|Sword Art Online, Floor 60, Onyx Desert|
|Feb. 18th 13:45|
Typically, a desert is scorching hot, so under the dark skies of the 60th floor, even the black dunes that swayed on the horizon like waves of shadow were cold to the touch. Cacti warped and mutated into jagged pillars of onyx stone, shimmering with cosmic energy, giving the dark-grey sands an ethereal glow. A faint remnant of an uneven path was their guide, what little remained of stone walls and markers to settlements buried under this affliction. But it kept them safe from the more gruelling beasts that wandered the wastes.
Having marched for what felt like miles, the group arrived closer to the edge of the desert, its border marked by the massive, jagged crescents of rock that towered, casting shadows down on an already dark world. The crater remained inaccessible, but what laid below was another story. No matter where a player travelled, if they approached the center of the floor, the ground would split open and leave staggering cliffsides like teeth, peering down into the black abyss below, only the faint illumination of ores and the astral glow within the earth.
The name, 'Undercroft Surface' appeared briefly, a sloped section of sand rolling down into one of the many entry points of the underground dungeon that may very well spread through the entirety of the floor's underground.
"Shirayuki?" Nagi decided to ask upon their arrival, carefully leaning back to counterbalance the sharp slope down into the ravine. "This was where House Sun sealed away the Abyss, but I haven't seen any relics or signs of their house,"
She considered this question for a moment, "I doubt anyone would, for this is not their home floor, rather, this was simply the last stand of what remained of their House prior to sealing the Abyss away. Even so, what remains of their culture is mostly found in the branching houses, very little of House Sun specifically remains. That temple you aided me in unlocking in Sunsinger Village was a rarity in its own right,"
"These guys were the original house, I'm surprised there's so little left to their name," Yuuki commented from the back, her right hand locked to Artorias's forearm to steady herself and vice versa.
"It is unfortunate, yes, but that is why their memory is such an integral thing for my people," Shirayuki smiled fondly to them, making it to the base of the ravine. "Just as my memories of all of you are important, a way to reflect, to learn, to cherish. It is a simple yet powerful concept, one that transcends material worth,"
"Woah, that's pretty deep," Nori hummed, stumbling forward as she jogged down the last stretch, catching herself. "Maybe that's why there's almost nothing to find on them, cause this Abyss might've wanted to erase their memory, you think?"
"That is possible, I never considered that..." Nagi pursed his lips, a chill running up his spine at the experience they shared the first time the voice of the Abyss spoke to them. It fed into their weaknesses, attempting to whittle down their resolve. "When it spoke... sure, it may've been just a quest, but it really felt like it could corrupt us if we fell for it..."
"Don't remind me, I already know my demons, I don't need someone else being the middle man in conveying them, thanks," Artorias would rather avoid that if he could help it. So he did just that, turning to eye the blackness that shrouded the way forward, heading further underground. "Ah, time to test my newest creation for just such an occasion! Ta-da~" From his quick menu, he held out six glass bottles with a square body and stubby neck. "I present to thee, Lumina Potions. A child's new best friend against all the scary monsters in the dark,"
"Fascinating," Procuring one, Shirayuki swirled the bright, golden liquid in its bottle. "As though you had liquidized sunlight, again, your talents for brewing impress me,"
The brunette rolled his hand to encourage them, "Keep the compliments rolling, this stuff's not easy to make and I need all the positive reinforcement I can get," Artorias grinned eagerly. "Drink this and you'll light up like a Christmas tree for a decent amount of time, help us identity Dark Zones easier too,"
'Dark Zones', another of this floor's new elements. Dark Zones were pitch black areas, typically in dungeons and caves like these that no light could illuminate. They were meant to be avoided at all costs as a type of monster known as Astralachnea reside in the dark, waiting to surround and drag whatever prey stumbled into their domain.
"You're a lifesaver, Artorias, thank you," Nagi smiled graciously, popping the cork off with the others. "Okay, let's go find this Core; Cheers,"
"Cheers!" Chinking their vials together, the group downed the strong, lemony taste of the potion, and in an instant, all their bodies let off a gentle, golden glow, easily illuminating the area around them. How the sand transitioned to a rough, rocky texture, the cracks and fissures splitting apart the crust below their feet, even a few other caverns around them.
