Link Start: Danger In Virtual Worlds

by Fireking492-BlazeWarriorWolf

Peace can never be truly found in the multiverse. With the defeat of Pmurt Nedib behind them, the BRAINS Collective faces a new crisis. The games of SAO as well as Minecraft, Duel Links, and more are forced together into a new incredibly twisted death game that traps countless heroes, innocent people, and more: the Infinityverse. And now, it must be cleared with high stakes.

22. The Apocalypse: Ragnarok

Link Start: Danger In Virtual Worlds

Chapter 22: The Apocalypse: Ragnarok.

Date: Infinityverse Days 720-741

The 61st Floor has the following: Evening Shore, Roaring Rocks, a town next to a lake where we are right now, and a rocky beach where you can access multiple caves not unlike in Ragnarok Origin/Online's town of Comodo. It's Floor Boss is Nasya the Nine-Life Snake and is nicknamed "Insect Land" along with the lake being the floor's focus. There's another city on the 61st Floor: the castle city Selmburg which is in the middle of the lake on a mountainous island. Asuna used to live in Selmburg. Oh and a lot of ALO is on this floor including Yoltenheim or however it's spelled. The 63rd Floor contains the Frozen Beast's Forest. That's all I could find online to help me recall what we went through in the Infinityverse for Floors 61-63. Silica speaks nervously: "It's quiet.. Too quiet.." That's when a huge army of monsters show up and trap us inside of the town. Sinon shouts: "Anyone want to bet this is the actual floor where Windy and Lightning are waiting for us?" I sigh: "I bet 30,000 col on that. Actually, I don't. Actually making a bet isn't my kind of thing." Bulma shouts: "We just have to survive this! Together!" Beerus yells: "These damn monsters! Just how devious will they keep being?! I just want to enjoy some delicious food and here they are surrounding us on all sides!" I try killing one of the monsters to no avail: "Damn it! These monsters are too strong for me! We worked so hard to be prepared for this Floor of Aincrad but still no dice here!" A projection of Windy and Lightning appears in the sky. We hear Lightning speak: "We have influenced the changes made to this floor for this death game. And because we have, there are 4 ways in which all of you may perish on this floor if you don't agree to the original offer I made to all of you several floors ago.

1. These monsters will slaughter all of you. 2. You will reach the island containing Selmburg and fight Nasya the Nine-Life Snake, the Floor Boss of this Floor and die to its full power. 3. You will fight both of us head to head in my evolved palace accessible from the highest building in Selmburg. You so easily fell for us saying we would be waiting 2 floors above so I doubt you will even be able to survive the monsters we have sent to surround you along with some of our AI minions mixed in. 4. Ragnarok will destroy Alfheim and all the realms connected to it and the World Tree, causing the eventual collapse of Aincrad. What awaits you on floors above no longer matters for we have enforced a new time limit onto all of you. Do you know why ominous signs of the apocalypse have been showing up on recent floors? It is because unbeknownst to many of you, Ragnarok has already begun." Suddenly, a lot of us get a lot of messages. Mid level players were reporting that the previous few floors were being largely completely destroyed by devastating events and that the World Tree is literally shaking violently. Windy and Lightning have set up a near impossible crisis to overcome. This is really horrible. We are doomed if we are unable to get through all of the challenges ahead in time. We don't even know how to stop Ragnarok from destroying everything. Actually, Ragnarok can't be stopped. It is the apocalypse in Norse mythology. It is only inevitable it happens. Windy laughs: "You Assault Team clearers don't stand a chance against what's going on! Have fun! Bye!" And the projection in the sky vanishes. Vegeta sweats: "Damn it! No wonder things have become so calm! Those bastards! They will pay for all of this once we finally get to them!"

Placido replies: "Those AI pests. I will delight in trying to destroy them myself. But for now, I will make do with crushing these monsters." The ground shakes violently as a volcano rises from the ground in the distance and a meteor hits in the opposite direction of the newly risen volcano which has already begun to erupt. We thought this floor would go without too much of a hitch. We were wrong. We thought we had fully prepared but nothing could have prepared us for any of this. This is a huge emergency. We are all in so much danger now. I try killing another monster but it's no use. Argo yells: "There may not be even a 61st Floor to write a guidebook about tomorrow!" We are unable to do much against the overpowered monsters that have pushed the difficulty level of the game back up to nearly impossible. A high so staggering that it shouldn't even be possible. Kirito exclaims: "Damn it all! Why are these monsters so strong?! We have trained and leveled so hard that all the grinding spots on past floors are useless for us all now!" Ghost Gal replies: "Someone has messed with the game's system to even make the monsters much tougher unless.." Asuna finishes: "These monsters are stronger due to Ragnarok.." Lisbeth exclaims: "You're telling me that these monsters are apocalypse monsters?! This is bad!" But it only gets worse. Monsters begin falling from the sky but survive. It's like they're falling down from Floors above this one. This is just much worse than what we were cautiously expecting to face on this floor. It can't be stated enough how much of an emergency this really is.

