EQG: Sword Art Online - Ruby Palace

Episode 76 — Necromancer Falling
Twenty-Fifth Day in the Month of Sakura (April 25) in the Year of the Griffon
Floor 59 — 5 P.M.

On the way to the raid meeting location, Natora and Thunderborne played their teleport game to Bladescape's amusement. They hadn't for the past few days. It was good to see things returning to some sense of normal. As normal as this death game would allow.

They were not the first there. Agil walked over to them when he saw them arrive. He smiled at his friends "I never thought I would get a second chance to fight a floor boss with all of the Wondercolts."

Thunderborne was blunt with her forwardness. "That would depend on which Wondercolts you are thinking of. Old or New. Knightstar is on break. We are short one."

"Wait," Agil said, counting. "What happened to her?"

"Guild argument," Bladescape said, trying to do damage control. "I have faith that our friend will be back once she gets the break she deserves."

"Oh man, that is unlike you guys," Agil said, very concerned. "I’m sure you will work it out. If any guild will, it’s the Wondercolts."

"Thanks," Bladescape said. "We think so too."

Diemond began to chastise Thunderborne but Malus and Bladescape immediately put a stop to it. Things were tense enough as it was. They didn't need anyone picking at the others.

The rest of the raid party soon arrived and they moved out to the Labyrinth. The Catacombs seemed colder than they had before. Other than that, it was an uneventful trip to the Boss Chamber.

Groups A, B, C, and D prepared for their entry as the forward shields. The Wondercolts, Groups C and D, slowly entered the boss chamber, tanks and shields clearly in the lead as they fanned out to the right. The three skeletons were standing still at the far end of the room, in front of the vaulted platform. As soon as the last raider entered, the wall opened up with a portal and the Necromancer walked through onto the platform. Three health bars were above his head.

"Welcome!" He called out. "To my world!" He let out a long, maniacal laugh. It stopped suddenly. "You may think you have the advantage, but it is still my scale with my weights and you only have weapons of steel to grasp. I have magic! I can conjure the dead. You only killed one of my loyal apprentices, but there are still three."

"Told you," Thunderborne shot, loud enough for all of the raiders to hear.

"Yes, you killed him." He said pointing at Thunderborne. "You are such a clever player. And you also kept me from getting to his body to resurrect him. But you won't get to me as easily as you did last time. I also see that you replaced two of your party members. A pity they couldn't be here to enjoy this. I wish I could change that."

For a moment, Bladescape was convinced he was going to summon them with his magic. Instead, the three giant skeletons shifted and transformed into human figures and all three were dressed in the same robes the other apprentice had been. Each of them had two health bars.

"Ah yes, meet my apprentices, formally of course. Plenty of you tried to get in the other day, but I was not ready for you. Now I am. And so are they."

Fuurinkazan charged out across the open space. They were followed by two other squads. The necromancer apprentices began to chant while the head necromancer laughed.

"Hold!" Bladescape ordered her parties. "This is too simple."

The charging groups hit something at the halfway mark and were shot back across the hall like they had been zapped by lighting. Klein was smoking a bit from the charred places on his armor.

The Necromancer stopped laughing and the chanting stopped. In between them a group of NPCs crawled out of the ground. They were all in different armor with different weapons and shields. Some looked like they were brand new to the game, others looked like hardened warriors with advanced gear. Red Icons popped up above them.

When Bladescape saw it her heart stopped beating. "Diavel" popped up above the character directly across from her. Blue colors, a basic bronze short sword and small shield with a blue sword on it. Diavel was the one who organized the first boss raid and he was the only casualty. This raised NPC looked exactly like he had.

Other names were popping up in her vision: Keita, Sachi, Tetsuoi, Sasamaru, Ducker, Griselda, Kains, Kora, and Coper joined him, and those were just the immediate ones on their right flank. All across the room the Necromancer Apprentices were raising the dead. The dead players from this game.

The game had already stooped so low, so far against them, and now it had dug deep to shove the ones they watched die in their face and make them kill them over again. The necromancers had over three thousand players to raise.

"HEY!" Bladescape yelled out to the Necromancer so all could hear. "I see your trick. I also know you felt the sting of my bite when we last saw you. You remember who we are. You are smart, I'll give you that. We came, ready for waves of enemies. I admit, we didn't expect names and faces, but there is something you don't know about this game that we do! The dead are dead! It's not going to be easy to kill the images of our friends, but we will. You can't stop us from reaching the Ruby Palace and beating this game. We will free ourselves, just like each player whose likeness you raised would want us to!

