Chapter 8: Ember

…

Fall is an interesting season. It's arguably the season that contains the most universal change. Not like the reawakening of spring, or the life of summer, but fall acts as the precursor to winter. Where there's no life to be found.

In some morbid sense, Fall was the harbinger to death.

The red and yellow leaves crunched underneath my feet as I made my way through a forest on floor 32. It was a minor floor for all intents and purposes, but a lot of people liked to come here because of how seasonal it was this time of year. The forest was filled with a mixture of maple and birch trees, and each tree seemed to be perfectly positioned to create the ideal atmosphere. Or that could be just me thinking that.

I like to think it helped my mental state with how it currently was. My head hurt slightly, and I could feel my eyes becoming heavier and heavier with each step. The tip of the sword that I carried was dragging slightly across the ground, catching the occasional autumn leaf.

My head tilted slightly when I saw a cluster of leaves rise off the ground and form a small cluster. They shifted and moved until the leaves eventually formed the shape of a wolf with glowing yellow eyes, which let out a low snarl towards me. A small HP bar appeared above the wolf's head, which read "Autumn Wolf."

I let out a small sigh as I lifted the sword up to prepare for combat, which felt slightly heavier than normal. The Autumn Wolf let out a small roar before running at me, preparing to leap and bite me. The moment it left the ground, I sidestepped out of the way, swinging my sword upwards in a vertical slice through the monster of red and gold.

The sword cut through as if the beast was literal butter, causing a miniature flurry of leaves to fly off of the wolf, leaving a gaping hole in its stomach. It hit the ground with a small thud, rolling once before it stopped and was able to get back to its feet, letting out a growl.

Lazily looking to the HP bar, I saw that the slice took away a quarter of its health. My eyes glazed over to a small flutter of leaves that skittered on the ground in a rush, before joining the wolf's underside, restoring it to make it seem as if no damage was done. The HP gauge didn't change however.

Running forward, I raised my blade horizontally to myself, planning to cut the beast wide open. In my carelessness however, the Autumn Wolf took this opportunity to take another leap at me, causing both of us to tumble to the ground, the wolf on my chest, opening its maw.

It plunged its head down to bite my face, but I moved my head to the side, finding my sword at my side, attempting a slash at the wolf. It didn't do nearly as much damage since it was an awkward swing at something on top of me, but it had the intended effect of making the wolf jump away to try and avoid damage, freeing me.

Quickly getting to my feet, I turned to see the Autumn Wolf ready to jump at me again, but as it leapt in the air, I plunged my sword straight into its gaping maw. I believe it would have let out some kind of cry if it could, but all I saw was the shock in its eyes, and those same eyes growing dimmer and dimmer until they were non-existent.

Moments after the wolf finally went limp, its body fell apart, the leaves blowing gently in the autumn wind. I put away my sword with a quiet sigh, and continued walking on as if the fight never even happened.

The sun was getting low in the sky, and while that usually meant that more monsters appeared than normal, I wasn't that concerned. The woods had more than enough cover. Besides, seeing the red sky behind a small layer of colored leaves and trees was worth the risk.

Looking at the view, I took a deep breath of satisfaction. No sooner had I taken this breath when something else became apparent to me.

That scent… I thought to myself. Is that...smoke?

My feet stopped, and I stood still, trying to find out what the source of the scent was, or if it was a problem, being in a forest and all. A few more whifs. The scent doesn't seem like a fire out of control, just something small...although I could be wrong-

The thoughts in my head stopped immediately. I shook my head, eliminating any ideas of deduction from my mind. A moment later, I decided to keep walking and see if I could just find out where the scent was coming from.

It wasn't long after where after wandering around, with only the smoke's scent to guide me, that I started to hear the crackling of a fire. It didn't sound like it was out of control though. After walking around two or three more trees, I finally found the source of what I smelled:

In a small clearing, there was a small campfire that seemed like it was well kept. Sitting against a birch tree, staring into the gentle flames, was a girl holding her cloak around herself like a blanket. A simple longsword and circular wooden shield lay beside her.

When I stepped into view of her, she practically jumped up in place, her hand gripping her sword's hilt which easily slid out of its sheath. I was surprised to find that it wasn't a longsword at all, but rather an estoc. Intriguing.

I simply stood there without reacting, my glazed eyes looking her over. "That...that fire looks… looks cozy. Is it?"

"Well…" she started, not knowing how to respond. She moved a strand of her short, wavy brown hair out of her face. "I mean...yes, it is."

I let out a small yawn. "Is...is it alright if...if I join you?"

She looked at me with a slightly puzzled expression. "May I ask who you are?"

"Oh, no...nobody you...you'd know." I responded, plopping down next to the fire without waiting for permission. "But if you...you want...want a name, I...I suppose you can...can call me Phantom."

She slowly sat back down in her original spot, estoc still out of its sheath. "That's...an odd name."

