8

After they recovered the two discarded swords, Kirito and Leafa flew back to the landing before the guardian statues at the tree gate. To Leafa’s surprise, Recon had been obediently waiting there. His face ran through a blinding series of emotions upon seeing the black-clad spriggan next to her until, finally, he inquired, “So…how did it go?”

Leafa beamed and said, “We’re going to conquer the World Tree. Me, you, and him.”

“Oh…Wait—what?!”

He faltered backward, face pale. She patted him on the shoulder, wished him luck, and turned to look at the massive stone doors. They seemed to be emitting a freezing chill to intimidate all comers.

However, after having seen a warrior as great as Kirito mercilessly crushed by those guardian knights not long ago, Leafa didn’t think that adding two more to the party would make a difference. She looked over and saw that Kirito was biting his lip, his face tense.

But suddenly he looked up, as though pondering a sudden idea.

“You there, Yui?”

Before the words had finished coming out of his mouth, a light coalesced in midair and the familiar pixie was there. She put her hands on her hips and pouted, clearly furious.

“What took you so long? I can’t appear until you call me, Papa!”

“Sorry, sorry. Things were busy.”

He grinned apologetically and offered his palm to the pixie, who sat down on it. In a flash, Recon craned his neck over to examine her with rabid curiosity.

“W-wow, is this a Private Pixie?! I’ve never seen one before! Holy cow, she’s so cute!!”

Yui pulled back in concern, eyes wide. “Wh-who is this person?!”

“Come on, you’re scaring her,” Leafa scolded Recon, pulling him away by the ear. “You don’t have to worry about him, he’s not dangerous.”

“Um…okay,” Kirito said, blinking in surprise. He turned back to Yui. “So, did you learn anything from that battle?”

“Yes,” she replied, an adorably serious look on her little face. “Those guardian monsters aren’t all that impressive in terms of stats—it’s their appearance patterns that are dangerous. The closer to the gate you got, the faster they spawned. At the closest point, they were appearing twelve per second. I can only assume it was designed to be impossible…”

“Hmm.” Kirito nodded, his face severe. “You wouldn’t notice because each individual guardian goes down in a hit or two, but as a total, they add up to an unbeatable, titanic boss. They’re going to tantalize the player base and make it virtually impossible, but just easy enough to keep them interested. That’ll make this very tough…”

“But, Papa, your skill levels are also off the charts. With your instantaneous bursts of strength, it might be possible.”

“. . .”

Kirito lapsed into silence again, then looked at last to Leafa.

“I’m sorry. Can I ask you to indulge me one last time? I know it would be easier to find more people or search for another way, rather than attempting this madness again. But…I just have a bad feeling. Like we’re running out of time…”

His suggestion gave Leafa the momentary idea to send a message to the Lord’s Mansion in Swilvane. Lady Sakuya might be able to send the highest-level sylphs to assist their battle.

But she bit her lip and quickly abandoned the idea. The image of the undine party down in Jotunheim early that morning flooded into her mind. They’d tried to hunt an unresisting Deviant God against Leafa’s pleas, prioritizing efficiency and safety.

Her friend Sakuya would not think the same way as the undines, of course. But she was the leader of their people and bore great responsibility. Her position demanded commonsense decisions for the sake of the entire race. Even if they did eventually make an attempt on the World Tree, it would only be after ample preparations. They would not fly out en masse, prepped for the slaughter, on Leafa’s request alone.

After a brief silence, she looked up and stated clearly, “All right. Let’s try it one more time. I’ll do anything I can to help…and so will he.”

“Awww…”

She elbowed Recon in the ribs and he exhibited his very best droopy-eyebrowed whimper. But he grudgingly admitted that he and Leafa were of one body and mind, nodding in resignation.

The stone doors opened with a rumbling that seemed to issue from the very center of the earth. Leafa’s wings trembled slightly at the eerie aura that seemed to flow from the space beyond. She’d been in a blind haste when racing after Kirito earlier, but standing in front of it now, she had to admit there was a palpable feeling of pressure exuding from the place.

But on the inside, she was surprisingly calm.

She was in the eye of the storm. Both here and in the real world, everything was loudly and alarmingly changing around her. She had no idea where it was all taking her. All she could do was fly, to the best of her ability, toward the light on the horizon.

Kirito, Leafa, and Recon drew their blades. Along with Yui, four pairs of eyes examined one another. Wings were spread.

“…Let’s go!!”

Kirito signaled the charge, and they rose as one, flying into the dome.

Their plan called for Kirito to begin racing upward as fast as he could toward the gate in the center of the dome. Leafa and Recon would remain near the floor and ready their healing spells.

She could see the glowing surfaces on the ceiling begin to drip downward into gigantic white shapes. They bore down on Kirito, screeching in that horrible way. When the first wave of knights met the now-tiny spriggan in midair, a rumbling blast of light shook the dome.

Upon seeing several of the giants fall to pieces, split through the torso, Recon murmured, “…Wow.”

The force of his blade was indeed formidable. But the sight of what was happening beyond Kirito’s mad dash sent chills throughout Leafa’s body.

There were just too many of them. The sheer density of the forces pouring out of the latticed ceiling was beyond any scale of game balance. Even the dungeons in Jotunheim, the most diabolical zone in all of ALO, wouldn’t feature spawn rates anywhere near this pace.

The guardian knights bunched up into packs and dashed themselves against Kirito in roiling waves. Each collision resulted in a bright flash, after which the large white bodies would fall to pieces like snow. But for every one vanquished, three more appeared.

When he was halfway to the gate, Kirito had lost about 10 percent of his hit points. Leafa and Recon didn’t miss a beat in unleashing the healing magic they’d kept stored for that moment. Blue light surrounded Kirito’s body, and his gauge began to refill.

But when the spell reached him, something terrible happened.

The lowest-flying pack of guardian knights screeched in unison and turned toward them.

“Aaah…” Recon gasped in panic.

Leafa could feel the gaze behind their mirror masks directed at her. She clenched her teeth.

Leafa and Recon agreed not to target Kirito with anything other than healing spells to minimize the notice they might draw. Normally, monsters didn’t pounce unless a player moved into their response zone, or attacked them with ranged weapons or spells.

But these guardians ran on a different algorithm than the monsters outside, one more dangerous and pernicious. If they could target even players casting support spells, then the orthodox system—attackers in the front, healers in the back—meant nothing.

The half-dozen knights ignored Leafa’s silent plea to buzz off and descended on multiple pairs of wings. They carried enormous swords, each easily taller than her, that glinted with a hungry light.

She turned to Recon and shouted, “I’ll draw them away—just keep healing!”

And without waiting for an answer, she made to rise. But Recon, who had always obeyed her commands in battle, grabbed her hand. When she turned around in shock, his voice was trembling, but his eyes were hard.

“Leafa…I don’t understand everything that’s going on here, but it’s important to you, right?”

“That’s right. This time, it’s not just a game.”

“I don’t think I can match up to that spriggan…but I’ll find a way to deal with those guardians.”

Recon leaped into the air, controller stick in his hand. And as Leafa watched, dumbfounded, he flew off, charging directly into the swarm of knights.

“Y-you idiot…”

They were far beyond his ability, but it was too late for her to make up the distance by now. Meanwhile, across the dome, Kirito’s HP bar was inching back down from its formerly full position. Leafa had no choice but to start chanting a healing spell. Even as she spoke the familiar words, she couldn’t help but keep a nervous eye on Recon.

Recon unleashed the area-effect wind spell he’d been saving directly into the cloud of guardian knights. Multiple green blades fanned out and sliced through the onrushing knights. Their HP bars hardly took a dent, but it did have the effect of drawing all of their attention to him.

The white giants roared with distorted voices and closed in on the tiny green speck that dared to challenge them. Recon swished and darted like a leaf blown in a gale, just barely retreating out of the range of their swings. They raced after him.

Leafa finished casting and hurled her spell at Kirito, who was fighting far above. Again, it drew the notice of several guardians, who descended after her. This fresh group merged with the swarm following Recon, growing the white cloud to twice its size.

Recon had never been an expert at air battles, but he showed considerable concentration in evading the onslaught of swords. The occasional sword tip clipped his body, but no critical blows had swallowed up his HP yet.

“…Recon…”

Leafa was struck by the desperate effort of his flight, but it clearly would not last forever. Each time she cast a healing spell on Kirito, the number of knights descending on them grew.

Eventually, the pursuing guardians split into two groups and prepared to execute a pincer attack on Recon. One among the rain of blows caught him square in the back, smashing him through the air.

“That’s enough, Recon! Flee to the outside!” she screamed, unable to watch anymore. As long as the battle still raged inside, anyone who left the arena could not return. She’d just have to do her best to hold them off. Leafa took to the air, preparing another healing spell.

But at that moment, Recon turned back to her. Leafa’s wings stopped when she saw the purposeful smile on his face.

Despite the many sword blows, Recon began casting a new spell. His body glowed with a deep purple light.

“…?!”

Leafa held her breath, realizing that it was the shine of dark magic. A complex magical sigil began to form in midair, and based on its size, it must have been a high-level spell. Dark magic was so rare around sylph lands that she had no idea what effect this one might have.

The sigil unfolded again and again, growing ever larger, until it finally engulfed all of the attacking knights. For an instant, the complex runes and figures contracted— then shone with an overwhelming light.

“Ah—!!”

Leafa had to turn her face from the blinding glow. An explosion so great it sounded like the earth splitting apart shot through the entire dome.

It took a full second for her eyesight to recover from pure white. Leafa looked toward the center of the explosion with her hands up for shielding, and what she saw left her speechless. The entire pack of tightly clustered knights was gone without a trace. Only a few wisps of purple light remained.

It was an unbelievable blast. There were no wind-magic area spells that powerful—not even any fire spells. Leafa cheered even as she wondered how Recon had acquired this incredible ace up his sleeve. A few more of those, and they might just be able to reach the gate after all. She prepared to cast a healing spell on him—and froze again.

Recon was nowhere to be seen in the last remnants of the explosion. There was only a tiny green Remain Light floating in the air.

“A…self-destruct spell…?” she wondered aloud. But then she remembered once hearing about such a dark magic spell long ago. It was practically a forbidden art—in exchange for its power, the ordinary death penalty was several times worse.