Leaving the surface behind, the group were thankful for the Lumina potions to guide their way through the dark passages. The otherworldly environment was unlike any Aincrad had to offer before, befitting space over fantasy. The infection ran deep underground, large, open caverns and tunnels gave off an eerie, astral light. All surfaces encrusted with crystals that emitted a pulsating glow, shades of vibrant purple, icy blue, and milky white. It was as if the very underground was a beating heart.
"Penny for your thoughts, boss?" Artorias broke the silence, all of them hugging the rightmost wall to avoid a small patrol of Golems lumbering nearby. Hearing Nagi hum in acknowledgement. "Not that I doubt the capabilities of Numbnuts headbutting his way through every challenge, and Reaper keeping him on a leash when he does. But realistically, the strongest members of our colourful band of misfits happens to be on this team,"
"Hey, don't diss Siune and the others," Yuuki whined light-heartedly, tugging on his shoulders.
"Treadin' on thin ice here, bud~" Nori tisked wagging a finger.
"Nothing could protect me from insulting her," Artorias deadpanned but continued. "Again, all their capabilities are more than enough for a field boss, but I am curious to your thought process,"
Nagi did give it some thought, head cocked to one side before eyeing the shorter teen. "Well... Daora and Mito are more than strong, Siune can easily fill the role of organizing the other Sleeping Knights in Ran and Yuuki's stead, so I have no doubts over their own success. But I also wanted to go at this alongside you again, as selfish as it sounds,"
"Eh?" That wasn't the answer Artorias had running through his head. Maybe because Nagi thought their team would wrap up quickly to aid the others or help with accessing the ritual site. It would be logical to assume, but this wasn't the case.
He stared up slightly to Nagi's friendly smile. "Aside from myself and Argo... you're the first I ever properly partied with, way back on the 4th floor. You've continued to stick by me and my choices, even after you tried to push us away, you still stuck with us. You can be very arrogant and even stubborn in your ways, but those early days of it just being us against SAO are important to me,"
Scratching his cheek, Nagi added sheepishly. "I also wanted to spend time with my cousins too, we've all been busy and I like fighting alongside you two," Nagi glanced back at their surprised looks. "It's nice seeing how in sync you two are, even outside of combat,"
Finding her voice first, Ran looked a little flustered but smiled softly, "Y-you really don't mince your words, I should've realized that was part of your reasons, but... I can't say I disagree," Tucking her hands behind her back as they hopped over uneven rocks and crags, her ponytail swaying behind her. "What were the chances of us meeting like this? Being able to spend this amount of time together despite the risks involved?"
"I certainly don't hate it. Sure, this isn't just a game anymore, but it's because of it that I got to show I'm not useless, that I can live as I wish, and if I get to spend that with you guys, then I'm already living my best life," Yuuki giggled, her arms snaking forward to hang around Artorias's neck, himself remaining silent for some time. "Artorias?"
How did it come to this? Artorias had been wrestling with that demon since the 29th floor. He was the former competitive player, SilentNight, practically a prodigy who stamped on others dreams just to make it big. As Nagi said, he was arrogant to a fault, he stabbed them all in the back just to feel like himself again, he even took the life of another person, granted, he was going to kill them regardless, but the point stung in his mind daily.
Yet, when Nagi looked at him, Artorias didn't feel conflicted, he knew Nagi's type, a person who forgoes their own wants for others, who is selfless. So to hear him call himself selfish was a laugh, but it also filled Artorias with that warmth only one of his siblings ever exhibited. Yuuki radiated that tenfold, another part of his life he felt was a dream.
"Okay, w-what's with all the sentimental talk? And to-towards me of all people?" Scratching the back of his head, Artorias could feel Yuuki's chin rest on his left shoulder, just the tickling of her breath made his face warmer if it wasn't already. "Seriously, gonna make my heart skip a beat here, folks,"
"Aw, look, he's actually blushing if you squint," Nori cooed, shaking Ran's shoulder slightly as the girl tried to supress a snicker.
"You are quite peculiar with your words, Artorias," Shirayuki hummed, acknowledging how he tried to downplay their words and actions. "It is not cowardly to admit you feel the same way,"
"...way to be subtle about it, Shinobi," Artorias muttered as his visible eye catch a glint of light through the passage way ahead. "Ah, look, a change of topic!"
They came to a stop, following where the brunette jabbed a finger to spot something large crawl out from the dark, having spotted the group as it let out a loud hiss and chatter of mandibles. It was a large, mantis-like creature that too had been mutilated by the infection. Its carapace adorned by shades of deep purple and vibrant blue, mirroring the colours of the land. It had large, scythe-like forelimbs that gleam with an otherworldly energy, and eyes that let off a menacing glow.