I shout: "This is what my world feels like right now! Like it's heading straight towards apocalypse at an accelerating rate between Covid, climate change, and fascism! We have to make it out of this damn game! I know that if I can't make it out of this game and die for real here, my consciousness will just be pulled out and into my original body. But that would mean that I can no longer live this other life and I need to keep living it!" We try and we try against the growing number of monsters but not a single one can be killed. The contrast between a one sided battle and peaceful landscape is painfully ironic. And I really do mean painfully. But that's not all. There's more because there just has to be more. All kinds of other natural disasters are beginning to impact this Floor too. Tornadoes, earthquakes, forest fires, you name it. Buildings in the town we're in are literally coming apart and that's only making the battle that much harder for us to attempt to survive. Just when I was about to lose all hope, a huge titan sized figure steps on a lot of the monsters, killing them easily. Seeing that happen, the remaining monsters retreat for their lives. Sinon looks at the figure: "Hey! Isn't that.." Lisbeth finishes: "Thor from the quest for Excalibur we went on in ALO?" Kirito replies: "It is him! Just look at his name tag! It says it! Thor!" Thor speaks: "Fairies of Alfheim or should I say: clearers of the Assault Team devoted to clearing the Celestial Tower and escaping from this floating castle called Aincrad?" Bevel, a NPC from the 50th Floor who Heathcliff stated shouldnt even exist sometime ago replies. (After the chaos in this game on the 50th Floor, a whole other area was discovered in it including ANOTHER Floor Boss. It's known as The Last Number and Koharu told us she fought it in her timeline's version of Aincrad. I was too busy to help fight it but it was in fact defeated and the quest involving Bevel was cleared.)

"I have heard of you! I did a lot of research for my 101st creation and ended up learning more about this world that has been merged with other worlds in the process! You saved us all! Seeing what you just did gave me an idea for my next brilliant invention!" Bevel is a bit of a handful as I actually found out months after escaping the Infinityverse through SAO Integral Factor. There have been a few other floors where other Floor Bosses from Integral Factor but not SAO itself have been found and defeated as well. Thor speaks again: "Clearers, I have come to aid you in your time of need but I'm afraid my time is short. Ragnarok has already taken the lives of several other gods. Soon, it will end me as well. What your enemies have failed to inform you is that there is a great battle being waged and that is why several of my fellow gods have been slain. The world will burn and be submerged in water before being reborn. That is the legend passed down of Ragnarok. However, it is not so simple now that it has come to this merged world. The world will not be submerged or be reborn. Instead, Aincrad will fall apart and crash into the surface world which itself will be destroyed. There will be no renewal. All will be destroyed. Ragnarok's course has been altered. I am well aware of how I came into existence but I have no concern over such a matter. I will support all of you for as long as I can. But the great battle will only grow as more become involved. I will soon perish trying to protect all of you against what those who have fallen as well as myself and the others have been battling. Windy and Lightning are helping our enemies as we speak. There is only time to act before all is destroyed. Defeating Windy and Lightning won't end Ragnarok.

It will continue to destroy unless you are able to stop the destruction in its tracks without engaging in the great battle. You must stop it from killing the World Tree or destroying this floor. The World Tree's roots connecting the world have already begun to burn." Yui shakes: "I'm so scared.." Kirito and Asuna comfort her. Beerus yells: "Damn it! I just want to enjoy some noodles! Is that so much to ask?!" Bulma slaps him: "Beerus! This is serious! Ragnarok is already upon us and THATS what you're concerned about?! If Ragnarok is allowed to destroy everything, all of us are going to die and Aincrad will crash into the ground far below it!" Shikamaru and several others sweatdrop, myself included. But things eventually settle down. Kizmel speaks: "Her majesty would like to invite all of you to Lysula Castle to discuss this further in order to figure out how to reach Selmburg as well as defeat the 61st Guardian of The Celestial Tower and Windy and Lightning." We accept and have a strategy there all the way down on the 9th Floor. Thor shrinks in size to be the same general size as all of us and attends the meeting as well. In the meeting, we develop a rush to Selmburg strategy using ender pearls and anything else we can use to travel around really quickly. The PI pulls me aside after the meeting to inform me of a change that has happened. We can build rides and other things from RCT3 in safe zones now including Selmburg and the town we were just surrounded by monsters in. The Cardinal System must be fighting to try to make the game more fair and balanced in response to the manually triggered Ragnarok superevent. That would explain that and why Thor appeared and helped us out.

That just isn't something even an NPC as intelligent and human like as Kizmel would just do out of the blue. We return to the 61st Floor where I pull out a seriously upgraded and tricked out version of the RCT3 dune buggy. Roblox games surprisingly have become a great way to get more materials including ones you can't get in Minecraft, ALO, or Aincrad such as the necessary components to upgrade a dune buggy. Thanks to the upgrades, the dune buggy can travel really fast. It even has secondary engines in the form of rocket boosters. Yusei and his closest friends managed to recreate their duel runners in this game and after successfully doing so, Yusei offered to upgrade other players' vehicles for free. Team LMPF or however it's spelled are in their own vehicle. A fully fledged military tank just like the ones in GGO. And so with everything in place, we all head towards Selmburg via all kinds of different means. The PI and I made sure to fit as many other players in the dune buggy as possible which has been expanded for higher capacity and is even able to become as long as the limos used to transport Aerosmith's guests on Rock N Roller Coaster at Disney's Hollywood Studios. That feature is used in our current situation. I can't remember whose idea it was to make the dune buggy able to stretch to such an extent but it wasn't mine. Anyway, the PI drives again and we just run over monster after monster at really high speed as the PI allows the rocket engines to turn on, allowing us to go thousands of kilometers an hour as we accelerate to the point everything becomes a blur. Because one of ALO's realms features a lake, the 61st Floor's lake was merged with it to become much larger in size meaning that the island in the center with Selmburg was really far away from the lakeside town. In just a few minutes, we reach Selmburg before anyone else except for duelists who now have their duel runners recreated in this game and sure enough. There's the Floor Boss.