After a few moments of silence, Leafa shut her eyes tight. It was just a game, just experience points, but the effort and intent Recon had expended for their sake was true sacrifice. They could not retreat now. She opened her eyes again and looked up.

What she saw turned her legs to jelly.

The ceiling of the dome was now one entire mass of squirming, teeming white shapes.

The tiny black dot that was Kirito was close, so close to the top. With each flash of his sword, more knights fell to pieces, but it was like trying to dig a hole in a massive sand dune with but a needle. The wall of white flesh would give way for a brief moment, only to be filled just as quickly.

“Raaahhh!!”

Leafa could just barely hear Kirito’s bloodcurdling roar. She raised her hands to cast a healing spell, but let them drop almost immediately.

“We can’t, Big Brother…It’s just too much…”

To be honest, she’d never taken Kirito’s story about Asuna’s soul being trapped in this game at face value. This was a game, a world to be enjoyed. Her brain couldn’t help but reject the idea that this wonderful place shared anything in common with the nightmare of SAO.

But now, for the first time, Leafa began to sense a kind of malice within the system. Some unseen force, which was supposedly keeping everything in a fair balance, was wickedly, cruelly swinging a bloody scythe at the players’ necks within this arena. There was no way to overcome this trap.

A low, twisted sound echoed throughout the dome like a chanted curse. Some of the guardian knights fell still, incanting a spell with their left arms extended. It was the Rain of Arrows spell that had stopped Kirito in his tracks the first time. The arrows caused enough of a stun effect for the sword blows to land next.

Leafa tensed up, imagining the sight of Kirito’s body skewered by countless blades.

Suddenly, a roil of voices swept up from behind Leafa, over her vapid wings.

“Huh…?!”

She turned to see a party of sylph warriors, clad in gleaming new-green metal, pouring through the door in tight formation.

They were outfitted with full sets of what appeared to be ancient weapons, or something similar. Like a storm gust in the spring, they rushed past Leafa and headed straight for the dome’s ceiling. There must have been at least fifty of them.

Stunned into silence, Leafa could only watch closely enough to call up their cursors as they passed. She couldn’t see faces behind the heavy visors, but all the names that appeared on the cursors were the best of the best in sylph territory. Upon hearing their roar, the guardian knights preparing their spells stopped and began to shift tactics.

Leafa’s back crawled with chills somewhere between excitement and overwhelming awe. But they were not the only ones coming to tackle the dome.

A few seconds after the last members of the sylph raid party came through the door, more shouts echoed through, accompanied by the thunderbolt roars of great beasts.

This new group was of much smaller number than the sylphs, perhaps ten in all. Individually, however, they were much larger.

“Dragons!” Leafa exclaimed.

It was a pack of dragons with gray scales, each the size of several players lined up head to foot. As proof that these creatures were not wild, the dragons were outfitted with gleaming golden armor on their foreheads, chests, and the fronts of their wings.

Pairs of silver chains extended from the head armor as reins, which the riders on the beasts’s saddles gripped. These dragon knights had brand-new armor of their own, but there was no missing the triangular ears or the long, sinewy tails extending out the backs of their leggings.

These were dragoons, the ultimate fighting force of the cait siths. The legendary warriors were kept hidden from the public—there wasn’t even a screenshot floating about on the Internet. But here they were, in the flesh.

Leafa’s wings were at full extension, the very blood in her veins seeming to dance with elation. Suddenly, she heard someone call out from behind her.

“Sorry it took so long.”

She turned around to see Lady Sakuya, leader of the sylphs, in her wooden geta sandals and kimono. Next to her was Lady Alicia Rue of the cait siths, whose ears flapped as she said, “So sorry. It took every member of the leprechaun blacksmith’s guild until just now to finish up all the equipment and dragon armor. We spent all the money the spriggan gave us, plus all of our vault savings!”

“Meaning that if this fails, both of our races are bankrupt,” Sakuya noted coolly, arms crossed.

They came. And so fast, knowing that both of them risked losing their prestigious positions. This joint force between two races so transcended the typical MMORPG battle over resources and risk management that surely even the game developers had never expected it to happen.

“Thank you…thank you both,” Leafa said, her voice trembling. There really are things in this world more important than rules and manners, she told herself, heart soaring. There was nothing more to say.

Both leaders told her the time for thanks was later. They turned to survey the ceiling of the dome with severe skepticism. Sakuya loudly snapped her fan shut.

“Let us join the fray!”

All three nodded in agreement and leaped into the air. Above them, several groups of white guardians were dripping down from the ceiling to meet the charging sylph platoon. High in the center, Kirito was still locked in fierce battle, but he seemed to have noticed the cavalry’s arrival, because he stopped attempting to rise for a moment, keeping his distance from the ceiling.

Alicia Rue flew directly to the center of the chamber and raised her hand, shouting in a clear (but precious) voice:

“Dragoons! Prepare breath attack!”

The ten dragon knights formed a wide, hovering circle around the three of them. The dragons spread their wings wide and curved their necks into S shapes, orange flickers of fire visible behind their deadly fangs.

Next, Sakuya raised her lacquered fan.

“Sylphs, prepare your extra attacks!”

The tight pack of warriors held their swords overhead as they charged. The blades were enveloped by a lattice pattern of emerald-green light.

A large congregation of the guardian knights, so dense they resembled white maggots, descended upon them with hideous screeches. Alicia Rue waited for the creatures to get as close as possible, biting her lip with a long canine, then finally raised her hand and barked another order.

“Unleash fire breath!”

All ten dragons exhaled gouts of hellfire at once. Ten crimson pillars shot through the air, fanned out around the sylph warriors and Kirito, and blasted into the cloud of guardians.

A bright flash illuminated the dome. In the next moment, bulging fireballs exploded one after another, linking together into a tremendous wall of flame. The world was rocked with a massive roar. Guardian knights were blown to shreds by the force of the blast, adding their own little white flames as they burned away.

But the seemingly infinite wall of white simply formed another swarm that recklessly pushed its way through the flames. It fanned out wide like a spreading liquid, threatening to swallow Kirito whole.

Just before the blob of white could attack, Sakuya swung her fan down and shouted, “Unleash Fenrir Storm!!”

With perfect precision, the sylph platoon thrust their swords as one. Green lightning pulsed through fifty blades and then shot through the air to pierce the cloud of knights.

Everything was again awash in white light. There was no explosion this time, but instead thick bolts of ravenous lightning racing through the enemy, churning them to bits.

Twice decimated, the center part of the wall of guardian knights did indeed seem to be hollowing out. But like a liquid flowing back into shape, that depression was filling in from the sides.

This was their only chance, Leafa knew. She drew her long katana and darted forward. The two leaders had come to the same conclusion. Sakuya’s voice cracked through the clearing like a whip.

“All units, charge!!”

It was undoubtedly the largest battle ever fought in Alfheim. The periodic bursts of fire breath from the rear set the guardians aflame and falling to the earth. The sylph party worked in perfect formation like a single projectile, gouging great holes in the wall of flesh with their wave of deadly swords.

Standing at the front of that projectile was the tiny black form of the spriggan. His equipment was clearly inferior to the sylphs’, but the holy speed with which he whipped his giant sword around meant that anything coming into contact with him burst into smithereens.

Leafa raced through a small aperture in the center of the sylph formation to take position directly behind Kirito. She used her katana to deflect an attack bearing down on his back, plunging the long blade into the glowing white guardian beneath its mirrored mask. With a vigorous flip of her wrists, she knocked the head clean off. Its body burned with white flames.

Kirito took a look behind him and mouthed, Sugu—watch my back!

I’ve got you covered! she indicated with a glance, turning to stand back-to-back with him. They stayed that way, spinning round and round, slashing and hacking at the oncoming knights.

The giant guardians would not be so easy in a one-on-one fight. But standing next to Kirito and matching his speed, Leafa felt the enemy moving slower and slower. Or was her mind just working faster? It felt as though all of the stimuli from all of her senses were focused at one single point in the center of her brain. This was a sensation she’d only noticed a few times before, during kendo competitions.

It was as though she and Kirito were one. All of her nerves and brain cells were connected and racing with pale electronic pulses. She knew where Kirito was moving behind her without seeing him. As they spun together, Leafa struck the head off the guardian knight Kirito had been sparring with, while he sank his sword directly into the wound she’d made in the enemy she’d just left.

Kirito, Leafa, the sylphs, and the dragoons all formed one being of pure energy that melted, gouged, and burst through the limitless flood of knights. Though the enemy might be endless, the spatial limits of the dome were fixed. As long as they kept proceeding forward, their moment of victory would come.

“Seyaaa!” Leafa cried, splitting a guardian’s body straight down the middle. For an instant, through its crumbling corpse, she saw the ceiling.

“Raah!”

Kirito broke away from Leafa’s back and plunged through the gap in the wall of flesh like a bolt of black lightning. The last line of guardian knight defense roared with hatred and closed in on all sides. There were at least thirty of them.

“Kirito!!”

On pure instinct, Leafa pulled back her sword and hurled it with all her might at Kirito’s left hand. The light green hilt of the spinning katana fit right into his palm, as though it were being pulled to it.

“Rraaaahh!!”

With a bellow that seemed to shake the entire dome, he alternated swipes of the blades, greatsword in his right hand and katana in his left.

A slash down from the right. A slice up from the left. The two shining swords traced slightly different angles each time, until they formed a glowing circle of white like that of the corona around a solar eclipse. The guardian knights were torn to ribbons by dozens of light-speed slashes, their remains littering the air.

Beyond the quivering ring of End Flames, she could see it clearly now. Right in the center of the vine-crossed ceiling of the dome was the round door, split into four sections. The final gate of Alfheim, leading through the trunk of the World Tree to the palace seated at its crown.

The black figure left a trail of light as he raced for the gate. He was through at last.

Before Leafa’s eyes, countless layers of guardian knights surged forward and buried the hole that had been there just an instant before. Sakuya had seen Kirito break through the line of defense and shouted an order:

“All units, turn back and disengage!”

Leafa joined the sylph squad and headed into a dive as the dragons’ fire breath protected their backs. For an instant, she looked back at the ceiling. She couldn’t see Kirito for the wall of guardians, but in her mind’s eye, he flew higher, ever higher, toward the heights that no one had yet reached.

Fly—fly—fly as far as you can! Through the tree, through the sky, to the center of the world!

