Link Start: Danger In Virtual Worlds
Chapter 3: Boiling Feelings
Date: Infinityverse Days 27-51
As I stood there with the many others who had survived the fight with the 3rd floor boss, something popped into my head due to all the cooperation that happened during the fight. I said it out loud: "Even if we're doomed to fail and never beat this game.. As long as we tried to clear it while continuing to smile and have hope, we will have endings to our lives that are poetic and beautiful. Now that I've gotten the mental help I needed, I once again see that now. I still grieve over those I've lost but now, I know that I'm not nothing. I'm somebody. I will regain the honor I have yet to regain but right now, just knowing we're trying to overcome the challenges and smile is enough." My words resonated with every single person in the boss room. It's truly time to go to the 4th floor. Diavel speaks: "You speak the truth, Swiftdrawer. What's the point of living if you can't die in the end while trying to smile? Words have so much meaning in the circumstances we face now as the clearers of the Assault Team. Now, we will go up to the 4th floor immediately once we reach the teleport gate that will grant us passage to it. Let's go!" We mourn the 4 people who died in the boss fight and make our way to the aforementioned teleport gate. Once we get there, someone activates it and we all use it to go up to the 4th floor of Aincrad. It is a lush floor with water where canyons were in the beta version of SAO. Notable locations as we discovered included a Ancient City(Minecraft), Rovia, Bear Forest, Fallen Elf Hideout, Caldera Lake, Usco Village, Forest Elf Castle, Yofel Castle, and the old houses and towns of the Cube SMP's 4 iterations. It was a surprise that we didn't need to take the stairs up to the 4th floor to activate the teleport gate but it was confirmed before we defeated the Floor Boss. The 4th floor's boss is Wythege the Hippocampus. However, something didn't feel right once we made it to the 4th floor.
The sky was red. But that's not the only thing that was wrong. The floor itself was glitching out for some reason. Future Trunks speaks: "I have a very bad feeling about this. This isn't normal." Supreme Kai of Time Aeos nods: "Indeed, I can't access any of my powers inside this world but there is something going on. It's a similar malevolent feeling to what Demigra gave off when he appeared during my Super Space-Time Showdown tournament." We then hear a familiar voice: "This floor is as far as you're going to go, Assault Team! I've had enough letting you roam free as I plotted my revenge. And now, it's time to destroy all of you." Romeo appears in a huge size form and laughs. Steven yells: "It's you! We won't let you get away with your diabolical plans!" "Oh so you're Steven Universe. I hear you've caused quite a lot of things. But you don't matter to me that much." A large number of clearers appear to have gone missing. Diavel replies: "You're the villain who impersonated me. We don't have time for you, some of the other clearers have gone missing out of nowhere. We have to find them before they put themselves in grave danger!" "Oh but you'll have to make time for me! Or rather. Make time for a grumpy friend of mine! You know what's fun about newer Minecraft worlds? They have new features I can use to my advantage! For example.." Romeo starts typing a command in front of us and is unfazed by any attacks we use on him. Even Bercouli's Time Splitting Sword does nothing against him. He types fast so there was barely any time to react to what he was doing. I pull out an ender Pearl and throw it, getting a very bad feeling myself. I was able to read the first part of the command: "/tp" by performing mental gymnastics.
I had no time to do anything else besides yell: "RUN!" Only a small number of clearers got it and started getting away. My ender pearl teleported me away in time before Romeo teleported the others away to somewhere else. When he's done, he laughs: "They'll have so much fun fighting the Warden in that Ancient City! I can't wait to see how they play my newest game!" Romeo then flies away, not noticing those of us who had gotten away for one reason or another. It didn't take too long for me and those who got away to realize through messages and yelling that some of the clearers had decided to run straight to the dungeon leading to the 4th floor boss on their own. They had gotten tired of the pace we were going and wanted to charge in despite the fact we just defeated the 3rd floor boss. Out of all of us, I was the one who was closest to the reckless players. It also became clear that giving every player information such as the direct path to each dungeon leading to the first 70 or so floor bosses in one of the guidebooks may have not been the best idea. I ran at top speed, my experience in fighting across dimensions as well as training so much has naturally led to me running as fast and efficiently as possible. That has translated well into my performance in this death game. When I reached the dungeon first, I saw something alarming. "Damn it! Gotta keep running! The reckless clearers just ignored the monsters in here! Why do I get the feeling that the problematic Kibaou is behind their recklessness?" I keep running, fighting monsters only when I had to. I was dead set on making it inside the boss room before its doors closed. I make it as do a few others but some monsters got inside with us. But still, I kept running and was able to protect some of the reckless clearers from an attack by the boss with my shield.
"Damn it! Why did you have to run off like that? You knew something was wrong on this floor and you still chose to go ahead, potentially leading yourself to your dooms!" There were too few of us to win the boss fight. Kirito yells: "There's no way we can win! We aren't prepared and our numbers are too few! Crap! At this rate, we're all going to die!" I did my best to defend the others now that my armor was enchanted with Protection V amongst other things such as Unbreaking lll and Thorns lll. The armor reflected some of the damage back to the boss but it didn't do much of anything. In fact, I tried as hard as I possibly could, hoping that some of our comrades would be able to bust open the door we entered the boss room through like what happened on floor 1 with myself, Kirito, and his closest surviving friends. But as far as I knew, that never came. Because Heathcliff showed up. (Something else would later happen too..) Heathcliff: Akihiko Kayaba's avatar, a silver haired man with light skin, an older appearance, brown? eyes, stunning red, white, and black armor themed to the Knights Of The Blood Oath, a long cape, and a shield and sword known together as Liberator. His unique skill: Holy Sword allows him to easily switch between offense and defense with his shield. Kirito gasps: "No way.. Is it really him?" Yui who has been with Kirito this entire time speaks up. She has long black eye, a small fairy style form, blue? eyes, and light skin. Yui is an AI with the personality of an innocent and caring young girl as programmed by SAO's Cardinal System. "That's Akihiko Kayaba. It's confirmed. I ran an ID scan." Heathcliff single handedly starts tanking every single attack the boss attempts.
