November 7, 2024

Aincrad: 75th Floor – Boss Room

Normal POV

"Game over, Kirito," declared Heathcliff, as he swung down his blazing red blade to strike down the Black Swordsman.

Everyone in his captive audience were chilled down to the virtual bone at those words, made just as Kirito was caught in the midst of the cooldown lag after shattering his second blade, Dark Repulser, against Kayaba`s unbreakable shield. They had all come to this very room with the purpose of destroying its denizen boss, so as to finally clear the 75th Floor, move on to the 76th, and get one Floor closer to the 100th, highest floor, where they would face the final boss, defeat it, and win freedom from the game. The loss of 14 comrades here, the most in one boss room since the lower 50 Floors, had been both unexpected and unnerving, especially with 25 more Floors to go, and all of them likely more difficult.

Even more unexpected and unnerving was the revelation that Heathcliff, the strongest player and leader of the most powerful guild, Knights of the Blood-Oath, was also their despised warden and jailor, Akihiko Kayaba, as well as the final boss on Floor 100. After Kirito made this discovery, Kayaba paralyzed everyone else in the room and goaded the second-strongest player in SAO into a duel to the death, forcing everyone, including his friends, like scheming, but charitable businessman Agil, failingly-flirtatious but ever-dependable Klein, and even his beloved, beautiful wife, Asuna, to watch, unable to do anything to change Kirito`s fate…

Kirito POV

At that moment, when his ever-reliable Dark Repulser failed against Heathcliff`s invincible defense, he experienced outright shock and disbelief, as if it was his arm that had broken instead.

When Kirito had received the Unique Skill, Dual Wielding, the first thing he did was get a second sword to match his powerful monster-drop weapon, Elucidator. This he found in Dark Repulser, which he had earned with the help of Asuna`s friend, the blacksmith Lisbeth. Then, he practiced it in secret, testing this new skill on powerful monsters to devastating effect, before unleashing it in full fury and public view against the Gleam Eyes of Floor 74, destroying it at the near-cost of his life. This skill had further marked him out as unique, and had even helped give him some positive, albeit unwanted, attention in contrast to people`s views of him as a Beater. To see his greatest and signature skill fail so spectacularly paralyzed him almost as much as the lag from using the skill.

All Kirito could do was watch Kayaba activate a Sword Skill, making his blade appear to be coated in flickering red flames, and move to bring it down upon him…

Asuna POV

So many feelings were flooding Asuna`s mind that it was nigh impossible for her to think rationally. Anguish, betrayal, fear, grief, helplessness, pain, love… These all were stewing around in her head like so many poorly mixing ingredients for a slop of soup. From the sudden unveiling of Heathcliff`s true self, the Paralyze effect on her and everyone else, Kirito`s denial of an escape, his desperate, hopeless battle, his selfless determination to win at all costs, all these contributed to the virtual waterfall of cascading emotions that defined her present mental state.

There was, however, another feeling brewing deep inside, one that was bubbling to the surface like lava from a volcano. It was anger. But this was not just any anger, it was a burning, passionate fury that a human being feels from a combination of the righteous indignation that a person feels against a great wrong, the complete and total hatred of a person` entire being that is born from a betrayal twice made, and the desire to protect a loved one from a menacing danger. This feeling, however, was not enough for Asuna to do anything about her husband`s predicament, not when she was just as paralyzed as Kirito when he was at the mercy of Kuradeel…

Normal POV

One moment, everyone watched in horror as Kayaba prepared to kill Kirito, and take away from them one of their strongest fighters and best hopes for escape.

The next moment was an all-around case of incredible disbelief.

The reason being that, if their eyes weren`t deceiving them, or the game`s virtual environment wasn`t somehow playing tricks with their NervGears, they could just swear that Asuna, the Lightning Flash, and vice-commander of the Knights of the Blood-Oath, had just somehow overcome the Paralyze effect, because they saw her standing right next to Kayaba, with her Lambent Light drawn, occupying a space between Kirito and Heathcliff, whose were both frozen still by her sudden appearance.

Then Heathcliff`s right forearm burst into fractals, letting his great sword fall harmlessly to the ground.

For the briefest of moments, there was silence, as everyone in the helpless gallery of spectators dared to feel hope once more.

Then, there was a shout- no, a roar, as Kirito recovered first from the unbelievable sight, seeing Kayaba himself caught in a brief lag, his shield held aside to make way for the now-failing sword, leaving the man with perfect defensive ability without defense. Kirito lunged forward, with a powerful killing intent reflected in his eyes, almost making them glow. He could see Kayaba`s brief shock morph into a smile…

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And he pierced Heathcliff through with Elucidator.

Kayaba POV

In the end, as his hit points fell away, two feelings permeated his being: contentment, and pride.

