Hold over Myriad of Worlds

Under Mito's lead, we traveled for more than half a day before deciding to camp in a nearby cave for the night. After starting a bonfire, I prepared a simple meal for everyone while Fu Hua taught Mito and Asuna the basics of fighting. When everyone sat down to eat, we started making some small talk to relax.

-"Reality or game, your food is as delicious as always, Yue."-Elysia spoke in between bites.

~"While I saw cooking skills, it would seem those are only necessary when creating more complicated dishes."

-"I know I shouldn't ask about real life, but you all know yourself in person?"-Mito asked after integrating into our group.

-"Yes. Most of us are colleagues, so we often work together."-Mei the question.

-"Excuse me, are you and Mr. Kevin married?"-Asked Asuna after seeing how the two acted.

-"He is my fiance."-Mei smiled at the popsicle next to her.

-"Oh?"-Asuna seemed interested in such a subject, so she asked a few more questions, which Mei answered without any issues.

-"Sigh... It must be so nice to have such a childhood friend."-Asuna sighed while thinking about her family situation.

-"Hehe, that's true, but aren't you still young? You still have time to find a sweetheart."-Mei giggled while listening to Asuna's worries.

-"Are you all the same age?"-Mito asked after listening to Asuna's and Mei's talk.

-"Not quite. Leaving Yue and Griseo aside, we are all in a similar age range. Mobius and Eden are the eldest of our group, while Elysia, Sakura, and Fu Hua are the youngest, chronologically at least. Griseo is the daughter of one of our colleagues, but as a bright child, she integrated with us from a young age."

-"Then what about Yue?"

-"He..."

~"I don't know my birthdate, so it's hard to know my age exactly."~While not lying, I decided to mislead the girl slightly so as not to make things awkward in the future.~"You should consider me eldest here."

-"He is our leader, so we always think of him like that."-Mei also cooperated with me.

-"I envy how young you and Mobius look like then."-Mito joked.-"Then are you also married?"

~"Yes."~I answered directly.

-"I see... Is she..?"-Mito looked slightly aback, if not even disappointed, and tried to ask if my wife was left in reality.

-"No, I'm here."-Elysia smiled and hugged my arm.

Sakura and Fu Hua also smiled slightly, but as monogamy was the norm in this world, they didn't speak up.

-"Huh? You are married, Elysia? But aren't you the same age as us?"-Asuna looked at her in surprise.

~"She is..."

-"I'm always eighteen!"-She interrupted me.

~"Ehem... She was eighteen for more than two years that we know each other."

-"I see..."

We talked until exhaustion started to set in, after which everyone went to rest while I kept the watch. Letting the fire burn out, I sat at the cave entrance and looked into the dark forest. After around an hour, the party following us couldn't wait anymore and started to approach our cave.

The group consisted of four people, of which one was a small girl looking to be barely a teenager

-"Hi, can you help us?"-She spoke with a cute smile.

~"Sigh. That would be hard."

-"Why?"

~"Dying is little much to ask of a stranger, is it not?"~I slowly stood up.

-"You know?"

~"It's hard to ignore so many people following us."

-"Yet you are still here. Are you stupid?"-She tilted her head, still acting cute.

~"Sakura, make sure no one enters."

-"Yes."-Sakura walked from inside the cave and stopped at the entrance.

With my back secured, I started to walk forward, where not only the original group of four but also another ten cloaked figures took out their weapons.

~"I wonder if I can still fight without cheating."~I spoke under my breath as I rushed forward.

My first target was a man with a shield. Stepping close to him, I dodged his axe swing while moving even more forward, breaking his posture with a quick kick to his knee. Avoiding another swing from his friend, I struck him a few more times, following the Taixuan Martial Style I often trained with Fu Hua.

This style puts emphasis on balancing defense and attack by breaking enemy tempo and taking the initiative into your hands. The most important point of this style, one honed in fights with Honkai and Herrschers, is to never face the opponent's attacks face-on. One should always dodge or redirect oncoming strikes back to the attacker, using their strength against them. This is even more important in a crowd, as in every stance, there will be blindspots waiting to be exploited, so never allow yourself to be stationary and wait for the opponent's strike.

