Keku, the Prince of Chaos
Chapter 2: Dungeon
Que the characters!
"Ok! Welcome to my channel! Today, my guild and I, the ALO Clearing Front, will be challenging the final boss of the game! There has been no official information released on the boss, only a lot of speculation. Today, we are going to be the first to challenge him!"
This was being transmitted live to MMO Stream, and had hundreds of viewers, both in-game and out. Two amongst these were Asuna and Leafa, who were watching from a bar in Alné, which was at the foot of the world tree.
"Ok, let's go!" The party leader gave the camera man a thumbs up and pushed open the massive ebony door. It swung in smoothly, only to reveal absolute darkness beyond. The party leader drew his sword and shuffled inside slightly. "Can we have some light?" He asked.
Someone chanted a spell and threw a ball of light into the space. It abruptly fizzled out.
"What? How did that work?" Someone cried in the group.
"I am sure we will find out soon." The leader grunted, walking into the darkness, gesturing for the rest of the guild to follow.
Asuna had looked on the ALO Wiki, and there was indeed, just speculation on the final boss of the game. The only thing that had been released by the company was a name:
Keku, the Prince of Chaos.
Someone had done extensive research on the name, and it turns out Keku was the Egyptian personification of Darkness and Chaos, but otherwise, it was just guesswork and stupid assumptions.
The Party leader jerked as wild laughing echoed through the room.
"Form up! Get ready!" The order made the party members become a tortoise, tanks on the outside and magi on the inside.
A dull, pulsing purple light began to beat like a heart at the end of the massive hall. The manic laughing continuing to echo through the room. Asuna squinted, and could see a black silhouette in the pulsing purple on a spiky triangular throne. The pulsing began to speed up, until one beat when the entire room was illuminated with purple light. The light was blinding for a moment, then it lowered in intensity and she gasped. Sitting on a black crystal throne, head down, was Kazuto. His head shot up, staring across at the clearing party, a half smile plastered across his pale face. Asuna gasped.
What has happened to you, Kazuto?
The figure leaned forwards and jumped to a incredible height, landing half-way down the hall with a thunderous crash. Standing in the middle of the hall was now the figure they could all see clearly. He was pretty short. He wore a long overcoat that seemed to be made of complete and utter darkness, absorbing all light that touched it. He also wore a regal looking dark grey tunic, and long black pants. There were two swords sheathed across his back. He looked up, eyes flashing the same complete darkness as his cloak before returning to steel-grey. He clicked his fingers and shadows leapt up around him, curling around him and swishing around his legs like eager dogs and waves. Then, his health bars appeared. A whole six bars appeared next to his body, and finally above his head the words:
≪Keku, The Prince of Chaos≫
He turned back to the party, who all tensed at his gaze.
"You came here to kill me?" He asked with barely suppressed glee. The entire raid group flinched back and tensed up at the sound of his voice. "I won't let that happen!" with that, Keku raised his left hand. Shadows leapt up from every corner of the room, rushing towards the boss like water draining from a sink. Around and behind him was what seemed to be a black mist that absorbed the shadows made of millions of tiny black particles that swirled in the nonexistent air currents. He put his thumb and fore-finger together. The mist coalesced into thousands of spears made of pure darkness, shadows swishing behind them like eager dogs' tails. With that, Keku snapped his fingers, and the entire wall of spears shot forwards like a thousand bullets, a terrible roar of death and destruction it-self cloaked in darkness. The casters didn't have time to create a shield, and the spears of darkness impaled every member of the group, some dozens of times. As one, the entire raid group dissipated into polygons, except for one, the one who was filming the first raid, and the representative of MMO Stream.
Said member shuffled backwards, crying out as Keku walked forwards, drawing a sword as he went. The man tripped and fell, staring up into the youthful face.
"You are from MMO Stream, right?" Keku asked threateningly. The man hastily nodded. "Then that 'battle' has been broadcasted to all the MMOs out there, and it on live television?" The man nodded again. Keku cleared his throat. "As a message to all VRMMO players, I. AM. HERE. Come and get me! As a challenge to your very pride as a gamer yourself! Fight me, fall by my hand and my blade! For the one that defeats me, Keku, shall become the ruler of all Seed based VRMMOs! THAT. I. PROMISE!"
"As of today, this dungeon shall be available for access in Alfheim Online, Gun Gale Online and Dragon-Rider Online! Any items are alowed in, these include vehicles and dragons! However, I assure you I WILL NOT BE BEAT." With that, Kirito drove his sword through the film man, killing him. The feed returned to the commentators box for MMO Stream, and Asuna could only sit there, shocked. The murmuring of the commentator brought her back.
"These claims, now that I think about it are highly plausible. RCT has recently signed contracts with the companies responsible for both GGO and DRO. But this is a huge step in VRMMOs! Let's just hope GGO doesn't decide to invade ALO with jets or something!"
