Percy's Super Duper Halloween Fun Chapter Special!

UGH. THIS. TOOK. SO. LONG. TO. WRITE. ENJOY IT PLEASE.

Nedelin
[October 31, 2024 – Floor 13]

A new dungeon had just been discovered on the 13th Floor. The people who’ve seen it describe it as looking like a huge haunted house. No one’s actually been inside, but right outside its doors, there was an old lady whose face was concealed by a hood offering a quest to adventurers willing to take it. The prompt was simple: Go into the haunted house and retrieve her baby from somewhere inside. I told the others about the quest, and their reactions were:

Phage – “Sounds fun! We should do it together.”

Seira – “It is Halloween…why not?”

Nemesis – “I-It sounds a bit scary…”

Discord Esper Shuvi – “DISCORD ESPER SHUVI KNOWS NO FEAR!”

Clocker – “I’ll go too!”

We agreed to meet at the 13th Floor Teleport Gate at 13:00 today. It was supposed to be noon, but I complained that noon was around the time I woke up, so they changed it to an hour after.

When I got there, everyone else was standing right in front of the teleport gate, waiting for me. I yawned and waved hi to them.

“You’re late.” Seira immediately said with her arms crossed.

“What?” I replied. “It’s only…13:51…”

“Which is late.”

“Haha…yeah…I guess I am pretty late…”

I was met with a glare, but it subsided quickly.

“Anyway, we should get going.” Seira said.

Phage nodded. “If it’s a haunted house, we should head there before it gets dark.”

---

We were lost for a while because we couldn’t figure out where the dungeon was. After going to random forested areas and checking for any abandoned towns, we finally decided to head to the Ominous Woods to see if the dungeon was in there. [Although, in hindsight, that was probably the first place we should’ve checked.] We walked through the woods in search of that haunted house dungeon. None of the trees had leaves, and all the bark was a spooky dark gray. Crows could be heard repeatedly cawing through the air, as if to tell us that what we were doing was a bad idea. After about an hour of searching, we finally found what were looking for. It was exactly like I thought it would look like. Old and crusty. There was an old lady just outside, like the info said. We approached her with a fairly cheerful mood and I asked her, “Is there anything I can help you with?”

The old lady was initially staring at the ground, but she slowly looked up to examine me and the others. The skin that showed on her hands was wrinkled and gray, with oddly cut fingernails at the ends. The eyes she had that pierced through the darkness of her cloak were an eerie yellow.

“Why,” she answered, “yes there is something you can help me with.”

“What is it?”

“My baby is in that house,” she said, pointing to the haunted house dungeon. “if you could get her for me, that would be wonderful.”

A window appeared which said, “Accept quest?”

I pressed the blue circle “Accept” button and the quest was automatically recorded in my character’s quest journal.

“Everyone ready?” I asked.

After hearing some enthusiastic Yeah!’s and some less enthusiastic yeah…’s, we walked onto the creaky porch of the haunted house and decided whether or not to knock. Seira didn’t care and kicked the door down.

“We don’t have time for this,” she said. “It’s already 16:28.”

Inside the house was very dark, even with the sunlight shining directly outside it. We carefully walked in and surveyed our surroundings. Sheets covered most of the furniture. The wooden planks that made up the floor felt weak, and several made squeaking sounds when we stepped on them. Clocker said he felt bad and tried to put the door back on its hinges, but when he lined it up to the walls it automatically stuck in place. He tried pulling on it, but it didn’t move an inch.

“I think we’re trapped…” he said.

“EHHHH?!” said Phage and Nemesis simultaneously.

“If we’re trapped in here, that means this place must be anti-crystal too…” I said.

“Then the only way out is to complete the quest,” said Seira.

I looked around the area, and decided on our next course of action.

“Alright guys,” I started. “Let’s go get ourselves a baby.”

Clocker made a wry smile.

“In a different context, that would’ve been really weird…”

We crept into the adjacent hallway and prepared for anything that could come at us. Although, preparing for it didn’t help, since within the minute we walked into the hallway, a hand broke through one of the floorboards and grabbed Nemesis’s leg.

“KYAAAAAA!!”

Nemesis hurriedly tried to shake it off, but it didn’t budge. Seira took out her sword and cut the hand, making it let go and retreat back into the unknown below. After that, a skeleton-zombie-slime-swamp-thing came out of nowhere and roared, making Phage, Nemesis, and Clocker all scream like children and hide behind me. Once again, Seira unsheathed her sword and swung it at the monster, instantly killing it. Soon after, I spotted a painted portrait of a man, with the eyes glowing eerily. As we passed, its eyes followed our movements, giving a really creepy feeling of being watched. Seira slashed it with her sword so it would stop.

“You really like slashing things up, don’t you?” I asked her.

Seira hugged her sword affectionately.

