Karen, Katsuo, Kazuto, Yuuki, Mamoru, and Ophelia are playing a brand new VRMMOFPS called Gun Gale Online when they encounter a surprise beyond their comprehension. Will this new surprise forever separate Karen, Katsuo, Kana, Sylvia, Hikaru, and all of their friends once again?

Rated: AU Fiction T

Disclaimer: I don't own anything apart from the words that I write and the characters that I create. Credit goes to the original creator of the SAO universe; credits also to the creators and contributors to the Hyperdimension Neptunia series.

Author Notes: If you want to understand this story fully, I would highly recommend reading my previous works.

Real Life Standard Time: [9:30] June 12th 2026

It's been a month since the Ragnarok tournament in Alfheim and the event members of Laughing Coffin led by Vusago tried killing myself and my friends while we were in virtual reality. Because of how I noticed that Kanemoto and Shinkawa weren't in the hospital that we were in when Vusago attacked, there are suspicions that Vusago left a group in reserve just in case. As a result of this suspicion, security is rather tight at this hospital. Katsuo, Kazuto, Mamoru, Ophelia, Yuuki, and I were brought to this hospital by the VR Crime Division just in case Laughing Coffin tries to attack again.

After hearing from the nurses that the others are in GGO, I lay down in the hospital bed and activate my AmuSphere to create a character for me to use in Gun Gale Online. I'm constantly thankful that the activation sequence for the AmuSphere is the same as the NerveGear which allows me and my friends to easily adjust to the different hardware.

"Link Start!"

After activating the AmuSphere, I find myself in pure darkness until I see a menu, saying:

Will you cross over a character from a different game or create a new character?

I select 'Create a new avatar', since I want to keep Ashikaga, the new name of my Solaris avatar, in Alfheim. After selecting the create option, I'm brought into a special menu where I see 10 presets in front of me me.

To select a Preset, simply walk into it. Upon selecting a preset, additional creation options will be available.

I see that all ten of the presets are female; I conclude that it selected the ten presets available for women after scanning my mental wiring. I glance at the ten presets in front of me, numbered from 1 to 10 left to right across my vision. After looking at them all, I decide to choose number 7 since it has the exact same build as what I'm accustomed to-relatively thin, and not built with much muscle mass.

I then enter the character creator, which by default creates a mannequin that takes my real life form as a template. I decide to change things up by first changing my eyes to a dark red, lengthen my avatar's hair past the waist and I don't exactly want this avatar to look like the real me, like Ashikaga, so I change the hair color to a dark blue color and add glasses as a cosmetic change. The outfit appears to be a bluish-white colored dress with with a flower pattern in the upper torso and black stockings, with me deciding to name this avatar Asa. "Wow, it's hard to believe; this is the most feminine character I've ever made in an MMO. I just know that Ophelia's going to mock me when she sees me." I sigh a little, knowing that Ophelia's going to mock me over how I'm playing a feminine character when I usually always play male or tomboyish characters.

After accepting the character, I see this notice from the system:

"Welcome to Gun Gale Online"

I materialize under what appears to be a dome in the middle of a city. If I'm right, this place is called the SBC Glocken, which is the starting city for Gun Gale Online. I quickly notice that this is far more sci-fi than anything I have ever since in an MMO since everything appears to be made of metal. I notice that there isn't a lot of people around, which I guess simply means that this might be off-hours for this game. I walk around the area a little, taking good looks around the city and I come across what appears to be a tavern named Moon Shard. I remember that Mamoru told me, Katsuo, and Kazuto to meet him and the others here. When I enter the tavern, I quickly see that it's empty aside from three people, whom are sitting at the bar. I look toward the trio and quickly recognize them as Mamoru, Ophelia, and Yuuki. Although the more intricate parts of their appearance are different from their Cait Sith, Imp, and Spriggan fairy forms respectively; their colors and general appearances are the same when they crossed over their Alfheim avatars two weeks ago.

As I walk toward them, I can hear Yuuki talking to Ophelia, though I miss part of the conversation.

"-He always like this?" Yuuki inquires, glancing toward Mamoru who appears to be drinking.

"Based on what I've seen Zekken, unfortunately yes."

"Bugger off. We're waiting for our friends and I don't like lazing about. Besides, these things give EXP boosts, have some."

"Hell no!"

"Pulse, you are such a-" Yuuki tries to say before simply giving up with a groan.

