Chapter 10- Pride and Wrath

In this chapter the Black Knights take on the last two members of SDS while Sinon and Arita make their way to the tower in order to take down Retribution. While Strea is forced to reveal the truth about herself.

Hunter

The main city in Ragnorak looked like a carbon copy of new york as we walked through the city trying to figure out where exactly Retribution was hiding. "Are you sure you are unable to detect where he is, Zeon" I asked my A.I. "I'm sorry sir but it appears that the minute we entered the city his signal just disappeared. He must be blocking it so how" he told me. "It alright Zeon. I guess we will just have to search this city then and hope that his airship hasn't gone away" I replied as we continued to walk through the city. Me and Strea kept a look out since there was still two more enemies left besides Retribution. As we walked though the city I notice the airship that I saw when we were approaching the city. "Everyone I found it, right over there" I told everyone as I pointed towards it. "Great we can soon put an end to this guy and his twisted game" Philia replied. "Okay then lets go team" I told them as we began to walk towards the tower where the airship was located. We soon approached the arena which was the only building left between us and the tower. As we got closer to the arena I noticed that someone was standing in the entrance of it. He was dressed in a cloak that seemed to be flowing in the wind.

They took a step which resulted in all of us pulling out our weapon in case of an attack. "Which one of you is Mikael" they asked us. I stepped forward and answered "That would be me." "Follow me into the arena I wish to fight you one on one. If you do that then I shall allow you to pass and be on your way to Retribution" they told me. "No way, don't do it Mikael we don't know if he will be true to his word" Kirito said to me. "Trust me I will be true to my word. I promise on my honour as a swordsman" they replied. "Very well I shall duel you then" I said as followed him into the arena. "Oh and in case any of you are thinking about following us, Wrath deal with them" he said as suddenly someone jumped down from the top of the arena case them to land with a loud crash. They then stood up which resulted in them covering the entrance. I continued to kept follow the cloaked person as I knew the Black Knights could take care of themselves. We continued to walk along the corridor until I saw a light up ahead. I then walked through the light and appear in the arena. I noticed that there seem to be people sitting in the seat of the arena. They are begin stomping and clapping as if someone was about to sing 'We will rock you' by Queen. This didn't make sense since we would have heard them earlier as we were just outside and they are quite loud. The cloaked figure then stood dead centre in the middle of the arena. He then pulled away his cloaked reveal himself to me.

He dressed in what seemed to be samurai armour except it appear as if it were juggernaut armour but it was missing the helmet. "I apologise for the audience but it just that I take great pride in my skills as a swordsman" he said to me. It was then that I figured out that he was the sin Pride. "So I take your name is Pride then" I asked him. "That is correct, I am Pride leader of the SDS and the greatest swordsman of the virtual world. Man I was told you were smart but I wouldn't of guessed you figure my identity out so quickly though I guess it my own fault as I can help but show off my skill" he told me as he drew out his sword. It was a big sword that seemed to be a long as his arm(Imagine Zangetsu from Bleach). The blade was pitch black with blood red running along the blade. The hilt was cover by a light blue ribbon that seemed to also be wrapped around his right hand. "Do you have any last words before you die" he asked me. "No at all since this won't be where I die" I told him. He then launched his blade at me which I swiftly deflected with Code Breaker. "Ah it seem you have chosen to use a proper blade instead of one of those plasma games in this game" he said to me as he pulled his blade back and caught it in his hand.

"Let just say this was a gift from a friend to deal with people like you" I responded. He then charged at me but I was able to dodge his attacks during to him being unable to move as fast as opponent I have already faced since the armour he was wearing. He launched an onslaught of slashes and stabs which I evaded with easy. As he was about to attack with a downwards slash I switched from being defensive to offensive by counting to with a side slash that was able to cut through the blade and his armour. "Wow it seem your blade has a quite the bite to it. Not only did you slice through my blade but also my armour as well. I guess I will have to go all in then" he said as he stabs his blade into the ground causing it turn black as his sword repaired itself and duplicated. "You should feel honored not that many people have forced me to use this ability so quickly" he tells me. He begin to charge at me so I prepare to block when all of a sudden.

