DOT HACK REPAIRATIONS
CHAPTER 5
A NOBLE SACRIFICE
DELTA ETERNAL CITY MAC ANU
Ado warped into the Root Town of the Delta server and quickly headed out of the Chaos Gate area. Once outside he turned to the right and activated the warp point to head to the Mercenary District.
Seconds later he walked up to the Bounty Hunter Vital Vista and checked his progress. He received 20000G and the "Sword of Shadows"
Excellent! He thought, I've got a full set now.
Walking out of the alleyway he noticed a player in red running past, heading towards the weapons shop. The player was looking around frequently, as if amazed by the graphics of the town.
Then Ado noticed the marks on the character's pants and a slight graphics distortion around his right wrist. well, well what have we here? he thought before following Kite.
DELTA SETTING ETERNITY'S NIGHT MOON
"Hey, hey Atoli!" Haseo called as he ran after the downcast Harvest Cleric. she turned to face him and her face brightened.
"Oh! H-hello Haseo" Atoli murmured, not meeting his eyes.
Haseo paused as he thought out what to say next.
"I've been assigned a formal position in Moon Tree!" He finally declared
"Wow Haseo, that's great!" Atoli exclaimed
She sounded and looked happy, but Haseo was picking up an aura of sadness from her. In a flash he knew what it was, or, at least he THOUGHT he knew what it was.
"Atoli," Haseo said so as to get her attention, "I've been assigned as your partner in Sakaki's squad, Zelkova said you needed a strong player to help you."
At that Atoli's face brightened again, this time with sincere joy.
"Haseo that's amazing! Now we'll be working together in Moon Tree" she smiled
A passing shadow warlock sneered and snidely said "You're pitifully obvious, do you really think the Terror of Death will ever like someone like YOU?"
One of Haseo's twin blades was at the unfortunate player's throat before he had drawn his next breath. His eyes widened and several startled players leveled various weapons at Haseo, not that they really believed they could beat him, just that he might be intimidated by sheer numbers.
"If I hadn't changed my policy of dealing with annoying players I'd have gutted you like a fish!" Haseo hissed, then moved to sheath his dagger.
Most unfortunately, one of the shadow warlocks thought that Haseo was moving to attack and fired a Rue Kruz spell at him. Haseo staggered, then growled.
Blistering rage filled him, rage so powerful it couldn't be his...oh no. Haseo thought in panic.
He had a feeling that he knew whose rage it was, and he hoped to Aura that he was wrong.
DELTA ETERNAL CITY MAC ANU
Ado was tailing Kite stealthily as Kite made his way back to the chaos gate. As soon as he entered after Kite he felt the blade of a dagger at his throught. The dagger belonged to Kite, and he was glaring at Ado.
So much for the stealthy part Ado thought.
"Alright, who the hell are you? And why have you been following me?" Kite demanded.
"I'm Ado, and I find that odd graphics distortion around your wrist interesting" He replied, then added, "You can put that away, I'm no threat to you, besides you can't PK in Root Towns."
"Whatever," Kite growled as he slammed the dagger back into its sheath. "Just stop following me or I'll-"
"What in God's name- KITE?!" A female voice screamed incredoulously from the Chaos Gate.
Kite turned towards the Chaos Gate and gasped, "BlackRose?"
"Of course it's me, idiot! Seven years and you're still acting like a noob! Staring is RUDE, really, really rude!" She scolded, then grinned.
"Why are you here?" Kite asked in surprised delight.
"Well, I got an E-mail from someone named Zelkova asking me to go to DELTA SETTING ETERNITY'S NIGHT MOON, and I had nothing else to do."
"Cool! I'll go with you!" Kite said, then turned to Ado with an angry scowl, "If you follow us I'll-"
PONG!
The sound of a short-mail delivery was heard by all three players.
Each opened the message,
Come to DELTA SETTING ETERNITY'S NIGHT MOON immediately. Hurry before things get out of control here. Zelkova:
Ado looked at Kite "Looks like I have to go with you."
"Hmph!" Kite walked over to the Chaos Gate fuming, "Whatever"
He took the liberty of punching in the keywords for them all.
DELTA SETTING ETERNITY'S NIGHT MOON
This can't be happening! Haseo thought in a panic as blinding rage filled him, Not now!
Haseo had never before considered the damage that Skeith could cause to other players if he went berserk near them. Now he was horrified by the possibilities.
Now, strike now! NO!
Skeith's bloodlust was so strong that Haseo could almost feel it as words, if this kept up he wouldn't be able to hold Skeith back.
I will not let him take control of me this time! Haseo mentally screamed at himself.
Unfortunately his anger and rage only fed Skeith's power.
"AAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!" Haseo screamed "Get back! All of you!"
Players began hurriedly retreating from the spasming PKK.
Kite, BlackRose, and Ado warped into the area and beheld a terrifying sight.
Haseo was doubled over, clutching his head and screaming as startled players were backing away with a haste that suggested that something awful was about to happen.
"What the hell? What's going on?" Kite demanded incredulously as players rushed past him and began warping out.
"I'm not entirely sure" Ado replied as he sidestepped a charging Edge Punisher, "But I've got a bad feeling about this."
Together the three forced their way through the crowd until they were closer to Haseo.
"Haseo!" Kite exclaimed, "Are you alright?"
Haseo looked up and glimpsed Kite, and suddenly a roar was torn from his throught and yellow energy began coursing around Haseo's body in appalling patterns.
Haseo screamed as the true Terror of Death took over.
"SKEEEEEEEEEEEEEIIIIIIIIIIIIIITH!"
Kite froze, hoping to Aura that he'd heard wrong. It can't be!
With a roar Skeith broke free of Haseo's body and revealed itself to them.
A huge being of silver and grey hovered above the crowd, but most people seemed oblivious to it to Kite's surprise, eight swords formed what resembled wings on its back, and from them the Terror of Death created a scythe of pure lightning.
Kite looked at the being in horror, hadn't they already beaten Skeith before? How could he do it now, the new Skeith was obviously much stronger than before, so how did they stand a chance?
Skeith laughed and cast his hand foreward. The scythe reformed into the swords, which then combined to form what looked awfully like a Data Drain bracelet. Power gathered around the bracelet as Skeith took aim at the shadow warlock who had cast the offending spell.
"NO!" Ado shouted, he knew what would happen if the player was hit, total destruction of the character, and the player would fall into a coma.
The data drain tendrils blasted out of Skeith's arm, aimed with the intent to destroy.
Without thinking, or considering the consequences, Ado leaped. His jump carried him to a point between the helpless shadow warlock and the oncoming attack. He only considered the stupidity of his action at that point.
Caught by the power of the Terror of Death's enraged attack Ado screamed in pain as his character was devoured by the Data Drain. Suddenly the pain stopped, and Ado saw Haseo floating back to the ground.
"You IDIOT!" Kite screamed as he ran towards Ado's falling form. "Why did you do that?"
"Are you alright?!" the shadow warlock asked, horrorstruck, as Ado collapsed on the ground in front of him.
Ado grinned faintly. His vision was fading, so tired...
"I hope I'll be" Ado managed to say, before everything went dark.
A.N. Okay, that's it for this chapter. NOW: I'm currently waiting for a review with an opinion on what should happen to Ado. (no, he isn't gone for good :-P) Untill then there will be no updates!!
Also, check out the forum "Epitaph users and Guardian masters UNITE!" a dot hack forum created by yours truly, if you have questions about any of the dot hack games, or want to post a tip Etc. just post on the site under the appropriate section.