. C'mon, let's get outta here while they're carrying on."

"Y'all go on ahead," I say, waving them off. "I wanna check out the food, and I don't care if Argo starts a 'Jaymes is a glutton in the virtual world' hypothesis. You won't say anything without a price."

"Ya sure about that?"

"Indeed, because the 'Jaymes may kill you' theory has some merit-Huh?" I barely reach the forming crowd when screams erupt around the arena. The stones underneath my feet glow blue-purple, spanning the entire length of the arena. No, the ground isn't lighting up itself, but the light is just over it, consisting of various symbols and patterns. It's a magic circle...a one hundred and fifty feet wide magic circle. By ALO standards, this is a major spell or a grand spell, a level that requires high proficiency in one's level in magic. In UR, that's impossible three night's into the game.

I look at Kirito and Argo, who were at the tunnel we entered from, and trace the radius circle to the center of the arena. A bright crest radiates there, morphing weirdly in space until it transforms into a giant pillar of light. It splits and disappears after reaching thirty feet, and in its place is a devilish being. The upper body is that of a woman's, with the head covered in an uncountable amount of thorns and her hair so messy and tangled it makes my worse bed hair look tame. She bears fours that are frail and elongated. Her lower body is a nightmarish assortment of writhing feelers.

I quickly take my shield from my inventory, hand lingering on the hilt of my photon sword. The creature raises its arms as it speaks in an unfamiliar tongue. Dark orbs gather power in the four palms. My instincts tell me to run for my life or find the caster as quickly as possible, but neither option will save us. The tunnel is too far away; not even my friends who are close to it will make it in time. Searching for the caster in this chaos is impossible.

So all I can do is hold my shield up as light particles make a greeeeee! sound as they shoot from the four orbs. As I put my body underneath my shield, I watch as the projectiles home in on the other players, striking those who stood still in shock and terror and those who tried evading. Those that were hit didn't fall to the ground, but they were hit with something. A debuff? Delayed damage effect? I didn't plan on finding out.

If armor can't protect me, my photon sword can. Kirito and I developed the skill of spell-blasting in ALO. Magical arts are nonphysical attacks, so a physical defense with a weapon or shield is meaningless. But with a nonphysical counter like a sword skill to a tiny pixel in the very center of the spell can blast the spell apart...maybe. I've done it with my sword and shield. The same theory works in GGO with bullet deflection, although the odds in the world of guns are always favorable.

Scooting back to the wall, I catch sight of a projectile coming my way. Taking hold of the steel cylinder, I set up my position for Vertical, keeping the beam deactivated. I plan to keep my weapon secretive, so I plan to activate it at the moment of attack and then deactivate it after hitting the spell.

I carefully watch the weaving projectile until it makes a linear beeline for me ten feet in front of me. "Eeeyah!" I activate the beam sword, activating the pre-motion for Vertical as the beam reaches full extension, and slice down on the black speck of light with the lower two-thirds of the photon sword. It was like cutting through a thick slice of raw meat. I managed to save myself from whatever the hell was happening.

I look for Kirito and Argo first. They're by the tunnel's entrance. I can't tell if they were hit, but I assume Kirito used the same technique I did. Meanwhile, the devil woman molds with the night sky and vanishes, followed by the magic circle. I quickly clip my photon sword, turned off as planned, back to my waist, and stand in place to watch the result of the commotion.

Who could've done this? An unseen enemy from outside the meeting? It's unlikely it is someone present. And that high-level magic... From my experience, only someone on the level of a GM or developer could wield such godly power. Akihiko Kayaba did so as Heathcliff, the literally invincible leader of the Knights of the Blood Oath; Quinella, the goddess of the Human Empire; Vecta, the Dark God and First Emperor of the Dark Territory; Asuna, Koharu, Leafa, and Sinon using the Four Goddesses' super accounts; me and Kirito as our Underworld accounts amassed higher levels of power.

"Hey, your neck," someone says. All around, people begin to analyze the nearest person's neck or their own. The closest person to me is about five steps away, another hooded figure, though this person is wearing a black-colored cloak. I'm partially jealous that they have a black cloak, then drop the matter as I step over to them. I determine by shape and size that I'm looking at a female of tall stature, like Leafa and Asuna's height, though that's all the details I can tell as I step in front of her.