"I've met...met people named...named Noobmaster...master69 and BallsDeep69. Trust me when...when I say there's more...more odd names out...out there."

I stared intently at the flames as it became quiet. I don't know if the other person thought it was awkward, but I felt at home.

"You looking for the tower?"

I looked back up to her, the fire's light being reflected by her light face. She had something of a serious look in her eyes. Not really interested in the question, I look back to the flames, readjusting my mask.

This must not have been enough for her to stop, because she asks me again. "The event people are saying is on this floor, the Tower of Thanatos. You looking for it?"

"What makes you think I'd be looking for it?"

She scoffs at me. "So a random player walking around in the woods isn't looking for possibly the biggest reward this game has to offer?"

The flames flicker to and fro, looking almost like there's people dancing within them. "Are you?" I quietly respond?

The sound of her voice finally ceases. Not long after, the sound of a sword being sheathed follows. "Of course I am."

"Why?"

"...Pardon me?"

The wind gave a slight breeze, scattering a handful of leaves. "People like you…" a grim smile creeps up on my face. In the growing darkness and light of the dancing flames, it must have been I was starting to look like a ghost. "...People like you need to learn to love this world."

The only sounds that could be heard was the occasional blowing wind and the crackling flames. In the distance the sun was only barely visible over the horizon.

I broke the silence. "You shouldn't be here." The grim smile was still present. In the corner of my vision I saw her hand once again grip her sword's hilt.

"...What do you mean by that?"

"I wasn't referring to you."

A few moments pass where nothing happens other than the occasional glance around by the girl. "Shouldn't you be with your brother?

I hardly hear the leaves crunching under feet, almost as if the steps are light as feathers. I then hear a familiar voice. "You practically vanished off the face of Aincrad. We've both been looking for you for the past month."

"That probably should've told you something."

Instead of giving a response, she looked between me and the girl in the dim light of the flames. "Who's your friend?"

"We're not friends." The girl quickly spoke. She looked like she wanted to say something else, but for some reason she stayed quiet.

I simply shrugged, standing up to face Saphira. "I must be off." Turning around and starting to trudge away, I felt a firm grip on my arm which caused my movement to stop, almost jolting it. "Let go."

"Into the dark of the night?"

"I'll have the moon."

"...You've certainly gotten better with your words."

"You and Mataras have that effect on me when you're around."

Looking back and seeing Saphira's stone grip on my arm, I also saw her stone face. A look of determination was in her eyes. The same look I saw in her when we first battled side by side in the temple underneath the depths.

I had completely forgotten about the girl sitting by the fire though. She seemed nervous, almost awkward. I couldn't blame her.

I sighed. "I just wanna be left alone. Is that too much?"

Saphira didn't respond. She simply continued to stare at me. For a moment, anyways, before she sighed and let go.

"You can talk to us, you know? We're your friends." I said nothing. "Meet us at the Zephyr by tomorrow at 10. If not...Well, I promised my brother an ultimatum before he got his way." She opened up her menu, scrolling through her inventory.

I raise my eyebrow. "What, is your brother going to beat me into submission if I don't talk with him?"

A familiar blue teleport crystal materialized in her hands. The barest shadow of a smirk found its way on her face before saying "Spoilers. Teleport: Wileris."

In a flash of blue light, she was gone sooner than she appeared.

I blinked a few times. The girl who was sitting was getting back on her feet, strapping her sword to her left side. "Well, that was interesting to watch. Im going."

She walked away from the fire, towards the direction of the now-slightly-risen full moon.

"To the...to the tower?"

No response.

"What a coin...a coincidence. That's where I...where I'm also going." I lightly jogged to catch up with her. The expression on her face betrayed a hint of distaste, but she otherwise said nothing.

We walked in silence, except for enemies spawning every few minutes. They weren't anything to write home about. Against a single person they were tricky. Two on one however exposed many of their weak points, so we took them out with ease.

She got a big chunk of the EXP though since we weren't technically in a party, and neither of us said anything to start one. She didn't say anything, I didn't say anything. She didn't make any sign she felt awkward, and neither did I.

We both liked to walk in silence, I discovered.

It wasn't long before the trees became less and less dense, eventually becoming an open circular clearing. At first glance, it seemed to be a couple miles long. But that wasn't the most interesting thing about it.

The most interesting thing about it was the fact that there were several groups of players. Some were standing and chatting, some were sitting down. A couple dozen groups from the look of it.

The full moon was also higher in the sky, although not at its peak.

I decided to break the long silence between me and the girl. "So, what do..what do you...do you know of...of the Tower of Than...Thanatos?"

She waited a moment. My eyes caught her finger tapping the estoc at her side. "Other than the fact that there's an incredible treasure at the top, and the tower itself only appears at a certain time? Not much."

