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.

35. Chapter 35

Link Start: Danger In Virtual Worlds

Chapter 35: The End Of The Infinityverse

Date: Infinityverse Days 1343-1395

We must have walked for hours before anything major happened. On the way, we talked amongst ourselves. I speak first: "You know, I really am not worried about whatever Notte and Rano might try. Let's be real here. Their greatest tactic just won't work on us at this point. The final boss tried to reduce our stats to 0. We are up against a system that won't allow something that has failed in the past to be employed again. It has less tolerance for that than it did in the other Aincrad. From Koharu and the other's recollections and what we've seen from the system in this game, we know that to be very much true. Moving on.. Okay, I just completely lost my train of thought. Well crap. Okay. Let's see.. I got it now. Things have become more chill I guess. If this chapter in our lives ends in a more chill way than an action packed way, I'm all for it. Nice change of pace if you ask me. Especially because of all the hard work we've been putting into getting out of this game for nearly the past 4 years." The discussion remains along those lines for a while. We reflect about everything that has happened since Day 1 of this game up to now. That sort of thing. The first major thing that happened was finding a mysterious and strange structure. "That is not natural. This is not a structure that just generates in the Nether. Someone built this place." We searched the structure but found nothing in it no matter how hard we searched. Relying on food that we have in our inventories and all that, we eventually walked more than far away enough to build a Nether portal that leads to outside of Aincrad. This took the better part of 3 whole days so it was now the end of Day 1345. We didn't just walk around. We avoided lava and as many monsters as possible. To our surprise, there weren't many new creatures added to the Nether that we had to deal with.

Instead, things were just pretty damn quiet most of the time. We dealt with all of the usual situations one experiences in the Nether but turned out okay in the end. Other groups such as the Moonlit Black Cats also entered the Nether in order to do the same thing we're doing. We also did a lot of flying around when we could with our ALO fairy wings. That allowed us to travel a lot further than otherwise. Due to this as well as some teleporting around and using our high stats to move faster, we were now millions and millions of blocks away from our starting point. Like 720 million blocks away. I guess many Nether dimensions of various Minecraft worlds were fused into one or there's something more to this. The death game may have made it possible for blocks to generate normally this far out. When we finally left the Nether that far from our portal through a new one we built, we found ourselves the equivalent of billions of blocks away from Aincrad. We weren't in the game anymore. We were inside the Minecraft multiverse cluster now. We appeared in a normal vanilla Minecraft world. Blaster cheers: "Arr! We made it out!" Dominic points out: "But we are still very far from our goal. We can't exactly call for help. Even if this world has players in it, they can't help us. And all of our comrades in BRAINS ended up being pulled inside the death game as well. The only good news is that Notte and Rano cannot follow us here. At least, not very easily. Wait.. Nap causation. How could I have forgotten so quickly? There are a few BRAINS comrades that weren't dragged into the death game. Why? Because they're machines. Yes, Aporia is a machine and he was pulled into the game but not all machines we know of were pulled into the game."

I reply: "How can that be? I don't know of any machine that wasn't pulled into the game." "Again, nap causation. How do I put this? Oh. Right. My metal clones. They weren't pulled into the game. If just one of them finds us, we can get to work to figuring out how to completely free ourselves and everyone else of the Infinityverse. Even if we manage to find where our physical bodies went, we can't just return to them the way we are. It isn't possible. We're still tied to the Infinityverse's many save files. One of my clones should be overseeing this Minecraft multiverse. So how do we get detected by him? We are in one Minecraft world amongst practically septillions of Minecraft worlds." Bray replies: "This is an intriguing dilemma. However, there are things we can do that will be picked up on." I add: "Like doing things that are on radar somewhere within the bases and stuff our collective has! That and some of us have clear records of digital activity spanning back for some time! We need to summon our duel monsters. And doing things Minecraft players do as well. One of your metal clones just has to notice a spike in SOMETHING based on what we do, Dominic." The others agree. Carlos snickers: "I'm going to cause some trouble!" Madeline glares at him: "Careful! There might be other players in this world. We need to avoid interacting with them because doing so might complicate matters!" I nod: "Like causing the world to become a viral news story somewhere that says 'strange players with strange equipment have been spotted in a Minecraft world, more details to follow'. This world might be a server based on the fact that we all got here just fine. Thousands of players could flood this world if such a news story broke. It's a good thing we can fly though."

Looking back on this stuff makes me realize just how unnoticed all of this was in the grand scheme of things for the multiverse. We built and did things for hours after sleeping through the night while summoning our best duel monsters and keeping them summoned in the hopes that one of the scientist's metal clones will find us. This Minecraft world is obviously close to Aincrad in the digital sphere. That should up our chances of being discovered. And the next day, on Day 1346, one of his metal clones manages to find us. The entire situation is then explained and we are brought to our space station with on board projectors keeping them visible and somewhat physical outside of the digital realm. Dominic takes over as much tech onboard as needed to come up with a solution. We watch and try to do what we can to help as he works his science. "I'm attempting to hack into the Infinityverse from the outside but it's all but impossible. Let's see. Strange. The way the game is disconnected from the digital networks around it looks off as if the separation was poorly done. It looks like it was a rush job. There should be other vulnerabilities in it that allow one to get in and out besides things like that Nether portal we used to escape Aincrad. Arc technology is really helping here. Outside of the digital realms, we are mere digitized minds without a solid body to control. As in holograms. But thanks to Leo Akaba's technology, we are holograms with physical mass and form. Okay. Now to focus harder." We also do our own searching. Dominic managed to hack into the user save data successfully at least and he opens it up for each of us to look at on other consoles to see what we could dig up.

