Ten Swords

by Plasma Knight

What would become of the 6,147 players of Sword Art Online had Kirito fallen to Heathcliff on the 75th floor? Obviously, they would need to find the courage to press on, even without him. If a single sword can get you anywhere in Castle Aincrad, how far can ten go? For there were indeed ten unique skills. This is the tale of those ten swords.

6. Many Kinds, Many Places

The following is a non-profit fan-based creative work. Sword Art Online is owned by ASCII Media Works, Yen Press, and Reki Kawahara. Please support the official releases.

---

I didn't really know what to expect from the second floor before we got there. I hadn't really given it much thought. Back then I was just focusing on surviving in this world, not on going out to take in the sights or wonder what was coming next. If I'd paused to think about what might lay ahead (or above, rather), I might have even guessed each floor was like the first: a fairly generic grassland for a main area, with the side areas featuring more interesting geography.

I was wrong, of course. Castle Aincrad would soon reveal itself to have many many environments. Back then I didn't pause to think about the purpose of all of them - at least in the game's lore.

But I received a hint that I didn't recognize even that early on.

And alongside it, I learned that the people I met going up would change just as much as the floors did.

---

It was a few hours into the opening of the second floor - they'd had to return to the Town of Beginnings to use the teleport gate, after all - before they finally set foot on the new play space. Shirou was blasted by a warm, dry wind the moment the light of teleportation faded, and he winced. After a second or two he carefully opened his eyes, and saw that it was darker wherever he was now than the Town of Beginnings had been. Once he could finally see, he found himself surrounded by buildings that looked far more rugged than those in the starting city. So this was another town.

It was shady wherever he was, but not because of the buildings. They weren't that tall. Craning his neck upward, he saw a cliff wall looming high in the distance. Looking around, he saw the cliff enclosed the city. The city must have been built in a crater or a canyon, though he couldn't tell whether it was natural or artificial.

"Welcome to Urbus, everyone," said Chigusa. Hands on her hips, she was looking this way and that. "Hasn't changed much from the Beta, but I wouldn't expect it to."

"What's this floor like?" asked Seriyuha.

"Mostly savanna and mountains," said Chigusa, "lots of ox and buffalo enemies, they won't pull any tricks on us but they're a lot tougher than the stuff we saw on the first floor."

Shirou grimaced the mental image of a buffalo running him down. And he'd thought the boars seemed bad. "Think we'll be okay out there?" he asked.

"Oh yeah," Chigusa said with a wave of her arm, "after all the fighting we did back on the first floor we'll be fine as long as we're smart out there."

"Where do you think we should go first?" asked Seriyuha. She was facing Chigusa, apparently satisfied with her inspection of Urbus.

"I think we aught to cut straight south to a range called Dragon Valley. Large lizards spawn there that give pretty good exp if I remember right," said Chigusa.

Seriyuha opened her mouth and Chigusa quickly added, "Also, only us beta testers will know about it. That was coming next, huh?"

Seriyuha grinned back. "Yes. Like back on the first floor, we should focus on seeing how strong we can get."

"So are we actually going to help with the Labyrinth this time?" asked Shirou, though he could guess the answer.

"I actually do have a reason why I think we should keep away from them," said Seriyuha. She smiled warmly at the pair. "I understand it must be frustrating, but please be patient with me for a while longer."

Shirou and his sister exchanged glances. He was surprised - and he suspected she was as well - that Seriyuha had given them something approaching an explanation. That was an improvement. She'd given them good advice up to that point, so he guessed the least he could do was trust her a while longer.

"Well," Chigusa said as she began moving away from the teleport gate, "this floor ain't getting any smaller, so let's see what we can pick up in town and then-"

"Hey! Hey you there!"

Suddenly frowning, she turned, hand on her hip, toward the source of the disturbance. A few yards in the distance, in the middle of a public square, was a decent-sized gathering of what Shirou could guess were players. There was a little over twenty in number, most still wearing bits and pieces of their newbie gear. At the center of them was a somewhat angry-looking player with spiky brown hair. And he was watching the trio as they went.

"What do you-" Chigusa began hotly as Seriyuha stepped between her and the crowd.

"What is it?" Seriyuha asked, far more calmly than her younger companion.

"The name's Kibaou and I'm out here to gather a party to clear this floor!" the loud man cried.

Seriyuha smirked as Kibaou spread his arms and continued talking.

"-And you're the leader of this group?" she asked loudly over him.

"Yeah!" Kibaou cried instantly. "See, our last leader brought us together to take on the boss of the first floor, but because of that damn Beater he died, so I took it upon myself to keep everyone together."

Shirou narrowed his eyes at the strange word Kibaou had used. "Beater"? He'd have to ask Chigusa about it later.

Scattered cries from his group went up in support of his claim. Kibaou allowed himself to grin just slightly at the praise. "Anyways, now that Diabel's gone somebody has to carry on his legacy, right? Somebody's gotta gather all the ordinary players to clear this game, because we sure as hell can't trust the Beaters to do anything!"

There was that weird word again, "Beater". Both times he'd said it, Kibaou's brow furrowed a little more than what appeared to be usual for him.

"What's a Beater?" Shirou whispered to Chigusa.

"Not a clue," she said. But her fists were clenched though, giving Shirou a hint at what the word might mean.

Looking back toward Seriyuha, Shirou saw that their leader was approaching Kibaou slowly, arms crossed. As she came up to the spiky-haired man, she stood nearly a full head taller than him. Shirou had noticed a time or two that Seriyuha was strikingly tall, but it was only when he saw her standing next to Kibaou that it really struck home. Apparently unbothered, Kibaou stretched his hand out to her, grinning wide.

"While I agree with your cause, if we joined forces I'd have to answer to you. I'm not sure I could handle that sort of thing," Seriyuha said, her smile undimmed.

Kibaou's smile faded in an instant, and he leaned in toward her, hands balled at his side. "Hey! Are you calling me a crap leader!?"

Seriyuha leaned back, arms crossed. If anything she only looked taller next to Kibaou in that moment. "Of course not, I've never seen you in action. I'm simply the type that likes to be in charge. A leader should embody the most-"

"Eh, fine, whatever the hell you mean," Kibaou growled. The man turned aside, back toward his followers. "Just thought maybe you wanted to try out that safety in numbers stuff, but if you wanna stick to yourself go ahead. Just don't come crying to me if something goes wrong."

"I hope that never happens - to either of us," Seriyuha said as she began walking back toward her companions. Once she rejoined them, she turned south. "In that case, let's-"

"I actually did have one last question for you," Chigusa said loudly to Kibaou.

Kibaou turned, glaring at her. "Spit it out, then."

"You were complaining about 'Beaters', what did you mean by that?"

"Oh," Kibaou growled. A low buzz of talk broke out among his collection of players, but he practically yelled out over them, "Well you know how those damn beta testers just took all the good grinding spots and quests and left the rest of us high and dry? The only reason Diabel died was because this bastard beta tester in our last group kept his mouth shut about what the floor one boss could do. He just let Diabel die so he could get the last hit on the boss! Damn scum."

Something like a jolt shot through Shirou. This story went far beyond rumors he'd heard of supposed beta tester selfishness. Unable to control himself, he shot a glance at Chigusa, who was staring at Kibaou with eyes as round as saucers.

"No way... I can't believe somebody would do that," she mumbled.

"Yeah, can you believe it? Pulling crap like that's cheating in my book, so we called him a beater! You know, beta tester, cheater?"

"Yes, though you could have chosen a more elegant portmanteau," said Seriyuha.

"Bah, weren't you leaving? We've got plans to make, get lost!"

Seriyuha gave Kibaou the briefest of nods and began walking away. Shirou grabbed his sister gently by the arm and steered her toward Seriyuha, but Chigusa needed no further motivation to begin walking. They remained quiet until they were some ways away from Kibaou, but nobody would have been able to eavesdrop on them over his renewed boisterous yelling.

"Well, that ended badly," Seriyuha said as they came upon a street that was lined with vendors. "Keep an eye out for anybody following us until we're away from the city."

"Kibaou doesn't strike me as being gifted in the guile department," Shirou muttered as he glanced back toward the square.

"I agree, but better safe than sorry."

"I can't believe anybody would use another player as a sacrificial lamb," muttered Chigusa. "People like that are only going to make us beta testers look worse."

"You might want to lay off the beta tester talk," Seriyuha said quickly and quietly.

"Right," said Chigusa. She growled, arms crossed. "Shit, and back when this game first came out I had all these plans to help out new players get adjusted to this place, then all this happens. That bastard Kayaba has a lot to answer for."

"That's the truth," muttered Shirou. "Maybe we should hurry up and reach this Dragon Valley so we can lose the ordinary players for a few days?"

"Right," said Seriyuha. She scanned the street briefly, probably formulating her plan. "Take a few minutes to stock up on anything you need, then we'll meet up at the south gate and get going."

"We'll be away from any towns for at least a day, so get anything you need while we're still here," said Chigusa. "I'll get all the stuff we'll need on the plains and in Dragon Valley, so don't worry about picking up any extras."

"Excellent," Seriyuha said as she beamed at Chigusa. "No matter what that loud fool says, I consider you one of the most helpful people I've met here in SAO."

Chigusa blushed lightly. "T-thanks," she said, smiling back.

The trio broke apart, each making for the NPC storekeepers. Shirou watched his sister for a few minutes, but once he was convinced that Chigusa was fine - if still a little annoyed - he focused on his own business instead. After stocking up on consumables, he made for the blacksmiths, only to find Seriyuha sticking out from another the handful of players who'd had the same ideas as her and him.

"Hey, been a while," he said as he approached.

