Disclaimer: I do not own Sword Art Online (or the works of H.P. Lovecraft).
Chapter 19: Virtual Adonis
"Donis, this… this can't be true. Can it?" a horrified Leafa asked, again on the verge of tears. "This is some kind of joke, right? You're not… really this thing… are you?"
"Tell me something, Nyarlathotep. Why did you decide to use my form for your little disguise?" Kirito asked.
"I needed a woman to activate the key that would bring forth Azathoth." Nyarlathotep explained. "For that reason, I decided that I would need to enlist as many women followers as possible, hoping that one of them would have the requirements I needed. So I scoured your world for one who had a way with women so I could borrow his form. You, my friend, fit those specifications exactly."
"He chose daddy's avatar as a disguise based on his amount of interaction with female players!" Yui realized.
"In other words, being a babe magnet totally worked against him." Klein restated.
"I became the Adonis of their dreams." Nyarlathotep continued. "The young man who they all fantasized about in the middle of the night. You should feel honored Kirito. They same that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Being imitated by someone as great as me should be the greatest compliment of all."
"You bastard!" Kirito cursed. "You used my sister, my friends and all those other players for this twisted plan of yours! I'm gonna make you pay!"
"You're more than welcome to try." Nyarlathotep dared as he drew his two swords. "To be honest, I've actually been quite eager for this battle. Come at me with all you've got!"
Kirito cried out as he charged at Nyarlathotep with Excalibur raised in the air. When he came in range he swung down the gold sword with all his strength to cut the alien god the chest, only for Nyarlathotep to block the attack with one of his own blade. Kirito then hit Nyarlathotep in the side with the Master's Blade, causing him to cry out in pain and his body to flash with negative colors. Yet unlike the time Kirito had fought the god of madness when he was Donis, Nyarlathotep's HP gauge had only dropped by a relatively small amount.
"That sword of yours is a real problem." Nyarlathotep remarked as he recovered from the attack. "Fortunately in my current form I'm not as weak against it as I was when we last faced each other."
"Shouldn't we help Kirito with this battle?" Siune asked. "I mean this is a boss fight, isn't it?"
"It's better that we stay out of the way in this battle." Asuna answered. "This is has become very personal for Kirito."
"Besides, that Nyarlathotep jerk only has one HP gauge." Klein added. "How tough can he really be to take down?"
Kirito and Nyarlathotep continued to clash blades. Their movements were so fast that it was hard for the others to follow exactly what was going on. Kirito had managed to strike a few more blows with the Master's Blade, leaving the god of madness with only a little more than half of his original HP. At the same time though, Nyarlathotep had managed to force Kirito back quite a few steps. Later on in the battle Kirito dropped his guard for only a split second, which gave Nyarlathotep an opening to slash Kirito in the chest five times. The attack brought Kirito's HP gauge into the low yellow.
"You've endured me much longer than I thought you would." Nyarlathotep remarked as Kirito tried to catch his breath. "Keep in mind that I know exactly how you fight. I was posing as you, after all. A better version of you."
"Don't think for a second that you were ever better than me." Kirito told him. "You're just a cheap con artist who used my face! There's no way in hell that a copy is better than the genuine article."
"Your dear Leafa seemed to think differently." Nyarlathotep told him. "After all, I was able to satisfy her in a way that you never could."
Upon hearing this, Kirito cried out and swung Excalibur towards Nyarlathotep's face. The alien god quickly brought up the sword in his right hand to block the strike, but Kirito's golden sword broke the blade in half.
Nyarlathotep looked at his broken sword. "It seems I've struck a nerve."
Kirito renewed his attack and slashed wildly at Nyarlathotep. The god of madness could only block one sword strike at a time with his second sword broken. Within seconds Nyarlathotep's HP gauge had been reduced to a red sliver. As soon as Kirito saw an opening, he swung the Master's Blade towards Nyarlathotep's side. Leafa called out to him to stop, but the black swordsman was deaf to her pleas as he sliced into Nyarlathotep, cutting him in half. Nyarlathotep's HP went to zero and the two halves of his body shattered into blue polygons.
With Nyarlathotep finished, Kirito walked back over to the others. "It's over."
"I'm afraid that the battle is not over yet, fairy swordsman." The Traveler told him. "The Crawling Chaos has not been finished off yet."
Suddenly the air became filled by the laughter of a chorus of strange voices more haunting than the musical piping noise created by the wing blowing through Leng. The voices were all of different pitches, and to the team it sounded like there were thousands of them.
"Foolish fairies." The chorus spoke. "You may have defeated one of my avatars, but I have many more of them to choose from. I believe I have one that will properly illustrate my point."
