Sword Art Online: Forgotten Edition

Fragment 19 - The One Named "Hero"

|POV: Black Cloaked Player|

Another day, another adventure with my trustworthy comrades who will always have my back! We venture through the dungeon cautiously, avoiding any traps that might have been set up beforehand. No monsters have approached us, and that's probably due to my great and overwhelming aura, no...the demon that occupies my body, Lucifer.

"You keep screwing around like that and we'll leave you behind!" Yelled Leon, who was far ahead of me.

"Ahhh, wait wait!" I started to run in their direction, but it was a bit hard with all the stuff I was carrying.

My shield—no, the godly shield, Aegis! The mightiest shield with a name worthy of its wielder. It stands nearly 6 feet tall, yet I bare its weight on my back with no problem. And with my black cloak on I look like a total badass. Impressive isn't it?

Finally catching up with my group, we begin our debrief for our plan of action for today.

"There doesn't seem to be that many monsters today. People have probably beat us to the punch," mentioned Ray as he scratched his head. 

"So, what are we going to do? Wait for them to respawn?" added Nana, our priestess. She's not really a priestess but that's what I...nevermind.

"No, that would take too long. Since we grinded for levels yesterday, how about we do some treasure hunting?" Leon, our party leader, was always gung-ho about killing monsters, so hearing him say something else besides that was rare.

A treasure hunt, a worthy challenge for our group to put our skills to the test. What skills? Ray's amazing moves make him look like one of those snake charmers, Nana's ability to provide swift attacks and stagger the enemy, and Leon's straightforward large scale attacks.

While I was identifying each of their skills, it felt like something was whispering in my ear.

No...not again.

Don't let them do it...

It gave me chills and I was terrified, but of what? I couldn't answer that question myself. Yet the voice kept telling me the same things over and over again.

Go back...

Stop them...

"You good to go? The decision's final, we're going to find us some good loot!" smiled Leon as he tapped my shoulder.

"Y-Yeah..." it was as if all the energy was drained from my body. But what was I afraid of? Everyone in this party is amazing, we've fought mid-level bosses together before so what was different.

I shook my head and did my best to ignore the whispers. "Let's go find ourselves some of the demon lord's riches!" I yell with Ray, Leon, and Nana behind me.

10 minutes Later

After looking around in the dungeon for a bit, we finally found something rather suspicious. It was sticking up from the ground like some sort of lever. I was the first one to approach it out of curiosity.

"Hold on, we don't know what it might do," said Leon.

"Yeah, it might be a trap," followed up Nana who was a bit far from the lever.

"Then how about we just leave it?" Ray offered.

"Wait, wait! What if this lever dropped down a bunch of treasure chests from the sky or something? If we passed up this opportunity someone else might get to it!" I said.

No!...this time the voice was louder, but I didn't want it to get to me.

The three of them looked at each other and nodded their heads.

So, going through with my proposal I pulled the lever, but at first, nothing happened.

"Hmm...I think it's defected--" I tried to walk towards everyone but something was blocking my way. "What is this?"

It was a see-through wall that was accented blue. I was boxed in.

A full house of monsters appeared, and that's when my heart sunk. Specters, Lizardman, angry Gnomes...it was the same.

Again...it happened again...my head was throbbing.

"Tch...that's a lot of monsters, but we can definitely handle these guys," smirked Leon.

"You can say that again," snickered Ray.

"It looks like you can't leave that box, so we'll defeat all the monsters. Stay put, okay?" Nana reassured me but...I couldn't help but feel dread.

"W-Wait! It'd be best to leave me here! You can't kill that many--" I warned them, as I tried to bust down the stupid wall around me, but it wasn't working

No...no...no...no...no...I need to get out of here! They need me!

They didn't listen to me. They fought and fought only to widdle down their HP potions till they didn't have anymore. When they ran out, their HPs were in the red zone, and that's when they started to get desperate.

Leon came to me first trying to break the box open from his side but that didn't work either. Nothing worked.

"WE CAN'T LEAVE YOU HERE!" he yelled at me.

"DO IT, YOU IDIOTS! THEY CAN'T REACH ME IN HERE, SO GO!" Leon, Ray, and Nana looked at me as if I was crazy.

"GO!!" I yelled at the top of my lungs.

They followed what I said and left the area, but along the path, that wasn't supposed to have monsters, they were cornered.

And I couldn't do anything...but watch.

Their faces were full of fear as their HPs reached zero. Leon was stabbed by a Lizardman's spear, Ray protected Nana from an incoming axe and hit him in the head, Nana's body was cut in half by a scythe. Their mouths were open but I couldn't hear a thing from here. They were probably screaming...

Why...I clenched my fists.

After they disappeared as tiny particles, the monsters were gone as well, leaving me behind...alone...again...The box was gone too but what else was I supposed to do?

"...What's wrong...why'd you all leave? Aren't you supposed to kill me too, huh?" I was shivering, "COME OUT AND FIGHT YOU PIECES OF SHITS! YOU HAVEN'T FOUGHT ME YET!"

I remember now...

"I'M STILL HERE! THIS ISN'T OVER YET!"

This isn't the first time that this has happened...

My voice was cracking from all the yelling I was doing.

Lucas, Bravia, Tomoe, Viktor, Alice, Genta, Naomi, Lailah...All these people I partied with...are all dead...and yet I'm still alive...why?

I looked at my hands in despair...I killed them...

My eye drifted to the left side of my interface...the three HP bars that were once there are now gone. I saw my HP bar and the name with it.

"Hero my ass..."