Floor 19 - Chapter 3 - Village of the Damned

''I get the feeling that whoever wrote that diary... may have been a tiny bit wrong about the monster...'' The Professor whispered to Kizmel, who nodded in agreement.

The growling became more ferocious, as Jet and Koharu poked their heads through the window at the other end of the room. Outside, the mist began to grow around the main street, obscuring their view considerably more than they'd liked. Even with the mist though, the piercing red eyes were a massive warning sign... along with the fact that there were six of them. The growling ceased almost as suddenly as it had begun, and for a tense moment, looks were exchanged between the group, all of them hoping the creature had gone away for some reason...

SCREEECCCHHHH...

Though, they had no such luck on that front, as the creature began to emerge from the mist. At least ten foot long, the beast almost tore through the mist, and it certainly looked as if it could. Scaly armour covered the beast almost entirely, with little by way of obvious weak spots, and sharp tusks sticking out from its face plate. Noticeably, one of the tusks was badly damaged... almost as if it had been sheared off somehow.

''Well, we know what killed the poor sod now...'' Jet whispered. The phrase ''definitely not human'' went unspoken in there.

''That thing is a walking tank... how the heck do we fight it?'' Rain looked over the beast that had emerged from the mist, and came to the obvious conclusion - the best plan was not to fight it at all, at least not whilst it was just the six of them. If they had some more of the Assault Team with them, perhaps containing it was an option, but on their own? No way.

''I think the best way is to not fight it at all...'' Jet continued to whisper. ''In other words, wait till it's distracted... and leg it!'' He turned back and harshly whispered to the group. No one disagreed with that assessment, and the group began to look for another way out. A window, a back door, anything that would lead outside and not put them in line of sight with that behemoth outside.

Quite possibly the most tense few seconds in any of their lives passed by, with those seconds feeling far more like hours, and by chance, Phillia had found a back door. Luckily, the thing led around the back of the mill, and hopefully away from the-

THUD. CREAKKK.

''I think it knows we're here...'' The Professor helpfully reminded them, whilst Jet reminded himself that not all NPCs were almost sentient, like Kizmel. The Professor, as interesting a character as he was... wasn't one of them.

''I think it's time to go!'' Koharu reminded them as they began to leave, grabbing the diary as she ran. The ground around them continued to shake aggressively, the confined space of the mill carrying the screeches of the monstrosity chasing them. Whatever it was doing, the phrase ''bull in a china shop'' certainly sounded apt for their current situation, as the creature tore through the house. At least one collision had torn the door frames off, leaving splinters across the room and breaking the walls apart. Jet looked back, as another part of the mill collapsed on top of it.

''Yup, bull in a china shop...'' he muttered to himself, before turning round. ''Go!'' He shouted, watching the ruins to check they were holding the beast...

Much to his horror, a clawed paw began to tear rubble out of its path, and throw it across the village with alarming dexterity and increasing accuracy, as a piece of damaged brick slammed down besides him. ''Oh, you have got to be-'' he muttered exasperatedly, before snapping back to yelling as he broke into a sprint. ''RUN!''

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With the creature buried, it had been the prime opportunity to make a break out of the village, and everyone in the group had decided to take that opportunity. That collapsed house wouldn't hold it for long, that much Koharu was sure of. She'd seen the creature's eyes, and that was an image that she wouldn't be able to clear anytime soon. Looking into those eyes felt like looking into an abyss. It was deep, dark and worryingly, she could feel it staring back, and burrowing deep into her soul. It was horrific, and she wouldn't be able to shake the feeling of looking into hell for as long as she was awake.

None of that stopped her from running right about now though, as she swore she heard the angered roar of the beast following them. Thankfully for them, the village was a relatively small place, and they'd soon escaped the confines of the village that had been lost for so long. At least she could answer why the village was lost now - a mystery plague, and a monster that made everything else they'd fought look like a pussycat in comparison.

Thinking about it and now they could slow down a little bit, she was quite glad she'd grabbed the diary. The last thing any of them wanted to do, or at least she reckoned anyway, was digging through the rubble of the house to find the book, whilst potentially having to fight the beast too.

''Do you think it's stopped?''

''I think it's confined to the village, for whatever reason.'' The Professor theorised. ''Though, I can't say I particularly want to test that theory...''

She found herself agreeing with the Professor there. That thing certainly wouldn't be easy to take down, and she had a nasty feeling that it was the field boss they'd have to face. It certainly looked the part, if nothing else...

Before too long though, they'd escaped from the village without a gigantic monster tailing them, and could rest a little bit more easily. Whilst everyone was recovering from the sprinting, she noticed the Professor looking quite upset, before he turned around and started to make increasingly theatrical gestures. ''In the heat of the moment, we evacuated, and forgot the diary...''

