Floor 36 – Chapter 2: …Into the Fire

Koharu was having a really weird day, she thought to herself. First, they had found themselves inside a living foundry that she thought was some kind of bizarre allegory for childbirth, and now, she had a daughter!

Maybe.

Sort of.

It was one of those days, she reckoned.

The girl stood in front of her was adorable though, she did think that much though – even if it sounded a little vain, given she was almost like looking into a mirror of herself when she was ten years old… though she did have her dad's eyes, given it almost felt like looking into Jet's eyes when she looked at her...

Wait, did she just say, "her dad's eyes"?

"It all makes total sense now…" Philia nodded. "Except the part where… actually, I retract that statement entirely. What the hell just happened?"

"There were legends that the dwarves who originally inhabited these forges had been such skilled crafters that they had even managed to create life itself from the clay." Kizmel explained.

"I thought dwarves were known for metalworking, not pottery?"

"I believe the closest term in any human language is that they were artisans." The Dark Elf gave a half-hearted shrug. "But still, to know they may have been truth, rather than tall tales?"

"I get the impression Jet is wishing they were tall tales… he hasn't spoken in two minutes, and he keeps looking at her suspiciously…" Rain told them. "Jet, are you…"

"She can't be… can she?" He spoke quietly.

Regardless, Kizmel pointed something important out, and it seemed to be enough to snap them both out of it for a little bit. "Even if she isn't, we should still make haste. This room must have been hidden for a reason, and I doubt whoever is behind this place is going to be all too happy that we have messed about with their machine…"

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For once, even the voices in Jet's head were shocked into silence by the appearance of the little girl. It was as if the office of monkeys had all stopped to stare at the child in abject confusion, and that action translated into identical actions on his part…

That was something else though – the girl really did look as if she was theirs, though more obviously Koharu's than his, having certainly taken after her mother in the looks department and looking like an aged down version of her.

He chose not to voice how absolutely adorable he thought she was though.

That raised yet more questions though: what was that thing? How did it create a child? Why hadn't she so much as spoken yet?

All those questions vanished momentarily as they walked, and Philia snapped him out of it a little. "So, still in the phase of dad-shock?" Philia asked him, teasingly.

"Dad-shock?"

"Yeah, like finding out you've just become a dad. Not quite the same situation as getting Koharu pregnant, but eh, details…" She shrugged.

He thought about it for a moment and realised she had a point. He was barely responsible enough to look after himself, and whilst he may have been the de facto leader of the Concord, that was on paper only… "If she is my daughter… how the hell do I do this?" He asked quietly.

"That's new for you. You really are lost here, aren't you?" Philia placed a hand on his arm to reassure him. "You're already the team dad, so just act like you do with Seven and Mary, and she'll turn out alright."

"Team dad?"

"Yeah, you cook food, half of the time you try to solve whatever problems we have… and the dad jokes come ninety percent from you. Team dad right there. Not calling you dad though."

He rolled his eyes but found himself thankful for her advice. It was something of a shock to discover you were a dad at 18, but he supposed he was far from the first person to discover that – even if the circumstances were very different most of the time. Most unplanned children weren't made of some kind of living clay, after all…

"Thanks, I already feel like an old git, without you calling me dad." He joked back. "Still, she needs a name. We can't just keep calling her kid, really…"

Philia stopped for a moment to think about it. "How about Cassandra?"

He stopped as well, with a look of amusement. "Yeah, I like it. Why Cassandra though?"

"No idea, just like the name." She shrugged. "That, and she's made of clay, right? Cassy Clay."

He gave her a blank look for that one. "Ginge, even by my standards, that's contrived…" He laughed. He did like the name, and it wasn't a name he'd ever have come up with under his own thoughts. "Still, I'll see what Koharu thinks. She is both of ours after all, not just mine."

"Aww, you'll make a good dad yet." She cooed, though it was clear she was trying her best not to break down laughing. "Is it just me, or is it a bit weird she hasn't said a single word yet?"

"No, I was thinking that too. Maybe something went wrong with the machine?"

