Chapter Thirty Three: Log In! Have Fun! Log Out! ... and lose your mind!

"is that a reference to the Dot Hack//: series or Sword Art Online?"

"... furthest thing from my mind, actually."

-lightningblazer.

-emperorwolf.

-Sillias-

that night, while his fennec associate slumbered, Sillias was on the roof of the motel, gazing at the full moon with sad eyes, recalling the last time he saw this.

it may surprise any regular person to know that even murderous devils like Sillias have hearts.
and that, dispite it's literal size, Sillias' heart only ever had room for one.
but there wasn't time to dwell on that now, as long as he could destroy things, he was getting vengeance on the world that stole his only love away from him.
and while he worked with the fennec whose ideas he shared, and the mongoose inside the computer, that was exactly what he could do.

and then, something unexpected.

"found you."

Sillias turned around to find a human with dragon wings and horns behind him.
his eyes went wide "J-Jeraqi?! is that... no, that's impossible!"
the human gained canine features, losing the humanoid ones while retaining the dragonoid features.
"yes, it's me." he said as he moved to sit beside him, the moonlight glinting off his silver fur.
Sillias trembled, hesitantly reaching out to touch his arm, as if for confirmation of his reality.
the dragon-dog shuffled closer, touching his silver shoulder to Sillias' crimson paw.
"it's me, see? i'm real, just like you."
Sillias' ears drooped "but... how? it's been hundreds of years... how can you be alive?!"
Jeraqi chuckled "same way you are, brother. we may have destroyed eachother's bodies, but our spirits lived on."
Sillias bowed his head "I... I never felt right fighting you... you're my brother... even if we went our seperate ways, what with me becoming a titan, and you getting all tiny."
Jeraqi chuckled "yes, Edict Elzunace and Bedlam Sillias, the Lawful Silver and the Chaotic Crimson. without being told, nobody would guess we're siblings."
Sillias noticed his brother wore a choker like his own, except that the gem on it was blue.
"wait... what's that?" he asked, gesturing to the gem "is it... like mine?"
Jeraqi nodded "it's a tachyon prism, but it's been set to make me bigger, like how yours is set to shrink you down to regular size."
Jeraqi stood and stretched, flexing his huge wings "well... I should go."
Sillias whimpered and looked away "guess so... even after so long, we're still not exactly on the same side, huh?"
his brother flicked him with his wing "maybe not, but i have faith in you... i believe you'll come around."
Sillias chuckled half-heartedly "I... wouldn't count on that..."
Jeraqi rolled his eyes "goodbye Nagrat."

the dragon-dog flew away, and Sillias sighed sadly "I'm not Nagrat anymore."

feeling his eyes getting heavy, he opted to return to the fennec's room.

-Kori- (inside Vagrant Eons Online)

Kori lay under the simulated stars, he'd abandonned the threadbare shirt and now wore just a simple pair of fabric pants along with the two knives hanging from his belt.
he was currently on a high cliff, overlooking a verdant valley.
Uron was behind him, arms crossed "you know, we could be looking for my creator right now. anything productive, in fact... but no, you insist on this juvenile gesture."
"s'not juvenile, it's meaningful. you wouldn't understand, it's a life thing."
the mongoose rolled his eyes "meaning. bah, I prefer the nihilism of cybernetic existence."
"yeah, well all four of me think you're a douche." he said snidely.
"delusional biology." the mongoose grumbled in return.
"annoying atificial creature."

"equally irritating idiots."

they looked behind them to see Sillias' character.
the trio then began discussing how they might locate Uron's programmer in the network.

after a few 'armegeddon-y' ideas, Sillias came up with the idea to have Uron simply hack the member list and track him using skills that were usually only available to the admins.
"that's... actually smart," Kori said in bewilderment "how'd you think of that?"
the red canine smiled smugly "I'm smarter than I like to let on."
Uron chuckled "have to take your word for it, I can't read your vital signs."
the canine smirked "well, bein' a devil and all..."

"you're not a devil. you're an idiot."

they looked around, but saw nobody.

"don't bother. I don't need an avatar to interact in my game."

"jeremiah." Kori groaned.

"well of course, you can't hide from me in a world I created."

Sillias' eyes widened "hey... mongoose, you can hack the whole place, yeah?"
"correct," Uron confinmed, looking curious "why?"
"can you hack wherever the annoying voice is comin' from?"

-Jeremiah- (real world: VEO corporate HQ labs)

it wasn't long after the red canine player suggested it that jeremiah's computer was infected with a rogue AI.
he was completely locked out, and the program accessed information as to the location of Beta's character.
"oh, no you don't!" he inserted a thumb drive and loaded his own AI to fight back.

however, Eren, his AI designed to run VEO itself, was no match for the invading program and the invader got away with what it had been after.

he checked in to the system, and quickly started looking for Draqis, then, having found him, he logged in.

Draqis had returned to the inn to find Benkei already there. the lynx, and a ferret he claimed to be his partner, wanted to show him something.

they lead him beneath the town, into the waterways.

