welcome to the Next chapter of this story. I am sorry for the long delay and will tell you right up front, it might be a while till the next update. hopefully not as long as this one though.

AKEMI/AMATERASU'S POV

'The dungeons were dark and gloomy; just like the rest of the castle.' I thought to myself as I walked through the dungeon.

Octavius and I were wandering through the dark dungeons again. We had already walked through and inspected the dungeons once. I looked in the next cell. It was exactly the same as the next. A door in the middle, lamp in the right corner, and bed on the left. I checked the next one, same thing. But on the second to last one something was off. The bed was in the center.

Thinking that was suspicious I called out to Octavius and walked in. I first went to the wall and felt around the wall looking for some kind of lever or button that would activate a passage way. Octavius walked in and saw me feeling the wall while on my knees.

"What are you doing?" He asked inquisitively

"I see this all the time in the movies, if I'm right there should be some stone or something that makes the wall open up." I answered continuing my search.

"Reality check. this isn't some half baked fan fiction or cheesy mystery movie. There is not going to be any secret passages." He said

I ignored him and continued looking. After a couple of minutes he started to get impatient and said "Hurry up, we don't have much time until the queen goes back to my room and sees that we are missing." He said trying to rush me.

"Why would that matter." I asked slightly annoyed

"Because if she sees that we are missing she will call the guards and then you wont ever see you boyfriend again and I may never escape." he said

"Fine. I'm done but could you wait just a second? I need to check something." I said in defeat.

He nodded then says "If it's quick."

"Ok" I said opening up my menu and sitting down. Well that's what I intended to do. What I actually did was fall through the bed as if it were made of air.

"You okay?" he said helping me up.

Rubbing my back I said "Yeah I'm fine. What is with this bed."

"It must be a fake. Why would there be a fake bed unless..." He trailed off as he reached down below the illusion of a bed and messed with a couple of stones.

As he hit a stone the room started to tremble and the back wall started crumbling into rubble. The entire dungeon echoed with the sound of the wall collapsing. Behind it was a dark room with stair leading down.

"I told you there was a secret passage. Plus this is a video game, so of course some cheesy aspects of castles pop up." I say in victory

"Whatever, now lets go. I want to finish this." He said irritated

"Aw, are you grumpy" I said

"I could just kill you then watch as your spirit rises from the grave." He said with smile the radiated evil.

"Humph that's not very nice" I said pretending to pout.

"Did I ever say I was nice? now come on." He said walking ahead

We proceeded down the stairs and saw that at the bottom was a dark room with three small puzzles on the far wall

"You're a jerk." I said

"Yeah, but a good looking one. Anyways this wall puzzle looks like it is supposed to tell a story. So if I can remember the story we should be fine."

He looked at the puzzle closely and said "Ok, now I know what story its referring to, it's the story of the beginning."

"My father always said that as he is the oldest of the three, so he should rule the skies. But he took the underworld to keep the peace. This first puzzle represents the three brothers, so we pull this one. This represents the separation of the realms, so we press this. And this last one is...hmm." He pulls a lever.

The wall opens up and a small room is revealed, upon the far wall is Klein chained to the wall unconscious. I rush over to Klein and quickly try to wake him up.

"Klein! Klein! Are you alright. Wake up." I yelled. Shaking him slightly. He mumbles something but doesn't wake up.

I am about to try to wake him up again when Octavius says "Lets get him down from there first. I don't want him freaking out when he wakes up and is in chains"

I nod and equip a pair of lock picks. It takes a couple lock picks and some long minutes, but he is finally free. I lay him down on the ground and try to wake him.

His eyelids flutter slightly before adjusting to the dimly lit room. "Where, where am I"

"It's all right, but I need you to stand up now." I said

"Amaterasu, is that you." He said finally focusing on me

"Yes, it's me. Hurry we need to get going." I urged him

"Why and who is that?" He said slightly panicked

"Don't worry, he's a friend. But the guards will be coming soon." I said as I urged him up onto his feet. He still wasn't at full strength so I had him lean on me while we walked.

It was slow walking with him leaning on me. Octavius took the lead and led us out of the dungeon and through the castle. Every once in a while Octavius would stop and motion for us to hide. After several more times of this a blasting siren echoed through the halls.

"I don't like the sound of that. Hey next time let me choose the dungeon." he said

"Sure, we can take turns." I say

"Well at least I'll have an easy dungeon in-between your terrifying choices." he joked

"Ha ha. I am laughing so hard I may drop you." I said dryly

He looked like he was about to say something in retort but suddenly stopped and pulled me back. Just then a giant axe impaled itself in the wall where I was standing. I looked over to see skeletal soldiers marching towards us.

Octavius charged forward critically slashing the first one. He then rolled around so he was behind the first one and did a backward strike gaining a critical. The monster shattered to pieces. He stepped forward blocking the swing of the next skeleton. He slashed it a couple times, each time earning him a critical hit

"Run! I'll hold them off here. Get out of the castle and head towards the giant shore. I'll meet you there." He yelled to us.

