Vigilon

It had been some time since the day the Essences were found. It would seem that Yona had other things to do back on floor one, so the investigation would continue without her for the time being. Vigilon currently believed she could hold out on her own in the first floor, so he wasn't worried. The investigation had currently led the players over to an NPC who went by Nemo, who was, at this point, bringing the players over to some place called "Little Eden". During this little trek, Vigilon discussed the earlier events with his party members. "Again, I swear, it's not what it looked like, I

Never did Vigilon ever have such an encounter across the dang wilds of Aincrad. The many changes in the virtual world left him clueless to so much, so he had a lot to do. But who'd have thought that randomly wandering around would lead to a tentless camp in which there was this random dude cooking and selling things? Do you want wild animal encounters? 'Cause that's how you get wild animal encounters. Realistically, Wild Animals or bandits would try to steal the food, so if it wasn't a trap, the shopkeeper probably had a lot of combat experience to be able to dispatch any animal

Vigilon woke back up on the Platform. The book was on the floor, and Vigilon was backing up to the circle behind the pedestal. Light of many colors began to glow from the circle. “The world awaits you, Alex Silver.” The Dragon began. “Go forth.” The light surrounded Vigilon, and he could feel his feet leaving the ground. “And follow the path We have laid out for you.” Vigilon suddenly felt himself being carried as he zoomed along with the light of many colors. He zoomed past the stars, but it was like they weren’t stars at all when he seemed to get closer to them. He fel

Vigilon slowly walked towards the pedestal, and picked up the book. It was mainly silver in color, even the pages looked like they were the same color. The borders of the book’s cover appeared red, and keeping the book closed was a golden lock. Vigilon looked back to the pedestal and found a silver key. With the key, he unlocked the book, and opened it. The pages were indeed silver in color, and the words were red. Red like blood, red like roses, and many more. The words were constantly flowing and in many different letterings, fonts and languages. Somehow, they all seemed to be flowing into V

Vigilon looked at himself, then back to the Dragon. “Like...the Dragon within me?” he asked. “No.” The Dragon answered. “Your Inner Dragon is one of Silver and Flame.” Vigilon thought for a few seconds. “Then...is this-” “No.” The Dragon interrupted. The Dragon lowered himself. “Climb on, and I will show you what I speak of.” Vigilon hesitantly climbed onto the Dragon’s back. The Dragon then took flight, and Vigilon would find himself riding a Dragon that was flying through active thunderclouds. Vigilon held on tightly, for lightning bolts darted around constantly within th

Something huge landed behind Vigilon, and he turned around to see a dragon. It wasn’t a Silver Dragon, like he’d seen before in his mindscape, nor was it the dark dragon that represented Vigilon’s Wrath. This Dragon was different. It had golden-brass scales, emerald eyes and its horns were more like a set of spikes, save for the longest two, which looked more like horns than the rest. The Dragon raised its maw to the sky, and Lightning blasted out towards the clouds, spreading through them and raining down on the land like a mighty storm of voltage. “So, you have managed to make it h

Vigilon woke up in a strange environment. Was he still in the Isle, or was he somewhere else in the mindscape? He got up slowly, and looked around him. He was in what seemed to be a rocky plain with a heavy overcast in the sky. The plants around, as well as the occasional tree, seemed kind of odd, like they belong in a different world entirely. There was lightning coming down frequently, but no rain seemed to be presently falling down. Maybe the plants were as they needed to be in an environment with frequent lightning? Some of the stones jutting out of the ground seemed to be ore veins,

Vigilon absorbed the Meta's weapon, the one it made from Vigilon. He then took a deep breath, and opened himself up. "Go, be free." He said to the souls. One by one, the souls left. The last one to leave was also the first to have been with Vigilon during his time in the challenge. "Thank you for doing your best... I'm sorry it took so long for us to find you." She spoke. Vigilon smiled. "No, thank you." He replied. The first soul giggled before rising up to regroup with the other freed souls. The arena around him started to crumble. Vigilon started looking around, trying to find a door.