I closed the final distance so fast, I thought my brain cells would fry.

Before my eyes was the final round gate. Four stone slabs met in the center to form a cross shape. And beyond them—Asuna. Along with the half of my soul that had been left behind in that fateful realm.

From behind me came a scream of hatred from the guardian knights. I looked back, sensing their pursuit. There were fresh knights being born without end from the glowing apertures around the gate, and they flew down to intercept me.

But I was faster. I could reach out and touch the gate now.

And yet…

“It won’t open!” I exclaimed with shock.

The gate would not open. I’d assumed the heavy, evil-looking door would simply slide open once I got close enough, but the intersecting cracks showed no signs of budging.

It was too late to slow down. I held my right sword at my side, preparing to smash my way through the stone wall if it came to that.

The next instant, I slammed into the gate with astonishing force. The tip of the sword sent sparks flying with the impact, but there wasn’t the slightest sign of a scratch on the stone surface.

“Yui, what’s going on?!” I screamed in the chaos. Was it not enough just to break through the guardian knights? Did I need a special item or some other condition?

I prepared to swing again out of instinct, until Yui popped out of my shirt pocket with a jingle. She touched the stone door of the gate with her tiny hand.

“Papa,” she turned to me, speaking quickly, “this door isn’t locked with a quest-related conditional! It’s controlled by a system admin switch, nothing more.”

“Wh-what does that mean?!”

“It means…nothing a player can do will open this door!”

“Wha…”

I was at a loss for words.

The grand quest at the center of the game—to reach the city atop the World Tree and be reborn as true fairies—was nothing more than a giant carrot, endlessly dangled out of reach of the game’s player base? So not only was this battle’s difficulty set to the extreme, the door was locked by nothing more than the will of the game manager…?

I felt my body go limp. The roars of the guardian knights bearing down washed over me, but I didn’t even have the will to swing my sword anymore.

I was so close, Asuna, so close…I almost reached you…Will that little sliver of warmth you dropped to me be the last time we ever touch?

No, wait. Wasn’t that…?

My eyes flew open. I stuck a hand in my waist pocket. Yes! The little card. Yui had called it a system access code…

“Yui, use this!”

I stuck the silver card in her face. Her eyes went wide and she nodded.

Yui brushed the card with one of her little hands. A few lines of light ran across the card and into her.

“I’m copying the code!” she shouted and slapped the surface of the gate with both hands.

I had to squint at the flash. Blue lines of light spread out from the spots Yui touched, and in moments, the entire gate glowed blindingly bright.

“It’s copying! Grab hold, Papa!”

I touched her little hand with my fingertips. The lines of light passed through Yui and flowed into me.

Suddenly, I heard the scream of the guardian knights right behind me. I had barely even time to flinch before several of their massive swords bore down. But they passed right through me, as though the swords had no physical form. But in truth, it was I who was dematerializing. My body was fading away, blending with the light.

“—!!”

I felt a sudden tug pulling me forward. Yui and I became a flow of data, melting into the glowing white screen that had been the gate.

My mind was blank for only an instant.

I shook my head and blinked a few times, fighting off the aftereffects of teleportation. This was similar to the symptoms of a teleport crystal back in Aincrad, but unlike the ever-present bustle of any city’s teleport square, I had landed in the midst of absolute silence.

I slowly rose from a kneeling crouch. Yui greeted me, looking nervous. She was not a pixie anymore, but her original ten-year-old form.

“Are you all right, Papa?”

“Yeah. Where are we…?”

I looked around. It was a very…strange place. Unlike the detailed and beautiful environs of Swilvane and Alne, which fit into the expectations of what a modern game looked like, this location was nothing but flat white surfaces with no details or textures whatsoever.

We seemed to be in the middle of a long hallway. It was not straight, but curved gently to the right. I looked behind me and saw a mirrored bend in the other direction. We were in a very long curve, or perhaps even a circle.

“I don’t know. This place doesn’t fall within the map info Nav Pixies have access to,” Yui said, troubled.

“Can you tell where Asuna is?” I asked. She shut her eyes, and then almost instantly nodded.

“Yes, she’s close—very close. Above us…this way.”

She ran off silently, her bare legs flashing out of the familiar white dress. I put my greatsword over my back and hurried after her. The katana I’d been holding in my left hand was gone. When I teleported, it must have been automatically returned to Leafa, its proper owner. If she hadn’t thrown it to me when she did, I would never have made it to the gate. I shut my eyes and said a silent word of thanks to the physical memory of its hilt in the palm of my hand.

After most of a minute running after Yui, a square door came into view on the left, the outer side of the curve. It, too, had no visual features whatsoever.

“We can go up from here.”

I stopped next to Yui and took a glance at the side of the door—and froze.

There were two triangular buttons on the wall, one pointing up and one pointing down. I’d never seen their like in the game, but they were a familiar sight in the real world: elevator buttons.

I grimaced, suddenly feeling as though my battle armor and massive sword were completely out of place here. Except…it was this place that was strange. If these buttons meant what they appeared to signify, we were not within the game world. In that case, where were we?

That question left my mind as quickly as it formed. It didn’t matter. Asuna was here.

I reached out and hit the upper arrow button without hesitation. The door binged and slid open, revealing a small, box-shaped chamber. Yui and I walked inside and turned around to find that there was indeed a panel of control buttons on the wall. Assuming the glowing one marked our current location, there were two floors above us. After a brief moment of indecision, I pushed the top button.

The chime sounded again and the door closed. I felt the unmistakable rising sensation of an elevator.

It stopped just as quickly. The door opened to reveal another curved hallway, identical to the one before. I turned to Yui, who was squeezing my hand.

“Is this the right level?”

“Yes. We’re very close…She’s just over there,” Yui replied, pulling me onward.

We raced down the hallway for another minute, my heart beating faster and faster. Eventually we came to a door on the inner wall of the hallway, but Yui ran right past it without a glance. After a few more moments, she stopped at a nondescript point in the middle of the hall.

“…What is it?”

“There’s a passage…through here,” she murmured, rubbing the featureless outer wall. Her hand stopped still, and just as with the stone gate, blue lines of light began to run through the wall where she touched, wriggling away at right angles.

Thicker lines suddenly cut out a square piece of the wall, and with a brief buzz, it disappeared completely. Just as Yui had said, there was another plain white hallway extending out from the intersection.

The little girl headed down the new hallway silently, then sped up and broke into a run. Her young face was dark with desperation and haste. Asuna had to be near.

Faster, faster. It was the only thing on my mind as we raced down the corridor. Eventually it came to an end, a square door blocking our progress. Yui didn’t bother to slow down, extending a hand to shove the door open.

“!!”

We were greeted by a massive setting sun.

The world was surrounded by endless sunset. I had trouble processing what I was seeing at first, until I realized that I was standing at an unfathomably high altitude. The horizon was clearly curved from this vantage point. The wind howled in my ears.

I couldn’t help but remember a similar moment, another view of infinite sunset as I sat side by side with Asuna, watching the end of Aincrad. Her voice echoed in my ears.

We’ll always be together.

“Yeah—that’s right. I’m back,” I muttered, looking at my feet. It wasn’t a platform of crystal, but a frightfully thick tree branch.

Finally my vision regained its proper sense of scale against the endless field of deep red. Overhead, leafy branches stretched out in all directions, as though supporting the very heavens above. Below were more and more branches, and past them was a thin layer of clouds. Far, far beyond that, I could see the faint reflection of a river surface as it wound through rolling fields.

I was on top of the World Tree. The peak of the world. The place that Leafa…that Suguha had dreamed of for so long.

But…

I slowly turned back. The giant wall that was the trunk of the tree stretched up and far away until it finally separated into more branches.

“There’s no city in the sky…” I murmured. There was only those bland white corridors. They were not meant to be the city atop the tree, obviously. And if the setup for the main quest was correct, there would have been an in-game event after breaching the dome. But I didn’t even get a musical fanfare, much less any explanation.

It was all an empty gift box. Past the enticing wrapping paper and ribbon, it was empty lies. How could I explain this to Leafa, after all of her dreams of being reborn as a high fairy?

“This is unforgivable…” I muttered at the unseen force or person overseeing this world. Something pulled at my right arm. Yui was looking up at me with concern.

“Oh, right. Let’s go.”

We could settle this once Asuna was safe. It was the only reason I was here, after all.

The large branch stretched ahead toward the sunset. An artificial path was carved into the center of the wood. What lay ahead was obscured by the growth of leaves, but through them I could see something gleaming and golden catching the light of the sun. We took off running toward it.

Several minutes of incendiary haste and desperation passed, driven by the thought that my long-awaited moment would arrive in just a matter of seconds. It seemed as though my sense of time was lengthening, each tick of the clock an eternity.

We pushed through the colorful, oddly shaped leaves and onward down the path. Little staircases went up and down each vertical undulation of the branch; I impatiently fluttered my wings and leaped them in a single bound.

Eventually the source of the golden light became clear. It was a grid of golden bars—no, a birdcage.

It was the classic round birdcage shape, tapering up to connect to a different branch overhead that ran parallel to ours. The only difference was its massive size. This was much too large to hold even a bird of prey, much less little songbirds. No, the cage was meant for something else.

I thought back to what Agil had said in his café, in a scene that felt like years ago at this point. Five players rode on each other’s shoulders in an attempt to scale the World Tree, and they took a screenshot at the height of their flight. The picture showed a mysterious giant birdcage with a girl inside. There’s no doubt. Asuna—Asuna’s in that thing.

There was a strength and an urgency of certainty in Yui’s tugging. We practically ran on the air, leaping down the final staircase.

The branch grew much thinner as it approached the cage, coming to a tapered end where it reached the floor level. The interior of the golden birdcage was clearly visible now. The tiled floor was decorated with one large tree planter, along with a number of small pots with flowers of various types. In the center was a large canopy bed. To its side, a white table with a tall-backed chair. And seated on that chair, her hands folded and head lowered to the table in apparent prayer, was a girl.

Long, straight hair. A thin dress much like Yui’s. Elegant, slender wings growing from her back. All shining red with the light of the sinking sun.

Her face was shrouded in shadows, but I knew who it was. I’d never mistake her. The magnetism of our souls was so strong it was practically visible, sparking with light in the space that separated us.

In that moment, that girl—Asuna—raised her head.

