Author's Note: I'd like to give a quick thanks to Cerberus Alpha for his review of the last chapter. I found it, for lack of a better word at the moment, insightful.
Disclaimer: I do not own Sword Art Online (or the works of H.P. Lovecraft).
Chapter 14: The Azathoth Virus
Almost as soon as Kazuto had logged out of ALO after the battle with Tsathoggua, he had gotten a call from Kikuoka Seijiro. Kikuoka had told Kazuto that he had managed to find out something that might be connected to Donis in some way. The two of them set up a meeting for the following afternoon, after which Kazuto called Asuna to let her know. As for Suguha, she had logged out of ALO some time later that night, but had refused to tell Kazuto anything about what had happened to her after Tsathoggua had been defeated. Kazuto had decided not to push the matter for the time being and left Suguha alone.
That following afternoon after school, Kazuto and Asuna had taken Asuna's family limo to the rather upscale café that Kikuoka had asked them to meet at. As soon as the couple entered the building, they immediately sighted Kikuoka waving at them from a table in the back.
"You two are right on time." Kikuoka told the two as they came back and sat across from him at the table. "I went ahead and got the dessert menu for us. It's on me, if you want anything."
"You told me you found out something." Kazuto responded with a serious expression.
"I did, but to be honest I'm not certain it's connected to this player you told me about." Kikuoka replied. "In fact I'm not even certain if I should be telling you any of this."
"You owe us for making Kirito getting involved in your investigation of GGO." Asuna told him.
"To be fair, Kazuto wasn't in any real danger." Kikuoka pointed out. He then flinched a little when he saw Asuna giving him a glare. "But, I suppose this is something that's the least I can do. It turns out that ALO was the victim of a cyber attack, but as far as anyone can tell, no player data was hacked."
"Then what was the cyber attack?" Kazuto asked.
"Someone infected the servers of ALO with a computer virus." Kikuoka answered. "A hacker by the name of Koichi Chiba. He was actually a low-level programmer who worked on the staff that developed SAO."
"What was this virus supposed to do?" Asuna asked.
"As far as the tech team for ALO can tell, it was to make the Cardinal system add certain things to the game." Kikouka answered. "Chiba is apparently a big fan of the Cthulhu Mythos started originally by the American author, H.P. Lovecraft. According to what some of my associates found out, Chiba tried getting his superiors at SAO to add elements of the mythos to the game. When that never happened, he kept calling in to the staff at ALO to add those same elements to that game. But of course each time he was ignored."
"So at that point he made a virus to try adding stuff from the Cthulhu Mythos to ALO himself." Kazuto deduced.
"Exactly." Kikouka confirmed. "Chiba confessed that was his reason for making the virus when we interviewed him. He even called his creation the Azathoth Virus, a name he took from the first and oldest deity in that mythos he likes so much."
"How is it that nobody knows about this?" Asuna asked.
"I know why. If the news of a computer virus infecting ALO's systems went public, there'd be chaos." Kazuto answered.
"That's right. VRMMOs are still under a lot of scrutiny." Kikouka replied. "News of any kind of cyber attack like this getting out would cause panic and practically shatter the already battered image VRMMOs still have from things like the SAO incident. Fortunately, the staff at ALO was able to cover up the news by claiming that the new areas and monsters in the game were all a promotion for a new movie based on one of Lovecraft's stories."
"Well I guess all that explains where all those underground dungeons came from." Kazuto realized. "And why all those blob monsters showed up in areas of the game where they shouldn't have. But it doesn't explain how Donis could have a copy of my avatar."
"Could this hacker have maybe copied Kirito's player data when he planted the virus?" Asuna asked. "Maybe he's using that copied avatar for himself."
"That was one of the first things I thought of." Kikouka revealed. "Except Chiba hasn't tried playing ALO since he planted the virus. He's been tending to his sick mother when he hasn't been at work. Besides, I looked into Chiba's background and he doesn't seem to have a connection to either of you. He's never played SAO or GGO, though I suppose you might have crossed paths with him in ALO. Chiba's screen name in that game is Hypnos. That name sound familiar to either of you?"
"I've never heard of him." Asuna answered.
"Neither have I." Kazuto replied. "I'm kinda starting to wonder if Donis even has anything to do with this at all."
"I'll keep digging into this, of course." Kikouka assured them. "The possibility of anyone's character data being copied is serious enough. Hopefully I'll be able to find some answers for you soon."
"Thanks." Kazuto told him.
"There is one other thing that I think I should mention." Kikouka informed them. "The Azathoth Virus is still in the game. So far the staff at ALO have only been able to contain it on the system. If they can't find a way to get rid of it soon, they may have no other choice but to shut everything down and totally reboot the system."
"But… that would cause everything in the game to reset to the way it was when it first came online!" Asuna realized. "All the levels in New Aincrad would have to be cleared all over again. Everyone who got their name on the Monument of Swordsmen… all those names would be gone."
"Everyone's player data would also probably be reset too." Kazuto added. "It would be as if ALO had never been played at all."
