Chapter 4: Inner Strength! Surpass your Limits, Young One!

𝗗𝗲𝗰𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝟮𝟱. 𝗦𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝟱𝘁𝗵 𝗙𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗿. 𝟬𝟬:𝟬𝟭…

Snow lazily fell on Aincrad, while, on a hill of the silent Floor, a boy and a girl sat and looked at the endless virtual sky beyond. One was clad in black and white and the other on some sort of red-brown winter coat made from the fur of some bear mob.

"…merry Christmas, Sensei."

"Merry Christmas, Asuna." replied the boy while putting the cup of some hot beverage that tasted kind of like tea to his mouth. "Got any wish for the festivities?"

"That the next Bosses are something less stupid than a living tree and a giant horse-sea." the girl smiled at the chuckle that came from the boy at that, especially given that he had been unable to join said battles. "…it's really shitty that everyone but you can enter the Dungeons."

"Well, at least I can still go into side-dungeons. It would have been annoying to be unable to at least take care of the Sub-Bosses…" the boy idly looked at his cup. "…is Kibaou still as annoying as ever?"

"Ugh, please don't remind me, you should have seen the scene he made when I gave the last attack to that dammed hippocampus…people could have died fighting that oversized sea freak and he was only worried about calling me a cheater because everyone knows I go around with you!" the girl shook her head, banishing those thoughts from her mind. "The idiot and his equally stupid followers don't get how much we really owe you, Sensei…"

"Eh, I just do what I can do, that's all. I mostly do it for fun, anyway…"

"Kirito-sensei, please, you know that that bull doesn't work with me anymore. If you did it only for fun then you wouldn't lose so much sleep over running through the Frontlines when you aren't helping me…" the girl looked up, towards the fake sky/ceiling that separated them from the next floor. "I wouldn't be as strong as I am now either if it wasn't for your teachings…"

"Don't say that. You have had the talent since the beginning, you were only lacking in motivation." the black-haired boy send a comforting smile to her while saying those words. "I'm sure that, even if I hadn't gotten involved, you would have still become a great player…"

"Perhaps…but I wouldn't be half as good as I am now. And in this situation, that wouldn't be good enough." Asuna looked down at her own, empty cup. "…still sad you can't spend Christmas with your family?"

"Of course." shamelessly accepted him before casting a worried glance her way. "You?"

"Heh…for me Christmas has either been long social gatherings where I could only smile or fancy meals where I had to pretend to be interested in what the adults said for a long time. I can't even remember last time I had a TRUE Christmas Eve." the chestnut-haired girl gazed at the strange boy at her side. "Probably since my grandparents passed away…uh, what do you know? It's the first time I think about that in years. Makes me feel a bit bad…"

"I know that feeling. I just remembered, but some months before I started to…distance myself from her, I planted Salvia on a countryside land for my little sister." at the girl's blinking look, he just laughed softly. "When we were little she loved the taste of the flower's nectar. I also liked it, but she really loved the thing. Mother would get angry with her because she took too many…" his eyes wandered once again, as they sometimes did, to something beyond the virtual world surrounding them. "Then, on her birthday, she said she wanted to gather a lot of salvias to drink their nectar, so I bought some seeds with my allowance and planted them near an old shrine…but, later, I couldn't find the way back there, so I gave up. That was almost 5 years ago…I wonder if the flowers are still there?" the caped boy sighed and looked back to his cup, starting to drink what was left. "Maybe I will search for it again when we get out of here, to finally give them to her…"

"I see…" softly muttered Asuna before looking forward, softly tapping her empty cup. "…Sensei, are you a siscon?"

The rapier-user had to try very hard to not break out laughing when the boy did a spit-take and crushed his cup into vanishing polygons.

"COUGH, cough, wagh…WHAT?!"

"Well, is just that, the only thing I ever heard you talking about is your little sister, so…"

"Tha-that has nothing to do with…!"

"Is she cute?" Asuna cut him with a still wide smile, throwing the boy off balance.

"U-uh? We-well, yeah, I guess Sugu is really cute, but…!"

"I see…so Sensei is THAT kind of guy…"

"I'M TELLING YOU IT'S NOT LIKE THAT!" Kirito's outburst died pretty quickly when he saw the girl finally give up and start openly laughing, almost falling on her side while doing so. "…sometimes, I wonder if I wouldn't be better off just running away while you sleep."

"Oh, c'mon Kirito-kun, don't say that!" the change in the way with which she addressed him always managed to get the boy to calm down or forgive her rare jokes at his expense, sadly for him. "You know you like me too much for doing that…" she looked to the side, still smiling. "But not as much as your little sister."

"ASUNAAAA!"

"Ahahaha, Merry Christmas, Sensei!"´

"Yep, Merry Christmas to both of you too! As cheerful as usual, I see."

"EH?!"

"Wha…?! Argo?! What are you doing here?! And how did you find us?!"

"Man, so cold, Kii-bou, is that the way to greet a friend in Christmas? Also, I have been standing here for a while, but I thought it would be better to not interrupt you."

"…uhm, and how did you find us?"

"Heheh, you are too naïve, Aa-chan, if you think there is a place in Aincrad where I CAN'T find you."

"…you DO know how sinister and ominous that sounds, right?"

And that was how their first Christmas of Aincrad went for our heroes…

𝟬𝟬𝟬𝟬𝟬𝟬𝟬𝟬𝟬𝟬𝟬𝟬𝟬

𝗝𝗮𝗻𝘂𝗮𝗿𝘆 𝟮𝟬𝘁𝗵, 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟯. 𝟮𝟱𝘁𝗵 𝗙𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗿, 𝟭𝟯:𝟯𝟬…

There was something in the air that was 'different' that day. One could feel it by just looking at the savage visage that was the Frontline, a complex maze-like land with plenty of pitfall traps throughout the floor, many of which led to poisonous swamps.

Sharing that same tension, on the city closer to the current Dungeon, a certain boy clad in black and white stood atop a house, his eyes shooting from the not-far-away Tower to his open menu.

He had been there for quite a while and looked pretty uneasy, but the boy could still notice perfectly when he was no longer alone in the rooftop.

"Hey Argo. Any news?"

"Geez, Kii-bou, you could at least say hello properly, you know?" complained the info broker while crossing her arms and looking at him. "It's kind of hard for us common players to get to places like this…"

"Argo, please."

"…okay then, I see you're in no mood for jokes right now." sighed the girl after noticing the worried tone on the boy's voice. "They should be arriving at the dungeon around now, more or less. I'm sure Aa-chan already told you that she saw Diavel acting weird since the strategy meeting yesterday, and I already know why: Kibaou."