"I may have a theory on that one." Philia admitted. "Remember what Kizmel said about the dwarves? Being able to forge life out of clay and all that?"

"Yeah, which was clearly true…" His daughter confirmed as much on that front, she was quite clearly real after all, even if he couldn't quite believe the circumstances around her existence…

"What if it's some kind of avatar change machine?" She asked him, and he stopped in his tracks. "What's up?"

"You mean like some kind of repurposed asset, or?" He asked.

"Nah, I mean like being able to change your avatar if you don't like it and having a story reason to do so. We were just messing about with the controls, so maybe we messed it up, hence… well, you know."

Cassy, yeah, he knew.

"Still doesn't explain her being completely mute though." He pointed out one slight hitch in her theory.

"Maybe it does though – if she was meant to be an avatar of some kind, then she never got any player data loaded into her. Sure, she got you two for appearance data, but you both pulled away pretty quickly, right? Maybe that last phase was to transfer data between the old body and the new body?"

He shuddered, silently thankful he'd pulled Koharu off it when he did, else she'd have been trapped in the body of a child. That would have made it both a lot easier to work out what had happened… and a lot harder to explain to everyone how Koharu had been on an unplanned version of 10 Years Younger…

Not that explaining how they'd end up with a 10-year-old child, despite being only 18 themselves was much easier to explain, but at least they could fall back on the adoption excuse, rather than having to explain that it was a badly signposted avatar machine that had gone a bit awry…

Still, that meant that Cassy was just blank.

Literally, there was nothing in there other than the programming needed to keep her existing in the game – no personality, no independent thoughts, just… ones and zeros.

He looked ahead and spotted Koharu holding hands with her, and he quietly silenced that side of his mind. Maybe she was blank now, but that didn't mean she'd remain blank – Kizmel had been such, in theory anyway, and now she was human in every way but her appearance.

"I presume you have been discussing what we do about your child?" Kizmel asked, having practically snuck up on them whilst he was deep in thought. "If it helps, I have known people become parents with little readiness, and proven to be up to the task. I feel that you and Koharu will rise to that challenge too, given time."

He wasn't sure he had the same level of faith in himself as Kizmel did, but he supposed he couldn't end up being worse than many parents. He thought of his own dad and sighed, and then to what Koharu had told him about her father, and more importantly, what she hadn't told him, and felt an angry sneer come to his face.

"Is there a problem with what I said?" Kizmel asked, confused by the odd expression. "I did not mean to offend you, if I did."

"Nah, just remembering something and making a promise to myself."

"What would that be?"

"Don't be like my dad." Or Koharu's, he left unsaid. His dad was merely absent, whilst hers had been an abusive arsehole from his interpretation of what she had said to him.

"I take it he was not a kind man?"

"Nah, he was fine when he was there… just that those times were very rare. Think I saw him about five times in as many years."

"What was he doing to be that absent?!" Kizmel asked in disbelief.

"He, uhh, got imprisoned. Turns out the army don't like you telling people the army has systemic problems with murders." He summarised as best as he could.

"I can see why you did not see him very often then…" Kizmel sighed. "But you speak as if that was his choice, rather than his imprisonment?"

"I never blamed him for that. Honestly, I looked up to him for doing the right thing, consequences be damned." Kizmel nodded at that. "What I blamed him for was going off and just wandering the world when he got out. Almost like we didn't exist…"

"I see." Kizmel said. "And as such, you don't want to end up as absent as him."

"Kinda." He admitted. "I mean that I don't want to be emotionally absent either. I had my mom for that one, and I'm not sure which was worse…"

"If I have learned anything from my time around you all, it is that I seriously doubt you will act like that." She reassured. "After all, you act like an older brother to young Mary, and she has turned out fine…"

"I guess so, yeah." He wasn't so sure of that himself, but he let those thoughts fall quiet for a bit, before being snapped back to reality as they walked through the forge itself.

A familiar voice came from behind them, interrupting any chance of a discussion of what was going on around them. "Well, it has been a while, hasn't it?" The voice of an annoying bardic wannabe, but still familiar, nonetheless.

"Lueur?"

"The hell are you doing out here?"