He looks back at us: "Now, I'm a clearer once again like as all of you are. I still possess enough of an authority level to appear as my avatar Heathcliff as well as an immortal object. For now on, I will help you clear Aincrad and all that has been melded together with it. My past actions have led to the deaths of thousands, the suffering of thousands more, and the eventual creation of the Infinityverse. I will make up for what I've done." Heathcliff starts becoming a bigger nuisance to the boss. Meanwhile, Kibaou yells: "YOU!" "Kibaou! This isn't the time to be angry!" "Don't tell me what to do, you beater!" Kibaou is as pleasant as ever. He has a basic style of armor, spiky ginger hair, orange eyes, light skin, an average build, and a small ginger goatee. Kibaou and a few others refuse to fight the boss since Heathcliff is now with us. They just stand there as angry spectators. However, as the rest of us fight, something happens. Something I completely forgot about until now. Romeo appears and attacks Kibaou and the others. I rush in to protect them. They may be jerks but they aren't Laughing Coffin members. Good enough for me. I block Romeo with my shield: "Get out of my way, you! You couldn't escape my watch! I have eyes everywhere! I'm trying to do all of you a favor! You'll be much better off without these losers!" "Maybe so but their lives are precious and I don't consider them to be major threats to anyone here as rash as they may be! They screwed up and they will face consequences but that doesn't mean anyone has the right to kill them. They aren't fascists or murderers like Quinella or Laughing Coffin." "Alright then! You can be the first one to die! And while I'm here, I'm giving that boss over there some of my powers to make sure none of you over there are able to interfere!"
He does so and then, seconds later, I die by his hands. My hp drops to 0 and I bleed quickly and painfully. Dominic yells: "Swiftdrawer! No!" I weakly smile as I fade away: "Heh. So.. I just proved to myself that I really am a knight.. I tried my best but my best wasn't enough. Take care, dear comrades." I die and soon, all that's left is darkness. Even my thoughts are gone. However.. Someone didn't want me to die right there. (And thus, my physical zombified body wasn't destroyed) Before I knew it, I found myself in a familiar location from the Alicization arc of SAO. The very top of the Central Cathedral where Quinella's large bed is. And there she was, smiling at me and I didn't like it. She has purple/silver hair, light skin, silver eyes, light skin, and a beautiful silky long dress that matches her hair very well. I stare at her: "I should have died. Why didn't I die?" "I saved you, noble warrior. I've heard much about your real strength and I want to help you regain it. Become my newest Integrity Knight and together, we will rule over this game. You as my knight and I as your queen. The other Integrity Knights are no longer loyal to me but there's a bigger problem than that I need a strong warrior like you to take care of for me." "No way. I will never be your knight. When I became a knight, I swore loyalty to no authority. I swore loyalty to the innocent and my comrades. I protect space-time and the innocent. Tyrants like you have been slain by myself and my comrades. I've had to kill countless thousands of foes to fight for a better future for the entire multiverse. I'm regaining my honor as a knight and I don't need your help to regain access to my full strength." "I was afraid of this. Oh well. It's time I take a more direct approach. I will gain your loyalty one way or another. There's no escape. I won't allow you to leave this place until you're my knight." "To hell with you." "You won't be saying that for much longer. After all, love is control."
She starts taking off her clothes. I start running away, trying to get away from her. I even managed to get down to the 99th floor of the Central Cathedral. However, I saw something horrifying. New Integrity Knights.. And they look familiar. It was then clear that Quinella had run out of patience and no longer wanted to spend much time using her words to brainwash me as there were 10 knights.. One of them in gold, red, and black armor steps forward: "I am Carlos Synthesis Thirty-Five. And you are disobeying Lady Pontifex's orders. You will return upstairs to her chambers at once. Otherwise, you will face punishment for violating the Taboo Index. I hate being so serious, I just want to play and have some candy!" "...Carlos?! What?! But you died!" "I didn't die. Who are you? Am I supposed to know you? It doesn't matter as long as I get some candy for being here!" I see Klein, Silica, and 7 other notable clearers who have died including.. Blaze.. Klein has light skin, brownish/caramel spiky hair, a black headband beneath a black and yellow samurai helmet, black samurai armor, red robes, a crooked nose, a small beard, and brown eyes. Silica has light brown hair tied into 2 pigtails by red ribbons, brown eyes, a blue cape, red robes that don't cover her waist area, silver armor, and black metal boots. I won't go into detail with the others. I decide to fight for my freedom but I am easily defeated by Carlos who drags me back to Quinella who is finishing undressing herself. She smiles at Carlos: "Good boy. System Call: Generate Object. ID: large bag of chocolates." She gives the summoned chocolate to Carlos who bows before excitedly running back downstairs with the chocolate in his hands. Quinella giggles: "Carlos is such a fun Integrity Knight. I'm sorry for not telling you I have other new knights already but I guess it slipped my mind. Now you should finally understand that there's no way you can escape my side." I try getting away from her as she puts on a seductive smile. "Listen Quinella, I already have a partner. And I'm not interested in being romantically involved with a woman. I know what you're trying to do but I refuse to be a part of it. I'd rather jump from this structure than be your Integrity Knight."
