NIGHT

"Yes, Faux. Like a farse... or an adversary." that made a little more sense. but even the danger implied by the man didn't seem to shake her, and not for lack of trying. there was something in the security of noticing that green crystal above this individual's head that made her snort, accepting his words at face value. these were tier one shoes, for an unfamiliar face, who was a player. once the pieces fell into place, she knew very well what kind of person she was dealing with – which meant she hadn't had to worry about cardinal's underhanded tricks once more. "sure," nig

where the player base's information fell short, perhaps something within the game itself would hold its secrets. night was back, but only because she'd had the raid's puzzles at the forefront of her mind. and this time, in ronbaru, she was here for nothing more than its library... and maybe a short visit at a local restaurant, if only to mull over things, a compulsive urge to tear at mental scabs. her entry into the building itself was proper, and quiet. it had to be, of course – she barely remembered to respect the books after her time away from such areas, and only held b

right. as soon as she heard her guard's voice, night immediately remembered how much of her guard she couldn't let down just yet. her shoulders stiffened, and though she'd sunk into her seat, she immediately righted herself to pull open her interface, beginning to type. and fast. not thinking was the best thing for night to do, following instinct instead – though her expression changed several times as she realized bistro's different queries and call outs. no single-element teams. missing tanks. supply might be an issue, but it mightn't, either, depending on who was able to show up.

oh bet. she should've been taking notes, like the fact that dazia's story had been about the thirteenth floor – night figured it was related to one of the older fights around the twenties. and so too was she considering the nuggets of information that didn't seem too relevant, at first; night remembered how absurd it was to hear the name hestia from hidden's own mouth a long time ago, and to hear that story only added salt to the fire. being haunted by a zombie was way less cool than being haunted by a ghost, night thought. and then night had to contemplate the absurdity of the story

(and... bingo.) night hadn't been expecting anybody to have approached her. cue her sluggishness for a reply faux did, the player turning her head slow to the stranger (npc?) that had stepped up to her, only to glance up at the cursor above him, just to make sure it wasn't some strange prank by her counterpart. then she took a second look, and the expression on her face morphed from reticent to shock. "i – sorry? you want to take up the offer." night blinked twice, before holding up the paper in her hand, those fake flyers. "these. i hadn't even gotten to floor te

<<guardian of fire.>> bistro did not like hearing how adjudicator got traded away so soon. it wasn't so much that adjudicator was simply that precious, night believed. although, to the discerning eye, any weapon with a 'legacy' behind it should be worth more than the usual enhancements it came equipped with. in any case, it was still night's own equipment to do as she wished – and from that, she realized how many other pieces she still had in her inventory that wasn't benefiting her, due to the clutter. so night's terrible logic was to junk those off instead to so

even in her tracksuit, in front of her old friends, the player just felt small. how did baldur do this, again? night couldn't remember – it had been too long. still, she shuffled up to the front, taking one of bistro's passed cards and flipping it around – on its back was a polished diagram she'd sketched during her examination of the room before the floor boss. because the door wasn't open just yet. "right. thank you for your attendance, everyone." the player had to adjust her volume after speaking, realizing how soft her voice had sounded. "a few days ago, the labyrinth g

one by one, individuals would trickle in. oscar, then freyd and star and alkor. somehow ariel afterwards. familiar faces – though mostly veterans. despite the flyer discussing it's focus on new players, more old ones seemed to have popped up instead. to freyd and alkor, she gave a curt nod, a brief acknowledgement of his presence amongst others. and for @Oscar and @Morningstar, she tilted her head. "is there something you two want to tell me, coming here together from the fourth?" (no, she wasn't so much as interested in those matters herself.) her second greeting

night hadn't expected an outburst. in hindsight, maybe she should've. still, she listened – in shock, before with intent, especially at the realization that dazia had been there herself before. the fallen angel wasn't a fight she was familiar with – the furthest back she could recall was tales of the twenty third from hirru – so she made a note of it mentally while hearing what she had to say. very quickly, everything she'd experienced from the other veterans was beginning to make sense. "So why should I risk my life tangling with the most dangerous bosses in the

"So let me just make sure I've gotten this straight..." and night listened and nodded, pulling up a friend request for vigilon with a few slight hand movements; her personal mastery at the interface. "if things go well, you'll see me at an important event real soon. i can hand it to you then. otherwise, just contact me directly. i mean to uphold my end of the deal, after all – " "I want it." "'scuse me?'" it wasn't so much as though it was an objection. night was simply taken aback. from the banter between the two relatives, she was l

if lessa's vice was a drink, night's own was her thoughts, and the constant feeling of sinking, drowning, dreaming. so they didn't match, not really. but it was still lovely to hear, she thought, and had wanted to say. "we haven't," night finally mentioned, a little late to the moment. aincrad didn't uphold the concept of lag, wasn't meant to, hence it benefitted when its players' spaciness accounted in its stead. she did try to stay within the present, doing her best to parry. but between the amount of words she had to say, she was starting to get lost in their arrangement. there wa

"I'm Vigilon. I'd say my equipment's decent enough to get the job done for most enemies, though I would agree that an upgraded Cerberus wouldn't be 'most enemies'." oh, alright. it was better safe than sorry in aincrad, anyhow, and seeing how his weapon appeared to be somewhat of an unusual make proved it to night that he was likely better than he looked. fair enough. "so what exactly does it need?" and in the most casual sense, she was to pull up some additional consumables. and they were there, summoned on a platter, with the player knowing best how to present a number of c

oh, so they both had reason aplenty to hunt down cerberus, then. just night's luck. she was contemplating on backing out until the swing of dazia's sword had caught her off-guard – night wasn't exactly paying attention in the middle of brief thought, and she quickly forgot about revising her earlier decision. the whole expedition was in search for something to destroy to begin with. so what better way then punishing some monster in lieu of helping someone else out? night shrugged upon hearing of dazia's toss into the ring. "i'm game if you are," she added with a shrug. "i'v

