Sword Art Online/ソードアート・オンライン 1. Prologue

Disclaimer: Sword Art Online and associated characters are owned by Reki Kawahara. This is fan fiction written for entertainment only. No money or other negotiable currency or goods have been exchanged. Special thanks to Baka Tsuki for the translations of the Light Novels, they were invaluable tools for the development of this chapter, and in the future I hope I can be less reliant on them.

** I ** II ** III ** IV **

"_Sword Art Online is no longer a simple game. It is a second reality…. The moment the HP of a player reaches 0 the avatar will be gone forever. This is a world where heroes and villains will surely raise and fall. Witness their deeds, rejoice their triumphs and mourn their losses._

_There can be no heroes without someone who records their plight…"_

_Extract of the announcement done by Kayaba Akihito to the media._

** I ** II ** III ** IV **

The .scrmx was another of Kayaba Akihito's brilliant ideas, a computer file that recorded VR games in a multitude of high tech formats, from low quality videos easily converted to their use in cells, to HD quality multi-angle computer interactive files that allowed the users to see the stats of both players and mobs at will as well as from endless perspectives. They could even reproduce the entire battle in special rooms of compatible VRMMO's.

When the SAO incident occurred Kayaba send the first of these files to MMO Today shortly after his infamous caution message, the sign of the bloody avatar telling the 10,000 players of their imprisonment and the conditions for their release made headlines in all papers as well as YouTube's most visited video.

Then the rest followed, less than an hour later, dozens and then hundreds of recordings send to the personal E-Mails of the players, most of them depicting their deaths, which when from the silly to the outright tragic, from accidents to suicides, but most of them just the rookie mistakes that everyone did when playing a game for the first time. Then a month later a second recording was send to MMO Today's mail, this time with the battle for the first boss. The authenticity was confirmed when comparing it to time of death of the only player killed in that particular fight, and subsequent ones were similarly confirmed.

After a short while the rules for the videos were inferred. They would record automatically certain events, starting with any and every death of a player, being from internal or external causes. They would also record field, area and boss battles, the successful complexion of quests and other special events, PvP battles, duels and anything that was recorded on a Record or Mirage Crystal.

Then as soon as the battle was over and the players were out of combat mode it would send from the first 60 seconds previous to the fight to the last 30 seconds after it was all clear to the E-Mail address that the players established when doing either the Nerve-Gear's registration or the one they designated for that purpose when starting SAO. Additionally all boss encounters, no matter their size, duration and outcome would be mailed to MMO Today and other similar websites.

The government of course tried to stop the flow of videos, but Kayaba with his usual infuriating brilliance had routed them through the Nerve-Gear, so simply cutting the connection would be an instant death sentence for the player in question. Additionally many of the families were quite reticent of missing their only form of contact with their loved ones. When the government was able at last of reliably cutting it off, it had been shortly before the first battle of the 25 floor. That particular bloodbath was at the time considered to be Akihito's retaliation and after reestablishing the Mails no more efforts were done in that front.

People outside the game also realized, both from the lack of deliberate messages and random comments from the players than their recording function was set as permanently off and that they ignored that they could actually communicate with the real world.

Indeed, the people outside could only see their children, friends, and spouses try to live their life as best as they could in their virtual world.


	2. The Gleam Eyes

Disclaimer: Sword Art Online and associated characters are owned by Reki Kawahara. This is fan fiction written for entertainment only. No money or other negotiable currency or goods have been exchanged. Special thanks to Baka Tsuki for the translations of the Light Novels, they were invaluable tools for the development of this chapter, and in the future I hope I can be less reliant on them.

** I ** II ** III ** IV **

October was already ending when Suguha carefully adjusted the pillows on her bed and prepared a bottle of water and a few snacks from whenever she needed a rest, since it was almost the weekend and her mother wasn't going to arrive after late she had the entire noon free to dive and she wanted to get the most out of it, once she was done she finally connected her Amu-sphere and arrived to Alfheim as the Sylph swordswoman Leafa.

As soon as she to the capital city of «Sylvain» she went to one of the smallest Inns, one small enough that she was fairly certain that neither Recon nor Sigurd would use such a place, and started doing something that most would consider anathema to such a skilled and spirited player… Homework.

She could have done that back home, in fact that way she would be able to snack while doing so, but she wanted to experience what her brother was facing, not just the adventure and the thrill of combat and definitely not the deaths he had been forced to experience, but the mundane moments between fights too. Once her homework was done she went and asked for herself one of the tarts they offered on the Inn and opened her mail account to send the homework to the respective teachers.

Once that was done, and ate another slice of her Bavarian fruit tart pie, she went straight to the Tower of Wind in the center of the city, in her own opinion the single most beautiful structure of Alfheim (although to be fair she had only seen the other capitals and a fair share of neutral cities in promo HD videos), the Lord's Mansion proudly displaying the Sylph's flag.