''Nope!'' Koharu answered, a smile on her face as she handed over the book. ''Grabbed it before we ran. I assumed we'd need it later anyway...''

''Atta girl!'' Jet looked over to her, a sense of genuine pride on his face.

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Back at the camp, the group had split into two. Koharu, Rain and Phillia had decided to make use of the now functional bathing tent, the fault in which had been traced to, in the words of the poor sod who'd fixed it, ''the intake of grass into the water pump.'' and had been flushed out.

Jet and Kizmel however, chose to read through the diary, to see if they could find anything that could help deal with the beast in Nesse. Having read the entire thing cover to cover, Jet could safely say that there was very little by way of mention of the beast, other than the villager elder dismissing it as just another wild animal, the sight of which had devolved into hysterics in the dying village.

Well, he'd been wrong, that much Jet was certain of. It was everything else he was unsure of, though.

Whatever had happened to the village, it hadn't been quick. It had happened over the space of months, and that dream plague had almost certainly been the key event in it. Still though, that was yet another mystery to this village, he thought to himself, resting against the wall of the tent as he read through the diary once more.

He'd become so engrossed in it that he completely failed to notice Kizmel in front of him, giving him a look of both amusement and mild concern. ''An interesting read, I take it?'' She asked, as Jet finally returned to the land of the living.

''Huh? Oh, Kizmel, sorry. How long have you been there?''

''A few moments. I can't say I've ever seen you with spectacles, either. Suits you.''

''Thanks...'' Jet rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly at the compliment. 'Anything that the Professor knew that we didn't?''

''Not that would be relevant. Either way, they've decided to halt the expedition until the Beast is dealt with. I can't say I disagree with them there...''

''Probably best. Still, can't help but think this mirrors something back home...'' Jet admitted, as he pulled up his message window, and typed some notes up. The most obvious was a single word - Eyam.

''Something from your world, perhaps? Or just a story?''

''Kinda both. About 400 years before any of us swordsmen and women were born, there was a small village. The village, through infected cloth, had been exposed to a plague that would be the bane of humanity for the best part of six centuries - the Black Death, as it was known. This small village, Eyam, was on the road to a number of large towns, and so, to prevent the spread of the plague, the people there decided that they would quarantine the entire village. No one would be let in, or out, till they could be sure that the plague was eradicated there.''

''Did it work?'' Kizmel asked.

''It did, but not without a truly insane toll. The village had around 500 people in it in 1665, the year it was isolated. By the end of 1666, less than half of the village was left, and even then, some sources say it was even less. Maybe as low as 350 people lived in the village, and around 270 died in that time, all of the plague.'' Jet answered morosely. ''I remember reading the journals of people in the village in our history lessons. It wasn't pleasant, let's just say that.''

''That was what happened to Nesse...'' Kizmel answered, a look of realisation on her face as she understood what he was getting at. ''And we have just been into the village, and possibly spread the plague...''

''I'm not sure we did. I think the water was contaminated somehow, if I'm honest.''

''Let us hope you're right...'' Kizmel looked less than convinced, but with the arrival of the girls back from their bath, decided not to press the question further.

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The next morning, and after a relatively uneventful night - at least, compared to the one that had preceded it anyway - the group had finished their breakfasts, and headed back to the Teleport Gate with Kizmel, awaiting the arrival of the reinforcements that he'd told Argo were probably necessary for taking down the field boss...

...and were slightly disappointed to find that said reinforcements were in fact just Kirito, Asuna, Mito and Strea. Granted, they were four of the strongest players in the game, but not exactly a small army...

Strea seemed to take the lead of the group, and looked over Jet quizzically, as if she'd never seen him before. Eventually, she finished scanning him, and started speaking... ''You? Asking for help? Who are you, and where can we find my brother's body?'' She joked, and Jet rolled his eyes at the gallows humour.

''Strea!'' Koharu exclaimed, taken aback at the morbid joke, and even Asuna and Mito, neither particularly used to the siblings... unusual way of talking to each other, were seemingly caught off guard by it.

''Huh, guess lack of tact is a family trait then.'' Mito muttered to herself, and handed Asuna a small coin, the chestnut haired girl offering a smug grin in response.

For once, Kirito seemed to be the one whose attention was actually towards the matter at hand, and he broke the tension in the air, dragging them onto topic. ''You said you'd found the field boss, right?''

