Ren Hikari's body snapped up in bed and his hand went to his chest. "That same dream again…," he whispered, wiping the sweat from his brow with his sleeve. He glanced over at the AmuSphere on his desk, brushing his brown hair from his eyes. Ren swung his legs over the side of the bed and got up.

As he looked at the AmuSphere, the dream ran through his head again. He'd been seeing it quite a lot lately and each time it felt more and more real even though it was always about his ALO avatar Chrome, not him. He looked down his top, no cross shaped scars, that was always good. He took a swig from the warm bottle of water on his desk and sat down in his computer chair.

"Hmm, what's this?" he asked, noticing the flashing e-mail icon in the bottom corner of his screen. He clicked it and a small square of text came up on his screen.

Chrome,

Hey there. I managed to get out of today's meeting by faking sick. Wanna go on and do some grinding for that event quest in December? I'll meet you in the floor 26 dungeon.

Arcadia

"Jeez, she's so irresponsible," Ren sighed, closing the e-mail. He grabbed himself a quick breakfast before returning to his room and putting on the Amusphere.

He laid on his bed and closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. "Link start!" he said loudly. There was a bright light before his eyes as the AmuSphere made all its standard calibrations and loaded ALO. Soon his bedroom had been replaced by the scenery of the game.

Now as Chrome, he stood within the Aincrad realm of New ALfheim Online, his brown hair fluttering in the breeze. The tall young man was dressed in a green tunic and brown pants. A pair of brown leather boots stopped at his knees and a pair of black steel gauntlets with silver trim stopped at his elbows. On his left shoulder was a single spaulder matching the gauntlets and on his right hung a ragged, light brown cape.

He glanced around at the scenery of Lindas, the town he had logged out from before making his way to the twenty-sixth floor. Once there it was only a short time before he arrived at the entrance to the dungeon. Chrome liked the design of this particular dungeon quite a bit.

It was designed to look like a frozen castle inside. It was quite the sight to behold, he'd spent numerous hours wandering around its wide walkways just taking in the scenery when he first went in.

Standing outside the dungeon was a tall woman wearing a set of simple forest green armour with gold trimmings. Her purple hair sat in a bob cut at her shoulders and strapped to her back was a massive dual bladed battle-axe. Her blue eyes watched as Chrome approached, an eager expression on her face.

"You sure took your sweet time," the axe wielder said with a fake pout. Chrome shook his head and stopped before her. Although she acted immature at times, Arcadia was quite a bit older than Chrome which could be seen in her avatar's more mature appearance.

"I was getting breakfast, unlike you I won't skip things just because I feel like it," Chrome remarked, raising an eyebrow.

"Hey it was just a boring old faculty meeting, I'm sure the school will be fine if I miss one," Arcadia said, walking through the frozen doors of the dungeon.

"Setting a fine example for your students as always."

"Oh shut it. I work hard, I need a break every now and then."

"Like every afternoon when you come on here and neglect all of your work."

"Hush you. I get it all done."

The two walked through the frozen castle, Arcadia with her hand on her axe handle and Chrome with his hand on the sword at his waist. It was barely two minutes before they were set upon by a monster, a set of armour wielding a sword and shield, ice coating random parts of its body.

"I'll take this" Arcadia said with a grin, brandishing her mighty axe. Arcadia and the monster charged at each other with equal vigour but it was obvious who was going to win. The axewoman swung her weapon with tremendous force, depleting almost a quarter of the Possessed Armour's HP with that single swing. The monster returned an attack but Arcadia blocked it with the handle of her axe before delivering an upwards attack that knocked her enemy off balance.

"Switch!" Arcadia yelled and Chrome came running in, his weapon drawn.

The swordsman unleashed a flurry off three quick blows on the staggered monster, sending its HP bar down to the end. There was a few seconds of delay before the Possessed Armour exploded into particles and Chrome claimed the reward from the battle.

"Nicely done," Arcadia said with a warm smile, putting her axe away.

"Thanks, but I really don't think you needed to switch there, you could have killed it easy," Chrome said, sheathing his sword.

"Hey I just gave you free Col, quit complaining."

"I'd rather not, I'm in a complaining mood this morning."

"I can see that."

As the two players proceeded through the dungeon, the events of Chrome's dream ran through his mind several times. He had opted not to tell Arcadia about it since she had featured in it. He figured she'd throw a fit if she knew she was getting killed off in his dreams. He had no idea who his other party member had been in the dream, he didn't recognise him and he definitely had no idea who their attacker was.

Chrome was worried that perhaps the event quest in December that had been announced may be the time he saw in his dream. His and Arcadia's goal was to reach at least level fifty by then, maybe it would be best for him to push it to sixty, he thought to himself. They had three months after all.

"Hey, Chrome, we're here," Arcadia said, snapping Chrome out of his trance. The swordsman shook his head quickly and Arcadia tilted her head a little. "You okay there?" she asked.

"Perfectly fine, let's do this," Chrome said, placing his hand on the door to the boss room. He looked to Arcadia and the two nodded to each other, proceeding in.