Hidden

Chapter Four: Autophobia "Face Yourself" The sudden light was stinging but no more stinging than the fierce cold that existed inside of the room. Her teeth chattered for a moment before her survival skill began to activate. Violet eyes traced the frosted ground until they would meet a figure. Standing there was her own figure, a disgruntled look plastered on her face. It was obvious who the scowl was aimed at... her. The large room floor was made of marble, covered in frost from the dreary cold. Colored glass pane windows lined the longer two walls of the room, sunlight shining thr

The cold stone would dig into her knees as she knelt into it. A white mist was visible as she exhaled. Looking up, she would find herself staring down the hallway once again. Now, however; the hallway was perfectly illuminated in light blue. The Shadow could see a frost that covered the walls, only growing thicker as it continued. Unlike before, she could see the epilogue to the never-ending story. It existed as a harsh light at the end of the hall. Standing to full height, Hidden would take a confident step in a direction: Forward. Whatever was there, it was waiting for her. No matter h

A Shadow pressed into the robe, drawn to the very beacon that would burn it away. A Whisper spoke, its voice pushing the Shadow into a direction unknown to it. Where was it that the Shadow had heard these words before? Had it been from a Wanderer in passing? Had it been the melody of a Songstress? Maybe in the smoke cast from a Seer? Perhaps from the one branded in Orange just as herself? Had they all been simply repeating the same words, fallen entirely onto deafened ears? A hand unclenched, a flower as white as snow would hit the ground. The stinging cold would be relieved from her gras

Simmone's motion caught her attention and she would meet up with the woman shortly after. Hidden's breathing had started to get heavier but her words made it through to the woman just fine. "Talk about? I thought we had spoken plenty," Hidden answered with a coy smile. A figure covered head to toe in dark obsidian armor stepped forward, a heavy two-handed sword would become blocked by a thin rapier. "My bet is on you, go wild." A small chuckle would be heard from Hidden a moment before she vanished from sight. Amethyst cut through armor before exploding into light almost immediately

Why had she allowed herself to be dragged into more of a mess than what they had started? One moment she was fighting a floor boss and the next she stood underneath a raging war that she had nothing to do with. Violet eyes looked on as Shiina and Simmone moved forward to tend to the Floor Boss they had just saved. What was Shiina planning to do with this guy? The outcast's gaze turned to Simmone. The woman's words still rang fresh in her ears even though Hidden knew that they were truly never spoken. "Make this happiness your own, through the trials that you must face. Make it real. Don't

Her face would twitch as Freyd began to speak. Would this man lie straight to her face? When had Raidou cared? All he had done was treat her like a child, toy with her emotions, and use her as a tool. When she had realized that, that's when they had broken apart. Her eyes were drawn to the bright red robe of the Wanderer. Seeing Freyd in it brought a nasty taste to her mouth. If she hated Raidou... why was she even upset about his passing? For the past few months, she had ventured away on her own. The assassin had only traveled with Shiina since and had pushed away all others. Violet eyes were

In the moment Hidden leapt forward her vision had faded. She could tell she was moving but had lost all rhyme or reason. Her arm was outstretched, black sludge sharpened into elongated razor sharp claws. These claws would rake forward aimed to kill the man in front of her. Suddenly, a powerful force slammed into her back of her head and sent her flying into the ground where she would roll several meters before coming to a stop. Surprisingly, she hadn't suffered too much damage from the attack. Teeth grinded together as the woman and creature attempted to stand. It seemed the blow had lef

♫ "Leave." The words were all that were audible in the short span of silence. Hidden's eyes widened in disbelief as she watched Shiina vanish suddenly. Wasn't the girl supposed to be their only healer left? Who was going to keep Raidou alive while they made an escape? It wasn't like the man needed much healing but still. Reaching to her side on the inside of her clothing, she would find the cool touch of a small blue stone. "Teleport Ta-" Her words were cut off as she watched Ayame charging forward with her dagger. A heavy sigh escaped the girl's lips as she moved her hand away from