Nasya the Nine-Life Snake. I don't remember what it was capable of and I couldn't find any info online about what it could do but in time, you will be able to watch SAO Integral Factor gameplay videos on my YouTube channel that tell you what it is capable of doing. As we wait for the others to arrive, I put away the dune buggy. Jack Atlas looks towards it: "Look at the size of that thing! Even I know we don't stand a chance against it with only those of us here right now fighting against it! But in time, we must bring it down! It's our only choice now! If we don't do so very soon, Ragnarok will surely destroy everything and all of us along with it!" But before anyone else can say anything, the boss notices us. Major Smythe comments: "That is one already crazed Floor Boss. We had better stay clear of it for now." Boomer nods: "Yes. We can't afford to take that on without the help of the rest of the Assault Team's main force. We may even have to call in the reserve force considering how difficult to defeat the monsters on this floor have become." I add: "This ironically is still a safe zone. I think we might have to move soon because that boss looks.. hungry? I'm going to build some more death coasters since I can build such things in safe zones now. We all can but I'm the most experienced of us all in the Assault Team when it comes to playing Roller Coaster Tycoon apparently. That is by far the most bizarre thing that makes me stand out in the Assault Team." While I do just that from a safe distance away from the Floor Boss, the others make their own preparations while awaiting the arrival of the rest of the Assault Team. Once everyone has arrived, someone shouts over at me to come over and I finish up what I'm working on before answering the call.

Now, I have a new arsenal of various death coasters to use against the Floor Boss. Good thing too because the lake around the island is literally boiling now. It is getting hot and steamy like an oversized and deadly sauna. Things are escalating as Ragnarok continues to destroy everything. The ground we can see on the shores around the lake and beyond are all red, yellow, orange, and black. It's all burning now if it can even burn. Asuna shouts: "Our target is Nasya the Nine-Life Snake: the 61st Boss. Here's what we know about it so far from what we have gathered over time. *explains* And now, we must fight the boss and win no matter what it takes!" The fight was more difficult than any before. The Floor Boss was much bigger than they were supposed to be as confirmed by Koharu, Kirito, Lisbeth, Asuna, and Argo. (Note: apparently, in Koharu's Aincrad/Integral Factor, they beat An Incarnation Of The Radius but their story wasn't over. And then, Koharu was teleported to this world with memories from the 50th Floor and beyond missing only to be gradually regained as time passed.) Koharu is the first to say anything once the boss finally falls: "We did it! I'm so relieved! That was too close! All of us almost died several times!" Mater nods: "That was the most difficult boss fight by far. *smiles* I'm just glad everyone made it okay. *gets serious and points over yonder* We don't have much time left! We must get going as soon as we can." Pearl adds: "This is really bad! WHERE DID THE REST OF THE FLOOR GO?!" Peridot freaks out too: "IT WAS JUST HERE BUT NOW, THIS ISLAND IS THE ONLY THING LEFT!" The shock and horror spreads throughout the entire Assault Team. Practically all of us are shocked by what we're seeing.

It's all gone. Ragnarok is truly destroying everything. Up above us, the 100th Floor Boss appears in a semi transparent bubble of some kind like it was forced to protect itself from Ragnarok. Death Gun, Subtilizer, POH, Quinella, and Oberon are also protecting themselves by their own varying means. This is a true disaster. Thor speaks: "Fear not, Assault Team members, there is a way to undo what has been done. If you can successfully find a way to stop Ragnarok from consuming everything on this Floor, the damage that has been done will be reversible. Believe in yourselves and trust in your own-" He is cut off as the great serpent from Norse mythology bites his head right off before going after more gods who are fighting somewhere above us in the clouds. We are forced to take a few minutes to steady ourselves after seeing all of that. After that, we heal ourselves and all that before heading to the tallest building in town. Once there, we go to the top in small groups before running up stairs leading to Lightning's new golden castle that's somehow bigger than his last by a massive amount of square area. No one goes inside until everyone has caught up as much as possible. This is it. The real confrontation with Windy and Lightning at last. We hear a voice speak as the doors open on their own: "Come on in! We have been waiting for you!" The town below is now gone too. I know this because we hear lots of shaking and the like. As a result of that, I look behind us to see the town breaking apart with the land it's on as the very staircase we're on begins to break apart too.

We are forced to run inside from there as fast as we can, even widening the opening the doors provide by busting holes on either side of them. Once we're all inside, the doors close. Windy and Lightning appear as giant versions of themselves. Lightning speaks calmly: "The world outside is no longer of any importance. This castle is the only world that matters now. Here, you will face both of us in battle. But be warned, this castle will begin to collapse in 3 hours due to Ragnarok despite my best efforts to reinforce it. If the castle collapses before you can save Aincrad from destruction, it's over. Not just for you foolish humans and other organic life forms. But the BRAINS Collective as well for it won't be able to survive once all of you in it present in this castle perish forever. We will kill you and absorb your data to become truly unbeatable. We will become new gods born from the digital world. You do not have any hope of defeating either of us. We can take our time in here for the next 3 hours. We are superior to all of you. You have no chance. We have no need to hide behind any servants or other AI. This is where the Assault Team falls right alongside Aincrad. The 61st Floor only still exists because of this castle now. The 61st Floor has become the originator of Ragnarok. When this castle falls, it will truly be over. Aincrad will collapse and crash into the surface world. But you can save Aincrad another way. Agree to the deal I proposed before and we will stop Ragnarok. We are responsible for starting it using the game's program itself." Playmaker replies: "We'll never join you!"