I stayed silent. Argo's information seemed to correlate. "It's an event tha' only appeared recently. A coup'la teams already tried ta clear it this month...though none 'ave made it back..." Her words rang in my head. "Some inscriptions tha' were found in there claim the treasure allows one ta be…"

"...Master of Death…" I spoke aloud in a whisper. If the girl heard me, she made no indication. Looking around at all the other players, it was no wonder that people were flocking to this event. The popular theory was that the descriptions meant the treasure granted its holder immunity to dying in this game. Whether or not the rumor was true, it still gave people hope.

And of course a giant thirst for treasure.

The full moon was higher in the sky now.

I turned to look at the girl next to me. "I don't...I don't think I...think I ever got...got your name."

She met my gaze, and all I could see now was indifference in her eyes. Mixed with it though...there was a spark of determination.

"Ember." She told me before facing back forwards. The sound of the night's wind and chatting players continued to surround us.

I hummed to myself. "You'd think with several teams trying this dungeon for 5 nights straight, someone would know what the treasure looked like…" I spoke aloud to no one in particular.

"From what I hear, no one's been able to defeat the boss." Ember spoke next to me.

"Huh...In that...in that case do you...do you wanna form...form a party?" I asked her. She raised an eyebrow at me. "It sounds like...sounds like alone you...you won't be able...be able to do what several...what several people in a party...in a party were unable...unable to do. At...at least alone.

Ember closed her eyes, breathing a sigh through her nose. "Sure. Why not?"

Swiping a finger through the air, I was able to send her a party request within moments. Her name shortly appeared next to mine in my HUD.

It wasn't a moment later when a loud gong echoed through the clearing, which was shortly followed by another gong.

The air seemed to shimmer as a large spot in the middle of the clearing seemed to shimmer. A third gong rang.

Then, as if an invisible hand was pulling at the ground like it was made of goop, the ground stretched and curled, swiftly becoming a bluish-green substance the minute it touched the air above it, growing taller and more complex as another gong sounded. Then another.

The goop twisted and curled, stretching and reforming, climbing higher and higher into the sky. It wasn't until the tenth gong where the goop solidified into a more distinguishable shape.

The eleventh gong sounded. A large tower stood before us, appearing higher than even the night's sky. It vibrated as if changing from a liquid to a solid was a difficulty.

By the time the twelfth gong sounded, there stood before us a massive stone tower that glowed with a greenish-blue light. From where I was standing, it hurt my neck to stare at the top. The very tip of the tower looked like it was touching the full moon that was at its peak in the sky.

No more gongs.

A piece of the tower's wall crumbled slowly into dust, revealing a large entryway into the tower.

This was my first time ever seeing the tower itself, and I must say that it was a spectacle to be sure.

All of the players that were standing around and chatting with each other minutes before were just starting to make their way into the entrance.

Wordlessly, without any acknowledgement of each other, Ember and I walked with the crowd, slowly making our way towards the tower's entrance.

As soon as we entered the darkness of the tower's entrance, the crowd of players that we were stuck in suddenly disappeared, as if they were never there to begin with. Ember and I stood within a giant hall filled with greenish-blue light. Looking behind me, there was a darkened archway that I can only presume led outside.

At the end of the hall, there was a tall staircase that ended at a small wooden door. But the most intriguing thing were the walls all around us.

They seemed to shimmer, even move up the tower, no doubt travelling to the top. It was as if the walls themselves were alive.

"Where…where did all…all the players go?" I said out loud.

Ember simply shrugged and walked forward, drawing her estoc. "The game probably only allows parties to stay together. So it wouldn't be crowded."

Ah. That makes sense.

Starting to follow her towards the stairway, I felt something. That sinking feeling in my gut that you get whenever you have a bad feeling. Or rather, in my case, when you're being watched.

A chill ran down my spine as I froze mid-footstep. Almost hesitantly, my eyes darted around the area in front of me, trying to spy the source of my unease. When the only person I could see was Ember, I swerved around, taking in the part of the room that was behind me.

Nothing.

"Hey. You coming?" Facing back forward, Ember's bored expression on her face yanked me back into reality. I blinked. The unnerving sensation of someone watching me left as swiftly as it came.

"Yea...I'm coming. Sorry about...about that." My legs went into a slow jog.

By the time we had already cleared around 10 floors of the tower, things seemed to get weirder and weirder. Not just from a literal tower of death itself, but from...well, a gameplay standpoint.

One of the reasons no one had gotten the treasure at the top yet was because the boss was extremely difficult. However, if that was the case then why were the enemies on the lower floors...easier?

Ember and I made short work of the enemy mobs of skeletons and undead zombies, but they seemed to be pathetically easy. The wolves in the forest outside the tower were easier than these things.

"Hya!" Ember's war cry echoed through the chamber we were in as she thrust her estoc through the eye socket of a skeleton, separating the skull from the backbone causing it to disintegrate. She gave a swift kick to the ribcage, causing the rest of the bones to fall on the floor, motionless.

Wordlessly, I pulled my own sword out of the bag of rotten flesh that used to be an undead, sheathing it and letting out a sigh.

