As everyone just looked in shock as both Shirou and Kizmel held their heads high and had a proud smile on their face, as they had managed to fool everyone in their group.

"Why…you fooled us?!" Xena spoke in her native tongue, which caught everyone by surprise.

"I didn't think you'd all get this angry." Shirou answered as he began to rub the back of his head.

"That was an oversight on my part." Kizmel spoke as she and Shirou bowed together in an apologetic fashion. "Forgive us."

"Alright explain so we can understand." Asuna spoke up, hoping to get the full story.

.

And so, Shirou explained what he had felt during his stay in the encampment, how he had always felt like his every move was being monitored.

"How have you noticed this before us?" Kirito asked, hoping to know the secret.

"I leveled up my detection skills in order to 'feel' Argo quicker. That's how." Shirou responded. "Never knew it could work for this moment." The young man mumbled under his breath.

"Due to that reason, I had asked him to swap the key." Kizmel added. "I couldn't risk the key falling into the enemies hand."

"That was a good plan." Kirito spoke up after hearing the explanation. "But what are we going to do now? We can't go back."

"I believe it might be best for you to take my sister with you, human warriors." Kizmel replied.

"Sister!" But before Tilnel could rebut, Kizmel held her hand up.

"She is far too important to me. If she were to remain by my side, I believe danger will befall her." Bowing down to the group, Kizmel clenched her hands and pleaded. "Please, I implore you."

.

"Hence, why she is here with us." Shirou finished his recount of events that had led to what had just transpired.

"I see." Sean answered automatically, as his thoughts were elsewhere. Finally snapping out of his trance, Sean asked something that was on his mind. "Where did you put the key?"

"Oh, that. I left it with Ember." Shirou answered. "Ember is a party member of mine, and she has the best hiding skill, second only to Argo." Hearing words of praise as the two men approached her, the young lady felt her face heat up with embarrassment.

"It's a pleasure to meet you." Sean extended his hand out and waited for her reply. "Uh…" Taking his hand quickly, Ember shook Sean's hand and turned around and walked out of the town.

"Sorry, she doesn't talk much." Shirou replied awkwardly.

"I can tell." Sean answered, as he said his goodbyes.

.

Outside the town…

.

With her back still turned towards Shirou, Ember held her white scarf above her nose to ensure no one saw her embarrassed face.

"Hey, you doing alright, Ember?" Xena asked as she approached Ember from behind, while Shirou was busy leaning against a tree, talking to himself.

"I…I'm fine." Ember answered as her voice stuttered. But from Xena's point of view, she noticed the young lady before her continuing to eye Shirou as he continued to talk to the tree behind him.

"Could it be…" Ember looked towards Xena. "You like Shirou?"

"HUH?!" Ember's voice turned inside out, startling even Shirou, who wasn't even close by.

"Ow, that hurt!" Xena had to yell in order to hear herself. "I was just joking, you know?"

"How could I have known you were joking?!" Ember asked.

"Well-" Xena was then cut off by approaching footsteps.

"Sorry about that." Shirou spoke up as he approached the two women.

"Done with whatever it was you were doing?" Xena asked. "Could it be them?"

"Yeah, it was." Shirou replied. "Something was happening back on Floor 1, so they gave me a heads up."

"Who's them?" Ember asked, still unaware she was speaking calmly.

"The Highway Men." Shirou answered, which shocked Ember.

"Aren't they…" Shirou nodded to Ember's response. "Why are you collaborating with them?!"

"They don't just do pking, they are also an information guild." Shirou responded. "I told them to keep an eye on the 2 bottom floors in case anything happened. They just told me to keep an eye open." Then hearing someone running towards them, Shirou, Xena and Ember noticed Shimizu with Tilnel.

"Bad news!" Shimizu yelled as she approached.

.

After hearing what Shimizu had to say, Shirou couldn't help but hold his head in shame.

"This wasn't in the beta." Shirou whispered to himself, while holding onto his head. "Just how much have you changed…" Shirou mumbled a name which caught Shimizu's attention.

"What did you say?" The woman asked, her eyes widening a bit.

"Huh? Say what?" Shirou repeated.

"No, nothing." Shimizu shook her head. "So, what are we going to do?"