Suddenly a small glob of grey flesh appeared in the air where Nyarlathotep once stood and quickly began to expand. In seconds the glob began to take the shape of a large creature with the body of a hairless grey feline with a cord-like tail. A head sprouted from the body of the creature, but it was not the head of a lion or any sort of cat. The head was more like that of a human, only it lacked a face. Not even a pair of eyes or a mouth was even present. Appearing on the creature's head with a strange black mist was the black and red headdress of an Egyptian pharaoh. Bands of black metal appeared around the creature's ankles with the same black mist.
A pair of massive red-feathered wings sprouted on the feline monster's back. On the front of each wing towards the top was a large yellow feline eye with a slit pupil. A red cursor appeared above the creature's head along with five HP gauges. Right above the cursor in white letters was the name, "Nyarlathotep the Faceless God".
"I am the essence of chaos itself!" Nyarlathotep declared in a deep growling voice. "I am formless but at the same time have many forms! I am infinite! And there is no way that a group of pathetic insects like you can defeat me!"
The Traveler banged his staff on the ground, causing the top of it to give off a brilliant flash of white light. Kirito's HP quickly went back to a hundred percent, and soon after the HP and MP gauges of everyone on the team went up beyond their normal limits, as did Leafa's.
"The true battle begins now." The Traveler told them. "If the Crawling Chaos is not stopped here, he will spread the madness of Azathoth to every corner of the world."
"Who are you, anyway?" Kirito asked the old man.
The Traveler merely smirked. "You will know when the time comes."
"Well, it looks like we've found ourselves in another boss fight." Klein observed. "And a real nasty one too."
"This won't be like any other boss fight we've been in." Yui told them. "Because Nyarlathotep is an A.I., he won't be following any sort of attack pattern."
"In other words, we better be ready for anything." Kirito realized. "I don't think anyone has faced a boss driven by an A.I. before, so who knows Nyarlathotep is capable of?"
"Siune, can you handle healing everyone on your own?" Asuna requested. "It's probably better if I help out on the front lines against an enemy like this."
"Don't worry. I've got it covered." Siune assured her.
Lisbeth accessed her inventory menu and caused a sword to appear in her hand, which she then handed to Asuna. "Here Asuna. This rapier is made from the metal found down in the mound. It should give you an edge against… that thing."
"Thanks Liz." Asuna replied as she took the sword.
"Hey Sinon. You ready for this?" Lisbeth asked the archer.
"Huh?" Sinon responded as if suddenly shaken from her thoughts. "Oh. Yeah. Let's do this."
"Sugu, you ready?" Kirito asked. Leafa was frozen and seemed to be staring off into space. "Sugu?"
"Let her be for right now, Kirito." Asuna told him as she placed a hand on his shoulder. "I don't think she's in any condition to fight at the moment."
Kirito turned his attention back to Nyarlathotep. "Okay then… let's go!"
Asuna, Kirito, Lisbeth and Klein charged at the faceless sphinx with their weapons raised. At the same time, Sinon took aim with her bow and quickly fired two arrows in quick succession. The arrows struck Nyarlathotep on the spot of his missing face and took small chunks off his first HP. Kirito and Asuna took off into the air with their wings while Klein and Lisbeth continued to charge in from the ground. As soon as Lisbeth and Klein came in range, Nyarlathotep swatted them away with his right paw.
Meanwhile, Kirito flew in from the left and slashed at Nyarlathotep several times with his swords. At the same time, Asuna flew in from the right and hit the faceless sphinx with a Mother's Rosario attack. Both attacks combined with a few more arrows from Sinon reduced Nyarlathotep's first HP gauge to less than half of what it originally was. Nyarlathotep turned around and attempted to swat Asuna away with one of his paws. Asuna quickly flew back to evade the attack. Soon after, Kirito got above the faceless sphinx and stabbed him in the back with the Master's Blade. Back on the ground, Lisbeth and Klein had gotten back up and began attacking Nyarlathotep's hind legs.
As Kirito continued attacking Nyarlathotep's back, the eyes on his wings began to glow red. Suddenly the sphinx's body began to give off a fiery orange aura and his body seemed to heat up, forcing Kirito to fly off. The eyes on Nyarlathotep's wings began to fire off a barrage of red laser beams in almost every direction. Asuna and Kirito somehow managed to avoid the attack, but everyone else ended up getting hit. The team regrouped on the ground and Siune used her healing magic on them.
"Yui sure wasn't kidding. This guy doesn't fight like a normal boss." Klein told the others. "His attacks seem kinda random. It's probably gonna take hours to take him down, that is if we even can."
"We don't really have that kind of time." Kirito told him.
"What do you mean?" Lisbeth asked.
"It's probably better right now if you don't know." Kirito answered as he exchanged a look with Asuna. "Let's just hit him as fast and as hard as we can!"