<<gatekeeper of fire.>> okay. easy does it. she was back on the ninth. night hated the ninth floor. nothing good ever came out of it. and still, time and time again she would find herself trying to brave its obstacles, just so she could feel a little more than general unease and nervousness when she was on its soil. she was wandering, simply, until she remembered the route she was taking was somewhere down towards cerberus' lair. or, at least, the stop before it – knorlit village. it was surprising to encounter players present, but more so that

scattered about the first floor (and a few other select places) are a messy lot of flyers in parchment paper. it is questionable who was the individual behind the littering. the following is written on it: FIGHTING TO GET TO FLOOR 28 Attention, all individuals of Aincrad! We will not remain dormant. The frontline is about to commence their fight against the Floor Boss on the 27th floor. To those who have wondered the status of our progression, look no further than the raid meeting, and join us should you be well equipped to handle the fight against the F27 Floor

[ ♬ ] "watch me. i will go to my own sun. if i am burned by its fire, let me fly on scorched wings." NAME SEIKO UEDA. AGE 22 -> 24 GENDER F ORIGIN TOKYO, JP. HEIGHT 172cm WEIGHT 65kg BIRTHDAY NOV 2. FACECLAIM HOSHIGUMA ARKNIGHTS ICHIKA & AN PROSEKAI ______________________________________________________________________________ ADMITS O

that ore in the ground was precious. that it was best with hard work applied to it – and night was putting in her effort to try and pull stoneheart to the floor. there was also the element of heat needed, but she’d be damned if she shelled out cosmic devourer now – the heat it generated was likely noy enough to eliminate it from the world. if adjudicator was graced enough to cough and sputter, black fangs eating away from its enemies as it was expected to do, then perhaps this would be one of the final strikes – flames and effort be damned. still, she dragged herself away from the boss’ body e

just a sliver left, and adjudicator was buzzing, as she abused the system as much as she could to lodge just a little more health off of the guardian’s health bar. by her feet, again, was another crystal, whose effects kicked in quickly enough to have avoided a negative impact on her execution when the protector broke it in another attempt at catching the player. night had to do her best to be tricky, to be running, even if she wasn’t the best at it. an accidental glance towards one of her companions sent shivers down her spine, as though she knew that she was being watched by her antagonist w

by now, night believed, she could catch sight of the golem’s health bar pushing orange, if not red. because why would it be red? she wasn’t doing that much damage to it, was she? but she popped a crystal with a crunch of her hand. trying to outlast a boss as tough as this was difficult, though she knew there had been much tougher fights before – and by all means, she would do her best to work through this one, just like the rest of them. her thoughts did drift briefly to her friends beyond the doors, waiting for her return, before she snapped to a quick dodge out the way of another s

so she kept her eyes on the prize – the door at the back of the room – and the messages in her hand that she could only glance at so often, so long as she was able to stay alive, and active, and away from the guardian. there was mention about the summer heat, she’d read more carefully. trees that were linked with raindrops grown from the earth before. perhaps the pattern of elements would chain together, all at once – or was it the attack pattern of the boss? not that she knew what it could do on the field, nor did she want to test aggravating it if she’d gone inside the room. night

she would lose track of the amount of times she’d ducked under an arm, trying to get close towards its legs instead, though they were narrow and difficult to strike at. the golem’s lower body was a better choice, and she did her best to avoid the gem – at one point, her strike had missed on accident and grazed the crystal, so the system was to warn her of her incapability to do so in the fight. night recoiled at that message, of course, and tried to recover her position in competing with the boss for survival, and yet she couldn’t get it out of her mind that her toil was in the worse kind of e

earth, water; her next was about fire, wasn’t it? but then it was also about trees. traditionally, she felt as though she should have recognized that the four elements should’ve been with the inclusion of air instead of wood. but then something clicked in her mind about the foo guardians she’d seen earlier, and things slowly started to make sense. if she’d gotten pummeled, it was because of the sudden awareness of her capability to decipher it. something about taoism, surely? or at least about her culture – if she had been so in touch with it, at all. she was able to recognize the w

then there was the rain, the drops from the skies. they spoke nothing about a rubbled fist in her notes, but she was well aware of the threat coming her way, and so had to prepare to skid out just in case it got another hit in, plain and simple. there was the way it tore into the wall, leaving a crater too massive for even her blade to have created, too cracked and laced with dust in its punches, only underlining how much damage the boss was willing to deal just to get rid of intruders. night simply skittered away, doing chip damage where she could, and progress was looking steady – if only sh

then there was the becoming dust part, if she recalled – something about life? rejuvenation? was it something like the phoenix she’d fought just a little while ago? night danced with her sword again, trying to remember the proper positioning of her crystals on the go – one mistake and she’d be down a critical resource, though nyanko seemed to run down the golem’s shoulder just to leap at her and make sure she’d gotten the right piece from her toolkit. her swing was accompanied by a dodge underneath the boss – she slid out, trying to escape, running away from the attack again as her health chip

well, the idea of taking down a floor boss solo was enough to make her stomach churn, so they had better show up, or else. had she shared her quest findings with bistro yet, even? the fact that she couldn’t remember said something, night was certain. as certain as she was in trying to evade an on-coming strike, and failing, only to need to clench a fist over a crystal that wasn’t meant for healing super quickly. she had to focus, if she was wanting to get anywhere. each of those words were representative of places they’d been to, starting with dagan. if that was mountain, t