Before I could move any further, I found myself unable to move at all. In fact, my body is carried by Quinella to her bed. I try to move but I'm powerless to do anything as she places me onto her bed and starts taking off my armor with a even more seductive smile on her face. I don't want to write about what happened next. I'm not going to. An hour passes by and she finally gets off of me. I'm in so much pain. She smiles: "Now you know your place. You also know that you belong to me. Everything about you is mine. You will continue to be mine to use." I'm left speechless. She sexually abused me. I'm not leaving that part out because it's important to talk about sexual abuse. It isn't something that should be left out of T rated content because of the number of teenagers who are subjected to it. It's better to take allegations of sexual assault and abuse seriously. They need to be investigated, not ignored. If they're ignored, one will never know if they're true or not and that's not okay. Back to what happened to me.. Quinella never left me alone. For days, I tried to resist and escape but she kept doing things to me in attempts to make me more loyal. This kept up until she decided to do things for a whole entire night, leaving my mind and body feeling empty. I was broken by what she did but I still tried to resist. That morning, the morning of Day 33 of the game, she decided to finally get some rest as she felt satisfied with how far my "conversion" had come. I managed to get myself off of her bed again and crawled to a window as I was seriously weakened and unable to put any of my stuff back on. And then, I managed to muster the strength needed to shatter the window just enough for me to send myself falling to the ground far below beyond it. I fell at an ever accelerating rate. The same rate as on Earth. -9.8 m/s2. It was the only thing I could do to get away from Quinella and everyone she had saved from death and successfully brainwashed with the Synthesis Ritual. I heard the sound of flapping wings as Blaze while completely brainwashed caught me with the dragon Administrator assigned them as one of her blindly loyal Integrity Knights.
"Awoo! Lady Pontifex would be furious if we let you fall to your death! You're going back to where she needs you to be! I can't wait for you to become one of her knights too!" "...Blaze.. Don't you remember who you are? A Clock Guardian who originally was an ordinary wolf on Earth abandoned by their family and left to survive on their own." "Stop saying nonsense! It's no fun!" "..." Blaze takes me back to Quinella's chamber. She immediately wakes up. Blaze bows before her: "Swiftdrawer tried to escape through the window." "I see. Very good wolf. You may leave now. Please return to your normal duties, Blaze Synthesis Thirty-Nine." "I will do so, my lady. I'm so excited to get back to them!" Blaze takes their leave. Quinella smiles at me again: "It seems I have to take even more drastic measures." She binds me to her bed with iron chains. 2 days later, I've been drained of almost everything by her doing more things to me. "Now Swiftdrawer, it's finally time for you to become my next Integrity Knight! You won't be able to stop the Synthesis Ritual with how powerless you are. Just lay there and recite these words: 'system command: remove core protection'." "..Never.." However, she tortures me and forces me to speak those words. But nothing happens when I do. "I suppose I still have yet to figure out how to remove the most important memories of players like you. I thought I would be able to succeed this time. Oh well, you'll still be a loyal Integrity Knight when the Synthesis Ritual is complete." I scream as the ritual continues. When it's complete, the chains binding me are broken and I get back up with a getup that looks exactly like my usual getup. I'm even granted a new sword. But it wasn't a version of Graceful Protector.
It was like the Blood Demon Sword except it's holy instead of pure darkness. I bow before Quinella: "Lady Pontifex, I await your orders." "You know very well what you must do, Swiftdrawer Synthesis Forty-Three. Go to the 5th floor's boss room." "I shall do so. I will be back soon once I have punished those who have chosen to defy the Taboo Index. They will get the pain they deserve. I don't like punishing anyone but it must be done." "Very good. I leave everything to you and await your good news. For now, I will rest and have ordered the other Integrity Knights to not disturb me with the except of Blaze Synthesis Thirty-Nine who will go to the 5th floor separately in case unforeseen challenges occur." "I understand. It's best to always be prepared for the worst. I'll take my leave now. I know where my ride is and will go to her now. I do not need to know why you chose to gift me a horse from Minecraft to ride instead of a dragon. I will not question your decision." I use a teleport crystal to go to the 5th floor where my ride was waiting. A black horse with some white, brown eyes, and brown nostrils named Chocolate. I mount her easily: "Chocolate. You know exactly where to go. Those so called clearers will never make it to the 6th floor. They violated the Taboo Index. All of them did and I will punish all of them by rendering them defenseless with the Holy Angel Sword. The greatest and largest of all swords in this world." I never detected her feelings about what I said. She was afraid of me. We got there. The monsters in the dungeon didn't stand a chance against me. A single swing from me was enough to destroy 3 monsters at once. Soon, we came to the door to the boss room. "System Command: Open Door." The door opened. I dismounted off of Chocolate, petted her, and walked calmly inside. I didn't realize it then but my petting in didn't ease her feelings about me.
I yell as loud as I can: "Clearers, you are in violation of the Taboo Index! As such, I have arrived to punish all of you for your evil deeds! Do not resist. Make this easier on yourselves!" However, no one really paid attention to me. I was angry: "Do not ignore me! I'm an Integrity Knight, loyal to the Pontifex!" I then noticed what was going on. Laughing Coffin was attacking the clearers including Alice, Kirito, Sinon, and Bercouli while Heathcliff was dealing with the boss. Not only that but Romeo was around, attacking anyone in his sight. He sees me: "You! You're supposed to be dead! I killed you! Why are you here?!" "I don't remember being killed by anyone. I was summoned to this world. Now stand aside and let me punish all of these violators of the Taboo Index. Unless you want me to punish you as well." Romeo crushes the Laughing Coffin members with ease. Blaze comes to me from a hidden location. They say: "Awoo! This is no fun! Swiftdrawer, I must leave to report to Lady Pontifex. You can't handle this mission alone. I will return with the other Integrity Knights." "Hurry! This individual is extremely powerful and dangerous. The others here are dangerous too." "I'll be back ASAP! I promise!" I watch Blaze run off. And then, I see the carnage that has unfolded. The Laughing Coffin members get up just as Heathcliff is driven back by the 5th floor boss: Fuscus the Vacant Colossus. (After the fight, I would end up learning about what was on both the 4th and 5th floors) Fuscus then attacks Romeo to his shock and anger. The Laughing Coffin members had clearly healed themselves quickly after what Romeo did to them. And they just focused on attacking the clearers all over again. When I saw someone almost die to one of them, my anger turns to fury. "This cannot be allowed! All of you have violated the Taboo Index but I shall punish you first for your murderous acts, members of Laughing Coffin!"