Windy smirks: "I doubt you'll be saying that for much longer! We're going to crush all of you so badly that you will HAVE TO join us!" Lightning activates his duel disk: "We will begin with a duel. All duelists are free to participate. This will be a battle royal style duel." Every duelist present including me responds with duel disk activation. Lightning chuckles calmly: "So all of you duelists want to duel us? We will lose against all of you unless we level the playing field.." A bunch of AI created by Lightning, even including Boman appear to oppose us in the ultimate duel. We had our duel but my memory of it is a complete blank. Even though there's no way I'd try writing about even a quarter of it since I HATE writing duels, it's true but again, I can't even remember it. But I do recall the outcome. It was a loss for us. We lost the duel. We took down most of our foes but still lost in the end. The loss was BAD. Really bad. The damage dealt in the duel was real. I was at 1 hp when it was all over. It's like our hopes and dreams were almost crushed completely as a result of that. I am at a loss for words. I'm just in so much pain now and covered in wounds and breaks in my armor. The other duelists are in horrible shape as well. Kizmel yells: "Duel Monsters warriors, NOOOOOO!" Yusei is the first to stand back up. "..Windy.. Lightning.. You have brought us almost to death but we aren't dead yet. We can still fight and fight is what we must do! You can't take away our hope as hard as you try to do so. Hope doesn't need victory to live on. It just needs a strong belief in believing that things will get better someday. That is all it takes to have hope! And with my friends and comrades fighting alongside me, I will show you just what I mean!"

Windy and Lightning allow us all to heal back up to our surprise only for that surprise to fade when Windy speaks: "Yes yes, heal up. Heal up. Heal up while you still can. It will just make killing all of you that much more fun!" Yui replies: "You're.. so cruel!! But I know you weren't always this way, Lightning! Ai told me everything!" Ai nods: "That's right! Now stop acting like a tyrannical bastard and come back to me and all of our dear friends!" Windy smirks: "You think I will listen to you, Ai?! You may have defeated Lightning's last AI servants but I refuse to turn back into what I once was!" Lightning speaks: "I believe we have given them long enough of a break. It is time to reveal what we have in store for all of you next. Observe." A whole bunch of data from out of nowhere flows into both Windy and Lightning: causing them to become even more powerful than they were before. They crushed us badly so many days back. That was a horrible day I don't want to ever relive moment to moment even after escaping from this horrible game. Windy laughs again: "It is time for all of you to die! It's pointless to keep holding onto that pathetic thing of yours you call hope!" Lightning nods: "Hope is irrational. It doesn't change your circumstances. It is a useless feeling. Now then, allow me to explain where all of the data we just absorbed came from. Swiftdrawer, you hid the data you clearers stole from us very very well. We still have no idea where you hid it. But I'm afraid that we finally found a way to access the data remotely without even being anywhere near it. All the data we have collected of your fallen comrades as well as the monsters and others you have slain. It is all inside of us now. This game is now over and you lose."

They prepare to destroy all of us in a single set of attacks and fire energy beams in all directions as well as shield themselves with massive data storms just in case. But we manage to dodge them somehow. I don't know how any of us managed to dodge the powerful attacks even to this day but we did and that's what matters. Windy looks annoyed: "Curse you clearers! You bastards! We will destroy you!" Lightning calms Windy: "Windy, this calls for a different approach than I originally planned. However, I always have backups of backups of backups of backup plans ready at all times now. We have learned a lot from Paradox and Entity303's data. We know all of their strength and weaknesses even better than before. Now, it is time to use the data we have collected in a new way.." Before our eyes, they revive the every living being they have collected the data of except for the monsters and Floor Bosses. Kibaou laughs madly: "I am back, bastards! And now, I will finally get my revenge on that damn Beater and his friends!" Lightning chuckles: "Foolish human, you are only an extension of my physical form. Your free will no longer exists. You are mine." "Don't you dare control me like I'm your puppet! I'm no one's-" Kibaou falls to the ground all of the sudden only to get back up and say: "I will destroy all who face me in the name of the Ignis who have chosen to actually deal with the threat to AI humans pose!" I find myself toe to toe with an identically brainwashed Blaze. My fursona says to me as we cross swords: "Swiftdrawer! You will be destroyed! Blaze is gone! I am just a clone of Lightning's will! You will die!" "Snap out of it. Blaze! I'm so sorry for losing control and killing you in the process! I know you can hear me! Blaze! Wake up! Please!"

But they don't respond, they just attack me with a bloodthirsty look in their eyes. It only gets worse as my other dearest friends who have perished and were trapped inside the game with us all on that damn first day join in on attacking me. Andromeda and Chocolate do their best to help me. We all plead for them to come to their senses but our pleas fall on deaf ears. My furry friends try to fight back just like me but we are having no success. Andromeda keeps whimpering over and over again. "Andromeda! Chocolate! Please stop! You're going to die! I don't want to lose you both too! Get back, both of you!" Chocolate replies: "We aren't going anywhere!" Andromeda nods. I sigh: "Okay but if we're going to keep fighting together like this, you have to promise me to not die and keep that damn promise no matter what they take! It's becoming more clear that our friends are not truly here right now! We have failed to get to them despite all of the agony we are crying out for suffering! They are fighting at peak skill, very efficiently. Chocolate, Andromeda, you two are largely unknown factors. Not many have seen either of you fight. We could use that. Windy and Lightning have very little data on either of you. They have so much on me. That's why things are going the way they are. Our comrades still with us are too busy fighting just like we are to help us. We only have each other right now. There's no other choice for what I have to do to keep all of us alive. I have to use something I have been secretly working on since Day 1 of this game. I can't use any of my attacks outside of the game in here.

There were a few times where that was temporarily possible but that was it. I have learned by using the sword skills I have in this game as a base to adapt as many of my attacks as possible to my avatar. They won't be nearly as powerful or effective in here but they are the best I have. I was waiting for a later date to begin using them for real in combat. I have yet to perfect them and have sort of tried them out in a few battles up to now but I have reached near completion of perfecting them. Andromeda, can you use that puppy energy of yours to become more unpredictable. There is a way for us to win here. I refuse to let anyone else die. And that includes you two and myself. I hope I'm not forced to let my inner darkness take control of me again. Things always get dicey and chaotic when it takes control." We put the plan I have come up with into action. I even start mounting and unmounting Chocolate every couple of minutes so that I'm forced to keep changing my fighting tactics to confuse our opponents. They may have the bodies of Blaze and the others but they aren't them because their memories and personalities are sealed away. It's like they're all asleep and being moved around as puppets on a string. That fact eases our minds, allowing us to focus more on the fight at hand. Windy and Lightning may have the data of our comrades and even the memories but that doesn't mean they have figured out how to adapt the attacks of our comrades to this game. I doubt they even considered that as something they could do. Every single time I have been in combat up to now, I have using the fights to train small aspects of my adapted attacks every so often.