/Corrupted Mantis - Lv. 91\
"New type, spread out, Artorias, vanguard with me," Nagi was quick to organize, both stepping forward as the creature rose to its full height into the large chamber.
Suffice to say, the creature wasn't about to sit around as they moved, charging the pair instantly with both large, scythe-like arms glowing a sickly purple. A pair of Sever skills swept in a cross chop, scarring Artorias's shield whilst Nagi stood behind him, the brunette shifted back, allowing Nagi to thrust NightSky forward, Ripple Thrust piercing the neck, forcing the beast backward as it swung violently in a chopping motion. Each blow rattled off Artorias's best source of defence, his expression barely flinching.
The face of Red Dawn gleamed a golden tinge, and as both blades swept down with Rend, he stomped forward, slamming the full brunt of his shield against the deadly blades, sparks spat against the ground as he dragged and swung his arm sideways into a heavy uppercut to the Mantis's jaw, the creature hissing violently as its own body was used to help Artorias leap and spike the top of its head with the edge of his shield, a crackle of golden sparks running down the mutant's face.
"Switch," He called firmly, Nori and Ran sprinting from each side. Nori drew her now blazing blue hammer from side-to-side, the legs bending at irregular angles before she fractured the carapace with a single thrust, Brick Break knocking the creature towards Ran's cyan tinged sword. The edge of her white blade dug through the right legs straight into an overhead vertical that caused the Mantis to collapse under the strain.
There was no need to speak, Shirayuki and Yuuki were upon the creature before it could stand, leaping over another pair of Sever strikes, even with its legs weakened, the insect still had the strength to fend them off. Landing behind the sweeping arms, Yuuki and Shirayuki spun once, sweeping forward to leave a pair of long, thin gashes through the sides of the Mantis, spewing pixelated blood with a glint of light at the tail end of their combined skills.
Mantis hissed weakly, mandibles chattering before it ultimately fell forward, bursting at Nagi's and Artorias's feet.
"A surprisingly tough foe," Shirayuki commented, the rest making some noise of agreement.
"It was a short fight, but it could withstand more than a normal monster," Nagi grimaced a little. Then again, they weren't far from the final quarter floor, and this was a tenth floor to consider also, nothing was going to be an easy fight for a while.
"Good, now this place feels like a threat, chilling," Artorias snorted, patting Nagi's back. "...thanks... for what you said, I mean,"
Nagi certainly didn't need to hear it to know Artorias was touched by their previous conversation, the nose knows after all. Smiling, Nagi didn't say a word and followed after him into the illuminated darkness, the others close behind.
|Undercroft Abyssal Layer|
|Feb. 18th, 14:32|
"This is giving me bad vibes," Nori summed up perfectly.
They had gone deeper and further into this dark labyrinth under the corrupted surface. Only now, the environment was... dead. Crystals remained to light what their glowing bodies couldn't, and even that was unsettling, their pulsing refractions were slower, almost stagnant. More fungi grew across every surface, tendrils swaying over bulbous clusters of deep scarlet and milky white spores, some patches glimmering like starlight.
But what was most unsettling were the bodies. Dead Golems, Wyrms, even Mantis' laid strewn across the ground, torn apart and left to rot as the system didn't recognize them as actual kills, effectively leaving a mangled battleground before them.
...You've Arrived...
All of them froze in their tracks, weapons drawn. The calm, eerily soothing voice slithered into their ears, down through their whole bodies like an arctic breeze. In an instant, the cavern of bodies felt far less dead, as though their corpses were set to rise.
"Boss, the scary voice is back..." Artorias ground his teeth. It was the Voice of the Abyss.
...I've been observing your progress... your tenacity is commendable... your resolve unwavering...
All heads turned to Nagi who took a deep breath and continued forward towards the slope ahead, the ground turned to black sand at his feet. Beyond the slaughter, the way forward was marked by two large, ornate black pillars of metal, supporting the roof of the cavern, the structure dug into the earth at an angle, slanted on one side, its pale, white fluorescent lights flickering from years of abuse.
...If you truly desire to reject us... then seize the Heart... and all will become clear in time...
That eerie presence vanished in an instant, most exhaling in relief. "What the hell was that?" Ran gasped, rubbing her forehead to find sweat.