Today she was about to experience a little more of her brother's world. Yet went she arrived she found herself with the two persons she lest wanted to see right now. The first one was Recon, or Nagata as he was named in in R.L., a nice guy who had mentored her when she entered the game months ago but that from time to time was too clingy and creepy. And the second one was their party leader Sigurd, a skilled player and one of the most prominent political figures of the Sylph, second only to Lady Sakuya, she had recently defeated him in the local tournament and therefore had earned the right to enter his powerful party despite having a lot less experience than he would usually tolerate for his subordinates.

"Leafa, you told me that you wouldn't be available until two hours from now. Good, that means we can go farming earlier than expected, but next time you will tell me, I have better things to do with my time than gathering my men."

"Leafa, hi." Said Recon behind Sigurd and two other party members while he vigorously shook his hand.

"Sigurd, Recon; Hi. I'm sorry but I need a little more time before I join you."

"That is not acceptable, every minute expend here instead of the field is wasted."

"Sigurd sir, maybe we could… eh." Recon's words of support faded after his boss directed him a reproving look.

"Sigurd is not going to be long, just half an hour. Please."

"Then maybe if you're time is more important than ours then maybe…" He suddenly shut up, and Leafa only had to turn to understand. Lady Sakuya and her entourage were approaching.

"Good afternoon Sigurd, what a surprise seeing you here." Her party leader response was done with a tone of voice was what she could only describe as poisoned honey. "Good afternoon Sakuya, it is rare that we can coincide, after all most of the time I'm in the front lines with the clearing groups while you stay here in the safety of the city limits."

To Sakuya's credit she completely ignored the barb of her rival, "Those are the burdens of command Sigurd, leading the faction means that we have to sacrifice, and one of them is being out in the field as frequently as I used to, and is that you Leafa? Congratulations into getting the Silver key The Silver key was an item that allowed entrance to the Sylphs' Lord Mansion; it was granted to the players that contributed the most to the advancement of the faction and it was considered the first step into being part of the Council of Elders. Her acceptance into the inner ranks was earned both by the skills displayed during the last tournament and the fact that she contributed a larger than usual amount of her treasure to the coffins of the faction, so that they could someday get to the top of «Yggdrasil».

"Thank you Lady Sakuya, I was heading to one of the Mansion's rooms of remembrance right now." The Room of Remembrance was a location were the winds of the past could be gathered once more, they were used to project saved battles for analysis and bragging rights. They were accessible to all players, for a rate measured in yens per second, but the ones allocated in the Mansion were slightly cheaper and right now her account line of credit was stretched to the limit.

"Oh then you're going to analyze our latest battle against those mangy cats in the northeast border?" That comment from Sigurd draw a frown on Sakuya's face, rumors said that she was in fairly good terms with Alicia Rue, the Cait Sith faction leader.

"Um, no. It's actually a duel between my brother and another player." Leafa said in a small voice, and of course Recon missed her hesitation. "Cool Leafa. I didn't know you had a brother, did he just buy an account?"

"No, he is one of players trapped in SAO." That simple statement draw surprised looks from all quarters, there wasn't any gamer in the world that hadn't heard of the death game or missed the occasional boss fights presented in MMO Today. But to actually meet a relative playing a VRMMO was unheard. The commentaries of the peanut gallery didn't wait too long.

"A SAO duel? Sweet."

"No way."

"Pictures or didn't happen."

"And what do you think she's taking to the room? Sock Puppets?"

"Did you see in MMO the battle against the 73 boss? That one was so cool."

Lady Sakuya only had to raise one hand to stop the commentaries of both her retainers and Sigurd's. "Sorry about that Leafa, it wasn't my intention to pry." Leafa shook her head. "Don't worry Lady Sakuya; I have a lot of time to come to terms with it."

Then Sigurd decided to interrupt. "A SAO duel? Interesting, it might be an educational experience if we see it Leafa."

"Umm, well…"

"Sigurd it is not right to push Leafa to share such a private moment."

"No, there's no problem is not that personal…" Leafa herself was desperately trying to get out of the cross fire she was feeling between both Sylphs.

And failed.

"Then we could use my account to do the presentation. As a faction leader I got two hours' worth of time in the rooms, and the least I can do for bringing all this discomfort upon you is to save you the cost of our entertainment.

She opened her mouth to deny the offer, and then she started thinking. 'If I accept this then Sigurd is going to be insufferable for days, but if I refuse then he is going to force me to show him the duel, and I would have to pay it from my own pocket. At least this way I'll save my allowance.'

"I'll be an honor Lady Sakuya."

The groups of Sakuya and Sigurd walked together the short distance to the Manor, with Sigurd throwing angry glares to Leafa and anyone of his party that tried to talk with Sakuya. But frankly Leafa didn't care about that, it was going to be the first time that she was going to be able to see her big brother face to face in more than year and a half, the fact that what she was going to be was little more than a VR representation hardly mattered to her, not after the months she had been playing here.

