Kirito quickly rationalizes the presence of the familiar red sky. There's no way the Amuspheres would trap them in ALO as the NerveGear did in SAO (he hopes). The Amusphere's safety measures wouldn't allow it (he really hopes). This must be some in-game event or something because there's no way in hell Ymir, nowhere close in size to Argus, the developers of Sword Art Online, would mimic that incident two years later.
Hacking? Not impossible, but to cause New Aincrad to shake? That'll be an impressive amount of work. There are no spells or items that can cause this much effect on the world.
Then more happens. A fourth shock occurs and that cracks the earth of the twenty-second floor. The cabin behind them makes a louder creak, and Asuna holds on for dear life to the railing of the porch. Kirito calls out to her, at first thinking she's trying to stand up, then realizes she's trying to save their home. Kirito and Alice join in, hoping to keep the home that contains so many memories for both Asuna and Kirito, both in its original form in SAO and the current ALO version.
Yet, even if all their friends, even if they had a hundred players aiding them, nothing would stop the destruction that occurs. As the floor rumbles, the triangular roof over the porch is cleaved in two. Fearful of the worst but with too many memories to lose if that happens, Kirito steels himself and uses every bit of his strength stat to hold the cabin's wall in place.
And then, like it was a fever dream they all had simultaneously, the shaking stops. Relief washes over Kirito's mind...then he notices something weird. The ground around the cabin...starts to lean towards the exterior of New Aincrad. "What's this…?!" He turns around, feeling that familiar deep sense of dread bubble back up...and the air in his avatar's lung leaves him.
Just a couple of feet away, beyond the fence that marked the property line of the cabin, is where the ground ends. No forest. No road. Just...sky.
The shaking didn't end because the cruel joke had turned over, no. The shaking ended because the land, just a hundred or so yards, broke off of New Aincrad and descends down to Alfheim.
"Kirito…the ground!"
"The house is falling, Kirito!"
Would the cabin survive? No. New Aincrad is thirty thousand feet above Alfheim, and the cabin, as previous damage foretells, is not an Immortal Object. And if the cabin will be destroyed upon impact, you can bet Alice, Asuna, and Kirito are dead as well. Wait, no, the players could survive, they have wings. Something tells Kirito Asuna wouldn't approve of abandoning their home and flying away.
As for New Aincrad... Kirito watched the creation of Aincrad back in Sword Art: Origin, based on the myth he heard in the original game. He, of course, visited the many lands and cultures of Old Aincrad and New Aincrad. And after he beat Akihiko Kayaba, he got a glimpse of the destruction of the castle, a metaphor for the server's destruction. But seeing the current castle descend towards the south, chunks continuously break off... it's a dreadful spectacle.
Liz, Silica, and Yui were on the forty-fifth floor, last he checked.
Never mind them for now, he has to find a way to save the cabin and themselves. If the knowledge miraculously picked out in his head is useful, from the height they started at and compensating for maximum air resistance, they'll have three minutes before they make landfall. Of course, that's real-world physics.
"Dammit! If this were the Underworld, I could use my Incarnate power to lift this stupid rock right up!"
For some reason other than her honor as a knight, Alice snaps back. "Stop trying to use Incarnation to solve every problem you have!"
YOU ARE READING
Unital Ring: The Mysterious New World
FanfictionJust when they believe their lives would return to normalcy, Kirito, Asuna, Jaymes and their friends are plunged into a new game that mysteriously fusion of other games. With only their two best weapons, currently equipped armor, and skill of highes...