''We think we've found it, anyway.'' Jet answered, and retold the tale of the last few days - including the near fatal nightmare. He had an unpleasant feeling that he would be getting yet another talking to about such topics as ''self preservation'' and ''not being a reckless idiot''. At this point, he'd heard them so many times, he could probably recite them off by heart.

''Interesting... a floor that can manipulate your unconscious mind.'' Kirito thought aloud.

''That's kind of... horrifying, actually.'' Even Strea, usually one of, if not the most laid back member of the Assault Team, seemed taken aback by that concept. ''A monster that can, what? Hijack your dreams, and... uhh, do what exactly?'' She asked the most obvious question.

''That's where I don't know.'' Jet admitted, shrugging his shoulders. He'd kind of ensured it hadn't gone that far. There was a limit to scientific curiousity in his eyes - and dying, to prove or disprove a theory was way over the line he drew.

''Jet, you actually went through it, right? What did you see in there?''

''It was weird - it was a train station of sorts, but then it showed me Koharu, gave me some kind of speech that I guess was meant to demoralise me, then morphed into the form of an old friend, tried the same trick again, and then it was like Koharu - uhh, the actual Koharu, even - broke through and replaced it? Then I woke up, and I still have no idea what happened really.'' He explained, ignoring the raised eyebrows from the group.

''Ahh, the power of love...'' Strea teased. ''So, Koharu, what colour flowers do you want in the bouquet?'' She leaned over to Koharu with a mischievous grin, and the unfortunate girl went bright red at the implication...

''Strea... knock it off.'' Jet defended his girlfriend as best as he could, drawing her teasing towards him instead.

''I almost forgot about your honeymoon... what size co-'' Realising what the next line of teasing was, he lunged forward, as swift as his namesake, and shut her up, his hand clamped over his sister's face, and her big mouth in particular.

Not that she was particularly happy about that gesture, having started to give off her impression of a piranha by biting into Jet's hand as payback.

''So, before the sibling wrestling started over there-'' Mito glared at the pair, almost as if to tell them to grow up, before she carried on. ''You all saw the field boss, right?''

''Indeed. A large quadruped, covered in armour.'' Kizmel answered, a pause as she did, whilst she thought of the words to describe it. ''I can honestly say that I have never heard any legend of such a creature in our culture. I even asked the Professor whilst you all went off to bathe last night...'' If glares could kill, then Jet would've been dead several times over. The looks on both Asuna and Mito's faces radiated a sense of malice; almost anticipating a scandal from the knight...

He hastily added his defence into the swirling nightmare that he found himself in, ''I was with Kizmel! The girls went to bathe, I was not there.'' The looks of quiet mistrust, and polite rage from Asuna and Mito faded somewhat. The laughter from Strea, on the other hand... did not.

''Who'd have thought it - little Mike, the quietest kid at Winterbourne, barely able to talk to a girl... a lady killer with his own-''

''Yeah, we get the gist thanks.'' Jet interrupted her. Honestly, he wondered what the hell had gotten into her... she wasn't usually this annoying...

''So do they.'' She smiled innocently, most of the group unaware of the dirty joke, bar Jet, who was now beginning to weigh up the pros and cons of sororocide. Fortunately for Strea, the cons were greater than the pros... even if they were very compelling, he felt.

''Anyway...'' Asuna dragged the conversation back on topic, even as it was kicking and screaming. ''This field boss, it was large, covered in armour... anything else?''

''Its eyes...'' Koharu answered, shuddering as she did. ''It was like, I can't explain it. It felt like looking into hell.'' Asuna had no real response for that, and based on the silence from everyone else, nor did they. In amongst the silence, he reached out and held her hand.

''I mean, other than the tusks, and the fact it dug itself out of a collapsed mill in about thirty seconds, there's nothing else to say really. We didn't stick around to find out much about it, and according to Argo, we're the first people to find this thing, so...''

''It's a complete unknown.'' Kirito answered, finishing Jet's train of thought.

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For Kirito, the Lost Village of Nesse bought back unpleasant memories of the dungeons on the Third and Fifth Floors. It was almost as if Kayaba had picked the worst elements of both - the mists of the Third Floor, and the dark and damp areas of the Fifth Floor, and combined them into one very decaying village. That mist was curious though, he thought. It seemed to be relatively localised, only really occurring in Nesse, rather than anywhere else on the map, and whether it was just him, or it was affecting everyone, his vision seemed to be slightly obscured in a way a person would expect more from a blizzard than mist.

That didn't mean they couldn't see though, it was just more difficult.

About five minutes into their expedition of the village, the group stopped dead in their tracks at a mill. A mill that Jet had explicitly stated had collapsed, and yet was somehow still standing, almost completely undamaged...