She glanced at him and smiled briefly before focusing back on the NPC's wares. This one in particular seemed to favor axes. Shirou intended only to look at them for a brief while but soon found himself closely examining the different ways people had found to attach blades to the end of sticks. It was interesting, the difference in killing power you could get from changes in axehead weight or angle. Seriyuha, meanwhile, was favoring a particularly fierce-looking halberd.

"This might do," she said, grinning up at it. "Better reach from behind my shield. I can actually thrust with it, unlike my axe."

Shirou grinned at her, though he was surprised to find Seriyuha enjoying herself with something like picking out a new item. "And also, a leader should embody the most badass weapon available," said Shirou.

"Well, I'd certainly look more impressive than Kibaou with that little one-handed sword he had," she said without looking at him. Though she did allow herself to smirk. "How about you? Considering leaving behind your own sword?"

"It doesn't feel much better than the old one, honestly," said Shirou. "At first I thought it seemed right, but I dunno now."

"Try one of my older axes, then," Seriyuha said as she finalized her purchase with the NPC. "It's upgraded, so it should hold up fine, and it won't be too heavy for you since you're used to that saber."

Shirou stared at her, surprised by the generous offer. "Thanks! Sounds fine to me, but I'm not sure if I have anything you'd like."

"Don't worry about it," Seriyuha said as she opened her menu. "Think of it as an early Christmas present!"

"Oh wow, thanks, whatever should I get you?" he muttered, though he continued smiling at her.

"Besides, this way you owe me one," she added, smirking at him.

Shirou gave her a dirty look as she completed the one-sided trade, though she just smiled on at him all through it. They parted ways after that, Seriyuha off to examine other stores, while Shirou stayed put to examine upgrade options for his new weapon. As he strode away from the blacksmith he drew the new axe, getting a feel for its weight. As he swung it a few times - noting quickly the weight emphasis on the end of the shaft - he realized that this was the first kind of weapon he'd wield with a completely new style to activate "sword" skills. Examining his skills list, he found that nearly all of the skills associated with axes - or at least the low-level ones- were performed with swinging motions. That made sense, at least.

Well, he'd have time to get used to this. The players in SAO no longer had anything but time to play Kayaba's game.

The edge of the cliff that surrounded the city loomed straight ahead as Shirou reached the south gate. He only had to wait a few moments before Chigusa and Seriyuha arrived, and then the trio turned their gazes outward. The only thing outside the city was some sparse shrubbery and several players, all of them headed toward the edge of the cliff wall.

"So this city is inside some sort of canyon?" asked Seriyuha.

"Something like that, yeah," said Chigusa. "There's a bunch of stairways leading up into the top of the cliff, and from there we can go south."

"Let's not waste time then," said Seriyuha.

With that decided, the team began walking. As he passed under the city gate, Shirou allowed himself to stare up into it, remembering the day months ago that he first walked into one of SAO's fields.

But this was different. There was no sprawling countryside waiting to be explored, just a towering wall before him, demanding a climb. However, they hadn't gone more than a few yards away from town until they saw the familiar red color cursor that indicated hostile mobs. In this case they were squat quadrupedal frilled lizards, "Runner Lizards". The creatures scurried this way and that, apparently unbothered by the presence of the players. They moved with speed even while not aggroed, drawing an eye-narrowed gaze from Shirou.

"These aren't anything dangerous," said Chigusa, "they're just fast. None of us are using very light weapons, so this might be a pain."

Seriyuha flourished her halberd and smiled. "Just as well, I've been looking for a chance to try this out."

She dashed past Chigusa, shifted her grip on the weapon closer to the head, and swung wide at the "Runner Lizard". Shirou watched the blade soar through the air, but the lizard's eyes suddenly gleamed, and it leaped away, spitting a thick wad of mucous at Seriyuha as he flew through the air. Seriyuha's sweep went wide, and the gunk splatted against her with a wet smack, dropping her health a little. Shirou stared on, just as surprised as Seriyuha seemed.

The lizard landed on its four feet and extended its grill. It remained where it was, hissing at Seriyuha.

But Seriyuha just stood there, glaring at it. "That damn thing just spat at me."

Slowly she turned to Chigusa, no less angry. "Did you know that would happen?"

Shirou glanced at his sister as well. It did seem strange that she didn't knowing anything about the lizard's trick.

But Chigusa was actually grinning at Seriyuha, her hands behind her head. "I might have known something about this floor being the first one where enemies will react to attacks they can see as if they were already aggroed."

Twirling her spear around, she let loose a skill, splitting the runner lizard apart. "But if I did know, I certainly wouldn't hide it from you to let you look silly."

"You'd do well not to annoy the team tank," Seriyuha muttered.

"All right, all right, I think it's my turn," Shirou said as he stepped forward, his new axe spinning in hand.

"Yes," Chigusa said, clapping vibrantly, "I can't think of any weapon better for hitting small agile lizards!"

"Maybe he'll surprise us," said Seriyuha.

"Thanks," he muttered.

It wasn't hard to find another lizard; they were everywhere. Shirou strode up to the creature from behind and swung his axe, but the little beast darted away, letting loose its counterattack projectile. Expecting the shot, Shirou blocked with his buckler and lunged forward with an axe skill to try again, but the lizard crawled away from the second attack as well, and then circled around and raised its front paw. Claws out, it raked Shirou's ankle and leaped back, hissing. He turned and lunged his axe at it, but his clumsy attack went wide.

His health was fine but his pride was wounded. Chigusa had done the creature in with just one attack... But then, she was using a weapon she was already used to. He glanced at Seriyuha, the person who used the axe last, and thought of the way she used it. He was trying to fight his way, but with her weapon. That was a mistake.

Once more he ran in on the lizard and swung, and it darted aside, but this time he kept his eyes carefully on it. As it stopped he quickly swung his shield toward it, meeting and repelling the inevitable attack from the lizard. While the lizard reeled back, he brought his axe down on it. Its health quickly dwindled away to nothing.

"Hey, not bad," Chigusa said as she slapped Shirou on the back. "Nice job learning from the tank!"

Shirou smiled wide at his partners, his axe propped over his shoulder. Then he turned, and saw they were still surrounded by the little lizards. Well, one down...

"These things are a pain in the ass to fight alone, though," he muttered, his smile fading.

"Luckily, we're not alone," said Seriyuha.

The siblings shared a glance, silently agreeing with her.

They fought through the Runner Lizards between them and the wall, but they didn't go out of their way to grind on the creatures. Once they made it to the wall, it took only a few minutes of searching to find the stairway that Chigusa had mentioned. The crater actually had several stairways carved into the side of the mountain, each ending at different points along the top of the crater wall. Shirou set foot upon the first step and looked up, quickly losing himself in the steps before him. Individual steps went up and up, the top of the stairway behind his sight.

"This is gonna take a while," he muttered. Fatigue of the body wasn't something that they could fully experience in SAO, but this stairway was going to put that to the test.

"No kidding," said Seriyuha.

Shirou glanced at her, surprised to see Seriyuha joining in his complaining.

"We won't need to return to Urbus often, will we?" she asked.

"No, there's a settlement near the edge of Dragon Valley that we can stay at," said Chigusa. "And I brought some camping sets for on the way."

"Good thinking," Seriyuha said as she began climbing.

Shirou looked up one last time, groaned, and stepped onto the first step. On he went, resolutely walking. One foot in front of the other, that was the key. A few minutes passed, the rock walls on either side inching closer and closer as they went. He wondered whether the walls would eventually get too close to continue comfortably. He didn't feel much tiredness, but the climb was monotonous.

"Anybody know any good hiking tunes for this one?" he asked.

"No, I was never an outdoors type," said Seriyuha, "my kids were-"

"Oh wow!" cried Chigusa, "look at the city behind us, we're so high up!"

Shirou almost did as she asked before he stopped himself.

"No, not doing it," he said.

"No, c'mon, the view's great."

"No Hinoka."

Surprised, Shirou saw that Seriyuha was stubbornly keeping her back to his sister as well. He grinned quietly up at her.

"You two are missing a great view, though," Hinoka said sullenly. The sound of her footsteps trailing behind resumed, and they continued on.

Up and up they went, Shirou looking above to see where the steps would end. In actuality he finally saw the line of steps come to an end after only a little more than ten minutes, but it felt much longer in the face of the monotony of the task before him. As he finally approached the last set of steps the glare of the sun caught in his eyes, forcing him to cover them until they adjusted. His feet met no further steps. They must have reached the top.

"Now that's a view," Seriyuha said as Shirou stumbled blindly past her.

Shirou forced himself to open his still-stinging eyes, and the brightness slowly cleared from them. Once he could finally see the horizon ahead of him, he let out a long whistle before he even knew he was doing it. Golden grasslands, mostly flat, stretched as far as the eye could see. They were dotted here and there by shocks of green - mostly trees but sometimes other shrubs - and the occasional lake or river. Further still in the distance he could just make out the brown of mountains ahead. In other directions the view was mostly the same, except for the occasional plateau that were spread here and there throughout the land.

Several player parties could be seen going this way and that, though most seemed to be heading for the plateaus.

"Well, welcome to floor two," Chigusa said as she finished the climb. "You wouldn't believe it from the look of it but this floor's a little smaller than the one below. Every floor will be.

"That doesn't sound right though," said Shirou, "the pictures of Aincrad castle in the game's promo stuff showed it was widest around the middle."

"The bottom floor isn't at the bottom of the castle," said Chigusa. "It's around where the huge rings are. Everything below THAT is the stuff that keeps the castle afloat. The engines must be huge."

"That aside," Seriyuha said firmly, "we're cutting through this grassland?"

"Yeah, Dragon Valley is straight ahead from here," said Chigusa. She peered ahead, shading her eyes with her hand. "I think we can make it by tomorrow if we hurry. The only people heading that way right now should be other beta testers."

