|Sword Art Online, Floor 60, Shattered Plateaus|
|Feb. 18th 14:27|
To the northeast of the floor, bordering the desert and wrapping up closer to the labyrinth spire, a vast area of land rose to the skies, broken up masses of dead rock with strange, coral-like structures of all shapes and sizes. The age-old coral had lost its lustre long before the corruption began to spread its sickening spores and fungi. Once bright blues, pinks and purples were diluted and greyed, now, the otherworldly appearance was nothing more than an eerie husk.
Luminescent plants and fungi add to the highlands' ethereal glow now, the air filled with floating spores and particles that drift lazily around the party of six.
"Hyah!" A heavy cleave from side to side sent another pair of Mantis' hurdling off the edge of a bridge formed from dead coral, their bodies vanishing to the dark land below. Daora chuckled, looking around to find no sign of any other foes in their way.
"Man, this guy's still going?" Jun, who used his greatsword as a crutch, heaved a tired sigh. "It's been hours scaling up these rocks,"
"I-it's almost scary to believe how strong he is, e-even for a player," Talken noted, drinking a health pot to restore himself. "But it does help clear our path easier,"
"Just make sure he doesn't get side-tracked, this place hasn't been fully explored by info brokers yet," Mito warned the boys, hanging further back with Siune as the group led the charge. The purplette ran her fingers through her long bang, trying to sort through her own thoughts.
Mito had been grappling at these thoughts since they parted from Solaris. Siune was no stranger to the looks of conflict and uncertainty, it paid to be observant from an outside angle in a group, especially with two distinct leaders like Yuuki and Ran. So, with the boys happily distracted in navigating the coral paths ahead, now seemed like a good time to speak.
"You okay?" Siune began, drawing Mito from her daze.
"Uh, yeah, fine," The girl's scarlet eyes flickered from the ravenette to the road ahead.
"You feel lost as to why you were chosen to be this party's leader and not myself?" Siune questioned softly.
Easily, Mito's walls fell down, her firm expression intertwined with a glum gaze. "It's not that I doubt Nagi, he's... he's a good guy, he even helped to pick me up when I had only ever blamed myself,"
"So you worry you can't live up to his idea of you?" Siune kept hitting the nails directly, and it almost frightened Mito how accurate she was.
"I... I don't know. I'm not the leader type, that's not me, not anymore, I... I can reach out to Daora but I can't dictate his choices, nor am I good leading people who loyally follow someone else, I can't reach people like Nagi, Ran and Yuuki," Mito wasn't like them, she was good for supporting others, if they had need of an extra person, she'd do whatever she could to help. The accessories she makes are her way of contributing.
Siune pursed her lips into a small smile. "You know, Yuuki and Ran often have such varying degrees to how we perform. They tend to butt heads almost as frequently, despite popular belief that twins share a strange foresight into the others thinking," The girl giggled a bit, humming for a moment. "Yet they brought us together because they were honest and kind. No one here expects them to carry the world on their shoulders or to be absolutely perfect, and I highly doubt Nagi finds himself in the position of a great leader, being critical and being self-destructive are on a fine line,"
"But, I'm not kind in the same way they are," Mito wasn't outspoken, and her harsh personality made it hard for people to distinguish her honesty from malice.
"Being kind doesn't mean wearing your heart on your sleeve, find your own way of reaching others. Just as you've reached Daora's heart, it's why he follows you, isn't it?" Siune smiled warmly, watching Mito's eyes fall to the man's back, the dragon lord cackling as another horde of slimes shattered at his feet, the boys chuckling nervously from a safe distance.
Slowly, a gentle smile formed on Mito's face, an exasperated breath leaving her lips. "What an idiot..." But again her smile lingered with a faint warmth in her cheeks. "Uh... th-thanks for that, Siune,"
All the elder girl did was smile and rub Mito's shoulder, the two catching up with the boys standing at the end of a narrow path, the ground rising up towards an open space where the rock and coral spread wide like a maw. They had to be close to the summit of these floating islands. Steeling herself, Mito marched up the incline, Daora moving in next to her with Siune at her left.