The Meta and the false entities attacked. Vigilon was struck by a clone and he blocked the other two attacks. The Meta then slashed at Vigilon, leaving a near-fatal gash on his torso. So, it was down to this, then. All or nothing... Vigilon sheathed his blade. "So, it is now that you submit? Now, that you have no crystals to save you, no souls to empower you, nor even save from my ability to use them?" The Meta questioned, though it would seem to be rhetorical. "Now at last I will have your-" Vigilon grappled The Meta, placed a hand on its weapon, and kicked it back. "I'll

Vigilon growled. "This will end now." "I will take every last soul you have!" The Meta roared. Vigilon blocked the first attack. "I will free every last soul you've stolen, you demon!" He responded. The Meta used all sorts of abilities to prove Vigilon wrong. A blade rain, splitting into copies, and even causing a creature of flame to burst out of the battlefield. "Just try and 'free' the souls." The Meta said. Vigilon attacked the Flame monster, and it dissipated. He took some damage from the blade rain and from one of the false copies, but he still was able to damage The Meta

Vigilon did as he was told, attacking The Meta with his temporarily powered up weapon. A flurry of sword arts landed upon his enemy. "No! You're supposed to die!" The Meta's voice rang out. "Souls, living creatures, living beings...what are they, exactly? Allies? Enemies? Friends? Tools?" Vigilon began. "You probably know nothing about it, but there's this game franchise that was part of my childhood, it was called Pokemon. Various people would often say that Pokemon were not tools of war, but friends you could rely on." Vigilon took a deep breath. "But there was a surprising lack of

"You still resist? As brave as you are, this is completely laughable. You've lost, and I'm about to deal the killing blow." The Meta claimed. A voice then suddenly could be heard directly by Vigilon. "You chose to fight as to protect us. Now let us protect you!" There was sudden confusion with Vigilon. "Huh??" A light shone, and coming out seemed to be a light that looked similar to The Meta's attack...but this must have been one of the recent voices in his head. The soul collided with The Meta's attack, and the attack blasted around, resulting in another blade rain instead of w

Vigilon reached into his inventory and pulled out the blue crystals. He used them and then checked for any other soul crystals...nope, he was out of crystals. The Meta pushed Vigilon back again, and then prepared something huge. It didn't look like something Vigilon would be able to dodge, and despite being statistically fine, physically, he was not. "This can't...be it...this can't be how it ends...it can't..." Fatigued, Vigilon fell back down on the ground. "I'm sorry, everyone...he has...won..." "....." It felt hopeless, the attack his enemy was preparing was still

Vigilon had trouble getting up this time, and his enemy was now more powerful than ever. Guess this boss operated with phases, each HP bar being one phase. He was hurting everywhere, and even the souls with Vigilon were speaking up again, but there was too much mental traffic for him to understand what they were all saying. "Look at you now, you're already dying. No hope, no future, no lover you can return to alive. You can hardly even stand, the pain and the voices, you're crumbling beneath their weight and effect." The Meta taunted. Vigilon quickly reached for the soul crystals, us

The Meta Suddenly knocked Vigilon back, sending him flying. When Vigilon tried to get back up. The Meta suddenly grappled Vigilon. "One way or another, I WILL have your soul." It claimed. With that, it thrust its hand into Vigilon. Vigilon felt pain surging throughout his Avatar, maybe his entire being. The Meta began to slowly pull its hand out, but it seemed to be holding something. The Meta's hand emerged gripping a hilt, and as it pulled back further, more and more of a weapon came into view. The Meta stepped back with its new weapon. "Looks like I'll still have to kill you for y

Vigilon looked to his energy. He was going to need more if he was going to finish this battle. Before he should do that, however, he should make use of what he still had. Less was more, after all. "You cannot protect them. You could not avenge your own Father, you could not bear to do what was necessary when this all started because you were afraid. You grew lonesome, didn't you? You were so easily drawn in by the one you loved. If she asked for your soul, would you have given it to her? Is she a special case?" The Meta spoke. Vigilon unleashed an attack barrage upon his enemy. "If

Vigilon didn't know how to get back the souls The Meta had stolen, but he would if he could. "Call me weak all you want...you use these souls for yourself, and the only reason I keep them with me is to protect them from freaks like you!" He declared. "For once, I think you're right." The Meta remarked. "You'll believe that you are their fortress, even if you're destined to fail...but you're not a fortress, unlike your sister." Vigilon growled. "My sister was wounded, so she built up her defenses and guarded herself from even her own family. We just had different ways to cope." He pu