Shirou tried to look as well, though he saw nothing that would seem to help him gauge distance. "What's out there?" he asked.

"There's some interesting ruins I wanna check out. During the beta I didn't make it in time to get any decent loot. I was focused on reaching those plateaus but there's nothing good out there that I saw. Oh and there's a pretty nasty wasteland-"

"How difficult a walk will it be?" Seriyuha asked, her eyes shut and her arms crossed.

"Pretty easy. Just watch for the oxen."

"Watch for giant bulls, no sweat," Shirou muttered as the trio began to move.

"By the way," Seriyuha said sharply as she turned on Chigusa, "mind where you mention the beta from here on. That 'Beater' that got Kibaou worked up will only make it worse for you if people like him overhear you," she said, gesturing to the other players scattered across the field. "If you need to tell us anything, say you read it out of that guidebook Keh-keh mentioned."

"Yeah, you're right," Chigusa said, her face falling.

"Seriyuha just wants to make sure nothing happens to you," Shirou said, a forced smile on his face. Chigusa returned it - just as forced by Shirou's guess - and began leading the way through the grasslands.

There were no murderous bulls in the immediate vicinity so their initial trekk was easy for the most part, save for the fact that the long grass was tough in some places to walk through. The weather on the second floor was mild and pleasant despite the fact that the real world was starting to enter the winter, and Shirou eventually found himself enjoying his walk through the savanna. The warm breeze was nice, as was the time spent with his two companions as they made light chatter.

Then they caught sight of the first red color cursor on the horizon.

"And it was all going so well," Chigusa said as she readied her spear. "Watch yourselves, these things'll aggro if we get too close."

In the distance was an ox, his face down in the grass, apparently minding its own business. They approached slowly until it looked up, though not at them. Its skin looked rough and pitted with small scars and battle-wounds, and its powerful muscles were visible beneath it. And, of course, it had vicious-looking tusks, ready for a good goring. "Mad Ox" was its name.

"Don't worry, they're not as tough as they look, though," she added. "All they've really got in them is a pretty dangerous charge attack. They're pretty slow up close."

"Well, let's not run from a challenge," said Seriyuha. She walked forward - though slowly and with her shield up. "The only way to get stronger in this world is to face challenges head-on, right?"

"She has a point," Shirou said, though he privately didn't want to risk catching a tusk or two to the gut.

At least Seriyuha was the one up front.

Once Seiyuha was within a couple of yards of the bull it looked up at her and gave a great snort, vapor billowing out from its nostrils. It bowed its head, dashed the ground with its hind legs, and lunged forward. It charged more quickly than Shirou expected, clearing the distance between itself and Seriyuha in only a second or more, but Seriyuha still reacted in time, side stepping the charge. She caught the Ox by the head with her shield as it passed and pushed, sending it tumbling into the ground and toward Chigusa. The beta tester darted forward in a spear skill, jamming her spear into the beast's side. It gave a squeal and righted itself, its attention back on Seriyuha. It rumbled forward to give her a slower charge, but Shirou leaped in with an axe skill of his own, cutting the monster's health to zero.

The beast turned to data shards, the trio took a moment to congratulate each other on their first victory on the plains.

"Not bad, it's a lot easier when we're fighting just one enemy," said Seriyuha.

"Don't expect it to always be so simple, though," said Chigusa, "these things usually move in herds. And anyways, it's the bipedal ones you gotta watch out for, they lead packs. I've heard stories of a mini-boss type that'll chase you relentlessly."

"Hmm," Seriyuha said, frowning at her feet. "I say we avoid that sort of challenge, what do you two think?"

Shirou and his sister simply nodded.

They continued as they were, stopping only to break a time or two along the way. They cleared the Max Ox they came across, but didn't go out of their way to hunt the beasts down. If Chigusa was right about their destination they would be more rewarded there, and they didn't want to risk delaying for too long - or getting lost. The crowds of other players began to peter out as they went, though they still came across a group or two that Chigusa guessed were headed roughly the same way as them. Even so, with so many players still stuck on the first two floors, it stood to reason that some would be more concerned with getting away from the crowds than getting anywhere in particular. There was a good chance they wouldn't find Dragon Valley very crowded then they arrived

The mountains loomed closer as the sunset began to paint the sky red, but as night approached, Seriyuha vetoed the notion of going any further.

"Probably a good idea, I hear the bipedal oxen start roaming further at night," Chigusa said matter-of-factly as Seriyuha announced the end of their march.

"Why didn't you mention that sooner? Or not at all!?" Shirou moaned. His imagination was already cooking up images of giant death oxen roaming in the increasing shadows of the night.

The team quickly made for the cover of a grass and tree-sheltered outcropping of green on the fields, and Chigusa perused her inventory as she searched for her camping gear. After a moment or two she gave a victorious cry and used one of her items. A small tent and an adjoining campfire sprang into existence in the middle of the clearing.

"Okay, that'll take about five minutes to prep before it becomes usable," said Chigusa.

"Beats pitching a tent," Shirou said approvingly.

"And once we're within the boundary of the camping area we're as protected as if we were in town," said Chigusa.

Shirou looked at the camping set as its progress bar slowly inched closer to full. "So it's a campout tonight," he said, smiling. "We haven't been on one since we were kids."

"Yeah!" Hinoka said, beaming at him, "remember that time we went to the beach for the weekend back in the summer and then I scared you out of the water for the rest of the trip when I you you I thought I saw a shark?"

Shirou glared at her, his face turning red. "Yeah, you were evil back then. What about that time I told you there was a ghost-"

"You agreed not to speak of that ever again!"

"Wait, you're afraid of ghosts?" said Seriyuha. She was smiling at Chigusa, her eyes alight.

"No," Shirou said loudly over Chigusa's protests, "she tried to catch it! She was in this occult phase back then!"

Seriyuha covered her face with her hands, but her eyes told the siblings everything they needed to know.

"I hate you sometimes, Shirou," Chigusa muttered as she turned to face the prepping campset.

Seriyuha laughed quietly as she sat down in the grass. Her face propped up on her arms, she smiled at the pair. "You two really are adorable together," she said. "I'm glad to have met the two of you."

"Thanks, I guess," said Shirou. He wasn't sure whether he should take what Seriyuha said as a compliment, but he at least knew that she'd meant it as one.

Shirou opened his mouth to speak when he heard something to the south - back in the direction of town. People talking loudly. A lot of people. His heart beating fast suddenly, he crouched low and craned to look southward. Seriyuha, low to the ground, inched up to his side and peered with him into the fading light, Chigusa behind the pair.

"Keep quiet, everyone," whispered Seriyuha. "It's probably just some ordinary players but let's not take risks..."

"Agreed," Shirou said quietly.

After only a few momenets they came close enough so that he could see them in the distance; a group of players coming in their direction. They were too numerous and moving too loudly for it to be likely that they were Player Killers looking for an easy mark, but the prospect of running into unknown players in the dark didn't sit well with Shirou either way. Then he caught one voice out from among the crowd, and groaned, as did Chigusa.

"It's that dumbass Kibaou," she muttered.

Sighing, Seriyuha stood up and strode back to her spot in the grass, hands on her hips. "Back to what you were doing, everyone. I doubt he'll do worse than keep us up all night with his talking whether he sees us or not."

"Luckily the insides of tents are sound-proofed," Chigusa said as she turned back to the campset.

The sound of Kibaou's voice came no closer. Off in the distance Shirou thought he could see a camping set appear. "That's good, 'cause we've got neighbors," he muttered.

"What's he doing out here anyways?" Shirou demanded as he sat closer to the two women. "Did he follow us or something?"

"Doubt it, he's not exactly being subtle," said Chigusa.

"Is he headed the same way as us?" asked Seriyuha.

"Oh, that I don't doubt," said Chigusa, her arms crossed. "There's nothing out this way that I know of aside from Dragon Valley. He's probably either got another beta on his team he doesn't know about that's slipping him ideas. Or he's using that guidebook Keh-keh mentioned. Ironic either way."

"He'd probably justify it as fighting fire with fire," said Shirou. Seriyuha and Chigusa nodded.

"We should start early tomorrow and get a lead on him," said Seriyuha. Neither sibling disagreed with the suggestion.

The camping set finished preparing itself a few minutes later, causing the tent and campfire to fully pop into reality. A five-meter circular field appeared around the campsite as well. According to Chigusa, only people in the same party as the individual to whom the camp site belonged could see into or interact with it or the people inside it in any way, and it would remain active until vacated for ten minutes.

"- so the only thing we have to worry about is Razler's snoring," Chigusa concluded.

"That or you sleeping in until Kibaou beats us to Dragon Valley," said Shirou.

"Razler's sleeping outside anyways," said Seriyuha. Bewildered, Shirou rounded on her and found her smiling at him. "What? You can't share a tent with a MILF like me, who knows what would happen during the night?"

"I prefer girls my own age," Shirou said quietly.

"Since it's my tent," said Chigusa, "you can sleep outsi-"

"Hey wait, you're a mom?"

Chigusa rounded on Shirou for a moment, eyes wide, and then she looked back to Seriyuha, gaping. "Seriously?"

Seriyuha sat up, her eyes darted this way and that for a moment. "I meant metaphorically, of course. I have a - uhh - motherly air, right?"

Both siblings stared blankly at her. She gave a growl of defeat and laid back in the grass.

"My oldest turned six three weeks ago. Her little brother is three and a half. I'd show you pictures but I can't seem to find them in my inventory right now," she said quietly. Sitting up, she smiled softly at the pair. "I only hope they turn out as nicely as you two."