My deep, unending love had turned that familiar image into one beaming with sublime radiance. Her face was sometimes as finely beautiful as a sharpened blade, sometimes friendly with a mischievous warmth, but always at my side during the tragically short days we spent together. A look of shock ran through that familiar face, and her hands rose to her mouth. Her large hazel eyes rippled with a light that quickly turned into tears sitting upon her eyelashes.

I bounded forward the last several steps and whispered with a voice so weak it could not be heard.

“…Asuna.”

At the same time, Yui cried, “Mama…Mama!!”

The very end of the branch intersected the cage, and there stood a door made of a tighter pattern of golden bars than the rest, complete with a small metal plate that appeared to be the lock. The door was closed, but Yui did not bother to slow down as she pulled me forward, swinging her right hand across her body. It was soon infused with a blue glow.

She swung her glowing hand back to the right, and the entire metal door and its plate blew off, vanishing in a flash of light.

Yui let go of my hand and threw her arms wide. “Mama!!”

She raced into the open cage.

Asuna leaped up so fast she knocked the chair backward. She had opened her arms as well, and the words came clearly from her trembling lips.

“Yui!!”

The little girl leaped and buried her face in Asuna’s chest. Their long hair entwined, brown and black, glittering in the setting sun.

Yui and Asuna shared a fierce embrace, rubbing cheek to cheek, calling each other’s name just to be certain it was truly the other.

“Mama…”

“Yui…Yui…”

The tears spilled from their eyes, sparkling like fire with the light of the sun before disappearing into the air.

I eased out of my run and walked over, stopping several steps away from Asuna. She raised her head, blinked a few tears away, and looked right at me.

Just like the other time, I couldn’t move. If I approached any closer, reached out to touch her, she might vanish into thin air. And I didn’t look anything like I did back then. My tanned spriggan skin and spiky hair were not at all like the old Kirito. All I could do was stare at her, trying to hold in my tears.

But just as she did before, Asuna spoke, calling my name.

“Kirito.”

After a moment of silence, I called her name in return.

“…Asuna.”

I took the last two steps forward, opening my arms and surrounding her fragile body, squeezing Yui between the two of us. My nostrils were full of her familiar scent, and my body was met with her familiar warmth.

“…I’m sorry it took so long,” I moaned in a trembling voice, but Asuna just stared directly into my eyes.

“No, I knew you’d find me. I knew you’d come to save me…”

No other words were needed. Asuna and I closed our eyes and each buried our face in the other’s shoulder. Asuna’s arms encircled my back and clung tight. Yui panted happily in between us.

It’s all better now, I thought.

If this was to be my final moment, I would gladly burn away into nothing without a single regret. My life was meant to end with that world. I’d kept it going just so I could reach this instant and be complete…

No, that’s not right. This is where it starts. Now the world of swords and battle is finally over, and we can start a journey together in a new world—reality.

I raised my head.

“C’mon. Let’s go back to the real world.”

After our embrace, Asuna and I still held hands, and Yui clung to Asuna’s other arm. I looked down at her.

“Yui, can you manage to log Asuna out from here?”

She squinted and frowned for a moment, then shook her head.

“Mama’s current status is tied down by some complicated code. I’ll need a system console to undo it.”

“A console,” I repeated doubtfully.

Asuna’s voice was tense. “I’m pretty sure I saw something like that on the bottom floor of the laboratory. Oh, the lab is the—”

“The white empty corridor?”

“Yes. You came here through there?”

“Yeah,” I nodded. Asuna looked pensive.

“Were there any…weird things?”

“No, I didn’t see anything on the way…”

“Well…there might be some of Sugou’s henchmen lurking around. I just hope your sword will work on them!”

“Wait—Sugou?!” Shock, and then understanding, flooded through me. “This is…Sugou’s doing? He locked you in here?”

“Yes, but that’s not all. He’s doing terrible things here…”

Asuna’s face was dark with a deep rage, but she shook her head and stopped there.

“I’ll tell you the rest when we get back to reality. Sugou’s not at the office right now, as I understand it. We have to use this opportunity to crack the server and free everyone…Let’s go.”

I had plenty of questions to ask, but bringing Asuna back took priority over anything else. I nodded and spun around.

Asuna picked up Yui and I grabbed her hand, jogging back toward the blasted-out door frame. After a few steps I was stooping over to fit through the frame, and that was when it happened.

Someone was watching.

I felt a nasty tingling in the back of my neck. It was the exact same feeling I got in SAO when I was targeted, not by a monster but by another player with the orange cursor of a murderer.

Instantly, I let go of Asuna and put my hand on my sword. Just as I was pulling the hilt, the birdcage was doused in liquid. Then, with a deep-pitched splash, a dark, sticky substance completely covered us.

But that wasn’t quite it; I could breathe, but the act was laborious. When I tried to move, there was an incredible pressure, like being stuck in a thick, viscous fluid. My body was crushingly heavy. It was agony just to stand.

At the same time, the color was draining from the world. The deep red of the sunset that had filled the cage was turning into blackness before my eyes.

“Wh-what is this?” Asuna shouted. Her voice was warped as though compressed by incredible water pressure.

Deeply disturbed by this phenomenon, I tried to spin around and hold Asuna and Yui safely at my side—but my body would not cooperate. The sheer adhesion of the air clung to me as though of its own malevolent will.

In time, the entire world was total darkness. But…that also wasn’t entirely true. I could clearly see Asuna’s and Yui’s white dresses. It was as though every other surface of the world had been painted a perfect black.

I gritted my teeth and focused on moving my right hand. The bars of the cage were right next to me. I tried to grab one and pull myself free of the immobilizing space, but my outstretched hand touched nothing at all.

It wasn’t just an illusion. We had been plunged into an unknown world of darkness.

“Yui—”

I was going to ask her for an explanation, but she suddenly writhed in agony within Asuna’s arms and screamed.

“Aaah! Papa, Mama…Be careful! Something…bad is—”

But before she could finish, purple light crawled across her small body. She flashed brightly—and then Asuna’s arms were empty.

“Yui?!” Asuna and I screamed together. But there was no answer.

Only the two of us were left in the thick, sludgy blackness. I reached out desperately, trying to pull Asuna to my side. She did the same, her eyes wide with fear.

But before our fingertips could touch, we were assaulted by a tremendous gravity.

It was as though I’d been thrown into the bottom of a deep, deep swamp. I fell to a knee, unable to withstand the pressure. Asuna collapsed as well, both of her hands against the unseen floor.

She looked into my eyes and mumbled, “Kiri…to…”

I wanted to tell her that it was all right, that I would keep her safe no matter what. But before I could, a high-pitched, clinging voice echoed triumphantly through the darkness.

“And how are you enjoying my new spell? It’s planned to go into the next update, but I’m wondering if it might not be a bit too strong?”

The voice was twisted with uncontrolled glee, but I recognized it. It was the voice that had ridiculed me as a “hero” before Asuna’s comatose form.

“Sugou!” I growled, struggling to get back to my feet.

“Tsk, tsk! No using that name here, please. It is not fitting to speak to your king by name. You will address me as Your Majesty, King Oberon of the Fairies!”

His voice leaped even higher into a screech by the end, and something struck my head hard. I craned my neck to see a man standing right next to me. A leg in white tights ended in a gaudily embroidered boot that pushed against my head, rolling left and right.

Farther up, I saw a body covered by a toga in a venomous shade of green, and on top of that, a face so perfect it looked fake. But of course it was fake; it was a beautiful countenance created from scratch, so devoid of actual life that it was hideous. The crimson lips were twisted in a familiar gloating sneer.

Despite the different form, I would never mistake this man for anyone but Sugou. The man who’d been the target of all of my hatred, the one who’d stolen Asuna’s soul and locked her in this place…

“Oberon—no, Sugou!” Asuna shouted. She was braced against the floor, only barely able to raise her head. “I’ve seen what you’re doing here! The crimes you’re committing…You won’t get away with them, you can be sure of that!”

“Oh? And who’s going to stop me? You? Him? God, perhaps? Sorry, sweetheart, there’s only one God in this world: Me!”

He chuckled hideously and applied more pressure to my head. Unable to support the extra weight, I slumped to the floor.

“Stop it, you coward!!”

Sugou bent over, ignoring Asuna’s insult, and pulled my sword from its scabbard. He held out the tip of his finger and set the blade spinning on it, perfectly vertical.

“I must say, Kirigaya—oh, pardon me, should I call you Kirito? I really didn’t expect you to come all this way. I don’t know if that makes you brave or an idiot. Given your current miserable predicament, I’d hazard to say it’s the latter. Heh! I heard my little songbird had escaped her cage, so I rushed back to give her some much-needed discipline, only to find that—surprise! A cockroach had scuttled inside the cage! Along with some other strange little piece of code…”

Sugou trailed off and swiped his left hand to bring up the menu. He stared at the blue screen with a frown on his lips for a bit, then snorted and closed the window.

“…It must have gotten away. What was that? How did you get up here, anyway?”

I was briefly relieved that Yui hadn’t been deleted entirely, at least.

“I flew here. I’ve got wings.”

“Hmph, whatever. I can just get the answer straight from your brain.”

“…What?”

“You didn’t think I created this entire scheme for kicks, did you?” Sugou bounced the sword lightly on the tip of his finger, leering venomously. “With the generous help of the former SAO players, my research into the basics of thought and memory manipulation is nearly eighty percent complete. In a very short time, I will achieve an unprecedented, godly feat: absolute control over the human soul! On top of that, I’ve got a brand-new test subject to play with. What fun! I can’t wait to poke through your memories and rewrite your emotions! I’m getting chills just thinking about it!”

“You…can’t do such a thing…”

His claims were so absurd that I could barely process them. Sugou put his foot back on my head and tapped his toe up and down.

“You didn’t learn your lesson—you’re plugged in with the NerveGear again, aren’t you? Which makes you no less helpless than any of my test subjects. Kids are so stupid. Even a dog knows it’s made a mistake when it gets kicked.”

“No…no, you can’t do that, Sugou!” Asuna screamed, her face pale. “Don’t you dare hurt him!”

“Little bird, the day is nigh that I can turn your hatred into subservience with the flip of a switch,” Sugou replied, intoxicated with his own power. He grabbed my sword and pompously ran his fingers across the flat of the blade.