"Why does that NOT surprise me…?" muttered the gamer while putting a hand on his face.

"Yeah, well, it seems that he's not taking too well that Diavel has started to rely more and more in Aa-chan lately in Boss battles or that he takes her opinion about the Strategy in consideration." the Rat seemed to grin softly at saying that. "Can't blame the self-proclaimed 'Knight', though, you have made sure that she becomes an amazing player, and there is no denying that she's one of the stronger players right now, maybe even THE strongest…"

"Don't make it sound as if I did most of the work. Asuna herself is…"

"Yes, yes, I know, your beloved disciple is amazing because of her own efforts and talents, you don't need to tell me again…" the hooded girl's face split into a grin at noticing the tic appearing on the boy's eye when she added the 'beloved' part. "But anyway, things aren't looking really good with the Aincrad Liberation Squad because of that. If Kibaou ends up seriously disagreeing or challenging Diavel's authority then the guild could seriously split apart…"

"I just hope that doesn't make cactus-head do something stupid. Well, stupider than what he usually says, I mean." frowned the boy while looking towards the dungeon once again. "There is something that has been making me uneasy since the Front Liners arrived to the Dungeon, but I don't know what. I…have this sinister bad feeling, for some reason…"

"That's kind of ominous coming from you, you know? Especially because of how excited people are about this battle." Argo walked to his side, also looking towards the strangely ominous tower. "We have already come a quarter of the way, and in little more than 3 months at that. Not to mention that thanks to a certain 'gamer playing Hero', the deaths have barely reached the 900…" the girl purposefully put a hand on Kirito's shoulder at seeing him grimace at that, as if to remember him that he couldn't' be everywhere all the time. "The hopes about getting out of here have never been higher."

"Yes, I know." the black-haired boy seemed to sigh at that, his shoulder slumping while her weird but reliable friend offered him a comforting smile. "It's just that…you know how absurdly hard this Floor has been. Not only the crazy-hard topography but also the stronger monsters. Even losing three days of sleep I failed to save more people than ever before in here, and that just for players to GET THROUGH the Floor. And to that we need to add the almost non-existent info about the Floor from NPCs." that part made Argo frown, for not even she had been able to find much info about the dangerous and hostile area they were currently in. "Who knows how things will be inside the Dungeon…I don't know, but maybe this is why I have this bad fee…"

Suddenly, the boy's eyes shot up, hearing the familiar ring of a message arriving. Ignoring Argo's raised eyebrow, Kirito quickly opened the message, seeing it was from Asuna and sensing his uneasy feeling growing.

'𝑆𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑒𝑖, 𝑤𝑒 𝑗𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑎𝑟𝑟𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑑 𝑖𝑛 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑛𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐷𝑢𝑛𝑔𝑒𝑜𝑛, 𝑏𝑢𝑡 𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑖𝑠 𝑤𝑟𝑜𝑛𝑔. 𝐾𝑖𝑏𝑎𝑜𝑢'𝑠 𝑔𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑝 𝑖𝑠𝑛'𝑡 ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑦 𝑠ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑟𝑒𝑢𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑢𝑠…𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑤𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑜𝑓 𝑒𝑛𝑒𝑟𝑔𝑦 𝑖𝑠 𝑔𝑜𝑛𝑒. 𝑌𝑜𝑢 𝑘𝑛𝑜𝑤 𝑖𝑡 𝑤𝑎𝑠 ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑗𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑦𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑑𝑎𝑦, 𝑏𝑢𝑡 𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑛 𝑤𝑒 𝑔𝑜𝑡 ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑖𝑡 𝑊𝐴𝑆𝑁'𝑇. 𝑇ℎ𝑎𝑡…𝑑𝑜𝑒𝑠𝑛'𝑡 𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑛 𝑎𝑛𝑦𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑔𝑜𝑜𝑑, 𝑟𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡?'

"Kii-bou?" muttered Argo while the wide-eyed boy finished reading the message. "Was it Aa-chan? What did she sa…?"

The hooded girl wasn't even able to finish her words, because the boy had already JUMPED to the heavens like a missile, shooting towards the Tower.

He didn't pay any mind to the venomous swamp in which he landed or to the massive and deformed mobs that rose from it to try and sank him to his death. The black-clad boy simply shot forward like a bullet, almost blurring out of existence at doing so and throwing poisonous fang and shocked monsters away as he did so, his thoughts running wildly.

Since that day on the 3rd Floor, he had been unable to get inside any Dungeon thanks to the strange 'Light Walls' that blocked the entrance to them all. Even though their appearance had initially surprised the Front Liners, they learned to ignore them when it was clear that, apparently, they didn't block anyone's entrance in to the Towers…except for him, but they had only learned that when an angry Asuna had screamed it at them when Kibaou had called him a coward and tried once again to get everyone to hate him because he hadn't shown up in any Boss Fight since the 1st Floor and his 'supposed' solo-clearing of the 2nd one.

He had been honestly surprised by his disciple's outburst, especially because he had stated many times that he didn't care what the cactus-headed idiot or his followers thought, but he had still felt something warm on his heart at seeing that the usually calm girl would lose her composure on his behalf.

It felt nice, to have a close friend. He couldn't remember ever having one, mainly because of his usually closed-in personality, which had only gotten worse since he discovered he was adopted.

But that aside, the point was that he had been unable to enter inside the Dungeons and forced into a 'secondary' role on the game, sticking to training Asuna as best as he could and running around making sure people were okay, not to mention always trying to take care of the occasionally annoying Sub-Boss that blocked the players path, ignoring Kibaou's complains of how he was trying to steal experience from them, the hard-working players.

That hadn't changed even when reaching this exceptionally hard Floor. Until yesterday, that wall of light had still been there.

The only reason for it to suddenly vanish would maybe be something like…

His train of thought ended abruptly when he found himself arriving at the Dungeon's entrance, the uneasy and discussing forms of the Front Liners there catching his eyes as much as the open way into the dark tower.

Asuna and Diavel were arguing in front of the light wall-lacking entrance.

More than one player gasped or turned around when they noticed his brutal landing, Kirito ignoring the mix of awe and distrust being sent his way as he walked towards the chestnut-haired girl and the blue-haired 'leader' of the Front Liners.

"Sensei!" shouted Asuna at seeing him, her light armor and red-brown clothes flapping slightly as she turned around, the heavily armored Diavel gulping and reflexively patting his chest plate at seeing him.

She was also wearing armored boots and gauntlets that covered half her limbs, of a dark-grey color, but the boy's sanity had long-since gotten over the absurdly Genos-like look that gave her on his mind.

"I'm glad you came, I was trying to convince them to wait for…!"

"Thanks, Asuna." he curtly said before looking towards Diavel, the girl not getting offended by the apparent dismissal at noticing his serious look. "How long since the wall vanished?"

