PP F2: The FINAL Nail in the Coffin!

[Uriel 0]

I missed, but I didn't care, I swept my hair up and out of my face - even if I were to die here today. My goal was complete, I had broken little - innocent - Mari. I didn't even attempt to dodge as Alkor silently  attempted to strike me - I spread my arms out wide, "Go on handsome, STRIKE ME!" And he did, I took a few faltered steps back, breathing heavily - the pain causing dots to appear before my eyes. I coughed, blood spouting from my mouth onto the other mans cold hard face.

I could see flashes of  red across my vision, but I didn't care. "This game is s-" I paused coughing and spluttering up blood. "S-So FuN!" I shivered in excitement as I lazily attempted to swing my rapier across Alkor's pristine face.

 

 

[iD: 1819, BD: 5]

[Guest]

He slashed at Alkor again and again came up short. The Reaper walked over the corpse, drawing in breaths on borrowed time. Moments from now, he would walk over and check on Mari. He would treat the situation no differently after this player's death.

Alkor's alabaster face was stained with flecks of crimson. He drove the blade of his weapon through Uriel for the last time, and stared long into the man's eyes.

He would watch the light leave those eyes, a constant reminder that he had done this. Burned into his mind would be the weight of the deed. It was not something to be taken lightly.

He let go of Nightbringer, still lodged in the man's gut. A step back and a sigh later, Alkor let his arms fall to his side. "You lose."

Reaching out and taking the hilt of his sword and ripped it free of Uriel, turning and spinning it as he slammed it back into the sheath.

Mari, sprawled on the floor, was broken. The pieces were everywhere, intangible, beyond reach. He would not be of any use to her in picking them up, or patching the cracks. What she had done, accidentally, he could not even imagine.

The rules of the game were solid. Even though it had been against her will, and caused by Uriel, the system would brand her as the killer. She would have to remember this incident until she could clear her conscience of it.

Alkor would wear that stain like a badge of honor. He knelt down beside her and offered a hand. "Come on," he told her. "Let's get out of here."

[iD: 1821, BD: 6]

Uriel: Dead

Alkor: 26/26

[Uriel 0]

I stopped, pinned to the tree - my vision fading fast - the man had done it, soon it'd be game over for me and I'd be dead. Still, I laughed. Giggling silently to myself  as Alkor stepped back - stating that I had lost.

"Hehahahheheheh.....check....mate...."


And then...my world....was dark..

 

 

-Player Uriel has Died -

[Mari 1]

Mari watched what had happened; but her mind was elsewhere, gone – what had she done? How…how could she possibly live with herself. How? How was it that Uriel was the one to die and not her? Wasn’t she the one who so….so….

“S…so….” She glanced down at her shaking hands, they were free from blood but covered in dirt and scratches. Her head hurt from where Uriel kicked her. “Why….” Mari looked up at Alkor with broken questioning eyes, the dirt on her face streaked with tears. What had become of her?

Alkor knealt down before her his cold, dark eyes seemed to be analyzing her – his face splashed with blood. He seemed unfazed, uncaring throughout the whole ordeal. Mari reached forward – ignoring his outstretched hand she instead wiped the blood away from his face, she then wiped it onto her own before lowering her head to rest on his shoulder.

She was a killer too now…she should share that stain of blood, just as much as he.

“I’m…a monster…”

[Guest]

Wordlessly, he lifted her over his shoulder. She was light in spite of the sins she shouldered. His feet would need to carry both of them, as her spirit was broken. "Not a monster," he corrected. "Human."

What was the difference? Alkor had often wondered that. A monster could do all things and feel nothing, but a human? A human made mistakes, and it tore them apart. Between the two of them, Mari was on a long, painful road to recovery.

Alkor had never moved from his spot. This death was a necessary evil, and though he knew that Uriel's death would be a link in the chains that eventually would drag him down to hell, he walked with the rattle and clank in his wake defiantly.

That set him well apart. Where had his humanity been for the killing, and would he ever find it again? As he walked toward the safer part of the floor, Alkor stared intent at the bland horizon. The colors blurred together, lifeless. Air lost its vivid flavors.

"In peace sons bury their fathers," he recited, an ageless adage that held such a deeper meaning here than he could say any other way. "In war, fathers bury their sons."