“Of course. With Mirage-sama [Note: The name of Seira’s weapon is Shattered Mirage], I will be protected from anything~!”

Suddenly, a ghost with the exact appearance of the man in the painting came out of the painting, threatening to rob us of our souls. Seira took the lead once again and said, “Are you mad that I slashed your painting? Then let me slash you too!”

Seira cut the ghost into pieces.

Or, at least that’s what we thought would happen.

Instead, her sword passed right through the ghost, and did exactly 0 damage.

Seira looked dumbfounded more than anything.

“Eh?”

The ghost laughed at her attempt, then growled loudly.

Seira then became stricken with fear and was paralyzed.

“H-How…”

The ghost started to close in on her, his hands spread out and ready to do unspeakable things to Seira.

I had to act.

On instinct I activated a locator flare in my hand and ran behind the ghost shouting, “Oi! (This way!)”

Seira snapped out of her paralysis to see me waving the flare in my hand to try and divert the ghost’s attention away from her.

“Come at me, ghost!”

Seira had a look of surprise showing all over her face. She clearly didn’t expect that. I didn’t think I had the guts to do it either.

“N-Nedelin! What are you doing?!” she shouted.

“Distracting him! Now get out of there!”

She looked a little more than flustered and said, “Right!”

Seira got up quickly and moved to where the others were.

The ghost approached me and I held the flare to his face. He moved back, as if on reflex. I decided to try something. I held out the flare in front of me, and walked forward. The ghost was forced to move backward, and I cornered him at the painting. By moving my flare from the bottom up, I forced him back into the painting from where he came. When he finally went all the way back in, my flare ran out of charge to feed on and went out like a snuffed candle. I tossed it away and went over to the others.

“Seira, are you alright?” I asked.

“Me? Y-Yeah, of course.”

“Are you sure? You looked really shocked back there.”

“I said yes already.”

“Okay, if you say so. (I’m relieved.)”

Seira smiled.

“Thanks for worrying about me though.”

I looked at Phage, who was puffing her cheeks at Seira. Then I realized what was happening.

“C-Calm down Phage, we’re not flirting or anything…” I said.

“Y-Yeah! It’s not like I’m interested in Nedelin…or anything…” Seira said.

Then I turned to face Seira.

“What was with that classic tsundere reaction…” I asked her.

“What? I wasn’t being tsundere!”

Her face was red as she was saying that.

“A-Anyway, let’s just find that baby already! I don’t like this place. Mirage-sama can’t show his deadly skills.”

I looked to Nemesis and Clocker, who were just silently waiting in the background until we could move again.

Nemesis was making clapping motions as if saying, “You got another waifu, congrats.” Clocker just looked confused.

We continued on through the haunted house, facing several more jumpscares, and more eerie paintings. Seira didn’t slash the paintings, but instead unleashed her one-hit-kill fury on any monster that dared to cross our path. As we wandered down a long hallway, we heard crying from one of the rooms. It was locked, so Seira kicked it down.

The baby was in there. It was ugly and crying as loud as it possibly could, and for some reason I suddenly I wanted to complete the quest as soon as possible. Just as Phage picked up the baby in her arms to carry it back, a loud roaring came from what seemed to be the walls of the room.

“We need to leave,” I said.

The roaring sounded again, only this time it sounded angrier.

“We need to leave now!” I said a second time as we hurried out of the room and into the hallway.

“Don’t worry everyone!” Seira said. “I’m sure that I can kill this thing too! Whatever it is!”

The walls around that room started to collapse and distort, revealing something that had been hiding within them. It was a large creature, with bits of flesh gone and showing bone or organs, and also looked like a horribly deformed creation by a mad scientist. It had a bunny ear, an elephant ear, a rat’s eye, an owl’s eye, a vulture’s claw, a gorilla’s hand, a bear’s torso, a giant’s lobster’s pincer, a dragon’s mouth, and a cheetah’s leg. It did not look friendly in the slightest.

Seira was so shocked by its appearance that she hesitated for a second before attempting to attack. When her sword hit, I heard her say, “Yes!”

But then the wound regenerated instantly.

Seira was shocked again, but this time she knew to move. She moved back to where we were and shouted, “RUN!”

We were chased all the way through the hallway, and had no other way out besides the front door. Nemesis ran ahead and tried to unlock it, but she shouted, “It’s still not opening!”

Out of ideas, I decided to improvise.

“Then…!”

I jumped at the large window and shattered it, stumbling onto the porch outside and leaving room for the others to follow. Once we were all safely off the porch, we heard one final roar, and completed the quest by giving the baby to the lady, who vanished instantly with it. We received a bunch of EXP points and Cor, so it wasn’t all that bad.

When we were catching our breath, I realized Phage had been clinging to me. We were both breathing heavily, so I knew she might be having a hard time standing, but I asked her, “Phage?”

“What is it?”

“Y-You’re clinging to me.”

