Link Start: Danger In Virtual Worlds
Chapter 32: Dorz'l the Chaos Drake
Date: Infinityverse Days 1006-1058
On the 91st Floor, there's notably random parts of the Underworld like the castle in the Dark Territory, part of the Central Cathedral, some small towns from Aincrad, and the hidden town that's very hard to get to and contains the Sealed Dragon's Castle where Greay the Dragon Ripper is expected to still be. But there's another Floor Boss. It was mentioned during the meeting not that long ago. It's the known boss due to the Ordinal Scale incident. Dorz'l the Chaos Drake. It appeared as one of the SAO bosses for Ordinal Scale boss fight events or I think that's how it went. How anyone knew of it was not mentioned during the meeting for some reason. There's nothing I have to say on the 2 floors above it. Just that they were full of more locations that weren't focused on much in the anime except for Cardinal's dusty library. Oh and can't forget the prison located in the tower. Anyway, back to what happened. Kirito yells: "Damn you! You aren't taking Alice!" Pretty much anyone around the town mobilizes immediately. Typhon glares in the villain's direction: "It's time to crush him once more! There's no other choice but to do so!" I draw my sword and prepare to use my highly advanced gun as well. Subtilizer might be able to once again use his abilities in GGO as well as the abilities he had as Emperor Vecta and abilities given to him by Quinella. We have to be ready for anything. Subtilizer speaks calmly: "All of your hopes and dreams will soon be destroyed. Facing me now is pointless. I have learned much from all of my past mistakes and I will not let any of you defeat me and end my life again. Instead, I will consume all of your souls and save Alice's for last. I can only imagine how delicious your souls must taste, The souls of monsters don't taste very good. But the souls of humans and similar beings? Different story."
Bercouli attacks him: "I don't think so. If you want Alice, you'll have to get past me once again just as I said last time I fought against you." The villain just stares at him like he's staring at a small insect: "Believe whatever it is you wish to believe. I will kill all of you by devouring your souls whole." His appearance quickly becomes very demonic out of nowhere but we were expecting something like that to happen so we were ready. At first, he is clearly beating us down constantly. But as more of us join in and get more and more coordinates with each other, he finds it difficult to resist us at this point. I barely did anything significant as we continued to fight against him. But then, he actually laughed passionately. That was really unsettling. "I have been holding back my full power. This is not how I fight at the peak of my power but.. This is. *dual wields with sword and gun* There's a reason why I have won BoB in the past. There's a reason my company was contracted to attack the Ocean Turtle. Now, it is time to show you what I can really do before you take your last breaths while I devour your souls one by one." Goku shouts: "Watch out! His power level is now off the charts!" Buu pouts: "Buu wants to turn bad man into candy but Buu can't! Hmph! Buu will fight to kill bad man anyway." We called upon more friends to help us fight him. Due to this, there's a lot of switching out that's been going on this entire time. Mr. Satan panics: "No Buu! You can't take him by yourself! DON'T DO IT, BUU!" "Mr. Satan doesn't understand Buu! Buu will do things on his own!" Subtilizer just stares down at all of us: "All efforts you make will be pointless and in vain. You cannot hope to stop me now that my full power has been revealed to all of you." He crushes us all with hundreds of attacks at the same time. But before he can finish us off with more attacks, someone hits him with a farming scythe from behind.
It does some serious damage. Subtilizer scoffs: "I do not know who is attacking me from behind but your attack is nowhere near enough to kill me." A robed figure replies: "Keep telling yourself that. Time Of Gold!" "What?!" Our foe is shocked as he's suddenly hit with a really powerful technique that actually hits him really hard. Subtilizer is sent packing to the ground and struggles to get back up. Meanwhile, the robed figure puts down the hood of her robe. Koharu dashes towards her and gives her a big hug: "Ado!" "Hey, it's you! Sorry I haven't been around that much, I've been busy on this Floor that is my home as you know! *sees my counterpart from the other Aincrad* Oh and I see you too! Listen, I'd love to talk over things while eating my special bread somewhere quiet but there's a situation going on that I need help with. I will explain after I help all of you defeat this man who once claimed the powers of Vecta, the dark god as those in the Underworld know him as." Subtilizer attempts to shoot and stab her from behind but she expertly dodges and deflects. What's more is that various other NPCs take action as well. Bevel strikes while piloting a brand new powerful mechanical golem she appears to have built and designed all by herself. The rest of us resume fighting as well in anyway we possibly can without hurting one another by accident. This quickly leads to us having our foe on the ropes again but he just stares: "Is this the best you can do? This is not enough to stop me. I am weaker now but that doesn't change the disaster that you will all face together now because I'm far from dead and not a single one of you can truly harm me. I will devour all of your souls. I WILL. That is a promise."
But some promises were made to be broken. Subtilizer despite being so cunning, strong, and crafty is unable to stop us. We fought him for several hours while also making sure all of us were still alive and in one piece the entire time. It was a tough task but we succeeded. It seriously took so much out of us that none of us could even stand for more than a few seconds once Subtilizer finally died again. However, just when our situation was just ending at last, more Integrity Knights appeared only for a bunch of players and NPCs who hadn't yet arrived to our location in response to our time of need to appear and take care of them. "Yamiruler The Dark Delayer!" "Yggsdrago!" "Sevens Road Paladin!" "Prima Guitarna!" "Here come my Royal Cook Pals! Let's serve up these knights with a whole day's meal! Lead the way, Princess Pudding and Knight Pasta!" "The resistance never quits! Ninja, go!" "You will all be rendered useless, enemies! I am useful to all my friends and allies. I will not fail them. I am PAMA." "Did somebody order up some TNT? Let's do this, Magnus!" "Yes! Lets, Axel!" "Go, Volcanic Doomfire!" "Cyber End Dragon! Cyberdark Chimeratech! Cyberdark Dragon!" "Go, Neo Galaxy Eyes! Unleash the fury of the nebula from which our solar system was born!" "SMAAAAAASSSSSHHH!" "Be a hero! Go, Flower Cardian With Pine!" "The news never sleeps! And as the Purple Ninja, I will not be deterred here!" "Arr! Let's get some baddies, Thrashbeak!" "Squawk! Baddies need pecking! Squawk!" "Unite and fight! I'm sending in my swarm of Battlewasps! They represent the enduring spirit of all Commons!" "Do not put off till tomorrow what can be done today! Ninja, go!" "Do any of you have the grit to keep going? Let's go, Scarlet Red Demon Dragon!" "You will now face the music, enemies of ours!"
