Author's Note: The reason for the delay with this chapter is because I suddenly decided to revive another fanfic that I had put on hiatus and thought I was never going to work on again. The story I'm speaking of is called Digimon: Sakura Knight. I am still going to be putting more energy into this story for the time being though, since sadly no one has been reading Sakura Knight. I don't know what I've been doing wrong with that story, but it's been getting zero reviews. Anyway, I hope everyone enjoys this next chapter of The Gold Swordsman.
Disclaimer: I do not own Sword Art Online.
Chapter 13: The Sleeper of N'kai
The underground kingdom of N'kai had proven to be far different than the realms of Yoth and K'n-yan. The place was practically pitch-black except for a strange luminescent moss that was growing on the cavern walls, bathing the entire place in a dim light. There were buildings of black stone scattered down around N'kai, but they were all quite small and of a very primitive designed. Many of them had strange vines growing up their walls. Growing from the ground of the cavernous underground kingdom were small patches of odd vegetation, sickly grey mushrooms of an abnormal size and unhealthy-looking grass of an off-white color.
Kirito and the others at that moment were walking along a river disgusting black ooze, the same kind of black ooze that the blob creatures seemed to be made off. There were several times as they traveled along that river when they wondered if more blobs might spontaneously rise out of it and attack them. Whatever the black substance was, it smelled like an old gas station toilet that hadn't been cleaned in five hundred years.
"Man! How much longer until we find this Tsathoggua thing?" Klein asked. "Seems like we've been walking next to this sewer forever."
"Its room should be around here somewhere." Kirito assumed.
"If N'kai is laid out at all like K'n-yan and Yoth, Tsathoggua's lair should be in a large central building." Donis told them. "Hopefully we'll know it when we see it."
At long last, after following the black river for a few more minutes, the group came upon a large square and ancient-looking building made of the same black stone as every other structure in N'kai. The building looked to be a sort of temple with Roman columns decorating the front. The river of black ooze appeared to be flowing out from underneath the temple's left side, and there was an identical river flowing out from beneath the right side. All of this told Kirito and the others that the temple was in fact the source of the river.
"This must be the place." Leafa deduced. "Let's go."
The group crossed over a small bridge that went over the black river they had been traveling along and headed for the temple. Within moments they passed through the building's large front door. As soon as they passed through, the door slammed shut behind them and the cavernous room became lit by torches of green flame that lined the walls. Squatting in the middle of the temple was a gargantuan creature that looked to be some sort of blasphemous hybrid of toad and sloth. It had a pair of large bat-like ears on its head, and its body was covered in matted black fur.
The black ooze from the rivers flowed around in a sort of moat in the temple's floor that went around behind the toad-like monstrosity. As Kirito and the others ventured closer to the thing, its red eyes opened half way and five HP gauges appeared next to its body. Appearing above the thing's head was the name, "Tsathoggua, the Sleeper of N'kai". Tsathoggua opened his mouth and launched his thick whip-like tongue at Kirito and the others. Everyone in the team scattered and the tip of the tongue ended up hitting the floor and creating a small crater.
"It's safe to say we found Tsathoggua." Kirito deduced as the toad monster's tongue retracted back into his mouth. "Let's get 'em!"
Kirito, Donis and Klein all charged at Tsathoggua with their swords drawn. When he got in range, Kirito cut into the abomination's body with the Master's Blade, causing its body to flash between normal and negative coloring. A split second later, Kirito sliced into the creature's flabby body with Excalibur. At the same time, Donis and Klein had hit the beast with their own attacks. Leafa meanwhile hung back and swung her sword through the air, sending an energy attack up at Tsathoggua. The blast struck the hideous toad god in the face and created a sphere of energy around Tsathoggua's head. The sphere shocked Tsathoggua for a few moments before it finally exploded, but when the smoke cleared and all was said and done, Kirito and the others had only taken a very small piece out of Tsathoggua's first HP gauge.
"What the hell!" Klein exclaimed. "All that and we barely even laid a scratch on this thing?"
"Daddy! Tsathoggua's defensive stats are higher than anything I've ever seen." Yui reported.
"Which means this is going to be a really long fight." Kirito realized.
"Tsathoggua doesn't seem to be fighting back, however." Donis noted as he slashed the toad creature again with his blades. "His attack patterns must be very slow. Let's just hit him as fast and as hard as we can."
With that, Kirito and the other continued their assault, slowly whittling down Tsathoggua's HP. By the time they had finally gotten the creature's first HP gauge down to half of what it originally was, Tsathoggua let out a loud croaking noise. A second later, pieces of the ooze from the moat around Tsathoggua rose up and became a small army of black blobs. Kirito and the others were forced to stop their attack on Tsathoggua and deal with the advancing hoard.
"Dammit!" Kirito cursed as he cut into one of the blobs. "This is how Tsathoggua fights! He just sits there and sends out these blobs to do the fighting for him!"