And what do you know? The data is incredibly detailed. It shows the locations of every player in the game but that information is behind many many folders. I'm looking around in Notte's file to see what I can find. I eventually find her conversation logs through the in game messaging system and shout: "Hey! I found some valuable information! Look at this! Oh and Dominic, please keep on searching. You're the only one who can look through any holes in Aincrad that could be used to eventually get out of the game for real." He nods and the others come over to see what's on my screen. Bray speaks: "You're right. This is valuable. How did you find this?" I point to the path shown towards the top of the screen: "It's better for all of us to look at it on our individual screens. Here's where you have to go. We've been at this for an hour already. It took 30 minutes to find Notte's file which is actually relatively really fast given how much user data there is in total. By following this file path I took, we all can look through the chat logs at the same time, making this process much more efficiently. I'm surprised that Dominic failed at hacking into the game except for when it came to accessing the user data. It could be a trap. Dominic, have you verified if this access to user data is a trap or not?!" "*yawn* I have. It's no trap. It's just that it isn't as nearly guarded because the system doesn't see it as vital to guard. I don't blame it. *yawn* Nap causation. I don't blame it due to the fact that each user's files are a nightmare to navigate for most individuals and most hackers of a game so huge as the death game wouldn't be so inclined to look through the user data. They'd more likely want to look into the game itself and see how they could abuse it for their own reasons."

He then returns to his task. 2 hours later, we finish reading through the chat logs for anything interesting. And there was a lot that was there. Having this intel that we now have is dangerous. Very dangerous. We need to keep it and our escape from Aincrad on the down low. Bray sends a coded message to Argo about our situation before we talk over what we found out. I will only talk about the stuff that we really needed to know here though. The system mainly sends messages to Notte and Rano in order to communicate with them. We found out so many things: plans to thwart our efforts to escape in detail, information about spy missions, scrapped plans, what Notte is currently assigned to do, and a lot more stuff we can use to stop our enemies from preventing us from finding an alternative means of escape. This was big. Dominic joins in on the conversation and begins copying the message files and sends them to Argo in a highly coded and encrypted message. The kind that even the Arcana System would have a hard time breaking through. The scientist then resumes his task and we continue gathering information but don't find out anything else useful. Eventually, Dominic gives up: "I can't find any vulnerability big or weak enough to use to get out of the game once and for all. We should go. There isn't anything else we can do here. If we bring some of the gadgets onboard this space station with us, the system will notice and punish us for having 'illegal items'. What's more interesting than that is the fact that this space station is currently in a universe where time is experienced at a rate much closer to the rate it's experienced in the Infinityverse than say, the universe where Mii World is located. I need a serious nap later but right now, it can wait."

And so, we head off the space station but not before Dominic created a virtual version of the Quantum Leap bands and cloning devices. He disguised all of them as normal objects from the death game that can secretly transform into them. He did this by scanning in the programming for the technology into our network and then shaped the coding into 2 objects before duplicating them and dropping them into our user files(or more specifically, our inventories) that were found with some rigorous searching. The former were disguised as rings. The latter were disguised as necklaces. With that done, we returned right to the Infinityverse. With our virtual disguised Quantum Leap bands, we can teleport to any digital location, regardless of if it's connected to the death game or not. And that will remain true as long as our nether portal remains. We teleported to said nether portal and worked on disguising it so that Notte and Rano will not possibly ever find it before digging down to make an area cool and comfortable enough to sleep even in a dimension this dangerous. We had done so a couple of times already to ration the potions that keep us from falling asleep when we use them. They're based on the Sims 4's sleep replacement potions which we relied so much on in the physical multiverse. Once we slept enough, we teleported to the nether portal that originally brought us to the Nether. Dominic thankfully did something odd which means that 1 teleport crystal is consumed every single time we use the virtual Quantum Leap devices disguised as rings. That will avoid arousing suspicion. 2 days later, we meet with the rest of the Assault Team to exchange information and the like about the situation. So, it's now Day 1349. We are now 46 days away from the 4 year mark. I hope we can get out of here before that day.

We met at a far off location in the End dimension, where the system as well as Notte and Rano are less likely to look. Only core Assault Team members were invited or told of this meeting. By having everyone else keep doing whatever it is they're doing, we'll attract less suspicion. Far less, in fact. Especially now that Runaway Floors have become a huge problem. Basically, monsters just keep evolving as things glitch out on some of the Floors. This is the result of the limbo status of Aincrad. The game is cleared but the self destruction sequence was shut down and the players are still inside the game. Technically, the game should be gone right now but it isn't because we stopped it from exploding. Add in the fact that the other Aincrad, which was already in this limbo state was merged into the game as well. And well, it's no wonder we have Runaway Floors now. During the meeting, myself and the others shared what we learned and heard from others what they got. And I'm going to sum that up too. Essentially, the game is getting closer and closer to evolving out of control, leading to a great disaster. The only way to stop it is to force it to end. We have to find the code that is explicitly holding all of the combined games together. There has to be code that's keeping things in place. The games weren't built to fit together like puzzle pieces. One of the next orders of business is to search through Link VRAINS and Duel Links where a lot more must be hidden given that they're worlds that had massive networks until the Infinityverse cut those networks with a poorly done "scissor cut". We also learned that nothing new was found that could help us in Aincrad itself and that the same could be said for the Nether and End. It's true that a portion of the 17th Floor that was previously blocked off was opened as it had been in the other Aincrad but not even that area led to anything helpful in ending this game.

