A small creaking sound came from the chair beneath him as Nero pushed against the rail of his porch, a small breeze sweeping over his most recently purchased abode. He'd found a floor that he would likely call home for the remainder of the game... In his opinion, not a single floor was near as beautiful or calming as this one. The home was no more than a small cabin, but it appeared as a very modern American home might; at least he thought so, based on pictures he'd seen from the distant West. The living room was entirely visible, as the walls were made of glass. However, he would close the large blinds if need-be. In the center of the house was an open courtyard; but the most important feature to him was the environment. As he sat on the porch out back, he knew precisely why, despite being one of the smaller homes available, it was the most expensive on the floor. The back-yard had a slight drop to it, leaving the porch on a stilt-like structure as the yard turned into forest a relatively short distance away. The thirty-seventh floor that he now called home was one of the few floors that was was climate-static; that is, it had a rather predictable weather cycle and no seasons. There was a perpetual fall, the leaves dotting paths and roads while many remained on the trees, colouring them in reds, oranges, and browns. It all reminded him of Yuna, and yet... he felt no sadness here; there was nothing save for an endless nostalgia as he rocked back and forth in the chair, caught in a state between napping and awake.

How long had he been there? A few minutes? An hour? Two? He always lost track of time, and in the past week or so it had already proven a problem more than once. So, he had decided to start setting alarms for himself whenever he knew he had to be somewhere. Today, the Guild had found out that Rose was soon to unlock the forty-first floor and that they had missed another chance at taking the boss fight. In the last fifteen, there had been few victories for them, but they fought on and claimed new items for themselves. Nero heard the alarm that it was time to prepare and meet with Alice as they waited for the inevitable advance of the floor. He rose and swept his left hand through the air, equipping his battle-gear before stretching and shoving his hands into his long coat's pockets. At his hip was a falcata with a dazzling white blade. It was really quite a beautiful blade - and the style was rare, as falcata had a concave blade. All of the moves were quite the same, but many found the hold to be awkward and the appearance strange; for Nero, it was simply unique and formidable, as he had acquired it in one of the few boss battles that their guild had managed to take before Rose arrived.

Within minutes, he had met Alice and the others before they rose to the forty-first floor and waited for... something. Nero looked around with a furrowed brow... Why was it deserted? He leaned against a wall in their tucked-away space and flipped a mithril piece of Col off of his thumb before catching it and repeating the process. Just as Rose's level would rise, so would the number beside his Col in his inventory at an extraordinarily high level. His white jacket was gilded in gold and tailored by, in his opinion, the second greatest tailor in Aincrad and its stats were considerably powerful for being of leather-make. There was but one other person he wished he could have received it from, but that was unlikely to happen, seeing as that red-headed monster had brutally murdered her. After his first night with the other guild members, he had stopped showing emotion. There wasn't anything left to cry for - he became the voice of logic after Jacob was killed; however, Alice and he would sometimes have their moments of reminiscence or bonding when the others weren't around despite giving off an all-business air. Now, he stared at the coin that he repeatedly flipped with something between an absolutely numb expression and one of absolute intensity.

As the tension in the air grew, he finally caught the coin and let it disappear back into his inventory before looking to Alice. He didn't say a word, he was just waiting for whatever was going to happen as he drew his falcata from his hip. The crowd that was relatively nearby was absolutely massive; a sea of red bandannas and blind followers... Those strips of cloth may as well be tied around their eyes if they thought that murdering so many of their comrades was right. At home, Nero had many times where he would wonder if there was a timeline somewhere, in a universe without Rose. A world where that wretched girl had never bought this game; ironically, he refused to think of one where he didn't. He would honestly never trade what he had gained through this place, no matter what it took from him. But... Was a there a world with Yuna still in it? Where he lived on blissfully, taking for granted all he'd been given? How, in this world, did they fare with the boss battles? He liked to think that the players were stunning in this other universe, not relying on any other single person to carry them to victory.

As he snapped from the reverie of introspection, Nero looked to each member of their company, wishing that [I]if[/I] something was going to happen, that it would. And then it did...