Then they entered the mansion, the silver keys in everyone's neck glowing as they crossed the threshold. They walked towards the reception where an NPC secretary uselessly saluted Sakuya and went straight towards an ornate door in the public area of the building, gaining curious looks and at least a couple of followers as they walked. Then they entered their intended destination.

The Room of Remembrance was surprisingly small, at least for ALO standards, being only slightly larger than her house's living room, and unlike the rest of the city's green stone it was composed of white marble and Mithril engravings.

"Leafa, can you pass me the Simulacrum archives please?" In front of her a menu appeared with a stroke of her hand which she navigated with deft movements. "Huh?" The account she had specifically opened for the SAO files had a new mail. She opened it and hurriedly scrolled down the miscellaneous data contained –duration, location of the recording, names of players, a string of numbers and letters that meant something only to programmers- until she arrived to the addition of the SAO Case Victims Rescue Force, a series on embedded tags that roughly described the video's content: Green for a successful quest, yellow for a failed one, purple for recording or mirage crystals, red for a fatality or more and black for the death of the player in question.

Then there were the orange tags, but those were censored and withhold as evidence in case there was a murder or attempted murder; and the ones that didn't fall in that category, such as robberies or nonlethal turf wars for resources were quite rare.

She was relieved to see that the only tag was yellow, and a little miffed that her brother's partner was once more Asuna. That name had cropped from time to time during the last years and frankly their relationship always varied from confrontational to what could almost be called affectionate.

She then remembered that everyone was waiting for her. "Sorry, a new game video arrived and I wanted to make sure my brother is safe." She answered with a smile. "No problem, if you want we can reproduce both of them. Now send me the files please." Leafa complied, touching the appropriate commands so that two small and peerless diamonds appeared right in her hand which she immediately flicked towards her faction leader leaving trails of light that a whole second to disappear. It was a statement of just how heavy the .scrmx files are that there was a delay even with the high speed connection needed for VR games.

Then Sakuya opened her own menu and the area around her filled with the complex screens of a faction leader. And then , after a few seconds navigating the system she finally closed the windows and say a single magic word, the equivalent of On and the whole room faded.

Now instead of the vault roof of the Room of Remembrance they were in an open space with mountains on the background, neither Leafa nor any of her companions were particularly impressed by the scenery, for an ALO player such a place didn't even reach their top 50, but they were surely impressed by the duelist and certain members of the crowd.

Soon enough the comments of both crowds, the original and the newer fae one intermingled.

**[A 1-on-1 duel has been requested by Kuradeel. Do you accept?]**

"…_is it okay? Won't this pose a problem in the guild…?"_

"_It's fine. I'll report this to the leader myself."_

"Hey, isn't that the uniform of the Knights of the Blood Oath?"

"You're right. Oh man is the Flash!"

**[You have accepted the 1-on-1 duel with Kuradeel]**

"_Please watch, Asuna-sama! I will prove that there is no one better than I to escort you!"_

"No way."

"_Solo Kirito and a KoB member are having a duel!"_

"That little guy in black is going to get creamed."

Leafa ignored the comments from the peanut gallery, instead concentrating in the duelists as they prepared themselves for the fight. She saw in the corner of her eye Sigurd opening the information screen to see the conditions of the battle, she already knew that this would end with the first clean hit, she had seen this fight on her home's HD TV and was aware of how short it would be once the 60 seconds of prep time were over.

As the clock reached the 30 seconds mark she walked forward through the members of the original crowd, in the room of remembrance players and mobs were just a mirage and even spells and attacks just had a slight knockback effect with the only solid things were immortal objects such as walls, and positioned herself in the best angle to see her brother.

Once more she saw the weird stance he had for one reason or another adopted during the last six months, his left foot was half a body in front, his waist was lowered, and the sword in his right hand was held downwards with its tip nearly touching the floor, he seemed so awfully open and yet it gave him an incredible number of options when combined with the Sword Skillsmechanics. On the other hand the white swordsman's was using a far more normal position, even if it still wasn't anything that she would ever see on a R.L. tournament.

**[DUEL!]**

Westerners would probably be disappointed with how short and abrupt was the duel, but then again as a Kendo practitioner Leafa was aware of how, unlike sports such as box, a lightning fast movement could decide a match almost before it started. In this case the duel was over in two single sword skills both launched with the skill and speed expected of high leveled elite player who had been playing nonstop in a game that didn't allow for second chances, with the white knight attacking with his two handed sword and her brother evading the hit and activating a devastating sword skill of his own, one that broke his opponent weapon with a single hit.

"_Awesome!"_

"He cut the sword? No way!"

"_Was he actually aiming for that!?"_

"Is that your brother Leafa? That was so cool!"

