The Red Wand
Chapter IV: The Last Avatar
Part 1
"This is gonna SUUUUUUUCK!" Xenmaru landed flat on his face. However, luckily for him there was a bed to break his fall. He bounced a few times before settling. He slowly rose, cursing the blasted female that sent him along that crazy ride. He looked around.
"Whoa…Talk about taking "One with nature" to the extreme…"
The "room" he was in, if you could call it that, was no more than a bed, in the middle of a grove. Tall trees lined the circular grove…but what caught his eye the most…was a floating, upside down man in a chair.
That guy ROCKS!
(Play GU OST2: Riddle of the Creator)
He approached calmly, the man seeming to be asleep. He took in the man's appearance. Ok…standard old man clothes…check. Really awesome chair…check. Hair that gives him the power to defy gravity…check, check and check again.
He stood and watched. Alright enough foolishness. I just got sent down a black hole by a really cute girl and landed on a bed in the middle of a forest, with a strange upside-down old man in a chair. I've got no idea how to get back…or even if I WANT to get back…
The old man opened his eyes. He saw Xenmaru's back turned to him as the young warrior thought to himself.
"Hello."
Xenmaru jumped. "WHAT THE-
He saw the old man awake.
"God…Damn old man! Don't…DO that!"
"My apologies…" Here he stared at the youth. "Zero Shinzaki."
Xenmaru immediately drew his blades. His eyes flickered red. "How do you know that name old man?"
"You are in 'Our' world. I am the creator of The World. My name is Harald Hoerwick, and all I had to do was look at you, and your information was mine."
"So you only have my information."
"Yes, I cannot read minds."
"Good." He put his weapons away. "Alright Upside-Down Old Man, (Harald grimaced at the nickname, but said nothing) where are we?"
"We are in an area outside of User or Administrative control…this is the room of my Daughter…Aura."
"Aura…white hair, blue eyes, kinda looks like she threw on a bed sheet for a dress?"
"Yes."
"And I'm guessing her Mother, aka your wife, would be Morgana?"
"Morgana lives?"
"What, you try to kill her or something?"
"No…she was originally supposed to be a program meant to 'give birth' to Aura. Created with the sole purpose of bringing forth the Ultimate AI. Morgana however developed a twisted sense of self, and thus trapped the mind of a Player in this world…to keep Aura from being born. She continued to twist Aura in her own destructive way, going as far as to corrupt her data so much that Aura began to be deleted. However the Player defeated Morgana in a battle of wits, and restored Aura to her true self…and Aura was born."
"So…why'd you ask if she was still alive?"
"Not long after that, she fragmented her data to send after Aura and delete her. Aura gave the Twilight Bracelet to a player named Orca, but Skeith, the first Phase of the Cursed Wave that Morgana had based herself upon, Data Drained him, sealing his mind away, and knocking the player's true body in a coma."
As he said that, he noticed that Xenmaru's eyes darkened, and the area around him began flickering.
"However the Bracelet chose another, the player known as Kite. With his Allies, Kite defeated Morgana and the rest of her Phases of the Cursed wave…but that is all I know. You say she still lives?"
"Yeah, and she killed me."
"Killed you?"
"Data Drain I'm guessing. You see, I heard rumors on the BBS about a high level area where sometimes instead of a Beast Statue, the shadow would take the form of a Celtic Cross. So, I decided to pop in and take a look. I got a pair of really kickass blades…and then saw the shadow. I turn around, and instead of the statue, there was a staff. Being the retard I am, I decided to grab the blasted then when I heard a pinging sound like a doorbell or something. Damn thing blasts me across the room, and I'm knocked out. I wake up god knows how long later, and I see Morgana's face. Though I heard her complaining about a loss of data…something about being older…with black hair."
"Well…I doubt she actually-
"I'm not done yet."
"My apologies, please, continue."
"Right…so we take on some Ball Sack looking things."
"Guardians." "Huh?" "Twilight Guardians…they were originally Morgana's creation, a prototype AI that could wield a weakened form of the twilight bracelet."
"Right…well the group that found me called it AIDA or whatever. So anyway, we take the blasted things out, Morgana asks me to travel around with her for a bit…we do basically nothing and then split. I try to log out only to get a headache and land flat on my ass. So I go wandering, and over hear a conversation about some kid that died from either dehydration, lack of food…whatever. Turns out, the kid's me. So basically she killed me. I lived alone, so nobody was around when she knocked me unconscious for about a week. Not to mention its summer, and it was night when I was playing so my AC wasn't on. So now I'm trapped here."