“But! Before I re-create your souls to my liking, let’s have a little party! Finally…the moment I’ve been waiting for—the perfect guest has arrived. It truly was worth testing the very limits of my patience!”

He spun around and threw his hands wide. “I am now recording everything that happens within this space for posterity! Make sure you look good for the camera!”

“. . .”

Asuna bit her lip, looked me straight in the eye, and said, “Log out immediately, Kirito. You have to expose his conspiracy in the real world. I’ll be fine.”

“Asuna!”

For a moment, I was torn in two by indecision. But just as quickly, I agreed and waved my left hand. With this much information, I might be able to mobilize a rescue team, even without physical proof. If they could seize the ALO server within RCT Progress, everything would be clear.

But my window didn’t appear.

“Ah-ha-ha-ha!” Sugou bent over with the force of his laughter. “I told you, this is my world! No one can escape it!!”

He walked around, hiccupping with laughter, and then suddenly raised his left hand. With the snap of his fingers, two jangling chains fell from the infinite blackness above.

A wide golden ring gleamed dully on the end of either chain. Sugou took one of them and snapped it around Asuna’s wrist with a click. He gave a little tug on the chain, which extended up into the darkness.

“Aaah!”

The chain began to retract, and Asuna was hauled up by her right hand. It stopped at the exact point that the tips of her toes could barely touch the ground.

“What do you think you’re doing?” I demanded, but Sugou ignored me and picked up the other ring, humming to himself.

“I’ve got plenty of props arranged for you. This will do for now, however,” he said, snapping the other ring around Asuna’s left wrist. The second chain rattled upward, and Asuna was left dangling in midair by her arms. The powerful gravity was still in effect, and her delicate eyebrows were twisted in pain.

Sugou crossed his arms in appreciation and whistled crudely.

“Nice. You don’t get expressions like that with the NPC women.”

“…!”

Asuna glared furiously at him, then shut her eyes against the pain. He chuckled and slowly walked around her back. He grabbed a handful of her long hair and then held it to his nose, breathing deeply.

“Mmm, that’s a lovely scent. It was quite difficult to re-create the real Asuna’s smell in-game—I had to hide an odor analyzer in her sickroom. Seems to me you ought to appreciate that kind of attention to detail.”

“Stop it, Sugou!”

Uncontrollable anger surged through me. Red flames raced through my nerves, and for a moment, I was able to break the weight pinning me down.

“Gr…uh…”

I pushed myself off the ground with my right hand. Once I’d gotten up onto a knee, I concentrated all of my strength into trying to stand.

Sugou put a hand on his waist and shook his head theatrically. He walked over to me, mouth twisted.

“Good grief. The audience isn’t supposed to be part of the show…Back to crawling!”

He kicked my legs out from under me, and I crumpled to the floor.

“Gaah!”

All the breath shot out of my lungs. I pushed up off the floor and raised my head to see Sugou, the corners of his mouth upturned in a poisonous grin, swinging my sword down upon me with all of his strength.

“Gakh!”

The sensation of the thick metal piercing my body sliced away the flames that had burned through all of my nerves. The blade exited my chest and wedged deep into the floor. There was no pain, but I was assaulted by an exceedingly rough and unpleasant sensation.

“K-Kirito!!” Asuna screamed. I looked to her, trying to tell her I was fine. But before I could speak, Sugou tilted his head back to the sky and crowed.

“System command! Set pain absorber to level eight!”

Suddenly I felt pain in my back—actual pain—like I’d been pierced with a sharp drill.

“Ngk…ahg…”

Sugou leered with delight at my obvious suffering. “Heh-heh. Oh, this is only the appetizer, my friend. I’ll bump it up in stages as we go along. If I set the absorption level to three or lower, you’ll remain in a state of shock even after logging out.”

He clapped his hands with satisfaction and turned back to Asuna.

“L-let Kirito go right now, Sugou!” she cried, but he showed no signs of obeying.

“It’s brats like him that I hate the most. No skills, no power behind him, but he sure knows how to run his mouth, the little maggot. Well, we know what happens to bugs—they get pinned into display cases. Besides, are you really in any position to worry about him, little bird?”

He extended a hand and traced Asuna’s cheek from behind. She turned her head, trying to break free, but the powerful gravity kept her from moving.

His fingertips ran all over Asuna’s face before sliding down her neck. Her features were twisted with disgust.

“Stop it…Sugou!” I shouted, trying desperately to push myself up again. Asuna managed a brave, trembling smile.

“It’s all right, Kirito. I won’t let this hurt me.”

Sugou immediately cackled in his high-pitched voice. “That’s what I like to hear. How long will you be able to maintain that pride—thirty seconds? An hour? An entire day? Do your best to prolong my pleasure, dear!”

As he spoke, he grabbed the red ribbon adorning the collar of Asuna’s dress and ripped it right out of the cloth. The red fabric flew silently through the air like blood, landing in a limp heap next to me.

Pure white skin peeked out from the wide tear in the bodice of the dress. Asuna grimaced in shame, the corners of her tightly shut eyes twitching.

Sugou tilted his head in appreciation, smirking as he fondled her skin. His lips opened in a wide crescent, and a vivid red tongue snaked out. I could practically hear the sticky smacking as he licked her cheek.

“Heh-heh! Want to know what I’m thinking about right now?” he whispered madly into her ear, tongue still extended. “Once I’ve had my fun with you here, I’ll visit your hospital room. I can lock the door, turn off the cameras, and it will be our little paradise, just you and me. I’ll set up a nice big monitor, play the footage of today’s recording, and enjoy it all over again with your real body. First I steal the purity of your heart—and then I ruin the chastity of your body! How fascinating! What a unique form of entertainment, don’t you think?”

His falsetto cackling bubbled over, filled the darkness, and died out.

Asuna’s eyes went wide for a moment, but she bravely knotted her lips. The unstoppable fear turned to two clear drops that lingered on her eyelashes. Sugou flicked out his tongue to taste them.

“Ahh…sweet, so sweet! Go on, give me more tears!”

Blinding white rage burned through my brain. All I could see were sparks.

“Sugou…you son of a bitch!!” I screamed, scrabbling wildly in an attempt to stand. But the sword running through me did not budge. I could sense tears forming in my own eyes now. I crawled like a miserable insect, writhing and bellowing.

“Damn you…I’ll kill you! I swear it! You’ll die by my hand!!”

But my screams were nearly drowned out by the sound of Sugou’s mad laughter.

If you can just give me strength right now…

I prayed fervently, trying to move myself even a fraction of an inch forward, pulling against the ground with my fingertips.

If you can give me the strength to stand, I’ll give up anything. My life, my soul, anything you want. I’ll pledge it all to the devil or a demon if it helps me cut him down and return Asuna to where she belongs.

Sugou was running his hands over Asuna’s arms and legs. Each move of his hand must have sent electronic signals of disgust to her sensory centers, because Asuna was biting her lip hard enough to draw blood as she withstood the defilement.

Though the image entered my eyes, all my brain saw was pure, burning white. The flames of anger and desperation consumed me. My neurons were turning into ash. Once I turned into a lump of dry, bone-white matter, I wouldn’t think anything anymore. I wouldn’t have to.

I thought I could do anything with a single sword at my side. I was the hero who stood at the pinnacle of ten thousand. The hero who defeated the evil sorcerer and saved the world.

It was a virtual world, just a game, developed by a business on basic marketing principles, and I’d imagined it was real. That the strength I found in the game was real strength. Had I been disappointed in the weakness of my actual body once I was released—exiled, more like it—from the world of SAO? Did a part of me wish that I could go back there, where I could be the greatest hero the world had ever known?

No wonder that when I’d learned that Asuna’s mind was trapped in a new game world, I’d assumed that I could make it all better on my own, rather than letting those with true power, the adults of the real world, sort it out. I must have been very happy regaining my imaginary power, crushing other players and satisfying my ugly pride and self-esteem.

In that case, this was my just dessert. That’s right—I was a child, playing with the power someone else had given me. I couldn’t even overcome the simple ID system that granted a person system admin privileges. The only thing I was good at earning for myself was regret. If I couldn’t handle that, my only escape was withdrawing from my mind altogether.

“You going to just run away?”

No, I’m only looking at reality.

“Giving in? To the power of the system you once denied?”

I can’t help it. He’s the game master, I’m only a player.

“You soil the memory of that duel with those words. You showed me that the human will could surpass a computer system. You helped me realize the future possibilities that our battle could bring about.”

Battle? It’s meaningless. A bunch of numbers going up and down.

“You know that’s not true. Now get on your feet. Grab your sword.”

“Stand up, Kirito!!”

It was like a bolt of lightning tearing through my wits, the voice the resulting clap of thunder. All of my wandering senses were connected in a single moment. My eyes shot open.

“Ugh…ah…” I couldn’t produce anything but dry grunts. “Urh…rrgh…”

I gnashed my teeth and moaned like an animal close to death, but I did plant a hand on the ground and push myself onto an elbow. Attempting to lift my body only dug the heavy sword deeper into the small of my back.

I couldn’t just lie there and crawl around miserably with this thing pinning me. I wouldn’t let myself be crushed by such a soulless attack. Every one of the countless blades I’d suffered in SAO was heavier than this. More painful.

“Gr…raaah!!” I howled briefly, using every ounce of my strength and willpower to push myself up. The tip of the sword pulled out of the ground and finally fell out of my back, clattering beside me.

Sugou watched my unsteady rise to my feet with his mouth agape. He took his hands off of Asuna and glared at me, then shrugged theatrically.

“Oh, dear. I fixed that object’s coordinates permanently, but it still came loose. Must be a few bugs left in the system. Those worthless, bungling programmers,” he muttered, walking over and pulling his fist back to punch me.

My hand shot out and caught his in midair.

“Oh…?” He looked at me with suspicion again. I opened my mouth and spoke a string of commands that had lain dormant in my mind for months.

“System log-in. ID ‘Heathcliff.’ Password…”

After that came a complex assortment of letters and numbers. Once it was over, the crushing gravity pulling me down finally disappeared.

“Wh-what? What was that ID?!” Sugou yelped, teeth flashing. He snatched his fist away from me, leaping backward and swinging his left hand down to open the blue system window. But before his fingers could work the buttons, I entered another voice command.

“System command, adjust supervisor privileges. Set ID ‘Oberon’ to level one.”