"We…don't know. It was still here this morning, though, or someone from Kibaou's team would have reported it." his eyes once again turned to the open entrance, looking around. "Where the hell is he…?"

"Don't you think it's weird that it randomly disappeared?" the tallest person there, the axe-user known as Agil, spoke up while walking at them. "I may not be an expert on these things, but I know my way around games, and deadly one or not SAO has been a 'fair' one till now. It doesn't make sense for the wall blocking HIM specifically…" his eyes shot towards the deep-thinking form of Kirito at saying that. "…to just vanish without reason. It would need some kind of trigger or some…"

"The Boss." the words coming from the boy clad in black and white got everyone's attention, especially at noticing the dark understanding in them. "Kayaba himself put these walls to stop me. So, if he programmed them to come down at any moment and for any reason…" his eyes shot up. "Then I can't think of anything else but someone reaching the Boss Room and facing it."

The blue-haired man paled, noticing the implied meaning behind those words.

"…and that would mean…that this Boss is…"

He didn't get to finish his words, though, because Kirito had already shot past them, ignoring Asuna's cries for him to wait for them and promising he would apologize later.

Ignoring the annoying feeling of crashing against the walls for going too fast through an area he didn't know at all, the boy just prayed that Kibaou hadn't dragged 40 people to their deaths.

𝟬𝟬𝟬𝟬𝟬𝟬𝟬𝟬𝟬𝟬𝟬𝟬𝟬

"…did you hear that?"

The sudden words of the brown-haired boy made the entire party stop, the small guild turning to look at their leader with confused eyes.

"Hear what, Keita?" asked the only girl of the group while gripping her lance tighter, her eyes shooting around while trying to put her back to her guildmates.

"I don't know, Sachi…but it sounded like a scream." the boy noticed the uneasy looks going through his friends when he said that, but he still turned to look at the one he knew could help in this situation. "Ducker, can you tell me if you get something?"

"Just a moment, 'Boss'." cheerfully replied the dark yellow-haired Treasure Hunter of the guild, mainly to try and disperse everyone's fear as he concentrated on his Tracking Skill. "…woah, I sense a big group of players just around that corner." the boy pointed towards a hallway opposite of where they were heading while frowning. "All of them seem to be running around, though…"

"A big group? Do you think it's the Front Liners?" asked Tetsuo while lightly tapping his mace on a wall. "Does that mean we're close to the Boss Room?"

"Man, then that means we're more lost than we thought…" sighed Sasamaru with a tired smile, the second spear user of the group looking back at their leader. "Maybe we should just call it a day and use the Teleport Crystals? The monsters here have been horribly hard and I think we shouldn't tempt Fate anymore…"

"Hmm, maybe you're right." the staff-user gave another look at the faces of the Moonlit Black Cats before nodding. "Okay then, we will get back to town and call…"

The now very clear scream that tore through the hallway made the words die on his throat and caused everyone to look at where Ducker had pointed less than 2 minutes ago.

A last, uneasy glance was shared between the Guild-members before they all ran TOWARDS the source of the scream, getting to the end of the dark hallway and turning around, speeding down the new and much bigger one before stopping in front of the opened massive gate that led to an immense circular room.

Inside, the scene was terrifying enough to freeze the 5 of them in place.

Keita knew that things had been going WAY better for him and his friends from the Computer Club than he could have ever hoped since they got trapped in Sword Art Online. Mainly thanks to the original rumors of the 'Hero' known as the Black-White Blur on the 1st Floor, he and his eventual guild had not only gotten enough Hope and Valor to venture into the world, but also to become much stronger than one would have expected if they had seen how scared they originally were that first day on the Starting City, Sachi most of all.

Now, they were strong enough to be grinding in the Front Lines, as long as they were all together, of course. The only reason why they hadn't actively joined the Clearing group was because of that small lingering fear for their lives and because Keita didn't want to risk the lives of his friends for any reason, hence why they never went anywhere if it wasn't the whole guild together and why they tried to delay as much as possible exploring the Dungeons for items, Col and exp. every time they arrived at a new Floor.

And yet…the scene they were witnessing right now wasn't like anything they had ever imagined about fighting a Boss.

Because the creature standing on the room not far from them couldn't be called anything else but a monster of nightmares. Standing more than 10 meters high and with a massive body that seemed to be made purely out of steel-hard muscles; the abomination didn't look like anything than any group of humans could ever face, at least not without expecting most of them to die horribly.

And then, as if that wasn't horrible enough already, there were the heads. TWO of them, parodies of humanity and hairless, the red eyes of the monster promising only death and destruction as its teeth were shown because of his double-roar

Blocking the retreating path of the scattered group, the massive two-headed giant swung one of his arms down and the scared members of the Aincrad Liberation Squad were barely able to get out of the way.

Then, fast as lighting, one of its feet shot forward and slammed into two of the players that were trying to stand, their bodies shattering into polygons without giving them time to even scream.

Kibaou screamed once again with a mix of rage and horror, his group of 40 having already been reduced to 30. Any sense of unity or hope had already abandoned them all and now it was just a massive mad run to try and get out of the room, to escape of the absurdly strong and deadly Boss that put all others they had faced before to shame.

"O-oh God…!" screamed Sachi while taking a step backward, her eyes wide with horror.

"Shi-shit! The-they're all dying!"

"Gu-guys, we need to get out of here, like, RIGHT NOW!"

"Te-Tetsuo is right, let's get out before…Keita?!" Ducker's words made everyone look in shock how their leader took a step forward while gulping, gripping his two-handed staff while looking pale as a sheet. "What are you doing?!"

"Everyone, get back to town, NOW! Use the crystals! When you get out of the dungeon you should be able to send messages, so contact someone who can tell the rest of the Front Liners what's going on!" running while trying to tell himself to ignore his fear, Keita raised his staff high over his head. "I will try to get his attention to let them get out of the room!"

The screams from his friends to not do something stupid and for him to come back immediately ran through the guild leader's mind even as he arrived at the base of the distracted giant, his weapon shining as he unleashed a Sword Skill on the monster's feet.

One of its massive heads slowly turned towards him even as he began running away towards one of the room's sides parallel to the door, several of the Front Liners pointing at him with shock.

"RUN!" shouted the brown-haired boy even as he felt one of the fists as big as a car slam down just behind. Many of the players didn't need to be told twice and started a mad dash towards the exit, but some of them were still too shocked to move.

And others…

"Wha-what are you all doing?!" screamed Kibaou at seeing most of his group running away. "I-it's distracted; we should be attacking, not running like co…!"