"It’s not a weakness to mourn their passing. It’s not a weakness to hesitate to lift our weapons against the image of the ones we fought beside! We are here before you because we know the truth of what happens when we die, and for that, you miscalculated our determination! Ranks of skeletons would have been a safer play!"

His laughter was jolly as he reveled in her statement. It didn't matter what he thought. He was an NPC, a program. What mattered was Bladescape had just helped the raiding party gird their loins for a mentally painful fight.

"I didn't miscalculate!" The Head Necromancers declared. "I improvised. After you almost killed me, I learned there was more outside of what was my whole world, Floor Fifty-Nine as you call it. I went and read your monument of life. I checked to see what was going on outside this world. I even visited that ruby palace and walked its empty halls. After all that research, I decided that the absolute best way for this fight to happen was to skip the skeletons and raise your friends instead!"

"Wondercolts!" Bladescape ordered. "Give them no quarter! Let them find their rest swiftly."

Bladescape reached into a pouch and pulled out the strongest poison Doombunny had provided her. Doombunny handed both Lobelia and Tagahashi weapon poisons. Bladescape broke the vial onto Harmonic Salvation, coating the sword with the substance.

“MO GHILE MEAR!” Bladescape yelled, charging forward. The others echoed her words; their motto, their cheer, their lament. Konpeito skipped the motto and blew into Gjallarhorn. The blast from the horn echoed off the walls, buffing the defense and attack of each raider.

Diavel was the one who had come up straight across from Bladescape. The Necromancer Apprentices were chanting as they worked to raise more dead players. The Assault Team’s initial plan was still the same and so was Bladescape’s: use the wall to slide around and strike at the Necromancers.

Harmonic Salvation glowed dark red and Bladescape unleashed it on Diavel. He took each strike on his shield with ease, only losing a few bits of HP. He countered as Bladescape faltered from the realization that even this “low-level player” could resist her. This was going to be harder than just killing waves.

Diavel's sword glowed as he took advantage of her slight delay. It swung straight at her head, faster than she could predict. With a clang it slid up and over her head, being redirected by Doombunny’s parrying dagger. Bladescape skipped back and out of the way. Since his swing was completed, it put him in a slight delay and it left Doombunny's parrying dagger forward with his chest almost touching the blade, the exact setup she needed to drive home the parrying dagger. The system automatically triggered it, driving the dagger to the hilt with the simple weight-transfer stab. His name and HP bar dropped a bit, but it got the addition of a lightning bolt. He was paralyzed. It was the exact reason why Doombunny kept it poisoned as such.

Colorra lunged at his exposed neck. The elapid slid off of Doombunny's shoulders with its powerful muscles supporting itself as it wrapped about Diavel and began to choke and squeeze him to death like a classic constrictor before it swallowed its prey. It was terrifying to watch the snake, that they were all so comfortable living with, act like such an animal. They were used to the snake killing monsters or creatures, not killing players, or what looked like players.

Bladescape was brought back to reality as the flash of a blade sliced through the air at her. She pulled Harmonic Salvation up in time to block, but it left her with no follow up. She let the dead player strike again. This time she pulled off a great counter with Weapon Defense and then followed up with a well timed stab. It went clean through his chest and his health bar lowered from green to yellow, then red, gray, and then he was polygons.

He was replaced with more raised players by the Necromancer Apprentices. They had been prepared for waves after waves of enemies, but this battle was not simple enemies. These players were using complex Sword Skills. Exactly like they had when they fought and died, if not more. Their HP had been boosted as well, and with them wearing the same kinds of armor the live players in the Boss Raid were using, it was difficult to tell who was who. The only difference was the red cursor above the dead's heads versus their green ones. A very hard distinction in the sea of avatars that they were now in.

Bladescape slipped back, ensuring their two parties were squared away. Natora and Lobelia had kept them organized during the charge. They were heavily engaged with the first wave, pushing them back as best as they could. Shields halted weapons and their sword skills glowed. The poison on their weapons put the dead back to sleep faster than their swords could. They advanced forward, well ahead of the other squads. Lobelia didn’t let hers advance as far, otherwise the enemies would slip through the opening and surround the other squads.