"It's simple." Xena spoke up. "We go to the Forest Elf Base and free Kizmel!"

"Easier said than done." Shirou answered. "They'll be expecting that."

"So, what?" Xena answered, frustrated with Shirou's attitude. "Are we just supposed to leave her to die?!"

"I never said that." Shirou answered. "Remember what I said when Kizmel and I swapped the key item." Now realizing what Shirou wanted to do, Xena couldn't help but smirk. "We'll save Kizmel, but first let's take care of the rats.

.

Back at the Dark Elf Encampment…

.

Walking back in without a care, Shirou and Tilnel walked into the Captain's tent.

"Oh, it's you two." He answered with his arms raised to his side. "Human warrior, I'm afraid I have terrible news."

"Oh, what news?" Shirou asked, completely "shocked" at the terrible news that was just mentions.

"The Sacred Keys you had delivered, turned out to be a fake." The Elf Leader had said with a disappointed look. "Could it be you gave us the wrong one? If so, may we have the real Sacred Key?" The smile on the elf leader's face began to vanish.

"Sure, as soon as we find it." Shirou looks over to Tilnel. "I believe we might know where the switch was made."

"Yeah, I still know the way, lets go." Tilnel answered, but before they were able to leave, some elven warriors blocked them in.

"What's wrong?" Shirou asked, looking over his shoulder.

"It's not that I don't trust you, but I believe it might be best if you just told us where you last had the Sacred Key, and I'll dispatch some of my men to retrieve it." The Elf Leader spoke.

"Sure, but if you want us to tell you…" Shirou pointed to the ground as he spoke. "Mind releasing the real Dark Elves?"

Without wasting a second, all the elves around the two began their assault. Removing the cloak, Tilnel, revealed to be Xena, pulled out her sword, which was covered in a sticky purple substance, and began to fight back alongside Shirou.

As the Forest Elven commander fell to the ground, each of them paralyzed by the poison, both Shirou and Xena began to look around to see if there really was a hidden trap door.

"Well, at least we knew they were actually Forest Elves." Xena spoke. "They reacted the way you expected."

"Yeah." Shirou responded as he continued to stomp his foot on the ground.

Taking another step, Xena felt her balance shift a bit, it was just a bit, but it was enough to grab her attention.

"Hey." Calling out to Shirou, the two players interacted with the door that they had dug out and lowered themselves in.

Meanwhile…

Hearing the explanation of the Forest Elf base's surroundings from the surveyors, Sean began to formulate a plan. But this plan wouldn't work unless…

"You expect me to work with this guy?!" Kibaou pointed towards Lind, who responded by slapping the man's hand away.

"Agreed, I firmly believe that DKB will be able to do this mission alone." Lind responded as he side-eyed Kibaou.

"What did you say?" Kibaou angrily spoke as he shoved his face into Lind's.

"Right back at you." Lind responded the same way.

"You two get a room!" Sean barked back, which got the two to calm down for a bit. "Listen, your individual groups have the advantage in numbers alone, but in order for this mission to succeed, according to Kirito and Shirou, we will not be able to get the Dark Elves help unless Kizmel is saved and still in one piece." Biting their teeth, both Kibaou and Lind looked at each other with a distasteful gaze.

"Just for today, a truce?" Kibaou offered, to which Lind agreed.

"So, what do you need from us?" Lind spoke up, to which Sean nodded.

"This is what I need from both ALS and DKB…" As he had begun to explain his plan, the two leaders listened intently, ensuring that they did not miss a single detail.

"It's…" Lind started.

"Flawless." Kibaou finished.

"What do you say?" Sean couldn't contain the smirk that began to grow on his face.

"Let's go." Both leaders of ALS and DKB smiled alongside the soldier.

Later on that night…

As forest elf soldiers began to make their rounds around and check their perimeters, four figures rushed past them silently. Thinking it saw something, a forest elf walked in the direction of the motion, and looked around, but ultimately saw nothing and returned to his position.

Standing in the shadows of the tent, Shirou, Asuna, Argo, and Ember sighed a silent breath of relief. Removing the black hood of the cloak he wore.

"Here, take this." A rescued dark elf handed Shirou his cloak.

"Isn't this yours?" Shirou asked.