He set her down once they had cleared the area, and he stared out at the vastness of the second floor. Urbus in the distance mocked him. "Oh, what my guild will think," he said with a mirthless laugh.

[Mari 1]

Alkor didn't talk, his lithe arms wrapped around her frail, shaking form and picked her up. Her body was pressed firmly against his scarred chest -Mari wondered if she deserved such warmth, such kindness- when she had taken that all away from the one person, the one person in this entire world that she would ever want to stay safe. He corrected her words, stating that she was merely human. Mari furrowed her brows.

A Human wouldn't kill their own kin; a human wouldn't loose control like that - Alkor...Alkor had been so deadly precise...why wasn't she able to show equal restraint? Some may have looked at Alkor, and his actions that day and call him a monster; ruthless, an unemotional machine. Mari couldn't see him in such a light, how could she when she was a far worse person?

Alkor carried her in silence, for the most part-not speaking till they were in a safe area. Mari looked up at him once, his fierce gaze focused forward; just what was he thinking? Alkor was always a man of very few words. Was he uncomfortable with the burden of being so close to her? Mari felt tears fall down her cheeks, and she turned her face into his jacket.

Finally, the man set her down, and it took all the strength Mari had not to collapse onto the floor right there and then. He asked what his guild would think of him, there was something different about his voice. His actions....did they affect him more than what they appeared to? Mari finally collapsed, she wrapped her arms around one of his legs, burying her face into his thigh.

"T-Thank you..."

[Guest]

He blinked several times and looked down at her, crying into his leg. Cold indifference would probably have hurt the woman more than anything, so he bit back the urge to say something scathing. Despite the fact that Alkor was mortified of human contact, he did have a shred of compassion. "That you're still alive is thanks enough," he told her, placing a hand on the back of her head and gently stroking her hair. "That task was a thankless one. It should go without thanks. Life is precious."

He released her just as gently, then took her arm in hand and coaxed her free of his leg. He knew his words would spawn more tears, and that her thoughts would become her worst enemies in the moments and days to come if she was left to them.

"What you did was no fault of your own," he told her. "Rage is blind, and evil is always watching, waiting for an opportunity." Looping an arm beneath hers, he pulled her against himself for support in order to walk back toward the safe zone. "That's not what you're going to tell yourself, sure, but it's the truth. You were her mother, and you'd never have hurt her intentionally."

His eyes sewed shut and he pushed away thoughts of his own mother. The sting of bile in his mouth reminded him that not all parents were as loving, and glancing over at Mari, wondered if the woman who bore him would have felt this sorrow if he were killed. Maybe, if there was any justice in the world, she was crying next to a hospital bed right now, hoping for the nightmare that was SAO to end.

Alkor didn't hold his breath.

"What I did had to be done," he said bluntly. "He was a psychopath, and he would have gone on to darker and worse things. That," he said, referring back to a statement he once made, "was a rabid dog."

The last mile of their journey was one mostly silent, and when they reached the city's edge, he pointed for her to go forward on her own. "I can't enter a safe zone," he reminded her.

[Mari 1]

Mari flinched when she felt his hand on the back of his head. Her first thought, her first reaction was that it was Uriel, come to clasp her hair and pull her down into the dirt, her body tensed but then eased again when she felt gentle fingers coursing through her hair and not violent yanks. He said it was a thankless task, that such things should go without thanks, but what else was she to do? What was she to say? Alkor - was much like her in a few aspects. One of which was the absolute regard for human life. "What else am I supposed to say..." Mari asked with shaky breath - her body heaved as though it was threatening to burst into another fit of tears - but she was tired - and what little resolve she had was spent on not pushing her body further into a spiral of self decay. Mari took a few deep breaths, attempting to steady herself as she looked up at him. Wide Cerulean eyes darkened by such a pain, such a violent act.

"You've sent yourself to hell for me."

He performed such an act; and Mari was riddled with guilt for it. Perhaps it was just the scenario but the woman hated herself, she felt as though she should throw herself off the edge of Aincad, and that would be her redemption, but Mari wanted to cling to life. She wanted to live, perhaps her suffering would serve better penance than any quick death would. d

Mari slowly let go as Alkor pryed her arms off his leg. Mari knew Alkor didn't like being touched; and if it were any other circumstance she wouldn't have latched so desperately onto the man. "I never ...." Mari shook her head, he was right, she was never going to hurt her daughter intentionally, still....she had attempted to kill Uriel. "If I hadn't tried to ...kill him....she'd...." Mari glanced away, her tears were dry now - but her eyes were filled with a deep chasm of conflict and agony.