This was the moment Leafa was waiting for; she had seen the battle in the morning, first in the school and then on the HD, and in both cases she had only seen the amazing, almost inhuman, speed of the strike. But now in front of her she could openly admire the precision needed for his brother's lighter sword to cleanly cut his opponent's, made harder by the use of a Sword Skill and the automatic movements it imposed. That was an ability that no amount of levels could give and that her brother had learned through training and experience alone.

"_If you want to come again with a new weapon, I'll fight you again…but this is enough right?"_

"_I resign."_

Then, after hearing the comments of the spectators, the knight finally lost it.

"_What're you looking at!? Get lost!"_

"_You… I'm going to kill you… I'll definitely kill you…"_ She saw him speak to her brother, in tones that she doubted were due to the heat of the moment. But then, as she was going to interfere –forgetting this was nothing but a recording- the Flash intervened.

"Kuradeel, I order you as the sub-leader of the Knights of the Blood. I relieve you from the position of bodyguard. Go back to HQ and stay there until there are further orders."

After such an official order, Kuradeel lost the capability of speech and devolved into murmured insults, but they didn't have time to decode them before the simulacrum stopped.

"Pathetic, he should learn to accept defeat and move on." Sigurd said, and Leafa could only grumpily give him the reason. He hadn't been such a good loser himself when she won the tournament herself but he had at least refrained from expressing the obvious anger in his eyes and gave her a place on his party on the spot.

"Yeah, what a sore loser."

"He should go to her mommy to cry."

The rest of the players were openly mocking the way Kuradeel, one of the renowned Knights of the Blood Oath, complained as a little child after his loss.

"Calm down, we still got one more simulacrum to see, if it's okay with you Leafa?"

"No problem Lady Sakuya."

Once more the scene shifted to her brother and Asuna walking through a series of almost surreal reddish limestone that abruptly disappeared and gave way to a hallway made of luminescent stone that gave away a soft blue light and pillars engraved with foreboding pictures. And then they arrived to a set of mammoth doors with similar engravings that seemed to make Leafa's heart beat faster.

"…_is that…?" _Asuna asked, she was supposed to be one of SAO's bravest warriors, but she certainly didn't look the part the way she nervously cuddled with her brother.

"_Most likely…? It's the boss room." _Suguha felt a pang of envy as she white cladded girl tightly held his brother's coat. She had dreamed with doing do once more after many years of mutually avoiding each other followed by his two years of imprisonment.

"_What should we do…? Just looking should be fine, right?"_

"…_well, let's prepare a teleportation item just in case."_

"_Yeah."_

They both got large blue crystals from their pockets, always combat ready in case an expeditious retreat was necessary.

"_Ready…? I'm going to open it…"_

They had both hands busy, the left holding the crystal and the right holding their swords, so opening the doors was probably a lot harder than normal; but they simply pushed with the hand holding their items and the door swing in a smooth and swift motion.

The interior itself was shrouded in darkness, in fact it was unnaturally so, the light of the hallway not penetrating the interior despite it being more than enough to do so.

"That's an interesting use of the illumination engine, don't you think so?" One of Sakuya's lieutenants said, breaking completely the mood. He was about to say something else but then blue flames light themselves from every torch, creating a path to the center of the room, followed by a huge pillar of fire that surged in the middle of the room. And from there a huge shape appeared.

The monster was enormous, at least three times the height of a human, with a blue humanoid body that was pure muscle and a cobra for a tail, with the head, modeled after a mountain goat, curved horns and everything. But the single most intimidating feature was the unnatural way its eye shimmered.

«The Gleam Eyes» It was a fitting name. Leafa had confronted, larger, and more bizarre monster in ALO, including a couple of boss fights, but the fear that she felt when she saw those eyes was something new. It was said that Kayaba Akihito designed all of the floor bosses himself, and seeing the perfection of the monster's movements, rending, and respiration, even as he stood there quietly she believed it.

Then it gave a thundering roar that was felt by everyone in the room, a terrifying scream as it prepared to charge. From the corner of her eye she could see Recon's face of fear, but frankly she as well as everyone else was distracted by the reaction of the two players in the recording.

"_Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"_

"_Kyaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"_

Both of them ran away from the room as fast as their legs could carry them, with the auto function of the camera forcing the spectators to follow them, either running behind them, or simply by being transported in front of them, being passed over and then being transported again, an unpleasant feeling without doubt, especially due to the unbelievable fast speed both were sustaining. But finally they stopped and leaned against a wall, sliding to the floor as the caught back their breath (a curious maneuver when one didn't actually breathed in game). They looked each other and then started laughing at the same time.

It wasn't long before they were joined by the Sylph players.