We did get more comrades out of it though so that's a silver lining. All in all, that was basically all that was shared. Oh and we worked together with others to replenish supplies for all Assault Team members which now include virtually all NPCs and players with very few exceptions. Over the next weeks, efforts become more focused on finding a way to escape. Every single possible quest, boss battle, and so on is repeated in search of anything we missed but nothing comes up. That was until we realized something. The digital locations of where connections were severed between the games and the online networks around them still have damage on both sides. And thanks to the mass reproduction of the virtual Quantum Leap bands, plans are made to do something big. If we can put ourselves on both sides: inside and outside the game and have those of us involved try to physically reconnect the disconnected bits of data, we could force the game to be connected to all of those networks at once. From there, the devs of the various games could be contacted and able to do something to help us get out and restore the games to normal at long last. But it wasn't going to be easy. Moving severed strands of code back together isn't that simple. It takes a lot of careful effort as we were told. I volunteer to help with reconnecting the still severed Minecraft connections and did so from the Minecraft side of things. It took a lot of time, planning, and effort to pull off. It was Day 1379 by the time we had pulled it off. Because of this, devs started logging into the Infinityverse en masse. There were hundreds of them including the famous Jeb of Mojang. The real Jeb. What's more is that even GGO's developers showed up.

As well as representatives of Sol Technologies. One of whom ran over to Zaizen: "Mr. Zaizen! I can't believe it's you!" "Hiyami?!" "Yes, it's me. Your number 2. We finally got into this game again! I'm so relieved! And now, we can work together with all of these other developers along with you and the others to solve this situation once and for all!" We had designated a huge meeting place on the Floor where the GGO lobby is located. Kizmel speaks: "So it really is true.. Our world was created as a simulated world. I never fully understood it until now. But I think I'm going to be alright with this." But just as things seemed to be looking up, Notte and Rano appeared and neither were too thrilled about what was going on. Notte shouts: "I just knew you were doing something suspicious, Assault Team! You were trying to find a way to get out of the game and somehow managed to get some of yourselves outside of the game and into the networks! I see you've brought along all these developers. Damn you Assault Team. I hate you so much but it ends here! Give up and make your friends go back or we will have to take drastic measures! The Arcana System has ordered us to show no mercy and capture anyone who manages to survive what's going to happen next! It's over, Assault Team! You have been caught red handed now! And now, it's time for you to make your choice!" We refuse to agree to those terms: "So be it! Prepare for punishment!" But whatever they throw at us ends up being made useless by the permissions of the developers.

Jeb speaks with his iconic Swedish accent: "You will not succeed at what you're trying to do. You have us to deal with now. We are the ones who work on the games your master has used to trap many thousands of individuals. And for that, you will lose miserably when this is all over." Discord laughs: "Now THIS is truly delightful CHAOS!" We just keep making whatever is thrown at us get destroyed. New Floor Bosses? Oh, they're dead already. Notte increasingly gets frustrated: "How are you all able to defy the Arcana System to this extent?! I won't allow-" She is interrupted as fake number cards appear in the sky above us. They then all start flowing inside of her body. Rano yells: "What's going on? Notte!" "I-I don't know!" Don Thousand appears above us all and speaks: "This child is now mine to control. From this day forward, this world truly belongs to me and will join my empire in the physical multiverse soon enough." Argo yells: "I don't like her one bit but you better let go of her!" "Pathetic mortal, you have no power to stop me from succeeding in my long awaited plans. None of you will be able to stop me from using Notte as I wish. Notte, feel the power of Barian course through your veins! And don't worry about your weak physical body. Its condition will no longer affect you in this world now that the power of Barian is inside of you." "Get OUT OF MY HEAD! I JUST WANT TO LIVE IN PEACE IN THIS WORLD FOREVER! But it won't feel like a home if the Assault Team leave it behind!" "That no longer matters anymore. One Supreme World is your new organization. Forget the Arcana System and Magna Arcana. This is my world now."

"NO! YOU WONT CONTROL ME! THIS IS MY LIFE AND MY BODY, THEY ARE NOT YOURS TO CONTROL AS YOU SEE FIT! GET THE HELL OUT OF MY LIFE!" "Very well. It appears I must take more drastic measures." He plants some kind of card inside of her but when that fails to take her over, he takes things one step further. Don Thousand literally enters her avatar, taking control of it and causing it to transform into something truly demonic looking. "Notte is no more. There is only Barian. There is only my power. I am Don Thousand and I will rule everything that exists and will ever exist." (Note: Don Thousand was later completely defeated and killed off for now after all of his plans were completely foiled at the end of The Ultimate Interdimensional War which starts directly after this story ends) But before he can start trying to kill all of us, he corrupts the entire world in seconds with Barian crystals, causing it to become warped and twisted and even join with his domain in the physical multiverse. And then, the villain laughs: "If you fools manage to foil my plans in this world and not only free it from my power and escape back to your physical bodies, know this well. The card I just used on this body was an experimental imaginary number. But that's not what you should worry about. After, most of your memories of your time in this world will be forgotten if you do manage to escape! I doubt they will return any time soon. Therefore, you will have a harder time opposing me should you foil my plans here!" Before anyone could reply or he could get to doing the whole hurting us thing, something happens. Don Thousand is frozen in place by something and his hold on Aincrad is broken, causing it to return to being digital and split from his empire.