Chapter Three: Resist "Face the impending disaster." When her vision returned to her, she found herself staring at a stone tile floor. A voice called to her, asking if she could get up. Raising her head, she found herself looking on at a raging battle. A familiar man clad in a red coat stood, struggling to hold back the force of a monster with three heads. His health was beginning to drop considerably, but the woman was certain of his recovering capabilities. Her eyes flicked back at those that surrounded her. Many of the Firm Anima members stood there, calling out to each other. A f

Her footsteps echoed as she continued down the hall. Her breath created a thin white mist in the air, something she only just now seeing thanks to the additional light. Unlike before, the girl made no hesitation in her steps and was confident with the path laid out bare before her. Surely enough, another door would rest in her path. A seal resting at its center depicted by tea leaves in the shape of a dagger. From first glance, the burning-red image on the door held no meaning to her. Hidden couldn't even begin to formulate a guess on what could rest on the opposite side. Stepping forwar

Continuing to walk, she would end up reaching the outskirts of her house's yard. How much farther did she needed to go to leave? Had she not actually completed the Trial? Did she need to go back? Something told her Simmone would be unimpressed. Continuing to walk, she found that it suddenly became harder to walk. As if a harsh win was attempting to prevent her from proceeding forward. Pushing forward, a ripping sound would become audible as the world around her would suddenly tear away and cause even the ground at her feet to fade. Falling through the air, a sudden thud as she planted to the g

Simmone would assure Hidden's conclusion of the world around her and her place. The scary thought was knowing that her and Simmone had traded places. Now, it was Simmone who couldn't see herself in the mirror. A faint memory of Simmone's own mirror whispered into her mind. Hidden would watch as the dark haired woman would press her hand against it, assumedly without any result. The cat-like woman would pull her hand away from the mirror, telling her to leave. Slipping from the room, the woman would offer her a weak smile before returning to the table and cover for her absence. Moving tow

As normal, most of Simmone's words held no meaning for her. Instead of providing a straight-forward answer, the white-haired girl was offered a question. Which of her was truly the real Hidden? Instead of leaving the question in the air, Simmone took her interpretation of the answer. The answer was that there wasn't any, her and her other half were one and the same. Nodding, Hidden would lock eyes with the golden irises of Simmone. "I think I understand. What's wrong here isn't necessarily me or even the surrounding. The only thing that may be off is the people in it. Everything else is caused

"I'm sorry... I don't remember going to get that Bridal Gown. That wasn't me." Taking a breath, Hidden would move over to sit on toilet as she attempted to understand the world that was going on around her. Was this simply an alternate version of Aincrad, but she had replaced the Hidden of it? "Reversed huh? I wish I knew what that meant. Does that mean that I've become the shadow in the scenario? Is that why I am so out of place here?" The question was asked slowly and spoken softly. Simmone told her that she thought she looked better this way. A smile would form on Hidden's lips. "Of course,

The sound of high-heels clicking against the floor caught Hidden's ears before Simmone's words did. Unlike Sey, she didn't immediately push the woman away. Out of everyone, she hadn't acted at all out of the ordinary. There was a bit of information she was missing, but Simmone hadn't acted any different. Eyes raising to the point where she could see Simmone through the mirror, she studied the woman closely. Her eyes were still tinged with gold and for once it was a relief to Hidden. "What's the matter, dear? After all, the marriage is in a few days." Turning from the mirror, mouth wide o

OOC Note: From the nature of how things were going, I had to reverse the order of what is happening in the post to be able to respond to it. The friendly nature between Raidou and Sey was unfamiliar to her, but it was starting to grow on her. The thing about it that was the hardest to wrap her mind around was Raidou being overly pleasant. She didn't remember having seemed like this before at all. Raidou and him had spoke like they were old friends. In response to Raidou's question, Sey would smile brightly. "Oh? It's moving along quite nicely. Soon, I don't even think I'll be able to kee

Chaos. It was a good description of what was happening before them. It was painful to see how similar it had been to the twenty-third floor. Of course, she wasn't going to act out. She had learned from her previous experience. Also, it didn't seem that this decision was paramount to continuing or not. Things seemed the same here, but they were so much different than before. There wasn't a choice before. Hirru had made the choice available while this one had been thrown in front of them. With either result unknown to them, was either answer correct? To her, she didn't care too much for the