"_Ahahaha, ah—we ran away really fast!"_

"_It's been a long time since I've run like that, as if my life depended on it. Well, you were even more exaggerated than me!" _In a weird way all the people present was able to see an otherwise unknown side of Asuna the Flash, considered to be the undeclared ice queen of SAO, but for reasons she wasn't ready to accept, not even to herself, Leafa didn't feel right about it. Furthermore there was the indignation she was feeling for her brother at the gentle taunting he was receiving.

"…_that, looked pretty hard."_

With those words the illusion broke for a second time and the comments started much to the embarrassment of Leafa.

"They ran like little girls!"

"To be fair one was a little girl."

"Yeah, which one?"

"Even Recon isn't that much of a coward!"

"Yeah, even I'm not that… Hey!"

"I guess that even the lauded clearers of Aincrad can fail in some simple tasks."

"It is called being human Sigurd."

During the whole conversation Leafa was fuming, 'Of all the times to be silly brother, why now?' She was distracted from her musings by the ping of her Mail. She opened the new mail, and was about to read it when Recon noticed her open screen.

"A new one?"

"Interesting, I wonder if your brother is doing something else to redeem himself from that failure."

Failing to tune out the trolling from the rest of the players, she skimmed the first paragraphs of the mail. "Um, longer than the other two, same place that the last one, at least twenty players, I think I recognize this Klein guy."

"Do you want me to play it?"

"I don't know." Then the rest of the players added their own grain of salt.

"What's one more?"

"Play it, the last one was comedy gold."

"Hey who knows, maybe this time we see the badass side of Asuna?"

Leafa suspired; she sometimes hated how easily she succumbed to peer pressure. She then closed the screen, missing the tags at the end of the mail, to send the file to Sakuya for display.

The scene faded once more to the boss room, but this time Asuna and Kirito were nowhere to be seen, instead a dozen weary and obviously tired men in heavy green armor, about half of them with spears and the rest using the classic sword and shield combo were in a tight bunch (it really couldn't be called a formation) listening to a man in the front.

"_Soldiers of the Aincrad Liberation Force, this is the moment we have been waiting for. For almost a year our forces have been playing cops and nurses instead of doing our sworn duty of freeing ourselves from this cursed game, trusting our lives and futures to cheating guildmasters damn beaters." _

Leafa shivered at the hate in the voice of the man, she knew that Kirito was called a beater from previous recordings.

"_But no more, you have been given the best armor money can buy, your weapons are the best drops ever found by our members and you have been farming on the exclusive dungeon our esteemed leader Kibao has reserved for the true heroes of Aincrad. This time we are not running away from the frontlines like that coward of Thinker did after he killed all of the players in the 25th floor. This time the word retreat does not exist for the Liberation Army!"_

"_Victory or Death!"_ The man, Colbert it said on the information label, screamed to his troops.

"_Victory or Death!"_ They repeated with different degrees of confidence and enthusiasm.

With a flourish Colbert personally opened the doors of the boss room and entered, his men closely following, with only a few of the lasers taking the same precaution her brother did and palming a crystal. When they did the same boss sequence of the last occasion started.

"Are they idiots? They should get into a formation." Leafa agreed, Sylph didn't use close formations, preferring to depend on their agility and speed to do hit and run strikes, but even she could see that bunched up as they were they could neither properly attack nor use their shields efficiently.

Her musings were interrupted by the shadow of the boss once more appearing from the fire pillar in the center of the room.

"_Charge!"_

At the command of their leader a dozen different sword skills were unleashed, and just as she half expected at least three of them had to be directed at nothing in particular as their users had their line of sight blocked by their partners.

**[Immortal Object]**

Not that it mattered due to their poor timing. The Gleam Eyes' Intro sequence was protected from interference as many other past bosses.

"N00bs, don't you know attacking during an intro sequence is considered to be bad manners?"

"Yeah, is a big No-No."

"My god, a Leeroy Jenkins." Lady Sakuya said horrified; those who recklessly charged any opponent disregarding even the most basic tactics were comparatively rare in VRMMOs, the realistic monsters making sure that most players' survival instincts awoke sooner than later, personally she had only seen one of those when she had been a rookie in one of the starting areas. To see one of those leading a party in a high level dungeon was unheard.

As soon as most of the flames were extinguished the Gleam Eyes charged the army's sloppy formation, not frontally as the shield bearers doing their best to go to the front rank expected but rather going to the side and doing a sweeping attack with its huge zanbato that broke their formation and incidentally positioning itself between the players and the door.

What little coherence had existed between the players broke up as some of them struggled to get back into formation, others tried to go out of the line of fire and others just charged ahead. Then the monster unleashed a powerful breath AoE attack that hit most of the front rank of the army this time dissolving their formation for good.

"_Oh god, I'm in the red."_ One of the lancers that had received a critical strike during the initial attack and that also had been caught in the breath attack suddenly said, fear evident in his voice. Colbert response was immediate, _"Use a healing crystal and get back to the fight!"_ he said as he attacked the flank of the beast.