“Huh? UwaAAAAH!”

She instantly let go.

“S-Sorry!” she said.

“It’s fine,” I said in reply.

The others looked worn out too. I checked the time, and it said 20:14. Nearly four hours have passed.

“Good job guys,” I said.

“No…problem…” Nemesis said, still panting.

“It was actually kinda fun,” said Seira.

“Oh really? Then, do you guys want to go again tomorrow?”

“NO.” they all said simultaneously.

“Haha, yeah that’s what I thought.”

Vesper
Halloween, Halloween,

The night will fill with screams.

All the screams and shouts of those who’ll soon be dead.

All the survivors will be filled with dread,

By the terrible things that I’m about to do~

[October 31, 2055]

I put on my spoopy-fied helmet and equipped all my Halloween-themed bombs before heading out the door to carry out my latest mission: Wreak havoc.

No, seriously, that was my mission. My boss told me to create as much chaos as possible in the shortest amount of time possible. Which wouldn’t be hard for me at all. I got on a company helicopter, and I skydived directly over the target city, Keldrow.

Removing a couple of random bombs from my pouches, I tossed them all in random directions, waiting to see which ones I picked. On my right, there was a purple explosion, meaning corrosive acid. On my left, a white explosion, signifying powered EMP. In front of me, an orange explosion, telling me that it was an incendiary bomb. And behind me, a green explosion, which was essentially the worst smelling fart in the world multiplied by 300. I tossed out a few more random bombs to make things harder for the in-game cops. I released my parachute a few seconds before hitting the ground, and landed with both my feet at the same time. A quick survey around the area showed that there were a bunch of citizens in a panic, running as far away from me as possible. The cops would arrive soon.

I tried releasing the parachute from my back, but it wasn’t working, so I had to take out one of my Fangs and cut the cord. It took a while, long enough for the cops to arrive. Guess that’s the kind of quality you’d expect from a big and famous company. I took out my Ripcord V12 and started firing blindly into the police barricade, forcing them all to take cover while I tossed more bombs anywhere that I felt like throwing them in. When my Ripcord ran out of ammo in the magazine, I switched it as quickly as I could, but that gave the boys in blue enough time to react and fire at me from behind their cars. I tried dodging their bullets as best I can, and switched Ripcord out for the Go-Away-Gun. I fired at the cars, making them explode in a really breathtaking display of colorful explosions. Soon, the large police force that come to stop me was no more, and I threw my bombs in random directions, trying to destroy as much as possible.

Suddenly, a guy with yellow eyes and a cool-looking white jacket appeared in front of me, his gunblade resting on his shoulder. I smiled.

“Fallen Angel! You’re late.”

Ridley
I sighed.

“I wanted to spend my Halloween eating candy, not protecting EWO from explosive fart bombs.”

“Ah, but throwing explosive fart bombs is much more fun, isn’t it?” said the maniac known as Vesper. “I have a few more, do you want any?”

“No.”

“Alright. But you know what I think is most fun?”

“What?”

“Kicking your butt into oblivion.”

He suddenly charged at me, his twin daggers green with chemicals. I readied my blade, then jumped over him at the last second and shot his back, making him fall forward.

“Bruh you were supposed to parry that,” he said, trying to get up.

“That green stuff would go onto my gunblade. I’d rather not.”

“Good choice. This stuff actually smells really bad.”

“I can tell. I can smell it from here.”

“You can? Oh that’s real cool.”

Then he charged at me again, brandishing his twin daggers the same as last time.

I swept his feet, making him fall on his face, and tried to stab my sword into his back when he rolled away. And away. And away. He was like a kid having fun by rolling on an expensive carpet. Then he finally got up.

“Okay then that did not work. At all,” he said.

Then he took out an assault rifle.

“Maybe this’ll be better.”

He started firing at me, but I was faster, so I dodged all his bullets and closed the gap between us as fast as I could. When I got close enough, I tried to fire my gunblade, but he reacted and used one of his daggers to block it and then shoot at point-blank range. It was one of the few times I’d ever been hit. I retreated, clenching the place where I’d been shot and applying pressure.

“You’re starting to get more annoying,” I said.

“That sounds just like something you’d say, Ridley,” he said and fired more.

I wanted to end this as quickly as possible, so I decided to use my Tainted Magic to finish him off. With my free hand, I created a Necro Charge and fired, forcing him to evade the blast and into the place where I had just thrown a Dark Link, pulling him towards me. With an awkward shout of pain, I threw him onto the ground behind me and leapt on top of him.

“Now to finally see your face so I can rip it to shreds,” I said.

I pulled off the weird Halloween-themed helmet he had on, only to see a mask of a trollface hidden underneath. I have never felt so done with dealing with this guy in my life.

He laughed heartily, and said, “Do you like my little trick?”

I replied with a cold “No.”

