Author's Note: I hadn't intended to take such a long time getting this chapter up, but it's been a pretty busy week for me. I also apologize in advance for this chapter being on the short side. It's the best I could do with some of the large-scale battle scenes it contains.
Disclaimer: I do not own Sword Art Online (or the works of H.P. Lovecraft).
Chapter 12: Invasion from Beneath
Kirito and the others had left New Aincrad right after their encounter with the Traveler and took off through the sky to the headquarters of the Order of Yig. As they flew, Kirito had received an IM from Agil informing him that black blobs were appearing all over the land of ALO. At one point as they flew over a small forest, the four saw three players struggling against a hoard made up of seven of the black monstrosities. The creatures had surrounded the players and had reduced their HP to zero, causing them to become nothing more than floating balls of flame. For a moment, Kirito and the others had thought about helping the hapless trio, but they had quickly realized that there was nothing that they could've done.
"Those blob things are as tough as all the rumors say they are." Klein remarked. "I can't believe how they're showing up all over the place."
"That forest we were over is supposed to be full of only low-level monsters." Siune recalled. "It's a known level grinding spot for new players. I can't believe that the game would have monsters that strong just show up there like that."
"She's right, daddy." Yui told Kirito. "The Cardinal System shouldn't be generating monsters of that strength level in a low-level zone. In fact there's something very random about where all these blobs are showing up."
"What're you guys talking about?" Klein asked.
"Basically, those high-level blobs are popping up in places where only low-level monsters should be showing up." Kirito explained. "It'd sort of be like if a monster from say Floor 99 of New Aincrad showed up in that field on Floor 1 where I first showed you how to fight in SAO."
"Now that's a nasty thought." Klein replied, shuddering a bit. "So I'm guessing that kind of thing shouldn't happen at all."
"Right. The Cardinal System is supposed to control things like monster encounters to keep stuff like that from happening." Kirito confirmed. "I have no idea why it would suddenly start generating such high-level monsters in such low-level areas."
"Kirito, do you think this means that there's something wrong with ALO itself?" Asuna asked.
"I don't know." Kirito answered. "What I do know though is that those monsters are from that mound. Which means that Donis probably knows something about it."
At last the four finally arrived at the HQ for the Order of Yig. Kirito simply opened the door and barged into the building with the others following close behind. The group found the entire guild inside around one of the tables. Practically every eye in the room fell on Kirito as he approached.
"We meet again, Kirito." Donis spoke. "I trust that this isn't a social visit."
"I'm here about the black blob monsters that have started showing up all over ALO." Kirito told him. "We just saw a bunch massacre a group of rookie players on the way over here. I know you know something about it."
"Jeez, Kirito! You can't blame Donis for what's happening now!" Lisbeth cut in. "I know you and Asuna don't exactly like him, but you can't hold him responsible for everything bad that happens in this game. Just get off his back!"
"Now, now Liz. Kirito isn't exactly entirely wrong in his thinking this time." Donis told her. "I am responsible for the crisis, though not intentionally. Leafa and I had no idea that this would happen."
"What do you mean you and Leafa?" Asuna asked.
"Earlier, Donis and I had gone down into Yoth to open the door into the last underground dungeon, N'kai." Leafa explained. "The next thing we knew, those blobs just started showing up everywhere."
"The Sleeper of N'kai." Kirito recalled.
"Wait, where'd you hear that phrase?" Sinon asked.
"It's kind of a long story." Kirito answered. "Do you know something about this, Sinon?"
"Yeah. The Sleeper of N'kai is a title used for the wicked god who rules the world under Yoth in Lovecraft's original story about the mound." Sinon explained. "The god is called Tsathoggua. Everything I've read says that he's supposed to be some kind of frog-like monsters that the people of K'n-yan used to worship."
"What do you mean used to worship?" Lisbeth asked.
"Well… from what I remember, it's because at one time they had traveled down to N'kai and found out the truth about Tsathoggua." Sinon answered. "About what he actually was and about his spawn. I think those black blobs are supposed to be his children."
"Hate to see what the mom looks like." Klein remarked.
"Whatever this Tsathoggua is, those children of his are running amuck all over ALO." Kirito pointed out. "Donis, you and Leafa must've triggered some kind of event when you opened that door."