"The Voice of the Abyss, a troublesome force that cannot be taken lightly," Shirayuki spoke, supressing the venom in her tone to the best of her ability, but her brow remained furrowed in disgust. "It digs its claws into the minds of the weak-willed, coerces them to believe in its cause, just like with Danuja,"
"The last time we heard from it was at the Incubator on floor 30," If Nagi had to speculate, the closer they were to powerful sources of darkness, the easier its voice can reach them. "Don't pay attention to anything it says, while I'm glad it can't actually affect us mentally, I still don't want to find out,"
"No need to tell us twice," Nori waved her hands up, hammer resting against one shoulder. "Felt like I was bein' looked at from every angle," She shivered, rubbing her biceps.
"No kidding, creepy much?" Yuuki just kept a step closer to Artorias.
When they passed through the archway of rugged, onyx metal, one final name appeared. 'Hadal Layer'. Standing at the peak of a sandy hill, the group looked down at the expansive cavern which was roughly half the size of a football field in scope. The walls reached high towards the unseen ceiling, but what drew their focus was what laid before them.
The edges of a massive crater were jagged and steep, large chunks of earth uprooted, formed into thick, glass-like material that refracted the astral colours around them. The base of the crater flattened by time, creating a natural flatland many miles below the surface. leading down to a basin where the ground is fused into a glassy smoothness by the intense heat of the collision. Not a speck of corruption grew near the crash site, just the sheer scale of the land curved and blown upright was enough to leave them in awe, if only momentarily.
"It really did come from outer space..." Nagi wouldn't have ever guessed this ancient darkness was some plague given sentience. SAO sure had a way of defying expectations. But now wasn't the time to wonder over the lore crafting, they had a Core to collect.
It was quiet, but they knew better, keeping their movements slow and deliberate, moving through the grove of fungi as the ground crunched underfoot, the surface of the meteor breaking apart like glass. They stopped for a moment, biding their time with pensive breaths, now at the deepest pit of the Undercroft, no monsters to be seen nor heard, only one thing remained for them to find down in the dark.
A metallic clang slammed into the center of the area, dust kicked up and blown past their legs with shards of broken glass. Then came the whirr of machinery and pistons that had laid dormant for far too long, the sounds were so otherworldly compared to the hulking golems made from much more simple materials, in a way, it was reminiscent of The Last Number in complexity. Undeterred, the team fanned out, watching the dust settle and unveil that which holds the Core.
Ancient systems came online, a tingling sensation filling the air, as though the atmosphere had been statically charged. The body of the machine resembled an armoured crab, tinged as metallic purples and deep blues, accented with the bright whites and golds of stars, creating a contrast that is both beautiful and intimidating. Cosmic flames spewed from behind the leg joints and the back of the main body, flickering violently.
The 'head' of the machine was adorned with horns which were antennae mutilated by the corruption. Fiery orange and bright blue lights flickered within its shell, acting as a multitude of eyes that scanned both the meteor and those that awakened it.
/NM Astrum Aureus - Lv. 92\
Seven levels higher than Nagi and six for the others, barring Shirayuki who was over levelled, perks of being a powerful quest NPC. Despite that one advantage, this machine had two health bars and its presence alone was otherworldly, the energy coming off it continuing to rise in pressure alone, they were in for a tough fight.
"Uh, boss!?" Artorias waved his arm to his right, and they all quickly spotted a distinct object manifest, same for their far left. Three black obelisks had appeared.
"The 29th floor mechanic... dodge!" Everyone heeded Nagi's warning in time as Aureus slammed the ground, creating a shockwave of black and orange, spirally energy that let out a deafening boom, the circumference of the cone-like blast stretching to the opposite end of the arena as it dispersed in the air alongside a ring of energy blasts.
Unfortunately, Nagi and Nori were caught by the tail-end of the slam, damaging and inflicting them both with half a bar's worth of Corruption. If that filled up fully, they'd suffer a massive loss of HP. "Corruption debuff too, use any Pacifying Agents you have left! Shirayuki!?"
"I have more if needed, keep your distance, I'll divert the creature's attention, focus on the obelisks!" The whitette hollered, rushing Aureus head-on as it stomped towards her, firing off waves of energy attacks.
"I've got Resonate!" Nori waved from the right side, staring towards the middle of the arena where the symbols appeared. "But I don't know the callouts!"
"What do they look like!?" Ran yelled back, sucking her gut in as two energy bolts sailed past her, keeping her head low.