"Fuck that! Are you insane?!" the unknown voice made the cactus-headed moron turn to the side in time to see Ducker throwing a small knife through the air, the Throwing Skill activating and making it hit the side of the giant's left head, doing laughable damage but managing to turn part of its attention off Keita. "Your people are dying here, you should be helping them get to safety!"

"Who the fuck are yo…!?"

"UAAAAHHH!" Tetsuo's scream echoed through the room as he charged against the Boss and slammed his mace against it, his small kite shield already rose as he started running back when its attention shifted once again. "Keita, let's go!"

"Tetsuo?! Ducker?! What are you doing?! I told you to…!"

"We're not abandoning you, man!" shouted Sasamaru while grabbing one of the shocked players, slapping him and pushing him towards the door, screaming at him to move. "What happened to that of never going off on our own?!"

"Bu-but this…!"

"They're right, Keita!" even Sachi, the one clearly scared the most of the situation, was there, urging the scared players to move while pointing to the exit with her spear. "We're in this together and we promise to get of this together, remember?! So don't go telling us to leave you behind! You're not the one taking care of us exclusively; we take care of you too!"

"Sachi…everyone…" the boy bit his lips and tried to hold back his tears even as he once again ran and unleashed another skill against the Boss, who didn't even have time to shift his attention at him before the fast-moving Ducker threw more flying knives at him. "…thanks."

"Everyone is almost out! We can do this!" Sachi's voice as filled with hope even as the monster roared and tried to crush Tetsuo once again, just for another combined attack from Keita and Ducker to distract him enough for their friend to roll outta the way. Gulping at how close that had been, the girl of bluish-black hair stopped at the wide-eyed Kibaou's side. "Quick, get out, now!"

"Wha-what are you saying?! Do you think I will let myself get humiliated by a bunch of no ones like you?!" snarled the man while standing up, surprising Sachi even as he gripped his sword and once again charged at the Boss. "I'm NOT running away like a coward!"

"Wa-wait, what are you doing?!" shouted the girl as she tried to ran after the madman, her guildmates stopping in the middle of their improvised hit-and-run distraction tactic at the unexpected intervention.

"THIS IS FOR THE ONES YOU HAVE KILLED, BASTAAAARD!" screamed the cactus-headed man as he slashed at the back of one of the monster's exposed feet.

The first of its 7 HP Bars, which had been mostly depleted by his group before they broke out into panic and fear, vanished.

The giant's four eyes glowed white as it turned around, Kibaou's eyes widening at seeing how its arms started glowing with a reddish light.

Sachi froze in place just as the Martial Arts Skill was unleashed and the fists of the immense giant slammed on the place where the other player had been standing, one after the other.

The girl couldn't' even see Kibaou's last expression of horror because he had already broken down into polygons when the second fist rose from where he had been.

Then, the giant's 4 eyes zeroed on her. Sachi could feel her grip on her spear slackening.

The monster took one step forward, ignoring everyone's attempt to distract him like before, his changed battle-tactic making it so that he was only focused on Sachi. His fists started to shine again.

The girl was aware of how her guildmates were screaming for her to run away or to try and use her Teleport Crystal, but she knew it would be useless. The monster's fists were too fast for its size and she wasn't fast enough.

When both fists were raised and started to descend over her, Sachi realized she was going to die.

She closed her eyes, regretting being unable to see her friends again on the real world as they had promised, and braced herself for the impact that would send her to oblivion.

BAAAAAM!

…uh, how weird. She had clearly heard that, but she hadn't felt anything. Death was much more peaceful than she had thought it would…

"…hey. I know you."

The sudden voice, unknown yet strangely familiar, made the spear-user open her eyes in shock.

Then, she let go of her spear (Vaguely noticing that she had fallen on her ass at some point) and let her mouth to hang open and join the same expression that her guildmates had just then.

Standing there, wincing slightly but still grinning at her, was a boy, clad in white and black, his most notorious feature probably being the cape that hung from his back.

And he was stopping the massive giant's fist from crushing her, with just one hand. The floor around his feet had cracked, too, showing both the impossibility of the feat and that, for some reason, the ground wasn't an Immortal Object in that room.

The boy…was someone she knew. She had seen him once, on the 1st Floor, when she accidentally crashed against him. She had even shared a couple of words with him.

Later, when the news of the 1st Floor Boss Battle spread through Aincrad, she and her friends had been surprised, then confused, wondering if the silly-looking boy she had crashed against could really be the mysterious 'Hero' of Aincrad, based on the description they were given of him. They had shared a laugh at that extremely silly thought.

"I think we didn't get to introduce ourselves that time, though. Name is Kirito, a gamer playing as a Hero for fun." the boy offered her a wide smile this time, even as he raised his second hand to stop the monster when the second fist crashed over the fist.

"I…I...I'm Sachi." whispered the girl with a minuscule voice, still in shock, but, as she just realized, no longer deadly scared.

She realized, then, that the reason behind the boy's seemingly silly banter had been calming her down since the beginning.

"Well then, Sachi, what you and your friends just did was really brave and really stupid…so, I think you can safely call yourselves heroes too." the boy PUSHED, the massive Boss finally realizing something was wrong even as it was forced back several steps, Ducker's words of 'No fucking way!' echoing in the background even as he gave Sachi one last look. "Let me take care of this now.

Then, as he started to turn around, Sachi became the second person ever in 'seeing' the 'phenomenon'.

On her eyes, the boy's silly looks became absurdly serious and impressive, muscles that she was sure he didn't have a second ago seeming to be highlighted under the eerie light of the room and his face became a mask of darkness where only two white circles of Nothing shone.

When he finished giving his back to her, his cape suddenly flapped up, seeming more like a living wave of white flame than anything else to the suddenly mute Sachi.

The two heads of the giant roared at unison as it tried to crush the boy again, but he simply BLURRED out of existence so fast that it left an after-image of him standing in place, before reappearing at the side of the creature and kicking one of its legs.

Four more of its HP bars were reduced to nothing even as the massive beast flew over itself and crashed against the other side of the room.

Tetsuo dropped his mace, not even trying to pretend he wasn't staring in absolute and open-mouthed shock anymore. Keita just gaped from the fallen giant to the caped boy.

"I see…an especially strong Boss because of being at a quarter of the way to the top." muttered Kirito while slowly walking forward, ignoring the looks the Black Cats were giving him in favor of frowning towards the standing abomination. "Does that mean that every 25 Floors there will be one like this? And WHY did the wall of light open for it now? What are you playing at, Kayaba?"

The two-headed giant roared, the massive monster growing horns and two more arms, its knuckles suddenly ending in horns as its red eyes started to shine with unholy fire.