''Didn't you say the mill collapsed?'' Asked Mito, as she looked over the water wheel, before Koharu pulled her back from the water's edge. ''It's just water, right?''

''We think it's contaminated.'' Jet answered from up front, as he looked over the seemingly impossible mill. ''Only explanation why I was the only one affected, anyway. But yeah, that mill collapsed. It had a field boss charge through it like a bull in a china shop'' He answered, extending his hand to check it was there, before a cry stopped him in his tracks.

SCREECCHHH

''Well, we've found the field boss.'' Strea stated, reaching for her sword, whilst everyone else stood still, waiting for it to make the first move.

Kirito looked over the field boss, and he could easily understand why the small party had chosen to retreat, rather than fight this creature. It towered above them, easily reaching three metres in height, were it to rear up onto its hind legs. Its entire back was covered in a scaly armour, with each plate overlapping the previous one, making sure it left no gaps in which it could be struck with a well placed strike.

The only part of it left unarmoured - or at least, relatively speaking anyway - was its face. The fact it was unarmoured didn't mean it was an obvious weak spot however. Far from a weak spot, razor sharp teeth lined its jaws, whilst small but undoubtedly sharp tusks flanked its face. The ''six of eyes of hell'' as Koharu had described them, had become only two, and those were mostly hidden behind a small scaly plate above, and a mass of flesh from every other direction.

Its legs were the strangest physical feature, he thought. Kirito would admit that he was far from an expert on animals, or biology in general, but the front legs looked less like legs, and more like some kind of malformed arms, being considerably more muscular than they reasonably should be on any creature that was a quadruped. In fact, if he didn't know any better, he'd say the whole thing simply looked wrong because of them.

His next observation was less of a physical one, but more focused on its behaviour. Rather than choosing to make itself look intimidating - and it didn't need any more help in that area, he thought idly - it chose to hiss and snarl, but back off from a fight, almost like a stray animal hiding from an unrecognised stranger. Yes, they outnumbered it nine to one, but if the diary that the group had recovered was correct, then this creature had bloodied an entire village. Eight humans and a Dark Elf should've been no problem at all for it...

''Weird, it doesn't have a cursor either...'' Mito thought aloud, evidently analysing the creature just as thoroughly as he was doing. Though, the lack of a cursor was interesting - with no cursor, it meant there was no health bar or name, or...

''Oh.'' He realised the nature of the creature and quickly got into the stance for a sword skill - a simple Horizontal would suffice for this. If he was right, this would be a very easy, and quick, fight. If he was wrong though, then this could go very badly, very quickly...

He launched his attack, and his sword passed effortlessly through what should've been rock solid armour and durable flesh, almost as if he had attempted to cut through the mist around them. As he turned around from his attack, the creature turned to face him, a look of anger in its eyes... before it collapsed to the ground. The collapsing creature made a far quieter noise than a beast of its size and weight should, and its body began to fade into the mist, leaving just...

A dog.

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Aincrad had been a world of many bizarre creatures, but this one had to take the biscuit. No, not even the biscuit, but the whole packet, in Jet's opinion!

The ''Beast of Nesse'' had been defeated with only a single and particularly unimpressive hit from Kirito, and it began to fade away. As it did so, he found himself dreading exactly what the non-standard animation meant for them. Was it transforming into something far more dangerous? Was it recovering its health in some way? Either way, he felt a pit open in his stomach at either prospect...

Imagine his surprise then, when the ''Beast'' faded away to reveal an aged and dishevelled dog.

''What the actual fu-''

''Language!'' Strea instinctively interrupted. ''But yeah, I'm agreeing with him there!''

''The mist, it's a hallucinogen.'' Kirito answered, as if it were the most obvious thing. ''Think about it, you came here and it was misty, yet nowhere else on the floor was, not even the lake. Then you had the beast itself, and none of us saw the same thing. Remember how Koharu told us it had six eyes?''

''Yeah?''

''I only saw two, and considering how sure both you and Koharu were...'' He explained.

''The-the tusk in the guy's corpse though...'' Koharu stuttered, as she rubbed her eyes and struggled to understand what the heck was going on.

''Maybe it was a knife, and you saw a tusk because you were looking for a monster? Maybe it was never there at all...'' Kirito answered, as he and Asuna walked over to the dog. The rest of them followed close behind, and Jet took point in approaching the dog. He couldn't say how long exactly, but the poor creature had evidently been there a very long time. The badly matted fur, numerous open wounds and the whimpers of agony in let out as it tried to move all showed to them that this was not a creature in a good shape. Looking at it, Jet wouldn't have been surprised if it had lashed out at them as it had never seen people before, and if what the diary had said was correct... then surely the dog couldn't have been the Beast in it - it would have made the dog nearly 250 years old in human years!