"Uh... a helix, a square and... a pentagon!" Nori relayed, Ran and Nagi turning their heads to the left. "I've got no matching symbol on this one!"
"Helix, Helix, Helix..." Nagi ran around it until he found the symbol. "Got it, Helix, but there's another two pairs we need after we hit them as quickly as possible or it'll reset!"
Striking Helix, the obelisk shimmered a sinister orange, and they waited, keeping their eyes on the projectiles and the massive beam attack Aureus unleashed in vain to catch the nimble shinobi who had taken a few hits herself, dousing her form in lilac dust to reduce the Corruption. "Uh, Circle!?" Nori called. "Seriously, these are actually pretty easy to remember!"
"I'll take it over something complex, hit it, Cupcake, back of the room!" Artorias called, Yuuki leaping up to swipe the Circle with her blade. "Nori, what's the final set?"
"Lemme see... uh... ah, got-got it! Star!" She answered back, jabbing the final obelisk above herself with her hammer.
The third obelisk resonated with a distinct chime, disappearing as that astral pressure surrounding Aureus disappeared the moment it slammed the ground, two eyes beginning to glow a deep red and ice blue. "Towards me!" Shirayuki rallied with a swing of her blade.
Everyone sprinted, diving to the rough ground as two piercing lasers scorched the back wall and anything caught in its path, firing off several missile-like projectiles that homed in on their positions. In a desperate scramble, everyone leapt away from the miniature blasts, the boss continuing its advance.
Sweeping through the smoke, Artorias and Yuuki swiveled and brought their glowing blades across the legs, arcing into their skill motions to evade its striking jabs as it spun around to try and swat them aside. With two more cleaves, a blue and yellow outline of squares tore through its legs, the pair diving to avoid another ring of energy blasts.
With its back to the others, Shirayuki swung down with Ichimonji, a crackle of electricity denting the hull as she repeated the skill, bowing her head for two sweeping, aqua arcs to scorch through Aureus's back. Nagi landed on a knee, leaping back with the shinobi in time to avoid another cluster of bolts, the machine leaping high into the air again.
Slamming down, both rolled, narrowly avoiding the beam attack, yet, a silver-tinged sword clipped through. Ran grit her teeth, taking the abuse to her right side in order to cleave across Aureus's face with several vicious slashes weaving into one another, completing Deadly Sins with spinning horizontal cleave through both from legs, tumbling under the boss.
"Switch, Nori!" From above, Aureus suddenly disappeared, a flash of light to their backs as the dark-skinned girl missed her slam attack, tanking two bolts to the back as she and Ran turned to see Aureus with its back to the far end of the crash site. "Great, it can teleport!"
"Of course it can teleport, didn't you know?" Artorias remarked, sweeping Red Death onto his shoulder. "Cupcake, ready to bring the house down?"
Her eyes locked with his, a flash of excitement behind her vermillion gaze. "Hehe," She grinned, and the two charged towards the boss as it slammed the earth with tremendous force, both vaulting over a wave of energy blasts and keeping away from the beam of Corruption. Nagi swept low, slashing in a cyclone through the legs as Dance of the Water Dragon roared, his heels twirling him around to narrowly block one of the legs from piercing him.
Turning to the young pair, Aureus's eyes followed instead the pair of swords flung high, as if confused by this method before both slammed their boots into its face, leaping over its spinning legs to clasp their weapons high, a vestige of the very meteor they stood in burning to life across their swords. The staggering might of Meteor Fall came crashing down atop Aureus, even as it teleported to safety, two massive gashed were torn down its head and through a pair of eyes.
From behind, its body lurched on all fours, three powerful slams rattling its hull in conjunction with several flashes of light to scar its body, the boss leaping to slam down on Nori and Shirayuki, tearing into their health as the ranged attacks flew wide. A plunging blade connected to its front right leg, a tidal wave from Waterfall tearing through metal with ease as Nagi knelt into his post motion, allowing the front left leg to sail over his head, tousling his hair.
A second after, Ran used him as a spring board, arching forward to unleash her blade in a pirouette of emerald green strokes from above, landing behind the boss, completing Savage Fulcrum with a final, backswing slant. With a sudden ripple of invisible blows, a blast of bright yellow light expelled from Aureus, blowing its first health bar away, that shimmering starlight shielding it from Yuuki's Rage Spike in the nick of time.