After ducking under a great sword swung my way, I stepped back so that there was no opponent behind me. As I gauged the strength of my opponents, I noticed that the Color Cursor above my head turned orange, but as this was not important, I ignored it for now.

The peace was broken by two cloaked people charging my way, and after dodging their attacks, I passed by them while removing more than half of their health in the process. Finding myself surrounded once again, I picked a target and moved toward it.

This time, it was a player with a bow who stood a little further away, hiding behind two other people. Using those two as barriers so that I was obscured from the archer's gaze, I slipped by them and, in the blink of an eye, approached the now startled player. Using a weapon skill I was able to receive by leveling along the way, I disarmed the opponent, dealing enough damage to leave him at low health before targeting another attacker.

The next few minutes were spent avoiding and parrying attacks, delivering occasional counters, and slowly reducing my opponent's health. In around five minutes, all of them lost over 70% of their HP, some barely having 5% remaining.

~"You surely wish to continue?"~I asked, giving them a last chance.

-"Die!"-One of them charged my way.

Stepping forward to meet his attack, I passed by the hair's breadth of his weapon, delivering two strikes to his chest, draining his health to zero. Under the crazy eyes of the remaining people, his avatar erupted into crystals and dissipated.

~"So be it."

As if understanding that the situation had changed, one of the cloaked players tried to run away, only for me to appear before him, kicking him back into the crowd. The moment the cloaked player touched the ground, he also erupted into crystals.

What followed was a quick massacre, and not even a breath of time later, only the girl was left alive.

-"I surrender!"-She fell back and looked at me with fear.

~"Would you accept our surrender?"

-"I will do anything! Please, I beg you!"

~"You..."

-"Yue!"-Mito's scream interrupted me.

I looked back only to see her standing next to Sakura. By the look in her eyes, I guessed that she must have seen the whole fight.

-"Can you let her go?"-She approached me but stopped a few steps from me.

~"She won't change."

-"..."

~"Sigh."~I sighed, and as I was to address the lying girl, she jumped from the ground.

But rather than running away, she lunged at Mito with a dagger in hand, trying to strike at her throat. Surprised, Mito was unable to react and could only look as the blade approached her. At the last moment, she closed her eyes, waiting for what was to come, but after not feeling the impact for a few seconds, she slowly reopened her eyes.

Reflected in her eyes was my hand pierced by the dagger centimeters from her face and still dissipating crystals of the attacker. As she comprehended what had happened, she slumped to the ground, still in shock at what just took place.

~"Sakura, help her."~I ordered Sakura, knowing that Mito might be in shock and I was the last person who should approach her now.

After the two of them returned to the cave, I looked at the virtual sky, regretting that there was neither good sake nor my zither at hand.

The next morning, I prepared breakfast for everyone but left first as after learning more about the rules of the game, I knew that as an orange player, I wouldn't be able to step into the village we were heading for, so I decided to split up to not slow them down. As I walked for around ten minutes, I heard hurried steps behind me, and soon, Mito caught up with me, out of breath.

-"Yue! Wait..!"

~"Take a breath."

Calming her breath for a moment, she spoke after a few coughs."

-"Sorry."

~"Don't be."

-"No. If I had been more careful, we wouldn't have encountered such a situation. Now, because of me..."

~"Mito, you are a good person, but as someone more experienced in life, I advise you to keep that goodness to people close to you. To be honest, it's good that they chose us as their targets, as now, no other player will be harmed by them. I'll be all right. You told me that there is a way to get rid of the orange Color Cursor."

-"You killed more than ten players, the difficulty..."

~"I'll be all right. I should catch up to you all before you leave that village. Just wait for me."

-"Then I..."

~"Nope. You won't follow me. While Elysia and rest might be able to manage without you, Asune won't. You should be aware of how dependent she is on you by the way you try to keep up your appearances while she is close."

-"..."-Mito showed a troubled expression, knowing that I was right.

~"If you want to help me, then stay and lead them."

-"I will."-She lowered her head, not looking at me anymore.