"Bad vibes," Mito murmured.
"Agreed... how exciting," Siune's comment drew both their heads as the ravenette coughed into her hand.
Approaching the lip, the group stood before a massive plateau that overlooked the entirety of the Shattered Plateaus, the bleakness of the floor from above had an eerie, mystical atmosphere, the winds howling from up on high. What stood out was how the ground changed, no longer natural rock but a base made from stone brick arranged in rings towards the center. And four, large statues placed randomly throughout.
The statues stood six feet tall, each of a man dressed in ceremonial robes from the Feudal era of Japan, however, each held out a katana with one hand, pointed in different directions, no one statue facing the same way.
"What's with the tacky statues?" Jun asked, tapping a knuckle off one of them.
"Do we destroy them?" Talken suggested as he studied one closely.
Mito's eyes scanned one from top-to-bottom, then, her eyes flashed in recognition, kneeling down to run her hand across the ground. Siune and Daora bent over slightly to see what she was doing.
"Did you find something?" Siune inquired, the purplette standing up to scan their surroundings, her lips moving silently.
"...the ground... Look at the ground around the statues, there's signs of abrasion," Mito raised her voice, gesturing to the faint lines dug against the brickwork. "These statues move, following the markings... each needs to sit at a cardinal direction; Tecchi, you and Daora take this statue and move it to the west,"
Daora and the gentle giant each grabbed the edges of the statue's pedestal and began to push with a grunt, stone grinding slowly as they began to shove it across the platform. Reaching the west-most point of the area, a loud 'click' could be heard, the swordsman's blade jutting towards the open air.
Smirking a bit, Mito gestured to the others. "Move the statues so the sword is facing outward. Siune with me for the south, Talken and Jun take the north, Daora and Tecchi you guys handle the east,"
"RIGHT!" The party chimed without much issue, each moving around to put their literal backs into moving the statues, all of them weighing far more than they realized.
Sliding the statues across the platform, each gave off a distinct locking mechanism, the blades poised toward the rest of the world. Everyone gathered by the slope they came from, watching silently for something to happen. Seconds turned to a minute, still no sign of an event occurred.
"Did we do something wrong, you think?" Jun looked around, scratching his head.
"Maybe they had to be pointed inwards," Siune hazard a guess.
As for the reaper herself, she bit her lip, feeling a little embarrassed she messed it up and opened her mouth to apologize. Her voice caught in her throat, feeling Daora's strong hand on her shoulder, his other pressed to the ground. She didn't reply, she had seen him act this way plenty of times to know he was concentrating on something else, a presence that no Detection skills could replicate, an human instinct.
A dull rumbling could be felt under their feet, the statues trembled slightly, and before any could ask, the tips of the swords glowed a stark white. A beam of light shot from each blade, converging in the center above them all, pulsing like a star. The air grew cold and silent, only Mito's heartbeat pounded in her ears, her hair standing on end as static ran down her body.
The dark skies of floor 60 became pitch black, illuminated only by the glow of false stars. Suddenly, the tranquillity shattered as the beams of light dispersed, leaving behind a webbing of molten white cracks in the sky that began to stretch and bleed, waves of otherworldly energy peeling back the void.
Piercing the void with a downpour of starlight was a colossal, serpentine creature composed of many celestial bodies that resembled stars. Its main body segments are large, glowing blue orbs with smaller, darker segments in between. Each segment of its body is bordered by a lighter blue aura, enhancing its radiant, star-like appearance. The head of the creature featured glowing eyes and a bug-like head.
It coiled and twisted through the air, its presence awe-inspiring, its body leaving behind a trail of stardust that sparkles in the night. Now, its eyes burrowed into their souls, unleashing a metallic shriek that pierced their ears, forcing them to cover them, but not Daora. He stood tall, extending Destroyer to catch the astral light, raising his ax forward to challenge the monster.