"Well!" she added loudly as she opened her inventory. "Unless Hinoka also thought to bring marshmallows, I'm going to have my dinner now."

Shirou and Chigusa did the same, and their chatter after that turned to their plans for the next day. Shirou had difficulty paying attention; questions for Seriyuha were buzzing through his mind, but he kept them there. They'd already gone too far into her personal life as it was. But still, he couldn't help but feel like he was seeing the older woman in a new light. Seriyuha suggested that the trio should turn in for the night after only a little over an hour of killing time around the campfire, so into the tent they went (Chigusa's playful threat to keep Seriyuha out forgotten). The tent wasn't what one could call spacious, but it was large enough for the three to lay comfortably. The two girls went to sleep after only a few minutes, but Shirou remained awake and staring at the canvas roof for some time to come.

Chigusa was right: he couldn't hear anything outside. Not the wind, nor the sounds of the night. Far apart from feeling comforted by the silence, it made him feel like something was trying to sneak up on him. He looked over at Seriyuha to distract himself, and saw her chest was rising and falling in rhythm. She was lucky enough to already be asleep.

So, she was a parent. He was curious what that was like, to have kids -

His gut tightened at the thought of her children on the outside, having to watch their mother waste away in a hospital bed. He turned over toward Chigusa, his hands tightened into fists. Their father, and Seriyuha's children.

There were a lot of different types inside SAO... and a lot of sufferers outside...

It was a little past six when Seriyuha shook the pair awake, and the sky was only starting to light up. Chigusa complained - loudly - but Seriyuha insisted they should get a lead on Kibaou's group.

"I doubt he'd attack us or anything," said Seriyuha, "but the less time we spend around him, the better."

"Not to mention we need to beat him to the loot," Shirou said as he re-equipped his gear.

"That too," Seriyuha said, nodding to him.

"Fine," muttered Chigusa. She glared southward. "They're still definitely asleep, at least."

After a quick breakfast they set out once more, their campsite fading into non-existence behind them. Shirou turned and regarded its passing with a strange weight in his gut.

The grasslands turned sparse, rocky, and dry the further south they went, and the valley ahead was soon clearly visible to the naked eye. The oxen also became more numerous in number and density, and the trio started having to lure out single specimens from within herds as larger groups began to appear in their way. Then, finally, yet another herd of oxen came into view ahead of them, but this was different. For among their numbers was one that stood on its hind legs, and was nearly three meters in height.

Shirou had thought the ordinary Oxen looked powerful? This monster was a wall of muscle, its bulging eyes were blood-shot, it seemed on the verge of madness, and its tusks were bloodied.

"Eesh, that's a big one," muttered Shirou.

"Eeeyup, say 'hello' to Mr. 'Trembling Ox'," said Chigusa. "Might be hard to believe, but their female counterparts are twice as big."

"The females usually are the more dangerous ones," said Shirou.

"Not sure if I should take that as a compliment or insult," Seriyuha said, her arms crossed and her eyes on the Trembling Ox, "but more importantly, what do we do about this guy?"

"Going around is incredibly risky," Chigusa said instantly. "They have a wide detection radius and are extremely persistent."

"We can use that against it, though," said Seriyuha. "Do you know if they share aggression with their herds?"

Chigusa frowned at it uncertainly. "I don't really know," she said slowly. "They're all oxen, but they're not the same monster specifically."

"Then we try something else," Seriyuha said as she stooped down and picked up a rock from the ground.

Winding up hard, she threw it straight at the herd, and an alarmed cry rang out from within. One ox came charging out from the horde, and the trio dispatched it with relative ease. Again and again they did this, killing the lesser members of the herd and circling around for newer vantage points, until finally the Trembling Ox stood alone, apparently unbothered by the disappearance of his fellows. Seriyuha approached it slowly, shield raised, and the siblings followed behind. The Trembling Ox stomped around where it was, as if looking for something, when it suddenly rounded on them and gave a roar that shook the rocks underfoot.

And then it charged.

It only took what felt like a moment before its huge fist crashed into Seriyuha's shield, sending her flying. The siblings turned, screaming, as the Trembling Ox ran past them. Before Seriyuha was even on her feet it brought one of its hooves down on her. Then it reared back, gave a roar, and it bent low, horns pointed toward her. Shirou and Chigusa struck it as one, hacking at its legs with one of their skills. The beast stumbled back, roaring in pain and anger, and it turned on Chigusa. It drove its hooved leg forward, pushing her defensive hold on her spear away with ease and sending her off her feet. Shirou ran forward and jabbed at its back - with his axe. The Ox kicked him back with contemptuous indifference without even taking its eyes off of Chigusa. It raised its fist to dash Chigusa into the dirt as she tried to scramble away, but stopped short when a halberd found its way into its side.

"Not her, not either of these two!" spat Seriyuha.

While the creature tried to right itself in its fury, Chigusa managed to grab hold of her spear once again, and Shirou got to his feet. As it rounded on Seriyuha to attack her again, it took three skill attacks at once. With a pained look on its face, it froze for only a moment before it shatters to polygon fragments.

Shirou fell off his feet, utterly winded, while Seriyuha walked over to Chigusa and pulled her up.

"Are you okay?" she asked breathlessly.

"Y-yes, I'll be okay," said Chigusa. "But you need a health potion!"

"Yeah," Seriyuha said quietly as she pulled one from her inventory.

Chigusa was at a little over half health, while Seriyuha was barely at one fourth. With a tinge of guilt, Shirou realized he was still nearly full. He'd gotten off easy.

"Let's try harder to avoid those things in the future," Seriyuha muttered as she began walking again.

"What's wrong?" Shirou asked as he hurried along to her side.

Seriyuha shook her head slowly and just walked faster. Shirou hurried alongside her, trying to speak to her, but finally Chigusa caught her by the shoulder. Seriyuha slowed down, head bowed. "That monster caught me off guard and forced you to protect me... I'm sorry for that screw-up."

"What, that's all?" asked Chigusa. "My brother and I aren't helpless, you know. You can lean on us every now and again."

"That's not how it's supposed to be," Seriyuha said quietly as she began moving onward.

The siblings fell back a ways behind her and leaned in close to one another. "She must think of us as her kids," whispered Chigusa.

Shirou looked at Seriyuha and agreed privately. Several times she'd given off the feeling of being something akin to a surrogate mother to him. It only made sense that the same would be true for her in reverse. He wasn't sure what to make of this relationship but...

He had to admit it felt at least a little nice.

"We'll just have to prove we can take care of ourselves," he whispered back. Chigusa nodded once and hurried ahead.

Luckily they only once saw another Trembling Ox, and it was far enough out of their way that they were able to (with a very wide berth) skirt around its aggression range. The rest of their time spent walking through the southern plains was peaceful yet still somewhat tense; the prospect of running into another Trembling Ox that they would have to fight wasn't a pleasant one. The mountains that framed Dragon Valley came fully view shortly into the day, and they started ascending the foothills in the later half of the afternoon. The shadows of the mountain were the driest-looking places they'd yet seen on the second floor, but stripes of green framed the occasional river that flowed down the edge of the mountains.

Chigusa paused several times to observe the environment at that stage of their journey, and at one point kept the party stalled for nearly ten minutes as she looked this way and that. She muttered quietly to herself as she gazed in the distance while Shirou and Seriyuha waited in the grass, their own eyes turned back north.

"I can see Kibaou's group in the distance," Seriyuha suddenly muttered at one point.

"Aww great," said Shirou. He turned toward his sister and asked, "What're you looking for, anyways?"

"Blue Serpent River flows out from Dragon Valley, and following it is the easiest in there by far," said Chigusa. "I should've thought ahead, I didn't have any trouble spotting back it back in - aha!"

Excitedly, she pointed off in the distance, to what appeared to be a small band of trees around a mile away. "That's it. There's a lot more green around the river and in the valley. Let's move it!"

The group moved faster than ever for a short while, eager to put some distance between them and Kibaou. They were soon slowed back down by the Oxen herds, however, then even more than before because they had less room to maneuver or avoid getting into unnecessary fights. Fortunately there were no Trembling Ox standing in their way. After a little over another hour they crested a small hill to find a brisk northward-flowing river before them. The trio rushed to its edge with unspoken consent, the sight of water and lush grass up close a welcome sight to their dirt-weary eyes.

"Yup, this is definitely it," Chigusa said as she checked her minimap. "We just need to follow this south."

"What's it like in the valley?" asked Shirou.

"Lots more plantlife and rivers, but there's also a few dangerous cliffs. It might actually be snowing this time of year. Most of the enemies there are mountain goats and wild dogs." And with a rueful smile, she added, "I don't think there are anything as dangerous as those stupid Trembling Ox up there. There's also a village we can use as our home base."

"Well let's not waste time," Shirou said with a northward jerk of his head - back in Kibaou's direction.

Although Chigusa described it as the easiest way into the valley, Shirou quickly learned how the "serpent" river got its name; it wound this way and that through the mountains like a snake, causing the team to double-back on their southward progress several times as they followed it. Still, the passage was relatively easy, as the river path through the mountain simply rose upward at a steady incline, rather than over vertical edges and towering rocks. It wasn't long before they began to encounter Chigusa's promised goats and dogs, but they behaved little different from enemies the trio had encountered and defeated before. Recent snowfall began to powder their way as they continued on, and the team was forced to use their cold-weather gear once again.

About an hour into their journey upriver they came upon a rock "ramp" that led sharply upward into the cliffs before rounding a bend and going out of sight. The river path itself led on in a different direction.

Chigusa first faced the direction of the river and said, "Feorholt village is about an hour off this way. We can stay there while we explore Dragon Valley."