"She has a point you know." Ophelia sighs deeply as she turns away from Mamoru and pulls out what seems to be an assault rifle and a magazine out of her inventory as she ejects one and puts in this new one. She then quickly notices me "Oh sorry, I didn't see you there."

"It's quite alright Yugana." I chuckle in a friendly manner looking toward her, Yuuki, and Mamoru.

"Lady Ashikaga, it's an honor." Mamoru says, failing to hold back a laugh as he calls me by my title as leader of the Imp faction in Alfheim.

"Shut it, jerk." I say sarcastically as I punch him in the arm, but I'm chuckling since I know that Mamoru usually is a jokester kind of person, but he has his moments of somberness, like what happened with Vusago, but it looks like he's back to his usual self.

"Karen? You're actually playing a feminine character for once." Ophelia giggles somewhat, mocking the character I made.

"Ophelia, stop. I'm not exactly in the mood for your mockery right now." I half lie here, since I really don't want to hear Ophelia's mild criticism over how I'm deciding to play a truly feminine character this time.

Not long into our conversation, I see a female looking player with long black hair, pale skin, crimson lips, and black eyes approach us.

"I'm glad at least one of you kept your appearance from Alfheim; it'd be a little tough to tell who's who if we all made new characters." The female player says calmly, with me recognizing the voice of this person but the appearance is not something I could easily recognize.

"Kazuto, is that...you?" Ophelia asks in absolute disbelief.

"Yeah, why do you sound creeped out?"

"Kazuto..." I say before smirking, and outright laughing as I grip my stomach and bend over from the fierce laughing.

"Why are you laughing at me?!" Kazuto exclaims in a confused tone, and while I can barely see from my laughing fit, I can notice the others atleast chuckling over this.

"Okay...let me pull out a mirror." I say, laughing my butt off, desperately trying to maintain some degree of sanity.

I open my menu to pull out the mirror I was able to keep from Aincrad, and pass it to Kazuto. I guess that the mirror somehow was sent to my NerveGear's internal memory, and when Mamoru transferred everything to my AmuSphere, it apparently came with. I notice, with little surprise, that I don't have any other items or money aside from the other transferred item from my NerveGear's memory: M492. It was the item that allowed me to transform into a male swordsman with a skull mask, which I used in SAO's closed beta. Although doing this would give me access to a sword, I think, I really don't want to use close ranged combat in an MMO based around guns. That'd be outright suicide.

When Kazuto looks at himself, he gasps very loudly, clearly disturbed. I see another player approach us after hearing Kazuto nearly shout in utter revolt. This avatar has blue eyes, short amber hair, and is wearing dark green clothing with gold trims; his aura is almost identical to the Salamander General I've grown accustomed to: Yamakage.

"Katsuo, that you?" Yuuki asks the male player excitedly; she was quick to become close friends with Katsuo after the Ragnarok tournament last month and I'm surprised at how quickly Yuuki bonded with all of us to where it's like she's always been a part of our group, even during Aincrad when we were fighting with our lives on the line for three years.

"Yep, yoroshiku, I named this character Striker."

"I decided to name this character Asa." I say with a smile.

"Well, I heard there's a tournament in this MMO named Bullet of Bullets happening in about two days; I figure we should build up your levels so we can stand a chance, so let's go fight some monsters outside town." Yuuki says in her usual upbeat tone, though it fades to a degree when she speaks of the next part "We did a little research on our own and the avatar involved with this crisis is called 'Death Gun'. If he'll be anywhere, it'll be at Bullet of Bullets. We discovered that he's going after famous and powerful players. Anyone who's anyone in this world will be in that tournament."

"Let's head to a weapon shop first, we need weapons." Kazuto states in his usual tranquil tone, having apparently gotten over the shock of finding that his avatar looks feminine.

We go to the weapon shop in town, with Mamoru, Yuuki, and Ophelia showing the assault rifles they bought beforehand, though Ophelia's looks different for some reason, with her explaining that hers is meant for PvP. The fact that Ophelia of all people is handling PVP surprises me more than I'll admit. Perhaps what happened last month with Vusago changed the way she thinks. While we're looking about, I see that Kazuto bought a 4.5mm FN Five Seven Handgun and a Kagemitsu G4 photon sword; I honestly am not surprised in the slightest at the fact that Kazuto bought a sword in a MMOFPS. To my rather extreme irritation, Katsuo and I would've bought weapons, but we're broke in terms of money because of how we made new characters, we have no items, and according to Mamoru, Yuuki, and Ophelia, buying weapons in this game binds them to the purchaser. So we'll need to get the money elsewhere, since we can't trade because of these new, stupid restrictions-all because these characters are new to this game, differing from Kazuto's, Mamoru's, Yuuki's, and Ophelia's crossed over characters from Alfheim. Looks like Gun Gale Online means business when it hosts a wide window of 'Pro' players. These guys make money playing this game like how Katsuo, Keiko, and Hikaru do with the game that pays our rent.

