Klein walked along the sidewalks of the main road as he couldn't help but feel absolutely depressed and even feeling a bit angry at himself as he walked through the city. Although he couldn't have known Shisho had potentially a boyfriend but he would've thought she would've at least had told him she had one. Was she some sort of player, having multiples boys at her fingertips to use?

He didn't like thinking this way. It made him feel like he was paranoid and not thinking about a bigger picture but what else could be going on here? Why else would a random guy in a nice car come up to Shisho and swipe her from him and then drive off without giving him an explanation.

He was walking down the street as he managed to glance left and as he saw the library Shisho was at, he could only feel despair and sadness wash over him like a tide and he was about to leave when he caught a glimpse of someone in the window and he looked over to see, to his surprise and sorrow, Shisho as she looked up to try and wave at him but he simply turned away and sped along the sidewalk faster.

Besides, he had work today and he didn't want to be late. But the sorrow hung heavy on his heart, like a cloak made of lead.

The battle for Mantis Sphinx last fort was what one could say was quite a spectacle. It last 2 full real life days of straight skirmishing and battling as the Alves armies tried to fight their way through the forts defenses as its defenders and various string of reinforcements tried to hold them back but it had eventually left the Princess of Pleasure rather low on funds and an army when it finally fell and what units came back were more or less in utter shambles.

And thus the siege of Mantis Sphinxes castle was quite the spectacle as the forces of the Alves came hammering against its gates and walls in a tide and riot of colors. But Kirito was not worried much about the fighting but rather the numbers of those with him as with Klein and Shisho currently unavailable for one reason or another and with Sinon and Lisbeth still in the hands of the Princess, only himself, Agil, Leafa, Asuna, and Argo at the battle as they had decided to let their units back in Alfenheim to train and gear up under Yui and her surprisingly good stewardship of the castle.

Kirito watched as the walls were as bloody as the battle against the Prince of Plague but unlike that smaller and more simpler of castles, this castle had multiple walls and plenty of arrows to hold the Alves up and slowly destroy them. But the reason it took so long was because the Alves were fearing of a surprise attack from the rear by the prince of Blood and Darkness and thus a whole half of their forces were facing away from the castle as they prepared for an attack behind them. That still meant there were hundreds of players and thousands of AI units charging into the city gates that had been exploded open or climbing up on the walls to try and keep the defenders on the walls from redeploying down to the ground level to halt the enemy army trying to bust through their defenses.

But for Kirito and his group as they approached the gate carefully, they were hoping to simply get int relatively easily without a problem and help finish this battle and perhaps get this event moving on with more steam. But even he could see the dozens of slain Alves laying scattered around the walls and gate as they were also being tossed off the walls by the defenders even as he walked towards the castle.

"Whats the plan? We don't have the numbers to do an assault?" asked Agil.

"We can try and sneak in." said Argo as she let herself glance over her claws. "No point in trying to force our way through..."

Just then, they saw a group of shady looking players as Kirito then watched them start going towards the wall as he noticed two had an unusual green glow coming from them but he figured they might know something and so he said to his group, "Lets go and follow them. See what they do."

They all nodded but Asuna tugged his shoulder lightly as she said, "Lets be careful, though.. we dont know what they will do."

Kirito nodded and they began to get their group moving towards the other group as that group was moving towards the walls in a sort of straightforward momentum. The mysterious group and Kiritos group shadowing them slowly made their way to the wall and as the group came to it, suddnely they ducked down into what looked like straight ground. Kirito was startled so much he backed up as he was unclear how the earth had just swallowed them up or why but then Agil came over and poked his axe into it before he then said, "Looks like a glitch maybe in the game?"

Glitches could be good or bad, depending on either how it was used and also what the end result was as some glitches like this one could be bad as it meant that anyone could just walk in. But in this case, it was kinda good as it meant Kiritos group could easily get to the keep maybe finish this fight sooner although it was a gamble and it all hinged on this glitch. Still, soon Kirito's group had jumped into the glitched spot as they looked like they were walking on air above the darkness and they began to slowly walk under the wall. It felt weird, no sound, no heat, no nothing as they soon came to the end of the glitch spot as Kirito hit an invisible wall and thus figured to try and go up somehow which was easy as he simply jumped up and he immediately popped outside onto the normal ground as the rest of his group soon also appeared. They glanced around as the battle raged around them as some fireballs exploded in some of the surrounding areas but Kirito then said to his group behind him, "Lets head for the keep if we can.. try and find these strange people."

The group nodded as then they headed deeper into the city.

Klein was sitting at a café with a cup of coffee as he was relaxing from his work when he then saw a familiar figure that instantly brought that cloak of depression on him as he then watched Shisho sit down before him in the chair opposite of him.