"_Heal."_ The man said as he fumbled with a red crystal that was unexpectedly dull, "_Heal. It's not working... The crystal is not working!_" As if it could understand his words the Gleam Eyes suddenly ignored the rest of the still active combatants and went straight to him and raised his giant sword over his head.

"No!" Suguha's cry reverberated on the hall's walls as the monster delivered an overpowered Coup de Grasse.

"_Ahhhh!"_

Death was something that Suguha had experimented before; she had been there in the same room of her grandfather when he had died a few years back, and almost one year ago she had seen a battle where his brother and an entire guild had been trapped inside a room and slaughtered almost to a man. But this was different, this time she was able to see the face of the man as his health bar reached zero and the Nerve-Gear in his real body fatally unleashed all its stored energy.

The host of commentaries from the Alfheim players, this has stopped being a game for them as they were forcibly reminded that Sword Art Online was above anything else a Death Game. She could see the pale face of Sakuya as she put a hear Recon crying at her side, not his usual winning, but nearly silent tears that were betrayed only by the subtle way his breathing changed and that make her hate the acute hearing of her race, especially as she could hear the same signs on her too.

On the other side of the game the SAO players were momentarily paralyzed in shock as their comrade died, not that the boss cared about that as he unleashed another sweeping strike on the players that send another three flying across the room, one of them who disintegrated in green pixels when connected with the wall. Then panic started as the players frantically tried to get away, their only escape route blocked by the monster in front of them.

"_Teleport: Starting city."_

"_Teleport: Algade."_

"_Why isn't it working?!"_

Just as the red crystal the teleport crystals were lacking the inner bright that characterized them. All spectators from both sides realized that The Army was trapped with an enemy that they had no hope to defeat.

Then Suguha heard approaching footsteps coming from outside the hall and getting close fast. A second later her brother and Asuna reached the doors that marked the boundary of the Boss Room.

With all the ribbing of her fellow players and later with the tragedy this combat was becoming she had forgotten that this video came from the E-Mail reserved for SAO games, and the only way for that to happen was if her brother was involved in the fight.

"_Hey! Are you guys alright!?"_ Her brother said from the threshold. Worry clearly evident in his voice. Then he directed his attention to one of the soldiers sprawled in the floor. _"What are you doing!? Use your teleport item!"_ His answer was already known by all the Sylphs, but not for that it wasn't any less terrible, _"That doesn't work…! T-The crystals aren't working!"_

"_Wha…", "How can that…?"_ Kazuto's and Asuna's words were jumbled, as confused as Suguha would be if during the game magic suddenly stopped working without reason. Whatever commentaries or advice they were prepared to say was then interrupted by the leader of the Army trying to rally his men once more.

"_What are you saying! The word retreat does not exist for the Liberation Army! Fight! Fight I tell you!" _

"_You bastard!" _The rage in her brother's voice was evident and all of his body language signaling just how much he was restraining himself from going into the room to help the players trapped there and the frustration of knowing that doing so was only going to increase the victims.

Then a third party arrived to the scene, this time consisting in six guys in a samurai thematic; still too few to make any difference.

While her brother explained to the leader of this guild the current situation in a few chosen words Suguha unconsciously approached the point where her brother was and turned around to see once more the tactical situation and it was progressively getting worse. All of the players' health bars were already deep in the yellow, with two of them already red and helplessly laying on the ground. And the monster was still between them and the only exit.

"_Isn't…isn't there anything we can do…?"_ The leader of the new arrivals asked with true dismay, perfectly knowing the answer. They could probably distract the boss long enough for some of the still mobile players to get out, but those who couldn't run were all but dead.

Then even as she thought that this situation couldn't possibly get any worse her fellow Sylphs started complaining when Colbert gave for the second time in the day the single worse order he could give.

"Wait you morons!"

"Are you stupid? Stop!"

"_Charge!"_ While the Gleam Eyes concentrated on the poor guys who were now in their last hit points Colbert had managed to organize a crude phalanx with the eight remaining soldiers, and once more they tried to it strike headlong.

"_Stop!"_ Her brother's cries were ignored as their charge was halted once more by the breath attack.

Of them Colbert, who had headed the charge fully received the zanbato's follow-up attack and went flying over the monster's head, towards the place where Suguha was, phasing through her as if I wasn't there, something she had completely forgotten during the battle, and then mercilessly impacting the floor with bone breaking strength. If the previous deaths were shocking for all the witnesses, both in and out of the game, his was particularly horrific for her. From her position she could clearly see his horror stricken face as his helmed was shattered and his health bar's remaining color drained from it. Even with the sinister BGM sounding all around her and the cry of terror of her brother's companion she could barely hear the disbelief in his whispered last word followed by the sound effect of his body shattering into the dreaded swirl of polygons.