“I thought it was funny.”

“I did not.”

“Well, either way, you should get off me quickly, Fallen Angel.”

“And why’s that?”

“One, it looks like this is a boys’ love scene. Two, I noticed that these buildings are rigged with explosives. Three, the normal Angels are descending now.”

I turned around, and saw that he was telling the truth. Several of the buildings were collapsing, and a squadron of Angels were floating down from the sky.

I tapped into my comlink.

“HQ?!”

“We know, there’s a copter that should be hovering near you now.”

There was, and I hurried onto it. Vesper made a friendly salute to me, shouted "I hope you like the creature I left here!" and ran into the shadows. The buildings were collapsing one after the other, creating massive destruction and killing anyone who wasn’t fast enough to escape. From the helicopter, I could see debris falling to the road and Angels trying to shoot me down while protecting themselves from random falling materials. My pilot was good, however, and was able to avoid getting hit. I then received a message which notified me that the city of Keldrow, which I was in, was currently in an extremely dangerous state of emergency and illuminated a glowing outline of a red area in the city that was to be avoided at all costs. That area was the one where Vesper and I had just been. Just as the copter was leaving the area, I spotted two familiar figures leaping onto a building in the danger zone. I was shocked as well as surprised.

''Aoi? Akane?!''

Aoi
“Command, this is Nocturne 9-1, we’ve successfully entered the red zone.”

“Excellent. You’ve got a limited amount of time. That area will be filled with hostiles shortly. Find the detonators, and eliminate anyone preventing you from doing that. Rescuing civilians is your decision.”

“Got it. Let’s go, Akane.”

His sister nodded in response.

Aoi ran towards the roof access door and sliced it open with his gunblades, the Resonators, granting he and his sister entrance. Since they were short on time, they wouldn’t be able to complete the objective fast enough if they were quiet. Aoi checked a device on his wrist, and followed a ping that resounded when he was near a detonator. He threw open the door to the next floor, and used the device to find his first detonator and disarm it. Akane did the same.

They ran together through the buildings, using their advanced locator devices to find the explosive devices and shut them down before they could be detonated. This was an important mission, for if they didn’t, then Hell would be blamed for the mass destruction and it would cause great trouble for the Queen. After they had cleared the third building and landed on some random floor in their 4th and last via zipline, they stopped moving and held their position back-to-back.

“You feel it too, right?” Aoi asked his sister.

“Yeah. Something’s wrong here…” Akane responded.

Suddenly, the ground beneath them crumbled and they fell to the floor below. They were both surprised for half a second, but they were also both able to recover quickly and land on both feet in a crouch. When they looked at their new environment, they saw an entire squadron of Angels circling them, weapons in hand. Aoi and Akane stood back to back with their own weapons drawn.

“Half for each of us, Akane?” Aoi asked.

“Only if you finish killing your side first,” she replied.

“You’re a greedy one, aren’t you?”

“You’ve known that since birth, Onii-chan.”

They charged in opposite directions to face their adversaries. Aoi spread his arms apart and spun, firing his Resonators to slice and shoot the Angels to pieces. The Angels did their best to defend against the blade tornado, but it did little to block the energy shots. By using that dizzying move, Aoi was dazed for a second, and the battle-trained Angels used that opportunity to attack him with their halberds. He got hit once or twice, then was fed up and muttered, “Initiate: Shockwave.” His suit released a burst of electricity around him, blowing away his enemies with the sudden surge. In a split-second more Angels came at him, and tried to land a hit. Aoi parried every strike with one hand and countered with a slash or a shot by the other. Eventually he found an opening and was able to go on the offensive, and used his Resonators to slash and shoot his enemies repeatedly in a long combo. When he finally finished, he turned to see Akane pulling her blade out of an Angel’s neck and swiping it through the air to throw off the blood.

“You were able to do all that without your guns, huh?” Aoi said.

“Of course. My guns take too long to reload and I’m five times the sword user you are.”

Aoi made a wry smile.

“R-Right…anyway, we should really go back t-“

Aoi was cut off by the sound of the windows around them shattering, letting waves of Angels jump through and block off all their exits.

“More Angels? That was fast,” Aoi said.

“It matters not. We can handle it, right Onii-chan?” Akane replied.

“Why wouldn’t we be able to?” Aoi said, going into a battle stance with his Resonators. Akane did the same with her blade. More Angels were pouring in through the windows.

“Alright, new plan. This place is way too cramped to fight them all. We split up to divide this group, and then take them out while on the run,” Aoi said.

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah. This is the fastest way to get rid of them. We’ll meet back at the rally point.” Akane hesitated for a second, then agreed.