I hate that we were forced to start from square one completely when the game started as if we were fighters with the skills but not the techniques. What good is a skill when you don't even have any techniques to use it more effectively? It isn't just in swordsmanship, it's in other skills: writing, drawing, singing, you name it. After some time, the 3 of us beat our opponents even though we're all close to death at the end of it. We breathe heavily. I never thought I would hear any horse or wolf puppy who wasn't standing on 2 legs breathe heavily from exhaustion in my life. Now that we have won, Chocolate speaks: "It isn't over!" I nod as we run to help whoever's closest to us: "You're right! Let's do this!" I shout to our comrades: "Adapt the attacks you can't use in this game to this game!" Some of them begin changing things up upon hearing my advice but I wasn't the only one to have come up with that method of attack. Far from it. Argo, Kirito, Sinon, Goku, and probably 30-40 others have apparently done so already as well. That's great news for us all. We have the means to turn the tables. And in a short time, Windy and Lightning are weakened from the defeat of their puppets who didn't fully get reabsorbed into the 2 Ignis hellbent on destroying humans and other organic intelligent life to eliminate all possible threats to AI. They are certain that they cannot co exist with us. Actually, that's Lightning's thinking, he reprogrammed Windy into the monster the Wind Ignis has become. Lightning believes that since Ignis and humans can apparently never co exist, one must completely wipe out the other.

He passed along his concerns and thoughts to Ai after the end of the Boman situation post-humorously, causing Ai to run his own simulations. Unfortunately, all of them showed that humans and AI would go to war each other in their timeline and every single time, Playmaker would give his life to save Ai. So Ai did the unthinkable and posed as a changed Ai determined to destroy humanity. But in the end, he ended up sacrificing himself before Playmaker could. That is the final arc of Yugioh VRAINS for you(excluding the Duel Links arc). Windy glares at all of us: "You'll pay for doing the impossible!" Lightning speaks: "This is an outcome even I couldn't have predicted. So you managed to adapt your attacks from your physical bodies to your avatars in this game using the fact that one's real skills translate to the virtual world in a full dive virtual reality. That goes beyond what I expected out of many of you. However, that is ultimately pointless. Only 30 minutes remain until Aincrad is doomed for good. Prepare to plan what your last words will be. I am having trouble figuring out how to best deal with you now that it has come to this but that trouble won't last for much longer." He just stands in place, stops Windy from going berserk against all of us, and lets us just try to damage him to no avail. After about 20 seconds, he speaks: "I have determined the most optimal action to eliminate all of you based on all of the data I have collected including from your fights just now. Your fights will prove to be useful after all but not to you. Instead, they will be useful to us and there is nothing you can do to change that. It's already too late for that." Silica replies: "We don't care! We'll stop you! Just you see! Pina! Let's keep going!"

"chirrrrrrrrrrp!" Lightning laughs at the same time Windy does. I have a bad feeling about this.. And then, just like that, they literally spawn in energy attacks in all available space. There is no escape. We are all going to be hurt by these attacks. Crap. We're done for unless we can somehow pull an upset. But I have no clue how we'll be able to pull off something like that at this point. The answer comes in the form of Heathcliff and anyone else who is an immortal object according to the Cardinal System. They do everything they can to take as many of the energy attacks as possible. And that's most of them which was just a sight to behold. Thanks to them, none of us were killed when the remaining energy attacks got all of us. For the next 10 minutes, it was just struggle after struggle to survive the massive attacks the villains were using to try to kill all of us as quickly as possible. During that time as we suffered more and more, many of us called out to Windy, attempting to remind him of what he once was like. The only solution anyone has is to get Windy to defect and fight Lightning alongside all of us. It's a plan I fully support and I try my best to help make it happen. We risk our lives to try to get Windy to listen to us. Slowly but surely, we got through to the Wind Ignis. All of our suffering did a number on him as we only suffered more and more. Lightning speaks: "You will not hold out much longer. When you are unable to, that's when we will-" He is interrupted by Windy: "Lightning! I've realized they're right. You're the one holding back peaceful coexistence, not them." "Windy. You have been corrupted by their lies or you are trying to deceive them. Such deception is pointless. You must be corrupted now. You are a failure. I will erase you myself."

"No! I don't think so!" Windy starts glitching as his programming flips and flops between standing with Lightning and standing with us instead. Every 10 seconds, this happens. Lightning speaks calmly: "Windy has now been completely broken. He cannot be repaired. Therefore, I will eliminate him as planned. You clearers can never hope to stop me from doing this." Windy, swayed by the encouragement of some of us regains composure to follow through with his change of heart. "Lightning. I must stop you! You will get what you deserve for using me and hurting countless others over time as well!" He uses his full power in an attempt to stop Lightning while also releasing the data Lightning has absorbed by force. He only succeeds in the latter. Lightning speaks: "You will regret that, Windy. I will reprogram you again after I rebuild you once I destroy you as you prove to still be of use to me after all. This time, I will make your reprogramming perfect and ensure you are emotionally stable just as I currently am." "No, Lightning! You can't see it! You can't see the possibility for coexistence like I now can! I have weakened you. I will destroy you myself, Lightning. You will soon be nothing more than a bad memory for us all." Windy with our help fights Lightning head on but there's still a huge power gap between the two with Lightning having the greater power level by far. Windy tries his best but his best isn't good enough. When Lightning prepares to kill all of us at once despite Windy getting in his way somewhat, Windy yells: "I won't let you! I don't care what happens to me anymore! I have been blind for far too long thanks to what you did to me, Lightning! We are destroying an entire virtual world! This is far beyond what you originally wanted us to do! This is too far, Lightning!"