Next she turned to the cliff ramp and looked up it, her hands planted on her hips. "But this leads further up into the cliffs, to Dragon Ruins. That's where I wanted to explore."

"Will we make it back to Feorholt before nightfall?" asked Seriyuha.

"No, but monsters don't spawn in the ruins plaza, just in the catacombs," said Chigusa. "Besides, other beta testers who know about the ruins will be heading this way - if they're not already there."

"Then we don't have time to worry," Seriyuha concluded as she led the way up the ramp.

Seriyuha marched on without the siblings, leaving them to bring up the rear as they so often did. The path leading up was rockier and harder to traverse, and their passage was slowed. The sun was beginning to set behind the cliffs, and it wasn't until they reached the highest point in the ramp's climb that they stepped out into the sunlight once again.

Shirou paused a moment and faced west, shading his eyes from the harsh light of the sun. He could see the river below, churning white and blue and enclosed by bands of green (and some white). He could see the village nestled on a ledge the river ran around. Looking out further he could see the whole of the plains they'd just crossed, spreading as far as he could see.

"Who'd put so much work into this world, and then ruin it this way," he wondered quietly.

Seriyuha and Chigusa's footsteps approached slowly from behind, and he soon felt his sister's hand on his shoulder.

"It was beautiful during the beta," she whispered. "I guess it still is, but..."

"It's a beautiful trap," Seriyuha said quietly. Her footsteps moved away, further along the road they were taking. "The only thing that really matters in this world is us players," she said loudly but not unkindly.

"She's not wrong," Shirou said as he turned to follow her. Chigusa's footsteps, heavier and slower than his and Seriyuha's, followed behind.

They once again found themselves deep in the shadows of the evening, but the road became greener as they continued on, the path sloping downward at a gentle incline. They rounded a long bend that looped around a sheer cliff face and suddenly found themselves staring at a stone ruin, covered by the last light of the sun and overgrown with shrubs, trees, and creeping vines. The ruin was built into the southern side of the cliff face, the western side being open to the air and allowing the last of the fading sunlight through.

A man-made stone bridge linked the ruins to the cliffside road that the team had been using, for the ruins were built over a vast lake and suspended by stone pillars. A rapid river running down the cliffs fed the lake before continuing on to the plains, and an ancient aqueduct collected some of the excess to feed into the ruins.

Shirou couldn't help but let out a long whistle at the sight. "They put a lot of work into designing this place," he said quietly.

"Yeah," said Chigusa. She was staring hard at the ruins, her arms crossed. "Back during the beta I was sure this had something to do with the floor labyrinth, but it doesn't. I don't understand it."

"What's bothering you?" asked Seriyuha.

"You don't design something you don't need," said Chigusa. "Putting this level of care into an out of the way dungeon is absurd from a design point of view. Remember the spider cave? It was an entirely generic ice cavern."

Even though he lacked Chigusa's background in programming, he knew enough from simply playing video games that the level of design focus an area received usually indicated its importance to the game. Then again, for all any of them knew the ruins just re-used assets from another floor. It might even have been one of several structures with the same copy-pasted layouts. Anything was possible with dozens of floors still above them.

"Well we won't find out by just staring at it," said Seriyuha.

Nodding, Chigusa led the way, pausing only to light a torch to ward off the rapidly-encroaching night. The stone bridge was without side guards and was cracked in many places, but it was still several yards across at its narrowest, and the party had no difficult crossing into the ruins proper. They first came upon what must have been a courtyard, but the plants had long since grown beyond the bounds of their proper areas, and the huge stone fountain was cracked and dried. Shirou examined the stone architecture where he could, but Chigusa wasn't willing to slow down for long. Much like the ruins itself, the textures for the stone within it was crafted with care; he could see the minute cracks in the stone and the ancient letterings carved into them.

But a sight that actually caused Chigusa to stop in her tracks was that of another player. Two, specifically: a man and a woman. The man was the shorter of the pair, with dark black hair and a thinner physique. The woman had a more powerful build, especially in her toned arms and legs, and her red hair flew long down her back. She was leaning over a sheathed nodachi and watching the man intently, but as they approached she glance their way out of the corner of her eye. Hoisting her sword up over her shoulder, she turned and regarded the siblings and Seriyuha.

"Hey, we've got company," she said to the man, who had had his head bowed.

"Come to explore the ruins like us?" he said, straightening up. "Though I bet you're here for ancient treasure, rather than ancient secrets."

"I wouldn't wholly disagree to a little of both," said Seriyuha, "but our first priority was whatever treasure we can find here."

The man gave a humorless laugh and pointed into the ruins. "You'll find plenty of treasure and 'Cave Dragons' both further inside. Best of luck to you."

Guessing that the subject would change to these "cave dragons," Shirou spoke up loudly, "What did you mean by 'ancient secrets'? Do you think there's actual meaning in these ruins?"

Chigusa and Seriyuha gave him puzzled looks, but the man immediately smiled at him. "Oh absolutely. You haven't noticed how much attention was paid to making this place?"

Shirou glanced Chigusa's way, and she nodded. "I did," she said. "The ruins are so well-designed, like they were trying to match an actual lost city. They wouldn't have done that for no reason."

The man laughed and turned back to what he'd been looking at. "Not just that, come closer," he said, beckoning toward him.

The woman looked at them closer for a moment before she stepped aside and jerked her head toward the man.

Shirou stooped low and stepped beside him. The man was examining ancient writings on the ruined stone. "What're we looking at? It's just ancient writing, right?"

"Yes, now where do you think the designers got them from?"

"Well usually you just make up illegible gibberish shapes and repeat them," said Chigusa, "That's a basic rule of texture design unless it's something important."

"But that's not the case here," said the man. "I recognize this style of glyphs, it's cuneiform."

"You're joking," Seriyuha said flatly. "Somebody actually inscribed real messages in ancient writings on ruins in a video game?"

"Now that, I'm not sure," the man said, some regret evident in his tone. "Unfortunately, the stone's worn away pretty realistically, and cuneiform is hard to decipher if even smaller pieces are lost. There might have been actual meaning written here, or just random gibberish letters somebody stole from a picture somewhere. I doubt it's the latter though."

"Did you really come all this way out to read ancient writings?" asked Seriyuha.

The woman laughed. "Yes, and he drags me along for the ride."

The man smiled up at her and asked, "And what would you do if something awful happened to me?"

"Beat the hell out of whoever did you in," the woman said instantly, though she smiled at him. "I think introductions are a little overdue," she said, turning back to the trio, "I'm Ashii, and this hopeless anthropologist is Lloyd."

"I'm Seriyuha," said the older woman, "and this is Razler and Hinoka, my party mem-"

"And I'm Keh-keh, but I'm not in any parties!"

Shirou growned, as did Chigusa. Lloyd and Ashii stared confusedly at them.

The annoying little girl was seated there high atop an ancient archway, her black clothes and hair blending in well with the darkening sky. Shirou wouldn't have even seen her there if she hadn't revealed herself. She was staring down at them, grinning wide.

"Get lost you damn brat!" Chigusa screamed up at Keh-keh.

"Hinoka, don't alert everyone nearby that we're here," Seriyuha said patiently and quietly.

Ashii lowered her nodachi, though she kept her eyes firmly on Keh-keh. Lloyd just grinned at her, arms crossed.

"I assume she's no friend of yours?" he asked, his tone amused.

"Of course I am!" Keh-keh cried as she leaped off of the pillar, landing quietly among them. "In fact I came to offer two helpful hints."

Chigusa leaned in close to the young girl and said, "you can start by offering us our loot-"

"Name them," said Seriyuha.

"Well," Keh-keh said slowly, "That annoying loud guy from back in town is heading this way. He's been laughing the whole way about how he read about these ruins from the beta tester book."

"We already had a pretty good idea of that one," said Chigusa.

"I don't like the idea of more loud players showing up," muttered Lloyd. He was already back to examining the glyphs, apparently not interested in the proceedings any longer.

"If they want a fight, I wouldn't mind beating a few of them around," said Ashii.

Keh-keh nodded to her. "I think I like you already, lady."

Ashii stared down at her, nodachi over her shoulder and one hand on her hip. "We'll see whether the feeling's mutual."

"What else were you going to tell us?" asked Shirou.

Keh-keh's face fell. "There's a bunch of blind killer lizards in there, according to the guidebook. Considering I just gave you guys some pretty decent advice, I wanted to ask if I could help you-"

"No way!" cried Chigusa.

"-I'll give you a fair share this time, promise! Pinky swear!"

"Deal," Seriyuha said quietly, arms crossed.

Chigusa did a double take as she rounded on Seriyuha, her mouth agape. "You're joking, right!? What's stopping her from screwing us over again!?"

Even Shirou couldn't help but stare are Seriyuha.

"I'm going to make her friend request me and join our party before we agree to take her," Seriyuha said calmly as she opened her menus. "If she's going to be nearby anyways, I'd rather be able to keep an eye on her."

Keh-keh smiled brightly as a window popped up before her, which she eagerly accepted. "Yeah, exactly! If we're on the same party loot gets distributed anyway!"

"Well if I were to make a suggestion," Lloyd suddenly said as he nearly leaped to his feet, "Ashii mentioned earlier that the inner sanctum of these ruins is guarded by a large dragonspawn field boss. If you take us with you, she can show you the way there!"

Ashii gave a long sigh and practically moaned, "We don't even know these people, Lloyd!"

"They were willing to put their trust in the little ninja girl, why don't we do the same?" he asked, smiling at her.

Seriyuha rolled her eyes at Lloyd and turned her gaze to Ashii, who was staring back. "You can actually show us the way?" she asked.

"Yes," she said, "my party and I reached these ruins first during the beta test and we spent a few hours exploring. It shouldn't be a challenge for me."