I get into a brutal fight with some of their forces who were waiting in the shadows into now. It was brutal. Our swords clashed and my fury only continued to grow. Romeo was forced to defeat the boss just so he could work on getting his revenge again. He killed the Laughing Coffin members fighting me before starting to fight me in their place: "Stay out of my way! You weren't a factor in my plans so I must kill you!" "Romeo. You will regret this." My inner darkness quickly takes over as our fight gets intense. Quinella's control over me is broken. "I'm going to kill you, Romeo! Get ready to die! *cackles madly* I'm going to enjoy this! Feel my misery for yourself! Feel it!" But then, Romeo completely overpowers me by using his full strength. In a last ditch effort to beat him as the clearers dealt with Laughing Coffin still, I raise the Holy Angel Sword while still completely bonkers: "RELEASE RECOLLECTION!" The sword, forged from the very clouds in the sky contains a very powerful Incarnate Ability. The power of a storm. "GO, STORM BURST!" The attack does nothing to Romeo. In fact, he crushes the sword while I'm using the Incarnate Ability against him. But I wasn't done. I use Artist's Eye to transform it into the the Blood Demon Sword and go into a brief rampage. However, Romeo stares at me and instantly crushes the sword as well as my armor right as I use the Piercing Darkness attack. The only reason I didn't die was because the others who had been turned into Integrity Knights instead of dying as well intervened. They came at him all at once. However, none of them stood a chance against him. They were all instantly defeated by him, their armor and swords granted to them by Quinella shattered in the process. Romeo wasn't finished. Laughing Coffin start retreating as Romeo began killing all of us new Integrity Knights.
Heathcliff was only able to save one of us. That one ended up being me. He jumped in, blocked Romeo's attack against me with his shield and kept resisting. "Stop getting in my way! At least now Quinella's new Integrity Knights are no more! That'll teach her for messing with my domain! Let me kill the last one of her new knights, Kayaba!" "I will not do so. Look at Swiftdrawer. I do not see any of Quinella's code on them anymore. They are no longer one of her Integrity Knights." "This can't be! How is this possible?! As much as I despise that annoyance, she is still very good at keeping her Integrity Knights loyal to her despite how much resistance they may have had to her before they underwent the Synthesis Ritual." Heathcliff keeps me safe, easily tanking all of Romeo's attacks. Romeo sighs: "I've had enough playing with you for today. Go ahead, let that one survive. It doesn't matter because I will return to get my revenge. I promise you that none of you will be so lucky next time! I will destroy all of you and take over all of Aincrad and then, the entire multiverse!" Due to being completely defeated with ease by Romeo, I was stunned and my inner darkness receded. I didn't know what to say or do. Heathcliff turns to me: "You're safe now, Swiftdrawer. Romeo will be back again soon. I'm pleased to have you back. We need all the help we can get to defeat this game." "..." Bray runs over to me: "Swiftdrawer! You're alive? Intriguing, I can only imagine what has happened to you since you died in front of us." I stay where I am and don't move. I'm in too much shock to say or do anything. Chocolate gallops over from the door that led to the boss room. She snorts at me before licking my severely injured face. She is no longer afraid of me. Dominic yawns: "Are we even going to acknowledge the Laughing Coffin ambush that failed or the fact that Romeo took care of the 5th floor boss all by himself? What a nap causation."
No one answers him. He sighs: "Swiftdrawer is not in good shape. Kirito, Asuna, Alice, Agil, Lisbeth, Sinon, and Eugeo. You've been doing a great job working with our dear friend as their fellow party members. But for a short time, Bray and I as well as Herbsalvin and our friend's other most treasured friends will have to take care of them. We'll all be taking a break from the Assault Team. What has happened is a lot for us to process too. So much so that I'm not even speaking in my normal way of speaking. What a nap causation. All of you should go ahead to the 6th floor. We're going to need some days." Sinon nods: "I totally get it. After all, I was afraid of even looking at a gun for years because of an incident that occurred." Kirito adds: "You guys know them better than we do so we'll leave them to you." Nagato walks over: "The same goes for us in the Akatsuki. In the meantime, we'll be looking into Laughing Coffin's ambush. Swiftdrawer doesn't need to come to any of our regular meetings for as long as they need to recover." Bray smiles: "We are indebted to you all for your understanding. Dominic, Herbsalvin, and the others, let's go back to our new accommodations: some of the houses built during the Cube SMP on the 4th floor. Herbsalvin, we must solely entrust the safety of Swiftdrawer in the hands of yourself and this new horse friend of theirs for a little while." The other clearers go on ahead, leaving my core group of friends and Chocolate to care for me. Bray activates a Teleport Crystal: "Herbsalvin, you know what must be done. We shall meet you at HBomb94's amusement park that was built during Cube SMP season 1. After that, we will figure out what to do next." Everyone apart from Chocolate and Herbsalvin teleports away. My partner picks me up, mounts Chocolate, heals me with a Splash Potion Of Regeneration, and ensures I'm secure as they begin to get Chocolate to move. They then say: "Swiftdrawer, are you feeling better, my knight in shining armor?" "..."
"Still speechless? That isn't like you. This horse must be the living version of Chocolate. You got Chocolate at Holiday World as a plushie. You told me so a few days before the 4th floor boss battle. I can only picture how curious Bray and Dominic are over the fact that you have still been switching bodies during sleep so as to continue your life in your original body while we've been trapped in this game. We'll take a nice ride on Chocolate and then go to that amusement park." Over the next few days, my closest surviving loved ones from outside of my original world console not just me but each other as well. Lisbeth even stopped by to offer to make me new armor after the armor I wore before Quinella brainwashed me went missing and the armor she gave me was completely destroyed. Herbsalvin and I went to help her collect the required materials. It was an entirely collaborative efforts full of synergy the entire time. I still wasn't doing very well mentally but I was trying to get better. Going through everything I've been through so far is a huge burden to carry. We were able to create armor that looked and even felt exactly like the armor I wear in the physical world. I gave a small smile: "I don't know how we did it but this armor.. It looks and feels exactly like what I'm used to. It's not nearly as powerful but it's better than the armor I was wearing up until Quinella brainwashed me. That armor looked like this armor but this armor is like my physical armor in more than just appearance. I can't believe this actually weighs 900 pounds. It's mind blowing to me." Lisbeth smiles brightly. She has short pink hair, light skin, dark pink eyes, a red, gray, yellow, and white flowing outfit suited for a blacksmith, and brown boots. "I'm so glad you like it! Oh and we should definitely get you a new sword! I wish I could stay to make you one but Kirito and the others need my help. See you around!" She teleports away. Herbsalvin hands me something wrapped in a white cloth. I see the shape: "Herbsalvin.. Is this a sword?"