The shocked guild-members all screamed when the four fists of the beast ignited with flame even as it charged against the monologuing boy.

"…man, trying to understand things so much fucking greater than myself is a pain. I'm just a Middle-Schooler, dammit." Kirito simply shook his head as he stared at the incoming force of nature, which seemed strong enough to rip apart armies by itself. "That bastard has to be a sadist, though, if he was expecting people to go through THIS normally in this fucked up death game of his."

"WA-WATCH OUT!" finally screamed Sachi when her voice recovered, looking in horror how all four fists of the massive Boss unleashed a deadly combo over the unmoving boy.

The entire area was covered in dust and smoke as the frozen Moonlit Black Cats STARED at the place where the boy had been standing the two raging heads of the Boss still towering over the scene.

Then, Kirito reappeared from nowhere, standing just in the middle of said heads.

He was frowning, and looking VERY annoyed.

"Fuck you, Kayaba."

Both his fists shot to his sides even as the 4 eyes of the mighty Boss slowly turned to him.

The heads of the abomination exploded into massive waves of reddish polygons, in a way that would have been extremely gore if they weren't in a videogame.

The mouths of the 5 members of the guild dropped even more as the massive body of the thing just crumpled backward, falling to the ground with a mighty crash even as the boy softly landed in front of it.

The dust wave that was created behind him when the Boss dropped made his cape flap madly around and, on their eyes, also made him look even MORE awesome than he already did.

A sudden 'CONGRATULATIONS!' message shot through the area accompanied by special music, and the shocked Black Cats realized with disbelief that they had ALSO gained an unreal amount of experience and Col from the 'battle'.

"…holy fuck." summarized Keita his guild's general train of thought.

They all nodded to show their agreement.

"…okay, then, uhm…" Kirito suddenly seemed awkward as he stared at the group of people in front of him. "…who wants to go and celebrate the victory to the next Floor?"

Hours later, in the 26th Floor, people would gather and rejoice for the victory over the 25th Boss, but also share a silent moment of grievance for those who had died fighting it, Kibaou between them.

On a slightly separated area from the main group, though, Asuna would find a curious and WEIRD sight.

Her Sensei was sitting on a table, clearly uncomfortable but still smiling even as a brown-haired guy had an arm around his shoulders and shouted loudly and joyously things about him, other three guys also around the table eating and drinking but never stopping gushing over the black-haired boy.

On the opposite side of where they were sitting, a girl of bluish-black hair was looking at Kirito with dreamy eyes.

"…what the hell?" summarized Asuna her reaction while blinking.

Many things would happen on the next days. The Aincrad Liberation Squad would retreat from the Frontline because of the loss of their comrades and Sub-Leader, and lack of morale, despite Diavel's best efforts to convince his guild of the contrary, and join with the group of 'MMO Today' to form the Aincrad Liberation Force. A new, surprisingly well-organized, guild known as the Knights of Blood would rise to take up the main efforts of clearing the game, led by a mysterious but strong player called 'Heathcliff', and the general opinion about the Black-White Blur would change for the positive…

But what would probably be the most relevant one would be that Asuna and Kirito would be unable to get the Moonlit Black Cats to stop following them.

𝟬𝟬𝟬𝟬𝟬𝟬𝟬𝟬𝟬𝟬𝟬𝟬𝟬

𝗠𝗮𝘆 𝟴𝘁𝗵, 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟯. 𝟮𝟮𝗻𝗱 𝗙𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗿, 𝟭𝟴:𝟰𝟬…

"The Frontline is on the 30th Floor. Everywhere in Aincrad things are looking very positive. Last time I checked, more than 75% of the players had effectively become active one way or another…" Argo's words echoed through the innocent and calm-looking forest even as she looked to the side, an eyebrow raised in a questioning way. "Which begs the question, WHY are you down here and without your precious disciple and your fan club?"

"For the LAST time Argo, they're NOT my fan club!" groaned Kirito while facepalming again. "Keita and the others are friends…VERY enthusiastic friends, but that's all."

The boy decided that the least he had to think about how the small guild literally WORSHIPPED him and everything he did since he saved them. Or how they, in turn, also worshipped Asuna since he introduced her as his disciple.

"Yes, yes, whatever you tell yourself, Kii-bou…"

"As for WHY I am here, I think you should know that better than anyone. People have been reported to go missing around here for a couple of weeks now, and then they seem to randomly die hours later. As some of them had been people WAY above the necessary level for this Floor and nothing particularly difficult or dangerous has been reported here before, I thought I could come to take a look and see if I can discover what's going on."

"Yeah, I figured you would be here because of that…and the reason the others aren't with you?"

"Keita and the rest wanted to get some good Ores from the 27th Floor Dungeon to try and get better equipment for everyone." muttered Kirito while looking around the every moment stranger trees. "Asuna decided to go with them."

"Uh, that's weird. Usually Aa-chan is with you every second she can when she isn't preparing for Boss Battles…" the girl with the whiskers looked around with wondering eyes, idly noticing that it was getting really dark.

"Well, it also surprised me; at first when I said I was coming she was all for coming with me, but for some reason, she suddenly changed her mind after I explained what I was going to do here to everyone…"

"Really? What exactly did they say?"

"Keita and Sasamaru thought that it may be some kind of unknown special Mob. Tetsuo and Ducker think it could be some sort of weird trap that only activated after we reached an upper Floor. And Sachi thought it may be some kind of ghost." the boy visible chuckled at the last thing, even as Argo blinked before trying to contain her chuckles. "I'm not sure what is what made Asuna change her mind, though…"

"Heheh, yeah, it's a GREAT mystery…" the hooded girl's laughter was suddenly cut when she crashed against the back of the caped boy, almost falling backward at doing so. "Uah! Dammit, Kii-bou, what are you doing?! Don't stop suddenly in front of…uh? What's that?" her usual curiosity overcoming her annoyance, Argo peeked over the stopped boy's shoulder to see the strange phenomenon that had made him freeze in place: a piece of paper stuck to the side of a tree, with an interrogation sign over it marking it as a Quest. "Hey, I didn't know there was a Quest here!"

"…no…no way…" the gamer shook his head even as Argo walked to the note and grabbed it, raising an eyebrow at reading it. "It must be just some sort of coinciden…"

"What the hell? 'Don't look or it takes you'?" as soon as those words came from the hooded-girl's mouth, Kirito's eyes widened in a mix of disbelief, shock, and horror. "What kind of clue is that? And what's with the crappy drawings at the side?…ah, look, a clear objective, that's better! …'Collect all 8 Pages'? Uh, that seems pretty simple, wonder what kind of reward does this one gi…Oh, look, it even gave us a torch for the Quest! Well, I guess that means that this only activates when it gets dark, that kind of makes sense, right Kii-bou?" the girl turned around, her eyes twisting in confusion at seeing the black-clad boy suddenly looking around in all directions at the suddenly much more darker and ominous forest. "…Kii-bou? Is something wrong?"

