A/N: This chapter took me a little bit longer than I thought. Work is still crazy with days of 14 hours and some personal stuff is happening too. But as it looks now, both will calm down in a couple of days and Pease will return again. I am working hard to write the next chapters as the final chapter comes closer and closer. Enjoy.

Chapter 15

I had no idea that being in a relationship requires this much planning. My evenings I wanted to spend with Lizbeth, so during the day I had to train with Crimson. We did it now this way for almost a week and it went fine. Mostly because Crimson took 2 days of from training so I could be with Lizbeth those days. But this day wasn't one of those.

He wanted to leave early today so we left the house around 8AM, but decided to eat breakfast first before taking the teleport gate, so we took place on the plaza, slowly eating our food.

"I think it is safe to say that things with Lizbeth are going great?" He asked.

"You can say that yes. Why do you ask?"

"Just curious. The mornings if you are together, you both leave the bedroom at the end of the morning or even later. You never did that before."

"We are just happy that we can spend some time together, that's all." I said laughing.

The arrival of a new visitor made us stop our conversation. The visitor looked around until it spotted me and walked my way.

"Good morning Exia. And who might this be?" Heathcliff asked.

"Good morning Heathcliff, this is Crimson. Crimson, this is Heathcliff, leader of the KoB."

"Good morning sir." Crimson replied to Heathcliff.

"I see. I can assume that this is your brother Exia?"

"That is right." I replied.

"Good to meet you Crimson. You look really powerful. I am glad to see you are doing this good in this game."

"Thank you sir." Crimson replied.

"What brings you here Heathcliff?" I asked.

"I came to see you. Can we talk in private or don't you mind that your brother hears it?"

"That depends. What do you want to talk about?"

"The next boss fight."

"Then he can hear it. Did they find the boss room?"

"No not yet, but we are close. There isn't much space left to explore so we should find it this day or tomorrow. After that, we send in a recon group to look at the boss. My question is if you would like to join the recon group?"

"To be honest, no I won't. I will join the raid but I have no intension of joining the recon."

"That doesn't matter as long you can help with the raid. But during that fight, will you attack or defense if I may ask?"

"I will see then. During the meeting before the raid, I will listen to the information and will see then. Since I have room to switch, it doesn't really matter."

"That is true. Thank you for your answer and I will contact you when we plan the raid."

"That is alright."

"If I may ask one more thing, Crimson, with your strength we could really use you on the front line. May I ask why you aren't?"

I knew what he was trying to do. I braced myself but it wasn't needed.

"I lack the experience needed for that. Yes I am strong, but experience is needed to be able to survive on the front line. I am training hard so maybe I will join them someday." Crimson calmly answered.

"I understand. If it is experience you miss, why don't you join the KoB? We will get you those in no time and even make you stronger then you can dream of. We also have a lot of beautiful girls in our guild."

What I was afraid of happened. Heathcliff tried to convince Crimson to join the KoB and didn't mind using the dirtiest tricks to get him. As I looked over to look at Crimson, I could see him thinking about the offer. I stood up and grabbed a throwing knife from my upper leg.

"Didn't I warn you about this? Or did you forget it already?" I said angry while standing directly in front of him.

"I didn't forget it, but I need someone for in the recon group."

"And you really think I will join the recon now? Maybe you should think this trough."

"Oh I have. It is really simple. Or you join the recon group, or he will. That isn't hard right?"

"And what else are you going to do if I refuse?"

"I don't think the other players will be happy with you cheating."

"And I don't think you want me to tell them about you. So what will it be?"

"That is something for you to decide. The recon group will be ready at HQ in 2 hours from now. Make sure you are there before then. Otherwise players will gang up on you after the raid. And if you don't join the raid, they will know just before it. Choose wisely."

"I will. But maybe you should watch your back too."

He slowly walked away and took the gate. The moment he was completely gone, I put the knife back in my pocket and turned to Crimson. He sat there in shock, trying to understand what just happened.

"Why did you do that?" He started.

"I won't let you join the KoB. Your level is high enough for the front line so they will put you there right away. You won't survive that."

"But now you have to join the recon. And if you don't, he will tell them you are a cheater."

"I won't join the recon. I know too much about him, so he is just bluffing."

"And if he isn't? What do you know about him that makes you think that?"

"It is better that you don't know that. But we will see after the next boss raid. It doesn't help to worry about that now."

"I… I understand. Do you mind that we won't train now? I am not in the mood."

"I know. To be honest, I am not in the mood either. Let's go back."

We slowly moved back towards Lizbeth's Shop. She was surprised to see us back so soon and we decided to talk about it later. I decided to take a nice bath and walked into the bathroom.

After around 10 minutes a small knock came from the door.

"Exia. Is it alright if I come in?" Lizbeth asked.

"Sure." I replied surprised and quickly took a lot of soap to cover myself up.

Because the door wasn't locked, she opened it and closed it behind her. She slowly moved to the small chair next to the bath and sat down.

"Crimson told me what happened."

"I see." I said surprised.

"I understand why you did this. But are you sure it is the right way? I do know that if he says anything about you, you will say things that will damage his reputation more. But still. If it is true what you told me before, is it really smart to challenge him like that?"

"I don't know. I think he is bluffing but I can be wrong. But I won't let him hurt Crimson. And he doesn't control me. I won that dual so I didn't had to join the KoB, so he isn't my boss. I will join the raid, and if it is needed use Sword Birth to switch to the Holy Sword or Dual Blades. I don't mind if they find that out anymore. I will use anything to defeat this game and to make sure you and Crimson will return to the other world alive. I promise you."

A tear dropped from her eye after I had said that.

"I trust you and will believe in you." She said before walking out of the bathroom.

When I exited myself and walked in the living room I noticed Crimson sitting there with his face pointed towards the ground.

"I am sorry for telling her but I didn't know what else to do." He slowly said.

"It doesn't matter. You did right so stop worrying know. It will be fine, I promise."

As he looked up to me, a small smile appeared on his face.

"You also said that when you offered me your second copy of this game."

"You are still alive so did I lie?" I said while smiling back to him.

We both laughed. The rest of the day we helped Lizbeth around the shop. Testing swords she made and stuff like that. Everything was fine and we forgot about what happened in the morning. That was until I received a message later that day. It was from Heathcliff.

"The boss room has been found. Halve of the recon team had entered the room and the door closed behind them. After 5 minutes the door opened again and the 10 that had entered had died. The raid will be in 4 hours, gathering is at the teleport gate plaza of the 75th floor."

Lizbeth had read it with me and we both were stood there. Crimson was outside and didn't know I had this messages.

"If I have to believe this message, the boss is really strong and you can't escape the room." She said.

"And we don't have any information or attack patterns. So we will go in blank."

"Do you have to go?"

"I think I do. They could use my extra skill. I can attack with 2 sword if it is needed or take defense with a really strong shield for that."

"What will you tell Crimson?"

"Maybe it is better if he doesn't know too much about this. He was really worried about what happened this morning so if he hears about this, he will be worried again."

"That is true."

We checked my equipment together and repaired or polished if it was needed. I checked my map so track Kirito so see if he was joining the raid as well and saw him and Asuna at the HQ of the KoB. That means they would most likely join. After that I told Crimson that I was going to the raid later this day. He understood I needed to go.

They walked with me to the teleport gate.

"Be safe bro." Crimson said.

"Don't do anything dangerous." Lizbeth said.

I fist bumped with Crimson and took Lizbeth in my arms after that.

"Don't worry about me. I will see you soon." I said before kissing her.

I walked in the teleport gate and looked at them both before teleport myself to the 75th floor.