Ariel - The Crowned Lion

The crown of the Colossus was a shattered altar to Kro’s corruption. Ariel knelt on obsidian shards, the head weak point pulsing inches away—a lattice of molten fissures seething with blackened energy. Millicent braced against a stone spire, scanners whirring as she mapped the unstable pattern. "Energy flux increasing! The binding is... vibrating! Like a plucked wire!" Instinct’s whisper: Strike the resonance. Ariel’s hand hovered over Nihilim’s Wrath’s hilt. Still cold. Still patient. Shadowflame slept. Precision needs no ornament. Below, the abyss churned—Dracul and Darius mere sparks a

The path to the Colossus’s crown was a vertical hellscape of shuddering rock and Kro’s suffocating breath. Ariel climbed with primal grace, fingers finding cracks in the basalt as if guided by the mountain’s own tremors. Millicent followed, scanners humming, her breaths shallow rasps against the toxic haze. Below, Dracul and Darius shrank to specks near the chest’s infernal glow—a molten star in the titan’s core. Ash rained ceaselessly, stinging exposed skin and gathering in the folds of their clothing like gray snow. The air itself resisted them, thick with the reek of sulphur and something o

The Colossus’s indifference vanished like shattered obsidian. Its head, a faceless cliff of volcanic rock, pivoted towards Dracul’s defiant light. A low groan vibrated through the basalt beneath their boots – not a tremor, but a sound. Stone grinding on stone. Recognition. “Follow its wake,” Ariel commanded, voice cutting through the groan. She moved like a shadow over shifting scree, exploiting the momentary stillness after each earth-shaking step. Millicent scrambled behind, scanners whirring frantically. “Too close!” she gasped, as a falling boulder the size of a house pulverized a nea

"You two seem to know each other." Her hand slipped into the pocket of her kimono, fingers brushing past folded parchment and a couple of teleport crystals before finding the wrapped treat she’d tucked in earlier. A faint grin tugged at the corner of her mouth—barely visible, but real. "Should I have come better prepared?" she added dryly. "Brought a leash, maybe?" She pulled out two sticks of hanami dango, pastel pink and green, and held them out to the others without ceremony. “Seasonal,” she said, as if that explained everything. “Don’t drop them. They’re real... as real as i

The teleport gate’s mercury sheen dissolved into choking gray. Ariel stepped forward, volcanic grit crunching beneath her boots like shattered bone. Floor 19 breathed—a desolate expanse of fractured basalt and swirling ash under a bruised twilight sky. Sulphurous vapours coiled like spectral serpents, stinging her eyes and coating her tongue with the taste of burnt copper and forgotten graves. Behind her, Millicent coughed into her oversized sleeve, while Darius instinctively positioned himself upwind, his butler’s attire already dusted gray. Ariel stilled herself, drawing on the breath c

Light died in a hissing curtain of superheated steam. The stench of burnt ozone, spoiled ichor, and seawater choked the air. Through the dissipating haze, Mōretsuna’s massive eye glowed like a baleful ember. Agony radiated from the beast in palpable waves, making Borin retch and Millicent sway. Dracul slumped against the splintered stern rail, Oath dim and heavy in his slack grip. "Finish it," he rasped, the words barely audible, blood trickling from his lip. "End this farce." The King of the Sea, broken and desperate, gave its answer. It didn’t flee. It dove. But not away. In a fina

Dracul's HP bar pulsed crimson but he was safe, as long as he didn't drown. Darius strained over the gunwale, his voice raw. "I can’t see him! The froth is too thick!" Millicent’s fingers trembled as she adjusted her glasses, scanners piercing the churning foam. "L-life signs stable! But oxygen depletion critical – estimated ninety seconds remaining!" Her usual data-driven calm frayed at the edges, replaced by urgent concern. Borin wrestled the groaning rudder, face taut with fear. "We need distance, lass! That beast’ll crack us open like a nut!" Never. The Crowned Lion’s resolve har

Steam kissed Ariel's cheeks as Borin fought the oars. The abalone rod warmed in her grip - «Amphitrite's Net» humming with oceanic memories. Millicent adjusted her glasses, oversized sleeves flapping as she pointed at scanner projections. "Um, the thermocline? It's shifting weirdly at 40 fathoms. Like it's... circling us?" Her voice held academic curiosity mixed with unease. Darius braced near the gunwale, butler-uniform sleeves rolled up. "The water feels tense. Like before Kumatetsu charged." Borin spat overboard. "King's been hungry since the Scorching. He'll strike mean." Dr