Their advance ended as a team of four lancers locked shields, right along the wall, stopping them. Doombunny’s knives flashed past Bladescape, each one finding the leg or foot of a lancer, dropping them with paralysis. Bladescape, Natora, and Thunderborne were on them in an instant. A good lunge was all they needed from the swords. Especially with the poison added on top.

As Bladescape shifted to press forward, she froze as she saw her next opponent. She lost all feeling in her body. It was Yuna, fully dressed out in her blue troubadour fighting outfit, what she was wearing when she sacrificed herself to save a large number of players. Bladescape steeled her heart and put Yuna to rest by plunging Harmonic Salvation through her heart while cursing Akihiko Kayaba for this torturous game.

The next wave descended upon Bladescape’s squad. It was led by a young woman, barely older than a girl, with a two-handed spear. She wore blue armor backed with a lighter blue dress and knee length short skirt that had her legs exposed for a bit before her boots once again visually protected her. There was a hesitation behind the assault, like she didn't want to fight. Her name read "Sachi" and with it came a guild tag: a blue background with a yellow crescent moon, and a black swirl like a cat sitting on the moon. The others behind her bore the same guild tag.

Bladescape stepped to the side and she used Weapon Defense to deflect the spear. With that move executed she stepped into the thrust and drove Harmonic Salvation straight through the girl's chest. Bladescape held her in tight as the system recognized the hit and drained her HP bar at the fastest rate possible. The poison icon just barely registered on her HP gauge before Bladescape was holding nothing but glittering air.

Bladescape heard a scream as she was charged by a guy in heavy armor backed by purple clothes. He was swinging a square mace that was glowing blue. His shield was small for a tank, but he was acting like one. Below his red icon was the name Tetsuo and it had the same guild tag.

Bladescape blocked the heavy mace. He popped without her retaliation and Bladescape was looking at Thunderborne. Thunderborne saluted her with a wink.

Cloaked in orange and wielding a curved blade, "Ducker," tried his luck against Bladescape. He too bore that moon clan's mark. It was a far reach for a character at his level against Bladescape at Level 79. He died without ceremony.

WHACK!

Bladescape's shoulder felt an impact as a staff landed on it. However, her dagannoth hide armor soaked up almost all the damage. On the other side of the staff was a red cursor, "Keita," from the same clan. The staff was a useless weapon and he had just proven why. Any decent armor stopped it. Bladescape swung, activating Avalanche and she brought the swing down with all she had. The staff was held up to stop it but Harmonic Salvation was better than such a pitiful weapon and the blade shattered it. The blade continued down, chunking its way through his shoulder, into his chest.

As he took poison damage and his health bar slid down, Kirito slid up to them. His face was white and he stuttered as he watched Keita take the damage and then disappear in colorful polygons. He clutched his sword tighter in his shaking hands.

"How," Kirito growled. "How?"

Kirito shivered from watching Keita pop. He turned to snap at her and almost raised his blade at her but Bladescape shot it down. She started with a soft slap across his pained face to help him focus. He was shocked and raised his blade again.

"FOOL!" Bladescape yelled. It was enough to cause him to pause his blade's rise. "I get it," Bladescape continued as she shifted and blocked Kirito from a spear being stabbed through him. "But they are not those players." She was softer as she continued. "Once you die you die. We all are seeing players we knew. I’ve killed two I knew, one I fought beside. There are other names and avatars I don’t want to see come up. All he did was put images on skeletons. They are nothing more than that."

Kirito was not staring at her, but at the spearman who had almost run him through. Metal armor with shoulder pauldron backed by green. Under his green cap was brown, curly hair. He was identified as “Sasamaru.” He too had that same moon guild tag. He didn't last as Thunderborne sliced his head off before Sasamaru could do anything else.

"GO!" Bladescape ordered Kirito. "A player like yourself knows how to keep it together, and he knows how to fight where he is assigned because the living need his presence to make sure they live!"

Kirito's face was the very epitome of a perfect balance of pain and anger. His sword almost slipped from his fingers, but he rallied and gripped it tightly. He yelled in rage as he charged off to the other side of the room where he was supposed to be. He savagely cut down a dead player in his way, being back to his normal boss raiding self.

Thunderborne and Bladescape nodded at each other in understanding. They knew they had just cut down the image of good friends of Kirito. It was a tough reality, even knowing they were nothing more than monsters coded to look like the players they knew. They were nothing more than the skeletons they had expected, except they had faces and names.

