We followed the missing townspeople' footsteps deep into the forest, eventually leading into the mountain range bordering the edge of the floor itself.
"Please don't tell me that we're going to climb that mountain." Agil annoyingly said.
"The footsteps led there." I told him. "Like it or not, we'll have to scale it to find the townspeople."
"Arrgg."
"Or maybe we don't have to." Sinon spoke up, before pointing in front of us. "Look over there."
I did as she said, and saw a wide cave at the mountain cliffs.
The footsteps led straight into it.
"Ah, great, caves." Asuna moaned. "How cliché..."
"We can't get our horses in there, even if the opening's big enough for them. That place counted as a dungeon." Sinon noted. "We'll have to go in by foot."
"It's not like there's much room for horses to maneuver in there anyway." Agil added.
And with that, we leave our horses behind.
The cave itself wasn't that bad, though it seems...odd, somehow.
I'm never that much good into geology, but even I can tell that this isn't how a cave was supposed to look like.
The cave formations, usually a normal sight inside real world caves, are nonexistent here, and the grounds are too smooth. There were narrow openings on the ceilings that let the light in so the cave isn't in total darkness, something I definitely grateful of.
"Well, this place kind of giving me the creeps." Agil said.
"If this place is a dungeon, then why didn't it show up on our map? Even the name's missing." Sinon added.
"Maybe it's because of the after effects of the patch update?" Lamia asked.
"Or maybe because this place wasn't meant to be in the game." Asuna guessed.
"At any rate, don't let your guard down, people." I ordered.
The cave isn't too wide, any battles here would mean less space to maneuver, and the passageway's too tide for any quick getaway. We're forced to walk only in straight line.
Fortunately, Lamia has something that greatly helped us in the cave. She has a rare, saber user-only skill called Luna's Embrace, which multiply her agility in attacking and also illuminates her saber, which benefits to us greatly in this cave.
"Whoa...where did you learn to get that skill, Lamia?" I asked in bewilderment after seeing her uses it for the first time.
"My big brother taught me." She answered. "He's also a saber user like me, although he's very much better at this than me..."
As soon as she finished that, the light on her saber flickered a bit, before disappeared, and reappeared again, sort of like a malfunctioning light tube.
"Ah, damnit, work, you lazy...!" She shook her saber up and down, trying to make her saber lights up again.
"Hey, hey, take it easy! Maybe you're just tired?"
"Nah, I'm just...to be honest, I never really manage to master this skill before...before..."
She struggled, before taking a deep breath...
"He's gone...along with the rest of my guild..."
Damn it, I shouldn't have bringing this up.
"I'm...I'm sorry, Lamia."
"It's...it's alright now." She simply said, struggling to keep her voice calm. "I can't just keep dwell on these things forever, right? Like you said, Kirito-kun. I need to move on."
"Don't force yourself on these things, Lamia. It's okay to be sad, but just don't let it clouded your mind." Sinon said kindly with a smile on her face.
Though I can sense something from her...like she's somewhat unsure of herself.
Sinon?
The light on Lamia's saber finally reappeared.
"Yes! At last it's working!" She cheered.
"Nice one!"
"It's because everyone's helping me." Lamia said. "That's why I wanted to help everyone, too!"
Heh, at least she's back to her cheerful self.
"Let's move on."
We walked in the cave for about another ten minutes, following traces of footsteps still left on the ground. Strangely, I didn't see any traces of Keita's group at all, just the footsteps of the three missing townspeople.
"Something's real odd here." I said finally. "Where could Keita and the rest of the group be?"
"Didn't he tell you about where they will be looking for us, Agil?" Asuna asked.
"Um...they didn't. They just tell me that they'll go look for you, but didn't specify where. Last time I saw them, they were at the town entrance, probably because they couldn't find you anywhere in the town." Agil explained.
"They're probably went to look for us in the forest," Sinon suggested "Or they might've gone for help. They probably never went in here in the first place."
"So what the heck are we doing here?" Asuna asked again.
"Um, finding the missing townspeople?"
"Yeah, all the while leaving the two guys we've saved back at Mayfair, alone. Smart move, you moron."
Damn it, she's so annoying!
But she does have a point.
This is just one mistake after another...
Maybe me and Asuna should've waited until the morning before go looking for the missing townspeople. That way, we could search for them together, not separated like this...
Well, if you and Asuna weren't in the forest last night, Sinon would've been killed by those beasts. My brain kicked in.
That still doesn't excuse the fact that we are all separated! Me, Sinon and Asuna now know full well what those beasts could do, but Keita's group don't. It's gonna be a bloodbath for sure.
You need to take care of the townspeople first, My brain called in again They could tell you more about what happened in this place.
But still, we only saved two of them! And now we're leaving them alone back in Mayfair while we went back out here, something could've happen to them right now!
That...well, that's definitely a mistake...
Checkmate, brain, now shut up.
Yeah, I admit it, I'm not the brightest player in Aincrad, but this is just stupid.
Damn it, I'm supposed to be better than this!
Why the heck does working in a guild so difficult!?
I should've stayed solo...
"Kirito, you okay?" Lamia spoke up.
"Huh?"
"You've been making a strange face for a whole minute now, is something wrong?"
"It's...it's alright. I'm just thinking about how to solve this whole mess up."
Lamia then surprised me by giving me a pat on the back.
"You know, you kind of remind me of my brother, Kirito..."
Wha?