"Everyone working at ALO is doing everything they can to stop that from happening, but they can only contain the virus for so long." Kikouka told them. "I'll keep you both in the loop, but you may have to be prepared for the worst."
The meeting ended soon after that. Kazuto and Asuna took the limo back to Asuna's place. They rode in silence as the enormity of what Kikouka had told them sunk in. The game of ALO was dying, and it seemed like there was nothing they could do about it.
"You know… I've been thinking about how this virus that's infected ALO might work." Kazuto spoke, finally breaking the silence. "You remember how the full version of the Cardinal System that ran SAO and ALO would spontaneously generate quests by taking things from the web? I'm thinking the virus may have reactivated that feature for ALO, only its limited the system to building quests and items from the Cthulhu Mythos."
"But… didn't Yui say that feature would lead to ALO destroying its own maps the way SAO did at the end?" Asuna asked.
"Yeah. But instead of a Ragnarok event, it would probably something else." Kazuto confirmed. "Something much weirder. What gets me is that hacker probably didn't realize that anything like that would happen."
"And we're still no closer to figuring out who Donis really is." Asuna pointed out.
"Actually… I kind of wonder about that." Kazuto told her. "That sword I have in the game, the Master's Blade. It affected those blobs the same way it affected Donis in our duel. I wonder if… no, it couldn't be."
"What?" Asuna asked.
"Well… I thought for a moment that Donis might be some kind of NPC, but it doesn't add up." Kirito told her. "We've seen Donis use a menu. That's something that an NPC shouldn't be able to do. Besides, why would there be an NPC based on my avatar?"
"But then why would your sword have the same effect on him as it does on those monsters?" Asuna asked.
"I don't know." Kirito answered. "Nothing about this makes sense right now."
The Plateau of Leng had proven to be a far stranger land than Leafa had imagined. Right after the ritual with Donis down in N'kai, the two of them had been teleported to a strange set of ruins where they received special bracelets with teleport crystals that could take them freely between Leng and the normal land of ALO. As soon as they had gotten dressed, the couple had ventured out of the ruins to find they were on top of some kind of mountain range that was higher than anything else that existed in the game. The place was extremely cold and cast in the perpetual twilight of an overcast grey sky. After the couple had explored the area outside the ruins for a bit, they had decided to come back the following afternoon to travel further up the mountain.
On that following afternoon, Leafa and Donis had returned to Leng and were walking up a spiraling path that led upwards. Leafa half wondered if perhaps they might go so high as to pass through the clouds into the stars. The mountain range was utterly silent except for an unsettling noise like the sound of some musical piping that was caused by the occasional gust of wind through the mountains. No living being seemed to exist in those ominous mountains except for a strange kind of monster that Donis and Leafa had encountered shortly after they had first arrived. Whatever the things were though, they seemed to be quite rare and were very easy to defeat.
Leng was indeed a very strange place, yet as eerie as Leafa thought it was, she also couldn't help but find it sort of romantic. She and Donis were the only players on that level of the game. They were the only ones who were capable of coming to Leng, or at least as far as Leafa knew. Leafa couldn't help but find that special. Kirito and Asuna had their little cabin in New Aincrad, and she and Donis had Leng. It was a very alien place, but it was still theirs. Leafa wondered if perhaps they might find some little cabin in those mountains that she and Donis could claim as their own.
As the two of them finally neared the top, they encountered another one of the strange creatures that inhabited Leng. It was a vegetable-like creature with a dark-blue barrel-shaped body with five tentacles that extended out from around the center. The top and bottom of the organism had yellow star-shaped growths. The bottom growth was some sort of rudimentary foot, while the growth on the top acted at the creature's head. That head had five small red eyes and a star-shaped mouth lined with small pointed teeth.
Donis swiftly charged forward and cut into the thing with both swords. After three strikes, the creature's HP gauge went to zero and its body shattered into blue polygons.
"I wonder what these things are supposed to be?" Leafa spoke.
"If I'm remembering correctly, the page from the Necronomicon about Leng that Sinon showed me said that these creatures are called Elder Things." Donis answered. "They were a once proud race that traveled here from beyond the stars, but their isolation here caused them to degenerate into the primitive monsters we've been seeing. I can't help but pity them a bit."
"Well whatever they are, they sure don't seem to be much of a threat." Leafa noted. "Did you at least get a drop item from the one you just killed?"
"I'm afraid not." Donis answered. "We should press on. Our goal lies at the top of this mountain."
A few moments later they had finally reached the end of the path and were at the very top of the mountain. Before them was a set four stone pillars, one of which was broken at the top. When the got closer, Leafa and Donis found that the pillars were at four corners of a round stone pit that was not very deep. Leafa thought that perhaps the structure was originally some kind of pool or bath. In the center of the pit was a smaller round hole that showed only pitch-blackness.
"Leafa, you said that you obtained a drop item from your battle with Tsathoggua, right?" Donis asked.
"Um, yeah. Why?" Leafa replied.
"May I have it, please?" Donis requested.