They charged off in opposite directions again, only this time they exited the building. Akane just barely slipped through a window in time, while Aoi used an explosive to blow a hole through the wall. The large group of Angels split to follow them. Aoi made a rolling landing on the roof of a nearby building and used his Resonators to shoot down as many Angels as possible. When they reached him, they surrounded him again, and then charged at him all at the same time. Aoi waited for the right moment, then jumped into the air and said, “Initiate: Pulse Blast.”

He fired an energy bolt from one of his Resonators, which hit the ground and released a wave of energy that knocked back all the Angels hit. Aoi landed back on the ground and charged at the Angels. He slashed his way through the Angels, and fired repeatedly into the crowd to kill as many as possible. Once he thought that it was almost over, an Angel that looked to be of high rank descended and readied his sword and shield. Aoi grit his teeth. He knew that an Angel of that class would be difficult to deal with and decided to retreat. He leapt into a window on the next building, then went to the next, and the next, and hid in there. Once he was sure that the Angels weren’t on his tail anymore, he checked to see that he wasn’t in the danger zone anymore and that the detonators were all gone. Then he exhaled heavily.

“Finally over.”

He scanned his surroundings, and decided to explore just a little bit. Then he heard a strange noise. He turned around, expecting to see his sister there.

“Akane?”

It wasn’t Akane.

Akane
“Geez, what’s taking Aoi so long…” Akane thought. They had been ambushed by Angels about 35 minutes before, and decided that they should split up to divide the enemy forces and then meet up again at the rendezvous point. When Akane arrived, she expected to find her brother there, which was wrong. Aoi was nowhere to be found. She double-checked and triple-checked the coordinates and went to all floors above or below the place she was standing in. She tried reaching him using the special private frequency that only they could access, but it was no use. Finally, Akane decided to wait for her brother on the roof. She figured it would easiest for him to find her there. She waited for another ten minutes, and then sighed.

“Baka onii-chan…” [Translation: Stupid brother…]

Then she heard shouting. It sounded like her brother. She immediately turned to look in the direction of the sounds, and saw Aoi running across the roofs of a series of taller buildings. She cried out to him.

“Onii-chan! Over here!”

Aoi seemed to already knew she was there and shouted, “Akane, shoot!”

“What?”

“Shoot!”

Akane unsheathed her rarely used anti-materiel rifle, Kyoufu, and fired at her brother, who dodged the bullet and let it hit something behind him. Aoi dropped to the ground beside Akane and turned around immediately.

“Good shot,” he said.

“What did you tell me to shoot?” Akane asked.

“Look.”

From the roof that Aoi was just on, a large figure rose up after being shot and blown back by Akane’s rifle. As it slowly got up into the bright moonlight, the details on its figure started to show. It was a huge zombie-like pumpkin monster, with arms the size of dinner tables and a head the size of a smart car. Part of its flesh had been removed, and parts of its skeleton were exposed to the outside. Most of the skin on its body had been removed, and it looked like it just came out of a graveyard full of zombies that attacked on sight. The monster let out a loud and menacing roar. Akane grabbed the firing pin on the side of Kyoufu and loaded a new bullet into the chamber, pointed her rifle at the thing, and fired again. Her target was blown back again, but it still got up. Akane reloaded and fired again and again until her clip ran out of bullets. When the monster got up that time, Aoi knew it was his turn to fire, and said, “Initiate: Galvanic Spray.”

Aoi’s Resonators fired an extremely inaccurate but unavoidable spray of energy bolts, making sure that the monster was hit as much as possible. Just as Akane finished replacing the clip, the monster landed on the roof of their building and released a piercing cry that echoed through the night. Akane grit her teeth and sheathed her rifle, while taking out her umbrella, Shirigomi. Aoi started firing his Resonators, doing his best to keep the monster at bay.

Akane charged in with her umbrella in hand, removed the handle to reveal her blade, and started slashing the flesh at any part where she thought it would do any damage. While it was doing damage, it seemed like the wounds it was taking were being repaired, as cuts made by Akane’s blade weren’t there anymore after a few seconds. Akane decided to use the safe gaming strategy of the kite, and deal damage without getting herself hit. Aoi looked like he was going to reach his limit soon, too. She then found what looked like a weak spot in the monster’s flesh, a small space on the back of its neck. Akane leapt into the air, blade in hand, and spun on her way down towards the titanic beast and slashed that exact space. The monster then appeared to be in great pain, with Akane landing a short distance away to see exactly what happened to the flesh creature.

It suddenly turned around and used its arm to throw Akane onto the ground, unable to reach her blade. The beast approached her, and leaned in so close with its bloody mouth that she was too disgusted to reach for any of her weapons. She thought that she was going to get eaten, but then her brother started firing his Resonators again in a powerful concentration of bolts directly at the monster, making it want to go after him. Akane was paralyzed in shock for a second before snapping out of it and grabbing a hold on the situation. She knew that Aoi’s Resonators wouldn’t be able to completely kill the zombified pumpkin man. It would reach him soon, and probably devour his head. Akane absolutely did not want that to happen. Since she didn’t have time to get up, she reached for her favorite assassination weapon, Akumu, a Thompson Encore, and threw it as hard as she could to her brother. Aoi saw it coming and threw away one of his Resonators to catch it. Right when the flesh beast had Aoi’s head in its mouth and was about to close the jaw, Aoi pointed the gun at the inside of the thing’s neck, and fired, throwing the beast and Aoi’s arm back a considerable amount. Aoi went over to the monster to check if it was really dead, and after confirming it, rushed to his sister.

