Chapter 2

The massive moon hanging in the sky painted the deep forest

blue, like the seafloor.

Nights in Alfheim were short, but it would be a while yet until

dawn brought its light. The darkness of the forest was normally

an eerie thing, but on the run, its concealment was a blessing.

Leafa looked into the starry sky from the shadows of an especially large tree. She couldn't see any foreboding shapes crossing

the sky for now. She whispered to her party companion as quietly

as she could.

"Get ready. We're going to fly as soon as our wings are

recharged."

"B-but I'm still dizzy…," he whined.

"Are you still feeling sick? Oh, this is just sad…When are you

going to get used to it, Recon?"

"I can't help it if I'm afraid of flying…"

Leafa sighed in exasperation.

The boy named Recon, slumped at the foot of the tree, was a

real-life friend of Leafa's, and they'd started playing ALO

—ALfheim Online—at the same time. Meaning that he'd had a

year of experience with the game, just like her, and yet he still

hadn't conquered his flight sickness. In a game where midair battle skill was everything, his inability to handle more than one or

two skirmishes at a time made him largely useless.

But Leafa didn't really mind that part of Recon. If anything,

she thought of him like a helpless little brother. His appearance

fit his personality perfectly: a short, fragile body, yellow-green

hair in a pageboy cut, long drooping ears, and a face that always

seemed to be on the verge of tears. For a randomly generated

character, his look was so similar to the real thing that the first

time she saw him in-game, Leafa nearly laughed her head off.

Then again, according to Recon, Leafa's appearance was fitting

as well. She was on the larger side for a sylph, with distinctive

eyes and brows.

She'd been hoping for a virtual body that might be described

as "willowy," but by all accounts, it was still an attractive character. That was a blessing that required considerable good fortune

in this game—many players had sunk several years' worth of

monthly fees just on the character reroll cost until they got the

look they wanted. So Leafa wasn't about to complain.

Incidentally, avatar appearance had no bearing on performance in ALO, so Recon's battles with dizziness were entirely an

issue of his sense of balance.

Leafa reached out and grabbed the back of Recon's chest

armor, hauling him to his feet. His four wings were glimmering

with pale green light, the game's indication that his flight power

had recovered.

"Okay, you're good to go. Our next flight is taking us out of the

forest."

"Aww, we must have lost them already. Let's take a break."

"No! One of those salamanders had a really high Search skill,

so they might have already found us while we were resting here.

We can't handle one more air raid just by ourselves. We need to

rush back to our territory!"

"Oh, fine." Recon pouted. He grasped at the air, and a translucent joystick appeared in his hand. It was ALO's flight assistance

controller, a short rod with a small ball on the end. He pulled the

stick lightly toward himself, and the two pairs of wings on his

back fluttered and glowed faintly.

Leafa beat her own wings a few times. Unlike Recon, she

didn't need the controller. She had already mastered the art of

flying at will, the mark of a first-rate warrior in ALO.

"Let's go!" she commanded, springing into the air. The wings

on her back spread to their full width, pushing her upward

through the branches toward that full moon. The wind whipped

at her cheeks and fluttered her long ponytail.

In a few seconds, she was out in the open, flying above the forest. The land of Alfheim spread out as far as the eye could see. It

was a feeling of endless liberation.

"Ahh." She sighed with ecstasy as she rose to ever-greater

heights. There was nothing else like this precise moment. It was

an exultation that brought one to the verge of tears. Since time

immemorial, mankind had dreamed of flying like the birds. Finally, in this virtual world, we had found our own wings.

She hated the system's limits on flight. She wanted to experience it to her heart's content, going as high and far as she dared.

She would give anything for it.

That was a shared desire among every player in Alfheim. Whoever reached the legendary city atop the World Tree before the

other races would be reborn as an alf, a true fairy—and all flight

limits would be repealed. You would be the true ruler of the skies.

Leafa had no interest in powering up her character or earning

rare loot. There was only one reason she kept playing the game.

She beat her wings powerfully once more, reaching for the

golden moon so far out of her reach. The motes of light falling off

her wings fell through the night sky, trailing green tails like tiny

comets.