"It isn't like the original Graceful Protector at all but it will look like it due to the avatar appearance feature once you equip it. It's not the greatest sword but it's better than the Netherrite sword you had." I unwrap it and see it for the first time: "You bought this yourself, didn't you? It's simple but it's beautiful." I hug them and give another small smile: "I'm going to repay you and Lisbeth someday. Both of you have been such a joy today. It's making me forget about my problems for the time being. Could you tell me how dealing with the 4th floor boss and the Warden went?" "Of course." They tell me that the Warden was overcome thanks to the strategies and advice given by DanTDM, StacyPlays, Stampy, Jesse, Ellegaard, Gabriel The Warrior, and Olivia. I am also told that the boss was defeated after a long fight and Romeo decided to just leave as he usually does. But he did leave behind some more of his monsters and associates for the clearers for deal with. On Day 40 of the game, I rejoined the front lines with my dear friends. Herbsalvin was okay with me riding Chocolate since they can't access their Pegasus form and I've developed a real bond with the horse. Some horse armor was crafted for Chocolate to wear. It's worth mentioning what's on the 5th floor here: Karluin, Mananarena, Shiyaya, StacyPlay's builds outside of Dog Craft such as those in the same world as it and stuff from her other series, Mineplex games, Crafter's(from Gameknight999 series) village, and the Minecraft where Mojang became a tyrannical government. As we saw on the 6th floor as we helped clear monsters and prepare for the 6th boss, there was a lot there to see as well.
Stachion, Suribus, Ararro Town, Castle Galey, Lake Talpha, Cave City of Goskai, Murutsuki Village, the strange realm of "Aliceland", Notchland (Notch has sadly become a lonely and bitter individual believing in the Alt right's ideas in my world), the Lost Academia(it was a miracle anyone was able to come up to the 5th floor to secure the school when we hadn't even yet beaten the first floor boss) Fun Land, and PopularMMOs and GamingWithJen's many bases and other places from their Minecraft content. When we set out for the 6th floor with me mounted on Chocolate, Barla couldn't help but comment: "Now you really look a knight from your Earth's history!" I sweat drop: "I'm not trying to be historically accurate. I'm just trying to be a knight regaining lost honor. I still have so many things that are tormenting my mind but with all of you here, I feel like I can take on anything by your sides." Mel smiles: "That's the best you can do. Now let's go." We then teleport to the 6th floor. It took 2 days to explore it entirely with the efforts of all clearers apart from a few. It turns out that until we finally went up to the 6th floor, the other clearers had been focusing on preparing for the next boss, getting new gear, training people, practicing moves, gathering materials, and doing quests. Day 50 ended up being the day that was planned to be the day to fight the 6th floor boss in light of what happened on the previous 2 floors. But on Day 48, something very interesting happened. I was riding on Chocolate to a lake outside of the original boundaries of floor 6 in SAO that had been infested with fish monsters so she could get a nice long drink of fresh water. And because I needed one as well and was exhausted after doing a lot of stuff on all 6 unlocked floors all day. I saved a lot of people and captured 2 Laughing Coffin members for example.
Both of us took in the water we needed from the lake and sat down near it to rest. I sigh: "Being an exhausted knight originally from a modern world is like the most Isekai thing ever I swear." And then, a light appeared from the sky. And out came 3 figures. One has spiky short black hair, green eyes, light skin, a green cape/cloak, a silver breastplate, a belt, brown fingerless gloves, a black undershirt, long gray, yellow ish, and some kind of brown boots, and more. Basically, his outfit makes him look kinda villainous but awesome as well. He's Naofumi, the Shield Hero from The Rising Of The Shield Hero. The 2nd has long brown hair, reddish eyes, light skin, a short height, red tanuki eyes, a bushy tail, and a new and vibrant adventurer's outfit. She's Raphtalia, Naofumi's first companion in Raphtalia's World. The last is Filo. She can't transform into her Filolial form due to the game's system so I'm just going to list her human form out. She has long blonde hair, white wings, light skin, blue eyes, a cowlick piece of hair, and a white dress with a blue bow. I blink several times and rub my eyes to see if I'm not seeing things. But it's really them. Naofumi is in tears for some reason and it's like the trio haven't even noticed that they're not in Melomarc anymore(or wherever they were until just now). Filo and Raphtalia are trying to comfort him but nothing is working. Not even Filo's silly antics. "Master, we're here for you! Stop crying!" "Naofumi! It's alright! Why won't you tell us what's wrong?!" "Hey umm Raphtalia, do you smell that? I smell sweat. It smells stinky." "Filo! This isn't the time! We have to make Naofumi feel better!" "I know.. Wait, why are you small again?" Naofumi looks at Raphtalia. "Raphtalia!" That's when they finally notice. "Master! We're somewhere weird!" Noafumi wipes his tears away and tries to regain his composure but they still look worried for him. "..Where the hell are we now?" They notice me and Chocolate. Filo points in my direction: "I smelled sweat from over there!"