I felt a bone crushing force pushing me down and making me unable to move as Pride got closer and was able to slash across my shoulder. 'Aah' I scream as I felt the pain which felt as if I was cut by burning metal. 'What the hell was that' I thought to myself. 'Mikael can you hear me' I heard a voice say. 'Wait Alicia this that you' I though. 'Yep I'm sorry but I need to talk to about your opponent and through telepathy was the only way I could think of' she replied. 'Okay what is it, Alicia' I asked her. 'This AI is a lot different to any AI you have encountered before. You see in a game there are four different AI. The first is simply NPC which are character added to a game to help the player in some way. Example of these AI would be monster or shop owners. The second type of AI are what you call Bosses. These AI are much more complex then an AI as they are programmed to fight players but at the same time think more like a player. The third AI are called system AI these are AI programmed to help run the main program in some way. Example of this type of AI would include Yui before she met Kirito and Asuna. The final AI is the command AI. This is an AI that was programmed to run the system entirely with out the need of the creator. An example of this AI would the cardinal back in SAO. However there are two other types of AI but these are different to the other four one main reason. These AI's are able to go between different programs while the first four are stuck with one program and will be deleted when the program is. The fifth type of AI is known as Humane. The name may have a different meaning, these AI's have qualities that make them slightly human. Example of these AI's would include Me, Zeon, Yui, Strea. The final type of AI is one that I thought was impossible since these AI are known as Akui. These AI's are completely different to the one I mention before as these AI's have most of the negative emotion of a human being and will if allowed tried to destroy anything they set their minds to' she explained to me.

'Okay so Pride is one of these Akui then' I assumed. 'Not exactly he is more a fragment which means he was split from an Akui. This fragment is able to manipulate the system in the area covered in black' she replied. 'Okay then how to I beat him then' I asked her. 'Unfortunately at your strength now you will be unable to beat him however I can which is why I have to ask you to let me take over your avatar so that I may beat hm' she asked me. 'Wait you can take control of my avatar' I replied. 'Yes Hacker program it into me but he never explain why to me. He only ever said that I will know when to use. I must tell you that when I take over you will feel like you are in coma. So Mikael can I do it' she said to me. 'Okay do it then' I told her. I suddenly blacked out. When I came back I noticed that Pride was now on the ground with Code Breaker through his chest. "Well it seem that some how you were able to be beat but beware for now that I am gone, they will come for you next" he said to me before he disappeared. I then retrieved my sword as I then rushed back to where my friend were. I arrived just as they finished off their opponent. As I arrived I noticed that Strea collapsed and began to shake. "Hey what wrong with Strea" I asked everyone. "We don't know we were fighting the opponent when she was suddenly hit by something and then collapsed" Philia told me. "Okay let me see if I can do something to help her" I replied as I knelt down beside Strea. I put my hand on her when all of a sudden I felt strange. I suddenly found myself in a dark hallway. I began to down the hallway. I soon saw Strea lying in the hallway.

I run over to her and began to shake her in order to wake her up. "Come on Strea wake up" I told her. "Well well we meet again" I heard a voice say as it was followed by a clanging sound. I turned towards the sound as I saw a giant armored character that was coming towards us. "Who are you?" I asked it as I tried to pull out one of my blades but noticed that they were gone. "Oh this question again. I told you once you shall find out" he told me. "It you that voice I heard when I used ascension" I replied. "Yep that is me. It seems you were able to defeat my son" he said to me. "Wait your son. Do you mean Pride?" I asked him. "Yes he was my son, a fragment of the power I possess" he responded. "Wait fragment then does that mean you are a Akui" I replied. "Ah it seem you have some knowledge of what I am but unfortunate for you that is all you shall know. Now let get on to business as I am in quite the rush as it seem that some 'associates' of mine that need to be taught a lesson" he told me. "So what business do you have with me" I asked him. "You see I can help your friend here but in exchange I want you to deal with two sons of mine who have decide to rebel against me" he told me.

"Okay and nothing else" I asked worried that he might have something up his sleeve. "Yep that is all" he told me. I was worried as he seemed like he was hiding something but I knew that this might be the only way to help Strea. "Okay I will deal with you son then. I just need to know where they are" I asked him. "Oh that I'm sorry but I don't know where they are. You see I have been stuck in a game so I have been unable to locate them. However I have feeling that now their sibling is dead that they will try to locate you" he told before reaching his hand toward Strea. I began to glow black and then after a minute it stopped. "There my part of the deal is done. You better keep up your part of the deal or ELSE" he said before disappearing. Suddenly the hallway turned white and found myself back where I was before. I then noticed that Strea was beginning to wake up. "Hey Strea you okay" I asked her. "Yeah I fine, I have no idea what happened but I'm okay now" she told me. I had completely forgotten everyone else was there until I heard Philia say "What the hell." I turned towards them and saw that they were all shock. "What the hell" Philia repeated. "What the matter Philia" I asked. "The matter is that Strea was going on about being a AI in SAO. So what the hell" Philia said. "Look Philia I can explain" I told her. "No I don't want you to explain Mikael. I want Strea to explain" Philia answer. "Philia i'm sorry but I haven't told you the entire truth. My name is Strea. My system name was Strea-MHCP002" Strea told them. "Wait MHCP002, you wouldn't happen to be connect with MHCP001" Kirito asked. "Yes I am, MHCP001 also known as Yui is my sister" Strea told him. "Your sister" both Kirito and Asuna responded. "Yeah though I don't see why it a big deal" she said. "Oh I forgot to tell you that Kirito and Asuna are the ones looking after your sister" I told her. "You are, how is she" she asked them. "She is fine. In fact we have taken her in as our daughter" Asuna told her. "Oh thank you, despite Yui being the oldest she still act like a child" Strea said to them. I could tell that she was happy learn that the sister she had lost was still alive since I knew exactly what that was like.