“Is it finally over?” Akane asked, still on the floor.

“Yeah. It definitely is.”

Aoi stretched out his hand and smiled.

“Come on, we should go.”

Akane felt slightly embarrassed, but she took his hand anyway and stood up.

“You didn’t…”

“What?” Aoi replied, confused.

“You didn’t see my panties when I fell did you…”

Aoi’s face went red.

“N-No! I didn’t see them at all!”

Akane giggled.

“What is it now?” Aoi asked.

“Oh, it’s nothing,” Akane replied with a smile.

Aoi still looked confused for a second, then looked towards the horizon and said, “We should really start heading back.”

Akane nodded.

They started walking back to HQ side by side.

“Hey, Onii-chan, when we get home, do you think Mom and Dad will have some candy left?” Akane asked.

“Maybe, but they’re all mine,” Aoi replied.

“What? No way, I demand at least half. Preferably all.”

Aoi made a small laugh.

“Yeah, yeah,” he said as he pat Akane’s head.

Hibiki
Hibiki thought it was sort of nostalgic, looking at myself in the mirror. She hadn’t worn a dress like that in a long time. It was black and gray, her preferred clothing colors for this occasion, and had several adornments along the waist area. She did a quick spin around to get a glimpse of what it looked like from behind, and made a few final adjustments to her hair. Her parents would still consider it messy, but it was just fine for her.

“Alright,” she said.

She took the small baton-like object resting on a nearby chair and attached it to a clip on the back of her waist. Patting her cheeks twice, she told herself to get out there and then walked out of the small changing room. After navigating through a series of hallways, she entered a large circular ballroom, with several chandeliers hanging magnificently from the dome-shaped ceiling. Even though the room itself was lit through magic, it was still nice to see the detail they’ve done with designing the intricate designs on the golden chandeliers. Hibiki looked around, and saw that there were already plenty of people inside. Some were royal staff, some others were the Knights appointed by the Daitoa, and there also were quite a few guests who were neither, but were invited anyway. It looked like a nice Autumn Festival party. Hibiki wandered around the room, her eyes scanning the area carefully. They landed on a particular girl with a black fedora and an outfit that seemed slightly more casual than the Daitoa would’ve allowed. She walked over to the girl and spoke to her.

“Oi, Yumiko.”

“My, you’ve found me already?”

Hibiki sighed. “Of course. Your outfit more than makes you stick out like a sore thumb.”

Yumiko made an embarrassed smile. “Does it really?”

“Yes.”

“Sorry, I had nothing else to wear.”

“I lent you one of my dresses to wear to this party just the other day.”

“Ah that. It’s just that the dress was kinda tight, particularly around the chest area…”

Hibiki flinched at the comment and her face went scarlet from embarrassment. “C-Chest area…?”

“Yeah,” Yumiko said. “It was very uncomfortable for me to put on.”

“T-They’re still going to grow!” Hibiki exclaimed while crossing her arms across her chest, clearly flustered.

Yumiko laughed. “Ahaha, sorry, couldn’t help it.”

Hibiki just glared at her.

Then a voice rang out from the stage on one end of the room.

“Welcome everyone to the Autumn Festival!”

It was the Daitoa.

“Help yourselves to food and drink, and make merry. In an hour, we will officially begin the ball dance, so take this time to find a suitable partner. Good luck!”

“Ooh, Hibiki, a dance. Are you going?” Yumiko asked.

“Of course not. I have no interest in things like that.” Hibiki answered, trying to select which autumn-themed cookie to try first.

“You’re so cold. Well, I don’t know anyone else here, so I’ll just hang back in the shadows with you.”

“Shadows?” Hibiki asked, munching on a cookie. “I’m staying here. There’s nothing to eat or drink in the shadows.”

“I guess you’re right.” Yumiko said, taking a cookie of her own and devouring it in one bite.

“Oh, one more thing,” Yumiko added.

“What is it?”

“It’s Halloween tonight. You could be getting tons of candy.”

“I remember getting candy as a kid. After that incident, I lost interest.”

“Oh, so that’s it. Okay.”