Normally, transferring characters between MMOs erases all items except money, which merely rewords it depending on the name of the respective currency, but Kazuto, Mamoru, Yuuki, and Ophelia transferred their items to Keiko, Sylvia, Kana, and Hikaru before they transferred to Gun Gale, and the three of us did the same thing a day ago, and they placed those items in special storages inside Grandum which allow us to keep items safe within Grandum's special hub which XANA made for us.

"Hmm, we'll need to go out to a dungeon or something to help Striker and Asa get money and or weapons." Yuuki says with a frown, obviously feeling sad that Katsuo and I are being limited simply for wanting new perspective after using the same powerful characters for 4 years now.

"Well, let's get going. We won't be getting stronger by sitting around on our butts here." Mamoru says, with his usual humorous tone being evident, though there is a degree of seriousness in his voice.

Real Life Standard Time: [10:30] June 12th 2026

We leave the city, Mamoru, Ophelia, and Yuuki in the lead carrying their assault rifles in hand and Kazuto behind me and Katsuo to guard our backs, with us keeping our formation spread out to prevent anyone from killing more than one of us with a single attack while also ensuring we can keep ourselves safe if we run into PVP squadrons.

"There's a low level dungeon not too far to the west, we'll head there to get you two some weapons." Mamoru says rather calmly, opening the menu and changing the setting of our squadron loot rule to open, which would allow any of us to take what monsters drop. "Here's how things will go guys. Striker and Asa get priority on loot, followed by Kirito, followed by us."

"Works for me. They are new while we've had a lot of time to prepare." Yuuki casually nods, knowing that she, Ophelia, and Mamoru have been here two weeks and had plenty of time and resources to professionally arm themselves.

Just as the clock in my field of vision turns to 10:30, I fall into a pit trap that suddenly opens in front of me.

"AHH!" I scream as I fall down the pitfall that suddenly opened from below me.

"Karen!" I hear the group shout in shock, voices already becoming distant.

After what feels like ten minutes of falling, I land on my rear end rather harshly.

"Itai!" I shout in simulated pain. "I'm just glad this this is a virtual world…in reality that could've killed me, or at the least caused permanent injury." I morosely say, dusting myself off before inspecting the area's environment.

"Karen! You okay?!" I hear the echoed voice from Yuuki.

"I'm alright! But I can't see any way to get back up this way!" I say, hoping the echo reaches them.

"We're going to jump down and help you! Just wait for us!" I hear from Katsuo.

I hear the others rapidly approaching with fast speed; I'm guessing they all jumped in through the pit trap that caught me off guard, so I leap forward to avoid being crushed by someone landing on me. I then hear five sets of rapid landings.

"I see you all came down at once...so now we're all trapped." I say with a mildly irritated sigh. I don't know why they all decided to leap into this pit, but its far too late to question it now. "What is this place anyway?" I ask, wondering where we are.

"Hmm..." Yuuki mumbles, looking around the dungeon before gasping "Um, guys...I think this is the Lucent Vault."

"Oh dear god, Yuuki, are you certain?!" Ophelia nearly shouted when she asked Yuuki this question.

"Well...based on what I've read in the dungeon list, Lucent Vault has a phantasmal affinity throughout the entire area, and look around."

"Shit, if this really is the Lucent Vault, we're screwed." Mamoru groans very irritably. Something about this 'Lucent Vault' is terrifying all three of these guys for some reason.

"What's wrong with you guys?" I ask, wondering why they're so freaked out.

"Karen, this is the strongest dungeon in this game. As far as I know, no one has been able to survive to the end."

"We don't exactly have a whole lot of options ahead of us. We're too far down to climb out so our only option is to press on. Mamoru, Yuuki, Ophelia, I want you guys ahead of us since you have weapons. Kazuto, stay near me and Katsuo and guard us if monsters get close." I sigh since we have no choice but to press onward through the dungeon.