"I am doing well, thank you." Lueur rolled his eyes. "I believe that is how most people greet each other, isn't it?"

"Yeah, yeah, not answering the question." He reminded him with a bit less patience than usual.

"If you must know, I believe there is some kind of…" Lueur paused as he caught notice of the young girl they had started to call their daughter. "-error on this floor…" He said with a more uncertain tone, before grumbling. "Well, I cannot call you inefficient at least…"

"She's not an error!" Koharu stood at full height, almost matching Lueur in height… and very much bigger than him in presence. In that moment, she could have matched a damned grizzly bear for presence, let alone Lueur… "However she came about, I won't have you calling her an error!"

"Interesting, you think of her as your child, don't you?"

For the first time, he was inclined to believe Philia's theory was wrong, as Cassy hid behind Koharu in the same way a very small child would hide behind their mother in a scary situation… maybe some of their data had ported with them, not enough to give her a full personality, but enough to make her not a completely blank slate?

"She is, and I refuse to let you do anything to harm her!" Koharu told him angrily.

"I mean you no harm, I just wish to understand…" Lueur told them in his usually smarmy voice. "After all, are you not as curious as to why she took that form as I?"

"Because that machine was created to switch avatars, I'll bet. We gave it the input, and ta da…" He explained Philia's theory. "Except it got a bit more than it bargained for; it got two inputs, not one. She's not just some blank avatar Lueur, and if anyone was an error here, it was you, I'll bet."

Lueur took a brief second to compose himself, before continuing on. "Well, I would be lying if I said that one didn't sting slightly, but you are broadly correct, yes." He explained. "The machine was intended to change player avatars, but it was soon realised that it had some… unforeseen effects."

"Like?"

"From a game balance perspective, could it be used as an extra lives generator?"

"Transferring your mind across bodies… that is witchcraft, plain and simple." Kizmel shook her head in disbelief.

"Eh, sufficiently advanced technology and witchcraft are indistinguishable at times." He shrugged. "But when you say unforeseen effects, I presume you don't mean from the design perspective."

"No, and to allay Koharu's fears, the young lady is not the error I referred to, but merely part of a greater problem…"

"A greater problem?" Rain asked, slightly unnerved by that.

"You could say that, yes." Lueur agreed. "Our… patron, I suppose you could say, suggested that this factory should not be active."

"It's not a factory though, is it?"

"A foundry produces many things." Lueur retorted. "Including armies, by the appearances of this one."

"Who would need an army though? And why?"

"Why does anyone need an army?" Lueur posited. "Because they believe they are right. They believe they have the right to impose their will on others…"

"Lueur, leave out the philosophy, and answer their questions, would you?" Thankfully, a voice of reason appeared in the form of Stilla and told him off for the pontificating.

He rolled his eyes but did at least listen to her. "As I said, this foundry should not be active. Someone has activated it, and we do not know why. We came to investigate and ran into you. That is all I can tell you."

"Which would explain the golems attacking us on sight." Rain thought aloud. "But what would anyone want with this place?"

"Those drawings…" Sanya mumbled. "Could they be blueprints for what they – whoever they are – are building?"

"In which case, whatever it is, it's bloody huge, and we need to stop them from finishing it." He took charge. "If we split into groups, we'll stand a better chance of putting the pieces together before they complete whatever it is."

"Indeed. If one group takes the higher floors of the furnace, another should take the crucible, and a third may be needed to seek assistance, should it come to it." Kizmel strategized, and he found no obvious problem with her plan.

"Okay, my group will take the upper floors, we can try and hunt for any more of the blueprints to get a better clue what it is they're building. Rain, reckon yours can take the crucible?"

Rain nodded with a smile. "Leave it up to us."

"Good. Asuna, you're gonna need to go and get help. We don't know how long we've got, and standing around here could just be wasting time that we don't know we have." He told her, knowing that she was amongst the fastest members of the Concord, if not the fastest, and so she would stand a better chance at getting the call for help out to the rest of the Assault Team.