"Where you hit?" I ask, unsure. I was focused on myself that I ignored my nearby surroundings. The girl doesn't answer verbally or with a nod. Instead, she further hides her face, but doesn't react as I would expect as I glance below their face. Beyond the pale blonde strands of hair, I see the base of her neck surrounded by a black ring-shaped tattoo. I turn away and glance around, seeing similar patterns on other players. Just what is this?

"What the hell you think you're doing?" That came from the stage. Mutasina, Holgar, Dikkos, and Tsuburo are still on stage, the men's swords drawn and pointed at the staff-wielding woman.

"Mutasina, you told us you were gonna put on a huge buff to pump up the crowd!" roars a validly pissed Holgar. "This is obviously some kind of debuff! That ain't funny! Not even as a joke!"

Mutasina doesn't seem scared in the slightest. She leans against her staff and calmly replies, "It is not a joke, of course. All of this was planned."

"Planned? Then you accepted the offer to have this get-together just so you could cast this magic on all of us?"

"That's what I told you. There's no other reason I'd chosen to take part in such a pointless gathering, is there?"

That stokes the crowd's ire. Some go as far as to threaten to attack her. Holgar, their champion at this moment, takes a step toward the magician. "You heard them. Undo the debuff. Or else we'll solve this problem a different way." Holgar signals for Dikkos and Tsuburo to surround Mutasina, and everyone besides me, Kirito, Argo, and the woman beside me draw closer to the stage. Mutasina remains calm, strangely. I've fought my fair share of powerful women, and I'd say they are scarier than the men. Only one has put the fear of God in me, and that's Quinella before she incited my rage (though that's what I remember of the Underworld, of course). Mutasina's calmness is up there.

"Fine then, we'll take matters into our own hand!" Holgar and the other males pull back on their swords, each glowing with a sword skill. I have no intention of intervening and talking them down. As far as I see it, Mutasina is a threat. Whatever that attack was, whatever the effects of the magic is, she has to be taken out. If it were up to me, I wouldn't have given her a chance if it wasn't for the fact only the spell caster can remove the debuff.

"Was" quickly becomes "is" as Mutasina raises her staff and slams the bottom tip down on the stage. Of course, nothing happens to me, but everyone in front of me suddenly drops to their knees. The girl next to me follows, holding onto her neck with one hand...and out of the corner of my eye, Kirito is on his knees too. With Argo at his side, I ignore my friend's condition for the stranger's. I place a hand on her back, smacking it lightly but forcefully to get her to intake air, but to no avail. I check Kirito's HP, seeing that it isn't decreasing, but there's a debuff icon present of two hands wrapping around a throat.

After twenty seconds of this phenomenon, I speak to the girl again with an idea. "...H-hey, you got to log out!" I tell her. It seems to be the only solution, and she takes it to heart as she draws the ring shape in the air after three attempts. But she never gets to log out before a loud crack resonates in the air again. At that moment, she inhales for the first time in half a minute. I allow her to catch her breath before speaking again. "Hey, you okay?"

"I'm good, thanks, J...Jaymes." Her voice is quickly recognizable, but I have no time to think about it as events on the stage progress.

"Do you understand now?" waves Mutasina with her free hand. "The spell I place upon everyone here is called the Noose of the Accursed. You just experienced its effects for yourself...and once it has been successfully cast, its area of effect and length of time are infinite." Infinite? That means...there's no escape from this "Noose of the Accursed." If we were in Kirito Town, twenty or so miles north of the Stiss Ruins. tomorrow and Mutasina activated the debuff from here, Kirito would start to choke without a cause to most of us and for a length of time dictated by Mutasina.

"But have no fear. I did not cast this magic upon you all to torment you. Just like you, I want to beat this game... I'm simply following the most effective path to achieving that."

"...Most effective," Tsubuto, his voice husky, boldy calls out as he gets to his feet clumsily. "The most effective path is to threaten your fellow players with sadistic magic? There are other members of your Virtual Study Society here, aren't there?"