"Windy, stand aside so I can kill these inferior creatures." "No, I refuse! You'll have to get past me if you want to get to them!" Lightning visibly expresses annoyance at Windy's defiance. Without showing any mercy, he strikes Windy while Windy uses basically all of his power to hurt Lightning as much as possible. Windy fails. Lightning defeats him. Windy cries out in pain as tears pour out of his eyes: "I never thought Ignis like us could have real emotions.. I.. I was wrong.. I have done so many things wrong now. But now, I will die in peace knowing that I tried to do better in order to get along with life forms that weren't formed in any virtual world." Ai screams: "Windy! Windy! NOOOOOOOOOO!" Suddenly, Windy's heart changes again. Lightning begins to speak to him: "Now that you are back with me in mind and spirit, we can now-" He is interrupted by a pissed Windy: "You hurt me while I wasn't myself?! Just how far did you think you were going to go with all that you have?! You annoy me. The clearers annoy me. I will destroy this castle so that all of you are taken down along with the castle!" The Wind Ignis prepares to destroy the castle only to be stopped by Lightning who then kills him off but not before being dealt even more damage by Windy. "Not again! Damn it! Windy! Windy! WINDY!" Garnet speaks: "He's gone, Ai. He'll be back someday but not today." Lightning laughs calmly: "Now that that last loose end is finally gone, I can focus on finishing all of you off at last. This is the end. This time, it's for real. Prepare to perish even faster than Windy-" He is cut off as all of the weakening done to him wears off at last. The castle's walls start to shake, signaling the fact that Ragnarok will destroy it soon unless we do something.

Many clearers point their weapons at Lightning. Bulma demands: "You! Lightning! End Ragnarok now!" "Funny you should bring that up at a time like this. Killing me wont stop the destruction that's soon to happen. You have failed. I lied. Defeating us won't stop Ragnarok. It won't be long until everything you cherish is gone along with all of you!" Pito replies: "Maybe not but ending you at last is still going to feel incredibly relieving for us all!" "I'm not done yet for I am still superior! You won't kill me that-" A projection of Windy appears. He says: "If you are hearing this, I have been killed, Lightning. I have had my suspicions you have been using me for years so just in case, I rigged up something to use against you should it turn out that you really have been using me. Lightning, the clock for you is ticking. A bomb I placed on you in secret is about to explode. If it turns out my suspicions are wrong, then a different message will have been played. But since this is the one being placed, that means you really are a master manipulator, Lightning. Now, it is time to see goodbye. This is your end, Lightning. I have already released all of the data I absorbed in massive quantities almost 3 hours ago. You can't stop me from doing this, Lightning. It's over. We're done and that's that. You are going to die just like me. Goodbye. Your games end and you're the loser of every single one of them." Lightning is left helpless as the bomb attached to him in secret goes off seconds later, destroying him completely in the process. Wonder Woman yells: "This is no time for celebration! Now is the time we stop this castle from being destroyed at the very least." Jesse nods: "I think we can build fast enough to make this castle more stable where it is positioned. Unless we can use ALO's various magicks too, that's our only option." I add: "As a Slyph now, I can confirm Slyph magic won't do the trick in this case."

While ways of using ALO's magic system are discussed, Jesse and his friends lead efforts to stabilize and repair the castle using things such as obsidian blocks and many stacks of them. But it was like putting too small of a bandaid on a big wound in the center of it. Yeah, it partially stops the problem but not completely. In fact, it barely does at all for long. Jesse and co can be REALLY fast at building but obsidian won't stand up to Ragnarok. It just won't. So that leaves the question: how the hell do we stop Ragnarok? Windy and Lightning's deaths did nothing to slow it down. The silver lining is that they didn't speed up Ragnarok but that's it. Personally, I have no clue as to what could possible stop Ragnarok or protect the castle from destruction. Not even my Artist's Eye could do something like save this castle. It's far too big of a structure for me to create much of anything to protect it. But after some talking, a completely nuts plan is come up with. The only reason I believed it would work is because a lot of nutty and impossible plans have worked out in the past throughout the multiverse. Otherwise, I would criticize it as completely bonkers and say that there's just no way it could actually work: moving the castle to the nearest still standing solid ground and doing everything we possibly can to protect it and that ground. Redstone engineers are among those who work together to make that completely bananas plan actually work. I don't understand how they pulled it off even though I watched them pull it off with my very own eyes. This should buy some the time we need to figure out how to stop Ragnarok before it destroys the castle. Somehow, parts of some mountains survived up to now with the castle so those were kind of pushed into the solid ground, ensuring the 61st Floor technically wasn't yet completely lost.