She bounced back as the boss leapt and stomped the ground repeatedly, beams of darkness blasting through the meteor site as a barrage of smaller blasts struck and clipped the group forced to contend with this bullet hell. That's when Yuuki noticed the shimmering light over the reappearing obelisks. "I got the buff!" She purposefully threw herself onto her back, avoiding another wave of energy blasts to stare up a the line of symbols. "Look for a Cross!"
"Got it!" Artorias swung wide, slapping the backmost obelisk and the Cross symbol that lit up, performing a hand stand to hop over a wave of energy blasts. "Keep 'em comin', Cupcake!"
She danced between more missiles, the spray of homing rockets setting off explosions left and right of her lithe frame, yet she kept composed, eyeing the symbols above as they changed. "Crescent!"
Looking around, Nagi grit his teeth as the boss slammed down in front of him, his left side nearly torn apart by the Corruption beam, his debuff almost full to the brim as he ducked under a few blasts and quickly coated himself in another Pacifying Agent in time to curb the infection. Looking to his right side, he spotted the matching emblem. "Got it - Nori, switch with me!"
Diving back, the girl swung down, flinging black shrapnel with Fissure to disrupt Aureus's advance in time for him to jump and stab the Crescent seal, watching it glow brightly. "Done!"
"Last one's another Star, I got it!" Yuuki hollered back, taking off into the chaos.
Shirayuki swept low under the boss's legs, her katana drawn back with the tip poised for the underside of the machine. She held her breath, waiting until she heard the bells chime, and the field of light disappear from the boss. Sucking in a breath, her sword cast in crimson, she thrust it forward, the deadly prod digging through its hull, causing Aureus to stumble sideways, even so, its eyes glowed dangerously bright.
"Duck!" Ran called, everyone evading the twin lasers that scorched and melted through glass, dozens of astral bolts spewing from every eye, filling the arena as the boss leapt to slam and conjure another corruption blast, leaving no room to evade every hit.
Ward manifested, a few managing to throw themselves behind Artorias's shield in time to heal and recover. A flash of light above forced him to dispel the skill, barely raising his shield in time to tank the tremendous force behind the machine's slam as his right leg fell out from under him, straining to keep his arm steady at all.
Twisting at the hips, Artorias flung himself into a rough tumble, taking damage as a result but escaping being flattened by Aureus. A searing slash of purple dug across both front legs, drawing the boss's ire to Yuuki who brandished Obsidian Rose, shielding Artorias as he recovered from the stun mechanic.
Breaking forward, she drew her teal sword forward in a flurry of thrusts, sweeping high and low across its marred chassis into a heavy, overhead slam, kicking off the left leg to avoid its spinning barrage of bolts, Howling Octave buried deep into the top of its body. Using the arc of her swing, Yuuki threw her legs high, performing a front flip to land behind it.
"Switch," She smirked, keeping her head low when a powerful comet of blood red light blew past her strands of hair, the tip of Red Death white-hot, Artorias turning slowly to see the horrid gash through Aureus's left legs left by Vorpal Strike, the metal bending and melted with a cherry red wound of pixelated flesh.
"On your feet now," He held a hand down to her as the boss vanished to a more suitable position, giving Yuuki the chance to take his hand with a small smile.
"Now we're even," She snickered, the two joined by Nagi and Ran. "It's getting weaker, if we overwhelm it like last time, it can't use any of those crazy barrages of his,"
"But he can teleport away if we try to surround him, so..." Artorias trailed off to let them add to the strategy.
"We'll attack one by one, close enough to chain sword skills but far enough apart to keep it from triggering a teleport," Nagi surmised, but to pull that off, they'd need to be exactly on time with the end of their sword skills, they couldn't give the boss a moment to use any other skill. "It's a gamble but..."
"I say we go for it," Nori waved. "Out of everyone here, Arty and Yuyu's got the best reaction times to date. Then Nagi and Ran. Shira's got me beat so I'll go last,"
"A sound plan, I can follow your leads," Shirayuki concurred, her expression swelling with pride. "Let us lay this beast to rest once and for all,"
"Couldn't say it any better," Nagi smiled, stepping back as the group formed an triangle formation. "Artorias!"
"Haha, let's dance..." Taking the frontlines, he threw caution to the wind and ran straight for Aureus, blade swathed in an myriad of blue shades.