"I had come to the same conclusion." Donis agreed. "And I believe you must also know of the only possible way to bring this event to an end."
"Yeah. We have to go into N'kai and defeat Tsathoggua." Kirito deduced.
"Hold up, Donis wannabe." Selene cut in. "What's with all this 'we' stuff? This is our screw-up, and we'll take care if it ourselves. We don't need your help to clean up our mess."
"Actually Selene, I think we just might." Donis told her. "This is a major problem, one that's affecting the entire game. We can use all the strong players we can get. And I know for a fact that Kirito and his companions are among the strongest."
"He's right about that." Sinon admitted. "Tsathoggua's probably the most powerful monster under the mound. We need a powerhouse player like Kirito on our side."
"So what do you say, old boy? Shall we form a temporary alliance?" Donis asked.
"…I guess we don't really have a choice." Kirito finally agreed. "But don't expect this to change anything between us."
"I have no illusions that it will." Donis replied. "When all this is over, you and I can go back to being enemies."
With that, Kirito and the others departed with Donis and his guild and began their flight to the mound. As the large group traveled across the sky, they saw many more of the blob monsters roaming around the fields and forested areas of the land below. Every now and then they would see other players on the ground encounter the blobs, either running away from them or trying to fight them in vein. Many of the blobs they saw on the ground had banded into hoards that were easily overwhelming the players who were unfortunate enough to encounter them.
"At least these things don't seem to be showing up in any of the towns." Kirito remarked. "That means those places are still safe zones."
"What's troubling about all this is that even if the blobs are the result of a massive quest event, the levels of most of them are too high for some of the areas they've been showing up in." Yui pointed out. "The Cardinal System should at the very least be regulating the monsters' levels so that they correspond at least slightly with the monsters that would normally appear."
"Yui, are you saying that the Cardinal System is broken somehow?" Asuna asked.
"I don't know." Yui answered with a worried expression. "But there is something very abnormal going on here."
After a few more minutes of flying, the large group of players finally arrived in the airspace of imp territory and reached the mound. They were quite thankful to find that none of the black blobs were roaming around on top of that massive bump in the earth. Cautiously, they made their way down into the dark passageway that led into K'n-yan, keeping their weapons ready in case they encountered any blobs along the way. Thankfully their trek down the tunnel was absent of any of the black monstrosities. What the entire joint raiding party found when they reached the end of the tunnel and entered the dead city sent a chill down all of their spines.
All around K'n-yan, armies of black blobs were doing battle with the headless undead warriors and limbless creatures that were a common sight down in the blue-lit world. Pairs of the headless swordswomen were fighting off hoards made up of three to five blobs, and every now and then a headless and armless creature would ram into one of the blobs in what would ended up being a suicide attack. It was as if their raiding party had stepped into a macabre war out of the disturbed nightmare of a madman.
"I certainly wasn't expecting this." Lisbeth remarked.
"Oh man! This place is totally freaky!" Klein declared. "And all you ladies have been raiding this place on a regular basis?"
"You kinda get used to it after a while." Sinon told him. "Though things down here have never been this whacked out before."
"Why are all the headless things fighting the blobs?" Leafa wondered.
"Well, the original inhabitants of K'n-yan were said to have started fearing Tsathoggua after they found out about his spawn, which is what these blobs are supposed to be." Sinon pointed out. "Since all the headless monsters seem to be like security robots or something, they must be programed to view the blobs as enemies and destroy them."
Selene saw one of the headless women shatter into polygons from a blob's attack. "They don't seem to be having too much luck with that."
"Whatever the reason is behind this place suddenly turning into a warzone, it does work to our advantage." Donis pointed out.
"He's right. With those headless monsters keeping the blobs busy, it should be pretty easy for us to go down into the next level." Kirito told them. "Donis, are there any more of those headless monsters down in Yoth?"
"Not that we've ever seen, I'm afraid." Donis answered. "Yoth was supposed to have been inhabited by a different civilization according to Sinon. One that did not utilize these undead warriors."
"In other words, we're pretty much on our own down there." Kirito realized.