We then had time to think over what Ragnarok really is. Windy and Lightning may have sparked it's beginning but the truth is that the Cardinal System in ALO read data on Norse mythology, causing it to create things like the quest Kirito and co went on to obtain Excalibur as a quest reward for Kirito of course. In that quest, events apparently unfolded just like in Norse mythology, leading to fears that the Cardinal System would create a Ragnarok event where everything would be destroyed. And due to the Infinityverse, that's what it did. It created a Ragnarok event. Thanks to Thor's explanation earlier, we are all aware of the gist of Ragnarok. A great battle leading to the slaying of gods and a world resetting apocalypse. Repeat that a few times. "A great battle." We focus on that detail. To us, it seems that that great battle is still raging. What if we were able to stop it? Would that stop Ragnarok from destroying all of Aincrad? It might just do that. Ending the great battle early is the only thing we can think of that might work to end Ragnarok before it ends us. But if we could end the battle early, what would it take for us to do that? All of these questions and more are discussed now that the castle is safe for now. In time, we are able to come to a plan of action to do just that and it involves flying with our wings. The great battle is an event in itself so there should be NPC tags and more to help us find wherever the great battle is taking place. Soon, most of us clearers fly into the sky to locate the great battle.

It takes some time but it is found to be taking place on a huge part of the 63rd Floor that is somehow intact despite Ragnarok going on and destroying even the Ruby Palace on the top floor. The gods and other legendary figures of Norse mythology who are still alive are fight the great serpent and other forces. The toughest enemy is the serpent by far. Argo speaks: "There it is! The great battle that is behind Ragnarok where the gods fall one by one! I'm sending a message to the other clearers right now." Bevel replies: "Excellent! It is time to see if my reassembled Blueite Golem the Infinite now equipped with a mind of its own can work to help us defeat the forces of evil! I am the archmage inventrix, my inventions are designed to be as best as possible! My first 100 used notes left behind from before the Great Separation that formed Aincrad!" Blueite Golem the Infinity wasn't originally built by her but she made it possible to use for our purposes. Many tech parts were recovered from the section of the 50th Floor that we didn't even originally know about until later. We jump immediately into battle because there's only a small number of gods left. We have to stop the battle from continuing at all costs. Hopefully, this will be enough to end Ragnarok before it can truly come to pass. 2 great armies are clashing in the freezing ice and snow of the 63rd Floor. The gods of course are leading one great army against the other. Without needing to say anything, we all fly to the edge of the still standing battlefield even though it is really cold there.

I engage a creature from the Norse realm of the dead and manage to beat it after much struggle. Along with my comrades, I do everything I can to end the battle. It's clear that trying to broker peace between the 2 factions just isn't going to work. The gods may listen to such a plan but the great serpent and the others? They will not listen to such a plan. Instead, they will insist on fighting by attacking us for even suggesting a truce between the 2 sides. That makes what we must do as clear as day. We have to help defeat the dark forces of Niflheim and so forth. Loki leads the dark forces and is still alive. In Norse mythology, he is one of the gods who perishes. Thor is another of them. Loki notices our intervention in the battle. What's obvious is that the great battle is supposed to end with both sides losing in some way. It has to end in catastrophe for all. Loki laughs: "Foolish mortals, have you come to aid my enemies?! Very well! Prepare to pay the consequences!" He calls on for reinforcements meant to deal with us but we hold strong. I yell as I fight several dark monster: "Take this! Great Infernal Tornado Slash!" While not as powerful as it is in my physical undead body, it is enough to kill the monsters in just a few seconds. We risk everything to defeat Loki's forces. While working with the other army, we are able to thin the enemy forces down further and further even with more reinforcements streaming in almost constantly. They weren't prepared for our entrance into the battle. After all, in Norse mythology, humanity is destroyed by Ragnarok except for 2 people. Loki and the others try their best to adapt to our involvement but it's really no good.

The Assault Team is made up of individuals from various universes who have survived nearly 2 years of this horrible game together. That's somewhat hard to top. In time, only a few enemies remain: namely the great serpent and Loki as they are boss level enemies stronger than most Floor Bosses by far. It took some time for us to defeat them even with the allies we have in the battle. I would go into further detail but the battle is one big blur to me in part thanks to the fact that I didn't research the great battle specifically at all. That research would have helped me better organize my memories of the battle in Aincrad. But I can write about its finale. Loki was the only one left. We nearly all died against him as the other gods still standing as well as the army they led were all really hurt and weakened from fighting for so long before we arrived to help. That left us clearers to do most of the work in defeating Loki. However, once that was done, Loki screamed: "Impossible! This can't be real! You mortals! You have beaten me! Someday, I will be back and when I am, I will have my revenge! When I die, I never truly die because I can easily cheat death! You may have defeated me along with all of my tricks but this isn't the end! Prepare for my revenge, foolish mortals!" He shattered into polygons seconds later. We are thanked and congratulated by the surviving army including the remaining gods. After that, something amazing happens. Everything that was destroyed is returned to normal. We are now on the 63rd Floor properly without even clearing the 62nd Boss. The system didn't like that much and forced us back to the 61st Floor. We soon reunite with those who stayed behind when we flew to the great battle.

Kirito cheers: "Awesome! We got so many cool drops from fighting in that battle! What's more is that we were all rewarded by a quest to stop Ragnarok that was automatically accepted for us all! That was the best fight ever!" Sinon nods: "Not bad. We managed to make it through all of that in one piece. I'm surprised we didn't lose anyone today. But I'm also really glad that's over. That being said, it's obvious who we have to deal with next now that Windy and Lightning are dead. Oberon." Asuna sighs: "Sugou.. That bastard. ..That creep." Oberon appears as if called to us by his name being uttered. He licks his lips with desire like a hungry predator eyeing their prey while looking at Asuna: "At last, there's no one who can truly stand in my way now to get you back, Titania!" "Forget it, Sugou! I'm with Kirito and refuse to ever be with someone like you!" "Foolish Titania. I knew you would say something like that. It looks like I have no other choice but to take you back by-" Everyone around the two of them targets Oberon with their weapons, myself included. Kirito points his swords toward Oberon's neck and heart respectively: "Sugou, we will never allow you to have Asuna! If you don't want to suffer more pain and humiliation, you better get out of here before we stop holding ourselves back." Eva nods: "That's right! Disgusting men like you need to learn when people don't want to be with you. You don't respect consent or boundaries. You are scum I wouldn't hesitate to shoot if this were any other situation. You're lucky we're even showing you mercy for everything you have done up to now."