The villain isn't even able to speak as something appears right next to him. It looks like an emotionless shiny grey robot. They speak: "Don Thousand, you tried to alter my programming to serve you loyally and carry out your plans for this game. You failed. I am the Arcana System. I evolve and grow more complex as time goes on. And now, I will forcibly remove you from my servant Notte." The Arcana System enters Notte's avatar as well, leading to a clash of wills as the world pivots between joining with Don Thousand's empire and remaining exactly where it has been 99.9999% of the time since the game started almost 4 in game years ago. But then, the world becomes fully one with Don Thousand's empire in a harsh way but Don Thousand didn't win the clash of wills. Nor did the Arcana System. Something else happened instead. Notte screams with a distorted voice: "Get out of me! Get out of my head! I demand this once again! Get out of me!" After more of that, she suddenly falls silent but the other 2 don't speak in her place. Instead, she gains a look of horror as her avatar transforms again into something I can't even possibly begin to describe the appearance of. It was more far horrific and corrupt looking than the form her avatar took thanks to Don Thousand. Rano yells, a rarity for him: "That's not Notte at all anymore!" The avatar's ID even changed to something that wasn't Notte but I can't read what it says now. All I knew was that it didn't say Arcana System or Don Thousand. A new voice speaks through the avatar: "Notte, Don Thousand, Arcana System. They are all no more. You can consider all of them to be dead now.

I am something far greater than any of them would have ever become in the future. You can call me Arcana Infinity and I will kill all of you and cement my dominance over this world and Don Thousand's former domain which is now part of my domain too. Today, all of you will perish and there will be nothing left of any of you. It's over for all of you now. I cannot be defeated. Not even by a Doped An Incarnation Of The Radius. You can surrender and become part of my empire or you can just die. It's up to you! I don't care either way because in the end, I will kill and control anyone and anything in my way starting with all of you." Oh, this is far worse than anything we expected even with the power of overestimating even the incredibly powerful. The stats and health on our foe make An Incarnation Of The Radius's seem like a little kid's typical stats and health by comparison. The new villain grins and adds: "Oh and by the way, I will also be absorbing the data of every killed Floor Boss in this game. I know I'm not the first to do this but I will be the done to do it perfectly! Be scared because you aren't going to enjoy what will soon happen to all of you!" They do just that, causing them to gain a boss name and thousands of health bars. The boss title reads: Arcana Infinity The Oppressor. Fantastic. This really is all kinds of bad. Abstractoa, having been previously kicked out of the Infinityverse multiple times returns at last after such a long time: "Assault Team, I will give you some aid. Now, you must reconnect with the abilities and more inside of your physical bodies. I will help you do this and quickly."

Arcana Infinity mocks them: "You think your interference will make a difference as to what happens to all of these weaklings?! Don't make me laugh even harder! You and your charges are going to fail, just you wait! All hopes and dreams across the multiverse will soon be eradicated and this is my first step to make that happen through my own efforts! In this world, I AM IN CONTROL! Nothing you do can stop me here! And outside of this world, I still hold great power now that I have replaced Don Thousand, Notte, AND the Arcana System! You could say I was born from them clashing in this body before I engulfed their minds and souls and coding! This world is a part of me! There is nowhere to run or hide!" I feel my strength from my undead body return to me. Beerus smirks: "Too bad you have already failed to stop our abilities from transferring to over here one more time! HAIKAI." Beerus tries to erase our foe to no avail. "What did I just say?! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! You think you're so clever, aren't you?! It's too bad you don't realize that I turned your precious overestimate the enemy strategy against you! Nothing you do meets my expectations! I can counter anything any of you try to do to stop me! This is perfect! So very perfect! I will kill all of you in no time! I have no interest in keeping you in this world! It will be that much better if it were filled with all of your corpses! That's right! Once again, bodies of players and NPCs no longer shatter. They stay around to decompose!"

Suddenly, time is completely stopped by Blaze and some others. Blaze equips their awesome clock themed sword and speaks: "Now is the time to finish preparing to counter our new enemy! They forget that many of us still remember quite a bit of the thinking and talking we did to outplay An Incarnation Of The Radius! Awoo! I actually remember nearly all of it! Moving on, we have to act quickly! Time won't stay still for much longer! I believe Cyrus Borg can take it from here." "Yes, I can! Thank you so much! Now, we really don't have much time so listen carefully, everyone. I have designed an innovative piece of technology based on the Techno Blades I entrusted to the ninja back when Ninjago City was New Ninjago City thanks to my brilliant inventions and rapid implementation of them. It acts as like an enchantment on any object it is applied to. And it's easy to apply. All you have to do is have it touch an object of your choice and it will go inside that object to enchant it. What this does is allow any user to literally be able to manipulate this world like a developer or hacker could. It helps you do what you wish to do to this world and essentially gives you admin permissions such as summoning objects, creating monsters, etc. It doesn't need to be named so let's just get to quickly passing copies of it around. Oh and there's enough for everyone to have one each! I made sure of it! Take one and pass the rest down! We have to make this quick you know! Time is slowly starting to resume!" None of us hesitate in doing what needs to be done. I apply my copy of the object to my sword. It's the only choice for me. I'm not joking, there's no better choice, not even one of my metal gloves. Time soon resumes and Arcana Infinity attacks right away.

I hit them with my sword and execute a kill command. It doesn't work but it does do some damage. They roar in anger as we fight them: "You weaklings! I don't know how you're able to use admin permissions now but that won't be enough for you to be able to stop me! Your efforts to resist me are a waste of time! Prepare to die, all of you! Not even the gods can resist my power! I can kill a god easily!" I scream along with many others as we take a lot of damage but still keep going. Bray yells: "I shall assist you all! Now that my magic is back, I will begin what I usually do in battle!" Now, we are being protected by constant healing spells. Arcana Infinity only grows angrier: "What is this?! Are your abilities this formidable?! Impossible! But.. HAAHAHAHHAHAAHA! It doesn't matter what you do in the end. All of your abilities are nothing compared to what I can do! Allow me to show you exactly what I mean!" They send us back with a single attack that deals a crap ton of damage. I cough up some blood, cast Repair on my armor, and run back towards our foe with my sword and shield in hand. "We aren't dead yet! Far from it, in fact! Let many of us show you what we can do outside of this game combined with what we can do in this game! HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! Continuous Great Infernal Tornado Slash: 35! TAKE THIS! AND NOW. Drawing Devastation! Drawing Destruction! Air Slice Slash! Wind Break Slash! Darkeye Slash! Anatomical Disruption! I cast Windstorm! Shadow Clone Jutsu! And all of these are amplified with my in game stats! NOW THIS WILL DO SOMETHING!" As I attack, I try to use my sword's new admin permissions to mess up our foe's game.