"On it." Asuna took off towards the exit of the foundry, and the others split into their groups. He and Koharu would take the higher floors, and the laboratory that they found the Avatar Machine in with Philia, Kizmel and Lueur in tow, whilst Rain, Sanya and Stilla would search the Crucible for any sign of whatever was being built… and if possible, smash it to bits.

As the group began to split apart, he looked towards the little girl he had named Cassy in his head. "I wish to examine the Crucible." She spoke for the very first time, taking all of them by surprise.

"You sure?" He asked. "It's going to be dangerous down there, you know?"

Now she fell silent again, though her blank expression didn't seem quite so blank now… "Yes."

"Rain, keep her safe, will you?"

"I will, don't worry… dad." She teased, given him a wink as she took off with Cassy in tow.

He swore they were going to be the death of him some days… especially with the amount of time Rain spent around Philia, Rain had developed a sense of humour that focused around teasing him and Sanya mostly.

Still, they had a job to do, and that could wait until later...

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Rain found herself cringing at that joke as she walked away.

Still, at least she hadn't called him daddy or something like that, because then she absolutely would've jumped into the crucible headfirst, purely to escape the embarrassment on that one…

"So, you are my sibling?" The young girl asked out of nowhere.

"Huh?!"

"You called him father, which makes you my sibling, does it not?" She asked, it becoming apparent that her joke had backfired rather spectacularly – especially now that Sanya was grinning wickedly as well at her misfortune.

"Well, uhh, no, it was a joke at him being a father?" She tried to explain, though she was struggling to do so.

"So he is a bad father?"

"Sanya…" She looked at her oldest friend for some kind of help, any kind of help!

"This is a situation of your own making, Rain." She smiled back, and she received a glare from her in return for her "help".

"No! I mean, probably not?!" She balanced herself between insulting and defending Jet. Honestly, she had no idea if he was a good father, but he was certainly more open than her own… he was there for a start. "Umm…"

"Jet is many things – an idiot, for a start – but if there is one thing that I would never call him, it is a bad person." Sanya explained. "He is prone to letting his heart rule his head, and does not know when to quit, as well as being painfully oblivious sometimes… but I doubt he will be a bad father."

"Sanya…"

"Do not mistake my assessment for fondness of the idiot though." Sanya quickly backpedalled. "And definitely do not tell him I ever said any of that!" She said with a bit of panic in her voice whilst Stilla laughed from the sidelines. "And what is so funny?!"

"Just you trying to keep up the ice queen act."

Almost as if on cue, the young girl bowed to Sanya, catching them all off guard, before Stilla burst out laughing again. "She's not an actual queen, it's just a saying!"

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As they walked up the stairs of the foundry, there was only a single thing that Koharu could think to ask… "Are you okay?"

"Hmm? Why wouldn't I be?" Jet asked evasively.

"Becoming a dad? You've been quiet since we left that room."

"I'm still sort of processing all that. It's not something that happens every day, y'know?"

She laughed a little. "Yeah, that's true." She paused briefly, realising something important that they had neglected to do, a sign that perhaps they weren't prepared to be parents at all… "We forgot to give her a name!"

"Ginge suggested Cassy as a name. Short for Cassandra."

"Cassandra?" She asked, pausing to think about it. "Yeah, I like it! I hope she'll like it too…"

"You are such a mom, you know that?" He raised a wry smile, almost as if he was thinking of something that was either a ridiculously bad pun… or that would make her go bright red… "And if you're a mom, does that make you a-"

Bright red it was then, and a wicked thought crossed her mind - perhaps she could be the one to have the last laugh for once... and so she whispered in his ear. "If the next word is MILF, Cassy will be your only child…"

Almost as if out of instinct, he crossed his legs, and she could feel the shiver running through him as she gave him a smile. "Okay then, let's get moving!"

"In all seriousness though, you'll make a great mom. You already seemed pretty good with her earlier…" He rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. "Better than me anyway…"

"Some people grow into parenthood, right?" She comforted him, holding onto his hand. "Besides, most people have nine months to prepare, we had nine seconds. I'd say we're doing pretty well already by that standard!" She giggled a little bit. Most people didn't literally have a ten year old placed in their lap and told "Here's your kid, bye!" after all.