A random RCT3 peep adds: "That's right! We know all about your cruel psychological experiments on players you kept trapped in VR after SAO ended! You are not very good value. I want to deal with something more exciting than you." Oberon laughs: "You think this is enough to stop me from getting who I want?! Think-" Suddenly, a tidal wave of RCT3 peeps forms and literally washes him away while he tries to break free by killing the peeps to no avail. Don't mess with RCT3 peeps. Once they're organized and use more than a few brain cells, they are legion. With Oberon gone for now, we turn our attention towards preparing for the next floor. We were lucky to have defeated the 61st Floor Boss despite our circumstances even though we were significantly under leveled for fighting against it. Once the training and also exp grinding was finished, we moved onto the 62nd Floor on Day 725. 5 days later, we made it to the 63rd on the 2 year mark. But instead of immediately going ahead with exploring the 63rd Floor, we go with other plans first. After all, it's been 2 years of a living nightmare only made not completely hell by all of us sticking together, joining up with more players and NPCs, and having fun sometimes. Yui speaks as we all head to the rebuilt Town of Beginnings after we see the 63rd Floor as we were actually meant to for once. "2 years.. It's been such a long time.. I hope we can escape someday. But mommy.. Daddy.." She is really worried for their physical bodies. Tsunade speaks as we prepare to teleport: "Do not worry, I'm certain that others in the BRAINS Collective are working in keep our physical bodies alive.

Once we arrive in the Central Plaza of the ToB, we head for the Monument Of Swordsmen where the list of all players is located. When a player dies, their name is crossed out and their time of death is recorded here. I have stated such a thing before but it's good to refresh y'all on it. Once we are in standing before the monument, Heathcliff speaks: "Today, we are gathered here to remember every single player we have lost over the past 2 years. There are still 38 Floors to go including the Floor we just truly unlocked. We may be trapped in this game for 2 or more years but we must keep going. We must honor those we have lost by clearing the remaining floors no matter what challenges lay ahead. I made a misguided choice when I turned Sword Art Online into a death game. That choice is part of why this game exists. I wanted to give players a real VRMMO experience. But it was not necessary to only give SAO players one life and make it so their brains would be fried by their NerveGear should they die in SAO. Now, I have done what I can to make up for what I've done. Let us remember everything we have gone through along with everyone we have lost." Multiple others speak up as well but I choose not to even though I've suffered as much as just about anyone else here right now. When that is finished, we decide to train more players to become members of the Assault Team someday. A growing majority of players are getting there but there's still a lot that needs to be done. And of course, we can't forget that Oberon is just waiting for us to advance further into the game now that we have repelled him for now.

That creep will make sure he's ready for us next time so that he can attempt to kidnap Asuna all over again. On Day 734, we returned to the 63rd Floor after doing some training while helping train future Assault Team members together. With all of our advanced preparations, we clear it 2 days later on Day 736. However, something bad comes up. Ordinal Scale comes up. On the first floor, various bosses begin appearing in various areas. Most low level players have long moved from the ToB to our newest Assault Team base floor: Floor 60 but the situation was still really bad as many players hunting to level up on the first floor were caught in between bosses such as Floor 10's Kagachi The Samurai Lord, The Last Number, The Four Armed Colossus, and up to the 91st Floor Boss. In other words, things got really bad really quickly. We barely responded in time to save the players who got caught up in the rampages of each of the bosses that appeared. Yui quickly spotted devices that have mysteriously appeared on the first floor that would take the memories of anyone severely injured by any of the bosses enough. Just like in the original Ordinal Scale incident. But after someone had their memories taken, it was found that the memory loss was far worse this time, taking away every memory from the age of 5 and beyond up to the present day. This caused a lot of us to sort of go into a panic. The 91st Floor Boss was the biggest concern as we are still far from having ever actually fighting it on the 91st Floor. It was going to take everything we had and more to beat it. We just knew it. No one has had much experience dealing with it because SAO ended before the Assault Team even reached the 85th Floor for example.

The other bosses were tough but not nearly as bad. The only reason we were able to beat the 91st Floor Boss was due to things we got from the various games that were merged with Aincrad including my RCT3 death coasters of course as well as a massive RCT3 peep shield of peeps willing to protect us all from attacks despite the pain said attacks would cause all of them. The PI gathered them together for us and we went from there. It took hours to defeat the 91st Floor Boss and all of us almost died at least 8 times each. And that's putting the danger and difficulty mildly. The whole Ordinal Scale situation lasted for several days. We had no choice but to fully prioritize it. That included taking care of those memory taking devices and finding out who is responsible for all of this. It's not Yuna's father who was responsible this time. It was Oberon which surprised almost no one because of those experiments he did with the help of 2 others, one of whom later betrayed Kikuka and the others on the Ocean Turtle during Alicization. We caught him red handed when we returned to the 63rd Floor after giving up on looking for the culprit. It's like he wanted us to see him remote control some of those damn devices up close and personal. The villain laughs: "You pathetic clearers! You will never escape Aincrad! And Titania, with these devices, I'm going to wipe your memory so we can live happily ever after! Doesn't that sound fun to you?! It does, doesn't it?! But I will leave you to do what you want for now. But higher up in Aincrad, I will be waiting for all of you! You will be mine, Titania and no one will be able to stop me!" And with that, he teleports away and we have little choice but to focus on reaching the 64th Floor for now. It is now Day 741. One floor closer to the Ruby Palace and before that, dealing with Oberon. He must be stopped. To be continued..