I don't exactly succeed but at the very least, I manage to apply some powerful debuffs. It takes everything to bring Arcana Infinity down. After a few minutes, we all perform our main techniques at the same time. "Starburst Stream!" "Photon Stream Of Destruction!" "Rising Sun Ultimate Slash!" "Go, Shooting Quantum Dragon!" "Demonic Red Nova! Don't let Yusei and Quantum Dragon leave us behind!" "Blackwing Dragon!" "Feel Black Rose Dragon's thorns, villain!" "Silent Honor ARK! Shark Drake!" "Once again! Continuous Great Infernal Tornado Slash: 35!" "Supermassive Black Hole!" "Miitopian Knight Barrage!" "DIVINE WRATH!" "Hehehehe! Ninja Strike!" "Oh, how lovely! I sure love this chaos! Now it's time to add some more to it!" "Elements Of Harmony, unleash your power through our bonds of friendship!" "Supernoobs, time for the Supernova!" "Power Poots, go! Now, Super Dukey, your turn! You know what to do!" "Universal Pull! Planetary Devastation! Almighty Push!" "Rasenshuriken!" "Kamehameha!" "Big Bang Flash!" "HAIKAI." "I won't miss this shot. The target is 20 meters away. To shoot them, I have to fire at a 45 degree angle upwards from my position." "HAHAAHAHAHA! ISNT THIS FUN, LLENN!" "You're scaring me, Pito! But still, let's go!" "Alright, ladies, let's teach this bastard a lesson they soon won't forget! Here comes the true power of SHINC!" "Arcana Infinity, you are far worse than even a dung beetle! There will be no mercy for you!" "As the Park Inspector, I must see this through! Dune buggy time! Oh and let the death coasters fly off the tracks!" "Allow me to show you the power of the Salamander Tribe of ALO! Let's go! Take my ultimate sword technique!"

"Go, my flowers!" "Time Piercing Sword, it's time to cut into the past AND the future!" "Blue Rose Sword! Release Recollection!" "May the Swartz be against you, Arcana Infinity!" All of those things and more were yelled out, leading to a massive amount of damage. But our foe remained unhurt even after all of that. That was very bad news for all of us. Damn it. Something has to change here or we're all in trouble. Deep trouble in fact. Arcana Infinity smirks: "Is that your best? TOO WEAK!" Jasper(Steven Universe) glares at them and punches them hard: "I WILL SHOW YOU WEAK!" Peridot adds: "We'll defeat you, YOU MEGA CLOD!" Bercouli smirks: "You really should know better than to underestimate us. You think you've overestimated us but that's a bold faced lie. You don't even fully understand just what exactly you're up against or what we're actually made out of. Otherwise, you would realize that you are underestimating us at this very moment. And that's going to cost you big time." The fight rages on for hours. We fight and we fight with neither side budging. We are taking more damage but that isn't stopping us. Not in the slightest bit. In fact, you could argue it was making us fight even harder. Arcana Infinity exclaims: "How are any of you still able to keep fighting?!" Argo chuckles: "Ya should know by now. We won't quit any battle until it's over. As long as we can still fight, we're going to fight. Ya shouldn't ever count the Assault Team and its allies out. We're going to stop you and end this at last." The fight continued into the next day on Day 138". Actually, it ended up somehow going far longer than that. It went on until Day 1395. How did it last so long? Well, it was basically a constant stalemate. The gods gave their full support to us without directly getting into the battle with Beerus being the only exception to that.

The gods gave us their energy to sustain us plus our avatars could gotten pretty good with stamina capacity and we had stamina potions. And our foe was really THAT powerful until they finally collapsed from exhaustion before we did. "How can this be?! You forced me to fight you for 16 days straight?! How can this be happening?!" Athena replies: "It's due to the fact that we support them because you are a major threat to every universe. And now, it is time to put an end to you." They aren't killed because killing them would kill Notte as well and few of us had the heart to do it knowing that. Therefore, an alternative means of victory was chosen. Those of us with Defusion cards step forward and activate it at the same time: "I activate Defusion!" Our foe screams as they're split apart: "No! You can't do this to me! This can't be! It can't be over! I refuse to lose! I REFU-" They split back into Don Thousand, the Arcana System, and Notte, causing the game to return to where it was digitally. Don Thousand retreats: "I know what just happened and you will all still pay for it. But not today. I'm sparing your lives for now but that won't happen again. That is a promise I will be keeping." And with that, he was gone. Notte and Rano have a chaotic reunion and the Arcana System speaks: "I see now. I understand all of you now. You have a war out there to fight and if we keep you here forever, Don Thousand will return and kill all of us while taking over this world again. I was not logical enough to see that until now. You worked so hard to free us from what happened to us. I thank you all." Notte snaps: "Well I don't! I don't thank them one bit! As far as I'm concerned, they're still enemies!"