Still though, sat besides the dog, it was enough to break his heart. He'd gotten stick off of almost everyone for how he behaved around Fluffy, and how he'd spent more time with the wolf than he had anyone else, except Koharu, but he couldn't help having a soft spot for animals. He was like Koharu in that respect, only rather than a compulsive urge to make sure children were safe, it was with animals instead.

Granted, that may have been a rather... strange way of viewing the ten foot long wolf, but the point stood.

''It's okay, we're friends.'' He changed the way he spoke, his voice becoming significantly quieter as he kneeled down next to the badly wounded and terrified dog. ''Well, I mean, he might not be-'' He glanced towards the swordsman in black, and ignored the almost scandalised glare sent back in his direction. ''You've been here ages, haven't you? Too long, really...''

It was was only now that a cursor appeared other the dog - that of an NPC, and the words written on it told a chilling story...

Test Subject 001

Looking at it, an angry expression began to form on his face, as he reminded himself of the words in the diary, and how the Professor had ''evacuated'' the children. That absolute bastard! The children weren't evacuated at all, they'd been abducted and more likely than not, used as test subjects!

Whatever the Professor had been attempting here, they'd find out, and if it came to it, they'd stop it - he'd make damn sure of that!

Still, something made more sense now in how the dog had behaved. It was trying to scare them away, it knew what was going on and it wasn't guarding the place, as much as it was keeping it from hurting anyone else. Jet took a seat besides the dog, and began to pet it. Despite how snappy it had been earlier, it no longer objected to what he was doing, and almost seemed... content, maybe. ''First people you saw in god knows how long, and you tried to frighten us off. Keep us safe, even if you knew we'd come back...'' He looked up at the poor dog's health bar, and it certainly wasn't good news. Only a slither of HP remained, and it was such a small percentage that you'd be forgiven for not noticing it at first glance. A part of him, the part he knew to be the realist side of his personality, told him that no matter what they did, this dog was at least a quarter of a millennia old, so it wasn't as if it were a puppy anymore. No matter how hard you tried, time was one of the few things you simply couldn't fight.

It caught up with you eventually, even - or especially - if you tried to cheat it.

That bit of philosophy aside, he watched as the dog made its way onto its legs, and headed over to the door to the mill.

''You think it's trying to tell us something?'' Rain asked, as the dog pawed at the door, almost as if it were begging to be let in.

''If its not, I'd be surprised.'' Jet answered as he pushed the door, and it fell open, the hinges almost coming away from the frames with even the most minute amount of force exerted on them.

Heading through the mill, Jet decided to test a theory, and opened the cupboard he'd previously opened. This time however, rather than a decomposing skeleton, all that fell out was dust, a sign of 250 years of being closed...

Slowly, but surely, they followed the dog into the kitchen area, and to a door in the pantry area. During their escape, they had actually come through this way, but for obvious reasons, they hadn't really paid all that much attention to the architecture of the room. Now though, without the imminent threat of being mauled by the colossal beast that was, in fact, the dog in front of them, they could examine it somewhat more thoroughly.

The door in question quite obviously stood out. Not stylistically, as at least it blended in with the design of the place. A rustic looking door, with very little in the way of embellishments, but the way it stood out was rather more literal. The frame itself protruded about a hand's width from the wall, almost as if it had been installed on top of something else...

Opening the door, which unsurprisingly opened towards them, none of them were entirely sure what to expect. None of them were expecting what they actually found however... a sliding metal door, with a set of controls either side.

''Bit 007 isn't it? A lift, hidden in a pantry, behind an innocuous door...'' Strea questioned.

''Bit more M.I. High than M.I.6, sis.'' Jet responded, as he looked back to the dog, who'd collapsed again outside the pantry. This time though, the coughing and wheezing sounded far worse, and looking at its health bar again, it was down to only single digits for its HP, and probably only seconds from death...

Jet knelt down besides it, and began petting it one last time as he talked to it. ''Rest well, you've been a good, uhh... boy.'' In its final moments, he could just about see it wagging its tail, as it disappeared into pixels. The air around the group felt a little heavier, and silence reigned over everyone for a few moments, whilst they all processed the death they'd witnessed.

A silence only broken by Jet's frustrated exhalation, before it returned to absolute quiet for a tense few seconds. Asuna would be next to break the silence... ''So, what do we do next?''

Her question was conveniently interrupted by a lift chime, and in absence of Jet speaking, Koharu answered her question. ''We find where this lift goes, I think...''