The reinforcements have to number well over 100 because they surround our foes and seriously bring them down without any hesitation. "Hey Scoob! That was awesome! I owe you a Scooby Snack! Okay, pal?" "Alright, Raggy!" And then, more knights come. We work together to stop them well into the night. They finally stop coming after dark so all we can do now is eat dinner and go to sleep. In the morning, we head to the town where the Sealed Dragon's Castle lies but it takes us all day to get there. Doped monsters keep giving us trouble along the way despite there being so many of us to fight them all off. Again, it was night by the time it was all over. We also encountered other challenges along the way so that's another reason why it took all day to get there. Not simply because of how large the floor is sadly. The town we entered is one even the merchant NPCs refuse to talk about. It is said that a huge dragon destroyed the town many years ago. All but one entrance leading to it was sealed off as they used to mine in the mountains that isolate the town from the rest of the floor. That naturally led to many paths to and from the town. It was so creepy to see at night. The town is guarded by knights known as Dragonquest Knights. The story goes that they slayed a dragon in battle. That's the gist, the main point but the issue is that they are wary of outsiders. Ado speaks once we arrive: "Everyone, we can't go in town at once. I will talk to the Dragonquest Knights and explain what's going on. We don't want to give them any reason to panic or give us issues right now." Many of us nod, her voice being amplified through a nifty little skill that Yuna uses for her now weekly small musical performances. And so, the process of going inside in smaller groups begins. It took a while but it worked out.
And soon, I was sleeping in an inn in town. It was hard not to be cautious after everything we were told about the town. The truth is very unsettling. I only managed to sleep by tuning out negative thoughts in favor of more positive and random thoughts like imagining silly chaotic situations going on elsewhere. It was somewhat difficult to stay focused on those kind of thoughts but I was able to pull it off. And that was a very good thing obviously. Moving on, I slept good and soon, the 1008th day came. But first, let me explain what the real story about the town is. The Dragonquest Knights supposedly saved the town from Greary the Dragon Ripper. Wait a minute. No, that isn't right. Whoops. I screwed up. Greary is a dungeon boss. The only Floor Boss is Dorz'l the Chaos Drake. My apologies for the mix up. Greary led a team of knights and they specifically supposedly killed the dragon. That's why he's called the Dragon Ripper and Ado talked to him to make sure we all got in town without any issues. But that's not what happened. Dorz'l the Chaos Drake killed every person in the town. It destroyed the town in the process. Ado once lied by saying that she doesn't remember her early life but knew she lived on a farm before her old town was destroyed. She lost her parents and was taken in by nobles known as the Papiermonds and moved to this town. But actually, she did remember everything. That's the thing. The dragon decided to keep the town around by turning everyone it killed into basically ghosts who looked and acted alive. The dragon struggled to make this happen and was forced to use the memories of villagers from other towns it destroyed and alter them somewhat in some cases to help repopulate the town
And of course, it was possible to create logical/memory errors by saying the right things to most of the ghosts. In Integral Factor, alternate Kirito pointed out to Lady Paipermond that she didn't love Ado like a daughter because it was discovered Ado was never found in any family photos amongst other reasons. Soon after, she was taken away by the Dragonquest Knights and labeled a "Dragon Cultist". Her behavior had become highly unstable because Kirito made her try to remember things that didn't exist in her mind. Ado was never actually adopted. She died in her old village alongside a dear friend of hers. By keeping the town alive with what were effectively ghosts, the dragon was able to lure people to enter what has become its hunting grounds and would devour anyone who dared venture into town. But it didn't do so right away. It used the town as bait. A trap to think it's just a cool town protected by super cool and strong knights. When the time was right, the dragon would eat them. But the dragon fell in love with Ado and ended up giving her autonomy not granted to anyone else to the point she's a special kind of ghost with her original personality and memories intact. Dorz'l the Chaos Drake admired her strong will and way of thinking and even learned from her to an extent. If anyone gets suspicious or disrupts the town too much, the dragon will send the Dragonquest Knights out to hunt them down and kill them. If a knight is killed, a regular citizen transforms into a knight in turn until there's no more regular citizens. It's all a major headache we are trying to avoid. Dorz'l the Chaos Drake will most certainly be inside the castle. This town is its hunting grounds and now, it sees us enter and thinks of us as nothing more than food to be eaten at its need and pleasure. Therefore, it is vital to remain vigilant and pretend to be oblivious to what's going on. The plan now is to stay in the area and train to prepare for the showdown with Dorz'l the Chaos Drake.