The silence of Yomi's Rest settled like grave dust, thick and suffocating. Ariel closed her fist around the newly acquired key, its moonlight-and-obsidian chill seeping through, a stark counterpoint to the fading, greasy taint of the Stygian still clinging to her boots. Death flowed cleanly again here, at least for now. The oppressive psychic weight lessened, the river's whispers receding into distant, mournful sighs lost in the floor's depths. Around her, the aftermath hung palpable: Dracul’s simmering frustration radiating like banked coals, Darius's weary relief manifesting in a loosened st

Dracul stumbled back, shield arm hanging limp, his perfect «Mirror's Edge» shattered into discordant failure. The Lich loomed, freed from paralysis, its central eye-socket blazing with Kro’s viridian poison and primal fury. A second tendril whipped towards Dracul’s exposed flank. Darius intercepted it with a grunt, Keysi forearms absorbing the blow that cracked the bone-dust beneath his feet. Millicent’s scanners screamed. "Aggression critical! Core destabilizing – final burst imminent!" No more time. Ariel’s mind emptied. Dracul’s light had faltered. Her blade lacked its void-teeth. The

Dracul’s roar echoed, not of pain, but of triumph. Golden light – pure, searing, holy – erupted from ≪Guardian’s Oath≫ as he executed «Mirror's Edge». It wasn’t just a block; it was a rebuke written in celestial fire. The Lich’s shadow-tendril slammed into the radiant barrier... and stuck. Jagged lines of holy energy, like molten gold, spiderwebbed up the necrotic limb, searing deep into the core. A system shock. The beast froze mid-convulsion, its form rigid, wreathed in crackling golden light. [Paralyzed!] flashed across Ariel’s HUD. Perfect. No hesitation. The opening was a vacuum dema

Ariel struck. She exploded from the shadows, Nihilim’s Wrath fully unleashed. «Iaijutsu: Voidrend» seemed to tore through reality—a horizontal crescent of devouring darkness aimed at the Lich’s golden-cracked core. Shadowflame screamed, leaving afterimages of void that scarred the island’s stone like claw marks. The blade connected. KR-SHAAA! The impact shuddered through the cavern—but the shadowflame splintered against the Lich’s core. Its Fallen essence repelled the corrupting energy, nullifying the void’s bite. Ariel’s strike carved deep furrows across its form, yet the damag

Ash and miasma swirled where the Stygian Warriors had stood. Ariel held her weapon loosely, shadowflame still dancing along its edge. Dracul’s charge had been reckless—his holy blade cleaving air while the Lich’s minions toyed with him. Pride before purpose, she observed coldly. Darius’s precise strikes and Millicent’s dagger throws had bought seconds, not victory. Only overwhelming annihilation broke the cycle. The Leech Lich shuddered above its island altar, shadowy flesh bubbling where her void-fire had scorched its tendrils. Psychic agony lashed the cavern: HUNGER. BETRAYAL. WHY DESTR

Ash drifted around Ariel like corrupted snow as «Nihilim’s Wrath» slid home with a resonant click. The Stygian Warriors were gone - not merely defeated, but unmade; their essence returned to the void that birthed them. Shadowflame still tingled along Ariel's fingertips, the blade humming with dark contentment at consuming tainted echoes. Shadowflame tingled along her fingertips, the blade humming with dark contentment as it digested the tainted echoes. She watched Dracul lower his gleaming shield, his weapon still blazing in his white-knuckled grip. The holy radiance illuminated his expre

The bone archway loomed like the ribcage of a fallen god, its curves etched with intertwined Treant root-glyphs and Elven death-runes that pulsed with sickly light. «Yomi's Rest» bled crimson letters across its apex, casting jagged shadows that twitched like dying insects. Before it, the four Stygian Warriors moved in grim procession, herding flickering soul-shards toward the arch with necrotic spears. Each weapon traced sigils in the air that made the river's toxic mist recoil – not protection, but cruel direction. Millicent's HUD flared. "Low-level ads. High shadow resistance. Holy vuln

The teleport's glare dissolved into absolute silence. Floor Ten swallowed them whole - a subterranean cathedral where stalactites hung like petrified tears and bioluminescent fungi painted the darkness in shifting cobalt. Ariel's first breath tasted of wet limestone and forgotten graves. Above, cavern ceilings vanished into gloom; below, crystalline paths glittered like frozen starlight underfoot. Her shadow stretched monstrously across a wall of pulsating geodes, warping into shapes that mocked her stance. Kagenomura's realm, acording to floor info. The name hung unspoken in the air, hea

Final rewards: Ariel: EXP: 11330 [Total]| 4650/5 *10 +1000 (Quest) +5% (Firm Anima R5) +5% (Assist System) Col: 19759 [Total]| 14400 (Loot) +720 (Guild Treasury) +2000 (Quest) +1699 (para lv. 5) +5% (Firm Anima R5) 3x Perfect T3 Weapon | [247543a] | [247543b] | [247543c] 2x Guild Token [Total] | 1 transferred from Dracul 1 Mon Kumatetsu Key Dracul EXP: 4169 [Total]| 4650/5 *3 +1000 (Quest) +5% (Firm Anima R5) +5% (Assist System) Col: 0 1 Mon Kumatetsu Key