The sound of the door instantly grabbed the violet-eyed girl's attention and her head would swing to witness Raidou entering. The man would speak, but his words would pass her and onto Sey. When had they become so familiar? It was almost odd. Her head felt fuzzy, unable to recall the time where they had actually met. Every second, she grew closer to the world before her. Long enough here, and she would forget of the other's existence entirely. As Raidou spoke to Sey, the white-haired man would reply with his normal chipper attitude he would get while serving guests. "Thanks! I didn't realize I

Pathetically, the boss would fall to its knees. The armor had fallen off him, exposing his true self. All that remained of their boss fight was a sad shell of a man. Disappointing. The man was supposed to be a king right, why didn't he fight to the final breath? Why was the game giving them a choice. Pressing the only option that made any sense, she would step forward to simply listen to the conversation. Annoyingly, it seemed she was on the side of Firm Anima. She didn't like the idea of agreeing with them on anything. However, Freyd's words matched her own thoughts. She was the one who

REC Roll: 202965 CD:5 Violet eyes watched on as blue lights blazed through the battlefield, crashing into the first groups. Dust filled the air and only added to the poor visibility. At this point, the rainbow hues that filled the air were becoming almost nauseating at this point. Luckily for her, Gabrandr stuck out like a sore thumb as he literally was a walking torch of blue flame. Though if she had to guess the flame that was burning off of him was wasted energy. His body wasn't able to hold in the level he was using so it just let out the excess. With the help of the player's attack

Chapter Two: Reality "See the unimaginable present." The voice echoed through her mind, ringing in her ears. Stepping through the door, Hidden would become blinded by a sudden light. Bringing her pale hands to shade her from the harsh sun, she'd begin to try to get a feel for where she was. Tall mountains surrounded her off in the distance and the ground was covered with a lush green grass. A small house rested at her back and off to the side remained a small garden where slimes happily bounced around in the sun's rays. Hidden knew exactly where she stood. It was her home wi

The teams were cutting down the bosses health efficiently but something still remained a bit off. The boss wasn't much of a threat to be honest. Annoyingly, he kept up those machines of his although Simmone was keeping them down without a sweat. Seemed like she was too prepared for her job. If what she was doing kept them from blowing up on her constantly, go for it. Focusing her attention on the boss, she would find him no longer to be on the battlefield. Instead, he was quite a way up in the air. A fierce flash of blue light would flash across the ceiling of the boss from before a blue

Despite the hall no longer being as dark as it was before, the cold remained. It was an uninviting cold, but one that she was used to. Stepping in the direction she thought was forward, her steps would echo on the floor and down the hall. As she walked, she was reminded of Shiina's coin. Opening her hand and peering into it, she would find nothing. She hadn't dropped it or something had she? There was no light glittering off in the darkness so she doubted that could be the case. She simply didn't have the coin anymore. Stepping further into the unknown, Hidden would begin to walk faster

Without weapon, Hilda could do nothing as the shadow approached. It drifted over to her and she stiffened as it caressed its cold fingers against her chin and up the side of her face. How was she to fight it without her dagger? Although, the creature was a shadow. Perhaps her dagger itself would have no effect? Lunging away, she would face the creature that would hiss at her sudden movement. The creature smelt much like her father, only this scent was much colder. It was as if it was created to smell like cheap alcohol and vomit. The burning sensation in her hand returned and the metal c

"What are you talking about? What Fate is mine to control? Who is trying to control me?" Her questions remained unanswered entirely. The nickname was one of Simmone's if she could remember. Why would Simmone be here anyway? It simply didn't make any sense. A warm sensation reconnected her to the world as she realized it was spreading from her palm. Opening her eyes, she looked down at her tightly balled fist. Slowly opening it, she would find the most ordinary item there. A coin. One from the world of Aincrad. The coin's color had faded quite a bit, rusting in some places. "It's a memory