It was a senseless dead and the inability to stop it, or the other two, was simply heart breaking. But it was useless, neither Suguha nor the rest of the players outside the doors would be able to change the situation, and even trying would only increase the victims.

"_No…no…no more…" _As if reacting to her thoughts Asuna finally snapped and before her brother was able to catch her she charged the monster with a yell that was more desperation than battlecry. _"No!"_

Behind her Kazuto yelled as she rushed behind her; seeing that the leader of the samurai guild, who she finally recognized as Klein a badly shaven clearer that pop up occasionally on boss battles, basically shrugged and followed with his men, "Eh, whatever!"

At least the way the Gleam Eyes was concentrating on the remains of the first unit the white clad girl was able to do a perfect strike on its enemy's back unimpeded, but even the doing far less damage than the perfectly rendered deep impacts would have implied. For the first time since the beginning of the battle the beast reacted to an attack rather than hitting the largest concentration of troops with his breath attacks using its zanbato to deliver a powerful swing that she was able only to partially evade as even it had what could only be called an AoE shockwave that knocked her down.

"_Asuna!"_

Then In the nick of time Suguha's brother put himself between the zanbato and the girl, using his sword to partially deflect it and being hit by the overpowered shockwave instead of allowing the full might of the attack to cleave Asuna in half.

"_Get back!" _With those words the black clad swordsman started defending from the Gleam Eyes supported by both the Blood Oath knight and the samurai commander while the rest of his guild went to the struck players and started to drag them back.

"This is like the worst parts of a random encounter, an escort mission and a boss battle." Sigurd's words were the last missing piece to understand the nature of the Gleam Eyes.

One of the first things Leafa ever learned from Recon when he invited her to ALO was that, since AI is still a work in progress, every monster from the basic slime to the final Boss in a game has their own pattern. And as the blue beast turned its back to attack the rescue efforts opening itself for a short moment with less than stellar results she identified it. And under the circumstances it was an unusually cruel one.

The sole purpose of the Gleam Eyes was to kill. The AoE breath attack, the sword style of long swings and powerful cleaving strikes, the way it would go agro not on the attacking players but the ones already in the red and even the hall that would prevent healing and escape; all designed to damage a party as much as possible and then killing the cripples ones one by one.

In a normal game it would be an interesting and challenging mechanic that would limit the amount of rotations the members of a party could do for healing and would force said players to either put a permanent unit for the defense of cripples or getting one of two injured players to play bait to attract the monster attention. However in a Death game where there was only one life…

"They should cut their losses and flee while they still can. Nothing else can be won by staying." Those harsh words didn't came from Sigurd, Recon or one of the other clearers in the game, but from Lady Sakuya herself, a woman who always pride herself with doing the best for the players under her command, regardless of the consequences. And to her eternal shame Suguha agreed wholehearty

"You tried your best Kazu, there's nothing more you can do. Just go away please." She begged to the phantom in front of her, hoping that somehow despite the distance, the different game systems and the time passed since the recording that he would listen.

By now Kazuto was losing HP at an increased rate, switching with Klein, in the same hopeless pattern of hit and run attacks that cost him more precious hit points for little gain. As if he had heard his sister he had an expression that spoke volumes of his internal conflict, as he realized the impossible situation in which he was trapped. And then, when Suguha was beginning to feel hope of him calling for a retreat, his face steeled into one of unyielding determination.

A small incongruous part of her mind noted the way the BGM changed and wondered if Cardinal had edited the video before sending it, or it had actually divined the way his mood shifted and decided to represent it acoustically.

"_Asuna! Klein! Give me ten seconds!"_ That said he broke contact from the fight, as his two companions did their best to block the retaliation attacks from the monster before they hit him. Immediately he made the characteristic movements for opening the player's menu with lightning fast strokes of his hand.

"_I'm done. Switch!"_ Before Leafa could even start guessing what was he doing a second sword materialized on his back, and he ran once more towards the beast, changing his place with an Asuna with a health bar already yellow.

Even with the last well-aimed hit to the blue giant's zanbato by the white warrior the monster received his charge with a massive two hands strike. Unlike the previous occasions where the only answer was to evade the attack and accept the splash damage this time he received the huge blade with his own… no, with his black sword deflecting the zanbato as a beautiful second one made of a green crystal was used to strike back.

A second downward attack was answered with a cross maneuver that absorbed most of the impact and broke his stance, allowing Kazuto to counterattack much to the amazement of every spectator.

"What is that?"

"Two swords? No way in hell!" She couldn't blame them; everyone in ALO had tried to use two weapons at least once, and everyone had impaled themselves at least once too. The use of even a long and a short sword required a level of coordination that was deemed virtually impossible, especially when using the System Assist and skill system. Those who could at least wield the blades with something approaching competence did it by blocking with one sword and attacking with the other and even then they were easily matched by more straight-lined and conventional styles. In SAO it went from being virtually impossible to be plainly impossible by the mechanics governing weapon use, mostly the fact that offhand you could only hold a shield or a potion, not a melee weapon.