"okay, so... what was it you wanted to show me?"
they just smiled in the dim blue light, and then all the exits locked.
Draqis panicked, seeing the both of them draw their swords. and then he realised what was going on.
"no... you're a PKer?!"
Benkei laughed evilly "I am! you're such an easy guy to dupe!"
Draqis growled "you... son of a..."

they charged at him.
and then Jeremy, the head Administrator, appeared in front of him... scythe drawn.
the quick squirell easily dispatched the PKers and lowered their levels by half, then he forcibly logged them out.
the faerie wolf sighed "th-thanks... I woulda been done-for if you hadn't shown up."
"I didn't come to save you from them."
"oh?"
"you're being hunted... by an AI."
Draqis stared.
"I know it sounds crazy, but--"
the wolf shook his head "no, not at all. I know who it's gotta be... and i'm probably safer in my coma."
the wolf entered the logout menu "but hey, once things are good... i'll play this again." he said with a smile, before vanishing.

Jeremy smiled at the trio that had just burst in "too late, he's already out."
Uron scowled, and the scenery flickered "then say goodbye to your network."

[WARNING: SYSTEM MENU HACKED!]
[DATA FLOW INCREASING, SPARE DATA SENDING TO USER 'URON']
[SYSTEM INTEGRITY COMPROMISED, ACTIVATING FAILSAFE.]
and then the system crashed, ejecting every player back into the real world.
well... almost everyone returned to the real world.

---

Beta's eyes snapped open.
the air was cold and an ominous wind was blowing, creating eerie sounds upon it.
he could tell he wasn't on Xlenari.
all around him were semi-transparent constructions resembling broken buildings.
everything around him was coloured an odd mix of blues and purples.
he stood, his legs almost giving way due to their recent lack of use.
"where the hell... am I?" he wondered absently, taking in the sight of the strange place he was in.
small dots of purple light had begun to fall, resembling snow, adding to the chill in the air.
he took a step, the freezing coldness passing through his boot and attacking his paws, but he continued on, despite the icy atmosphere around him.

eventually he came across a group of four monotone grey cats seemingly playing on the path.
he walked up and they stared at him with their striking yellow eyes and purple sclerae, but no pupils.
"e-excuse me," he spoke against the rising coldness, his teeth practically chattering "can y-you tell m-me where I am, p-please?"
they looked at him silently, and then one of the four wrote something on the ground with its finger.
he read it, but didn't like the answer.
"y-you are o-on th-the ast-astral plane." he shivered, then solemnly turned to them "are y-you shadows?"
they nodded.

('cause I'm lost here, it must be manifesting as this coldness...) he thought, then realised that his thoughts weren't private here, and the shadows had heard them.
they nodded.
he thanked them and moved on, finding other docile shadows easily braving the cold as he himself fought his way through it.
eventually, he started to understand how this place worked, and started to feel less lost and sad, causing the veritable blizzard to calm to gentle 'snow' once more.

now Beta was unsure of what to do, and that manifested as a thick veil of fog.
he began to feel trapped, causing chains to encircle his limbs and body, but secured him to nothing.
he was panicking, letting his thoughts run wild here, that was the problem.
he calmed down and the manifestations lifted.
"I get it... my will is making this place react... whatever I feel, this place reflects."
knowing that made him feel better, as if the astral plane wasn't so bad.
using his will, he began to form something here, he craved safety, a high castle where no ill could befall him at all, complete protection.
and as he desired it, his willpower allowed the astral plane to provide it.

he created an expansive grounds here, a magnificent palace of the mind for him to stay.
unlike other places here in the astral plane, his palace had opacity to it, sticking to the dark colours of the dimension being blues and purples, but a stronghold of utter safety nonetheless.
within it, he created guards and assistants in the visages of people he knew and trusted or respected, ranging from his best friend, appearing as a proud red-haired knight in blue armour to others he hardly knew but honoured all the same, as well as those who he counted as his circle of great friends, some notable ones appearing as a short and thinnish black and white ursine creature wearing glasses; a panda that also bore a technological suit and a handgun, another brown wolf who was shorter than himself by a head's height and wore biker gear, and a grey wolf with a patch of yellow upon his head clad in silvery metal armour typical of a european archaic knight.
they each had differences to the person they derived from, varying in garments and form, the agressive ones having fire in place of hair, the strong guardian-like ones being rocklike, the cold pesonalitied ones appearing to have been carved from ice, and so on.

he kept the astral projections of his friends close by, like an honour guard, and he never travelled the grounds and gardens without the red-haired one he dubbed as 'cobalt knight' and the grey wolf he dubbed as 'silver knight'.
the others in his honour guard recieved their own 'names'; the panda was 'contrasted hacker', the younger brown wolf was dubbed 'black soldier', and the ones that shared the appearance of the friends he'd made on Xlen or Xlenari bared their own epithets.
the white striker, the flare eyes, the lawhound, the genome beast, the plainstrider, the aqua bullet, and so on... he kept himself within the confines of his throneroom if his guard were busy.

after a while, he seemed to get lost to time as it flew by, many decades going past in his fortress.

while he understood that only a few hours, maybe four, had gone by in reality, he comprehended the subjective time he experienced here, he was gaining a lifetime's experience in what were only actually minutes.