I turned pure white in anime style mortification with sweatdrop included. A ding sound accompanied it. Raphtalia says: "Filo! That knight over there must be very sweaty! That was so rude of you to call out!" "Whoops!" "..Come on, you two. Let's talk to this person and find out where we are." They follow him and walk over to me. I get up reluctantly after recovering from my pure white state. "Hi there. *pants* I'm so exhausted. Don't mind me. Sorry about how stinky I am. They don't exactly have deodorant in this world.. So I get to smell all natural. Why did I say that out loud? Anyway, I'm Swiftdrawer and I already know who you are. Your reputations proceed you." I then explain everything about the game world and the sun was almost finished setting by the end of that. "Now do any of you have any questions?" "I do! I do! Are you a real knight?" "Yes I am, Filo. I'm going through a lot of problems and trauma right now so my resolve isn't where it would normally be." Naofumi looks at me in the eyes: "You're struggling too?" "Yeah. It's hard to explain and frankly, I don't want to right now. Come with me and I'll get you somewhere to stay for now. You're going to be here with all of us until this thing is cleared." "I hate to be rude but aren't you just avoiding your problems?" "*gets Chocolate to walk by my side* I'm getting the help I need but I have other responsibilities too, Raphtalia. As a knight, I gotta protect the innocent even if it costs me my life. My sword is as much a shield for them as my actual shield is. Look, you three have a serious disadvantage. Most of even this floor is far too dangerous for any of you since each of you has been reset to level 1." My armor clinks loudly as we walk(I can't wait until Dominic and the other "big brains" figure out how to add sci fi level upgrades to armor in this game) even as the day becomes swallowed by the night. In time, we come to the Lost Academia of all places. I smile: "Ah, the Lost Academia. I was once a student here. It's perfectly safe to stay here. In fact, I'm going to try to sleep where I used to sleep when I was a student. 2 days from now, the 6th floor boss will be fought against. And you 3 need to get geared up as soon as possible."
Naofumi asks: "Where would we stay in there? It looks huge." "It is huge. Just stay wherever I stay I guess." We meet with the school's still current head, Chris Creeper. He notes that while I can't stay where I used to stay, I could still stay in the House of Compassion's common room with the trio. It has upgraded from what we were told to have couches and the like. In addition, we end up having a feast alongside the school's students and staff members. They have feasts every night. School has not been suspended despite the whole being trapped in a death game thing. They've chosen to keep it going. I lead Naofumi, Raphtalia, and Filo around as I give them a tour of the school for a little bit after the feast before heading to the House of Compassion. Once we get there, we see a bunch of students hanging out in the common room. Upon seeing my imposing appearance, a lot of the students look at me in excitement. I smile: "I guess I really am still considered iconic at this school." One of the youngest students runs up to me: "Omg! You're Swiftdrawer! This is amazing! Best day ever! We know about what you've been through and we're all rooting for you!" "Hey now, I'm far from the only hero trapped in this game. But I do appreciate your support a lot, kiddo. It means a lot. After all, I've been through too much for the average person to be able to handle." I interact a lot with the students, being reminded that despite the fact I'm not even on the top 10 of any list of heroes that are BRAINS members(besides in the artist and possibly knight categories), there are a lot of people who look up to me and I gotta live with the spotlight a little bit.
I don't like popularity. I really don't. I don't want it. I don't need it. But these kids admire me and I gotta be someone who is strong enough in my life and duties to encourage them to soar into the future with wings of hope, optimism, and curiosity. When it's time for the kids to go to bed, we go to bed too by sleeping on the couches in the common room. Soon enough, it was almost time for the 6th boss battle with a floor boss. Before that, Naofumi, Raphtalia, and Filo were approached by Heathcliff to join the Knights of The Blood Oath and Diavel to join the Assault Team. A lot of individuals helped them get new gear and level up really fast. I was among them. The trio did join the Assault Team but they ended up joining another guild instead of the Knights Of The Blood Oath(which is led by Asuna in its current iteration even though Heathcliff is back in Aincrad). They joined the Aincrad Liberation Squad, led by Thinker but without Kibaou's role as a sub leader this time. It is more suited than KoB for Naofumi's style. Thinker ended up appointed Naofumi as sub leader of the guild. ALS is not corrupt this time around. Naofumi considered joining the Akatsuki but Raphtalia convinced him to join ALS instead and I told them they could always join the Akatsuki after the game is cleared. As for the Covid situation in the game, we were able to contain it very well and managed to work hard enough to almost completely eliminate it from the game. It seems that infections caused by any of the "real worlds" have stopped popping up for reasons unknown. The game's system counts Covid to be a type of monster. Once we found that out, it got a lot easier to track and thus, successfully contain. In fact, the game has a monster record book for all players. As long as we form an S with our fingers to open the Stasia Window, we can access our monster records with ease. And sure enough, Covid is a monster recorded in mine. Traits include: rapidly multiplies, easily spreads from player to player, is airborne, high chance of causing post-infection conditions, and "cannot be killed with a sword". It's very in depth.
So in depth that the record is a better guide to understanding Covid than the CDC is. I joined back up with Kirito and his party for the 6th floor boss battle. Because I was turned into a loyal puppet of Quinella, I now possess access to the Sacred Arts as well as have a much higher object authority than I previously used to. Additionally, if I had a sword classified as a divine object still, I could use Perfect Weapon Control to unleash its Incarnate Ability. The sword the Pontifex gave me is nothing more than scattered code now but if I still had it, the DPS I could do would be much higher than what I'm current capable of. The strategy meeting for the 6th floor boss took place at the Lost Academia. We couldn't allow anyone to rush recklessly into a dungeon ever again(and I really should have mentioned where previous strategy meetings took place more often). And since the Lost Academia isn't far from the dungeon, that decreased the likelihood of some clearers successfully slipping away to go fight the boss inside all by themselves. Kibaou has created a new guild for clearers who think like him: the Power Army. It feels like it has ties to Laughing Coffin but we know that actually isn't the case based on multiple investigations done quietly by my fellow Akatsuki members. The other Knights Of Miitopia members other than myself such as Mel have chosen to join various guilds instead of creating version of the guild for the game. Hopefully, we don't have too many issues such as competition over resources in the future. But I do often worry about the RCT3 floors. I brought my concerns up at the meeting in the school when Diavel opened the floor to questions, comments, and concerns. "Everyone, I have a issue I need to bring up. As we have deduced, the RCT3 floors will actually begin on floor 15."