"Leafa, we need to challenge him as soon as possible." Asuna said, standing up. Sugu nodded.
"Giiiyaaaahhh!" Asuna yelled as she stabbed a skeleton through the chest. It exploded into polygons and dissipated but another was already walking towards her. She panted and gripped her rapier in front of her. She glanced across and saw Leafa finish off a skeleton.
Suddenly, a massive roar filled the hall and several of the skeletons in front of her exploded. Asuna realised with a jolt that that was a gun shot. She looked around wildly as more of the Corrupted Skeletons walked forwards. She cut downwards through the head of another drone, killing it with a crit. She was only paying half attention, still looking for the Sniper.
The clink of the shell being expelled as she pulled back the bolt and the new one loading filled the space between shots. I am a machine. A machine machine of ice. Sinon looked back down the scope, zeroing in on another of the Corrupted Skeleton. She applied light pressure to the trigger and the bullet prediction circle appeared, fluctuating to the beating of her heart. She pulled the trigger and the massive roar of the Ratio Ultima Hécate II, a 50. Caliber anti-materiel rifle echoed through the hall.
The bullet covered the distance in little time at all, traveling strait through the weak mobs as if they were paper. The lore around these was that the skeletons themselves were animated by the power of chaos, and they had purple eyes and energy swirling around inside them. As she reloaded, she noted that the two faeries were glancing around with barely suppressed fear, looking for her. She pressed her finger to the trigger again, making the bullet prediction circle appear. She knew that the two fairies would see the prediction line now, and see that she didn't have any intention to shoot them.
When all the mobs were eradicated, Sinon folded the bipod and slung the massive rifle over her shoulder by the strap and packed the spare clips into her clothing. She walked towards the two faeries.
The blue haired one sheathed her rapier at her hip and glared at Sinon. The other one, a golden blond rested her hands on her knees and panted something serious.
"Uwah! That was intense!" The blond panted.
"Leafa, get up." The blue haired one stated, resting her hand gently but threateningly on the hilt of her sword. "What are you here for?"
"Same as you, I want to challenge the boss." Sinon replied, curtly.
"You aren't going to make it far, considering you are support." The blue one said, cuttingly.
"I can make it on my own." Sinon shot back. Suddenly the blue one's eyes lit up, she drew her rapier and shot passed Sinon, stabbing a Corrupted Skeleton that had somehow evaded previous extermination. The blue one turned back to her.
"Tell you what, you join our party and you get the final hit. The boss is humanoid right? We distract him and you put a bullet in his head." The fierceness in the blue ones eyes was something to fear, but there seemed to be a dash of sadness."I am Asuna, and this is Leafa."
"Sinon." She replied. "To the next room then?" She prompted, and Asuna nodded. Sinon strode towards the next doorway.
"Your negotiation skills are infallible Asuna." Sinon heard behind her. She sighed.
Keku stood in front of his throne, shoulders hunched over and looking at the Elucidator.
A memory passed through his mind, causing him to shiver violently and fall to his knees. He flinched from something only he could see, the shivering intensifying.
At that moment, a small ringing sound brought his attention to the massive ebony door at the end of the room. It swung open and a massive engine sound filled the hall. A massive M1-Abrams (1) drove into the room, several foot soldiers walking beside it, peering into the penetrating darkness. A sadistic smile slid onto Keku's face as the purple pulsing light began to fill the hall. He stood up, sliding the Dark Repulser from its sheath, the scraping sound filling the hall.
The foot soldiers' eyes widened at the sound, and they tensed, red prediction lines appearing from the barrels. Keku smiled and walked calmly down the centre of the hall, both swords drawn. With the final flash the room was lit up and Keku stood in the middle of the hall. The massive turret on swivelled around and zeroed in on Keku. Time seemed to slow as the barrel of the tank let out a massive flower of flame, the conical shell left the centre, spinning slightly, flying right towards Keku. He smirked and jumped, cleaving upwards with the Dark Repulser in his left hand. The shell flew dead centre, and when it came into contact with the iridescent green sword it was completely cleaved in half, the two sides flying either side of Keku. He landed on the ground in a crouch as the two halves of the explosive detonated either side behind him. There was complete silence for a whole moment.
"RELOAD, DONT JUST SIT THERE!" someone cried from inside the tank. A heavy clanking sound resonated inside the hull. Keku smirked again and sped forwards, his massive speed stat making him look like a black streak of lightning. Bullet prediction lines appeared around him and he effortlessly evaded the incoming cones of metal. A sadistic smile cracked his face in half and he started laughing again.
"Lights out!"
(1) A M1-Abrams is a American tank, and used in our own Australian army (and other countries too) and is freaking awesome. Look it up. You can also play with it in BF4 as a main battle tank for the US.
There you have it! Sinon has now been thrown into the mix! As the chapters go on, Kazuto seems further and further gone, but do not fear! There will be more characters joining too, so watch out for the next chapter!
Lights out!
Fundindar