"About time you woke up! I'm gonna tear that fragment out of you, come on!" Daring the boss, its cursor flashed red, and two health bars appeared as it coiled to shadow the dragon slayer.
/NM Astrum Deus - Lv. 92\
Sweeping in a wide arc, Deus's segments began to glow, firing down a volley of lasers that Daora barely had a second to react to, sweeping his ax backward to split one laser as the rest tore up the surrounding area, leaving behind dark blue rime, even Destroyer had a thin layer of rime clung to its blade. Holding his ground, Daora swung wide, Whirlwind's AOE striking the boss' side as it bent but did very little more than piss it off as the head doubled back around through the air and tore through the middle of the arena, tossing Daora onto his back with its impressive size.
"Everyone spread out, avoid being hit by the lasers!" Mito quickly found her voice again, charging head first to help Daora who wiggled out from under the serpent's body as it fired another volley in a wide halo, blasting the plateau and the Sleeping Knights. It spun in the air, firing a crescent of stars that instantly erupted in a line of balefire that scorched the air and slammed into Tecchi's shield, the man's back slammed against the nearest wall trying to keep himself upright.
Releasing another metallic howl, Deus coiled and slithered between the group, firing off horizontal and vertical lines of frigid lasers to batter any foolish to stand in their path, some creating large chunks of rime. Jun dove over one, lunging with his greatsword crashing down in a vertical slant across Deus's body, Avalanche bending part of its luminescent body that Nori drove her hammer against, having used Jun's shoulders as a springboard to drop the teal-tinged hammer down on the glowing limb.
"Watch it!" Daora slammed himself into their sides, throwing the three of them back in time to evade the sweeping tail that scarred the land with a rupture of light from the earth inches from their feet as Deus's head arched to slam the ground before Tecchi, its mandibles pinching the tower shield to wrestle with the big guy.
"Gah, it's trying to disarm me!" Tecchi grunted, his feet dragged through the stone as he was jostled left and right, more lasers expelling from the boss every five seconds.
A gleaming halo struck from below, flinching Deus as its eyes were momentarily blinded by the sweeping crescent of Mito's Soul Fang, causing it to fly upward as its tail slammed into Tecchi's shield, Mito and Siune hiding from the massive blast of wind pressure that followed.
Mito eyed the boss, watching its glowing features pulls and crystalize the moisture in the air. "It's about to do something big...!" She warned with baited breath.
Above, Deus spun in a circle, the air warping as the light of a million stars filled the air within the space, the light splitting into a force of pearlescent blue and royal purple, from seemingly nothing, the serpent conjured two large universes that gravitated around one another, sweeping the sky and descending towards the plateau.
"Did it just make a universe!? How the hell is this a fantasy game!?" Jun gawked.
"Don't question it and get as far from the center as possible!" Mito barked back, sprinting with Tecchi and Siune to brace near one of the statues.
All of them dove for their lives as the two universes collided, erupting into a titanic pyre of astral light that burned nearly the entire arena as Deus came to slither towards the center, stardust descending around it with a bombardment of meteors that, upon impact, formed into dark rime that quickly shattered, the mechanical creature roaring threateningly.
Mito stared up at the monster, realizing her hands were starting to tremble. She had been in bad situations before, but just the host of abilities, combined with all their HP having fallen to roughly half just escaping the blast, she didn't know how to beat it. They could damage the boss, but it simply produced far more damage in a single rotation than theirs combined, it had no weaknesses she could find.
"Graaaah!" Through the shattered crystals, Daora and Jun slammed their weapons across Deus's jaw, knocking it sideways with visible scarring as it doubled back to fire a barrage of lasers, all of which Daora tanked as is HP fell further, only for Destroyer to blaze a fiery red, drawing upward into a thrust as Daora rolled under its jaw for Jun to guard against, the ginger tossed aside for Deus to focus Daora and his ultimate skill as it carved a cross-shaped gash through its jaws, ending with a diagonal slam that dug through its maw, taking a noticeable chunk of health from the serpent that flew back as its tail scorched the arena in a backswing.