Mutasina chuckles. "Members? The reason you chose to meet in this place was because of a temporary alignment of goals, wasn't it? Let me be clear: You might cooperate now, but the closer the goal becomes, the more our teams will compete with one another. In the end, even the players within a team will fight and kill one another. But as long as my magic is active upon you, we can avoid that situation. Do you see? This is the best and most effective means of getting to the finish line, isn't it?"

Tsuburo is at a loss for words. Hell, I'm lost in thoughts. I've seen ruthlessness before, but even Administrator had her kindness. Mutasina somehow one-upped the goddess.

"Of course that ain't true! We trust each other," Dikkos says, "me and Holgar and Tsuburo are in it together! If it turns into a race at the end, we'd never betray or kill each other! We'll help each other out until the last moment, then line up to race the very last length and congratulate the winner... Isn't that how VRMMOs work?"

"...Ha ha... Ha ha ha ha... Ha ha ha ha ha ha. I'm sorry, it's just...that's so ridiculous. Trust? Congratulate? Do you really think those things happen here...in this virtual world? Of course they don't. In the virtual world...at least, in The Seed's VRMMOs, things like trust, love, and salvation are nothing more than illusions. The only things that are real are hatred, betrayal, deceit, and despair. After all, the origin of all full-dive virtual worlds is Sword Art Online. A pure hell that took four thousand lives with it, kicking and screaming."

"What does she know about it?" The woman beside me hoarsely spits out. I have to agree with her. Yes, anyone who survived SAO would say that "hatred, betrayal, deceit, and despair" were present. I can attest to all four of those descriptors. But in hatred, some of us found love. In betrayal, some of us found loyalty. In deceit, some of us found trust. In despair, some of us found hope. I found love, loyalty, trust, and hope in Koharu. When I lost her, I fell into despair until I found those things again in Kirito, Asuna, Lisbeth, and others alongside me, including the girl beside me.

"The darkness SAO gave birth to has only spread throughout The Seed Nexus and multiplied. Now those infinite worlds have coalesced into one. In Unital Ring, the darkness will be compressed again, and when its density surpasses its peak, something new will result...something even darker and deeper. And I want to see that... Of course, there are members of the Virtual Study Society here, too. They agreed to be exposed to the Noose of the Accursed. It might seem contradictory, but there is an unshakable connection of trust among us. And that is why I am certain you will be able to find that trust, too."

It grows quiet for ten long seconds, then Holgar's voice breaks the silence. "What is it...that you want us to do?"

"Haven't we all been saying it? I want us to pool our strength and work together toward the goal of the game, the land revealed by the heavenly light." She laughs again. "But of course, a tangible road map will be necessary. Don't worry. Our first goal is already clear."

"Goal?"

"Holgar, in your introductory speech, you said that the team called Fawkes was wiped out last night. It was neither a boss monster nor the Bashin who killed them. In a large forest, east of these ruins and far upstream from the Maruba River, they attacked a stronghold built by another team and were defeated."

"...Dammit..." I look over my right shoulder towards Kirito now that we got confirmation that we indeed eliminated Team Fawkes, led by that Schulz person.

"The first thing you will do is destroy that team."

"Wha would we do that?" Dikkos argues. "Just use your magic on them and make them your slaves too, wh don't ya?"

Administrator 2.0 shrugs her shoulders. "It is not easy to succeed at casting Noose of the Accursed. The motions are lengthy, and the magic circle is impossible to miss. It will not work this effectively without the right situation and audience, such as a group of people who would believe an easy lie about casting a grand Buff spell on an entire gathering... Don't give me those looks. It's not that you were especially stupid. It's that the foe we're going to face is especially powerful. You see, based in those woods to the north, the Great Zelletelio Forest, is none other than the team of Kirito the Black Swordsman."

There's only one thing on my mind as I hear my best friend's name roll off the witch's tongue. For the first time in a long while, we didn't seek trouble; it's coming to us. Uneasy, I look at the hooded character to my left. "I feel wrong to ask this of you, but I hope you are willing to lend us aid."

"...The moment I decide to be useful to you guys, it lands me in trouble."

I smile underneath my hood and watch as my traveling companions start to head out through the tunnel. "Then let's get a move on, Lux."