We begin our march to find a way out of this damned dungeon. Mamoru, Yuuki, Kazuto, and Ophelia are the only ones able to fight until we make it half way through the dungeon, after fighting through eight rooms full of monsters. At the halfway mark, we encounter a large monster wielding a massive minigun, who fires at us, forcing us to take cover from the barrage.

"Get to cover!" I shout, dive bombing to the right alongside Mamoru and Ophelia; with Katsuo, Kazuto, and Yuuki doing the same to the left.

"Damn it! We can't step out to fight without getting blown to pieces!" Kazuto shouts angrily, barely missing some shrapnel from the minigun as he tried surveying the environment some.

"I suppose you all need my help." I hear a voice say from somewhere.

We look around to see an large open air vent in front of the room near us, and can see someone shadowed behind a large sniper rifle within.

"Who are you?" Ophelia asks the person in the vent.

"Sinon. I'm going to guess you all are new players; if so, you're all completely idiotic." Sinon says drily.

"Idiotic...how dare you!" Yuuki whips out in anger of being insulted.

"Quiet, I need concentration." Sinon says, looking through the sniper rifle's scope.

I can hear three shots being fired and when I stick my head out of the corner of the entrance and glance at the monster in the room, I see that they hit the monster's legs and right arm, causing it to drop the minigun it held.

"Now!" Sinon shouts to us.

"Move out!" I shout, stepping out of cover to attack the monster that kept us trapped, with the others rapidly following my lead.

"Got it!" Kazuto, Mamoru, Ophelia, and Yuuki say in unison, spreading out to prevent any possible AoE skills and inflict damage in all possible areas.

The battle quickly evolves with Sinon sniping this monster at long range, Mamoru, Ophelia and Yuuki at a distance attacking from three different directions with their rifles, while Kazuto uses his Kagemitsu sword at point blank range. With all of our efforts combined, the monster falls after ten minutes of continuous heavy fire. After the monster is slain and Katsuo got a rifle from the open loot setting of our party, we look toward the place we were hiding at to see a player crawl out of the vent and walk toward us, carrying a large sniper rifle. This female player has pale blue hair and is wearing a desert colored military jacket, bulletproof armor, and combat boots.

"Thanks for helping us out, we're trying to get out of this place." I say with a bow.

"Well, sadly enough, it's going to take more than this. That was just the mid-boss and there's still the final boss to deal with. Speaking of which; I've been keeping an eye on you before you entered this place. Why would you enter a dungeon of this level when you're still so new?" Sinon says with a hint of frustration.

"I fell into a pitfall and ended up here, so my friends followed me in. And what level is this place supposed to be?"

"I see. But you clearly don't know the schedule of this dungeon. While it does randomly teleport every hour, it always give fair warning for players to avoid this place. The fact you survived this long surprises me more than I'll admit. But either way, come along; I'll lead you out." Sinon says, already walking further into the dungeon.

"What do you think? Should we trust her?" Mamoru asks me.

"We do need help getting out of here. Let's follow her for now." I say with a sigh, beckoning the group to advance and follow this Sinon.

Meanwhile, in a different dimension:

Two people are glancing at a globe showing the images of Karen, Katsuo, Kazuto, Mamoru, Ophelia, Yuuki, and Sinon in combat against the monster they just fought and other spawn monsters, with Karen leading the group with strong strategies, impressing the fairy being.

"Histoire, are you sure these people are worth the power needed to bring them here? Don't forget that you spent a lot of that power manipulating the run-time of that dungeon." The female brunette asks the fairy like being, sitting on a white book.

"IF, I know you worry for our nation, but this is the only way. I thankfully did not have to exert as much power as I feared when I made a connection the artificial intelligence running the game, purposely manipulating things as much as I could to get this group here. While this is not the full team that I was hoping for, this group is very powerful and talented in many ways. They will be most useful in helping Neptune and the others." Histoire says seriously. "Now, go get Falcom and go to these coordinates. Wait for their arrival."

"Very well Histoire, if you claim these people can help, I'll put faith in them; not that I'm expecting much." The brunette says, walking away.

"Best of luck, IF. Gamindustri may very well depend on you, Falcom, and these heroes." Histoire says quietly, fearing the worst.

IF departs the Planeptune Basilicom to find a tall girl with short cut red hair, wearing a silver headband, blue and white clothing, with light orange-brown eyes, carrying a long guitar case leaning against the wall.

"Hello IF. Did Histoire say anything about what we're going to do now?" The girl says in a friendly tone.