"Um were you not explain yourself" Philia said to her. "Oh yeah sorry about that. Anyway I was a program for SAO that was meant to monitor player mental health along with my sister. However when the Death Game started we were restricted from interacting with the players, this caused problems as we were stuck watching player kill themselves and being unable to do anything. It was the hardest for my sister since it was her main programming. I tried everything to help my sister but nothing seemed to cheer her up. One day I noticed that she was watching two player who seem to showing different emotions than what we have seen before. As the day went by she continued to watch them and she was actually happy to see player show different emotion. Then one day I went to check on her only to find that she had disappeared. It was late that I learnt that she wanted to meet those two players however since we were restricted from doing so it resulted in her losing her memory. I tried to go after her but I knew that if I did their would be no telling what might happen. It was much later that I learnt that the Cardinal had destroyed Yui so fearing for my life I tried to run. As I did that a glitch in the system happened and was transferred here. Upon getting here I noticed that I was quite similar to a player so I just blended in and soon after I met you Philia and you know the rest of the story" she finished up.

"So this whole time you have been lying to me" Philia said. "Look Philia I'm sorry but I feared that if you learnt what I truly was then you would abandon me and I didn't what to lose my only friend" Strea said. Philia then rushed over to her and hugged her. "Listen Strea I don't care what you are as you are my friend since if it weren't for you then I don't know what I would be. I'm just upset that you couldn't trust me enough to reveal yourself to me" Philia told her as tear begin to run down her check. The two of them continue to sob and comfort each other until they then got up. "Come on there is only one enemy left and then this will all be over" I told them as we began to rush towards the tower

Lover

(Due to the fact I was unable to put up what happened to them in the last chapter, I just have to tell you that they are located in the tower Mikael and his group are heading towards but they got there while Mikael was fight)

We ran up the stair as fast as we could. I was were nearing the top I noticed that something was going on in the arena. I pulled out the sniper rifle I had and looked through the scope. I was shocked at what I saw as I saw Mikael fighting against an opponent. I smiled as I thought 'You came for me didn't you Mikael. I will wait for you at the top then.' I continued to run up the stair as I then said to Arita "Arita when we get to the top I want to wait before we attack Retribution." "What, why do you want to wait after all we are close to beating this guy" he replied. "You see I have encountered this Retribution before and when I did I saw that he was no push over. Back their I saw some back up in the form of my boyfriend so if we wait for him then we will stand a chance" I told him. "Okay if that what you want to do then I will to do it" he told me. I smiled at the thought that I will be reunited with Mikael soon.

Time skip- 30 minutes later

I sat on the roof while I monitored what was going on with Mikael. I saw that after his fight he made his way over to a group which I could recognize was the rest of our friend since Kirito was using the avatar he had the last time he was in GGO. I saw that they were wrapping up thing and began running toward our location. "Okay Arita they are on their way now" I told him it was another 30 minutes when the door handle began to rattle before the door opened.

Unknown

'So it appear this boy may be more capable then I realized but sadly he is only second biggest threat to me at this moment' I thought to myself as I watch several avatar fight over territory. Several were in red armour while other were in yellow armour. All of these armour were different due to the user. It was then that I saw the familiar flying sliver armour. 'So let go through this. At this moment Nega Nebulus poses a threat to me while Mikael also does. I can only plan to make sure that Mikael never comes to Brain Burst. Such ashame Mikael, I could almost call you brother consider we were made by the same people. Oh well until we meet again' I thought before going away.

End of Chapter- Right all I am going to say now is that SAO: Hunter and Prey shall be finished by the 19th August. I do hope that you have enjoy the chapter and are looking forward to the next one. So until next time.