With that, Kirito and the others began to charge at Nyarlathotep again. Only seconds after they did though, Nyarlathotep flapped his wings and hit the team with a wave of a strange yellow energy. The attack did not to any damage, but Kirito and the others seemed to be completely frozen. Even the arrows that Sinon had just fired seemed to be suspended in midair. Kirito was totally aware of what was going on around him. He couldn't move a muscle, but by his HP gauge he could see a strange icon that resembled an hourglass. The only ones besides Nyarlathotep who didn't appear to be frozen were the Traveler and Leafa, and it was at the point when Kirito and the others had become frozen when she seemed to snap out of the trance she had been in.
Nyarlathotep chuckled. "I could've hurled you back to before the dawn of time itself, but I decided that it'd be more fun to freeze time in the space around you for a bit so I could torture you."
The faceless sphinx flapped his red wings again, and from his wings shot forth several bolts of red lightning that shocked Kirito and the others. The team members remained frozen where they were, but their HP gauges had dropped into the red zone.
"Can't take much punishment in this state, can you?" Nyarlathotep observed. "Ah well. I was beginning to grow board with all of you anyway."
"Donis! Nyarlathotep!" Leafa called, getting the faceless god's attention. "Please… stop this! I… I don't want you doing this to my brother."
"Why dear Leafa. I nearly forgot about you." Nyarlathotep responded. "I'll be with you in a moment after I destroy Kirito and his friends."
"No. I want you to stop this." Leafa told him as she got between the sphinx and Kirito. "Can't… can't we just go back to the way things were? Can't you go back to being Donis? I'll… I'll do whatever you want me to do if you'll just stop this and go back to being the man I… I…"
Nyarlathotep let out a cold chuckle. "You foolish girl. Haven't you realized by now that you were only a means to an end? You served your purpose by helping me open the gate, but now your usefulness is at an end. I had thought about keeping you around for further amusement, but that no longer seems possible. Once I'm done with Kirito, you shall be the next to die."
Tears began to roll down Leafa's cheeks. "I see… so none of what we had was ever real. It was all just a big trick."
"Sorry to disappoint you." Nyarlathotep told her. "If it's any consolation though, I found you to be quite good in bed."
At those words, Leafa cried out and drew the sword she used for fighting the creatures in the mound. The blonde swung the blade as hard as she could and sent forth a blast of energy up at the faceless sphinx. A ball of transparent energy appeared around Nyarlathotep's head and shocked him before exploding, taking another chunk off his first HP gauge. Before Nyarlathotep could fully recover, Leafa flew towards him and slashed him in the spot where his face would've been with the blade. The eyes on Nyarlathotep's wings began to glow and send a barrage of laser beams at Leafa. The beams hit their target and took a large amount off of Leafa's HP. Leafa recovered and fell back a ways to fired another blast from her sword, but before she could launch the attack Nyarlathotep swatted her away with his paw.
The attack knocked Leafa to the ground and also broke her sword in half. The two halves of the sword shattered apart into blue polygons.
"Now you've lost your best weapon against me." Nyarlathotep observed as Leafa got back to her feet. "What are you going to do now that you no longer have a sword?"
"You forget, Donis. I do have another sword." Leafa reminded him as she accessed her menu. "The sword you helped me to get the material for!"
Leafa's Tempest Sword appeared at her waist with a blue flash. The blonde took off back into the air as she drew the blade and managed to slash Nyarlathotep again on the front of his faceless head. Unfortunately the attack didn't do as much damaged as the attack with her other sword had caused. Nyarlathotep growled and fired more energy beams from the eyes on his wings. The beams curved and struck Leafa where she hovered as they had done before. Leafa's sword broke and her HP fell to zero.
Leafa managed to float back to the ground and turned to face Kirito. "Kaztuo… I'm sorry."
With that, Leafa began a floating ball of phosphorescent green flames. Kirito would have called Leafa's name had his body hadn't been frozen.
Nyarlathotep let out another cold chuckle. "What a foolish girl. She tried so hard to protect those she cared about, and in the end it was all for nothing. And now, Kirito… it is time to finish this!"
The faceless sphinx fired more bolts of red lightning from his wings at Kirito and the rest of the team. Before the attack could hit though, the Traveler hit the ground with his staff and a wall of white light appeared in front of the team and blocked the attack. When the wall vanished, the icon by Kirito's HP gauge vanished and he and the others found that they were no longer frozen. The arrows that Sinon had fired continued on their path and struck Nyarlathotep, at last brining his first HP gauge into the red zone.
"This has gone on long enough!" the Traveler declared. "Now that I have seen the extent of your power, I can no longer afford to remain idle."