Almost immediately, Ember started to pace towards the hallway at the end of the chamber. "Hurry up." She spoke almost a little too fast. "We need to get a move on."

Following her into the dimly lit hallway, with only the light from the walls to guide us, I half expected some stronger enemy to jump us from the shadows. Alas, that did not happen. It was starting to seriously concern me that we were this high up, and nothing had been overtly challenging. At least considering the last time I entered a dungeon like this was in the Abyssal Ruins.

I finally decided to voice my concerns. "Doesn't...doesn't the fact that...that the enemies we fought...we fought have been...been rather...weak bother you?"

"No. Should it?" She responded without even breaking her pace or turning to look back at me.

"Well…" I start. "...Wouldn't we have...we have a harder...harder time with this since...with this since other players have had...have had difficulty in...in the past five days...five days since this tower...this tower becoming available?"

Ember's footsteps echo through the corridor. "The desperate race and claw at each other for any semblance of deliverance." She responds. Her voice held something akin to contempt. "They were either too weak, or they didn't think."

My footsteps slowed. "So...so you think you're...you're better than every...than everyone else. That...that it?"

The sound of her footsteps ceased, causing me to bump into her. She didn't acknowledge it. It was a few seconds before she spoke again. "Only the best of us can get out." Her voice was quiet. At least more quiet than when she previously spoke to me. "Over two thousand were too weak."

I didn't say anything. Actually, I didn't want to say anything. When nothing else was spoken between us for a minute or so, she simply continued to walk on, with me on her heels.

It wasn't that long before we discovered another spiral staircase going up, something that we've encountered on every other floor so far. Once we scaled it and reached the next floor, we found something that we hadn't seen within the tower so far.

A large gaping chamber with no discernable pathways out of it. Any idiot's brain would instantly jump to "boss."

Likely having the same thought, Ember drew her estoc and got in a ready stance. "Think we're at the top?"

"...Probably." I respond, drawing my own sword. My eyes darted around the room, wondering if there really was some enemy or boss that we were supposed to fight. If the boss was supposed to be currently undefeated…and yet there was nothing. No boss, no nothing. It was unnerving. The room and it's design seemed to indicate that something was supposed to be here. Unless…

My head slowly tilted up, eyes creepy up the walls until they finally reached the ceiling. Instead of something being perched above our heads, there was nothing but the arched ceiling.

"...Something isn't right." Ember quietly muttered under her breath. "Something should-"

From across the room, appearing literally from thin air came what initially looked like giant metal shards. In a fraction of a second, they stretched and uncoiled while staying in a straight line.

Unceremoniously, they impaled Ember straight through the stomach as she let out a small cry of surprise. It was now obvious that the shards, now completely still, were visibly connected by some kind of metal wire. Slowly turning her head to look at me, I saw a look of horror and fear carved on Ember's face. Her HP bar in the top-left corner of my vision had dipped well under half from that single attack alone.

"Hel-" Not even allowing her to finish her plea, the shards retracted from her stomach in a violent manner. In doing so, they cut Ember clean in half, her pixelated blood spraying everywhere she was standing, including my self.

I let out an involuntary gasp of surprise as the event played out before my eyes, even taking an unstead step back, causing me to fall on my bottom and drop my sword besides me. Ember's health dropped to zero, and the bloody remains of her body shattered.

I might not have known her for even a few hours but seeing someone lose their life in front of me made my adrenaline spike, causing my fear response to kick in.

My breath quickened. I wrenched my eyes to the place where Ember died to the other side of the room, where I now saw a giant buster sword being swung in a circular motion with no one wielding it.

At least, that's what I thought at first. Mere seconds later, a figure who was hidden under a large brown cloak fizzled into and out of existence, almost as if he was a bug in the game and not an actual person. I couldn't see his face, obscured by the shadows of the cloak. Almost as if he knew my fear was in high gear, he continued to swing his sword while leisurely meandering towards me.

In an attempt to flee him, I scrambled to my feet while trying to run, grabbing my sword in the process, only to come face to face with the stone wall of the circular dome.

"Oh, Phantom…" The figure said. "Is that what you're calling yourself now?" His voice was layered, making him sound like he was speaking several different voices at once. At this point I didn't know if the figure was a he or a she.

"You...you make it sound like...sound like you...you know me." I said through fast breaths. I gripped my longsword with both hands, going into what I thought was a protective stance.

The figure laughed a horrible laugh. He stopped swinging his buster sword, hefting it on his shoulder with a smoothness that was unnerving. It was too fluid, too perfect to be anything human. "So, you've turned into a cowering little boy in denial while I've been away? You disappoint me." The last three words he spoke were dripping with venomous contempt.

"I don't...I-I don't know-know you. Not a...not a chance in...in all of...of Ain...Aincrad."

What he spoke next was something I would never have expected. His voice, which was garbled and layered suddenly became monophonous and clear.

"There's always a chance, Phantom, as long as one can think."