"You're going to go rescue Commander Kizmel, aren't you?" The Dark Elf soldier asked. "If so, you'll need to get past the guards. Our cloaks have a spell imbedded into them to keep us hidden, it will prove useful."

Signaling his teammates to go and find the orders to progress the quest, Shirou began to move to find the Forest Elf Captain's tent, hopefully finding Kizmel in the process.

Meanwhile…

.

Throwing a rope up the wall, the Captain/Leader of AIM5, Yua began to scale the wall rather easily and silently, almost as if this was not her first time. Before reaching the top, Yua pulled out a bottle containing the same purple substance that Shirou had on his blade.

"What are these?" Yua asked, as Shirou brought out a box containing dozens upon dozens of purple vials.

"It's a type of toxin that paralyzes all who come into contact with it." Tilnel answered. "I believe it may be of use to you."

"I used it when I first started the quest, and I can guarantee its effectiveness." Shirou answered.

"Huh." Yua answered as she held the bottle up to her eye.

"Oh but do be careful. If even a drop fall on your skin, it will paralyze you." Tilnel added the warning at the last second.

Carefully opening the vial, the little woman began to carefully pour the contents of the vial on her on her blade so as to not spill any on her. After doing so, Yua waited for the right moment before leaping onto the top of the fortified wall and taking out all the guards in her sight.

As flashes of light began to blink back at the two front lining guilds still in hiding, Sean began to read the flashes. Nodding to himself, he turned his attention back.

"Alright, just like we planned." Sean spoke. "ALS, go around and try and block off any hidden exits, if the forest elves manage to escape, they could can reinforcements and we'll be quickly overrun."

"Got it." Kibaou spoke as he took his guild and left the group from the shadows of the forest.

"Alright, lets wait for the signal." Sean spoke quietly as they waited in the shadows for their signal.

Seeing the Captain's tent, Shirou rushed over with the little gap he had, and peered in to see Kizmel gagged and tied with her hands behind her back. Opening the flap a bit wider, Shirou looked around and when the coast was clear, Shirou rushed in and rushed to Kizmel's side.

"Kizmel." Shirou called out to Kizmel quietly, hoping to wake her up.

"mm…" Seeing as it was no good, Shirou pulled out a green vial, and flinched.

"What's this?" Shirou asked as he picked up the green vial.

"Oh, that. For emergencies." Tilnel answered quickly. "If in the event that a soldier doesn't wake up from being called on, we put that close to their nose to force them to wake up. Take a whiff." Tilnel answered with a cheerful smile.

Not thinking much of it, Shirou lifted the vial to his nose and took a sniff. The next second, he hears Shimizu crying over the fact that Shirou was dying. After taking a couple of gulps from fresh air, Shirou began to cough heavily, showing that he still had life left in him.

"That was tortuous." Shirou spoke through his breaths as he looked up to Tilnel, who at this point was stifling her laughter.

Reluctant to go through with it, Shirou resolved himself and opened the vial, but just from opening the vial, the opening scent caused Kizmel's eyes to open and begin looking around frantically.

"Hey, hey. Calm down." Shirou spoke quietly as he looked Kizmel in the eyes, in hopes of calming her down. "You look like you've been through hell."

"Why are you here?" Kizmel spoke as she looked at Shirou with anger in her eyes.

"Because…I can't leave my comrade alone." Shirou responded, which seemed to have caught Kizmel off guard. "Now come on. Let's get you out of here." Cutting the ropes that tied her hands, Shirou lifted the warriors to her feet, before pulling out an emergency crystal. "Heal." Hearing him say the word, Kizmel noticed the crystal in the boy's hand shatter before feeling her injuries heal and her strength return, albeit slightly.

"Thank you." Kizmel thanked Shirou for his help.

"Let's go." Shirou began to move until a voice spoke.

"My, my." Looking towards the entrance, Shirou noticed a Forest Elf man standing in his way. The elf's smug smile only made his face more annoying as the seconds passed. "To think that the man's words would hold true."

"The man?" Not saying a thing, Shirou slipped something to Kizmel before putting her down and standing in front of her. "Who are you?"

"Why not ask the woman behind you?" The Forest Elf smugly spoke.

"Oh…well…shit…" Shirou couldn't help but smile in horror as he finally realized who he was up against.