"sir!" Cobalt knight came up to him one evening in his bedchamber "scouts report activity outside the gates, we think someone is trying to enter!"
Beta was dressed in the clothing he had used as 'The Emperor' when he was 999, laying back in his bed with the purple cape and his crown hung on a coatrack beside it.
"find the intruder and bring them to me." he ordered his knight "send Silver to do this, I want you to remain here in case I am attacked, Cobalt."
the knight nodded "yes, sire!"

---

Lightningblazer, in equine form, stood outside an extravagant pair of gates in the astral plane, he'd come in here looking for Beta after Dyson mentioned sensing a large disturbance here, but after tracking the distinctly powerful imprint his friend's will had left here... he hadn't expected to find this!
the gate was locked through some unknown method; there weren't any locks he could see, yet somehow the gates would not budge no matter how much he pushed, pulled, or shot magic at it.
he saw someone approaching from the other side, a wolf in silver armour.
he looked familiar.

"isn't that...?" he muttered, and was speechless once the wolf got close.
the resemblance was uncanny, this knight-like wolf looked almost exactly like someone the brown wolf had spoken about online.
the wolf stared blankly at him "state your buissiness."
Lightningblazer snapped out of thought, the knight's way of speaking breaking the illusion "oh, uh... I'm looking for Beta... is he here?"
"you speak of the Emperor of the Astral Plane. what is your affiliation?"
the equine frowned "well... I'm his best friend."

the gates opened, swinging out in a huge arc and just narrowly missing bludgoning the winged unicorn.
"watch it!" he yelled angrilly "you almost hit me!!"
the wolf turned away and started walking "come, the Emperor will want to see you."

hesitantly, Lightningblazer followed the silver-clad lupine through the dark grounds and into the palace, which the wolf insisted to sticking to an uneventful route that bore no windows, no furniture, and no decorations of any kind for no particular reason.
and then, they passed through a set of huge wooden doors into a lavished throneroom.
tapestries baring a crest of a wolf's head among roses adorned the walls, pillars of crystal supported the high ceiling, and the floor had been carpeted and decorated with the same crest as the tapestries.
and upon a beautifully carved stone chair, looking to be made to resemble pertified rose-vines, sat the wolf he'd come here seeking, dressed as a being of nobility even though he sat in it arrogantly, almost rudely, as one does when bored; laying across it rather than in it, over the armrests.
"Beta!"
the wolf looked at him dazedly, seemingly struggling to proccess the appearance of the equine.
he darted his attention between a knight in blue armour and Lightningblazer, drawing the equine's attention to the knight, and to who it resembled.
"is... is that supposed to be me?!"
the wolf straightened up "Cobalt, Silver, everyone but myself and our guest, please leave us."
everyone exited, leaving the equine alone with the wolf.
he fidgeted "h-hey LB."

the equine walked up closer "what the hell is all this? bit much ain't it?"
the wolf stood "well... it just kinda..." he made a gesture resembling an explosion coming from his head "had a random thought, and then poof. frickin' castle out of nowhere."
Lightningblazer rolled his eyes "bit much for you though, isn't it?"
the wolf smiled and nodded while looking at the ground "well, I am called emperorwolf, aren't I?"
"you are, but still." he chuckled in return at the poor attempt at a joke "plus, you've been going by Beta, haven't you?"
"I have," he chuckled "that's what I named this version of me... why're you here?"
"looking for you, you're in a coma."
the wolf groaned "that figures, my first coma and I get stuck in the astral plane. as if things weren't already weird enough."

they talked for a while, mostly recapping what had happened during Beta's coma.
"damn." the wolf blew "sounds like I missed a lot."
"mm-hm," the equine agreed with a short nod "know any way to get yourself out?"
the wolf looked thoughtful, but then frowned and shook his head "not really, no." he admitted.

the knights reentered.

Beta sighed "you should go, LB. I'll be okay."

Lightningblazer was walked out by the blue knight who shared his outward human apearance, and once out, the gates closed and locked, leaving him little choice but to leave the astral plane.

---

Dyson listened while the blue horse explained what the 'disturbance' had been.
"so..." he looked at the wolf in the pod "Beta's will is powerful enough to reconstruct that dimension... interesting."
"yeah, guess so."
Dyson stood "excuse me, I'm going to go sleep, and call his other associates tommorrow morning."
Lightningblazer looked at him, puzzled "why?"

the white-haired man sighed "we'll need all the help we can get to break him out of the astral plane... as for you, i want you to head over to Gentiki..."

a screen flickered momentarily before turning off, not coming to either of their notice.
the white mongoose AI sent himself away, grinning in cyberspace.
(so, he's in a subspace of the collective unconsious? intruiging... I wonder if I can synchronise with it?)

now possessing the knowledge to his creator's consiousness' location, what will Uron do?

(Next Chapter: The Night Before The Astral Fortress Raid.)