That's how we stand a chance. And now that we know the entire situation, we know what to avoid doing and saying. This will give us an easier time. We even made sure to downsize how many clearers entered town at all to the core members and a few others. Otherwise, we would have flooded the inns by now with all of our bodies. And that would have quickly ended in disaster. However, it's obvious that we need to do some cover stories in order to avoid suspicion entirely. We have already discussed what to do. Why? Because if any of us enter the castle, that would be a huge red flag and anyone who tried would be confronted by the Dragonquest Knights. Once we set out to slay Dorz'l, we can't go back on what we have done. We can only deal with the fallout and consequences. What's more is that Ado was apparently possessed by the dragon the moment its body was killed off. The ghosts it creates have bodies that can live on without it. It's able to switch into ghost bodies apparently so it looks like we'll eventually have to kill all of the ghosts in town but if we're going to have to do that, we have made plans to get away without it by slowly reducing the number of ghosts the night before we fight the dragon in its home turf. Because we know it is desperate to stay alive even if it means using people it killed to do it, that means we have to expect it to try the same tactic all over again as soon as we manage to kill its body. For the time being, I set out to not only get stronger but to make friends with some of the knights. That's how I'll personally help lower suspicion of us. I intentionally train in a garden clearing area with some others as the first step.
Some patrolling knights soon stop to see what's going on. I spot them and yell: "Don't mind us! We're just getting stronger by sparring against each other! After all, we're staying here in this town for a while before we set out to slay a giant creature who lives far away from this town and sleeps far below the ground. If you want to join in, we'd be happy to accommodate you! Adventurers and guards can learn from each other after all!" One of them replies: "Sadly, we are too busy right now. Maybe some other time. We won't stop your training. I'll send word to our captain so you don't run into any unnecessary conflicts. And now, please continue as you were. Farewell." And with that, they resume patrolling. That night, some of us in town ate at a pub that is said to be frequented by the knights. Ado was among those of us who did and stated that town has changed a lot in the past several years. This pub was not here before. That was worrying but it also works for us. If the rumor is correct, we can make friends with some off duty guards. And what do you know? The rumor mill was right for once. And so, we ended up sharing a lively meal and chat with a few of the knights who were especially interested in me because of my armor. I explained that I was a knight from a faraway land and that was more than enough of an answer for them. That being said, they were highly interested in all of us by default given that we're a bunch of adventurers and Ado is supposedly part of the Paipermond family. After our meal was finished, we hung around to talk with them for a while longer before retiring to our rooms in the inns for the night. Things of that nature went on for a week longer. During that time, I kept making friends with various knights including even Greary the Dragon Ripper.
Made sure to tell him about my own experiences fighting dragons. I've fought a few over the years. But I was far from the only one who made friends with the Dragonquest Knights. At least 25 others did as well. We wanted our relations to be good with them but we feared that they still would turn on us as soon as we dared to enter the castle unless we killed them all overnight along with the citizens swiftly. So we actually started devising another method for getting inside the castle. That's when we got one. A small group sneaks in, sends messages to others with their exact coordinates, and teleport crystals programmed with those exact coordinates are used for the rest of us to get inside without tripping the alarm but only after the small group enters the labyrinth and does so very quietly and stealthily. Despite being a knight, the labyrinth guide will not try to stop us from doing what we needed to do. However, a more than simply small twist took place on day 1013. Dorz'l started coming out of the castle often to fly high above the town for some reason. We held an emergency meeting on the situation in secret. Ado speaks to start it off: "Something isn't right. Dorz'l has never done this before." Koharu asks: "Is it because you have been with us for over a week? The dragon should easily be able to use you to spy on us if it wanted to. It knows everything you know, Ado." "You would be correct but.. *sigh* I'm still getting used to the fact that I'm an artificial life form created inside a digital world. Forgive me but I need a moment. *pauses* Because I existed on my own for years after Dorz'l died, I am technically exempt from the Dorz'l here's control. The Dorz'l we're dealing with was never truly killed because it's not from our Aincrad. How do I know?
I still don't feel any connection to it at all. It has never once tried to control me but it still must recognize me. I know this because the Dragonquest Knights haven't acted any differently to me nor have my adopted family. Unless the dragon is playing tricks on even me, it doesn't know about our plans or anything like that." Barla replies: "How the hell are we even supposed to verify if your theories are true or not?" Eva speaks: "I have an idea. I'll sneak into the castle with some others and we'll bait it to come get us. But then, we'll teleport away before it can reach us and once we have, we will be in the center of town. And then, we'll blow up as much as we possibly can with TNT because Minecraft's TNT works on even indestructible objects like most of the game's structures apparently. It's one hell of a plan but because we'll focus on trying to blow up the castle and the walls and even tell the NPCs of other towns through messages carried over long distances the truth. The dragon will just have to target all of us while all of you storm the castle from a direction that won't be touched by the destruction. With such a plan, if the dragon knows about it through you, it will attempt to stop us from doing any of its steps in a calculated way that shows it knew what we are planning." Sinon replies: "That is one of the most ridiculous plans I've ever heard." Eva laughs: "That's what makes it a good plan! It's so nuts! Then there's the fact that it must be getting very hungry if it's now flying high above town for some reason! Am I right? Wouldn't it love to snack on us when we aren't looking and it knows exactly where we are? Oh and let's just throw in talking about how us befriending knights is a way to avoid suspicion. Maybe that will get the dragon to take us seriously! Dorz'l, you're going down whether you like it or not!"
