Sword Art Online Integral Factor - The Demon Lord Of Aincrad - On Hiatus -

Chapter 3 - Enter N'ltzahh

The fallen Elf Temple constructed so that the Elves could worship the Great Demon Lord Monschau, so I was told, looked deserted and spooky by the time I got to the rest of Assault Team. But there, I stopped dead in my tracks. There, standing with Argo, Kirito, and Asuna, was Amelia Yuuki, Asuna's twin sister. Crawford's words from the previous floor floated through my brain as I tried to process this. Then, to practically everyone's shock, she turns around, sees me, and then just hugs me with joy, shouting "Rich-kun!" Everyone just looked at me, and here's what I said. "I have a thing with this sword called Harem Attraction, so.. other guys who wanted Amelia, sorry. I just get her by pure luck." And to be fair, that's what it was. Pure luck, since I don't see the names of who Harem Attraction has affected until the players' actions reveal themselves. If anything, I considered myself lucky. But compared to who I would face inside the temple, the fact that Amelia Yuuki was now attracted to me was one thing that only raised the stakes for the coming boss fight.

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Progressing into the Temple at first was easy enough, weak leveled monsters in our path easily falling to the more higher leveled players, excluding yours truly of course. Amelia, despite her protests, I had stay behind with Argo by the Dungeon Guide, due to me not wanting to get her killed in the dungeon if she followed me in. Halfway through the opposition, it switched from monsters to Fallen Elves, so the other players dropped back and let me at them. Despite the invulnerability granted to me, these fallen elves were a little bit tougher than the ones at the meeting. But gradually, they fell one by one as I cleared one room after another, cleaning out the fallen elves that came at me. It took me a while to clear every one of the fallen elves in our path before the boss room, about maybe 15 minutes. Once done, and having taken a small break, the Assault Team entered the Boss Room.

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The Dungeon Boss, Nephila Regina, was waiting for us, along with two fallen elves that caused me to stop dead in my tracks. The taller of the two, a male, had an almost pitch black color cursor, one of the few NPCs I would ever seen in Aincrad with that color cursor. The powerful aura I could feel emitting from him was further helped by a red glow projecting from his mask. The slightly shorter of the two, a female, had an equally powerful aura and carried a katana. Her mask had suffered damage, so I could see that she was wearing an eye patch over her right eye. It was a tenuous moment of silence between everyone, either NPC, monster, or player, in the room, before the Fallen Elf male broke the silence. "So, the successor of the Demon Lord Monschau.. we meet at last." I had unsheathed the demon sword, ready for a fight. "I assume you are the leader of the Fallen Elves?" I asked him. "To an extent, I am. I am General N'ltzahh, and I am here to crush anyone who stands in the way of the Fallen Elves acquiring the Holy Tree." At this point, I still didn't know the full story, but from the menacing tone of his voice, what the Fallen Elves planned to do with the Holy Tree didn't sound good. It really, really did not sound good. N'ltzahh took out a long serrated sword, with bloody rings on the metal. "Kysarah, stay put and do not interfere. I will deal with this demon lord myself." The female nodded her head and backed up a bit. I took a look back at the others. "Take the Dungeon Boss, I'll hold him off." A nod of grim determination told me that they knew what to do. I took a deep breath, and charged at N'ltzahh, who was charging as well. The clash of our swords shook the dungeon boss out of whatever kind of wait it was doing and came forward towards the rest of the Assault Team. In the one vs one I had going on N'ltzahh, I was out-skilled. The Fallen Elf before me was one of the most skilled Swordsman NPCs I would ever encounter in Aincrad, and if it wasn't for the abilities which I had gained from the Demon Sword, it is safe to say I would have been a goner. To put it bluntly, the invulnerability to NPC blows damaging my health bar gave me the advantage in this duel, with my enemy not having the same means of invulnerability. Nevertheless, until he realized that his blows were not affecting me, for they were numerous, I was generally on the defensive. After he realized, he took a step back in shock. That's when I went on the offensive, battering him with some very hard hits. It was by this time, roughly 4 minutes, that the dungeon boss had been defeated. N'ltzahh, realizing this, kicked me in the groin, then picked me up and threw me into the wall before he and Kysarah disappeared and I fell to the ground with a big thud. It hurt like a truck, but I still had the demon sword in my hand, so at least the pain was bearable, knowing that I would eventually heal. That's when Kizmel ran in, followed by Amelia, Argo, and the rest of the group, with Klein in the rear. From the looks of it, he had apparently ran to tell Amelia and Argo about me fighting N'ltzahh, who in turn told the group. Crawford helped me up and provided as a temporary crutch for me. Kizmel, Alexis, Amelia, and the other girls that had feelings for me looked at me with worried, extremely scared eyes. Crawford summed up their frustrations, especially Kizmel's. "The **** were you thinking, fighting a Fallen Elf with a black color cursor? I mean, thank god for that sword of yours, but you almost got ******* killed by that guy regardless!" It was that moment my head cleared, and I turned to Kizmel with a request. "Tell me everything about the Holy Tree and the Fallen Elves.. now."