I take a deep breath before continuing: "RCT3 is a theme park management simulation game. The parks we have to beat require objectives we need to meet. The problem is that those parks need to be profitable and in the game, only one person runs the park. That means, people will get jealous of whoever gets the responsibility of handling a park's operations. Not only that but monsters are likely everywhere in each of those parks. So we'll need to somehow make all of that fair. Unless this game changed how RCT3 works, we have a huge problem that could eventually lead to the deaths of thousands more players all because people like Kibaou are so stubborn, selfish, and easy to anger." We discuss the matter as one of the last things we discuss before the battle. We decide to have each guild take on one scenario park each and go from there. We even figured out which park to assign to which guild first. To make Kibaou happy, we gave his guild the responsibility of beating The Money Pit scenario. It's got a fragmented and unfinished Giga coaster and a lot of broken rides. It's a more difficult scenario. He and his guild are likely to fail it or spend way too long on it but it will teach them a lesson. The Akatsuki got Broom Lake, the sci fi park with not much to start with except money in a former top secret research facility. The Knights Of The Blood Oath got Go With The Flow, one of the 2 parks featuring a castle. Most of these choices involved my help as someone very familiar with RCT3 and good at planning things out. Most parks are unassigned at the moment but we'll get to assigning them later. Once the meeting is finished, someone says: "Hey! We should all stand on the steps of this ancient school and get cool pictures before we fight!" Few object and that's exactly what we do. In one, we're all standing tall and proud, ready to go fight the next floor boss.
Later, as I ride Chocolate while walking with Kirito, Asuna, and the others with the other parties of clearers closing in on the dungeon nearby as well, I take a moment to appreciate the scenery around us. Even as my armor continues to clink loudly. I miss the physical original version of my armor. It's cooler, more comfortable, and way less noisy. In here, it's a magnet for monsters and other enemies. In time, we reach the floor boss: The Irrational Cube. I recalled its name from SAO: Integral Factor. Kirito recalled it too: "Watch out everyone! See those numbers?! Depending on what number you're hit with when it attacks, the damage can be multiplied from 2 to 9 times or if you're lucky, not at all!" The Floor Boss was easy to understand and deal with. It rolls around to deal damage but damn was it a pain. Because it's far tougher than even in New Aincrad, it has a lot of defense and HP. 4 bars of HP in fact. It was hard to actually beat but dealing with what it was doing was what was the dealing with I was talking about was. It possessed the properties of metal. That's what made its defense so damn high. We slashed and we slashed altogether and did our best to dodge whatever it threw at us. I should have been more specific as to how we dealt with the first 5 floor bosses but it's okay. I'm doing better for now on in regards to all of this. The difficulty of beating the damn cube was only made harder because its movements were more unpredictable than expected but overall, it was still easy to understand. It turns out that my armor is far better than myself, Herbsalvin, or Lisbeth realized at the time we worked together to bring it to life. I mean, it does weigh 900 pounds. Of course it's going to be much better than Netherrite armor since it's so heavy. The interesting thing about my armor is that it's mass is condensed so it's way heavier than it looks. Lisbeth is truly a master blacksmith at this point. Yeah, Herbsalvin and I did help her a lot with the process but still.
Being able to condense 900 pounds of materials into armor that doesn't look like a miniature tank is impressive. One more thing about my appearance. I managed to work with an NPC to even replicate my cape, tabard style cloth hanging from my waist, belt, scabbard, and robes as well. People have started getting jealous over my armor. That's really not a surprise but it's bad. Myself and others have been working to peacefully resolve that jealousy because I've already had enough of a bad reputation with a lot of people. My cursor is still orange, even after Quinella forced the Synthesis Ritual on me. It was a huge relief to finish off the 6th floor boss. Let me go to the last portion of the boss battle now because it got harder when the cube lost enough health. Kibaou screams: "Damn it! It's getting faster! Kirito, you damn beater! You better not mess this up! I'm watching you! Be useful and land a decent hit!" Goku replies: "Man, you really shouldn't be so rude!" He then gets into performing a bunch of sword thrusts. Because Goku is used to fighting with his fists, sword thrusts are just about as close as he could get to punching the floor boss. Others like Roshi, Vegeta, Beerus, Androids 17 and 18, Naruto, and Tsunade have come to adopt thrusting as amongst their main forms of attacking in the game as well. Though the ninja do prefer to use kunai knives which are actually in the game. The Ninjago ninjas' use of swordplay combined with Spinjitzu is another interesting and powerful adaptation to not being able to use their powers or full fighting abilities. "Haaaaaa! Well said, Goku! I'll protect as many people as I can! Kirito, don't let his dirty words get to you!" "I know! You don't have to worry! Starburst Stream!" "It's my turn too. Holy Sword!" "This boss shall know pain. Let me be clear, I am not turning back into Pain."
Pearl masterfully uses her sword to unleash fast and precise attacks. Garnet uses 2 hammers to attack. Amethyst was able to get a whip as a weapon so of course she uses it. Steven uses a shield that impressed even Heathcliff with its strength as I heard from Bray later on. Literally every BRAINS member has adapted well to the challenges and limitations the game has to offer. I just keep on moving around the boss room, protecting other clearers and attacking the boss whenever I got the chance. When it finally lost all of its HP, it broke into a bunch of tough little cubes so we couldn't celebrate just yet. All of us were already exhausted when they appeared. But Uraraka reminded us all: "We can't give up! We must keep going PLUS ULTRA!" Suddenly, a portal opens and various figures from Ragnarok Origin appear. Hugin steps out first and remarks as the room gets mostly silent despite the fierce fighting against the little cubes: "This anomaly we set out to investigate has led us here. And the portal is getting unstable. We have to choose to go back or stay in this strange dimension. I do not how we would return to Rune-Midgard." My counterpart from that game nods resolute: "It's our duty to keep going forward!" Bonnie replies: "As expected of the one chosen by the Valkyrie." Varmudnt nods: "Indeed. I have also heard that some adventurers have gone missing recently. They may be here." Just then, I hear Naofumi get angry but since he doesn't have his shield in this game, nothing big happens. No Rage Shield. Nothing. But Romeo appears and glares at the newcomers: "You! You people! Are you here to ruin my fun too?! That's it! I will soon begin my plan of bedrocking over the 9th floor of Aincrad! When that's done, I will start anew with all of you trapped below the bedrock! ..Wait, why aren't any of you losing your equipment?"