At first, Asuna`s sudden interference was just as much of a surprise to him as everyone else, and right at the moment when he was about to conclude his duel and then head off to the Ruby Palace on the 100th Floor to await the Clearers. He didn`t remember allowing for any cheats that would allow for a player to disable their own Paralyze effect without crystals- oh, wait. Now he remembered Asuna`s report about Kuradeel`s betrayal, where he had in fact poisoned Kirito so as to Paralyze him. She and Kirito must have taken precautions to not get caught off guard like that again, he thought. And she must have only just remembered this to come to her husband`s rescue at the very last second, instead of earlier.

As he looked at them, his slayers, all he could think about was how proud he was of his accomplishment. First, he had created an entire world, filled with its own unique locations, creatures, and landscapes. He had filled with the possibility for adventures of every kind, from the Grand Quest for freedom, to simple everyday life in the towns and cities that dotted the Floors of Aincrad. Then, he populated it with thousands of people, who built new communities, organized an economy, manifested their own culture, and even wrote their own folklore, filled with as many legends as any real world populace. And, from a population of ordinary folk, true heroes had been forged.

Aincrad was a fantasy made real, and he was the architect. He knew that he would pass on having fulfilled his dearest dream, and seeing people make that dream into something greater than he could imagine. How could he not feel pride in his work, and feel content that he had accomplished all he had hoped for. And so, he closed his eyes, and waited for death…

The pain of a sword through the chest suddenly intensified, as his eyes shot open, his body doubled forward, and he coughed out blood.

Then he died, with an expression of pain and disbelief replacing the serenity that had been there only moments before.

Real World: Asuna`s Hospital

Sugou POV

He stood there, next to Mr. Yuuki, CEO of RECT Progress and his boss, as a show of support for the man whose daughter lay in the bed in front of them, her beautiful, luscious hazel locks sprawled out across her bed and pillow, while the futuristic-looking and sinister NervGear sat still over her head, blinking nondescriptly, mockingly, as it held her more securely imprisoned than a maximum security cell in isolation, while simultaneously threatening her with something more dangerous than Damocles` sword. Considering, however, what he and Mr. Yuuki were currently discussing, she could maintain the role of sleeping beauty for a while longer for all he cared.

"I and my wife will consider your proposal, Nobuyuki," Shouzou Yuuki said. "But, are you sure? I mean, Asuna hasn`t awakened yet, and there`s still no telling whether she will live or not."

"That`s exactly why it should be done as soon as possible," Sugou argued, careful not to let the truth slip out. "She and I both have always been good friends, you know this, and she will certainly understand if you did this without asking for her permission, and she won`t object anyways." At least, he thought, not of her own free will, considering she hates my guts.

His plan was perfect. After Argus` collapse, RECT Progress took over care of the SAO servers. Soon after, they used them as the basis for the release of their own VRMMORPG, ALfheim Online, or ALO for short. He, however, had seen the potential of the full-dive technology to not only submerge someone in a virtual world, but even create the possibility of mind-control. For a power-hungry soul like Sugou, it was far too tempting to pass up. So, he had made arrangements to test out these applications on the SAO players. When the game was over, 300 players of every demographic would, instead of being logged out, be shunted over to the ALO servers and be imprisoned in that game instead.

Asuna would be among their number, and he would use these same experiments to make her into his beloved, devoted wife.

With such power at his fingertips, he could become G-

The NervGear stopped blinking. A moment later, the heart monitor attached to Asuna suddenly sounded a shrill beeeeeeeeaaaaaaaappp.

Shouzou turned back towards his daughter, panicking, calling out her name, shaking her, clutching her close to his bosom, then calling out for a nurse. Sugou, on the other hand, stood shocked, frozen, as his life`s greatest desire was cheated from him by the very same power he sought to use to obtain it. It was only after a few moments that he noticed his phone ringing. Shaking himself out of his stupor, he answered it with a businesslike "Yes?"

"Mr. Nobuyuki, we have a major problem! We`re receiving word from the hospitals with the SAO victims- they`re dead! All of them dead!"

If Sugou was shocked before, now he had a feeling that would not have been out of place for a condemned man seated on the electric chair. The feeling was so strong, he failed to notice a shadow on the horizon…

Kirigaya Household

Normal POV

It was another normal day when it happened. Suguha was coming home from school, her mother, Midori, was doing some dishwashing, seeing as she was now home to do such normal things, and the father was out on a business trip to Osaka. Midori once again wished her husband would be home more often, and this of course led to her wishing that Kazuto, her nephew and adopted son, were also here to both help with the housework, and to enjoy this beautiful day outside of his bedroom, instead of playing video games inside. Suguha was once again looking forward to her virtual adventures in ALfheim as the Sylph swordswoman Leafa, which of course led her onto the tangent of wishing that she could fly in real life, as she looked up to see-

"Mom!" Midori heard Suguha cry out. "Are you seeing what I`m seeing?" She then walked outside, to see other people walking out of their homes, all of them looking up into the sky to see-

She blinked. She rubbed her eyes, shook her head and looked up again at what was supposed to be a clear, cloudless sky.

Instead, she saw a gigantic, floating, steel, castle.

And it was hovering several thousand feet above Tokyo.