The moment my mind processed those words, I could virtually feel my heart rate spike again. My heart was beating out of my chest. I was borderline hyperventilating. My iron grip on my sword slackened to the point where I couldn't hold my sword anymore.

I didn't register the clang of steel hitting stone. The figure in front of me was all that mattered. I took a couple of unconscious steps back, eventually being stopped by the stone cold wall behind me, whose cold seemed to envelope me whole.

"N...n...no..." I spoke through my hyperventilating breath. "N...not...not...you…"

He started laughing again through his clear voice. At first it was just a few chuckles. Those chuckles turned into laughter. That laughter turned maniacal. He lifted his buster sword off his shoulder, stabbing it into the ground beside him. In his maniacal laughter, I could barely see his eyes underneath his hood.

Eyes I thought I'd never see again.

I dropped to my knees. My hyperventilating turned into screaming as I bowed my head, my arms holding me up from falling completely on the floor.

In the corner of my eyes, I saw the figure wrench his buster sword out of the ground, and with a flick of the wrist, the sword transformed from a straight blade to many different pieces connected by a silver wire. A whip.

With an extravagant motion and perfect fluidity of body, he kept laughing maniacally as he swung the bladed whip down on my shaking body.

My eyes shot open as I screamed into the silence hanging in the air, completely breaking it. I was lying down. And freezing.

And alive.

I stopped screaming, but my breathing was quick, not quite the hyperventilating that I felt moments ago. I tried to force myself to calm down, but the scene that I witnessed kept repeating on loop in my head. The robed figure. That was…

Stop! The voice in my head told me. My breathing still hadn't slowed down. I forced myself to swallow as I snapped my eyes shut. In an effort to blot out that horrible scene, I focused myself to draw a picture in my head. The place I always went to when I was upset.

Lines turned into an island surrounded by mist, floating above the ocean. The saltwater crashed against the craggs of the coastline. Silver clouds blocked out the entirety of the sky, but despite the lack of sunlight, green grass and elden twisted oak trees dotted the surface.

My breathing started slowing down. As soon as I was able to breathe easy again, I slowly cracked my eyes open.

While I already knew I was lying on my back, I didn't realize that there was a familiar figure on her back laying right next to me: Ember. She was alive.

She was alive. Internally I let out a massive sigh of relief. That confirmed what I saw wasn't real.

But if it wasn't real...what exactly was it?

A cold wind blew over my probe body, and it was only now I realized that the wind had always been there since I woke up. Wind…why did that seem...off?

The clockworks in my mind started turning as I finally grasped the contradiction that was naggin in the back of my mind. Why would there be strong wind within an enclosed tower?

Letting out a small groan, I pulled myself into the sitting position, and that's when I noticed the biggest change in our surroundings: We were in what looked like a large circular open pavilion, with curved pillars at the circle's edge holding up the domed ceiling. The starry night sky and the light of the full moon shone just past the pillars. At the center of the pavilion stood what seemed to be the center of the pavilion sat a somewhat-large throne of stone. It was incredibly plain, and the only thing of note about it was that its back reached rather high, but not quite close enough to the ceiling.

Mainly because there was a giant bell suspended above our heads.

"Ah!" A high pitched voice yelled beside me. Hearing something other than the wind break the silence caused my body to jolt in surprise. Whipping my head around, Ember was swiftly sitting up in a shock with her hand outstretched in front of her, as if she was reaching to grab something. Her breathing was also quick-paced.

"It's...it's-it's ok." I tried to assure her, even though my own speech was incredibly shaky. I could feel a remnant of Adrenalin racing through my system. She turned and looked at me, eyes wide with the familiar emotion of terror. "It's-it's-it's ok." I repeated.

She stared at me. She continued to stare at me. It reached the point where it was getting unnerving.

Don't. The little voice in the back of my head spoke to me, as if it knew that I wanted to try and find out what she was thinking. I wanted to observe. Don't do it. You swore.

Despite the little voice, I was already thinking and observing, disregarding any internal conflict in response to the lingering adrenaline and fear.

Her eyes were what betrayed her the most. As she stared at me, I could easily tell what emotions were in her eyes: shock. She must have seen something else. I don't know what, but it left her in shock. Fear. Wariness. Also obvious. Even while sitting down, it's easy to tell that her body is stiff, something that happens when one is expecting to be attacked.

Stop it. Stop it! The little voice cut me off. I shut my eyes and brought my hand to my head, forcing myself to stop staring at her. Stop observing her.

I stayed like that for a few seconds, hoping to finally get the adrenaline out of me. When I brought down my hand and opened my eyes again, Ember was standing, looking around the pavilion where we were. She then walked over to the edge of the pavilion, placing a hand on the pillar and peering down. She then tilted her head up.

"We're at the top." She spoke in a shaky voice. She turned around to face me as I myself rose to my feet. "But...how? What WAS that?"

"Your deepest and darkest fears." A new voice calmly spoke.