"It would appear so, old boy." Donis replied. "I suppose it only helps to illustrate the difference in difficulty level between this city and Yoth."
"We better get going quickly." Asuna interrupted. "The long this goes on, the worse things are going to get up top."
As quickly as they could, the joint raiding party made its way to the building that housed the doorway into Yoth. By some miracle, they had managed to avoid being attacked by any of the stray black blobs that weren't doing battle with K'n-yan's headless sentinels. They reached the building within a few minutes, and after getting around a few of the monster-on-monster battles that were happening inside, they reached the empty arena that once housed the headless giant that Donis, Leafa, Sinon and Lisbeth had fought before the forming of the guild and went down into the passageway that led into Yoth. As soon as they all made it into the red-lit underground city they found the place to be crawling with blobs. The horrid beasts surrounded the raiding party in mere moments.
Everyone drew their weapons and began to fight their way through. Kirito cut into the blob he was facing with the Master's Blade, causing it to suddenly turn white and its HP to be reduced to a red sliver. An instant later he cut into the creature with Excalibur, causing its remaining HP to drop to zero and its body to pop like a bubble. It took Kirito half a second to realize what he had just done.
"Daddy, the blobs seem to be weak against your new sword!" Yui observed.
"What kind of weapon is this thing, anyway?" Kirito wondered as he looked at the sword's blade.
"You can ponder the power of your sword later, old boy!" Donis told him as he cut into another blob with his own swords. "Right now it would be best if you cleared a path for us to that temple!"
Kirito nodded and began hacking his way through oncoming blobs, producing the same result as when he had struck the first creature. He found that each blob seemed to give off a scent similar to the smoke a piece of electronic equipment gives off when it shorts out. Asuna, Klein and Siune followed close behind Kirito as he cleared a path, as did Donis, Lisbeth, Sinon and Leafa. Selene, Aria and most of the others were forced to remain behind and keep most of the blobs busy. After several minutes of fighting their way through an army, Kirito's group finally made it to the temple.
Just as they were about to make it to the door of the ancient temple, three blobs showed up and blocked the entrance. Kirito, Donis and Leafa made quick work of the blobs, but several more came up and surrounded them from behind.
"Liz and I will handle these guys out here!" Sinon decided. "The rest of you focus on taking care of Tsathoggua!"
"Are you sure?" Kirito asked them. "There are a lot of 'em!"
"We'll be fine!" Lisbeth assured him. "Besides, once you beat Tsathoggua, this should all be over!"
"Good luck to both of you!" Donis told the two. "We won't let your work be in vein!"
With that, Kirito and the others went into the temple as Lisbeth and Sinon began fighting the oncoming blobs. What remained of the once large raiding party made its way through the archway at the back of the temple and down into the untold depths of the earth to the shadowed N'kai.
"Man, this is nuts!" Klein declared as they traveled down. "It's down to just us and we're probably going to be fighting a boss as tough as the one on the top floor of New Aincrad for all we know!"
"This is hardly the scenario I had been hoping for either." Donis admitted. "With only two undine players with us, we might not be able to last very long against Tsathoggua."
"What's this N'kai place even like?" Asuna asked.
"We don't know." Leafa answered. "Donis and I were forced to retreat almost as soon as the door opened."
"Then I guess we better be ready for anything." Kirito observed.
The diminished raiding party continued down in almost total silence for several more minutes before finally reached the open door into N'kai. The rectangular opening was pitch-black and almost seemed like an open mouth.
"I am really not liking this!" Klein declared.
"Neither am I. But it seems like the whole fate of ALO is depending on us beating whatever monster's lurking inside that dungeon." Kirito pointed out. "Like it or not, we're going in."
Author's Note: Before I sign off for now, I feel I should mention something about the monster that Kirito and the others will be facing in the next chapter, Tsathoggua. Tsathoggua is indeed a deity from Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos, but the creature was originally the creation of another author from around that time named Clark Ashton Smith. Smith and Lovecraft apparently knew each other pretty well, and at some point Tsathoggua ended up being incorporated into some of Lovecraft's stories. Of course in most of the stories I've read, Tsathoggua's only been mentioned in passing. Anyway, I just thought some of you reading might be interested in knowing all that.
Please review and let me know what you think.