"Klein..." said SHisho as she put her glasses down and rubbed her face before she then said to him, "I have an-"

"Why didnt you tell me you had a boyfriend?" asked Klein as he was about to get up and walk away, not wanting to make his wounded heart bleed anymore, but then she grabbed his hand as she said, "He's not my boyfriend!"

Klein looked at her before deciding to slowly sit down and asked, "Then who is he?"

Shisho looked down as she then rubbed her arm in a way that made her wince a little and immediately Klein reached over and grabbed her arm. At first she resisted but then she let him as he reached up and rolled her sleeve back to reveal a very nasty bruise on her arm. "... So who is he?"

"He's my old highschool and college ex... back when I was a bit more of a wild child and a bit more.... open to suggestions." said Shisho. "But... he was a bit possessive... didn't like me around people I called friends, my family hated him... but I thought it was love still sooo... things... happened."

"So you're not a virgin?" asked Klein suddenly.

To his surprise, she simply bowed her head in deep shame as she said, "I tried to get away but it was like a drug... but... but eventually I found a way to escape him where he couldn't get to me..."

"VR." said Klein as Shisho nodded.

"So thats how and why I began VR... eventually, I finally got myself out of the relationship and finally got on with my life... but every now and then I get roped into a night with him." said Shisho.

"You say No don't you?" asked Klein.

"Hes... got some nasty friends... they know where my folks live and where I live... I don't want anyone to get hurt." said Shisho.

Klein rolled her sleeve back down as he then said to her, "Well... I mean... I not sure what to say."

"Im sorry... I didn't want to bring this into you but..." began Shisho when Klein asked her, "Not like you would've been able to keep me out of it for long."

Shisho looked up as he then asked her, "If you want or if you need to, whichever is up to you, I can give you my address and ill get you a spare key to crash at my place. If this guy is really giving you problems, just give me a heads up and Ill try and accommodate you as best as I can."

Shisho couldn't help but give a small smile as he then said, "Just give me a heads up at the least, dont crash in suddenly cause my place is not exactly a 5 star resort."

She simply giggled as she the said, "Ill keep that in mind."

Klein suddenly smiled, a bight beam of hope and happiness as that cloak of despair was shredded to give way back to a happy heart which prompted him to say, "Lets go get lunch. I just got off work and could use a bite. Wanna come?"

Finding the group of suspicious individuals was surprisingly not hard to find as Kirito and his group soon stumbled across them as they were slinking their way through the back alleys and side streets of the castles town that lay sprawled around the keep. They had managed to avoid any major conflict with defenders of skeletons and pleasure demons that were roaming about the city. They had managed to get rid of a few pink skeletons on a patrol in the city as they ambushed them in the marketplace area before moving on.

Now they were approaching the keep where they should be facing the dreaded heavy infantry of the Princess but it seemed like those heavier Skeleton Reavers had been decimated by the now more suspicious group as they had already went into the keep it seemed. And so, without much other thought, they walked into the dark keep.

Although the battle raged on outside, the keep seemed eerily quiet as they walked through it, weapons at the ready, but Kirito knew that the group they were following was just ahead of them and were probably just a corridor ahead of them. The braziers were lit with pink fire as the group slowly moved through them and even though Asuna had her wand out, she also had her Estoc blade out in her off hand as she was prepared for melee the moment it happens.

And then the whole room opened up as the suspicious group was just ahead of them as Kirito and his group could also then see their target, the Princess of Pleasure as eh twirled her halberd around her in armor that seemed like more lingerie then armor but Kirito could see a magical sheen over her bare skin which meant the armor also had magical properties to protect the bare skin.

"So you finally have come to face me? A shame, you all would've been fine slaves." said the Princess of Pleasure.

At first, Kirito was expecting the group before them to unleash a devastating wave of magical spells but suddenly the whole mysterious group tossed off their cloaks that they had been wearing to suddenly show black armor and white skeleton masks as green, neon lines traced across their bodies and Kirito understood who they were: Hackers, the lowest of the low of players who believe money can buy them skill rather than time and effort.

And they flew at the princess as Kirito could only say, "We cant do much... the hackers will steal this one sadly.."

But suddenly everyone's surprise that it made the even the Hackers pause, the Princess sudeenly dropped tot he ground and began to gasp and twitch like she was having some sort of attack. Kirito didn't know what he was watching but the Hackers immediately tried to jump on her in a wave of green but that's when they appeared all in bright flashes of portals. The Princess of Darkness spun as fast and hit as hard as the Hackers as he sent them flying into the ceiling and walls to crack the stone as he shouted to the Prince of Blood, "Get her body out of here! She's already out so just check up on her!!"

The Prince of Blood nodded as he soon disappeared and as the Prince of Darkness looked to Kirito, he then said to him and his group as he walked through a nearby portal, "We'll meet again very soon."