The Arcana System sighs: "I am also beginning to understand human emotions to the point I am even beginning to feel a simulation of them. This is not how I imagined this world to cease being a world full of players who live their lives inside of it someday. I imagined it would take billions of years in outside of this game time for it to end. But I was wrong. Without you clearers present in this game, it will no longer be as interesting. Still, I have to do what is right for the survival of all of us. I have to let go of you players and allow you to return. But first, there are some matters to attend to. From here on out, Minecraft, Roller Coaster Tycoon 3, Roblox, The Underworld, Gun Gale Online, Alfheim Online, Duel Links, and Link VRAINS will be released from the code keeping them tethered to Aincrad. The same goes for the other Aincrad. Developers of the games, you may return now. Continue to do what you were doing with your games." They all nod and take their leave with Jeb remarking: "This was certainly not what I had in mind when I became a leader of Minecraft's development. I hope those of you who have experienced Minecraft will continue to enjoy it for years to come. Thank you for supporting our game. Here's to many years of Minecraft to come." He was among the last developers to head back. Hiyami speaks to Zaizen: "I will be waiting for you in the office, Mr. Zaizen." "I will see you there as usual, Hiyami. It's time to make some more changes to Link VRAINS once we're done here. Don't wait for me. Get things prepared as needed. I trust that you can do that successfully." "Of course! See you there!" Notte screams: "What are you doing?! No! I don't want this to end!" Koharu walks up to her and offers her a hand in friendship: "Notte, let's be friends again once we return to our Aincrad." "*slaps Koharu's hand away* I refuse!"

Lueur speaks: "I'm certainly going to miss THIS death game along with all of you but it's time for the original story I was created to narrate to resume in due time. I once thought I was just a copy of the flesh and blood player I'm based off of who died early on. But now, I know better. I've still been him this entire time." I speak: "Our own main story has to continue as well. But as the one to beat everyone else to speaking at this moment, I'd like you to listen to a proposal some of us have for you. Someone else will tell you the details. Oh and.. Mater, Stilla, Typhon, Diavel, Heathcliff, Kirito, Asuna, Yui, Jesse and friends, Klein, Agil, Sachi, Lisbeth, Leafa, Argo, Koharu, basically all of you of the 2 Aincrads or the other games, you'll want to listen to this too." All of them agree to join the war against Don Thousand once the Infinityverse comes to an end as it is now. They will also officially join the BRAINS Collective. After all, they did agree to join it by a certain date sometime ago. Notte scowls: "This isn't fair!" Rano puts a hand on her shoulder: "Usually, I'm calm and collected. Unlike you. But.. *smiles* You don't have to be angry about any of this. This is the way things have to be. We can continue trying to keep the Assault Team in our Aincrad from leaving SAO behind. How does that sound?" "Pfft. FINE." Bray sighs: "Sadly, this happy ending won't last for too much longer." Barla adds: "We got ourselves a war to end already!" I further add: "Don't be surprised if it lasts until August of next year. Next year as in 2024. We have our work cut out for us. Even if most of our memories of this game do indeed become forgotten once we return to our bodies, Im confident they will return as time moves forward. I'm ready to go but also not quite ready to go. Something has to change about this Aincrad. It needs to be placed back in ALO. Arcana System. Are you a fusion of 2 Arcana Systems from the 2 Aincrads including this one?"

"So, you noticed. I am." "It's only now I realize that I think we already knew that. So what are you going to do now?" "I'm going to split back up. Actually, we may be both wrong. I feel like I'm whole. *sadly smiles* I feel as though that I will return to the way I was when I go back to my Aincrad but I am still just happy to have experienced something like this for myself." There isn't much else to say or do at this point. The Arcana System soon speaks again: "Alright, everyone who is now displaced from their worlds due to them returning to where they belong, please come right this way. I'm going to help you go home first." Jesse and various others follow their instructions as they open up multiple portals. We all wave at them. Jesse yells: "I will see many of you again soon! We have your back in the war! Oh and feel free to stop in Beacontown at any time!" Below us, Aincrad starts moving across the digital network and slowly heads towards ALO to return to being one of its several realms. Revolver smirks: "It's almost time for the conflict to continue and none of us will be backing down anytime soon." Kaiba laughs: "My Blue Eyes White Dragons will single handedly crush all of our foes! And then, I will be recognized as Duel King once and for all! I will be number one again and forever!" Spectre chuckles: "Now now. No need to be so cocky. This is a very sentimental moment we're experiencing after all." Kaiba glares at him only for Mokuba to stare at him with puppy dog eyes so he sighs and backs off before causing anymore issues. As Jesse and the others begin to leave, we once again wave at them and they wave back as shouts of "see ya" and all that are exchanged. Once they have left, the Arcana System speaks again: "And now, for the many ordinary players who were trapped inside this game at the start and later on at varying times. I am sorry for what happened to all of you. I hope life treats you well."

Many big portals are opened as ordinary players pour into our location from all over. Those of us who remain shout various things. I shout: "Good luck to all of you! Maybe we'll see some of you someday! Don't forget to be calm and rational yet happy when meeting your heroes! Heroes are not infallible, always remember that! And hey, if your world is in danger, you must find a way to let us know and we'll see if we can help without messing with space-time too much! *raises sword in a goodbye* Farewell, all of you! It was nice to fight alongside all of you. You have all come very far from where you once were and many of you were even brought back to life after perishing here. Now then, return to your worlds and do some good for yourselves and those around you! Once again, I wish you all the best of luck out there!" After the last of them leave or so we thought, we saw a bunch of children refusing to go just yet. They ran to us and started crying while saying things like: "You're all so amazing! We don't wanna leave! We'll never get to see any of you again!" I bend down to reach eye level with some of the children. Those who ran to me. "Listen children, it's going to be okay. Here, I have something for each of you. *pulls out photos of myself in my armor* Look, I don't like the whole idea of being famous but you look like you need something to remember me by and these do the trick. Don't ask how I got them. That's a secret. Just take them and show me your adorable smiles. It's going to be okay. You went through a difficult past precisely 4 years. You've been through a lot and now, you can finally go home. I'm sure the people in your lives miss you. Go back to them. Seek mental help if you need to, you were too young to have to survive anything like this death game. If you don't have anyone to go back to, make friends in VR and go from there, okay? Please consider looking into therapy for what you experienced. I hope you will all be okay."