Kumatetsu’s roar choked on its own corruption as it loomed over Dracul’s fallen form. Rage made it slow. Arrogance made it blind. Ariel breathed in. The world narrowed to a single line – the path between Nihilim’s Wrath’s saya and the beast’s exposed heart. Shadowflame died. Sound faded. Even the forest’s pained whispers stilled. This wasn’t combat; it was conclusion. Her stance shifted, weight settling onto her rear foot, left hand gripping the saya, right hovering an inch above the tsuka. «Iaijutsu: Voidrend». Time fractured. She moved. Not a step, but an eruption of cont

Kumatetsu’s enraged focus on Dracul was a flickering window. Ariel moved. Nihilim’s Wrath sang free once more, not with the cold precision of the first strike, but with the searing fury of consequence. Shadowflame roared down the blade, condensing into a single, obsidian point as she drove it deep into the bear’s already wounded flank, targeting the nexus of corruption pulsing beneath shattered crystals. This wasn’t stealth; this was annihilation from the shadows, delivered in the heartbeat of Dracul’s failed riposte. CRACK-THUD! The impact reverberated up her arms. Shadowflame

The moment crystallized. Millicent’s dagger struck home, burying itself in Kumatetsu’s right eye socket. The bear roared – a sound less of pain than corrupted fury – as viscous darkness spread through the ember-glow. Distraction complete. Ariel struck. «Nihilim’s Wrath» left its saya in a single motion, not drawn but unleashed. Shadowflame accompanied along the blade, cold enough to freeze the steam rising from the bear’s throat. Her stance was perfection: hips pivoted, weight flowing forward like water down a slope, the strike aimed not at fur or flesh, but at the pulsing nexus of K

Kumatetsu’s roar was a physical wave, shaking resin from broken pines. Ariel became the silence within the storm. Stealth in SAO wasn’t mere invisibility – it was the art of becoming unnoticeable. She had practiced with this new ability thanks to the new update but this would be her baptism by fire, actually using it in free combat. She flowed like pooled shadow between the shattered trunks, her saya absorbing light into its dragon-etched darkness. Her breathing synced with the forest’s pained sighs, her footsteps silent as falling ash on moss. Millicent mirrored her movements – not repli

The forest's final breath died in their throats as they breached the shattered glade. Ariel froze. Before them stretched Kro’s masterpiece: a valley of broken titans, ancient trees snapped like kindling, weeping black sap that smoked where it touched moss. The air hung thick with musk and the metallic tang of corrupted blood. At the epicentre, «Kumatetsu» stood over the twitching remains of a Treant, his maw buried deep in its blighted heartwood. He defied scale. Twenty feet of corded muscle sheathed in fur matted with gore and crystalline growths that pulsed like diseased hearts. Ember-e

The forest’s wounds deepened as they tracked «Kumatetsu»'s trail. Ariel halted where moss surrendered to cracked earth, radiating unnatural warmth. Millicent crouched beside a splintered elven arrow shaft, obsidian gloves hovering over oily residue staining the soil. "Kro’s touch," she murmured. "The scouts fought here. Recently." Darius knelt by a withered sapling, its leaves crumbling like burnt paper at his touch. "It’s spreading, Miss Ariel. Even away from the battlefields." His gaze flickered to her, concern warring with resolve. Ariel traced the blight’s path – not random, but purpo

The teleportation’s electric tingle faded into the hush of living wood. Floor Eight enveloped them—a cathedral of ancient timber where redwoods would seem saplings. Ariel inhaled damp air thick with petrichor and decay, her senses expanding into the green-gold gloom. Above, a canopy woven so tightly it choked the sky to fractured azure shards; below, a tapestry of moss swallowing footsteps whole. Darius stepped beside her, eyes wide as he craned his neck at trunks wider than Shirajishi-ryū’s dojo halls. Millicent materialized from the teleport haze, adjusting obsidian-dusted gloves with a rogu

The cavern’s silence deepened as Dracul and Darius bent over the tree bark, tracing weathered symbols with gloved fingers. Millicent ghosted along the perimeter, dagger drawn, her footsteps swallowed by moss. Ariel remained motionless before the podium, her gaze shifting between the tablet’s alien script and her companions. Dracul’s muttered comparisons to "rustic graffiti" faded as his fingers stilled—a rare moment of focus cutting through his disdain. Darius leaned closer, pointing at a cluster of angular runes. "This sequence repeats here, master—like a root pattern." Dracul’s scoff ec