"How are we supposed to win like this?" Leafa asked as she dealt with another one of the blobs. "We'd need a whole army of players to defeat all these monsters!"
"It's time for a change in strategy!" Donis decided as he put his sword away. "Everyone remain where you are!"
With that, Donis began to chant an odd spell that was familiar only to Leafa. Gold lightning bolts suddenly shot down from above and struck the blobs, dropping their HP gauges to zero. Donis remained standing and seemed to be catching his breath.
"What the hell kind of attack spell was that?" Klein asked.
"Here's how this is going to work!" Donis told them. "Kirito, you focus on attacking Tsathoggua with Leafa and Klein! Meanwhile, I'll focus on destroying all of the blob hoards that Tsathoggua summons! Asuna, you and Ms. Siune stay back and focus on healing us!"
"But Donis, that spell you use takes a lot out of you!" Leafa pointed out.
"There's no need to worry, Leafa." Donis assured her. "I have a few tricks up my sleeve that I've yet to show you."
"It's the best plan we've got." Kirito realized. "Let's keep at it!"
Kirito continued the attack on Tsathoggua with Klein and Leafa backing him up. Tsathoggua meanwhile remained motionless and let the trio strike him. Eventually the frog creature launched his tongue at Donis, but the gold swordsman easily jumped back and dodged to attack. Several minutes seemed to go by and Tsathoggua's first HP gauge finally became a red sliver. At that point, Tsathoggua let out another croaking noise and summoned another hoard of blob monsters. Donis cast his odd spell again and bolts of gold lightning destroyed the blobs.
"Donis, how long do you expect to keep this up?" Asuna asked him. "Whatever spell you're using has almost completely eaten up your MP."
"I assure you, my dear Asuna that I have everything covered." Donis told her as he accessed his menu screen.
Materializing in Donis's hand was a large silver syringe. Donis injected the needle into the side of his neck and injected himself with the contents. The gold swordsman's HP gauge dropped into the red zone and the blue MP gauge right below it went up by the same amount. Donis tossed the spent syringe to the floor of the temple, causing it to shatter into blue polygons.
"What kind of potion was that supposed to be?" a noticeably unsettled Siune asked.
"I have no idea." Asuna answered. "But it seemed like it converted his HP into MP."
"If you ladies wouldn't mind, I could use a bit of healing at the moment." Donis requested. "I imagine it won't be long before Tsathoggua summons another army."
Asuna and Siune healed Donis without delay and remained on standby as the assault on Tsathoggua continued. Several more minutes went by as Kirito and the others continued to do as much damage as they could to the toad-like abomination. Tsathoggua did little to fight back besides occasionally launching his tongue at the group and summoning more hoards of blobs. Donis managed to take care of every blob hoard with the same attack spell. The gold swordsman went through several more syringes of his odd potion as the battle raged on.
It seemed like an hour and a half had passed by the time Kirito and the others got Tsathoggua's final HP gauge into the red zone. Donis had just defeated another hoard of blobs before injecting himself with another syringe.
"That was my last syringe of converter potion!" Donis informed Kirito and the others. "We had better finish off this vile thing fast!"
"Easier said than done." Kirito told him.
Suddenly Tsathogua opened his mouth again. But rather than launch his tongue, the toad creature belched out several large stone-like projectiles at Donis. The Kirito lookalike was struck by the barrage but managed to endure it. Though a good chunk of his HP had been lost. Tsathoggua then summoned another hoard of blobs to attack them. Donis used another attack spell to take them out, only for Tsathoggua to fire another barrage of stone-like projectiles at him. Donis somehow managed to avoid the attack and drew his swords.
"Tsathoggua's attack pattern has changed!" Yui observed. "He's not only moving faster, he's using a much more powerful attack!"
"Kazuto! Donis can't hold out much longer!" Leafa told Kirito. "We need to end this now!"
"Then let's hit him with everything we've got!" Kirito responded.
With that, Kirito and the others continued their attack. As Klein and Kirito moved in for another strike, Tsathoggua suddenly swatted him aside with his left hand. Leafa fired another attack from her sword that struck Tsathoggua in the face and took off another small chunk of HP. Tsathoggua belched out another barrage of stones at the blonde fairy and Donis, which they both managed to dodge. As Kirito and Klein got back to their feet, Tsathoggua summoned another hoard of blobs to come to his aid. Donis destroyed the oncoming hoard with another attack spell as Kirito and Klein resumed their attack.
"I can't use the spell again!" Donis told the others. "We have to finish Tsathoggua off!"
Leafa took a deep breath as Kirito and Klein continued to cut into Tsathoggua. The toad creature's remaining HP gauge had finally fallen to a mere red sliver. With one hard swing, Leafa launched another energy attack that struck Tsathoggua in the face. The toad creature's HP gauge finally dropped to zero and its body shattered into blue polygons. The standard message of congratulations appeared in the air above where Tsathoggua once squatted.