Bladescape’s party was split, with everyone but Thunderborne and Bladescape in sync with their tanks. They were not very far away, but two “resurrected” players stood in the way of unifying their party. A teenage male with starter gear named “Coper” and a straight standing swordswoman in green backed armor with a brown cloak around her shoulders. Her name was “Griselda” and she had a gold apple guild tag by her name.

Coper was matched with Thunderborne as the four of them charged at each other. Thunderborne killed him with ease. Bladescape was trying to match strengths against Griselda's sword. She was deceptively strong, especially for a one-handed longsword. Her brown haired head froze in pain as Thunderborne ran her through from behind. Bladescape took the opportunity presented to her and finished the fight.

"Nice job," Bladescape praised as they dashed to Group D.

Reunited with Group D, they were briefly safe. Both downed health potions in their momentary lull.

Doombunny was panting heavily with closed eyes and wet cheeks as she had her back safely against Diemond. Colorra was rubbing her head against her cheek to comfort her. Diemond was standing firm, but not doing well either. They were against the wall for a reason as Reisenki and Natora fiercely protected their flank and back. Bladescape couldn't comfort her or praise anyone as they came under assault from the flank.

Thunderborne took over for Natora as Bladescape took on three who tried to get at them from the rear. Their names were Alita, Kassadin, and Tasfi; all three bore the same guild tag, Meigibu’s green rose. Natora downed a health potion and took a quick moment to catch her breath. Then she was shoulder to shoulder with Bladescape, helping eliminate the remaining resurrected Meigibu members.

With their squad back together, Bladescape got them together enough for another solid push forward. It didn’t last long. Reisenki stumbled and fell. Bladescape stepped into his spot as Natora helped him up.

Bladescape immediately understood why he had fallen. Her heart had stopped beating. Two resurrected players stood out from the others. They both had starter gear, which was the most common armor seen, but the girl held a two-handed mace and the boy used an axe and shield. She had relived that day many times since, she didn’t need to see their names to know it was Joltron and Lessa.

The Wondercolts were frozen, not that any of the other parties were faring any better, but they had a different role. Bladescape stepped forward as her heart began to furiously beat, begging her not to do what she was planning to do. They were images, snapshots. What Bladescape remembered of them was more real than what the Necromancer could recreate. She had to cut them down and push their party forward. That was her burden as their leader.

Joltron and Lessa split up, flanking Bladescape as she advanced. Bladescape unleashed a two hit combination at the resurrected Joltron, trying to overcome his shield, but he was quick and she was immediately chaining a second skill to deal with Lessa. The upward slash connected with the heavy mace and then shattered it as Harmonic Salvation proved it was the superior weapon. The sword was slashed back down and then rammed into her chest, knocking off what little HP was left after the slash.

As the polygons filled her vision, an axe buried itself in her spine. Somehow it hurt worse than what she had just done and was about to do. With the axe still in her back, Bladescape knew exactly where he was. She reversed her grip and rammed Harmonic Salvation backwards as she slid her right foot further back. She could feel the resistance of virtual flesh and heard him exhale. The pressure on the axe was also let up. Bladescape brought her feet together, properly, before twisting around, into a new stance while she slashed at him. The cut at his head was not stopped by his shield, and through the polygons Bladescape saw Soryuto. That was the greatest pain of all, seeing her guildmate’s soul be crushed. Soryuto had mounted Joltron’s shield, enshrining it as a wall hanging in her bedroom. Thankfully Kiefer and Lobelia were right there to support her, while Tagahashi and Malus kept the party together and pushed back against the hoard trying to swallow them.

Bladescape’s party charged forward with renewed vigor. They had seen their leader intentionally take on the heaviest burden they could imagine and they were not going to let that gift go to waste. Thankfully, no one else was anyone they knew. They finally broke through the summoned enemies to see the Necromancer on his platform, chanting, and his apprentices below him, also chanting.

“Natora! Thunder! Doom!” Bladescape called. “With me! You know what to do!”

They left the two tanks behind and rushed towards their real targets. Bladescape stopped and pulled out a throwing pick and let it go at the closest apprentice. It landed, transferring the paralyzer to him and halting his chanting. The middle apprentice yelled and Bladescape saw him fall to paralysis and poison, Doombunny’s doing. Thunderborne rushed ahead, skewering the last apprentice and transferring a strong dose of weapon poison to him.

Bladescape turned her attention to the Head Necromancer. She pulled out a throwing pick and activated the skill. He was at the tip of her range. She let it loose. With a wave of his hand he opened a portal and stepped through it. The pick was wasted as it flew through the open air.