The Meta attempted to attack Vigilon. Vigilon blocked the attack, but there was enough force in the attack to send him flying. When he landed on the ground, he hastily pulled out two large soul crystals and used them both. Now he was probably out of large soul crystals, but at least he was back in the fight...well, he still needed energy to execute any sword arts. Also, there were six new voices in his head, so there was that, too. He blocked another attack, and he kept the block on lock with his opponent. He pulled out one blue crystal, and made use of it. Now it was time to get fighting

"So what?" Vigilon replied. "You always run the risk of dying when you leave a safe place, and almost everywhere I've been on Aincrad...one battle after the other. I may as well be used to it by now." "Impressive words, but do your actions support them? Do they have any real value?" The Meta questioned. Vigilon would be assaulted by all three enemies again. He blocked, he attacked, he took damage, he was having a rough time. Thankfully, the copies were only temporary, and they dissipated. Vigilon attacked once more, and blocked another attack before actually paying attention to his H

Why did it have to be this way? Why did things need to be so gosh darn complicated? He now had three things to worry about. "You're already like, forty two of my problems, why'd you have to give me thirteen more?" Vigilon asked. In response, the enemies all attacked. Trying to block three attackers at once was kind of more than he could handle, it seemed. He had to strike one of them. Vigilon attempted quite a few attacks, but he found that his weapon passed through two of them, and then dealt damage to the one on his left. Ah, there was the real deal. While Vigilon couldn't deal damage t

The Meta jumped back and slashed his blade through the air, and some cutting force of energy was headed for Vigilon, who ducked to avoid it. Vigilon then ran towards The Meta again to attack, and managed two more hits on his foe. Suddenly The Meta was in the center of the arena again, and it was staring at Vigilon. "Why's it looking at me like that? What's it about to do?" Vigilon thought. Next thing he knew, The Meta split into three. Were two of them cheap copies, or illusory copies? It was most likely one of the two...and it would make dealing damage a whole lot harder,

Ok, so this enemy had more fancy tricks than expected. The Meta was proving himself to be a Boss opponent, but due to the amount of damage Vigilon was dealing, maybe it was designed for one on one combat, which was nice on Cardinal's part. "You could never best your rivals in Aincrad, so you crushed them like weaklings within your mind...how petty." The Meta spoke. "Nobody's perfect." Vigilon began. "I've come a long way, and I'm not gonna let some 'petty' thoughts drag me down." He almost drifted into thought, but it was as if the souls within Vigilon stopped speaking and start

"I don't care if I'm all three, I'm doing something other than just standing around being useless, so I'll keep going and have hope for the future." Vigilon responded before bolting again. The Meta chased after Vigilon, but it was a stalemate at this point. The Meta stopped and raised an arm to the sky. Three lights shot into the air...that can't be good. Vigilon rushed in to attack as soon as the lights came from his foe. He managed to hit twice, but was blocked the third time, and all of a sudden, sharp, small blades of similar material to The Meta's weapon were raining down on the batt

Vigilon needed to heal quickly, but if he used a bunch of soul crystals, his opponent just might spam that soulsteal attack. Was there a way to protect the souls and negate the attack? He didn't know, in all honesty. Maybe for now, he could use one crystal and prioritize evasive action, seeing that his opponent had a lot of HP and he didn't. Bosses like these, it always needs someone running around in circles, trying to find the right opportunity, the moment to let loose. He used one more small soul crystal and dashed to the right. The Meta was expecting him to run, it seemed, but Vigilon

Vigilon couldn't see a smile, but he felt the presence of a sinister grin for some reason. "Don't think a sudden burst of courage will give you power." The Meta claimed. "You had one when trying to defend Ayaka, and look what good that did you." Vigilon raised his weapon to block The Meta's attack. "Who cares that I got thrown in the dumpster, I saved her life!" He responded. "I saved her life so who gives a damn if I couldn't beat those bullies?" Vigilon pushed back at his opponent and moved in to strike immediately after. The Meta thrust its hand into Vigilon, and he heard a