"I know, it's just… you were there talking to her, holding her hand, and where was I? Off moping at the back…"

Before she had chance to answer, Lueur called out from the flight of stairs above them. "I hate to interrupt the heart to heart, but I believe this could be important…"

Returning to their "on the job" attitudes, the couple rushed up to the others, and got the shock of their life…

What looked like a scaled up version of the Fifth Floor boss, Fuscus the Vacant Colossus, only it was missing its lower half entirely, and had all kinds of mechanical parts exposed to the elements around it. Beneath it was a pit of… lava? Magma? Molten metal? Whatever it was, the golem looked as if it were about to be bathed in the molten liquid beneath it, and it filled her with all kinds of dread.

"I think we can safely say what those blueprints were for now…"

"They were for casting new limbs."

"What's the point though?"

"We're missing something, we have to be." Jet groaned as he leaned against the wall. "Cassy, the incomplete golem, why this place reactivated, there's something that links them, but…"

"We have the pieces, but not the picture to construct our puzzle from." Philia sighed.

"We're just gonna have to look for that picture then, aren't we?" She told them. "Maybe we should check the Avatar Machine room, we could've missed something?"

Jet nodded. "Okay, you, Philia and Kizmel check there, I'm sure we can get a bit more information from out here. Lueur, you're with me."

"Be safe."

"Always." He smiled back as he and Lueur headed down the gantry, whilst they headed along the corridor…

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After a while of walking through what felt more like a sunken hearth than it did a normal building, they had reached the crucible again, and seeing it from the outside, they came to just one conclusion… "That thing is massive…"

"It feels a lot smaller when you are in it, trust me." Rain mumbled to herself as they looked around the room.

"What are we even looking for though?"

"Something that connects the dots."

"And what would that be, exactly? Most evil plans do not tend to be written down in a nice, easy way to read…"

"Maybe whatever this place is called is a clue?"

"Bessemer?" Sanya answered, and Stilla shook her head.

"Bessemer is the name of the town. The foundry is called… Prom-something." The blue haired woman answered with a groan. "My head is a little fuzzy…"

"Helpful." Sanya rolled her eyes.

As they overlooked the crucible, the young girl seemed to be observing it intently. "I feel as if I am being guided here by something." She said.

"Like what?" Rain asked.

"I could not say." The girl answered. "It is like a voice in my head."

She and Sanya exchanged worried looks with each other. The past experiences they had all had with any kind of beings that could, for want of a better word, persuade and possess other beings had not been positive, and she doubted that would change any time soon…

"This voice, could you describe it?"

"He sounds… angry." She explained, before her voice began to change in tone. So far, it had been even in nature, but still childlike, but now, it sounded more like someone speaking through her. "He has been here waiting for you all."

"What?" Sanya asked in confusion. "Who is he?"

"He is the elements themselves…"

Rain wasn't entirely sure what was going on, but she was a hundred percent certain it was bad news!

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It turned out that searching for something was a lot easier when you knew what you were looking for, Jet had realised.

That, and when you weren't doing a constant cost-benefit analysis in your head about throwing the person you were searching with, off a gantry…

"Okay, now I'm getting annoyed at this. It's like playing hide and seek in bloody IKEA!" He groaned, and Lueur chuckled to himself.

"There is an obvious clue though, hero?" Lueur asked with a punchable grin on his face. "This is a Promethian Forge."

"Promethian? What, like Promethius?" He asked, trying to put the piece together in his head. Mythology was never his subject, but rather Beth's, and without her here, he was scrambling to remember some of her long, long tangents on the subject. All he remembered was the Alien prequel of the same name, and he didn't really remember much of that either!

Thankfully, Lueur was able to jog his memory a little. "The god of fire, and the god who made humanity out of clay in the Greek mythos."

If that was the case, then this foundry wasn't just meant to work as a factory for golems and to construct the big bugger below – that was just an added bonus for whoever was in charge of this place – it was meant to produce something much, much more dangerous…

Life itself.

Specifically, human life.

And they had not only activated the machine, but they'd given it the genetic material to produce a human being, and tested it out…

Cassy!