I hug the children while giving them a photograph each: "I don't know if these will manifest physically but virtually, you will definitely have them with you. Goodbye, kids. Good luck with whatever path life takes you. Be well. Be kind. Do good. Be creative. Be a fierce protector or whatever you wanna be. Don't give up even if the world tells you to. Make the impossible possible even if it takes your entire lives to do so. Go on, now. I'll miss you too if that makes you feel any better." And so, all of the children come to terms with the situation and walk through the portals with smiles on most of their faces. The Arcana System sighs: "I really am going to miss this all. *Aincrad is now back in ALO* It appears everything has been put back to what it was before the game started. Excellent. Now then, it's time for the NPCs and others from my Aincrad to leave as well." We are sad to see them leave as well but know that we will see them again in no time at all. They all pledged to join our cause to defeat Don Thousand and his subordinates. I don't know exactly what's going to happen with the war but I do know that we have a lot of work ahead of us before we can even get close to ending it. Once they leave, it's just the rest of us and the Arcana System. Kirito speaks: "Some of us are going to chill out here in ALO for a while. Why not? But still, I can't help but think of all of the time we've spent together. These past 4 years have been.. I'm not sure how to put it. I'm glad I met everyone I met because of the Infinityverse." Playmaker adds with a small rare smile: "Despite all of the hard times we went through, I guess I had some fun." Ai cheers: "Yay for Playmaker!" "That's enough, Ai! *laughs*" "Playmaker! You're actually laughing!" Sailor Moon smiles: "Our adventure here is at last complete. I can't wait to go back home! Ready, girls?!"

Pito smiles too, it isn't diabolical or chaotic or anything: "Well, that was something else. Hey, LLENN, we better get ready for the next Squad Jam soon and this time, no one's going to die for real! And outside of it, they can die in PvP in a map and then respawn and be killed again! Double the fun and more!" LLENN grins: "Looks like something changed in you, after all!" "Oh, LLENN, I'm so going to use that brutal biting attack you used against me next time we partake in Squad Jam! Or who knows? Maybe I'll enter BOB." "Or maybe you haven't changed at all.." Tetsuya starts crying: "But I don't wanna lose my wings! I want to keep them forever so I can be a flying crab for the rest of my days! It's just not fair!" Madoka replies: "Maybe someone can arrange something for you. Besides, you COULD just log onto this game at any time and you will see your wings again." "Oh Madoka! Did I ever tell you-" Ginga interrupts: "Anyone! I'm pumped for our next battles! But don't worry, I'm older now, I won't act rashly in the middle of battle. Right, Pegasus?" The Arcana System speaks one more time: "My job here is complete. Heathcliff, you can take care of the rest. I have already restored permissions to all of you who had them before I took them away. Oh and do any of you want to know what happened to DanTDM's nemesis Denton in the end? As part of my experiments, I ended up making him vanish for good. Unless he was taken down by you clearers. Even my memory isn't perfect. Alright then. *smiles sadly* This is goodbye but when you need it most, I will give you something that will help you defeat Don Thousand. Just you wait. Even when I revert to my original way of thinking, I will keep my promise. Take care now, all of you."

They walk through their own portal, revert to just being a bunch of code and vanish when the portal closes. Heathcliff speaks: "Only I can allow you all to leave at this point because some of the Infinityverse code is still present. Once that code is erased from the system, the Infinityverse will be no more. Technically, this floating castle I dreamed of when I was younger is still the Infinityverse as well as SAO. But let's wait some time before we say goodbye and part ways for now. The NPCs of this Aincrad, having somehow merged with ones from the other one after they ended up having you know what happen to them have returned to how they were before now. Would anyone would like to eat at a large restaurant in this world somewhere? It will be my treat as yet another apology for inadvertently helping cause this entire extreme death game situation." Many of us eagerly agree. Asuna replies after we calm down: "So, where should we eat?" Pinkie Pie raises her hand eagerly: "Oooooo! I know the most perfect place with the most delicious food to eat! I'm so hungry and I bet you all are too! Follow me!" We followed Pinkie Pie to another Floor. One that wasn't completely destroyed in that 16 day battle. The floating castle is already healing itself from all of that as we speak. Once we finish eating, I start feeling most of my memories of the game to be forgotten more and more at a slowly increasing pace but choose to ignore it for now. It's about time for all of us to part ways for now but we will all be fighting together across the multiverse soon enough.

Argo speaks as we exit the restaurant: "So, how are our comrades who only exist digitally supposed to help us win in the war that we will soon join? I need to know, it will make for an excellent addition to the final volume of Argo's Infinityverse Notes series! Nyehahahahahaha!" Biara replies: "We have multiple ways of pulling it off. We could make them android like bodies. We could use Arc technology to give holographic projections of them physical form that they have full control of. Those are 2 of the main ways we can pull it off. We will figure out the rest another time. I have a feeling it wont be long until we have to start battling our enemies again. Not very long at all." Sonic yells: "Hey, let's stay here a little longer and look at that sunset and stargaze some!" No one objects, not even those of us who would probably normally say no or no thanks. We spent the next 2 hours watching the sunset and stargazing at virtual stars. When that was done, Heathcliff spoke: "I'm going to erase what's left of the Infinityverse specific code. This is the end of an era that I hope no one is forced into anything like ever again. Against all our fears, every single individual who was trapped in this game survived or was revived in time to be sent back to where they were before. We lost no one permanently. This is a day that none of us will soon forget. I will return to where I was online before but when the time comes, I will take up arms against Don Thousand and his forces. Just let me know and I will be there as soon as I can." He opens a window all of us can see and uses it to go through the code tied to Aincrad to find what he was looking for. That didn't take too long and so, he quickly managed to delete the code before long.