"Wait... how did...?" Mito's eyes widened, the scene slowed and on repeat in her head. "We attacked it and slowly whittled down its HP, but he did that with a single skill?"
"Daora, here!" Siune tossed him a health vial to douse over his dragon head, his crimson wounds slowly disappearing whilst he cracked his neck.
"Daora, how did you do that...?" Mito trailed, drawing his attention as Talken and Nori leapt sideways, evading another volley of lasers, Tecchi shielding the dragon teen and the others with Ward, his skill instantly beginning to show signs of weakness.
"What? It's obvious, if I can't break it from the outside, then its gotta be weaker on the inside!" Daora exclaimed proudly, jabbing a finger towards the circling beast. "But it keeps moving around and won't sit still long enough for me to hit it harder!"
"Then we'll need to pin it down," Siune realized, readying her rapier.
Studying Deus's movements, Mito and the others quickly scattered, herself rolling sharply onto her side when another constellation formed and showered half the arena in a chain reaction of exploding balefire. She wasn't as smart or quick-thinking as Nagi or Artorias, nor did she ever think in such a straight-forward manner as Daora. Even so, she was trusted to handle this important step in conquering this floor by those very people.
Even if she didn't believe in what they saw, she wasn't about to call it quits this far into the game. Rising to her feet, she drew Soul Fang at her side, brushing her long bang behind her ear. "Siune!" The ravenette glanced over. "You guide the others to keep this thing from moving! Daora!?" He glanced at the fearsome look on Mito's face. "Let's send this thing back to the scrap heap it crawled out of!"
Staring with unseen, wide eyes, a dark chuckle soon left him, pumping his free fist. "Ahahaha, let's do it!"
Deus spun around into a halo, several constellations wrapped around its radiant body, erupting in blinding, silver light that burned any caught too close. Siune swept through after the light faded, thrusting Crucifixion through its underbelly, drawing the boss's ire, mandibles biting down on the air at her back as she rolled into ahs sprint.
"Tecchi, get ready to block! Jun, Nori, pincer and Talken with me!" Siune relayed in an instant, none of them hesitating to reposition themselves as the ravenette leapt over the sweeping, molten tail that scorched her feet with a rupture from the earth. Siune dove behind Tecchi as he struck Deus head-on, a metallic ringing sending a tremor down his arm and through the colossal beast that pressed its full weight against his crumbling Ward, the amber barrier peeling back as a result.
Thrusting sharply to force Deus's head skyward, its neon blue optics locked to the descending hammer and greatsword, both burning a dark orange. Nori arched her lithe body, curling with her hammer's twin, horizontal strikes in tandem with Jun carving down the length of his massive head in a lightning bolt, his fourth carve met with the crushing chain of swings of a hammer, both knocking the serpent back far enough for Talken and Siune to wrap in from behind Tecchi who swung his mace from the ground up, the blasting force flinging its head back, stunning it before another barrage of lasers could be released.
A flurry of mint green strikes blurred Siune's form, her hair blown behind her with every thrust of Over Radiation, the stab wounds soon widened and conjoined by a series of whirling spins, Talken wrapping his spear around his waist, flicking the tip of the spear through the thinner armour plating, Dancing Spear diverting the boss towards Daora and Mito.
"Alright, get on my back!" Daora declared, sheathing Destroyer to crack his knuckles.
The request baffled the purplette, "W-what?"
"I said, get on my back, hurry up, it's coming for us!" He barked louder, but his odd demand made her briefly hesitant, eyeing the slithering boss that had yet to take to the skies again, all four eyes glowing with malice, its body beginning to pulse.
Reluctantly groaning, Mito's cheeks tinged a faint red as she leapt on and wrapped one arm around his neck, helplessly witnessing Daora plant his feet, both arms wide as if he was aiming to... grapple with the boss? Before the words could even leave her lips, Deus slammed straight into Daora's body, the force nearly giving Mito whiplash, her arm tightening around his collarbone as the pressure nearly crushed her against his back.