He felt his blood run cold at that thought, the young girl had been a test run for the machine… and they'd given her life. She'd be target number one, no doubt…

"You did not stop his return, merely slowed it down." Lueur spoke with an uncanny voice, and he turned to face the mildly annoying poet. He was frozen there, a look of genuine fear on his face, yet he continued to speak, as if something had taken over his body and was using him to project their own voice…. "He is perpetual, he will never cease, and you pitiful ants will never stop his return… for he is inevitable, the fires that will engulf all things."

"Shit, it's like the Dream Reaper again…" He grumbled to himself as he tried to snap Lueur out of his mind control, or whatever it was… before realising just how hot he was. Not like that, but Lueur was genuinely at a point that he feared he may spontaneously combust in front of him, the air around him rushing towards him and forcing Jet away from him…

As he staggered back, his arm shielding his eyes from the howling winds and blinding lights, it dawned on him what the ominous message meant… "His return… he didn't want to make life; it wanted a vessel…"

And they'd given him one.

He didn't even stop to hear what BS the possessed Lueur was spouting as he took off back towards the chamber…

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In the Avatar Chamber, Koharu was doing her level best not to panic, but she had to admit, it was difficult in the circumstances.

Kizmel was currently standing there, paralysed, and surrounded by a raging tornado of flames, having been taken over again by something. "There is Solus, she who controls the day in constant battle with Lunaria, she who rules the domain of the night. Aeria, she who controls the skies and the winds. There are the three-fold deities of Mercia, Optia and Kinia, those who control Faith, Hope and Charity… and there is Ignia, the pretender…"

"Kizmel, whatever it is, snap out of it!" She shouted, trying to be heard over the screaming flames in front of her…

Whatever the "he" she was talking about was, it was a powerful being and one that had only gotten more powerful since they had last faced it; something she'd assumed from the way it spoke, almost as if they had fought it before and won…

Except now, Koharu felt a burning sensation – almost as if something was burning its way into her mind… "Agh!" She cried as she fell to the floor in pain, her scarred hand now glowing orange…

In the background of her agony, she could hear the automated system deploying around her…

Lockdown procedure activating. Containment unit active. Target detected.

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Inside the remains of the Crucible, the situation was just as fraught.

Rain rushed over to the little girl that was apparently now her niece, as she collapsed to the floor, screaming, whilst she followed shortly behind. The other woman though, Stilla, just stood there…

"Don't just stand there, help her!" She shouted at her, before realising something. She was not paralysed with fear, but rather, she was paralysed just as the children had been in…

Oh no.

Her voice became more sneering, and her expression dropped away into one of unadulterated terror and anguish… "-and he has burned them all to ash, engulfing them in his eternal flames! Some call him Iblis, some Lucifer, and others yet call him…"

"Nijika, get back!" Sanya grabbed her by the scruff of her neck and pulled her back as far as she could.

"But she-" Rain protested, before falling silent.

The pair could only stand there in horror as the bluster in the room became a gale and then a hurricane, feeding the fire that engulfed the young girl as the clay that formed her body melted away, all whilst she screamed in agony…

This was not just horrific, no, it was downright brutal, Sanya thought to herself as she pulled Rain back and held her back. She may not have had much time to spend with the girl, none of them had really, but to watch her suffer like this?

It was sadism on someone's part, and all for the plan of a complete bastard!

Looking back to face the still frozen in terror Stillia, the fire had begun to engulf her too, though her expression was still one of pain and fear, a look that begged them to help her and stop whatever was taking over her…

The next word though, would send chills along her spine, and was possibly the only cold thing she would encounter on this day…

"Alaz."

{Author's Comments}

Yeah, Doctor Who style cliffhanger.

I'd be lying if I said I hadn't rewatched the end of The Legend of Ruby Sunday for inspiration on how this one might go down... Also, yes, returning bosses. It still surprises me that wasn't a thing in canon SAO... well, it is for this version now.

As always, I hope you're enjoying this, and if you are, any feedback is always appreciated, and so are follows and favourites!

Signing off for now,

Midland 2541