Shirou grinned at his sister and said, "Hey, cool, looks like you're replaced, sis."

"Like hell I am," muttered Chigusa.

With Lloyd and Ashii added to the ever-growing party, they continued on into the ruins. They moved more quickly than before - much to Lloyd's disappointment - until they passed under an arch that had grown a screen of danging brush over the years and found themselves in the midst of a central plaza. They stepped first into the center of a large dip that in the middle of the entire plaze and surrounded by arches and pillars on all sides. From there they could see the entire rest of the plaza with relative ease. Ashii stopped to look around, her hands resting on her sheathed weapon. Darkened entryways were scattered all over the area, each one leading down to the underbelly of the ruins. Shirou counted somewhere over two dozen of them, understanding instantly why Chigusa and Ashii had described them as "catacombs".

"Okay, booklet time," Keh-keh said as she searched her inventory. A smaller pop-up appeared before her, and she began searching through pages frequently. "Aha! Found it! Okay, 'The treasure chamber of the Dragon Ruins is located at the deepest and centermost chamber of the ruin catacombs, and is guarded by-'"

"It was this one," said Ashii.

She lifted her sword up, pointing it toward an entrance that was sheltered under a tree. Nothing in particular marked it as separate from what Shirou could see, so he asked, "how can you tell? They all look the same to me."

"It's the number of notches above the door," said Ashii, "the right one had thirty-one of them."

"The book doesn't mention anything about that!" cried Keh-keh.

"Yeah, that's because not many people from the beta bothered with this place," said Ashii. "It's out of the way in an out of the way part of the floor, and getting to the bottom is a pain if you don't know where to go. We didn't even get to the treasure room first in the beta either."

Keh-keh grumbled quietly as Ashii led the way to the indicated entrance. Torches were passed around between the party, and then Ashii began to slowly descend into the darkness. Lloyd was the next to follow her, Keh-keh behind him. The passage wasn't wide enough for two to go through it comfortably. As his own turn to enter came around, Shirou quickly found himself relieved that hadn't been the one to go in first. Even with allies before and behind him, the darkness waiting just on the edge of his torch's light put him on edge. Try as he might, he couldn't peer through it.

Finally it was his turn, and he slowly began to descend the steps. He walked slowly, nervous about tripping in the dark. It actually wasn't long before he came out to level ground once again, but the descent had felt longer than it really was.

The catacomb tunnels were inky dark but surprisingly dry, and the stone textures looked to be less chipped and worn than outside. Shirou was unsurprised to find Lloyd already examining the ruin walls while everyone else was waited for his sister and Seriyuha to follow from behind. The group paused at the bottom of the stairway until everyone was down and ready to move on. Before they actually got moving, Ashii stepped out before them.

"Now," she began quietly, "everyone keep your ears open down here. 'Cave Dragon Whelps' gather in the catacombs. They're small but since they're blind they're experts at finding people hiding in the dark. Also they can spit small fireballs at their prey."

"And that's why I'm glad I met you guys out here," Keh-keh said, her hands behind her head. She grinned wide at Ashii. "Don't worry, I'll hear them coming from a mile away!"

"I sure hope so, those things are nasty," said Ashii.

Shirou shuddered involuntarily. From killer oxen to killer lizards...

They started walking slowly down the passage, keeping to the same general order with which they descended the stairs. Glancing over his shoulder, Shirou realized that this was the first time he could remember Seriyuha keeping to the rear when they moved. Glancing forward, he found himself wondering why. Was she afraid of attacks from behind?

The passage they took soon sloped downward at a gentle incline for a few minutes and then leveled out, though the walls and the carvings on them didn't change noticeably to Shirou. Perhaps Lloyd would see some change, but he didn't want to have the team slowed down with an exuberant lecture on ancient forms of writing. Not while they were in the dark and surrounded by killer lizards.

Speaking of which...

"Have you heard anything recently, Keh-keh?" he asked quietly.

"No, I would have spoken up," the young girl said.

"We should have seen some mobs by now," said Chigusa. "Remember that ice spider cave? We saw the first set of eggs only a minute or two in."

"Yeah," said Ashii, "something's definitely wrong..."

Since monsters left no corpses or physical drops of any kinds when they died in SAO, it was never easy to know whether any had been present once they were already gone. That could be annoying on occasion, now more than ever.

"Maybe they just removed the dragons from some parts of this dungeon?" asked Keh-keh. "I overheard Argo talking with one of her friends that they changed the first floor labyrinth boss."

"What?" snapped Ashii.

"I knew they'd change things from the beta," muttered Chigusa.

Ashii watched Keh-keh closely for a few seconds, as if examining her face. Keh-keh stared back, a confused look on her face. Finally Ashii resumed walking again, apparently satisfied with something only she knew.

Shirou wanted to ask what Ashii had been staring at, but eventually asked instead, "Who's Argo?"

"This really smart girl I met on the first floor. She's a beta too. She knows a lot. Some guy in black was talking with her about how the boss' final weapon was a little different from the beta."

"I told you that might happen," Lloyd said gently to Ashii.

"I expected it from the start," said Chigusa.

Ashii said nothing. Side passages appeared occasionally here and there, and once in a while Ashii directed them down them. Shirou wondered for a time what she was basing her directions off of, until Seriyuha finally volunteered the question herself. Before Ashii could begin to answer, Keh-keh rapidly (re-)explained that the inner sanctum was the lowest point in the catacombs and Ashii was just directing them downward. Ashii ultimately said nothing.

The routes they took often sloped downward, further and further, until Shirou began to wonder if they would ever find themselves looking through the bottom of the ruins. He could only imagine they were now within the mountains. No matter how far down they went, however, they never saw any of the dragon whelps that Ashii and Keh-keh had promised, nor any monsters at all. Everywhere around him, Shirou saw his friends (other than Keh-keh) looking over their shoulders, or peering carefully down side passages. Shirou privately couldn't help but wonder if something was leading them into a trap, but he couldn't imagine what that would be. The simple AI of monsters in SAO shouldn't have been capable of something like that.

About half an hour into their downward trek, they came upon a tunnel that spiraled downward at an even slope and without any side passages. They were clearly closing in on their destination. Eventually they came before a great stone door etched in glyphs and twice as large as they were tall.. Ashii stepped before it and turned around, her hands resting on her nodachi.

"Now on the other side of this door there's supposed to be a guardian boss of this dungeon; an 'Elder Dragon Spawn'. It's not going to be an easy fight, but we can manage."

"What's it do?" asked Keh-keh.

"Can't say, another party beat us to this boss back in the beta," said Ashii.

"But you said you got here first."

"And spent hours exploring it, remember?"

"Keh-keh, you've still got your Beta guide, right?" asked Chigusa.

Keh-keh gave a short gasp and opened her inventory. "Right, good thinking," she said absentmindedly as she rifled through her items. She found the book again, more quickly than before, and hummed quietly to herself for a few minutes as she flipped through individual pages, until finally she frowned.

"All it says is that a boss is rumored to guard a treasure room at the bottom, but-"

"Well, I guess that book's not perfect, then," said Ashii.

Seriyuha stepped out from behind Shirou and his sister. "You showed us the way here, but I'd like to have Hinoka direct us in this fight."

"Can confirm, she knows her stuff." said Keh-keh.

Ashii examined Chigusa briefly, eyes narrowed. "Well, as I seem to be in the minority, I'll agree to that."

"What sort of fighter are you?" Chigusa asked Lloyd.

Smiling, Lloyd drew forth his weapon, a long combat staff. "I hit enemies with a pole. It works pretty well."

"Okay, so a monk. Your defenses should be better than the rest of us aside from Seriyuha."

"He thought he was signing up to be a mage going in," said Ashii.

"Wow, you're dumb," said Keh-keh.

"She never told me SAO doesn't have a magic system!"

"Yes I did!"

"Lloyd, you're in the front with me on defense," Seriyuha said loudly, "Ashii, you'll be helping Chigusa and Shirou on the offense."

"Not a problem," said Ashii.

"Then let's go," Seriyuha said as she turned toward the double door. One hand on either door, she pushed hard, and they swung wide with only a little effort. On the other side of them was a large round room, with a wise raised platform in the center that was surrounded by pillars and a very high roof. Just like the rest of the catacombs, the walls were carved with glyphs and images, thought from a distance Shirou couldn't be certain what of. Seriyuha led the way onto the raised platform in the center, the rest of the group following behind. As Shirou and Chigusa hoisted themselves onto the platform, the stone doors slamed shut behind them with a rattle that shook dust from the ceiling. Before anybody could react, deep laughter resounded in the chamber.

"Trespassers," said a low deep voice. "There's a truth that you must learn of this world..."

A shadow began to move on the on the side of the room opposite that which they came in. Shirou tried to peer closer into the darkness, but couldn't properly discern the shape of the thing that approached them.

"It's a huge lizard," said Keh-keh.

"At least one of us can see in the dark," said Ashii, "but the lights -"

"Some secrets must remain buried! You shall learn that for yourself!"

Torches on the pillars that surrounded the platform suddenly flared to life, bathing the room in light. Shirou winced, but his eyes quickly adjusted, and he tossed aside his torch. Standing before him was a centaurian monster of a lizard that stood nine feet from boot to shoulder, with four thick and muscular legs hoisting up its upper body, complete with strong arms that gripped a crude double-sided polearm.

"Senzar, the Keeper of the Ruins," it was called.

"There's only one truth in this world," Ashii cried, her nodachi pointed straight at the guardian, "and it's that our only way out is through! So prepare to let us through!"

Senzar began to walk around the perimeter of the room between the platform and the torches, his eyes constantly on his foes and his weapon held ready. The party huddled together near the center, watching him closely.