"He's always so serious when he's doing something, maybe even taking his life too seriously sometimes. It's times like this that I need to kick some sense into him. Not really worked, to say the least..."
She went quiet again, the light from her saber flickered again.
"I was just...I just wish that I could've had more time with him..."
And with that, her face saddened again.
"Hey, hey..."
Without thinking, I just pulled her close to me, and patting her back.
"It's alright, it's alright..."
Damn it, I'm not good at stuffs like this at all...
"AHEM!"
Someone was clearing the throat behind me.
Surprisingly, it was Sinon who did that...
"Guys, now's not really the time. Look at that." She pointed to a wide opening in front of us.
The cave exit, or is it?
No, it's not really an exit. It leads straight into a large cavern.
This is where the footsteps ended as well, but that's not really on my concern right now...
We've finally found what we're looking for.
"Holy..."
Below us, at the wide cavern grounds, lies about half a dozen steel cages, all of them filled with people.
The missing townspeople....
"What the hell is this!?" Agil exclaimed.
We slowly walked pass the cages, the townspeople are still alive, but unconscious.
"At least they're not transformed yet..." Asuna said. "Let's find the one responsible for all of this."
After some walking, we saw a silhouette in front of us.
A hooded man standing in front of a large machine of some-sort next to a giant cave pillar.
He's too busy minding the machine in front of him and doesn't realize that we're here.
I made a quick gesture for Sinon and Asuna to surround him, while Agil and Lamia guarded the exit so he couldn't escape.
I myself summoned the Elucidator and walk straight up to him.
This is it...
I raised my sword up, putting it at the side of the guy's head.
"Don't move an inch, you bastard..." I spoke.
The hooded man's body shook a bit, probably surprised at our sudden appearances, but nevertheless remained calm.
"Whoever you are, please do not misjudge me. I'm doing this for a reason." He said.
"I don't care what your reasons are! This is just wrong. Turning people into monsters, how could you do something like this to fellow players!?" Asuna shouted.
"You...you don't know what I've been through..." He said.
I tighten my grip on the Elucidator. If this guy's making any moves, I will know it.
"Tell me about this machine."
I heard a little sigh from him, before he explains.
"Have you ever heard of 'Cardinal System'?"
"No."
What the heck is he talking about?
"The Cardinal System refers to a highly advanced system manager program that serves as a primary system for operating a virtual reality, or in this case, Aincrad. The system, developed by none other than the infamous Kayaba Akihiko himself, is given absolute authority on just about everything inside this place, be it player individual statuses, monsters spawning, quest generating, you name it. If Kayaba is a god of this world, then Cardinal is the messiah that carries out his will."
"What's your point?"
"Can't you see? It is Cardinal that trapped us in here! I found this...this machine here, a console of some sort, if I could find some way to hack it, maybe we could be finally getting out of this place!" He turned to face me at last, but his face is still covered under his hood.
"That still doesn't explain the townspeople you kidnapped, and those monsters you're working on!" I said angrily.
"I'm not stupid, as well as Kayaba. If he knows that somebody's been hacking his game, who knows what he could've done to us! That's why I needed to start slow, right? Some test subjects, willing or unwilling, anything works! Game Manager or not, he couldn't just monitor the entire game on his own. A town's worth of people disappeared? Well, there's like hundreds of towns in this game. It'll be a big while until he notices it. The patch update's the perfect chance for me to finally finish my job, with Kayaba's still busy with it."
"So why the monsters? That's just inhumane!"
The hooded-man then suddenly laughed out loud. His voice echoed throughout the caverns.
"Are you so naive!? Look around you! How many players you know are actually fighting to get out of this place, huh?! Some of them even think they're gonna live in here for the rest of their miserable lives! The guild conflicts don't make it better at all. Sooner or later, there won't be anybody left to finish the game! They don't want to get out, fine! But I do! And I'm sure as hell won't let those selfish morons stopping me from freeing everybody from this place! That's why I'm doing this! A private army of elite monsters at my disposal, what's to worry about the bosses now? Forget those useless Beaters, those guys are the real deal!"
That's it, this asshole's so gonna get it.
I put my Elucidator away, while using my other free hand to punch the bastard right in the face.
Or at least that's what I'm going to do, when a fist came out of nowhere and pinned that guy to the ground before I react.
It was Asuna.
"YOU. DON'T. DO. THIS. TO. OTHER. PLAYERS, YOU BASTARD! WHAT IF IT WAS YOU IN THEIR PLACES! WHAT IF SOMEONE DID THIS TO YOU!?" She kept punching the guy in the face, his hood finally fell down, revealing his face.
"N-No!" I heard someone screamed from behind me.
I turned to look, and saw Lamia there. She has a terrified look on her face.
"I-it can't be-!"
She fell on her knees, staring at the sight of the man in front of her with a shocked face.
Asuna stopped punching, she glanced back and forth at her and the mysterious man.
Speaking of him, he also glared at Lamia with the same bewildered expression.
"L-Lamia, is that you?"
Though it was low, I could hear Lamia mumbled something; something that made my heart skipped a few beats.
"B-brother?"
Editor's note: Whew, a field day with this chapter...
Right, another cliffhanger and halfway through Lamia's 'arc', next chapter's gonna be a while, though. About the Cardinal System, I don't really know if I got it right. It's been a while since I rewatched SAO. Any mistakes, and I'll rewatch it again LOL.
Reviews please! :)