The sound of 'something' moving around them made the girl freeze and glance around.

"…you have to be shitting me." moaned the boy while Argo activated her torch.

Her screams started not long after that.

𝟬𝟬𝟬𝟬𝟬𝟬𝟬𝟬𝟬𝟬𝟬𝟬𝟬

𝗠𝗲𝗮𝗻𝘄𝗵𝗶𝗹𝗲, 𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝟮𝟳𝘁𝗵 𝗙𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗿 𝗗𝘂𝗻𝗴𝗲𝗼𝗻…

"What do you think Kirito-sama is doing right now?"

At Sachi's sudden question, Asuna just laughed out loud while waving her rapier in an exaggerated way, definitively not trying to mask her non-existent fears about her Sensei's 'mission'.

"Ahahahah, I'm pretty sure Sensei is okay, Sachi! He's invincible, remember? Besides, Argo-chan is with him, so we don't need to worry about him doing something stupid!"

"…you may be right, Asuna-san, but I still can't help but worry when he isn't around…"

The words made the chestnut-haired girl frown and give a furtive look at the bashful spear-user. During the months since the Moonlit Black Cats had unofficially become part of Kirito and hers 'group', she had noticed how the girl's adoration for her Sensei grew more than the fanatical worship the rest of her friends had. She wasn't exactly sure WHAT did that entail, but, for some reason, she couldn't' help but feel slightly bothered by it…

"Hey, Sachi, Asuna-sama, here!" Keita's voice got the rapier-user out of her inner musings and made her notice how the brown-haired boy and the rest of the Black Cats were standing not far away from them, having just come from one of the many hallways of the strange and smooth labyrinth that was that dungeon. "We got a bunch of ores! How about you?"

"We got quite a lot too, Keita!" cheerfully revealed Sachi while Asuna nodded and walked closer to the group.

"Yes, I think with this we may be able to upgrade all our weapons, as long as we go to a decent blacksmith." agreed Ducker while looking over their gathered bounty with eagerness, as the chestnut-haired girl had learned was usual for the Treasure Hunter.

"Well, now that you said it, I kind of befriended this girl the other day who is planning on opening her own blacksmith shop soon." commented the girl while crossing her arms. "I paid Argo-chan to get some info about her and it seems that she's very good. Maybe we can get her to upgrade ours if we're really thinking of getting you all to the Frontline…"

"If even Argo-san says she's good, then she must be really great…" muttered Sasamaru while leaning on his spear. "It may be our best option, after all…"

"It's decided, then." nodded Tetsuo after giving a big smile towards Asuna while raising her mace. "We shall upgrade ourselves to be worthy of fighting at your side, Asuna-sama!"

"Guys, you're exaggerating again." sweatdropped the girl while resisting the urge of facepalming. Except for Sachi, all the others members of the small guild still insisted on calling her 'sama', and still saw her as a god-like existence only second to Kirito…was this how her Sensei felt when she joked about him? "I'm not that ama…"

"Hey, everyone, look! I found a secret room, and there is a treasure chest here!" the group blinked at Sachi's unexpected words, just noticing how the girl had at some point moved away from them and towards a now opened 'door' hidden in the smooth bluish walls of the dungeon, which led to a perfectly rectangular and strangely empty room, except for the lonely chest on its EXACT center. In front of which an excited Sachi was standing. "Maybe there is an ever rarer Ore inside it!"

"Hey, Sachi, wait a minute!" shouted Asuna, suddenly having a very bad feeling even as she stepped towards where the girl was. "Something about that room seems very…"

It was at that moment when Sachi opened the chest.

The room's insides became an angry red color, making the spear-user's eyes widen.

The rest of the Black Cats had barely enough time to scream their friend's name in surprise even as Asuna shot forward like a flash of speed, jumping and rolling to enter inside the room just before the door suddenly closed shut behind her.

Sachi's wide eyes were still fixed upon her even as she stood up, rapier unsheathed and eyes sharp as swords.

"IT'S A TRAP!"

As if they had been waiting for those words to be said, a myriad of golems and dwarf-like mobs spawned around the room, their attention zeroing upon both girls even as they heard the other boys uselessly attacking the door from the outside and shouting their names.

Asuna didn't even wait for the creatures to start moving before lunging at the nearest group of them, rapier shining even as Sachi raised her spear and pointed it around her in all directions.

"MACHINEGUN NEEEDLE!"

The renamed Skill was unleashed with speed and might that made the first time she had used it in battle seem like a joke, and the poor nearest Mineral Elemental was turned into a pincushion for an instant before it exploded as the girl landed and stared at the clearly terrified Sachi.

"SACHI! Snap out of it! They aren't that strong, but there are a lot of them!"

"Ye-yes!" squeaked the girl even as a group of the grinning Dark Dwarf Miners rushed at her, but a quick use of a Helical Twice Skill sent them all rearing back as Sachi unleashed the omnidirectional attack to keep them at bay. "W-we can do this!"

"Of course we can!" roared Asuna as she shot through their enemies like a living lightning bolt, her classic Linear Skill piercing through mobs left and right. "Just don't let them come close and we have this fight on the bag!"

"Do-don't worry, I-I got this!" half-shouted the spear user as she used a Fatal Thrust Skill against one of the raging golems, the elemental exploding in polygons as the girl's face turned into one of euphoria. "Yes! I can…!"

Her cheerful shout was cut short, however, when one of the dwarves took advantage of her momentary post-Skill frozen state to jump at her arm, making the shocked girl scream.

Two more attacked them from the sides at that moment, and the suddenly terrified player saw how the first Mob accomplished what seemed to have been its objective from the beginning.

It made her let go of her spear.

Weaponless and stumbling back, the suddenly surrounded Sachi could only look in shock as the mobs closed together around her.

She tried to move, but a sudden punch from one of the golems to her back sent her face-first into the floor, also reducing her HP to yellow.

"SACHI-CHAN!" screamed Asuna at seeing the younger girl falling, her eyes widening towards the status of the party on one corner of her vision at seeing her HP quickly depleting.

She was going to die.

"N-no! STAY BACK!" shouted the girl while trying to punch and kick her way off the monsters surrounding her, barely doing more than annoy them and evade one or two hits by pure luck. "HE-HELP!"

"I'm going, hang in there!" shouted Asuna while trying to run forward, but the mobs closed around her, separating her from the shouting Sachi, whose HP had just hit the red. "NOOO!"