We finish off the remaining cubes. Heathcliff chuckles: "That would be my doing. You see, I have changed the code for new players in this game. My authority level isn't as high as it was in the original Aincrad but I have still retained most of my control over the Cardinal System. Now, when someone new joins this game, their gear may be reduced to the basic gear of SAO but their appearance remains unchanged. Additionally, I have linked Ragnarok Origin to this world in order to bring in some additional help to clear this game. But it seems that those who have come from that world won't be able to enjoy the same gear protection as those who resided in Minecraftia or any of the other worlds merged into Aincrad before this started forever. It will only last a few more days for them. Additionally, it is our duty to defeat you soon, Romeo. You cannot be allowed to hinder the progress of the Assault Team any longer." "I don't care what any of you do! Once I bedrock over these first 9 floors of Aincrad, none of you will be able to stop me! Aincrad may be be at its widest ever at a width of 100 kilometers on the 1st floor as opposed to just 10 kilometers like it was originally but that won't matter! None of you will matter once I get my revenge! I will destroy all of you if you dare to try to stop my ultimate plan. No matter what happens, once the bedrock is all placed, I will never have to see any of your faces ever again!" In a flash, Romeo disappears. Jesse yells: "We have to stop him!" Some individuals show up out of nowhere. HitTheTarget speaks: "We won't allow you to go after The Admin. We will reclaim Stampy's Lovely World once we destroy all of you." Veeva Dash and Denton are here as well. And they brought monsters and more of Romeo's associates.
One of the associates draws a deadly looking gun from GGO and starts using it to shoot at anyone. They end up targeting Yuma and Astral. "Astral! Watch out!" "Yuma! Don't give your life for me!" "I don't care! I'll do whatever it takes to protect those I care about from bastards like these jerks! Damn them!" Yuma wields a sword that resembles Number 39: Hope's. Meanwhile, Astral doesn't wield a weapon. He'd wield magic but we deduced we ain't getting any magic other than Minecraft magic unlocked until we reach the ALO floors. But then, Alice saves them: "I shall not let anyone else die on my watch! Release Recollection! Go, my flowers!" (Release Recollection is a common way to more quickly use the Armament Full Control Art in the timeline our SAO universe companions are from. It's slightly different than the familiar one) Her heavy and beautiful golden sword partially splits into many incredible powerful and devastating flowers. The abilities of herself and the other Integrity Knights who became knights before Quinella originally died remain one of the primary reasons we have been able to reach this point in the game. One Integrity Knight can do what tens or even a hundred regular level players of average strength for clearers can do when combining their efforts. After all, the Netherrite swords that were made in bulk can one shot the first floor monsters but like I said before, it takes a lot more for them to take down monsters on floor 3 and above. The difficulty scale up for each floor is completely ridiculous. Gear has to be upgraded significantly for anyone to survive the newest unlocked floor every single time a new floor unlocks. After a long fought battle, we managed to defeat Romeo's forces once again but it didn't come without a price. Most of us were really hurt. Myself included.
Despite the intense weight of my armor, I still got banged up a lot. I had to drink several HP potions so I wouldn't bleed to death. Every clearer and ally was beat now. Diavel says: "There's no possible way we can go up to the 7th floor right now in the shapes we're in. I want all guild leaders and others with a wide reach to tell all players to avoid going up to the 7th floor. Until we rest and go up there ourselves to determine just how tough the monsters we'll have to face up there are, we cannot risk anyone going up there straight to their deaths because they chose to be anything but cautious." That night and the next day was used as time to relax and rest before a scout party was sent to hunt some monsters on the 7th floor. I was very slowly but surely recovering from what Quinella did to me but I won't be the same as I was before she did what she did. And the mental pain will linger for years. Funny how she and Romeo just can't get along at all. They are bound to keep stepping on each other's toes as long as both are still around up to no good. The next day, I pretty much just rested all day. I even took off my armor for most of the day which is a rarity for me nowadays. Laughing Coffin took the opportunity to try to attack all of us since we all had to get some rest. However, the Midgardians from Ragnarok Origin humiliated them and sent them packing. My counterpart who has just become a Rune Knight recently as far as my recollections from my other life could tell was formidable on their own. A few Laughing Coffin members were nothing compared to what they're capable of now as a Rune Knight. If we're talking about class upgrades, I'm far more likely to advance to Dark Knight somewhere than Rune Knight at this point. Never really considered going through a class upgrade other than to Knight Sage until recently.
Anyway, the state of Laughing Coffin is just sad at this point. They'll have to do something new and truly diabolical like join forces with Romeo to actually do some harm. Recently, they've just become less scary. It's like their organization and planning has tanked lately. As if POH and Death Gun aren't involving themselves that much in the murder guild at the moment. On Day 52, we began working on the 7th floor and figuring out how to combat Quinella, Romeo, Laughing Coffin, and Death Gun now that they have all tried to ruin us all. That and we need to start ascending Aincrad's floors faster. We have no idea how fast time is actually flowing by in our respective universes and I'm having trouble keeping track of the number of days we've been trapped in this game. It was only thanks to Dominic's records that I was able to figure out what day we were on when I was briefly one of Quinella's brainwashed and loyal Integrity Knights. To be continued..