"Grrr...!" Daora's veins bulged, fingers dug in against the indents of Deus's armoured face as it hissed and raised its body, tail snapping back at the Sleeping Knights attempting to damage it as it flew upward, craning his head downward.
"Daora, it's about to-!" Mito yelled over the noise, but his fingers remained taut, even as glowing cuts appeared across his palms. "Daora!" She screamed louder, this time with greater worry for what was going through his head. She knew he was strong, but he couldn't wrestle something this large to the floor.
"Here it comes, hold on!" He commanded as Deus wrenched its head back in a powerful buck to throw them off, which is exactly what happened. Daora released his hold, using that upward thrust to send himself and Mito soaring high towards the dark sky, the wind whistling in their ears.
"Are you crazy!?" She smacked him sharply on the back of the head, 'Anti-Criminal Protection' appearing briefly inside a purple hexagon but that didn't deter her panic and anger. "We're past the point of surviving a fall like this! What were you thinking, idiot!"
Craning his head back, Daora gave a strange sound of confusion. "This is perfect, now we're on an even playing field and out of range of its aggro, see?" He pointed down to the flashing colours of the boss attacking the Sleeping Knights, completely disregarding the two players sailing high into the sky. "Now, it's our turn to drop down on it like a piano!"
That momentarily quelled her anger, raising a brow while furrowing the other. "What do you mean? How does this help us - ah?" Turning her head, Mito's eyes widened when she noticed the sky was getting closer, rather, the ceiling of this floor. There was no invisible barrier inside the floor, because there's no reason for there to be one, no player could climb through solid rock. Slowly, Daora shifted his and her weight so they were facing downward. "You're insane..." Yet, a nervous smile crawled up her cheeks.
"Hahahaha, now you get it!"
Both braced as their boots slammed into the ceiling of the floor, and for a moment, gravity hadn't taken over, providing them with a view no player had ever seen before. The clouds no longer rendered, blessing them with a magnified view of the entire, corrupted floor. From the labyrinth to the black desert to the shattered, floating lands; they could see the lone settlement of Solaris, specks of light glimmering from its streets, to the twisting rock formations that surrounded the ominous crater, a putrid, sickly green haze emanating from within.
"We can win this! The two of us!" Daora's feet sent cracks through the ceiling, exploding downward like a silver bullet, and the reaper at his back.
"Alright!" Mito drew her scythe wide, moving to wrap her legs around his waist to draw her weapon in both hands behind her, angling herself to minimize the most amount of drag, even Daora tucked his body in, axe flush against their sides, increasing their downward momentum.
From below, dozens of blazing meteors filled the sky, descending around the pair whilst lasers struck the edges of their legs and arms, but gravity continued to pull them forward, reaching terminal velocity as air began to form a cone around Daora's narrow mask, whipping his visible hair and Mito's backward.
"Now!" Daora broke away from her, the two falling side-by-side, weapons drawn to intersect between them. Mito's bloomed with shades of violet, meshing with Daora's silvery-red, creating a tidal wave of light to erupt in the night.
"Ultimate Skill-!"
Deus suddenly spun around, locking to their forms as it began to spin, unleashing a pair of spiralling galaxies, tossing them like disks to encroach on them. Both collided in the middle, masking the Shattered Plateaus in a blinding, white haze, stardust descending across the jagged lands. Deus swiveled around, snarling as it scanned the area only for all four eyes to widen, jaws wide as two, blazing blades dug into its metallic flesh, tearing corrupted flesh and circuitry with a flash of sparks.
Daora and Mito felt all their downward force shift abruptly; Mito dug her boots into Deus's body, sweeping down and through its armour plating, her hooked blade stripping through from the inside-out, goring the serpent as a cyclone of purple glass. On the left side, Daora slashed down, twisting to double back and saw through the monster, dragging Destroyer behind him to peel and tear scrap and crystals free with his descent.
Both struck the arena, splitting the brickwork while tanking a considerable amount of fall damage that remained, each exhaling deeply from the rush and relief. "-Dynamic Violence!/Morana!"