 

 The two fell silent in their trek back near the safe zone. It wasn't until Alkor pointed in the direction - saying he couldn't enter that it clicked for Mari.


"I can't either."
 

[Guest]

(this ought to set up the ending nicely)

Alkor listened when she heaped more guilt on herself, saying that if she had not let her anger overtake her, if she had not tried to kill the beast that had brought her daughter into this hellish world, the child would never have died. He wondered if she was able to hear herself, or if everyone in the real world tried to rationalize nonsensical things. It truly baffled him. "The girl should never have been in this place." He froze calmly, turning to look directly at her as she realized that their plight was the same. A safe place and night's rest denied. "That psychopathic fool is the end and beginning of everything that you are piling on to yourself. You did what any good parent would do."

He had no experience with this sort of life advice. Instead, he fell back on cold, harsh reason to try calming her. Unbeknownst to the inexperienced boy, nothing he could say would reach her where she was, and the pain she felt was so far beyond anything he could ever lay claim to. He had fathered no sons, loved no women, felt no true loss. The only thing he could say was that his hands were dirty, and all the waters in all of the oceans would not clean the stains away. It had not been his child, or even his fight. He had become the cold hand of justice.

Perhaps this sick twist of fate was tailored to him, after all.

With nothing to lose and little to be gained, Alkor had unwittingly placed himself in the position of Arbiter. He looked back into deep wells of empty blue and assured her, with every ounce of confidence: "you will be safe." He pointed into the distance, in a direction he'd memorized. "The High Fields of Crossing, about 9 kilometers from here," he stated, "they're not a proper safe zone, but monsters almost never spawn there. They're used for meetings and such. Go there for the night."

He turned from her. "And at the first moment you have, do the quest for Redemption so that you can remove your killer status." He raised his hand to wave goodbye in silence.

Alkor had his own path, and he did not feel compelled to redeem anything. Not yet. There were events set in motion now that would rock the foundations of this world. "Hell," he mused softly as he walked away from her.

Into the darkness he strode, and the night consumed his shadowed form. The torches of Urbus blinked to life, and though Mari was alone, she was in a much safer place than before.

[Mari 1]

Alkor had an odd way with words, they somehow managed to calm Mari, if only slightly. Mari took another deep breath as she met his gaze again, those amber eyes, swelling with a myriad of unspoken emotion. Brightness and darkness seemed to wash together to create the golden ocean of his eyes. He was right, Evelyn should never have been in this place. Mari wanted to know why. Why Evelyn was here; why Uriel had found her and caused her to submit to such a heinous act. In a way, even though Uriel was no longer here, he had won. Mari wouldn't be able to recover from this so easily. 

Yet, when she saw those eyes, Mari could easily assume that the same could be said for Alkor, Mari forced herself to give him the smallest of smiles, a broken smile with trembling lips. Mari wanted to know what was going through his mind, how he would cope with such things. He pointed away, toward a place on the horizon, but Mari didn't break her gaze from his - no. Not this time. He suggested that she take the redemption quest, but Mari didn't want to take it. Not now.

She shook her head, giving Alkor a determined gaze - for now - he managed to queel the tsunami of emotions within her; "We became Player Killers together; when the time comes. Let's seek redemption together."

At that, Alkor turned from her, giving her a silent wave goodbye. Mari pressed her hands to her chest. Doing her best not to cause them to shake, with each step away from her he made - she felt her strong facade crack and crumble. Mari watched till he was completeley enveloped in shadows; and continued to stay there for quite a time after. There she stood; a flourish of pink splayed across a dark horizon. Mari wondered if she should ever tell him, that despite her distaste for the whole ordeal at the time.

Life's little cave of Love scenario had worked it's magic, at least, it had done so on her.

Finally Mari turned on her heel, heading toward the destination Alkor had pointed out to her. Her burden was heavy, and Mari knew that if she stopped; she would break down again so for now, just for tonight, she'd continue to push forward.


 

 

Complete

 

Mari: 1 SP + 200 Col + Player Killer Status
Alkor: 1 SP + 200 Col + Player Killer Status
Uriel - Deceased
Evelyn - Deceased