An hour passed more quickly than they both expected, and the background music that had been playing by a nearby orchestra had changed to a slower, more romantic tempo. Hibiki and Yumiko stood by the refreshments table, silently watching the dancers do their thing. Hibiki was muttering to herself every single error she caught in the dancers, and Yumiko was eating her 35th cookie. Suddenly, a man dressed in a noble white tuxedo and had his hair combed back like a prince approached them. Hibiki caught sight of him quickly, and felt like she wanted to go away.

“Hello, Sonic Knight. Lovely evening isn’t it?” the man said.

Hibiki was disgusted, but she forced herself to respond politely.

“H-Hello Eric. It is a lovely evening, indeed.”

Eric smiled. “Just as lovely as you, my lady. Would you care for a dance?”

Hibiki looked away. “Thank you for your generous offer, but I’m not much of a dancer myself.”

“Is that so? Then let me teach you-“

Yumiko interrupted him. “Sorry Eric, but I just remembered something really important that Hibiki and I had to do.”

She grabbed Hibiki by the back of her shoulders and pushed her all the way to the other side of the room.

“Hey, Yumiko, what was that important thing we had to do?”

“Get away from that guy.”

“Oh. I see.”

“What, no ‘thank you’s?”

“Alright, fine. Thank you, Yumiko.”

Yumiko smiled quickly.

“But also curse you.”

Yumiko’s smile faded just as fast.

“Eh?”

Hibiki pointed towards the place they had just been. “Look how far we are from the refreshments table!”

“Ah, haha, sorry about that.”

Hibiki glared at Yumiko again. “Now to make up for that, you better-“

Hibiki was interrupted by the sudden sound of shattering glass as the windows surrounding the rotunda were broken and a variety of monsters jumped in. Along with the monsters, a new kind of creature came in, some kind of being that resembled candy. The majority of the guests were panicking, while the Daitoa tried to get them under control and order anyone with a weapon to fight these beasts off. Hibiki pulled out the small baton-shaped object from behind her waist and pressed a button on it, making the object expand into a rifle-like bladed element launcher named Cantabile. Yumiko pulled out two of her signature weapons, Livid and Voltaire, from the weapon holsters she had on her waist. After they both looked at each other and nodded, they charged straight into the fray and began their attack.

“The protection of the guests has top priority!” Hibiki shouted over all the commotion while getting as many one-hit-kills as possible with her launcher.

Yumiko shouted back, “Roger!” as she used Livid to make irreversible cuts on every monster she came across.

Most of the guests had been evacuated, but the monster onslaught wasn’t stopping. Hibiki tried to find a monster that could be acting somewhat like their leader. Then she heard a weird-sounding scream from another direction and looked there. It was Eric, and he had fallen on his bottom. A large candy monster, or “candymorph” as she learned from attacking one up close, that looked like a crab and a centipede mixed together was looming right above him, ready to rip him to shreds. Hibiki didn’t want to save him but she knew she had to. She ran towards him, Cantabile positioned forward, and fired off a shot directly into the candymorph’s head. It staggered a bit, then turned to take Hibiki on with full force. It stretched out its awkward-looking chocolate claws, about to crush her to dust, when Hibiki loaded another shot and fired into its face, making it cover its face with its choco-claws. Hibiki then positioned the blade of Cantabile upward, and slide under the candymorph, splitting the lower end of its body in half and greatly reducing its health. To finish it off, Hibiki jumped onto the thing’s neck, stuck Cantabile into it, and fired a last shot to blow its head off. Hibiki landed gracefully behind the monster, when it shattered into millions of tiny polygons. Eric still was paralyzed from fear. Hibiki looked at him with displeasure. “Hey. At least be grateful.”

Eric snapped out of it and shouted, “Yes! Thank you!”

Then he hurried off towards the nearest exit.

Hibiki sighed, and was about to hunt another monster, when a huge candymorph was formed out of a bunch of smaller ones and sprung out claws, teeth, and a tail. Hibiki readied Cantabile and loaded another Seiryoku capsule, ready to fire. But just as Hibiki was about to charge at it, a purplish light appeared at the top of its head and moved down, all the way to its feet. Then the monstrous candymorph fell apart instantly. Yumiko was standing right behind it.

“Oh, did I steal your kill?”

“Yes, you did.”

“Sorry, I couldn’t resist trying to cut it down with one strike using Livid.”

“Tch. Well, at least you got it.”

Hibiki looked around, and saw that the monsters had started retreating and trying to escape. They must’ve been scared after seeing that huge candymorph get one-shot-killed.

“What was this…?” Hibiki asked.

Then Yumiko looked like she just remembered something important. “I remember! They announced some time ago that this Halloween the game developers were going to send an invasion force of monsters and candymorphs all over EUO.”

“Is that so? I wonder why I didn’t see that.”

“It wasn’t really well-spread.”

Hibiki looked down at the ground

“Halloween, huh?” she thought to herself.

Then she looked back at the masses of slain monsters and candymorphs.

“I guess next year I could try and get some candy.”

Yumiko made a lecherous smile.