Aureus sent forth two beams to sweep the area, leaving a gap where its head laid, clusters of energy blasts filling the air as Artorias ignored their burning contact against his body, coat fluttering wildly behind him. It leapt, slamming the earth with a shockwave that sailed over his feet, rolling into a slide under the corruption beam as he kicked back into a dead sprint, blade lumbering from over his shoulder, letting out a brief, defying yell.
Nova Ascension tore through like a riptide, clipping every inch of the boss with a resounding flurry of slashes, completed with a hard thrust between the eyes, knocking the creature back a few feet with a dazzling halo between them. The second his sword flew back from the force alone, his hand rose outward, slapped by Yuuki's as her Phantom Rave burned similar shades to his, crescents of light burying Aureus under a blanket of sword swings, the girl kicking off a heel with a beautiful spin into a downward slash.
The cascade of slashes left it pinned, swamped by the combined assault of Howling Octave from Ran and San Ge from Nagi, the cousins weaving between one another, every gap filled with the others streaking blade as if to paint over a blank canvass with reckless abandon, a slash each crossing over the machine's face in conflicting colours, a burst of light knocking it closer to the edge of the arena.
"Switch!" One last callout, the duo flew back, and the black and white clad shinobi was followed closely by the umbral-coated tank. Nori hollered loudly, drawing her hammer into an overhead spin twice, inverting his momentum for four consecutive blows that rattled Aureus's chassis, leaving dents across its body with an upswing leaving its underside exposed to Shirayuki's own four thrusts as each was met with a downward slam from Nori, her third and final downswing connecting with the shinobi's wide, burning blue horizontal. The ultimate skill for hammers, Tectonic Art and the scared form of Solar Brilliance setting off a cacophony of ear-raking metal and spasming sparks.
Every skill had withered and ravaged Aureus's body beyond repair, systems died and the astral flames sputtered and turned to black smoke as it rose into the air only to seize up and come crashing down to the crater's surface. The final health bar vanishing before their eyes.
"Boom baby!" Nori made a boisterous gesture as a small explosion left the back of the boss, Shirayuki sheathing her blade with a satisfied click.
As the remains crumbled to the floor, like the many corpses outside, it didn't simply shatter into polygons, instead, it fell apart, laying in the ground like a machine picked apart by vultures. The rewards appeared, and in Nagi's screen he had obtained the Aureus Core. Hitting 'materialize' all of them turned to see a large device that resembled a protective case, likely the A.I core of the machine, only now, it had been mutated with large crystals jutting out of its shell, still beating in his hands, and it was hot to the touch.
"That'd make a really cool night light," Artorias hummed, poking one of the crystals before recoiling with a yelp. "Yah, ya bloody... ow!"
"Such an unsettling device, a mixture of otherworldly material and ancient technology," Shirayuki pursed her lips, finding it to be most unnerving. Though that soon morphed into a small chuckle. "Hah, regardless of its appearance, we have obtained a vital piece to Miss Isshi's counter spell, well fought as always, my friends!" She patted Ran and Nori's backs, the girls smiling happily.
"Woah, take a look," Yuuki gestured ahead of them, seeing a familiar teleport obelisk appear at the back of the chamber, the black glass that made up the exterior walls had fallen and shattered in the battle, leaving a gap to reveal the obelisk that would likely be their fast-travel out of this dungeon. "Nice, we got through that easily!" The purplette grinned.
"Hopefully the others are faring just as well as us," Nagi had faith in them, but he couldn't help but show some concern. For now, they'd wait back at town. "Let's head back, I'm sure they'll meet us there in no time,"
"Sounds good, let's get outta this place, giving me the creeps thinking that voice is gonna pop up again," Nori couldn't agree more.
With a brisk walk, the group took to the obelisk to leave the Undercroft, but Nagi spared the fallen Aureus a final, uncertain stare. It still hadn't disappeared, what else could this questline want from it? Somehow, he had a gut feeling they'd see why in no time...
[To Be Continued...]
[Author's Notes]
Love this team comp, especially pairs like Artorias and Nagi, since they've been partners since near the start of the Death Game. Shirayuki has also become an important part of the team too after her sentience was obtained, still the same, peculiar shinobi they've always known. And the Aureus boss was fun to write with the return of both the Corruption debuff and the obelisks, this is the final stage of the campaign, so only natural all the abilities of the Abyss return.
I hope you enjoyed, I appreciate the support as always; see ya in the next chapter, Misfits!
082 - Astrum Deus
Mito leads her strike team to obtain the Vortex Fragment from a creature that has the power to devour the stars...