I nodded and started running with Klein. We ran through the castle at top speed dodging the undead monsters that charged at us. It took a while and several health crystals to find the main hall, we had run into a dead end quite a few times and became cornered. As we reached the end of the hall where the main entrance stood we heard a slow clap coming from behind us.

KLIEN'S POV

I felt a shiver run down my back as I turned around and saw a man dressed in a hello kitty pajamas slowly walk down the stairs leading from the throne room. His face foggy as if a dense mist had enveloped his face. I felt like I remembered him from somewhere.

"It seems that you have broken out. But I must ask you now to return before I miss my pre-dinner nap." He said as if he was impressed but disinterested.

"Who are you?" Amaterasu asked

"Hypnos, god of sleep. Now, please return to your cage." Hypnos answered.

'A god in hello kitty, now I have seen everything' I thought to myself. I turned to the god and asked "Why did you put me in that cell?"

"Oh no. I didn't put you there. Hades did, I was merely offered a restful vacation if I made sure you stayed in that cell." Hypnos answered

"Why would hades do that." She asked

"Because...zzz...Zzzzzzzzz..." He mumbled as he started to doze off.

"Should we try to escape while he is sleeping" I asked akemi

"Yeah, Let's go." she said agreeing with me

we quietly opened the door and ran out. the sight that appeared before my eyes took my breath away. I paused as I beheld the sight of the outside.

"where are we?" I asked

"hell" She replied mournfully

"really" I said not believing

"well sort of, its actually the underworld. It's where the Greeks believed people went when they died. There's the fields of asphodel, Elysium, the fields of punishment, and I think there is a pit called Tartarus somewhere. I really wished I paid more attention in my history classes when I was in school." She replied

"Ok got it, I think. Where are we going?" I asked her

"The beach where the ferry man is. So lets see." She stared of in the distance. then pointed to some large arches and said confidently "that way"

"are you sure?" I asked

"yes, that's where all the dead seem to be entering" She replied

"ok, good enough for me. lets go." I said as I broke into a steady sprint.

My legs felt heavy and it was hard to catch my breath but I still went on. Looking to my side I saw that Akemi was having a hard time also. We had been running for what felt like a mile and what made it worse was that the arches seemed as if they weren't any closer than before.

"uhg, how much longer till we get there" I heard Amaterasu complain

"Lets take a break. we should have a good head start on any pursuit they might send." I offered

She looked at me with determination in her eyes "no, im not going to stop till I get to the beach. It's where we said we would meet up with Octavian." She said even though I could tell that she was at her breaking point.

I could tell she wasn't going to stop to catch her breath. So I did the first thing I could come up with. I collapsed.

"Klein! are you alright!" she said rushing to my side.

"yeah, I think so." I said as I tried to get up and then 'fell down' again

"klien, take it easy. rest for a moment" she said caringly

"I'll be fine. but just in case, here." I said opening up my inventory and grabbing two stamina crystals. I handed one to akemi.

"stamina crystals, aren't these rare?" she asks in wonder

"yup, only floor boss twenty one drops them." I answered

"your just going to give me this." she said in disbelief

"yup" I said as I drank the crystal potion.

she slowly and carefully opened the crystal and took a sip. immediately her face scrunched up. "yuck! what is that nasty taste?"

"you don't want to know." I said

"you got that right. now are we ready to go?" she said getting up and stretching

"hold on I got an achievement earlier and want to see what it is." I said opening up my menu.

"ok, while you do that I might as well look at the quest log." she said opening up her own menu

I nodded then went to my achievement page. under recent achievements was one called "damsel in distress".

'I better not let Kirito see that one.' I thought to myself

"Huh?" Akemi said aloud looking at her menu

"What are you looking at?" I asked

"My quest log. There was something that was bothering me for a while now and I couldn't figure it out till now."

"What was it? I asked

"My side quest, it didn't have any clear objectives. Now I finally know why. It's a branching quest. I took Octavian's path instead of the queen's path."

"So what do we do now." I asked

"head to the beach" she said

"well lets go. I am just glad there isn't a floor boss here." I said smiling

"you better knock on wood. you might tempt the fates." She warned

"I'm not superstitious, I don't believe in that type of nonsense. now let's go" I said

We take of at a fast pace and the arches slowly get closer. We ran for two minutes when a ear piercing howl rips through the air.

We slow to a stop, staring dumbfounded at a towering, monstrous, three headed dog who stood above the only exit. Its skin was as black as night, with fangs larger than swords, its body easily was ten stories high, and a snake tail hung from its backside. one head reared up and roared and flames burst from its mouth. its other two heads lowered and looked at the ground in front of it.

"You just had to say 'At least there wasn't a floor boss' didn't you" she said to me.

"Hey, hey. That's not a floor boss, that's a flag boss. Those are bosses that must be defeated before a quest is defeated. I had to do a couple of those, usually they consist of flawed designs that aren't suitable for the floor bosses, they are then re-textured to have the right appearance and bam, flag boss." I said explaining

"Still a boss." she said not going to let me weasel out of it.

"whatever, what do you think our odds are of beating the boss?" I asked

"about thirty to one." she said morbidly

"I like those odds." I said relieved

well that's all for now. thanks for reading.