"Ah, Falcom, good timing, now I don't need to track you down. Let's go, Histoire gave me the coordinates of where we need to go, we need to get there immediately and meet the people that will be arriving soon." IF says seriously.

"Shouldn't we get Compa? It'd be easier handling introductions if everyone planning to go is there." Falcom says calmly.

"Eh...you're probably right. Let's head to the clinic, get Compa, then go to these coordinates." IF slightly groans when Falcom brought up the person in question.

"Is something wrong IF?" Falcom inquires, wondering why IF sounds mildly depressed right now.

"I'm not eager about Compa coming with us. You know about what happened there. Compa's a civilian and not as battle-trained like you or me. She seriously shouldn't be coming with us."

"Then why don't you tell her this?"

"You know how stubborn that girl can get. I'd have better luck getting Neptune to do actual work." IF actually cracks a small smile thinking of this.

"Heh, you make a good point I guess. Compa can be very stubborn when she wants to be."

IF and Falcom walk to the nearby clinic to find a cream pink haired girl wearing a tan-white tank top, red plaid skirt, a black choker, and a black headband working in the area.

"Iffy! You came!" The girl says happily, running toward the duo.

"Yeah, I'm heading out soon to get the people that'll help us rescue Nep and the others."

"You're going to meet the people Histy was going to summon? I'm coming with you!" Compa says in the same tone.

"We were planning on that; well, Falcom was. Anyway, are you sure about this, Compa? I'm with the Guild, so I have to help; Falcom's a traveling heroine asked by Histoire to help, but you Compa...you're a civilian, you shouldn't be coming." IF states worriedly; considering that Compa is a childhood friend of IF's alongside how she doesn't any real combat experience, that gives the girl cause for concern.

"I'm not going to stay here while you throw yourself into danger, besides, Nep-Nep is still out there trapped in that horrible graveyard! When these people arrive, I'm going with you all so I can help Nep-Nep." Compa says with compassion and determination in her tone, refusing to be left out of this.

IF sighs and says "I know better than to try to stop you when you get determined. Get your gear, we're heading out now."

"Got it!" Compa says happily, grabbing her oversized syringe and heads out with IF and Falcom.

Karen's Dimension:

We follow Sinon through the dungeon, and she leads us through a few shortcuts, shaving off crucial time, though we do try to make a little bit of small-talk, with her taking the start to my minor surprise.

"Why are you guys here in this game anyway? You don't really strike me as the kind of people in this for the tournaments or this style of MMO." Sinon inquires with a cool as ice tone.

"We're here on business. Trying to find someone specifically." I say, trying to hide as much as I can about our mission.

"If it's someone famous, I can point you all in the right direction. Who are you looking for?"

"Death Gun."

After Kazuto said this rather seriously, Sinon stopped really abruptly, apparently shocked by what Kazuto said as she turns to face us all

"You guys are looking for Death Gun? Why are you looking for him of all people?"

"Let's just say that we have personal interest in taking him down and leave it at that." Mamoru replies rather calmly, sharing the same interest of keeping things vague.

"No way, you are telling me everything right now." Sinon coldly says as she stares us down.

I look toward my friends, trying to decide on what course we should take "What do you guys think we should do?"

"We can't let her get wrapped up in this. We need to handle this ourselves."

"Ophelia has a point. While I can't say the same about her and Yuuki, we need people who have no qualms about risking their lives. The VR Crime Division is protecting our bodies so no one would be able to get to us if this happens outside the game. If Sinon travels with us, she'll be made a target and if that fear I mentioned is reality, we can't protect her." Mamoru says rather seriously, and his logic is tough to challenge.

"But that's if Mamoru. She's pretty damn strong with that sniper. Besides, we can certainly keep her safe. And don't forget that there's always that chance that Death Gun could have already marked her as a target. If what is happening is like Aincrad, she'll be safer with us than on her own." Katsuo interjects.

"Katsuo, I can't believe you! This girl doesn't deserve to be forced into this!" Kazuto shouts in a quiet manner, unable to believe what Katsuo is saying.

"You guys do look for strong players right? She may be a bit rude, but she's certainly strong. Besides, I hear things and it's rare for someone to get a Hecate." Yuuki says rather casually to us, and she has a point there: Senryaku always did keep an eye out for the best of the best.

"Okay, you guys are taking this too seriously. How about we see what happens for now? We'll test her while we proceed this dungeon, alright?"