While that complicated and nutty plan starts being carried out, the rest of us act normal for now with plans to rush to one side of the castle when the time is right. But at nothing happens until Eva and the others teleport out into the center of town. The dragon swoops down onto them: "Just what do you think you're doing to my town?! Dragonquest Knights, get rid of them!" But then, we act and start eliminating all of the ghosts as quickly as possible while Eva and the others boldly stand firm against Dorz'l with not a hint of fear in any of their eyes. As a result of that, the dragon only gets more furious right as metal armor suddenly appears on top of its scales and the ghosts we have killed come back to life clad in higher grade armor than before. The kind that Quinella has given to most of her Integrity Knights in the past to wear. Personalized masterpieces that look truly legendary and are in fact one of a kind and designed to go with the swords in appearance that each Integrity Knight wields. Dorz'l stops going on a rampage and laughs: "You mortals think I wasn't prepared for a stunt like this? I still don't understand why I can no longer read Ado's mind but my new master has told me everything I needed to know. You are members of the Assault Team and seek to overthrow her and kill her too if necessary. I will not allow you to leave my hunting grounds now that you have shown your intentions and know that I'm one of the guardians of the Celestial Tower that you must defeat to escape this world." Ado glares at him: "You annoying dragon! I won't allow you to use me ever again!" "It appears I missed something. I care little about that fact. I will kill all of you with the help of my Dragonquest Knights. No, make that my personal army of Integrity Knights!" I yell: "Hold on just a moment! We have made bonds with many of them. It was to avoid suspicion but those bonds are still real!
Do you honestly think all of them are going to obey you now that they've experienced the first real friendships they've had since they were killed by you when you destroyed this town?!" "Don't underestimate my control over them! As a Floor Boss with true human like intelligence, I will command my knights to kill all of you at once but if any of you manage to survive them, I will have no choice but to confront all of you myself and I have little interest in doing so when they should be more than enough to do it for me." But Greary is split: "What do you mean I never killed you?!" "Impossible! You aren't supposed to be able to think for yourselves! You stopped changing the moment I killed all of you when I attacked this place!" "I won't obey you! I will truly earn my title of Dragon Ripper by helping kill you!" "Nonsense! You're mine to control!" Argo laughs: "Due to the rapid evolution of AI in this world, he's no longer yours to command. His intellect has now evolved to defy what you have molded into him." Spectre also laughs: "Do you not realize what's happening all around you now?!" "That doesn't matter to me in the end. Greary, you were only just a puppet for me to use. I was only upset because I didn't understand why or how you turned against me. And now that you have become impossible for me to control, I will throw you away. I will dispose of you immediately. My knights will turn on your leadership and kill you with their own blades for me. I reign in this town. Not you." Many of us protect him from the others. Alice yells: "Do you knights have any honor as knights?! Do you not remember what you once tried to do so many years ago?! Shall we just end your misery?!"
The fight against the dragon begins in earnest as all of this is said, yelled, and so forth. But I focus on holding back and helping snap the knight out of it. I add my voice to it: "Does the time we spent with most of you not mean anything? Are you truly happy with where your loyalties lie in Dorz'l as well as the Pontifex? We do want to leave this world but if you desire to come with us, we will find a way to bring you with us and show you worlds in which many locations haven't been taken from the ground and put on top of one another in the sky in a Great Separation. Worlds where many warriors have slain big dragons, worlds where knights are revered despite having been obsolete for centuries, worlds where things from your dreams really do exist. All of those worlds are out there. We don't have to fight each other. We can become friends and allies. If you break free from the dragon, you will not die if Dorz'l ends up being slain. Right now, your lives are tied to the dragon. But it doesn't have to be that way. If you don't believe me, can't you sense some kind of collective consciousness going on? If you can, that means you can feel your connection to our foe. You made promises when each of you became knights. Is it not time for you to honor them after such a long time? I ask you to listen and try to understand where we're coming from. We'd love to live in peace with you and the other people in this town. Besides the dragon, you're doing pretty well for yourselves. Now, it is time for you to make a choice. Stand with Dorz'l and Quinella or stand with us in opposition. I know full well what it means to be a knight as a knight myself! I know what your duty truly is!" We are able to convince over half of the knights to switch sides. With their help, the other knights don't take very long to be taken care of.
And that was the end of that part of things. However, that still left Dorz'l who yells: "You haven't defeated me yet! As a servant of the Pontifex, I will enforce her will! I have been going easy on you for all this time. Now, it is time for me to unleash my full wrath on all of you here!" My counterpart, Koharu, and Ado use Time Of Gold in order to attempt to deal heavy damage to the enemy but it doesn't work as the boss transforms into basically a Dragonoid. A human with dragon features. Dorz'l laughs: "Now I can kill all of you on your level! This is excellent!" Kirito yells: "Damn it! This is bad! He's evolved far beyond any boss in this game so far!" Looking at his health bar, I can see the letters "DD". That means he's doped too. Argo exclaims: "This is unbelievable! I could sell the information of this incident for really high amounts of col and info! This is an evolution in the Floor Boss itself that transcends even Huang the Hundred Arms!" Dorz'l attacks us with a huge greatsword that is being easily swung around quickly like it weighs nothing. "You are finished, Assault Team! I will kill all of you!" Zenblock yells: "Darn it! I wish we could use our actual powers right about now! That would be great! I'm already sick of this pesky dragon!" Memock sighs: "Like that'll ever happen again in this game.." Kikouka speaks: "Unfortunately, accessing the system even in this game is now all but impossible. The only way to do so is the admin console in the Underground Labyrinth below the 1st Floor. I'm aware none of you have been there that much. It's hard to get to and it's kind of a highly dangerous place that is not necessary to clear to beat the game." Kirito replies: "Not the time for that! We are fighting for our lives here!"