We both turned to find the source of the new voice, and he was sitting on the throne that was empty mere milliseconds ago. He (at least I assume it was a he) was slouching, or at bare minimum it must have been his version of reclining. He was a figure that was covered by a large cloak that seemed to be made purely out of black feathers. I couldn't tell what he looked like, but under the hood of feathers I thought I could see someone's closed mouth. He gave off an aura of unease.

"Who...Who-who are...you-you?" I asked the figure

"I am known by many names, but I would believe you would know me best as the being of which this tower is named." His voice was smooth. It wasn't deep and menacing, but rather he spoke with an air of friendliness. It was the kind of voice that would tell you they had just baked chocolate chip cookies and would ask if you wanted some.

I heard the familiar shing of a sword being drawn, and I looked back over to Ember, who had her estoc once again in hand. "You're Thanatos, then?"

The hood of the figure shifted slightly, most likely to look in Ember's direction. "I am." He casually stated as if he was talking of the weather. "I suppose you would call me the 'Boss of the dungeon.' So then, Ember. Phantom. Why are you here?"

"How...how did you...did you know...know our...our names?"

Thanatos chuckled to himself. "I know the names of all who enter my tower, masked one. Since I answered your question, would you answer my own? Please?"

Ember gripped her estoc in both hands, holding it in front of her. "You know very well why we're here. The treasure." Her voice was hard, almost angry. "We're not leaving without it."

A sigh escaped from underneath Thanatos's hood. "Are you sure?" He asked, a tinge of sadness in his voice. "There's still time to back out." Without any motion or indication, the floor at the edge of the pavilion slanted, with stair steps forming every other moment, turning into a spiral staircase down. "There's always time to-"

Ember sprinted across the floor, silent and deadly, and plunged her blade into the darkness of underneath Thanatos's hood.

Or at least that's what would have happened if a spectral hand didn't burst from the air above Thanatos's head, open and held up in the well-known "stop" gesture. What was most incredible about all of that though was the fact that the tip of Ember's estoc was stopped dead in its tracks by the spectral hand's palm.

"Very well." Thanatos spoke. The spectral hand poofed into thin air, causing a small gust of wind which forced Ember back.

It was at this point that Thanatos finally stood from his throne. When he did, his cloak started to unfurl from around him, as if they were pieces of cloth that were just bound around him. At first I thought he was simply using some form of magic, but as soon as his 'cloak' finished unfurling, I saw three pairs of giant black wings sprouting from his back.

Standing before us was a giant of a man, covered in what seemed to be obsidian armor, both jagged and rough while also being shiny and smooth. His and face were obscured by a smooth white porcelain mask which had a painted perfect smile stretching all across. His eyes were simply black holes that seemed worn around the edges, and black stains fell out from underneath them, almost as if they were tears.

In the center of the mask's eye holes flashed to yellow dots. Pinpricks, really. Staring into them made chills run down my spine. Although his entire face was covered, long shining white hair trailed from the back of his head, waving as if it was in water.

Stretching his left arm straight to the side, a single scythe materialized within his obsidian-clad hand. The scythe itself was rather simple in design: Leather bound every inch of the scythe's handle, while the pure white blade seemed to hang onto a pitch-black orb by a forked-piece of metal, which soon morphed into a single blade near the tip.

A single health bar appeared above the towering figure before us that read one word: Thanatos.

Without giving me anymore time to think, He rushed at me with speeds I hadn't seen before in this game, giving me a swift kick to the gut. This knocked all of the wind out of me, sending me flying across the pavilion. I most certainly would have gone over the edge if not for my colliding into one of the pillars. I heard a couple of cracking sounds as I struggled to inhale a single breath. I fell to my side, clutching my stomach in panic and trying desperately to take in a breath.

My eyes wandered up to my HUD just to evaluate if the damage was equal to the pain I was in, and I almost did a double take: My HP, which was near full mere seconds ago was already half gone.

My eyes wandered over to where I saw Ember with her estoc engaged in a deadly dance with Thanatos. While she wasn't getting many good hits in, She was doing what I thought was a good job of just evading his attacks. Most of which were punches and kicks. Not to say she didn't get hit every now and then, her health was already a quarter gone.

If this was the boss just using his own strength, I shuddered to think what would happen when He used his scythe.

After what felt like an eternity, I was finally able to breath and get back to my feet. I felt my legs shaking, both from all the adrenaline and from the fear. Steeling myself, I drew my own longsword and attempted to distract the god of death.

I threw a horizontal slice at him, hoping that it would be enough to get a good amount of HP out of him. The moment I thought it was going to connect however, a large staff blocked my sword. The handle. When I saw the scythe, I was tempted to jump away from him, but I thankfully didn't. Ember was on the other side of him, her estoc being blocked effortlessly at the tip by the palm of his obsidian gauntlet.

We were currently in a deadlock. Ember decided to break it a moment later when she quickly jumped back, following up with a thrust attack to the lower legs.