“You know, Hibiki, if you wanted candy from me, all you have to do is ask~”

“Really?” Hibiki turned to face her friend. “Then do you have any chocolate with you right now?”

Yumiko’s smile didn’t falter and she didn’t say anything in response.

Hibiki suddenly realized what Yumiko meant and her face turned crimson.

“No, no, no, Yumiko, why are you thinking that?!”

Yumiko laughed. “Just trying to get another glimpse of your cuter side, Hibiki~”

Hibiki looked away, still blushing. “Jeez…”

Bonus!
''What’s this? Is it…an entirely new series complete with a new VRMMO??'' Get ready for the introduction to the world of Evoked Legends Online!

Tsukasa
I woke up in an unfamiliar heavily white-colored room. The bed I was on was white, and so were the walls, the floors, and even the small coffee table near the bed. All of a sudden, my head started to throb with pain. I sat up and tried to remember what happened last night. The last thing I remember was that girl with the cyan-colored hair, and getting punched in the face by an angry orc.

That must be it, I thought. ''I was knocked out by that orc and brought here. But…where is here?''

Suddenly, the door opened and a blonde foreign-looking girl carrying a tea tray appeared in the doorway. She had a white apron on, a ponytail, and gray clothing underneath. For some reason she was also wearing boots.

“Oh, you’re already awake,” she said and came in to the room, placing the tea tray on the coffee table. She closed the door and poured a cup of tea.

“Who are you?” I asked suspiciously.

She offered me the cup of tea and smiled.

“I am called Alpha. Starting today, you’ll be my pet.”

I was dumbfounded. “What?”

“I said, starting today, you’ll be my pet.”

“I heard you the first time, but why am I your pet?!”

The blonde called Alpha laughed.

“It was a joke, you know. A joke.”

I exhaled a heavy sigh. What was up with this girl?

She stopped laughing and said, “Anyway, the truth is, you were graciously kept alive by yours truly, and you were brought to this facility.”

I didn’t respond. Mostly because it had barely any connection to my last memories.

“You were a witness to that fight between Tenshi and those Bypassers.”

''A fight? That’s right, I did see a fight between one girl and a bunch of tough-looking Orcs and Werewolves. Wait, so why was I “kept alive” if I didn’t participate?''

“What did you mean when you said ‘kept alive’?” I asked.

“How do I explain this…” Alpha thought about it for a while, then finally said, “You weren’t supposed to see that fight. Normally, we would’ve killed anyone who saw something like that, but I told Tenshi to make and exception just~ for~ you~.”

This girl’s unusually flirty attitude was starting to put me off.

“Why was I not killed?”

“You were about to be. Your responses to Tenshi when she pointed the gun to your head gave me enough time to analyze you.”

“Huh…?”

“You’re a special one, Himeji Tsukasa.”

How did she know my name?

“I never told you my name.”

“Of course you didn’t. That’s why we used the game’s database to properly get your data.”

“The game’s database? But ho-“

She cut me off to say something that sounded interesting.

“Wait. I’m not done. We tried to get your data, but the thing was, it was glitched.”

“Glitched?”

“Yup. Your stat points are all over the place, you automatically get fully-filled out maps of places you’ve never been to before, and you don’t have anything like a mana or energy meter.”

“I thought that was for everyone.”

“Nope, just you. The game devs said that they messed up on one or two characters’ data and let them into ELO with a glitched interface.”

“I see…”

“Now,” she offered me the tea again. “Drink.”

“Oh. Thanks, I guess.”

I took a sip, noticing that the tea was a deep red.

Isn’t tea supposed to be brown…?

“Is this actually tea?” I asked.

“No, it’s blood. Now drink it, vampire.”

I looked down at the crimson red drink with steam rising slowly from the brim of the cup.

As my character in the game was of the vampire species, it made sense for her to think that I would want blood. Thing is, when I taste blood in this game, my tongue hates it because it tastes so bad. It doesn’t taste much different from real life, but that’s exactly why I was never fond of it. So, I simply said in response, “Sorry, but I don’t like blood.”

Alpha looked at me like I just said I was her long lost brother.

“Huh? A vampire that doesn’t like blood?”

“It tastes horrible to me.”

“Well then, you’re a weird one. Don’t drink it then. But I think you might regret not drinking it.”

“And why’s that?”

“Because soon you’re gonna join the team.”

''Team? There were more of these strange people like her?''

“We’re gonna need your abilities in the field, Himeji Tsukasa.”

My abilities…?

“The higher-ups have already created your codename. It’s [Maze].”

''Maze, huh? Sounds cool I gues-no wait what am I even doing here?!''

“Waiwaiwait, what do you mean ‘use my abilities’?”

“Oh, I didn’t tell you? Starting today, you’ll be helping us eliminate threats to the whole game’s system, and maybe even the whole of Japan.”

What?!