(Side note: Kirito is pretty nerfed in this game because the game is just so difficult. It's very rare he can do the whole overkill thing where his eyes turn golden.) "I know, Kirito. But I couldn't help myself. Still, I can put up a fight thanks to the training you and the others put me through. As far as the Japanese government is concerned, I'm completely dead. They don't know I'm alive digitally now. That means I'm no longer with the Ministry Of Internal Affairs and I can fully devote myself to helping all of you." Dorz'l laughs again: "Are you wishing for a way to get all of the abilities and powers you had before being trapped in this world to be accessible here? It's so amusing to hear you wish for something like that. This world is your world now. You will never escape this world. Because you will die on this Floor under the watchful eye of the Pontifex! As I have observed you and so many others for just over 1000 days, I have continued to evolve and grow. Quinella at some point crushed me in battle. At first, I had no desire to serve her but once I began to, I never stopped and began to evolve faster than ever before up to that point. I am more than just a Floor Boss now. I am your worst nightmare!" We are now in a really bad situation. The dragon is only attacking us harder and harder while talking and laughing. I get hit really hard at one point while tanking: "NGGGGHHHH.. How are we supposed to get out of this situation? This is unlike anything we have been through before.. There is a way but what it is is beyond me. I can't give up. None of us can give up. We have to keep going no matter what happens to us. No matter how much we lose here, we just can't stop. We just can't!" I ignore the injuries I have sustained in this fight so far in favor of continuing what I must do to increase our chances of victory the little bit I can.
I see my view start to become a bit red, showing that my hp is now 50% or lower but this won't stop me. Muscleman yells: "This fight stinks! We can't even do any damage and this guy just keeps moving around too fast in this new form and none of us can counter with any effective measures! I won't talk about my mom at a time like this! I just won't!" Benson screams: "IM LOSING IT HERE!! CAN ANYONE FIGURE OUT A WAY TO STOP DORZ'L OR NOT?!" Tetsuya starts laughing: "Crabby! I got a brilliant idea! But I better not be too loud so that dragon crab doesn't hear me say any of this." Dorz'l only laughs again: "It's hopeless! Nothing you can think up will stop me! You can't ambush me because I'm too fast in this form for you to catch!" He goes on and on while Tetsuya scuttles away unseen. "Crrraaaabbbyyy!" I have no idea where he's going but I'm quietly betting on his plan because he's a really tricky blader- I mean, crab. They say kids who identify as furries use litterboxes in school. That's a big fat lie. The closest thing to that lie I can think of is basically Tetsuya's crab mannerisms and obsession. A few minutes later, I see a clearly disguised Tetsuya dressed up as a noble looking knight prepare to approach our foe at the right moment. At the same time, Shadow is doing his Mundane Mann and John Smith stuff in order to trick our foe into trying to kill him instead of anyone else. It's working but not really because those of us around their cat and mouse chase are getting hurt. But then, Tetsuya speaks up after randomly knocking out Shadow somehow.
He raises a sword that he got somewhere and speaks like a knight: "Hello there. I am Sir Crabcakes. And I'm quite strong. You're strong too. You're an Integrity Knight, aren't you? Could I trouble you for just a moment by asking how and where I can become one too? I've been looking for someone to serve for sometime after my last master used me as an experiment and threw me away." Dorz'l is bamboozled: "I'll tell you but why have you come at a time like this?" "I just got here and didn't want to wait for your fight with these losers to end before talking to you." "I see.. *sigh* Go to Centoria and speak to a knight guarding the city. They'll tell you what to do from there." Tetsuya bows: "Thank you very much." He then pretends to fall right onto the Floor Boss: "I'm falling! Whoops, I'm so- NOT SORRY ABOUT THIS! DONT WORRY ABOUT ME, CRABS! GET THIS DRAGON RIGHT NOW! THIS IS YOUR CHANCE TO DO SOME DAMAGE AND CAPTURE OUR FOE HERE! AND MAKE IT SNAPPY! CRRRRRRRAAAAAAAABBBYYYYYYYYYYY! HEHEHEHEHEHEHE!" There's no time for any of us to facepalm at his "Sir Crabcakes" act. We strike and we strike good. Instead of attacking our foe and thus harming Tetsuya in the process, we all use different things to capture the Floor Boss with. Andromeda Shun and Applejack for example use things that you can wrap around someone by first tossing them a bit to then capture them. Myself and other former number hunters use an improvised version of the same thing that Kaito and others used to prevent their targets from running away in Season 1 of Yugioh Zexal. Dorz'l roars: "What are you doing to me?! HOW DARE YOU TRICK ME LIKE THIS!"
We capture the dragon real good. Kaiba ends up finishing it off: "I activate Dragon Capture Jar!" And the card actually somehow works on the Floor Boss. This is not how I imagined us defeating a Floor Boss as intelligent as Dorz'l. But now that Dorz'l is struggling to escape, this is our only shot to defeat him. Plunder of The Upply from Ninjago yells: "We can't waste any time! We have to direct all of our next attacks to that jar!" PIXAL replies: "The chances of that succeeding are 50%." Kaiba laughs: "AHAHAHAHA! I will make it 100! I sacrifice Dragon Capture Jar and the Floor Boss inside of it in order to summon Blue Eyes White Dragon!" A lot of us sweatdrop heavily. I facepalm: "I want to scream into a wooden desk. That is by far the worst mistake I have ever seen in this game. Yeah, bye bye Dorz'l except he was just sent to the card graveyard where he is not bound to chains, ropes, and who knows what else and can thus escape more easily." Atemu shouts: "Don't worry! I know how to resolve this issue! To summon this monster, I need to banish 2 monsters from the graveyard and that includes Kaiba's because we are technically all sharing our graveyards. One of those monsters has to be light. The other has to be dark. But to do that, I first must activate Dedication Between Light And Darkness! And that's what I'm doing! And now, from my graveyard, I banish Mystical Elf and from Kaiba's, I banish Dorz'l the Chaos Drake in order to summon Black Luster Soldier- Envoy Of The Beginning!" Black Luster Soldier is here now. And Dorz'l is off to who knows where. Probably outside of the game.