She managed to pierce his armor. Thanatos broke his own deadlock with me, using his six wings to blow both Ember and myself away from himself.

I gave ember a sideways glance. "Good shot."

She grimaced. "Not good enough." She said back. This caused me to look back to Thanatos's health bar, and my heart nearly sank: Ember's attack had only removed a handful of hit points from a boss that had a couple thousand.

Thanatos let out a heavy, drawn out sigh. "What makes you think you're worthy to claim my treasure?"

Ember again spoke up before I could say anything myself. "Because something pretending to be real doesn't deserve to be better than a true life." She jumped and threw herself once more at Thanatos, aiming her blade at the grinning mask.

In a single, swift movement, his right hand reached in front of his face and grabbed Ember's arm before she could impale him. Ember's grip remained on her sword as she lost momentum and now hung in midair, attempting to give a couple kicks to the masked being.

Another deep and heavy breath.

"Ember!" I tried to slice off the hand that was grippin her estoc, but my sword simply bounced off of the armor plating, causing me to be knocked back and my sword to fly from my hand. The other result of that is a couple of hit points being reduced from Thanatos.

His head slowly swiveled to stare at me, and when those pinpricks stared into my own eyes, more fear crept its way up my spine.

"...This 'pretender' is going to defeat just two more unworthy treasure hunters."

The scythe, through some transcendence of the laws of physics, spun in his left hand before he slashed right through Ember, cutting her legs clean off.

She let out a cry of agony, with both her sword being released from her grip and the two now-useless appendages hitting the ground with a thump.

Thanatos tossed Ember's body towards the edge of the pavilion where it unceremoniously tumbled towards the edge, and half of her upper body fell over the side with her arms holding her in place.

I didn't hear what she was saying, but Ember kept stuttering to herself as she tried to claw herself back within safety, but her efforts and her squirming made her slip even more over the side. Her eyes met mine.

My world froze.

All I saw in her pupils was the pure animalistic fear that one had when they knew they were going to die.

It was a look I had seen too many times before. Both here, in Aincrad, and…

I don't really know exactly what happened next. I don't know if I spoke, if I screamed, if Thanatos tried to stop me or simply stood still, or if it was either fear or guilt that engulfed me in that moment. All I do know is that I was laying down, half of me hanging over the edge and my lower half keeping me to the pavilion floor.

The most important thing though was that I had Ember's arm in a death grip. She was suspended hundreds, if not thousands of feet in the air, but she was safe.

She was almost hyperventilating at this point, and I was doing no better. Between breaths, I kept saying the same thing over and over again. "Safe...safe...safe...safe...safe...safe…"

However long the moment lasted, I felt something sharp and cold wrap itself around my leg and lift me up in the air. Still holding onto Ember for dear life, I saw first the armored black legs, then the breastplate, and finally I was held up to where my nose was almost touching the porcelain mask.

Thanatos let out another long, heavy breath as he stared into my being with those yellow pinpricks from the black, tear-stained eye holes. His scythe was nowhere in sight. With his other hand, he delicately reached up and peeled my own mask off my face, revealing to him my eyes that he most likely saw were full of terror. "Did you think you could win against the Master of Death, where countless others with much larger parties had failed?"

He spoke with the same beautiful voice that he spoke to us in when we first saw him, and that made seeing his face all the more unnerving. The fact that something so beautiful could come from something so twisted, so malignant.

"I...I didn't come up…come up here thinking...here thinking that at...that at all." I don't know how I found the nerve to speak, but ever since I had heard of this tower appearing, I needed to know something. Something I could only know by reaching the top. "Because….because you're not...you're not the Master...the Master of Death."

Thanatos let out a raspy breath, not as clear or composed as every other time. "Oh really, now?"

"My mother…My mother told me that there was only one Master of Death. One who she taught me to know. I came up here to see if you really were who you said you were." I paused for a moment. "I don't recognize you."

The wind was the only thing that could be heard between us after I said that. I expected the boss would let us go sometime soon. There was no conceivable way we could defeat him.

Thanatos then threw me, sending both myself and Ember flying.

We hit the floor of the pavilion near the throne with a thud.

Legitimately, I was surprised. For all intents and purposes, we should've been dead.

"Every player that I've struck down had varying reactions to death." My eyes widened, and I tried to find Thanatos, who was still standing where he had thrown us. I tried to get up, but the most I could muster at this moment was on my knees. "They cried. They screamed. They even faced it head-on. However, they all shared one thing:"

Thanatos started walking over to where Ember and I were, and I noticed she was also trying to get up, despite being legless. She was only able to hold herself up by using her arms to push her up. Thanatos summoned his scythe in his left hand. "None of them understood death." He stood over the two of us. The weirdest thing is that while it was certainly menacing, there was a part of it that...wasn't.

He continued. "No one can truly understand or comprehend death, but you...Your eyes tell me that the one who seeked death by coming here understands death the most of all than those that tried to steal my treasure."