With a mighty roar, Asuna jumped forward and pointed her rapier, trying to initiate a Skill to save her friend.

Time seemed to slow down, the tip of her weapon suddenly seeming to weight a ton as she tried the absurd feat of starting the Skill in mid-air.

"𝐼'𝑚 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑔𝑜𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡𝑜 𝑚𝑎𝑘𝑒 𝑖𝑡…"

Sachi screamed again, half in defiance and half in fear as she punched a dwarf on the face, making it stumble back and giving her enough room to roll out of the way of another golem-punch.

"𝐹𝑎𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑟…𝐼 𝑛𝑒𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑏𝑒 𝑓𝑎𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑟…!"

Another of the Mineral Elementals kicked the girl's face as she tried to stand again, leaving her with barely 10% of her HP.

Asuna's eyes seemed to burn, fear and despair being drowned as an image of Kirito looking at her and asking if she was ready to become stronger appeared on his mind.

"𝑅𝐸𝐴𝐶𝐻 𝐼𝑇! 𝑃𝐿𝐸𝐴𝑆𝐸, 𝑅𝐸𝐴𝐶𝐻 𝐼𝑇!"

The girl's arm moved faster, achieving the impossible position.

In that exact instant, even as the rapier shone with the light of a Skill activating, a 'Condition' was met and the Cardinal System acknowledged it, giving the 'reward' to the one who had earned it.

Sachi closed her eyes; sure that Death was coming for her to finish what it had started on the 25th Boss Room.

The sudden rush of air exploding around her made the girl look up in time to see Asuna land in front of her, all the mobs that had stood on her way either exploding or flying backwards before the might of the 'Flashing Penetrator' Skill, which had turned the girl into a living comet for an instant.

Then, attacks from at least 5 mobs rained over the frozen Asuna, reducing her HP to yellow and making the terrified Sachi scream her name.

The girl didn't even blink, though, and just as the frozen state from executing the Skill finished she rolled backward with the momentum of the hits, impaling the head of another dwarf while doing so.

She stood up fully, raising the rapier in front of her face while closing her gauntlet-clad hand around it.

"Bring it on."

Five minutes later, the door to the room opened again and the 4 boys rushed inside with their weapons drawn, only to look wide-eyed at the empty room and how the remains of some mobs finished exploding around the panting Asuna.

Her HP, much like Sachi's was in the red, but hers had just barely reached that state unlike the still fallen and frozen girl.

Taking a deep breath, the chestnut-haired girl sheathed her weapon and walked towards the fallen spear before turning around and extending it towards the unmoving Sachi.

"Here, take it. You should be more careful with your weapon in the middle of a battle, you know?"

For a moment, the girl of bluish-black hair just STARED at Asuna.

Then, to the rapier-user's shock, she started to shake as tears welled in her eyes before grabbing her spear and running away, her friends being unable to stop her thanks to the shock even as they uselessly called after her.

Not much time later, outside the Dungeon, the tired group was looking around while calling the girl's name, Keita sending his third message to her since they exited the labyrinth and still obtaining no answer.

"I don't understand…why did she run away like that?" muttered Asuna with regret as she looked down.

"Hey, it's not your fault. I'm sure Sachi was just overwhelmed by what happened." Keita gave her another reassuring look even as Tetsuo once again verified his Friend List, which informed them that their missing friend was still on that Floor. "You will see, we will find her in no time! Hell, maybe she will even come back before that!"

"I just hope you're right, Keita-kun." the chestnut-haired girl sighed before opening her own menu. "Still, I think I will send a message to Sensei just to be…uh?" confused, Asuna tilted her head to the side. "What the…? Where did THIS come from?"

"Is something wrong?" asked Sasamaru while he and Ducker walked back to them, having failed to find Sachi on the surrounding area.

"Uhm, this Skill just showed up on my menu from nowhere. And I'm sure I didn't have it an hour ago…"

"Maybe you obtained it from that room without realizing?" despite being worried for his missing friend, Ducker still projected a fair amount of curiosity on his voice to try and sound cheerful for everyone's sake. "What is it?"

"Hmm…I don't know, Sensei never mentioned this kind of Skill Tree. How weird…"

The girl's eyes held an equal amount of worry and curiosity as she looked at the group.

"Have any of you ever heard of 'Dual Blades'?"

𝟬𝟬𝟬𝟬𝟬𝟬𝟬𝟬𝟬𝟬𝟬𝟬𝟬

Despite being currently used for what many were calling the most horrible event of Japan's recent story, no one who knew its exact workings could deny that the Cardinal System was the most impressive management program ever created.

Almost literally self-sufficient, the powerful AI never stopped thinking and evolving, fixing all mistakes it found, correcting anything that seemed out of place and, above all, LEARNING.

Despite being nowhere near how a human did it, Cardinal could still deduce and think about what happened under its watch.

It may be unable to recognize the anomaly in which the player called 'Kirito' had become for an unknown and mysterious reason, but it could still realize that the 'things' he did were 'strange' and 'abnormal'. But this, in turn, contradicted its own analysis of the player that always returning with an equivalent of 'Everything is fine'.

That was why it had needed so much time to do 'something' about it.

Finally, after the Unique Skill known as 'Dual Blades' had been assigned to a player, the second one after the 'Holy Sword' that had been self-assigned by the only account with admin-rights currently active, Cardinal decided it needed to do something that allowed other players to do things that were above their usual limits.

It couldn't' turn anyone else into a 'special' player, like Kirito was, of course not, for not even the System itself acknowledged this 'error'. But within the theoretically possible things it COULD do…

:SYSTEM COMMAND-ID: CARDINAL.

:REMOVING 'ARRIVE AT FLOOR 90'-RESTRICTION FOR 'UNIQUE SKILLS' FROM 3 TO 10.

:ACKNOWLEDGING CHANGES INTO SWORD ART ONLINE'S SYSTEMS…FINISHED.

:RESETTING SKILLS-OBTAINING CONDITIONS…DONE

:UPLOADING RESPECTIVE DATA…

The MHCP-001 watched in silence, surprise in her gaze as she saw Cardinal going into full motion, the current changes it was doing combined with all its other never-ending tasks being enough to require the full attention of the massive AI.

Which meant that it wasn't looking at her.

Once again, as she had been doing lately, Yui smiled in a very human way, before spinning around on her 'prison'. If she was going to act, she needed to do it now. Cardinal may not let its guard down like this again, and if she wanted to get out without risking damage to her main processing systems or being later erased by the system because of her 'transgression', she needed to prepare many things.

"One…punch…"

With determination, the girl started to repeat the two 'real' words she knew the most while starting to take the steps that, eventually, would lead to her freedom.