"Fall back!" Bladescape ordered. With two of the three apprentices down, the third would have trouble keeping up the waves of dead players.

Natora was already shielding them from two of the resurrected players. They killed who they could as they fell back to Reisenki and Diemond, who were fighting their own battle. It was not going well. Diemond was on the offensive as Reisenki lost the will to fight. Seeing the images of Joltron and Lessa had broken him pretty badly, but he was holding together what he could.

As they reformed their squad, Bladescape checked back on the Necromancer. She saw a raid group break through the enemy wave and then lost sight of the other apprentice. He wouldn't last long against them.

Without the constant pressure of new enemies, the sides folded around and encircled the remaining “dead players” that had been raised. It was a killing field as they were surrounded and rendered unable to maneuver. The shield users closed in, allowing the longer weapons like spears to thrust past or over them. Safety first, without any glory grabbing attempts. Those not directly involved downed health potions and prepared to jump in if necessary.

The maniacal laughter of the Head Necromancer rang out from the doorway to his Boss Chamber. He couldn't leave at this point, but everyone was on the other side from him. Bladescape got to the front as the raid party spread out, waiting for him to make the next move.

"Well done!" He exclaimed. "You beat our little trick. Killing them couldn't have been easy, some of you are very ruthless, but now they truly are dead. Even I can’t raise them up again. You made sure of that. However, I can't help but wonder, what can you do against yourselves? You murdered the dead; can you kill yourselves."

"What did you do!" Klein yelled. "Explain yourself."

"Oh, Mister Klein," He said, wearing a sly grin. "Words cannot explain what I can do. Since I became aware I was in a game, as you call it, I learned to do so much more."

"You will see what the coding looks like soon enough," Asuna shot back, raising her rapier and preparing to charge.

"Good luck," He said, waving his hand.

A flash snapped, blinding them all and Bladescape felt a tug on her body. It didn't actually pull her or move her, but it was a felt sensation. Whatever she was going to see as her vision came back, she knew it was bad.

Bladescape blinked one last time and everything came into focus. Raising the dead's image had been torturous to fight and especially strike down. This would be brutal.

BLADESCAPE: Level 79 — Two-Handed Sword — Searching — Weapon Defense — Leather Armor — First Aid — Battle Regeneration — Sprint — Blade Throwing — Extended Weight Carry — Acrobatics
NATORA: Level 75 — Two-Handed Spear — Purchase Negotiations — Sales Negotiation — Weapon Defense — Light Metal Armor — First Aid — Battle Regeneration — Acrobatics — Armor Pierce — Sprint
MALUS: Level 74 — One-Handed War Hammer — Greatshield — Heavy Metal Armor — First Aid — Extended Weight Carry — Battle Regeneration — Fishing — Search — Martial Arts — Rend
THUNDERBORNE: Level 74 — Rapier — Sprint — Acrobatics — Weapon Defense — Light Metal Armor — First Aid — Battle Regeneration — Armor Pierce — Martial Arts — Blade Throwing
KONPEITO: Level 74 — Two-Handed Axe — Cooking — Weapon Defense — Light Metal Armor — Martial Arts — First Aid — Battle Regeneration — Music — Blade Throwing — Bard — Extended Weight Carry
DIEMOND: Level 75 — Mace — Greatshield — Sewing — Heavy Metal Armor — First Aid — Battle Regeneration — Light Metal Armor Forging — Heavy Metal Armor Forging — Extended Weight Carry — Jewelry Creation
DOOMBUNNY: Level 78 — One-Handed Dagger — Hide — Fighting Spirit — Blade Throwing — First Aid — Battle Regeneration — Familiar Cooperation — Mixing — Listen — Reveal — Main-gauche
KIEFER: Level 72 — One-Handed Curved Sword — Slash Weapon Forging — Light Metal Armor — Weapon Defense — First Aid — Katana — Battle Regeneration — Slash Weapon Forging — Blade Throwing — Armor Pierce
SORYUTO: Level 70 — One-Handed Sword — Shield — Light Metal Armor — Music — First Aid — Battle Regeneration — Fighting Spirit — Armor Pierce — Acrobatics — Extended Weight Carry
REISENKI: Level 72 — One-Handed Axe — Greatshield — Heavy Metal Armor — Equipment Repair — Metal Equipment Repair — First Aid — Battle Regeneration — Cooking — Metal Refining — One-Hand Weapon Creation