Sugou’s window abruptly vanished. He looked back and forth from the empty space between his hands to my face several times, then swiped his hand again in irritation.

Nothing happened. The magic scroll that granted Sugou his fairy king powers had been spirited away.

“An…an ID with a higher clearance than mine…? That’s impossible…It can’t be…I’m the ruler, the creator…I am the emperor of this world…God…” he babbled, his voice so high-pitched it sounded like it was playing at double speed. His beautiful features were twisted and hideous.

“You know that’s not true. You stole it. You stole this entire world and the people left in it. You’re nothing but the king of thieves, dancing alone on the throne you stole from someone else.”

“Why…you little brat…How dare you speak to me that way. You’ll regret this insult…I’ll tear off your head and hang it up as a decoration!”

He jabbed a twisted claw of a finger at me and screeched, “System command! Generate object ID ‘Excalibur’!!”

But the system no longer heeded Sugou’s voice.

“System command!! Obey me, you miserable heap of scrap! Your…your god commands you!!”

I tore my eyes away from the wailing Sugou to look at Asuna. The dress was nothing more than scraps loosely hanging on her body now. Her hair was tousled, and tear tracks gleamed on her cheeks. But those eyes had not lost their shine. Her hardy soul had not been broken.

I’ll bring this to an end soon. Just give me a little time, I silently told her as I stared into her hazel-colored eyes. Asuna returned my signal with the slightest of nods.

The sight of Asuna’s distress lit the fires of rage anew within me. I looked up and said, “System command. Generate object ID ‘Excalibur.’ ”

The space in front of me warped, tiny strings of numbers scrolling past to form a sword. Color and texture flowed upward through it from the tip. It was a beautifully detailed longsword, set with a dazzling gold blade. I recognized it as the sword sealed in the very bottom tip of the dungeon at the center of Jotunheim. There was something profoundly distasteful about producing the greatest sword in the game—the stuff of dreams to countless players—with a simple spoken command.

I grabbed the hilt of the sword and hurled it at the shocked Sugou. Once he had clumsily caught it, I brought my foot down hard on the pommel of my own sword; it clanged loudly and spun up into the air. I swiped my hand horizontally as the sword fell back to the earth, and caught it perfectly.

With the point of my massive dark blade pointed directly at Sugou, I issued my challenge.

“It’s time to settle the score between the king of thieves and the so-called hero…System command, pain absorber to level zero.”

“Wh…what…?”

That command had raised the sensation of virtual pain to an infinite amount. Panic flashed across the face of the fairy king, despite his golden sword. He faltered a step, then another.

“Don’t chicken out. He never backed down from any situation—Akihiko Kayaba.”

“K…Kaya…” He blanched when he heard that name. “Kayaba…Heathcliff. So it was you. You’ve come to ruin everything again!”

Sugou waved his sword in the air and screamed in a voice like tearing metal.

“You’re dead! You kicked the bucket! How are you still interfering with my life after death? You always did this…always! Looking smug and serene, as if you understood everything…stealing everything I ever wanted from under my nose!”

He jabbed the point of his sword at me and continued. “You little cretin…what would you understand?! Do you have any idea what it was like to work under him, to compete and be compared to him at every turn?!”

“I do. I lost to him in a fight and had to be his servant—but I never wanted to be him. I’m not like you.”

“You brat…you brat…you insolent little brat!!” he screeched, leaping at me with his sword drawn. Just as he came within range, I flicked my sword out. The tip grazed the fairy king’s elegant cheek.

“Agh!” he yelped, holding his face and bouncing backward. “Aah…aaaah!”

The look of shock on his face only made me angrier. This man, this miserable coward, had kept Asuna prisoner for two months, tormenting her all the while? Intolerable.

I took a big step forward and swung straight down. Sugou put an arm up out of defensive reflex. The hand holding his golden sword was severed at the wrist and flew away into the darkness, landing with an audible thump somewhere far in the distance.

“Aaaahh!! My hand…my haaaand!!”

The pain he felt was false—only electronic signals—but as far as his brain knew, it was real agony. Yet, it was not enough to satisfy me. It couldn’t possibly be enough.

Sugou bent over, clutching his maimed arm. I took a hearty swing at his green-clad torso.

“Gbwuah!!”

His tall body was cleanly sliced into two equal halves, and they fell heavily to the floor. His legs quickly burst into white flames and burned away.

I grabbed Sugou’s flowing blond hair and lifted. Thick tears sprang from his wide, terrified eyes, and his mouth worked fiercely. There were no words coming out of it, only metallic screeching.

I felt nothing but disgust at the sight of him. With a toss of my hand, I flung his upper half straight up into the air and readied myself for a double-handed sword thrust. He reached the apex of the arc and came tumbling down, still bleating hideously.

“Haaah!!”

I swung with all of my strength. With a dull chunk, the sword struck through Sugou’s right eye, and out the back of his head.

“Eeyaaagh!!”

His scream echoed unpleasantly through the darkness, like the screeching of a thousand rusty gears scraping into motion. Thick white flames erupted from his pierced eye, and soon licked across the rest of his head and torso.

Sugou did not stop screaming for the several seconds it took for him to be completely burned into nothing. His voice eventually faded out and vanished, and the world was silent again. I swiped my sword in satisfaction, scattering the little white flames that remained.

With an easy flick of my wrists, I severed the chains that had held Asuna prisoner. The sword’s duty finished, I laid it on the floor and picked up her limp body.

It was at this point that the source of energy that had kept me going finally gave out as well. I slumped to my knees, and there gazed at Asuna in my arms.

“…Ngh…”

The feeling of miserable helplessness running through me leaked out of my eyes in the form of tears. I held her fragile body tight, burying my face in her hair, bawling. I couldn’t speak. There were only tears.

“I always believed,” Asuna’s clear voice murmured next to my ear. “No…I still do believe. I did in the past, and I will in the future. You’re my hero…You’ll come to save me anywhere, anytime…”

Her hand brushed my hair.

No. That’s not true. I don’t have…any true strength…

I took a deep breath and managed to mumble, “I’ll do my best…to make sure that’s true. C’mon…let’s go.”

I waved my left hand and was greeted with a different, more complicated system window. I picked through it on instinct alone, digging through menu after menu for the teleportation-related commands.

With a deep stare into Asuna’s eyes, I told her, “I think it’s already nighttime in the real world. But I swear, I’ll be at your hospital in no time.”

“I know. I’ll be waiting. I want you to be the first person I see with my real eyes.”

She smiled, and with a distant gaze as calm as still water, she whispered, “So…it’s finally coming to an end. I’m going back…to the real world.”

“That’s right…You’ll be so surprised at everything that’s changed.”

“Hee-hee. You’ll have to take me all over and show me a good time.”

“Yeah. I will.” I nodded and hugged her even harder. There was a targeted log-out button on the admin menu, and it turned my finger blue. I used that finger to trace the tracks of her tears, wiping them away.

Asuna’s pale body in turn took on that vivid blue. Bit by bit, she grew transparent, delicate as a crystal. Little motes of light danced in the air, and she began to vanish, starting with the tips of her fingers and toes.

I held Asuna as tight as I could while part of her remained. Finally the weight left my arms, and I was alone in the darkness. I sat there, unmoving.

It felt like everything was over, yet it also felt like only a step in a larger process. This incident was the result of Kayaba’s flight of fancy and Sugou’s desire—but was this truly the end of it? Or was it only a part of some larger series of events?

I forced my aching, spent body to its feet and looked up, into the deep darkness over my head.

“I know you’re there, Heathcliff.”

After a brief silence, I heard the raspy voice echoing in my mind again, the way it had earlier.

“It has been quite a while, Kirito. Of course, to me, the events of that day might as well be yesterday.”

Unlike just minutes ago, the voice seemed to be coming from some far-off place now.

“You’re still alive?” I asked. The voice responded after a brief pause.

“You could say that, but you could also say the opposite. I am…an echo of Akihiko Kayaba’s mind. An afterimage.”

“Well, you make as little sense as he did. I guess I ought to thank you—though you could have helped a bit earlier than you did.”

“. . .”

There seemed to be a tinge of chagrin in the silence.

“I apologize for that. It was only just recently that this program was reassembled and reactivated from its many hiding places within the system. Just at the moment that I heard your voice. Also, your thanks are unnecessary.”

“…Why?”

“Too much has happened between us for altruistic favors. Every debt must be repaid.”

Now it was my turn to grimace. “What do you want me to do?”

Out of the vast darkness fell something silver and shining. I reached out and caught the object. It was a small, egg-shaped crystal. A faint light flickered within it.

“What’s this?”

“The seed of the world.”

“What?”

“You will understand when it blooms. I leave its fate in your hands. Delete it, abandon it…but if you do happen to feel any emotion toward my world other than hatred…”

He let that statement hang. After a long silence, he said a brief farewell.

“I must be going. May we meet again, Kirito.”

And just like that, he was gone.

I put the sparkling egg into my front pocket, confused. After a few moments, I had a sudden thought.

“Yui, are you there? You okay?”

Abruptly, the world of darkness shattered around me.

The orange light that had dyed the entire world before our confrontation ripped through the veil, bringing a breeze with it that blew away the blackness. I had to close my eyes against its radiance, and when I could open them without pain again, I was inside the birdcage.

Directly ahead, the sinking sun was releasing its final dying rays of light. I was alone, with only the sound of the wind for companionship.

“Yui?” I asked again. A light coalesced in the space before me, and a black-haired girl popped into existence.

“Papa!” she cried, throwing her arms around my neck.

“You’re all right. Thank goodness…”

“Yes, my address was about to be locked, so I retreated into the NerveGear’s local memory. When I connected again, you and Mama were both gone. I was so worried…Say, where is Mama?”

“She’s back in the real world.”

“I see…That’s truly wonderful…”

Yui closed her eyes and laid her cheek against my chest, a shadow of sadness in her face. I gently caressed her long hair.

“She’ll come back to see you very soon. But I wonder…what’s going to happen to this world?” I murmured. Yui grinned.

“Well, my core program is in your NerveGear, not this realm. You can be with me forever. Oh, but there’s something strange about all of this…”

“What is it?”

“There’s a very large file being transferred to the NerveGear’s local storage. It doesn’t seem to be an active process, however…”

“Hmm,” I said curiously, but I didn’t bother to wonder about it for very long. There was more pressing business at hand.