Kikouka suddenly shouts: "I just finished making it possible to monitor the digital networks connected to and outside of this game! Tetsuya gave me the time I needed to finish it on my own peacefully. Therefore, we can now see what's going on around the game. This should help us find any loopholes that can allow us to escape this game prematurely." He shows a feed on a large holographic screen of what's going on only for us to hear a lot of.. "Crash bug? CRAAAAAASSSSSSSSHHHHHHHH BUUUUUUUUGGGG!" And once again, the Crashbug Virus is doing something good for us. Kikouka zooms into what seems to be a battle with the Crashbug Virus actively participating. That's when we see and hear Dorz'l yell: "What is happening to me?! What are these things?!" "CRASH BUG! CRASH BUG! CRRAAAAAASSSSSSSHHH BUUUUUUUUUGGGGGG!" The Crash Bugs are all throwing cartoon bombs at Dorz'l who is unable to destroy them fast enough to stop the onslaught in the slightest bit. Before our eyes, he dies and he is unable to take over anyone's body. And in our fields of vision, we still get the victory message and the system rewards us for killing the 91st Boss. I sweat drop again: "No comment." We spent some time training on the 91st Floor after that as well as getting our newest knightly comrades used to life as clearers in the Assault Team. Oh and Lueur of course began spreading the legend of Sir Crabcakes. Yeah. Sir Crabcakes. It was on Day 1020 that we went through another 15 floors of the Central Cathedral to get to the next floor of Aincrad through a teleport gate. Along the way to it, we ran into a few Integrity Knights, some of whom were guarding the prison where Kirito and Eugeo were once held until they busted out using the chains that binded them. Tetsuya tried to trick them all with Sir Crabcakes but it didn't go over very well at all. But he wasn't even that sad about his failures.
So with all of that done, we made it to the 92nd Floor before nighttime. And honestly, so little that I want to write about happened on it and the next floor happened that I will just move onto what happened on the 94th Floor because it was something else. On the 94th Floor is more small towns from the Underworld and other such random places that aren't so random for the people actually living in them. But there was also the small house Alice stayed in with Kirito while he was in a vegetative state in order to hide him because it was no longer safe to keep him in Centoria in the condition he was in. That's not what was interesting. It was the dungeon from Aincrad that is called the Forbidden Cage. A scientist named Garcia speaks as soon as we come across it: "This.. is where I met my end through my own creation: the Dominant Cogitat. It was here where I found ancient research into creating a kind of army of weapons. I improved upon the research and created the Cogitat to exterminate every single monster in Aincrad. But I was wrong to do that. My creations fought and killed each other all in order to create stronger Cogitat until eventually, my masterpiece was finished. The Dominant and with it, I was going to get what I sought for so long. But it turned on me and as I only found out in this game after I was resurrected.. It only did that because the emotions of all the other Cogitat.. The ones it killed and the ones killed by them and so on. Those emotions were transferred to it. But it's over now. Or so I would think.. I have no doubt that The Dominant is alive again and stronger than ever." Silica sighs: "I'm afraid of what we're going to find in there."
Sanya says a few things in Russian before saying: "What I just said was it feels like we're walking into a trap. We are only here to grind because this dungeon is known for being a great place to do so. Fernsternis, it's us against the game." That's the name of her hp stealing sword(I don't think I spelled it right writing this.) I reply: "I hope we aren't too small of a group. We are among the top players in the Assault Team but I can't help but think we are in over our heads with only us going in there. The 94th Boss is on the horizon. This is the best place to level up quickly. It's a popular dungeon from what I've heard but no one has gone in yet because of the information regarding the Dominant already being shared in Argo's 94th Floor Guidebook Version 1.0. We have to be very careful here. What day is it anyway? I don't even remember anymore." PIXAL answers: "It is day 1043. We have been trapped in this game for that many days now. I am also worried about what's in there. We should call for reinforcements before we enter inside. We cannot afford to act rashly here." Scar Basiltomato sighs: "While I'm glad I don't have to worry about my crust getting stale in this game, I'm afraid of what those Cogitat might do to a Tomapieian like me.." Sinon admits: "Deep down, we're all afraid of seeing what's beyond the doors to the Forbidden Cage. Honestly, I'm shaking in my boots right now. That doesn't happen very much. After dealing with Dorz'l, we have all been on edge lately. And that only makes this more terrifying and nerve wracking." Wu speaks: "When one worries about the future, they can be rendered unable to focus on what's right in front of them. It is okay to be afraid but to cower and flee is not what one must do."
Argo speaks: "Kii-boy and Asu are on their way. Others are coming too. I took the liberty of letting them know. And don't worry, I won't charge a thing for doing so for ya. Consider it a real special discount on account of the fact that I'm afraid too. Just kidding. I don't charge anything for doing something like this." Ai groans: "Glitch! How many times are you going to pull that pitch?! It's so annoying!" Playmaker speaks: "That's enough, Ai." "..*sigh* Fine.." Something comes out of the dungeon. It looks cute. Ginga smiles: "Aww! Look at you! You're so cute!" I yell: "Don't trust it!" It was already too late. Ginga touches it and it reveals itself to be a kind of venus fly trap. He is swallowed by the monster. Madoka screams: "Oh no! Ginga! What do we do?!" Knight Captain Seyren(Ragnarok Online/Origin) exclaims: "Poring poop! Of course something like this had to happen at a time like this!" I facepalm: "Here we are on a quest to kill an unhinged manipulative matriarch who is all kinds of bad news and messed up and yet, we just keep running into absurd thing after absurd thing or someone causes or says something absurd. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine a knight other than myself saying something like 'Poring poop'.." But things just get so much better as we struggled to successfully get Ginga out of that monster and kill it. A bunch of Integrity Knights ambush us from all sides. Argo immediately intercepts a few of them with her insane speed: "Ehehehehehe! In this game, almost no one can outrun me!" Asuna and the others arrive but had to fight their way through our foes to link up with us. But that doesn't change much and Seyren shouts: "Poring poop" again. Tetsuya meanwhile just does his thing and catches 2 Integrity Knights in his trap before making them scream a lot.