He lifted his scythe high in the air, and for a split second I believed he was going to slice me in two. He swung.

The stone throne behind me split in two with a resounding CRACK!

Thanatos withdrew his hand, leaving his scythe there in the broken chair before taking a step back.

He tilted his head to look at me through his mask once more, almost as if he was a child observing a new toy. Then, he held out his right hand, opening his palm face-down, where my mask fell to the floor with a metallic chink!

He turned his back to us, walking once more towards the edge of the pavilion. "I was instructed to only give my Treasure to the person who didn't actively seek it. I have fulfilled my role." What he said next was probably the most surprising thing I heard him say, and if I didn't believe he had some form of sentience, I did then.

"The one your mother taught you of...Soli deo Gloria." All six of his great black wings spread out around him, reaching to what seemed like the very diameter of the pavilion. He took a single step off the edge, and his wings let out a single powerful beat which sent him flying out of the tower. The gust didn't seem to affect me or Ember, but the speed of which Thanatos vanished, flying straight into what seemed to be towards the moon, was astounding.

"After that, Ember and I were forced-teleported out of the tower, along with what I assume was everyone else who entered." I was staring out of Cafe Zephyr, watching the endlessly falling rain putter against the window. Leaning completely in the corner of the booth, content with using as little space as possible. Across from me sat Saphira and Mataras, who were waiting for me when I first arrived here after my encounter in the tower.

"The tower collapsed, quite spectacularly if you ask me, and the two of us got out of there before anyone else noticed we had the treasure." I delicately picked up my cup of Hazelnut coffee in front of me, careful not to disturb my position, taking a sip and holding the warmth in my hands. "It cost something of a small fortune, but we were able to regenerate Ember's legs. We're keeping in touch in case we need each other again."

Mataras closed his eyes in thought. "And the scythe?"

My eyes moved to where I stood the scythe up (blade-down, thanks for asking) next to our booth, then back to Mataras. Thankfully it wasn't falling from its spot towards the floor. "What of it?"

"What's your plan for it? Save it or sell it, Treasure hunter?"

Another sip, and the feeling of warmth spread through my being. "I went through far too much trouble. Regardless if I wanted Deliverance when entering the tower or not, I'm not giving away something that almost got me and someone else killed."

My gaze returned to looking out the window. "That's everything that's happened since I left." The therapeutic sound of rain continued on as thoughts swirled around in my mind. One thought gained dominance, soon another one took its place. Ideas, one after the other, filled the space in my head.

"Phantom...why didn't you come to us when you...after your guild?" Saphira asked. I didn't say anything, focused on the window.

"Have you ever thought about what comes next?" I ask out loud, not really paying attention. "We clear Aincrad. Then what? Do things...just go back the way they were?"

I didn't hear, or simply didn't notice what they responded with. I hadn't noticed it before, but I felt lucid. More thoughts escaped through my mouth, the sound of rain practically encouraging me to continue. "Life out there...it's so dull and grey. In here…" My words paused. The lucid feeling in me stayed, agitating me. "Does anyone have dreams anymore? Do people hope to finish something in the world after Aincrad...It seems silly. You can do loads of things here…"

I continued. "Dreams...most of my family were filmmakers, you know? Directing, cinematography, writing, animating...we loved animation...It always started with our love of books and the pictures they painted...Seems so silly now. The family won't do stuff like that ever again."

"Why?"

The first word that I properly noticed from them, and it was a question that had an interesting answer. Shifting my view to look at the two again, I pondered the same question in my head.

"Because...We're in Aincrad." I responded after a minute. "Leaving Aincrad is...It's not happening."

Mataras's brow furrowed. "We're getting out of here, Phantom. I promise."

I close my eyes. "Are we, though? We're only 32 floors in. 24 percent of Aincrad's population is dead."

When I heard Mataras's voice, it wasn't his usual dark and broody tone, but rather simply really firm. "I refuse to stay here for the remainder of my life. We aren't meant to be here."

I only gave a simple response that was the summary of all my thoughts ever since our situation was completely revealed by our captor.

"Well, maybe we should be."

I bet you're thinking: FINALLY! A NEW CHAPTER! YES! MY DREAMS HAVE COME TRUE! Either that or you're thinking: This loser finally posted something new? Lazy butt.

Anyways, I sincerely, SINCERELY apologize for the wait that's been over a year and two months, but long story short, I had severe writers block and just forgot about this story. I went through several different versions of this chapter, not being happy with any of the 4, until I wrote this version.

Also I made it comparatively longer. Hope you like it.

A lot has happened to me since the last update: I gained a job that I love, I was laid off of that same job a month ago due to circumstances out of my control (no hard feelings), I worked on a feature film, I watched a lot of anime, My brother proposed to his Fiance, and I updated this story. That's all off the top of my head, and it's already pretty great!

Hopefully the next chapter won't be as long of a wait as this one, but I sincerely hope you love this chapter, and have a great day!

-Silver