“Well, I’ve got to go see Mama.”

“Okay, Papa. I love you.”

Yui squeezed me with all of her tiny strength, tears welling in her eyes. I rubbed her head and swiped my hand for the menu.

For a moment, I stopped to view the world as it lay shrouded in sunset. What would happen to it now, this world with its false king? The thought of Leafa and the other players who cared so deeply for Alfheim made my heart hurt.

I gave Yui a gentle kiss on the cheek and tapped a few commands. Light burst out from the point ahead of me, swallowed my consciousness, and pulled me higher, higher.

When I opened my deeply exhausted eyelids, the first thing I saw was Suguha’s face. She was watching me with a fretful expression, but when our eyes met, she bolted upright.

“S-sorry for sneaking into your room. I got worried when you never returned,” she said, sitting on the edge of the bed with a trace of red in her cheeks. After a brief time lag for recovery, I tensed my limbs to return the strength to them after my long play session, then bounced up to a sitting position.

“Sorry for taking so long.”

“Is it…all over?”

“Yeah. It’s over…It’s all over,” I murmured, staring into nothing. I couldn’t possibly tell Suguha that I’d nearly been taken prisoner again, and this time in a prison without a victory condition to free me. The time would eventually come to explain it all to her, but I didn’t want to cause her any unnecessary concern for now. This sister of mine, my only sibling, had already saved me in more ways than I had words to express.

My new adventure began in that deep forest that night, when I happened across the girl with green hair—and she’d been at my side for the entire long journey. She’d shown me the way, explained the world’s customs, and swung her sword to protect me. Thanks to her guidance, I’d met two leaders within the game, without whose help I would never have broken through the wall of guardian knights.

I realized upon reflection that I’d been helped by a great many people. But first and foremost, by the girl in front of me now. Leafa had helped Kirito, and Suguha, Kazuto; and during the entire time, she’d been grappling with her own deep, troubling feelings.

It was a good moment to take a new look at Suguha’s face, a combination of bright, masculine vitality and the fragility of a freshly budded flower shoot. I reached out and caressed her cheek, and she smiled shyly.

“Thanks for everything, Sugu—I mean it. I couldn’t have done any of it without you.”

She looked down, face beet-red, and fidgeted. Eventually she made up her mind and leaned her cheek against my chest.

“It’s okay…I was happy to do it. Happy to be helpful to you in your world,” she said, eyes closed. I slipped my arm around her back and gave her a gentle squeeze.

Once I’d let go, she looked up and said, “So…you got her back? Asuna, I mean…”

“Yeah. She’s back—finally back. Sugu…I…”

“I know. Go see her. I’m sure she’s waiting for you.”

“I’m sorry. I’ll explain everything when I get back.”

I patted the top of Suguha’s head and got to my feet.

In record time, I was pulling on my down jacket in the yard, ready for the trip. It was night outside. The old standing clock in the living room said it was just before nine—well after visiting hours, but if I explained the circumstances at the nurse’s desk, they would surely let me in.

Suguha trotted over and offered me a nice, thick sandwich. I gratefully stuffed it into my mouth and descended into the yard.

“Brr, it’s cold…”

I hunched my shoulders. The chill seemed to pass right through my jacket. Suguha looked up at the night sky and said, “Oh…snow.”

“Huh…?”

There were indeed two or three large snowflakes glittering through the air. For a moment, I considered using a taxi, but decided that racing on my bike was a quicker trip than walking out to the main road and trying to find a cab.

“Be careful…Say hi to Asuna for me.”

“I will. I’ll give you a proper introduction next time.”

I waved good-bye to Suguha, hopped onto my mountain bike, and started pedaling.

The trip across the southern part of Saitama Prefecture went by incredibly fast with my single-minded bicycle sprint. The pace of the snow picked up, but not enough to pile up on the side of the road, and, thankfully, that kept the amount of traffic on the streets low.

I wanted nothing more than to be in Asuna’s hospital room as soon as possible—but there was a part of me that feared it as well. I’d spent every other day for two months visiting that place and knowing only deep, deep disappointment. I would take my sleeping princess’s hand, so still I was afraid she’d turned into a sculpture of ice, and call out to her, knowing full well she would not hear.

As I raced down streets so familiar that I knew where all the potholes were, I couldn’t shake a part of me that wondered if my discovery of her in the land of the fairies, the vanquishing of the false king, and the severing of her chains…were all nothing more than hallucinations.

What if, several minutes from now, I visited her room to find that she was not awake?

What if her soul had already left Alfheim and gone not to the real world, but to some other, unknown place?

A terrifying chill ran down my back that had nothing to do with the snow pelting my face in the darkness. It couldn’t happen. The system that ran the game of real life would not be designed so cruelly.

My thoughts writhed and tangled, but I kept pedaling. After a right on the main route, I headed into the hills. The deep, block-pattern treads of my tires chewed the asphalt and its light layer of sherbet snow. I kicked the pedals into a higher gear.

Eventually the shape of a large, dark building came into view. Most of the windows were black, and the blue guiding lights around the helicopter landing pad on the roof blinked like ghostly wisps floating around a castle of darkness.

At the top of the final hill was a tall fence. I rode along the perimeter for another minute until the front entrance came into view, flanked by tall gateposts.

Because this was a special cutting-edge hospital that did not take emergency patients, the gate was shut tight and the guard box was unattended. I passed the main entrance en route to the parking area, where a small employee gate to the grounds had been left open.

I left my bike in the corner of the parking lot, too impatient to bother locking it up. The parking lot was completely empty, lit only by the orange sodium-vapor streetlights. The only thing moving was the silent snow, painting the world white around me as it fell. I ran, my heavy breathing creating dense clouds of vapor.

When I was halfway across the vast parking lot, I was about to pass between a tall, dark van and a white sedan when a silhouette emerged from behind the van and nearly collided into me.

“Ah…”

I was about to apologize as I avoided the figure—until the menacing gleam of something sharp and metallic swiped out at me.

“?!”

A sharp burning sensation burst across my right forearm just below the elbow, and a great number of white things spilled into the air. Not snow—fine, tiny feathers. The lining of my down jacket.

I stumbled backward, only managing to stay upright by leaning against the rear of the white sedan.

I stared, stunned, at the black silhouette standing six feet away. It was a man. A man wearing a dark suit. There was something long and white in his right hand. It glowed in the dull orange light.

A knife. A large survival knife. But why?

I could sense the man, standing in the shadows cast by the tall van, examining my freezing face. He spoke, his voice ragged and quiet as a whisper.

“You took so long, Kirito. What if I’d caught a cold?”

That voice. That high-pitched, wheedling voice.

“S…Sugou…” I murmured in a daze. He took a step forward, and the orange light of the streetlamps hit his face.

The hair that had been so neatly styled at our meeting several days ago was wild and bedraggled. There was a shadow of a beard on his pointed chin, and his necktie hung loose around his neck.

But most of all, I noticed the bizarre look in his eyes through the metal-framed glasses he wore. Almost immediately, I realized what was so strange about it. His narrow eyes were bulging wide, the pupil of his left eye dilated and trembling in the low light—but his right pupil was constricted tight. The exact same spot that I’d pierced in our fight atop the World Tree.

“That was so very cruel of you, Kirito,” he growled. “The pain won’t go away. Not that I’m worried—I’ve got plenty of drugs for that.”

Sugou reached into his pocket and removed a few pills that he promptly tossed into his mouth. He crunched them heartily and took another step forward. By now I’d finally recovered from the shock, and managed to speak through dry lips.

“You’re finished, Sugou. You can’t hide something that huge. Give up and face justice.”

“Finished? How so? Nothing is finished. True, RCT may be useless now. But I’m going to America. There are plenty of companies who want me over there. I’ve got plenty of data from my experiments. If I can use them to complete what I started, I can be a true king—a god—the god of the real world.”

He’s gone mad. No…this man had probably broken long before.

“I just have a few things to clean up first. For starters, I’m going to kill you, Kirito,” Sugou muttered, expression locked in place. Then he lunged toward me, stiffly jabbing his knife at my stomach.

“…!!”

I barely evaded. An attempt to leap off the asphalt with my right foot was aborted when snow stuck in the sole of my shoe caused me to slip and crash to the pavement. I landed hard on my left side, the breath shooting from my lungs.

Sugou gazed down at me with his mismatched eyes.

“Get on your feet.”

The tip of his expensive leather shoe stomped into my femur once, twice, and again. Hot pain shot through my spinal cord deep into my brain. The impact rattled my wounded arm, which throbbed painfully. It was only then that I realized he’d actually cut my arm, not just the sleeve of my jacket.

I couldn’t move. I couldn’t speak. The terrible murderous pressure of Sugou’s survival knife—a good eight inches long—froze the blood in my veins.

Kill…me…that knife—?

Only fragments of thoughts could find purchase in my scrambled wits. All my circuits were busy imagining, over and over, that fateful moment when the thick knife silently invaded my body, delivering the fatal blow. It was the only thing I could do.

The throbbing in my right arm turned to a burning numbness. Black liquid was dripping from between my jacket sleeve and winter gloves. I imagined all the blood in my body flowing out of me. Death—not based on numerical hit points, but true, actual death.

“C’mon, stand. Get up.” Sugou kicked my legs repeatedly, mechanically. “What was it you were saying to me back there? About not running? Not being a coward? Settling our score? How brave and bold you were.”

His whispering was laced with the same madness I’d heard in the midst of that suffocating darkness.

“Don’t you understand? Little boys like you who only know how to play video games have no real power. You’re scum, the garbage of society. And yet you had the audacity, the temerity to ruin my plan…There can be no punishment but death. Death is the only solution,” he droned.

Sugou rested his foot on my stomach and shifted his weight forward. That physical force, combined with the mental pressure of his madness, took my breath away.

I could do nothing but watch his approaching face and gasp in short, irregular bursts. Sugou craned over and raised his weapon high.

Without a blink, he swung it down.

“!”

The only sounds were a muted grunt from the back of my throat and the dull crunch of the knifepoint grazing my cheek and digging into the asphalt beneath me.

“Oopsie…Hard to aim when only one eye works,” he muttered, and pulled his hand back for another try.