Shredded and gored by numerous, bleeding scars and tears, Deus let out another shriek as it drifted forward, colliding with two of the statues, dislodging them both as they hooked to the boss's angular body like anchor points, dragging its flickering frame over the lip of the arena, down towards the floor's surface dozens of meters below.
No more than a few seconds passed, and an audible 'crash' reverberated throughout the islands.
"That was unbelievable, y-you both survived that fall," Talken spoke first, rushing over to offer two healing pots. "A-are you okay?"
"I think I understand Artorias's fear now, and thanks," Mito sighed, falling to her backside to sip on the potion, looking around for any resurgence of the boss. "Did the fall kill it?"
"No... it's still down there, weird, but it's not glowing anymore," Jun peered over the ledge and back with a mix of surprise and uneasiness. "Kinda like that golem from the 50th floor, it just... shut down,"
"That's not comforting in the slightest..." Sighing, Mito looked to Daora, and immediately felt flustered for what she said to him. "Um, s-sorry for... all that," She vaguely gestured to the sky.
"Huh? We won anyway, so who cares?" Daora shrugged, barely giving what she said a second thought. Instantly, he dismissed everything and it felt jarring for Mito, but also pretty in tune for the idiot. "Besides, I got it!"
"Do we have the item?" Siune inquired, closing her reward menu.
Daora's hands soon glowed as he held up the strange quest item. It was a glowing, swirling vortex made from bright green crystals, he moved his hands out and under it, and it simply floated in place before coming to rest in his hands. It felt like the crystal was vibrating or humming, making his fingers go all fuzzy.
"Mission accomplished," Mito smirked slightly, lightly knuckling Daora's arm this time. "Good work, and... thanks, everyone, sorry I wasn't much of a leader," It didn't sting as much to say, but she still playing with her bang to distract herself.
"Eh, not like Yuuki and Ran are perfect at it either," Jun offered, leaning on his greatsword. "I mean, how often do they argue over what path to take in a dungeon?"
"Or what quests to do," Siune sighed, rolling her eyes tiredly.
"Our expenses towards items and other materials," Nori snorted, throwing her arms up in defeated exasperation. "I go out for one small afternoon of Blackjack, and somehow, I'm the bad guy,"
"Y-you did good, you trusted us to handle the boss to deal a critical blow we couldn't r-reach normally," Talken pointed out, smiling sheepishly. "I think y-you should give yourself more credit,"
Mito's eyes fell to the Vortex Fragment in Daora's hands, himself mindlessly swaying it between each palm, mesmerized. Then to the others who were still glowing with many wounds from lasers, burns and frostbite. Mito, despite drinking a health potion, still had lingering gashes over her body, she had fallen into the red alongside Daora pulling off that incredibly reckless plan. But they were alive, and that's all it took for her to be satisfied with her role.
"Then... let's head on back to town and rest, sound good?" Mito rose to her feet, looking around.
"Sure thing, boss!" Jun chuckled with a toothy grin.
"Lead the way," Siune smiled softly.
Daora stood up, Vortex Fragment in-hand, then placed it safely into his inventory. "Forward, my minions, good job today... night? Aah, whatever time it is, the sky's always dark here, it's weird!"
Giggling, Mito used Soul Fang to lean on, "Yeah, it is, isn't it?"
Beaten and bruised, Mito and Daora took to the vanguard to lead their party back home, even as starlight continued to descend over the plateaus...
[To Be Continued...]
[Author's Notes]
And that's another boss 'defeated', with quite the ballsy plan from Daora, and a bit of a confidence boost for Mito. With both key objects in hand, how will Misfits fare in a ritual that could upset the balance for the entirety of Aincrad? I hope you enjoyed, I appreciate the support as always; see ya in the next chapter, Misfits!
083 - Will and Control
The Final Ritual is upon the Frontrunners, plans are set in motion, and on the eve of battle, one must embrace the darkness, or drown...