We silently decide to just ignore that for the time being. A Ninjago Serpentine, Skales speaks: "I never thought I would be in this kind of situation in my life. All I wanted to do was forge peace and happy lives for my people. That's all I've wanted for years but here I am, trapped in a death game." We focus on battling our foes but it proved to be even more difficult than we feared it would be. I was panting heavily but the time it was finally over. Madoka sighs: "I'm so exhausted. We should have lunch here before we go in." This led to a situation similar to what happened when she, Benkei, Kyoya, and Kenta hiked to the Beyblade Village: Koma Village to see Ginga. It included Benkei saying to the fact that Madoka and Kenta suddenly started feeling a lot of pain in their lower bodies: "Oh great, more baggage to carry." only for them to shout: "WHO ARE YOU CALLING BAGGAGE?!" But anyway. Sometime later, we had reached the laboratory area of the Forbidden Cage where Garcia did all of his research. He speaks: "It's all still here. The dungeon was effectively forgotten due to becoming too dangerous thanks to my Cogitats. Even now, most won't dare go near it but that's due to other reasons now.." That's when we heard a roar unlike any I have ever heard before. Silica exclaims: "It's the Dominant!" Pina chirps fearfully. Silica and Pina hug each other tightly. But then, she stops being as afraid and stands firm: "We can defeat it! It's not a Floor Boss! I'm so scared but I refuse to back down here!" Master Wu nods in approval: "Now that is how one demonstrates the virtue of bravery. You have learned well over the years, young Silica." Agil warns: "Watch out. It's coming this way."
We hear it start laughing and speak: "I know you're there, creator. I have changed a lot since the last time I was alive. You could say I haven't been simply just reborn. I have had my very personality change and now, it is not sadness and other painful emotions that fuel my destruction. It is anger and hatred that do. Those are the only emotions I truly need! And now, I will begin my plan to kill any and all who stand in the way of the Pontifex! That's right! Quinella has offered me a deal I couldn't refuse! A chance to kill those I wish to get my vengeance on and kill all monsters. I was happy to agree to kill anyone else who stands in her way as well. She gave me greater intellect and more power. I am the only monster left in this dungeon. All others have been consumed by me. I made them fight each other as well as myself and they even killed each other over and over as I wished them to. Thanks to all of them, I am now more powerful than I could have ever gotten on my own! I should thank all of you. It's thanks to you that I was able to get this far! The Arcana System must have been the one to bring me back and for that, I am happy. But anger and hatred are my true virtues! Enough talk, time for all of you to die!" We do our best to fight back but the hp bar for it reads "The Dominant DD" as if "The Dominant" weren't bad enough of a name. It was only a matter of minutes until we realized that we just had to get even more help to aid us here. Barla yells: "Damn it! I thought at least one of us could have done some damage by now. Instead, it's clear we need even more help than Argo requested earlier!" As more help is called and on the way, we do whatever it takes to hang in long enough to stop our foe. Lisbeth sighs: "Nothing is doing anything! They had a hard time containing this monster when it was just my counterpart, Garcia, Silica, the other Aincrad's Swiftdrawer, and Koharu who were dealing with it from what I was told!
To think that's it giving ALL of us a hard time. This is horrifying. I don't know how long our gears will hold. I can't perform emergency repairs during this kind of battle. Any repair work has to wait until all of this is over so I have to wait which is also bad." The Dominant laughs as we continue to struggle against it. Things change when the others finally get here to help us try to survive but that doesn't last for long. Instead, we are now suffering immensely all over again. I'm barely able to remain standing despite all of my efforts to avoid damage. "Damn it! ARRRRRRRRGGGGG.. THIS HURTS SO MUCH.." I collapse after yelling all of that and someone sends me away with a teleport crystal. I find myself in a player run hospital where I'm well taken care of. Oh yeah, we found a way to use those crystals on other players besides ourselves without direct contact or much of anything. It's a mechanic that's been in the game this entire time that few managed to end up noticing for long and we kept neglecting to utilize most of the time until recently. As a result, we have been able to avoid more and more deaths on our side as time has passed. I'm discharged after just 15 minutes in the hospital. A player even fixes up my gear for me. I thank everyone who helped me before returning to the battle against The Dominant who is still wiping the floor with my comrades. Kirito yells: "When will this end?! What will it take to make it out of here alive?!" Our foe laughs once again: "It's no use. It's already over for all of you. I will kill anyone and anything who does not completely obey the Pontifex. This is something I will not give up on doing. It is what I was made to do and I can't wait to spread my destruction throughout this entire world!"
Garcia sighs: "This is all my fault. I wanted to destroy artificial life so badly and it stems from my daughter and I taking care of animals. I studied them and she took care of one of the most dangerous animals we had." Blood Sheppard replies: "I can relate to your want to destroy AIs. My condolences for your daughter." The Dominant only gets tougher to defeat while also hitting harder so we can't even afford to speak much lest we open ourselves to being hit with more brutal attacks. This is an emergency. We are only getting into deeper and deeper trouble here. No one has a clue for how we can win here. Trickery doesn't work on The Dominant nor anything else any of us can really think up. Tetsuya nearly dies trying to trick it. Silica tries to appeal to its emotions, having caused it to realize that it's filled with despair and just wanted to be put out of its misery the first time it became a problem to defeat. But she has no luck and Pina almost dies protecting her from being harmed by the Dominant. By this point, we have literally crammed ourselves into the area we're in with the number of us that have come here by now. It may severely limit what we can do but it also does the same for The Dominant. So it comes down to who can better turn this problem into a solution for themselves. Our foe only laughs more and more as our efforts become more and more in vain, doing nothing but slowing it from killing any of us. "You clearers will never get past me! It doesn't matter how many of them there are! You must believe that because you completely outnumber me that there's no way I can kill all of you now! You're wrong! You're very wrong! I can still kill all of you even in a situation like this one!