Leafa nodded and called up her item menu. After a few moments of searching, she found the object she had received as reward for landing the finishing blow on Tsathoggua, an object called the Blood of N'kai. Leafa selected the item, and materializing in her hands was a large glass beaker containing a black substance that looked to be the same black ooze that flowed down in N'kai. The very same ooze that Tsathoggua's wretched spawn seemed to be made of. After Leafa handed the beaker to Donis, the gold swordsman surprised her by throwing the beaker into the pit.
The beaker shattered upon hitting the stone floor of the pit. The black ooze poured out of the broken vessel and expanded outward. To Leafa's amazement, the black substance rose and filled the entire pit. Suddenly the ooze began to bubble and steam started rising from the surface. The boiling slime gave off an acrid stench, almost as if someone was trying to cook the contents of a sewage tank.
"Donis, what's going on?" Leafa asked as she held her nose.
Donis held up his hand to silence her and looked towards his left. One of the Elder Things had shown up and was coming towards the pit. As soon as it had gotten to the edge, Donis stormed over and stabbed through the center of its barrel-shaped body with his right-hand sword. Donis pulled out the blade and pushed the dying vegetable creature into the boiling pool of ooze. The slain Elder Thing shattered into blue polygons upon hitting the surface and in seconds the boiling liquid had suddenly become clear. Leafa took her hand off her nose and found that the stench had gone.
"How… how did you do that?" Leafa asked Donis.
"That's not important right now." Donis answered as he accessed his menu.
In moments Donis was completely naked. Leafa blushed as she watched Donis step into the pit. The surface of the liquid that had seemed to become water only went up to his waist.
"…Is this some kind of hot spring?" Leafa asked.
"You could look at it that way." Donis replied. "Care to join me?"
Leafa smiled and quickly removed all her clothes with a single command. A private hot spring wasn't quite the same as their own cabin, but was still very romantic all the same. Moments after Leafa had gotten in the water, they became locked in an embrace that led to an open-mouthed kiss. As they kissed, Donis fondled Leafa's right breast, causing her to moan into his mouth. Eventually they broke for air, after which Donis began kissing and sucking on Leafa's neck.
Before she knew it, Leafa had been pushed up against the edge of the pool. Donis pushed his hardened manhood into Leafa, causing her to respond by wrapping her legs around his waist. Leafa dug her nails into Donis's back as he plowed into her. A sweet eternity seemed to go by until at last they both came to a hard climax. A split second later, the ground began to share and something rose out of the center of the pool. The object was a stone pedestal that rose out of the water at chest-level. The pedestal had a square top with strange runes carved into its four sides.
Donis withdrew himself from Leafa and turned around before calling up his menu. Appearing in Donis's hand was the case containing the crystal Lisbeth had found.
"What's that?" Leafa asked.
"This, my dear, is a key." Donis answered as he walked over to the pedestal in the center of the pool and placed the case on top, opening the lid to reveal its contents. "Normally, it only shows the images of other worlds. Images that I should note are very bewitching to look at, not to mention… stimulating. But when used in the right way here, it can open the door to something wondrous."
"Did you get all that from the Necronomicon too?" Leafa asked.
"Why yes." Donis confirmed. "Where else would I have obtained such knowledge?"
"Okay. So how does this key work?" Leafa asked.
"All you need to do is come over here and gaze at it." Donis answered as he stepped aside. "I will do the rest."
Leafa walked over to the pedestal and looked into the crystal. Inside she could see images of dream-like and nightmarish landscapes swirling around. It really was as hypnotic as Donis had said it would be. Without realizing it, Leafa placed her hands on the sides of the pedestal. Donis moved around behind her and pushed his already re-hardened manhood into her rear end, and at the same time pushed two fingers into her womanhood. Leafa gasped and began to moan as Donis rammed into her. The entire time she kept her eyes on the crystal, becoming lost in the images she was seeing and the raw pleasure she was experiencing.
As time went on, Leafa was barely aware that Donis seemed to be chanting something. The words seemed to be of some unknown language. One word from the chant that seemed to stick out to Leafa was the word, Azathoth. She didn't know what the word meant, but it seemed to have some kind of significance. Yet whatever that significance was, Leafa hardly cared. After what almost seemed like eons, Leafa and Donis both came to another hard climax. The force of the orgasm had almost caused Leafa to pass out.
Only a split second after Donis and Leafa's moment of climax, the water of the pool flashed with an orange light. Soon after, the crystal glowed and shot a pillar of that same light into the sky, breaking a large hole in the grey clouds above. As Leafa came down from her high, Donis turned her around and gently pulled her close. At the same time, a digital countdown clock appeared above the crystal and started ticking away.
"It won't be long now." Donis declared.
"…Won't be long until what?" Leafa asked.
"Until this world changed for the better." Donis answered. "Now that the door has finally been unlocked, a new and glorious age will begin."
Author's Note: A few of you reading may recall from this story's introduction (that is if anyone bothered to read it) that the inspiration for this story came from the Calibur arc of the actual series. Specifically, I was inspired by how the Cardinal System would apparently just spontaneously generate new quests from things it would find online. It's a shame that the series didn't explore that little feature too much. But it got me to thinking about what might happen if there was some kind of glitch that caused the system to put things into the game that just didn't really belong there.
Please review and let me know what you think.