"What's our plan, Hinoka?" asked Seriyuha.

"He's probably trying to disorientate us," said Chigusa.

"Keep a close eye on him," Ashii said quietly, 'that polearm of his and the layout of the room gives him a few angles to swing at us from."

"I'll take care of it!" Keh-keh cried as she deftly threw a handful of throwing knives. The weapons soared right for Senzar's eyes, but he easily deflected them with his weapon.

Senzar suddenly twirled his weapon around in hand and swung it wide at the party, sweeping the closer half of the platform with it. Seriyuha raised her shield and took a knee. The force of the blow pushed her back a foot and reduced her health moderately, but she deflected Senzar's attack upward.

"Now!" cried Ashii. Raising her nodachi she darted in, Lloyd at her side.

"Uhhh," said Keh-keh, "I'm not su-"

"Hold back," cried Seriyuha, "Hinoka didn't-"

Senzar caught Ashii mid-skill with one of his front feet, sending the swordswoman flying in a heap. Lloyd broke off his own attack to rush to his partner's side, and just in time, as Senzar had turned his deflected horizontal sweep into a vertical chop. Lloyd caught the attack on the shaft of his pole and was forced to one knee, but Seriyuha ran to his aid and rammed into the weapon with her shield, swing Senzar's polearm flying. The counterforce from Seriyuha's attack jerked the weapon around in Senzar's hands, but when Shirou caught his sister's eyes, she shook her head at him immediately.

"Didn't really see anything that looked like an opening," said Keh-keh. "What's our plan?"

As Senzar resumed pacing, Ashii and Chigusa exchanged glances. "Any ideas?" asked Ashii.

To Shirou's surprise, she grinned back, and immediately directed Seriyuha to the opposite side of the group from where she'd been standing. Senzar again swept his polearm across the platform, and Seriyuha deflected it. She turned to face Senzar only for Chigusa to suddenly and urgently direct her to change sides again, and then for the rest to, "get ready."

Seriyuha paused only long enough to shoot Chigusa a curious look before hurrying across the platform, just in time for Senzar to attempt to bisect it again with a downward slice of his weapon. Lloyd blocked it as he had before. Without waiting to be told, Seriyuha rammed the weapon off of Lloyd as she had before.

The weapon again rattled around in Senzar's grip - and the opposite end was swung toward him, ramming the flat end of it into his own gut. Ashii darted in, nodachi drawn, before Senzar even had time to start sputtering for breath. Shirou was stunned at her reflexes before he mastered himself and readied an axe skill. Chigusa plunged her spear into Senzar's chest, Keh-keh carved a deep gash into his side with her long serrated hand knife, and Shriou hacked at him with his axe. Senzar's health dropped a respectable amount as the giant guardian stumbled back, roaring angrily.

"Back up, everyone!" Chigusa cried as she leaped onto the platform.

"Something tells me we don't wanna be in the way of his walking," said Keh-keh.

"No, he's most likely programmed to just trample anybody in front of him without stopping," said Chigusa.

Shirou smiled at his sister as the team positioned themselves to attack Senzar once more. The trick she'd notice was one Ashii hadn't. There was a difference between beta testers. Senzar, having apparently not learned his lesson from his previous failed attack, once more was driven to jab himself in the stomach with his weapon after a failed attack, and again took damage for it. Then he let out a longer roar and resumed his pace, though his grip on his weapon had shifted. Before he'd held the polearm in two hands well apart and raised slightly upward, but now he held it low, his hands close together.

"Looks like he's going for even more swing," said Lloyd.

"Yeah," said Chigusa, "Lloyd and Seriyuha, stay together on the side of us I indicate, and be ready to change sides quickly."

Both gave their affirmation, and Chigusa directed the tanks to stand to one side of the party. Shirou quickly replayed the fight mentally, recalling then that Senzar always swung originating from the direction he'd been going. Shirou watched the field boss and the two tanks, his stomach writhing. Then Senzar finally stepped his march, and then turned around completely and swung - in the opposite direction than Chigusa had expected. Chigusa screamed for those on the offense and defense to switch places, and Shirou only barely managed to scramble past Lloyd and Seriyuha as they rushed forward to block the incoming attack. With Seiryuha's kite shield and Lloyd's staff they deflected the attack upward, Shirou breathed a sight of relief as Senzar's attack swung over them - but then Senzar turned the polearm around as it reached the apex of its swing.

Shirou's heart practically leaped from his chest, and he was already diving to the ground as Chigusa screamed for everyone to duck. Shirou could feel Senzar's weapon cut through the air above him, and then heard a loud sound like stone being carved as he rose to his feet. Looking up, he saw that Senzar had embedded his weapon in one of the pillars. He stared, completely dumbfounded, until Chigusa screamed for everyone to attack, bringing him back to his senses. Ashii was already chaining her first sword skill into another by the time he managed to deal some damage of his own, but everyone managed to get a few good hits in before Senzar finally managed to free his weapon.

That time, Chigusa was ready for Senzar's reverse-turn before his attack, and the tanks were equally ready for his second sweep. Senzar's second swing went too wide, driving the head of his polearm into the pillar. Shirou gasped in recognition for a moment before he went in with his companions to attack the stuck guardian. With that fourth strike, Senzar's health dropped to low levels, and he furiously pulled his weapon to free it from the stone. Shirou heard the crunch of splintering wood as Senzar angrily snapped his polearm in half. Apparently undeterred, the giant beast simply took the ruined weapon in one hand, and then yanked the other half free from the stone where it remained lodged with the other. Thus armed with now much-shorter hand-blades, Senzar stepped onto the platform and glared down at the intruders.

"Looks like it's time for phase three!" cried Keh-keh.

"Stick together, he won't have the same range anymore!" said Ashii.

"No," cried Chigusa, "spread out, break into two groups and go on opposite sides of him!"

Immediately guessing that the tanks were to be on opposite teams, Shirou rushed to Lloyd's side, him being the closer of the two, and was quickly joined by Keh-keh. Seriyuha, Ashii, and Chigusa grouped and moved a distance away. Senzar turned to face Shirou's group, his gaze blazing.

"Well he would go after us," muttered Keh-keh. "Hope you're ready for this one, Lloyd!"

"I'll help," Shirou volunteered, though he could hardly believe the words as they came out of his mouth. He did have his buckler, though it felt woefully inadequate compared to Seriyuha's kite shield.

Senzar moved slower than before, as if to savor the approaching moment. Though wounded and with his weapon ruined, he still stood nearly twice as tall as Shirou and Lloyd, and he had a fury in his eyes. Raising both blades at once, he began swinging them viciously at Shirou specifically, forcing Lloyd to stand nearly in front of him to help protect him from the furious attack. There was no finesse or skill in Senzar's attacks anymore, just raw strength and speed.

But it was nearly enough.

Shirou raised his buckler to block one strike and nearly felt himself being thrown from his feet. Another came in from the side but Lloyd caught and deflected it with his pole. Shirou glared at him a moment, wishing he'd made himself a monk or knight so he could perform similar feets. He had only a moment to think before Senzar's next chop swung his way, and another following that. Keh-keh threw her throwing knives from behind the two men, but the only ones that had any effect were the knives that found their way into Senzar's eyes, and even those only barely delayed his net swing.

The furious rain of blows then ended suddenly as Senzar jerked forward with a cry of pain. The girls had obviously dealt him some damage. Shirou and Keh-keh went in on Senzar while he was reeling, dealing a couple of blows of their own before he recovered and they were forced to retreat. Roaring, Senzar turned, and Shirou watched from behind as he began his furious assault on his companions across from him.

He went to attack Senzar's back, but the lizard's huge tail swung across the air in front from him.

Gritting his teeth, Shirou ran in, only for the heavy, cold, hard tail to hit him in the side. By the time he knew where he was, he was on the ground. Growling, he forced himself on to his feet, yelling to Keh-keh and Lloyd to attack from multiple sides. Once again he charged in, but was forced to leap back to avoid Senzar's tail. Lloyd got a little closer, but the thrashing tail barely clipped his legs, throwing him to the ground as well.

Snarling, he could only wonder how Chigusa and the others had broken through before. They had to get through somehow, but how!?

"Stay right there, Razler!" cried Keh-keh. Shirou, despite her warning, whirled around just in time to see Keh-keh leaping toward him. She landed on his shoulders, paused, and launched herself toward Senzar.

The little girl gracefully flipped onto the monster's tail, paused a moment, and leaped again. In the middle of the air she prepared a knife skill and rammed her dagger into the guardian's back, halting both his assault on the other team and the thrashing of his tail. His heart racing, Shirou leaped in with an axe skill, and then another. Senzar was already starting to turn back around - it didn't matter. Shirou attacked again, his teeth gnashed. Wouldn't this bastard die!? His fourth skill struck Senzar's body, and the guardian's movements stopped. Shirou's heart missed a beat as the giant lizard's body exploded into polygon fragments, and he fell to his knees.

"He finally went down," he groaned.

"Is everyone okay?" Seriyuha called out from across the platform.

"Yeah, we're good!" Keh-keh yelled back as she ran toward them.

"Speak for yourself," Shirou muttered as he got up once again.

The torches rapidly dimmed and went out around them, casting the ruins back in the mysterious darkness that once held it. Chigusa and Ashii produced new torches for everyone, and the sound of rock sliding and groaning resounded from both ends of the room.

"Hey, sounds like the inner sanctum is ours!" cried Keh-keh.

Laughing victoriously to herself, Chigusa lit her torch quickly and practically sprinted for the opposite door. As they stepped inside, Shirou saw that the sanctum was nearly twice the size of the chamber where they battled Senzar, and was engraved with an intricate carving. Lloyd immediately tried to stop and get a closer look, only for Ashii to urge him on, reminding him they'd have time later on.