Harald looked at the young warrior in front of him.
"I wanted to get revenge on the little bitch…but your damned daughter stood in my way…then came that Red Bastard from the Blue Fire…and then came your GRAND-daughter, who knocked me here, where I run into you, the Upside-Down dude with the kickass chair and an old man 'fro that makes the laws of physics your bitch."
Harald gave a small chuckle at Xenmaru's description of him.
"I speculate Aura brought Morgana back for a reason…and Morgana had no intentions of truly killing you…"
"Still…I wanna smack the bitch around a bit for it…I mean I'm fucking DEAD! Trapped in a game where if the freakin admins decide "this game blows let's end it" I'm FUCKED!"
"Indeed…however…there is a plus side."
"Really."
"Really. You claim Morgana was complaining over a loss of data, correct?"
"Yeah."
"Well then, I believe some of her data was infused in your character. Giving you a portion of her power over The World."
"And what makes you think that?"
"When you grew angry…the land beneath you began to distort. You have some semblance of control over the flows of this world…"
Xenmaru dropped down and sighed. "I guess it's not too bad…I didn't really have any friends in the Real World…and I am basically living out my dream of being able to do practically whatever…"
"And…I know of a way that you can increase your power."
"Really? How so?"
"You battle…and defeat a very particular monster. It is very strong."
"And if I fail?"
"Your existence is ended forever."
"Right…fine then. I accept."
Harald blinked. "You are sure?"
"I have the feeling…the Bitch and your Daughter might need my help…I SWEAR I heard someone talking as I fell…and it wasn't a good someone…"
"Very well…good luck Zero Shinzaki…or should I say Xenmaru…I will use the last of my existence to bring you this test. If you should succeed…tell Aura…I love her."
The area flickered and shook violently. The forest, the grove, and the old man shattered into pieces. Everything was black. The color returned…only Xenmaru was in a desolate area. He looked up…and saw a gigantic shape.
"A…Tree?"
Strange way to end? Yeah. Not my best work here…but blame it on real life. Anyway, the next chapter's gonna be good. A good few battle scenes, we get to see how the Infinity Eight plus Aina, Aura, Zefie and Azure Flame Kite are doing.
Tasogare: Well…Pai is gonna make that hard…oh jeez I cant even explain stuff without sounding perverted…
Yamimaru: I know that…but this is the Anti-Aura we're talking about here, the other half of the Goddess of The World. She can do whatever she damn well pleases.
Wolfie: You'll get what's going on soon enough. There's an actual logical reason for the Anti-Aura to exist, as was explained (somewhat) in this chapter. And yes, there will be plenty of the new and older (and dead sexy) Zefie. Zefie FTW!
PirateCaptainBo: AIDA stands for Artificially Intelligent Data Anomaly. You should really play the GU games, along with watching Roots, it'll help a lot, but I'll explain what you don't understand, so don't worry.
Morgana is "Oba-chan" or "Old Lady." She's the "mother" of Aura, a program created to spawn the ultimate AI by being Data Drained after all the information was collected. She went Rogue however, causing a loop in her own data so she could stop Aura from being born, but still complete her original programming. And yeah, Azure Flame Kite is the one from Roots and the Games.
Sora got Data Drained by Skeith at the end of SIGN, Skeith had used Sora's appearance to chase Aura. Sora's mind was released at the end of Outbreak (though you could actually do the side-quest in Mutation). Sora's player has no recollection of being Sora, because of Skeith's Data Drain. So he started The World: R2 as a new player, even though his instinctive skills, remnants of when he was Sora, remained. And as you can see Grandfather is indeed the Creator of The World.
Steeple333: Yes, Sora is Awesomeness Personafied. And yeah, Granfather Harald.
Azure Euphoria: Yeah, Zefie's appearance threw me off too. I wasn't even planning on bringing her in and POOF there she is. Oh well, just gives me another favorite Character to work with!
Alright people, I know this isn't my best work, but I've been pretty stressed lately. The next chapter'll be better, and anything after that will be even better. GU Vol 2 comes out in America this wednsday! So get your asses out there and get that game dammit!