After a simple nod in approval, we continue through the dungeon after we'll explain when we get out of the dungeon. We quickly find that the final boss appears to be a large steel juggernaut.

"Okay, this monster could be troublesome. Yugana, Zekken, Pulse, Striker, I want you four to spread out and attack the monster while Sinon lays down suppressing fire with her sniper rifle. Kirito, do what you do best." I say, my skill as strategist kicking in subconsciously, as I've been doing stuff like this since Aincrad.

"Why do you think I'd follow a strategy like that?" Sinon says rather angrily, confronting me on my plan.

"Got any other ideas, Miss Sniper?" I whip back angrily.

Sinon merely groans; I suspect she doesn't exactly have a solid plan right now.

"Sinon, we've worked with Asa for years. This strategy is one of her favorites and one of her most adaptable." Katsuo says proudly, confronting Sinon.

"Fine. I won't deny it's a decent strategy, but make sure that Juggernaut stays away from me. By the way, where's your weapon, Asa?"

"Don't have one. This is a new character. The character I usually use has been active for four years. I want a new perspective in this new game."

"Wow...wait, four years? The only way you could have played Virtual Reality MMOs that long is if...Oh." Sinon says quietly, apparently having learned of our background now.

"Aside from Zekken and Yugana, all of us were in Sword Art Online." Mamoru says with a smile.

"Wow...incredible, I never thought I'd get to meet actual SAO players. It's an honor. Too many of you don't play MMOs anymore, I guess that game was too traumatic for most of you." Sinon says, bowing in respect.

"Enough talk for now, let's defeat that boss!" I say seriously.

"Got it!" They say in unison, starting the plan.

Gamindustri Dimension:

"Well...this is where they should end up, now we just sit and wait. They'd better not keep us waiting too long though." IF says, slightly irritated at having to play the waiting game.

"IF, Compa, stay here. I'm going to see if these people we're waiting for are in the forest to the west of here." Falcom says seriously, walking west.

"W-Wait! Falcom!" IF shouts in defeat, as Falcom is already pretty far from camp.

"Iffy, do you know anything about these people we're waiting for?" Compa asks curiously.

"No, not...really, I was told by Histoire to wait out here for them, then bring them to Planeptune." IF says with a small sigh. "Histoire is risking just about everything on these people, they had better be worth it."

"Don't worry Iffy, if Histy is willing to risk so much, they must be worth the effort." Compa says happily.

"I hope so." IF says in a less than hopeful tone.

Real Life Standard Time: [11:45] June 12th 2026

With the Juggernaut boss defeated, both Katsuo and I have made it to level 30 from that single battle, so we'll stand a decent chance in any fight, though I'm still hopeless without a weapon.

"Wow, that was incredible, that was a very high level boss, and we killed it without any deaths on our side." Sinon says in utter surprise. "You certainly know your stuff, Asa." Sinon says with a smile.

"Comes with helping the clearers in SAO for three years, leading the grand quest clearing in Alfheim, and so on."

"Wait, you're Solaris of Aincrad?! My goodness...it's an honor to work with you." Sinon says, clearly awestruck.

"Come on, let's get out of this place." I say seriously. I don't want to stay in a dungeon all day.

We walk to the end of the dungeon to find a staircase behind a large pedestal holding a very large weapon.

"Holy...what is that?" Yuuki asks, awestruck.

"That is the PGM Ultima Ratio Hecate II. It's one of the most powerful weapons in this world, alongside the fact it's a sniper rifle. It's what I'm using actually. Though...the design is different from what I have." Sinon says, apparently feeling a little confused when she looks at the weapon.

"Asa, you have the honors-you're the only one without a weapon, so you should take it." Mamoru says calmly.

"Thanks." I say, approaching the weapon in this pedestal, my companions in tow. I touch the weapon and I see a status window open in front of me, reading: 'PGM Ultima Ratio Hecate VI'. "Sinon, I think you're a little off. This window says it's called the Hecate Six." I say quietly.

"I guess that explains the different design. Maybe it changes design and name every time someone acquires a Hecate." Sinon says calmly.

"Hurry up, before we leave you both behind!" Yuuki says eagerly.

"Got it! Come on, let's go." I say, wishing Yuuki had given me more time, since Sinon seems to be coming around rather fast.

I grab the weapon and walk with the others up the staircase to the room which would bring us out of the dungeon. However, what I see after I exit the dungeon is...not what I anticipated.