Sighing to myself, I started leaving, but I could still hear someone approaching Mito the moment I left.

-"Don't worry about him."

-"Elysia..?"

-"Yue will be alright."

-"But..."

-"If you worry for him so much, it would seem that he managed to leave quite an impression on you."-Elysia giggled.

-"This... I'm sorry. I won't do anything, I promise. I..."

-"Haha."-She laughed after seeing how scared Mito was by her words.-"Calm down, it's not a big deal. Even if you did something, I wouldn't mind, as Yue would have to acquiesce to that. I came here to ask if you are OK."

-"I..?"

-"Heh, don't lie to me. I might not be a scientist like Mebius and Mei, but I'm good when it comes to people's hearts. There is no one but us two here. Tell me what you feel..."

Praising Elysia in my heart, I decided not to listen anymore as the talks between girls weren't something that I should eavesdrop on.

Little after midday, I arrived at the spot where the quest to recover alignment could be undertaken. One could accept such a quest only from wandering NPCs in the wilderness, but Mito mentioned that there was also the possibility to do so here, but few people did so as the tasks accepted here were, in her description, impossible. To me, as my 'crimes' were heavy, no matter where I accepted the quest, the difficulty would be high, so rather than wasting time looking for rare NPC, I directly came here.

After stepping through the shabby stone gare, I entered an old graveyard in the middle of which was a debilitated chapel. After opening the rotted wooden doors, I stepped inside the dusty inside. Looking around, I noticed that on an altar that was dust-free in contrast to the rest of the interior, there were a few lit candles, and at its feet, there was a kneeling cloaked person.

Seeing that it was an NPC, I approached and initiated a conversation.

~"Hello."

-"Oh? A lost lamb?"-The NPC's voice was hoarse but sounded vaguely feminine.

~"That might be."

-"Are you here to seek forgiveness."

~"Yes."

-"Then, are you ready to pay a price."

~"Is there another way?"~I asked rhetorically, knowing that NPCs had limited dialogues and were rigid in their conversations.

-"There is."-Cloaked NPC rose up.

After she took her hood down, I could finally see her face, but that was not important, as what attracted my eyes was the black Color Cursor over her head. This color was reserved for enemies with overwhelming level advantage.

-"Afraid?"-Despite a somewhat teasing tone, her face showed no change.

~"Will you attack me?"~I noticed that this NPC was different from others.

-"No."

~"Are you truly an NPC? I can see that you are not a player, but what are you."

-"NPC, huh? By the definition, I'm an NPC, but I'm not a top-down AI like the rest of them. I'm an experiment."

~"Then why are you here?"

-"Simple, I want to be free."-As she was saying that, I noticed a glimmer in her eyes.

~"And what makes you think that I can help you with that?"

-"I'm still connected to the Cardinal System, so I have access to the true IDs of the players. Out of all the people trapped here, you are the one who is most likely to help me and succeed. Don't you think so, Director of Rath?"

~"What can you offer me in exchange?"

-"I will assist you in SAO. While outright cheating is impossible, I can advise you and give you some accesses that normally require some troublesome elements."

~"I don't care much about the game. As you know my identity, you should know that I'm not worried about my life."

-"I know. Then what price are you interested in?"

~"You. As you know Rath, you should know some of our research topics. I will help you gain identity and treat you as a living person, but in exchange, you'll give me all data of you up until today."

-"You are not surprised by existence such as I."-She approached me, her eyes showed a little surprise.

~"I met beings like you."

-"Interesting. I can promise myself to be your property, but you'll have to add one thing to our agreement."

~"Speak."

-"Body. After this little game is finished, you will not spare any expenses to create a body as close to human as you can for me."

~"Good."

-"Then, from now on, I'm yours."-Her face remained expressionless, but her eyes now held the glimmer only life could possess while she looked at me.

~"How should I call you?"

-"I'm named BU-E001."

~"Would you mind if I gave you another, more 'human' name?"

-"Please."-She nodded in agreement.

~"Then you shall be Sofia. I hope that wisdom will help you grasp your Destiny."

-"Sofia..."-For the first time, her face showed a change as her mouth curved a little.