Suddenly a hidden door opened up in the wall on Donis and Leafa's left. Donis grabbed Leafa's hand and pulled her off towards the door, taking her across a small bridge that was over the moat. Before Kirito and the others could react, Donis and Leafa were through the door. The door slammed shut and the room became washed out in a blinding white light. When the light faded, Kirito and the others were on top of the mound.
"Well, looks like it's finally over." Klein assumed.
"What happened to Donis and Leafa?" Siune asked. "Why weren't they teleported out with us?"
"I saw them go into some secret room that opened up when Tsathoggua was defeated." Kirito answered. "I don't know what that room was, but I don't I've got a bad feeling about it."
Leafa looked around the room that Donis had pulled her into. It was a cylindrical room with strange pictographs decorating the walls. In the center of the room was a silver altar with something written on the top, and mounted in the wall opposite the door was a round green crystal staring down at her like some kind of eye.
"What is this place?" Leafa asked.
"This is what we were after from the beginning, dearest Leafa." Donis answered. "This chamber will take us to the Plateau of Leng. It would've been better if we didn't have to go through that business with Tsathoggua to get to this point, but the important thing is that we're here now."
"So… how does this work?" Leafa asked.
"According to what Sinon found out in the Necronomicon, this room is basically a teleport chamber." Donis explained. "When activated, it should take us from here to Leng."
"How do we turn it on?" Leafa asked.
"Well… and I figured some of this out on my own from the page I saw in the Necronomicon… it seems that a certain ritual is involved." Donis answered. "You're supposed to go over to that alter over there and read the spell written on it while I… enter your backdoor, so to speak."
"You mean… this is some kind of sex ritual?" Leafa asked, her face turning a deep shade of red.
"It would seem so." Donis answered. "I suppose we don't have to do this if you don't want to."
Leafa said nothing and accessed her menu. In a blue flash she had become totally naked. The blonde stepped over to the altar and looked back at Donis expectantly. Smirking, the gold swordsman accessed his own menu screen and removed all of his clothing. Donis walked up behind Leafa, and after taking hold of her waist he shoved his already hardened manhood into her rear end. Leafa's eyes went totally wide.
"Oh god! This… this feels incredible!" Leafa declared.
"Read the spell." Donis told her as he began to plow into her.
Leafa nodded and began reading the spell on the altar. "Yog-Sothoth is the gate. I… I am the lock. I call upon him… to open the gate… as I have opened my body."
Suddenly a silver rod popped out of the front of the altar and entered Leafa's womanhood, causing her to let out a cry of surprise. Donis's thrusts were causing the other rod to push deep inside of her, sending her to new heights of pleasure. Leafa tried to keep her head together and finish reading the spell.
"Let us travel… to the land of Leng." Leafa continued. "The land only… only glimpsed briefly in dreams… and whispered in story. Open the way for us… so that we may set… AH… may set foot on that wondrous… plateau… and glimpse the ancient secrets… of all… of all CREATION!"
At that moment Donis and Leafa came to a hard climax. A split second later the green crystal in the far wall glowed and the couple vanished in a blinding flash of green light.
Kirito and Asuna returned with Yui to their little cabin in New Aincrad to log out. Before logging out though, the couple decided to rest for a while after the long battle they had just had. Once they had gotten into the cabin, Kirito changed into his normal black sweatshirt and pants and slumped onto the couch. Asuna changed into her usual yellow sweater and brown shirt and cuddled up onto the couch next to him.
"That was actually a pretty brutal boss fight. Asuna declared. "Who knew that we'd have such a hard time against a boss that hardly fought back?"
"Whoever came up with the N'kai level in this game designed Tsathoggua to outlast the attacking players." Kirito explained. "They gave Tsathoggua ridiculously high defensive stats and then have him send out hoards of those blob monsters, which are already kind of hard to defeat on their own."
"I guess it's a miracle we were able to defeat him then." Asuna replied. "Of course a lot of that was thanks to that attack spell Donis used."
"Yeah, about that… there's something about that spell that's just not right." Kirito told her. "It was more like the kind of area attack that a boss monster would use. And I've never seen anything in this game that would allow a player to learn a spell like that."
"Wait, so are you saying that Donis gave himself some kind of illegal skill?" Asuna asked.
"That would make sense." Yui interjected. "If Donis copied daddy's avatar like we think it did, it wouldn't be surprising if he also gave himself special abilities that don't normally exist in the game."
"And now Donis is off somewhere in the game with Leafa." Asuna noted. "Who knows what the two of them are doing?"
"We better figure out who Donis is, and fast." Kirito told her. "Otherwise, even though people can't die in this game, Sugu could end up getting hurt."
Author's Note: I hope nobody was disappointed by the boss battle in this chapter. Going into this, I was afraid it might be kind of lame if Tsathoggua was just a monster that mostly sat there and took damage. But considering he had the characteristics of a sloth and was known as the Sleeper of N'kai, I felt that such a fighting style would make sense.
Please review and let me know what you think.