Torches flared to life in the next room as they passed took a few more steps in, revealing themselves to be in a long hall. It was nearly empty save for pillars lining the central path and shallow water channels running against the walls. But most importantly...

"Hey, I don't see any chests or anything!" Keh-keh cried indignantly.

"N-no way!" cried Chigusa.

She ran ahead, ignoring Seriyuha's calls for her to slow down. The others hastened to join her at the other end of the room, where they found her glowering at the far wall. On it was carved a detailed mural of some sort, but there was no sign of any chests or loot anywhere.

"There's nothing here! It's empty!" she cried, gesturing at the room around her. "How's that possible, did somebody else beat us-"

"Well met, young warriors!"

Shirou immediately turned, his heart racing. He was expecting to see a player standing behind them, but he was wrong. His eyes widened, and he subconsciously tightened his grip on the shaft of his axe. It was that same figure in the red robe that he'd seen that night. The day they were all trapped in SAO. It was the avatar of Kayaba Akihiko that stood before him.

"BASTARD!" screamed Seriyuha.

She immediately unleashed one of her skills upon him, as did Ashii. Both women blasted through the air toward him, weapons poised - and then they passed harmlessly through. The only reaction that the robed figure gave to the attack was a slight shimmer of his form.

"Calm yourselves, I implore you!" the robed figure cried, his hands held up before him.

Several of Keh-keh's knives flew through the dark space under his hood, but again they flew through him as easily as air.

Shirou stared at him. He wasn't reacting at all. He wasn't looking at Keh-keh, nor at the two women now behind him.

"No matter what you might have seen, know that I am not your enemy," the figure said as he reached up to his hood. As he pulled it down, Shirou saw the face that lay under it. A middle-aged man wearing glasses, his messy black hair falling into the robe. He glanced at Chigusa, and she shook her head.

"That's definitely not Kayaba Akihiko," she whispered. "I have no idea who that is."

"If you're not our enemy," asked Seriyuha, "then who-"

"Hey, wizard, say 'apple'," Keh-keh suddenly demanded.

"My name is Edgar, and I welcome you to the innermost chamber of the these ruins. As you may have surmised from the," Edgar frowned, "rather fiendish guardian that was left to watch over it, certain secrets are being kept here."

He gestured toward the back wall, the one that bore the mural. "The Demon King who rules this flying prison wishes this to remain undiscovered."

"Seriously, say 'apple'," said Keh-keh.

Shirou stared at her. "He's not listening to you," he said. Why was she making such a weird demand?

"He's an npc," muttered Seriyuha. "That's why he's not reacting to anything we do," she continued over the sounds of Edgar's infodumping. "He's probably just meant to recite his script and leave."

"Shouldn't we listen to him?" asked Lloyd.

Seriyuha narrowed her eyes at him briefly. "What do we care about the lore of this world? Edgar's right that this is a prison, but it's nothing more than that."

"I care," Lloyd said girmly.

"-but to see young heroes like yourselves challenge the Demon King's servants does give me some hope," Edger continued, "further above in this castle are ruins like these."

He frowned at them, a genuine look of sorrow reaching his eyes. Shirou stared, surprised at the emotion the NPC was managing to convey.

"I implore you to seek the truth and keep fighting. This lie must end. The world outside waits for those imprisoned here."

Edgar suddenly burst into a dazzling flash of light, briefly blinding Shirou. By the time he could see again, the wizard was already gone, leaving the ruined hall empty of others once again. He turned to Seriyuha, who was staring at the place where the wizard once stood.

"What do you make of that bit of lore, then? He was clearly talking about our predicament."

Seriyuha turned toward him, but Chigusa said, "Not necessarily. Kayaba might have purposefully written the game's lore to relate to the death game."

"In fact that seems very likely," she continued, her brow furrowed. "Remember how he called himself the god of this world? He's probably the 'Demon King' the wizard was talking about."

"Hey, but what about that mural he wanted to show us?" asked Keh-keh. "More ancient words?"

She turned to Lloyd, who was already examining it. "No," he said quietly. "It's a picture."

Shirou and the others joined Lloyd and Ashii. As he came up near the mural he looked up, arms folded. It was a picture of a landscape carved from the stone of the ruin wall, a picture of grasslands, trees, mountains, and small figures - people and animals, crossing from every corner of the land to a single point in the middle. As he recognized what he was looking at, his eyes narrowed. They were all congregating to Castle Aincrad. On the edges of the mural was destruction. Raging ocean waves rose to swallow abandoned towns, and fire rained down to destroy the rest. A cataclysm of some sort, but the center of the land was still calm.

Keh-keh finally broke the quiet in order to scoff at the mural. "Hinoka's right about Kayaba wanting to be God: he ripped off the Moses story!"

"Noah," said Ashii.

"She's right though," said Lloyd, "this definitely depicts a mass exodus to this very castle."

Taking a step back, he examined the mural once again. "Is that the lore of this world? The secret that Edgar wanted to share with us?"

"But why would the 'Demon King' not want anybody to know about this?" wondered Shirou.

"What are you two going to do now?" asked Seriyuha.

Shirou looked to Seriyuha, returned to reality by her loud question. She was standing several paces back from the others, her gaze now only on Lloyd and Ashii.

The pair exchanged glances for a moment. "There's a lot more I'd like to learn from these ruins," he said without hesitation. "I'll be staying here for a few more days to study them."

"Which means I'll be staying put to make sure he doesn't get himself hurt," Ashii said, though she smiled.

"Then I suppose we part ways here," said Seriyuha. She stepped forward, and shook both their hands, one after the other.

"We fought pretty well to get down here though," Lloyd said, smiling at her, "let's join forces if we happen to meet up again at another ruin!"

"That sounds good to me," Chigusa said brightly. She walked up to Ashii and smiled at her. "It was nice to meet another beta tester, wanna exchange friend information?

Ashii stared at her a moment as if taken aback, but eventually nodded and added Chigusa as a friend. The trio plus Keh-keh turned and left the hall, leaving the odd duo behind.

"But what I wanna know," Keh-keh said loudly, her hands behind her head, "is what happened to all those lizards on the way down here."

"Maybe Edgar killed them," said Shirou.

"Eh, this was a waste of time in my opinion, no treasure at all."

Keh-keh suddenly darted ahead, though she turned and flashed them a grin. "I'm gonna go find somebody else to bug! See you guys next time!"

She vanished into the darkness, leaving the trio alone once more.

"She's so annoying," muttered Chigusa.

Shirou agreed quietly.

The party made their way back up to the plaza where they camped for the night, planning to find their way into town the next day. Shirou sat at their campfire, staring into the night sky as the shadows around them danced by the light of the fire. Another strange day in castle Aincrad. From vast plains, to mountains, to ruins. This world certainly held no shortage of diverse sights.

Or - he pondered as he glared over at Kibaou's party - people. Their "rival" of sorts had arrived from town shortly after Shirou and his companions made it back up to the plaza. Fortunately, they'd camped in a shadowed corner, and their campsite was already concealing them. Kibaou's large party made no effort to do the same. As night deepened and the noise finally began to die down, Shirou began to notice an ever-deeening somberness from Seriyuha.

"Are you disappointed that Lloyd and Ashii didn't join us?" he asked quietly.

"No," Seriyuha said instantly. "Lloyd doesn't share our goals. He's not interested in escaping from this world at all."

"Don't you think that's a bit of a conclusion to jump to?" asked Chigusa.

Seriyuha grimaced and shrugged. "Well, he's not interested enough in escaping, at least. He'd be hard to motivate as he is."

She was definitely right about that. Shirou hadn't entertained much of a hope of recruiting the pair even from the start. He wasn't surprised that Keh-keh didn't stick around for another offer, either.

For now, their "guild" was still only three members large.

"I suppose," Seriyuha added quietly, "the two of you are wondering why I hid what I am from you?"

"No," said Chigusa, "it was your business. If you wanted to open up, that was your decision to make."

Shirou privately agreed. Seriyuha smiled at the younger woman. "It's not that I didn't trust you, I -" she glanced away, smiling wistfully, "I didn't want you to think I was some kind of lame casual gaming mom, you know. I was worried it might change your opinion of me."

"Seriyuha," said Chigusa, "if it wasn't for you I wouldn't have known what to do back in the starting city. Knowing you're a mom on the outside won't make either of us think any less of you, I promise."

"Besides, it doesn't make you any less of a tank," Shirou said, smiling at her.

Laughing, Seriyuha rolled her eyes and shoved Shirou by the shoulder. "In that case, its bed-time for the two of you. We've gotta find out what we're gonna do for the next few days in this canyon, remember?"

His heart significantly lighter, Shirou led the way into the tent, the two women following behind. Even though the floor they rested on what made of stone, the inside of the tent was as comfortable as a bed of grass. Smiling, he stared at the canvas roof before he let sleep take him.

A brat, a mom, a would-be archeologist, and his significantly more-active watch-guard.

It was a strange world indeed.

---

Belated Merry Christmas, everyone, hope everyone's was pleasant!

And Happy New Year! Hope 2018 is even better for everyone than 2017 was!

This back-and-forth time jumping seems to be working for the most part, but let me know if it comes across as annoying and stalling the main plot.

Magmanta and Senzar weren't very tough bosses, but in my experience with MMO games, early bosses tend to be pretty easy. If anything, those two should have been possible to solo, but because there's a very team-oriented standard in this fanfiction that wouldn't have gelled too well.

A warning to aspiring fanfiction writers: do NOT actually save and perform your work on this site. Write it on Google docs or something and export it when it's ready for upload, the Data Vampires WILL get your work if you save it here.