"_Starburst Stream!" _That wasn't mean to be a battlecry but the activation of a complex Sword Skill. Both blades started to glow with blue and green lights as Kazuto slashed them horizontally, then vertically, in a dance of deathly coordination. To Suguha's horror the skill didn't start cooling down after that but instead continued forward just as the Gleam Eyes started to hit back.

In a desperate gamble to buy enough time for the rest of the players to be evacuated Kirito had committed himself to an all-out attack, one that he couldn't back off now no matter what. If he couldn't deplete the remaining two full health bars before the skill was completed and started its cool down sequence then he was going to be impaled mercilessly by his opponent. And the numbers weren't in his favor, even if he was hitting far more often and with a precision and speed that gave him the edge in DPS the monster's health pool was too large.

"…_Ahhhhhhhhh!"_

And then he accelerated, going so fast that the sword strikes she had been barely able to track becoming blurs that she couldn't follow. No, not only disappearing from her view, but actually overcoming the system ability to render the blades, leaving in their wake only blue and green flashes as both of the warriors' lone health bar became a glaring red.

With one last scream he completed the combo, the first strike barely a glancing strike as an enormous blue hand intercepted the black blade and the other went forward with the intent of impaling him with its blade. And then they simply stopped, both of them standing there unmoving for a second as the green sword connected with a clean hit.

Then the Black Swordsman was covered by the blue shards made from the corpse of the Gleam Eyes.

"_It is… over?"_ As in answering his question celebratory BGM started playing and the Congratulations Banner popped up in the place the Gleam Eyes fell, just in front of him.

However Suguha was too worried to celebrate, his Health Bar was so depleted that she could barely even see any remaining color on it, As she saw his Health Bar up close and was terrified to notice that the HP were in the single digits. A close fight didn't even approach to the true magnitude of the final clash.

Then she noticed how his knees lost all strength as he started falling backwards. Moving faster than ever Suguha was behind him before he could hit the ground, arms ready to hold him.

Never before had she felt as impotent as her brother went straight through her body before clashing with the floor. 'He isn't real you idiot. You're not with him.'

Then once more she felt the curious feedback of a recorded player acting as if she wasn't there as Asuna kneeled in front of Kazuto, all while crying his name in obvious concern.

"…_Kirito, Kirito!"_

"_Owww…"_ Much to Suguha's relief he recovered in just a few seconds, and he seemed to be unaffected by any status effect caused by that monster. To lose him after that battle for a Damage Over Time effect would be too cruel.

"How long I was out?"

"_Just a few seconds. You idiot… why?"_ Asuna's voice cracked as she hugged her brother with her all.

"_If you hold me too tightly my HP are going to disappear."_ Was the tender response. Much to her surprise Suguha didn't feel even a slice of envy at that, if anything she felt resignation. 'At least he's not alone in there.'

The tender moment was over when Klein approached the pair and solemnly reported, _"We've finished healing all the remaining Army members, but Colbert and two of his men had already died…"_

"_It's the first time since the sixty-seventh floor that someone died during a boss fight…"_

"_That wasn't even a fight. That idiot Colbert… You can't do anything if you're dead…"_ Those were the final words they heard as the image faded into the Room of Remembrance. It was over.

There weren't any of the good natured ribbing that followed such an amazing fight. Most of the Sylph players were quietly standing, not even Sigurd was crass enough to do one of his little power hungry speeches under the circumstances, with one of her party's tanks openly weeping. Not that she could blame him as she could feel simulated tears flowing freely on her own cheeks.

"Suguha, are you okay?" Recon said as he carefully hugged the taller girl, breaking in the process the taboo of using R.L. names during the game. But then again this wasn't Recon, the slightly obsessive, lecherous and cry-baby Sylph stealth specialist, but Nagata his school partner who recommended ALO in the first place to give her and outlet to all her pent up frustration months ago.

"I think this is the closest to death I have ever seen my brother."

"You should close session. If you want I can go to your home to wait with you for your mom." A complain from Sigurd was silenced by a surprisingly stern look from Nagata as well as a cautionary one from Sakuya. But in some ways it wasn't necessary.

"Thank you Nagata, but we have a raid to accomplish." Leafa's voice recovered her steely resolve once more. Recon on the other hand had gone back to his wimpy voice "Are you sure?"

"Yeah, when my brother comes back from the game I want to see him eye to eye, as equals. And I'm not going to accomplish it by backing every time things get tough. He sure as hell didn't do so."

There would be time later to cry alongside her mother when she got home, to see the unending praises given by MMO Today to both her brother and friends, or to experience the way the rest of the Sylph players looked at her with both pity and admiration in their eyes. Right now there was a battle to be fought and she would not back down from it.


End file.