"You dare to interfere with me, old man?" Nyarlathotep asked. "I demand to know who you are!"
Suddenly the Traveler began to glow with a blinding white light that caused Kirito and the others to turn around. When the light cleared, the Traveler had grown into a giant that stood at about twenty feet tall. His long white beard grew half way down his chest, and a gold metal patch covered one of his eyes. The old man was dressed in white robes with golden armor covering his chest and shoulders. In his right hand he held a long golden spear with a large pointed head decorated with gold wings at its base. A green cursor appeared above the old giant's head along with five HP gauges. Above his cursor in white letters was the name, Odin.
"Whoa! That is one badass-looking Santa." Klein remarked.
"That's Odin, the king of the Norse gods." Kirito identified. "The Traveler was only a disguise, just like how Thor had disguised himself during the Excalibur quest."
"Well, at least he didn't disguise himself as a cute girl the way Thor did." Klein recalled. "That was one hell of a disappointment."
"So, an Elder God has come to oppose me." Nyarlathotep observed. "You waste your time, you old fool! You are powerless to stop the coming of my kind to this realm!"
"This land is the kingdom of my people, Nyarlathotep." Odin told him. "As long as I draw breath, I will fight to the end to protect it! You and your loathsome kind are not welcome here!"
Nyarlathotep chuckled. "It is pointless to oppose us. The universe is nothing more than a chaotic existence marching endlessly towards oblivion. Nothing you do here will ever change that."
"There may be some truth to what you say, foul one." Odin admitted. "Even so, we shall fight with everything we have to drive you madness away!"
With that, Odin aimed his spear at Nyarlathotep and fired a beam of white light from the spearhead. The faceless god cried out in pain as the beam struck him in the chest. Nyarlathotep's first HP gauge went to zero and a quarter of his second HP gauge was taken off. The sphinx retaliated by firing beams of energy from his eyes at the Norse god. Odin endured the attack but lot a good-sized chunk off his first HP gauge.
Meanwhile, Kirito saw the flame that had once been Leafa flicker away to nothing. "Let's get back in there. Odin can't take Nyarlathotep down by himself. Besides, if we just stand her and let those two fight it out, everything Sugu did for us will have been for nothing."
"Then let's go." Asuna decided. "This has gone on long enough."
The team charged back into battle as Odin carried on his attacks against Nyarlathotep. Kirito and Asuna attacked from the sides by the air while Lisbeth and Klein attacked from the rear. Sinon backed Odin up as best she could with her arrows. After several minutes of fighting, Nyarlathotep's final HP gauge had been reduced to a red sliver. The faceless sphinx seemed to be catching his breath.
"It's over!" Kirito told Nyarlathotep. "It's just a guess, but I'm thinking that you won't be able to use another avatar once this one's defeated. You've probably reached your limit."
"Perhaps." Nyarlathotep admitted. "But though you may have defeated me, you are too late to stop the age of madness that is to come. In the end, chaos will always win."
Kirito said nothing and slashed Nyarlathotep down the middle of his head with the Master's Blade. The faceless god's HP gauge went to zero and his body shattered into blue polygons. The large message of congratulations that normally appeared when a boss was defeated showed up as Kirito landed on the ground.
"It's finally over." Asuna observed.
"Are we sure he's gone this time?" Klein asked. "I mean he came back before when Kirito beat that other human avatar of his."
"No. This time I think it really is over." Kirito assured him. "Even though Nyarlathotep was an A.I., this battle we just had with him was still part of a game event."
"That's right. It seems that the battle had two parts." Yui observed. "The first part was a battle with Nyarlathotep's pharaoh form, and the second was the actual boss battle where Nyarlathotep takes on a more monstrous form."
"Whatever this was, I'm glad it's over." Lisbeth declared. "Let's log out of here so I can take a shower. The fact that I ever got it on with that… thing just makes my skin crawl."
Suddenly a digital clock face appeared above the crystal key in the middle of the pool and went to zero. The crystal then glowed and fired a beam of orange light into the sky. A massive dark hole began to form in the clouds where the light had struck.
"What's happening?" an alarmed Siune asked.
"The door that the Crawling Chaos sought to unlock has been opened." Odin answered. "I'm afraid that Azathoth will soon be among us."
Author's Note: I hope that Odin's sudden appearance in this story didn't seem too… "convenient", for lack of a better term. When I planned this story originally, I felt that it made sense that one of the Norse gods would try and interfere with Nyarlathotep. And considering how powerful Nyarlathotep and Azathoth were said to be, I decided that the one to interfere should be the king of the Norse Gods himself. I suppose I could've gone with Thor, but he was already used in the anime and I felt like that would've been too "Marvel Comics" (not that being that would've been a bad thing).
Please review and let me know what you think.