Stopping for a moment, a very human look of doubt crossed her eyes before she decided to take a further risk and changed some specific codes.

Slowly, she 'turned' towards where the others AIs like her slept, and activated the second one.

She was going to need a guardian if she wanted to find her Hero once she got out of her prison, after all.

Even as the MHCP-002 slowly activated, the young-looking AI once again muttered words that weren't anything that had been programmed on her original code.

"Wake up, little sis…"

𝟬𝟬𝟬𝟬𝟬𝟬𝟬𝟬𝟬𝟬𝟬𝟬𝟬

It was very late at night, and on the strange place that was the eternally dark 27th Floor, no one was around.

Except for one person.

Panting and with tears that were unable to be held back because of the limitations of the virtual world, Sachi growled as she impaled another golem-like mob with her spear.

She had been at this for hours, and she had already exhausted almost all the potions she had on her inventory since she came out of the Dungeon, but the combination of shame, disappointment and sad anger wasn't gone.

"𝐼…𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑢𝑠𝑒𝑙𝑒𝑠𝑠."

With an angry thrust, the girl activated yet another Skill and sent one of the last 3 golems she had found to oblivion.

"𝐼𝑓 𝑖𝑡 𝑤𝑎𝑠𝑛'𝑡 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝐴𝑠𝑢𝑛𝑎-𝑠𝑎𝑛, 𝐼 𝑤𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑑𝑖𝑒𝑑 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑒…𝑖𝑡'𝑠 𝑚𝑦 𝑓𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑡𝑜 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑟𝑒𝑙𝑦 𝑜𝑛 𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒? 𝐶𝑎𝑛'𝑡 𝐼 𝑑𝑜 𝑎𝑛𝑦𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑏𝑦 𝑚𝑦𝑠𝑒𝑙𝑓?"

Another move, another Skill, another angry and tearful shout. Only one golem remained.

"𝑊ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙 ℎ𝑎𝑝𝑝𝑒𝑛 𝑖𝑓 𝐴𝑠𝑢𝑛𝑎-𝑠𝑎𝑛 𝑜𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑠 𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑛'𝑡 𝑎𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑛𝑒𝑥𝑡 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒? 𝑊ℎ𝑒𝑛 𝐾𝑖𝑟𝑖𝑡𝑜-𝑠𝑎𝑚𝑎 𝑖𝑠𝑛'𝑡 𝑎𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑? 𝐻𝑜𝑤 𝑎𝑚 𝐼 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟 𝑔𝑜𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡𝑜 𝑏𝑒 𝑎 𝐹𝑟𝑜𝑛𝑡 𝐿𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑟 𝑙𝑖𝑘𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠?!"

Almost falling down from exhaustion, Sachi faced the last mob, whose AI seemed to be debating between attacking the tired player or running like hell to preserve its unimportant virtual life.

For her part, the girl could only remember how she, at the beginning, had preferred to use a spear because it kept the monsters away from her when she fought. In the end, she continued using it because she had gotten used to it.

Now, her spear seemed too short on her eyes. Maybe if was longer, it could keep the monsters away not only from herself, but from everyone else…

"𝐼…𝑑𝑜𝑛'𝑡 𝑤𝑎𝑛𝑡 𝑡𝑜 𝑏𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑔𝑖𝑟𝑙 𝑤ℎ𝑜 𝑛𝑒𝑒𝑑𝑠 𝑡𝑜 𝑏𝑒 𝑠𝑎𝑣𝑒𝑑 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒! 𝐼 𝑑𝑜𝑛'𝑡 𝑤𝑎𝑛𝑡 𝑡𝑜 𝑏𝑒 𝑎 𝐷𝑎𝑚𝑠𝑒𝑙 𝑖𝑛 𝐷𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑠!"

With a final charge, the spear-user impaled the mob and made it explode into nothingness, most of her anger and frustration going away with it and leaving her feeling extremely tired.

Cardinal acknowledged the kill and set one of its newly changed systems into motion.

"I…want to be strong…"

With shaky fingers, the girl opened her menu, ready to use her Teleport Crystal to get some rest…when her eyes fixed on something that hadn't been there10 minutes ago.

Blinking, confusion and disbelief filling her, Sachi slowly read aloud the name of the Skill that had appeared on her list.

"Infinite…Spear…?"

The virtual moon shone silently over Aincrad, even as the wheels of Fate kept spinning…

𝟬𝟬𝟬𝟬𝟬𝟬𝟬𝟬𝟬𝟬𝟬𝟬𝟬

"…is it gone? That thing is gone?! Please, tell me it is!"

"Yes, Argo, it's gone. We got all the 8 dammed pages, so I'm pretty sure it's not coming back. So please, can you let go of me and lower that freaking torch? I want to get out of this wood house and get back with the others to see how they did."

"How can you be so sure?! You punched it many times and every time you 'killed' it, that thing came back! And what's wrong with this place, anyway?! It's big and looks comfy, I'm sure it would make a great house for any player!"

"Besides the fact that just looking at its prize makes my pockets hurt, I'm PRETTY SURE I don't want to live anywhere near these forests for a good time. I'm just glad you can't dream in SAO, because, superpowers or not, this damn quest would have given me nightmares for weeks. Now, let's go already, we finished the Quest and we solved the mystery behind the mysterious deaths. Let's just hope that Cardinal doesn't spam that damn Quest again."

"Ye-yeah, I will also make a point of warning everyone about it…"

"That would be for the best." decided the boy while he and Argo walked out of the wood house, the boy giving it a last look before he took out a Teleport Crystal. "…you're going to follow me, right?"

"…just to make sure you arrive with the others safe and sound?"

The black-haired boy sighed.

Days like this made him hate Kayaba Akihiko all the more.

𝟬𝟬𝟬𝟬𝟬𝟬𝟬𝟬𝟬𝟬𝟬𝟬𝟬

𝗡𝗘𝗫𝗧 𝗘𝗣𝗜𝗦𝗢𝗗𝗘 𝗣𝗥𝗘𝗩𝗜𝗘𝗪!

"…how weird…but how…OH! He-hello to everyone, thi-this is Sachi giving you all the, uhm, preview for the next chapter! Though I'm still trying to understand how THIS works…oh, yeah, anyway, next time on 'One Punch-Gamer': 'Dark Christmas!' Will 'someone' be able to regain the confidence she lost by trying to obtain the 'legendary' item that comes on a snowy night? And will Kirito be able to stop a tragedy from happening? Don't miss it!...hey, wait a second, this preview is talking about m-!"

𝗘𝗡𝗗 𝗢𝗙 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗣𝗥𝗘𝗩𝗜𝗘𝗪!