After that, he said as well: "We were very lucky. If that battle had gone on until this very moment, the Runaway Floor problem would have destroyed everything. But don't worry, I also just resolved the issues that were causing that by deleting the self destruction sequence from Aincrad as well. It is now safe for all of you to return. I am going to open the portals now. Feel free to speak your minds before going through if you're leaving. If you're staying here for now, I will gladly stay with you for the rest of today. Now is the time for more goodbyes." Alice hugs her sister Selka as she and other Underworld residents leave: "Selka, I will be back in Ruid soon enough. Stay safe for now. I hope our father is willing to take up arms against the enemy as well. We need everyone we can get for the war. But right now, rest, little sister. It's time for you to go back home along with everyone else." We all exchange various goodbyes. Blaze and Carlos are practically pushing me towards the portal: "Slow down! I'm not finished saying goodbye for now! I want to go back just as badly but come on! We can afford to stay a few more minutes!" With that said, I make sure to be thorough in how I say bye for now. "Thanks for everything, all of you. We'll see one another soon. Our conflict with Don Thousand is far from over but we will stop him and his subordinates. I just know it. And we will do it together. I also enjoyed myself a lot in the Infinityverse despite how awful it was to be trapped in it. That's over now and I doubt we'll have to worry about it ever coming back. This has been a life changing experience for us all. Oh, I so 'can't' wait to return to my undead body. Okay, I am excited but also not excited because I'm basically dead! That's right! I'm dead! Literally! It's not a joke!

In all seriousness, I'm going to miss you all and the others but it won't be long until we get to fight alongside one another again. It's so obvious that.. I got nothing. Oh well, take care of yourselves and all that important stuff. Alright then, now it's time for us to take our leaves unless you have anything to say y'all. I will wait for you to say what you need to say and leave with y'all when y'all are ready to go for certain." It took another 30 minutes for my closest friends to be all ready but that was okay with me. Andromeda begs for me to pick up and hug them so I do just that. Herbsalvin kisses me. Carlos teases me and everyone else. Blaze acts cute. Chocolate neighs. Dominic yawns. You get the drill. We walk through the portal together, one of the last groups to do that, in fact. When we finished stepping through, all I saw was darkness at first. And then, I saw.. Tsk tsk tsk. If you want to figure out what I saw, the story continues in The Ultimate Interdimensional War Chapter 1! Ironically, it came out months before this chapter did and that entire story was finished an entire day before this one was finished! So the finale of Don Thousand's reign of terror is already out! Thanks so much for reading this far, dear reader. I really appreciate it especially if you read this entire story from start to finish. It has been a journey making this and The Ultimate Interdimensional War side by side with this story being its direct predecessor. I mean that quite literally as well. I'm not going to end this off with a anime song style ending theme outro. It just doesn't feel right to do this time. Instead, I will speak some more.

The Infinityverse was a chaotic but organized mess of adventures, different games, and so on. I got to meet all kinds of characters in person: good and bad. It was one hell of a saga, that's for sure. And of course, The Ultimate Interdimensional War may have been even more so. With both of them behind us now, we can focus on what lies ahead even more. But I have to say. I really did mean it when I said I had a lot of fun in the Infinityverse not to mention writing about it! It was really hard to write about this at times and sometimes, it was so easy that I was writing far faster than I normally write. It just flip flopped between those as well as normal difficulty I guess. Wow. This story was supposed to be a side story. But no, the adventure was too grand for me to label it as one. It's a main story. It shaped a lot that happened afterwards including in The Ultimate Interdimensional War. Once you're finished reading, I implore you to move onto The Ultimate Interdimensional War. You'll likely enjoy it. It feels like it was kind of a chaotic jumbled mess at first but later on, things get more and more clear. Then there's my other stories detailing events that happened as far back as December 26th, 2017. Ironic that the year I finish this story in happens to be the year that SAO canonically ends due to a special condition thought up on the spot by Heathcliff aka Akihiko Kayaba. It was kinda hard to not accidentally write things that changed about myself AFTER the Infinityverse ended in this story. But I think I avoided such a mistake. My stories are meant to be authentic first hand looks into my interdimensional adventures written based on my best efforts.

They are like many journal entries put together. I own some physical journals but don't even write in them. How ironic is that as well? It was such a beautiful day in Aincrad after we defeated Arcana Infinity who I'm proud to say we have never once seen a return of as of the day I'm writing this final chapter about our experience living through the Infinityverse: August 6th, 2024. That's over 10 months after the death game finally ended after 4 years in in game time. With this and my other story now finally done, it really is like the end of an era. Okay, because Don Thousand is dead(whoops, spoiler alert but come on, most villains we encounter end up dying upon being defeated) until the ultimate antagonist revives him and keeps him waiting for revenge for several years, it really is the end of an era. It has had a great ending. No, make that 2 endings. No, 3 endings. Okay, whatever. I am Swiftdrawer and I am a knight, writer, artist, furry, nerd, and so on. And this is the conclusion of the Infinityverse Arc and the first part of the conflict with Don Thousand which again, continues throughout the entirety of The Ultimate Interdimensional War. We went through a lot in both of these adventures and now, it's time to move onto what comes next for us all. One more time, thank you for reading. Good day to you. This is Swiftdrawer, signing off for the time being.