The knife’s edge, catching the glow of the parking lot lights, was an orange line against the darkness. The very tip was chipped from its direct impact against the hard pavement. That flaw, the ugly imperfection of it, gave the knife a greater sense of physical realism. It was not a weapon made of perfect polygons, but a compact mass of metal molecules: sharp, cold, heavy, deadly.

Everything moved slowly. The snowflakes falling through the dark sky. The foggy breath from Sugou’s curved mouth. The edge of the knife as it descended toward me. The gleaming orange reflection of the blade, flickering with the serrated pattern on its back.

I remember a weapon that was jagged like that, my brain subconsciously muttered to itself, piecing together fragments of meaningless memory.

What was it again? A dagger-type item sold in the one of the cities around the middle of Aincrad. It was called a swordbreaker. The back was serrated like a saw to parry the enemy’s blow, with a small bonus chance to break their weapon. I was intrigued enough to put my Dagger skill in an empty slot and try it out, but I was never satisfied with its meager attack power.

The weapon in Sugou’s hand now was smaller than that, not even large enough to be called a dagger. In fact, this would hardly be labeled a weapon—it was an everyday tool. It was not a weapon that a swordsman would use in a fight.

Sugou’s words of a few seconds ago echoed in my ears.

You have no real power.

He was right, of course. There was no need to point it out. But what does that make you in your attempt to kill me, Sugou? A master knife wielder? Do you know how to fight?

I stared at the bloodshot eyes behind Sugou’s glasses. Agitation. Madness. But there was something else as well: It was the look of a man trying to escape. They were the eyes of wild instinct, of he who lashes out with abandon with his back to the wall, trapped by monsters deep inside a dungeon with little hope for escape.

He was just like me, struggling miserably in search of power that he never found.

“Die, boy!!”

Sugou’s scream snapped me from the decelerated world of thought back to the present. My left hand shot up and caught Sugou’s wrist in descent, while I reached out and jammed the base of his throat with my other thumb, just above his necktie.

“Hurgk!” he yelped, lurching backward. I lunged and grabbed his wrist with both hands, scraping the backside against the frozen asphalt. He screeched and relaxed his grip. The knife clattered to the ground.

Sugou lunged for the blade, screaming wheezily like some kind of whistle. I pulled back my right leg and planted a stomp with the sole of my shoe against his chin. From there, I scooped up the knife and got to my feet.

“Sugou,” I growled, my voice foreign and guttural. The knife’s presence was hard and cold through my glove. It was a weak weapon. Too light, too short.

“But it’ll be enough to kill you,” I muttered, and leaped onto Sugou, who was sitting on the asphalt stunned, mouth agape.

I grabbed a fistful of hair with my left hand and slammed his head against the van door. The aluminum body dented inward and his glasses went flying. Sugou’s mouth was wide in a gasp of shock. I pulled the knife back, preparing to jab it at his exposed throat.

“Grrh…aaah!”

But I had to stop, to grit my teeth against the urge.

“Hyeeek!! Eeyaaa!!”

Sugou was emitting the exact same high-pitched squeals that I’d heard in Alfheim not even an hour ago. He deserved to die. He deserved to be judged. If I brought the knife down now, everything would be over at last. Finished. The decisive separation of winner and loser.

But…

I was not a swordsman anymore. The world where skill with the sword decided everything was a relic of the distant past now.

“Eeeeh…”

Sugou’s eyes suddenly rolled back into his head. His scream ended abruptly, and he slumped to the ground like a robot unplugged.

The tension drained out of my arm. The knife slipped through my fingers and landed on Sugou’s midsection. I let go of him and got to my feet.

If I spent another second looking at this hateful man, the urge to kill would return, and I would not be successful at stifling it twice.

I pulled off Sugou’s necktie, laid him out on the ground, and tied his hands together behind his back. The knife went onto the roof of the van. Then I turned away and forced my stumbling body to make its way, step by clumsy step, across the parking lot.

It took five minutes to climb the wide steps to the front entrance. I stopped there, breathing heavily, and took a look down at my body.

I was a mess, filthy with snow and grit. My right arm and left cheek were throbbing painfully, but the bleeding had stopped, at least.

The front door was automatic, but it showed no sign of opening. I peered through the glass to see that the lights of the lobby were dim, but it was brighter back at the reception counter. Fortunately, there was an unlocked glass push door on the left side that offered me a way in.

The interior of the building was silent. I walked past rows of benches lining the spacious lobby. The counter was unattended, but I could hear laughing coming from the nurse station behind it. I prayed that I could make my voice heard.

“Um…excuse me!”

After a few seconds, the door opened and two women in pale green uniforms appeared. They looked pensive at first, but that turned to shock when they got a better look at me.

“What happened?!” said one of them, a tall, young nurse with her hair tied up. My cheek must have bled more than I realized.

I pointed back to the entrance and said, “A man with a knife attacked me in the parking lot. He’s knocked out next to a big van.”

They looked nervous. The older nurse went over to a device behind the counter and leaned into a microphone.

“Security, please come to the first-floor nurse station at once.”

The patrolman must have been close, because within seconds a man in a navy-blue uniform came trotting over. When the nurses repeated my description, his face went hard. He said something into a small comm unit and headed for the entrance. The younger nurse went with him.

The other nurse took an appraising look at the cut on my cheek.

“You’re the family of Ms. Yuuki up on the twelfth floor, aren’t you? Is that your only injury?”

She seemed to be under a slight misconception, but I nodded anyway. I didn’t have the willpower to correct her.

“I see. I’ll call the doctor at once. Just wait here.” She hurried off.

I took a deep breath and looked around the lobby. Once I was sure there was no one around, I slipped behind the counter and grabbed a guest pass. With my access in hand, I set my trembling legs working in the direction that none of the adults had gone—toward the hallway I’d traveled dozens of times before.

The elevator was parked on the first floor, so the door opened as soon as I hit the button. I leaned against the interior wall as the car headed for the top floor. As it was a hospital elevator, its progress was gentle, but even that slight increase in pressure felt ready to break my knees. I barely stayed upright.

After endless seconds, the elevator stopped and the doors opened. I practically crawled into the hallway.

The few yards to Asuna’s room felt like miles. I had to prop myself against the handrail along the wall just to keep moving. Left at the L-shaped turn in the hallway, and there was the white door, straight ahead.

Step after step after step.

Back then, too—

After the virtual world’s sunset-wrapped demise, I was released to reality. I woke up in a nondescript hospital room, and that day I made a journey on stumbling feet. In search of Asuna, I walked and walked. That path had led me to this moment.

Finally, I would meet her. The time had come.

As the distance grew shorter, the emotion grew hotter and more fervent within me. My pulse raced. My vision began to fade. But I couldn’t pass out here. So I walked. Step after step after step.

I was so intent on that process that I nearly walked right into the door before I realized where I was.

Asuna was on the other side. That was my only thought.

I reached out a trembling hand, but the keycard slipped through my sweaty fingers, onto the floor. I picked it up and tried again, successfully sticking it into the slot on the metal plate. Breath held, I slid it back out.

The light on the plate changed color, a motor whirred, and the door opened.

The scent of flowers drifted outward.

There were no lights on inside, only the faint white glow of the outside illumination reflecting off the snow.

As usual, the room was split through the middle by a large curtain. The gel bed was on the other side.

I couldn’t move. I couldn’t continue. I couldn’t speak.

A sudden whisper sounded in my ear.

“Go on—she’s waiting.”

I felt a hand push my shoulder. Yui? Suguha? Someone’s voice had saved me in three different worlds. I picked up my right foot and brought it down. Then my left. Then my right again.

The curtain was right ahead. I reached out and grabbed it.

Pulled.

The white veil rolled aside with a sound as gentle as the breeze over a field.

“…Ahh,” the sound escaped from my throat.

A girl, wearing a thin white hospital gown that looked almost like a dress, was sitting upright. She faced the dark window, her back to me, and the quiet glow from the falling snow shone in her long, lustrous hair. Her thin arms were resting in her lap, holding a shining, blue, egg-shaped object.

Her NerveGear. The crown of thorns that had held her prisoner for so long was finally silent, its job finished.

“Asuna,” I said, my voice a whisper. She jumped, stirring the flower-scented air, and turned.

The hazel eyes that looked at me were still full of the dreamy light of one awakened from a long, long sleep.

How many times had I imagined this moment? How many times had I prayed for it?

A smile floated to her pale, graceful lips.

“Kirito.”

It was the first time I had heard that voice. It was quite unlike the one I’d heard every day in Aincrad. But this voice, actual vibrations in the air that hit my actual eardrums en route to my brain, was many times more wonderful.

Asuna took her left hand off the NerveGear and reached out. It was trembling slightly—even this act was exhausting to her.

I took her hand as gently as I could, as though holding a sculpture of snow. It was painfully thin and frail—but warm. The warmth of our contact seeped into us, as though to heal all wounds. All the strength went out of my legs, and I had to lean against the edge of the bed.

She brought her other hand up to touch my wounded cheek, tilting her head in question.

“Yeah…the final—the true final— battle just finished. It’s over…”

And at last, tears sprang to my eyes. The wetness dripped down my cheeks, onto her fingers, shining with the light from the window.

“I’m sorry…I can’t really hear yet. But…I know what you’re saying,” she whispered, rubbing my cheek with care. Just the sound of her voice shook my soul.

“It’s over…It’s finally over…I’ve finally met you.”

Shining silver tears streamed down Asuna’s cheeks as well and dripped off her chin. Her wet eyes stared deeply into mine, as though attempting to tell me everything within her mind.

“It’s nice to meet you. I’m Asuna Yuuki. I’m back, Kirito.”

I held in a sob and responded, “I’m Kazuto Kirigaya. Welcome home, Asuna.”

We leaned forward and brushed lips, lightly. Then again, harder.

I put my arms around her fragile body and held her gently.

The soul travels. From world to world. From this life to the next.

And it seeks others. Calls out.

Long ago, in a big castle floating in the clouds, a boy who dreamed of being a warrior and a girl who loved to cook met and fell in love. Those two are gone, but after a long, long journey, their hearts met again.

I gently rubbed Asuna’s back as she sobbed, watching out the window with tear-blurred eyes. Beyond the falling snow, which was coming down harder than before, I thought I saw two silhouettes standing together.

A boy in a black coat, with two swords crossed over his back.

A girl in a knight’s uniform, red on white, with a silver rapier at her waist.

They smiled, held hands, and walked off into the distance.