Abyss of the Shrine Maiden

The Singularity

Koharu watches as her partner drops to his knees, exhausted from the tough boss battle they just faced. He's not the only one; Kirito and Asuna, like Koharu, are somehow still on their feet, and the other players are either too amped in celebration as blue crystals shower around the battlefield or too tired to raise a finger.

Garm, Vanar's Creed was the name of the Northazard Tundra's floor boss. It controlled numerous spirit swords that it used to protect itself by conjuring barriers and damage the raiders with powerful sword skills. However, when it attacked with sword skills, it exposed itself, so the strategy was to destroy the swords then attack the beast directly. What wasn't said was that the swords were Garm's tail, whiskers, and front leg appendages, making getting in close much more dangerous than Koharu anticipated.

In the end, they succeeded as usual, but it took the better part of an hour to do so. Forget the 'physical stress' the mental strain was enough to wear her out. This time, the 'Kirito Gang' formed three parties, one with the usual four, another with the twins, Leafa, and Philia, and the last with Silica, Sinon, Lisbeth, and Strea.

"Good work, Koharu," Jaymes says as he holds his hand up, still kneeling on the ground.

"Same to you. You see Tia? Oh, there she is, heading this way." Koharu waves to Tia as she approaches, noticing she has her eyes on her right palm. "Hey, Tia. Good job out there."

"...Good job to you, Koharu, Jaymes."

"Where did you run off to?"

"To get this." Tia holds her hand out, revealing another crest like the one she obtained from the Vulcanus Citadel. "Now that we have both of them we will finally be able to get to the light's core."

Jaymes nods as he stands on his feet. "It's time."

"What does she mean by 'light's core?'" Asuna asks as the others join in the conversation. Not even Koharu knows about this, but it seems Jaymes is going to take the opportunity to tell the others about what only he and Tia knows.

"That's where she's been trying to get to this whole time. I've got a lot to explain to you guys. Of course, I found out about it before this battle, so don't think I was willingly withholding information."

"Then let's get back to town, and you two can explain it all."

xxxxxxx

Some time later...

Jaymes' explanation was long and straight to the point, though Koharu could tell there were some things he had trouble explaining. Tia being plagued by the consciousness of her 'future self' confused her as well as many others, though it explains why Tia's appearance has changed.

"So this all happened right after Tia disappeared," Leafa says sadly. "We weren't able to access Aincrad until a few weeks ago, and even if we were able to six months ago, we moved on to other things. Ordinal Scale, Underworld...we couldn't have done anything back then."

"And her consciousness from the future's to blame," Lisbeth repeats. "'Weird' doesn't even begin to cover it."

"The only reason that kind of sci-fi plot doesn't sound totally ridiculous right now is because we're in VR. Although you're the AI expert, Jaymes. What's your take on this?"

Jaymes ponders on the question Sinon poses to him. "Well, Sinon, if this was Underworld, I could explain it as a...resonance of the soul. I mean, there was a sacred art spell to view the past, and there's the Main Visualizer, which houses the memories of the Underworld, so in a sense you could encounter a past version of oneself, but the future version...not that I know if it was possible, but given the stuff I saw there, I wouldn't say it isn't. However, this is not the Underworld, so I have no clue how to dissect this phenomenon."