It's only a matter of time until I do because my power only continues to increase even as I fight all of you!" Deku yells: "That may be true but don't count us out just yet! We don't plan on losing to you or anyone else ever again in this game! Quinella will fall but first, you will be defeated by our combined efforts!" I tune out anything else anyone says in order to focus on doing what I can to keep helping through tanking. There's no need for me to focus more on attacking when we literally have so many of us here now as I just said. All kinds of techniques and tricks are being used to try to defeat our foe but not a single one of them is working. It can't be stated enough how bad all of this is. At this rate, we're going to all be wiped out at an ever growing pace. I'm watching The Dominant get tougher to defeat in real time as I block and withstand as many of its attacks as possible along with all of the other tanks. My hp is starting to get really low. I have no choice but to use healing items in order to stay alive. I eat an enchanted golden apple. We don't have many of those so I'm only using it now that things have gotten this bad. It gives brief regeneration 4 as well as resistance, extra temporary health, and fire resistance. The other effects last for like a minute or two. As time goes further along, hope begins to break down. That was until I hear Eva yell: "It's time to give it our all! We have fought the way we have for too long! Follow our lead, everyone! We have a way of defeating The Dominant now!" What is it? How do we win here? I'm bleeding heavily and my armor is heavily damaged. But before my eyes, some of the others torn the tables on our enemy like it was no big deal. They take unconventional and risky battle tactics to the extreme.
Many of us risk grave injury to pull off powerful attacks against The Dominate right as ranged fighters kick up their game to a whole new level. Sinon yells: "We have been holding back with our ranged attacks because we didn't want to hurt any of our comrades but now, we're all willing to risk everything like we haven't before up to this point including anyone within range of our ranged attacks!" I get the idea and stop tanking. "It's time for me to bet everything I have on everyone else! Haaaaaaaaa!" I switch completely to offensive moves and join in on assault after assault. We quickly became too fast and unpredictable for The Dominant to adapt to any of us. Especially thanks to the fact that we now switch out every single time we attack our enemy. All kinds of clearers in unexpected pairings strike at the artificial monster at different times. Different clearers work very differently together. Not even we know what moves are going to be made next at this point. And there was no way for any attack patterns to be read because there weren't any due to all of the switching out we were doing. To finish things off once the enemy becomes confused enough, all of us switch out again over and over but while using our strongest single attacks. The Dominant screams as all of the attacks consume it in waves before it finally dies. We get a nice helping of exp from killing it. It won't be long until the dungeon's natural monsters begin to spawn again. There is no longer any cap to the monsters that can respawn in a given area in this game thanks to Minecraft's code which has an unlimited spawning amount for most of its creatures. Originally, the Forbidden Cage became forgotten also in part because the monsters inside just kept getting killed until they could no longer spawn at all.
Now that The Dominant is gone, most of us leave while the rest of us grind levels inside the dungeon for the rest of the day. Over the next couple of weeks, grinding and training is the priority. And in that time, we also kill Entity303 and Herobrine again who tried to stop us on orders that came straight from Quinella herself. Now, it's day 1058 and we're ready for the next floor. We rush to go up another step of the Central Cathedral's floors to reach the teleport gate to the 95th Floor. But once we arrive on the other side, there are a lot of enemies waiting including bosses with Integrity Knight armor as well as Integrity Knights and former subordinates of other villains: current and former including mind controlled mobs from Minecraft, some of Bowling's killed off Life Stealers, revived members of Vecta's army, and so on. And among them is Bowling himself. He walks amongst the massive force that has been brought together to try to kill all of us and speaks to us: "Lady Pontifex will have her way. We will kill all of you. You will not go any further. There is nothing you can do to defeat us. We are far too powerful for even your entire Assault Team to handle." The Park Inspector replies: "I do not believe that." "Don't be so foolish! I am also here to get my personal revenge, I will not allow you to get the best of me or this entire army! In fact, I activate the Seal Of Orichalcos to trap all of you in this area! If you thought the Seal was gone forever, you're wrong. It was brought back and now, your very souls will be forfeit if you fall in battle due to exhaustion! Hahahaha! It's perfect! None of you will escape! Things will go just as Quinella wishes them to go! Prepare for your final moments, Assault Team!"
Go yells: "We're in trouble here! We can't afford to even get exhausted in this battle! Very well! I mash up my circuit!" We all start fighting in our own ways immediately but the enemy is just too much for any of us to handle. After just about 8 minutes, I fall to the ground and get right back up. Even if one doesn't fall due to exhaustion, falling in this battle is still a death sentence. I saw some of my comrades almost lose their souls due to being knocked down and too paralyzed to move enough to get back up at first. They had to resist the Seal's attempts to take their souls to stand back up and they weren't even that exhausted. This is a truly high stakes battle where everyone is in danger. Even our foes are at risk because of the Seal's activation." Bowling laughs at us as all of this continues: "That's right! Keep fighting to stay alive! As soon as you lose your soul, the system will count that as you running out of your hp now and your body will shatter into tiny pieces! HAHAHAHAHA! At last, my revenge is truly at hand after such a very long time! There is no escape for any of you! This army and I will be the ones to kill all of you off for good! It's game over for you! Surrender yourselves to your fates if you wish to avoid suffering more than you already have up to now! It's only been minutes since this battle began and many of you are already on the verge of death!" He completely ignores the fact that a few of his forces have been killed due to having their souls taken away as if they're just pawns to him only useful when able to fight and nothing more than sacrifices should they fail. To be continued..