"L-Leafa, wait uuup." The wheedling voice came from below, and

she was brought back to reality. Leafa stopped ascending and

looked down to see Recon struggling behind her, clutching his

controller. Flight with the training stick was severely limited

when it came to speed, and Recon stood no chance of keeping up

if Leafa flew at her maximum speed.

"Come on, put your back into it!" she urged Recon, beckoning

with both hands as she hovered, wings outspread. She scanned

the surroundings and found the imposing landmark of the World

Tree amid the night, using it to ascertain the direction of sylph

territory.

Once Recon had finally reached her altitude, Leafa began gliding easily, matching his speed. He looked over, clearly worried.

"A-are you sure we aren't a little too high?"

"The higher we are, the better it feels. Plus, if your wings get

tired, you have plenty of time to glide."

"Have I ever told you that you change when you're flying?"

"Have you ever told me what?"

"N-never mind…"

They proceeded onward toward southwest Alfheim, where the

sylphs held their own territory, playfully bickering all the while.

They'd been in a party of five today, hunting in a neutral-zone

dungeon to the northeast of sylph land. Luckily, they didn't have

to contend with any other parties and hunted to their hearts' content. But when they prepared to head for home laden with money

and items, they were waylaid by a group of eight salamanders.

Warfare was permitted between races in ALO, but only a small

minority of players practiced such banditry. Today's adventure

taking place on a weekday afternoon, they hadn't expected to run

across any large groups of roving enemies, which made the encounter all the more bitter.

After a pair of air battles on the run, three had fallen on either

side, which left Leafa and Recon as the only sylph survivors.

They'd made good use of the sylphs' advantageous flying speed,

however, and had managed to escape the salamanders' pursuit.

Now they were nearly within range of sylph territory. They

needed to hide and wait for Recon to recover after the battle, but

it seemed they were going to make it out safely. However, on an

idle scan of the forest behind them, Leafa saw…

A brief flash of orange light at the foot of a dense cluster of

particularly large trees.

"Look out, Recon!" she shouted, and peeled off downward to

her left. In the next instant, three fiery shots burst out from the

leaves below.

Their extra altitude was fortuitous, as they had just enough

extra time to avoid the blazing projectiles. The night air charred

around them.

But there was no time to relax. Five reddish shadows emerged

out of the stretch of forest that had produced the fireballs, and

they sped after Leafa and Recon.

"Ugh, would you just give up already?" she spat, peering to the

northwest. She still couldn't see the light of the giant wind tower

that marked the center of sylph territory.

"Oh well, we'll just have to fight!" She pulled a gently curved

long blade from her waist.

"Not more of this!" Recon wailed, readying his dagger.

"There are five of them, so I don't expect to win, but you'd better not just give up! I'll try to draw their attention, so make sure

you beat at least one of them."

"I'll try…"

"You ought to show me you can act heroic once in a while."

Leafa jabbed Recon's shoulder, then readied herself to dive. She

rounded herself up, did a loop for momentum, and folded in her

wings at a sharp angle so that she dropped like a rock. She shot

downward at the salamanders' wedge formation with reckless

abandon.

Leafa and her party were old hands who'd been playing ALO

since the start, with considerable experience and equipment. The

only reason they'd suffered such an ignoble defeat was not just

the enemy's number but the battle formation that the salamanders had recently begun employing. They sacrificed mobility by

wearing heavy armor, and they used their weight as momentum

for devastating charging lance attacks, over and over. The array of

deadly horizontal spearheads flying forth was so overpowering

that it was nearly impossible to use the sylphs' natural agility in

battle.

But after their second midair clash earlier, Leafa thought she'd

detected a weakness in the enemy's strategy. She summoned

blind courage, unhesitatingly diving straight for the figure at the

center of the wedge. The gap closed in no time. All of her attention focused on the sharp tip of the enemy's silver lance.

The high-pitched whine of the sylphs' descent and the metallic

roar of the salamanders' approach mixed dissonantly as they

grew louder, and when the two crossed paths, there was an explosion that shook the air.

Leafa gritted her teeth and evaded the fangs, which were the

enemy's deadly lance thrust, with nothing more than a slight inclination of her neck. She ignored the burn of the tip as it grazed

her cheek. The next instant, she brought down the long katana

from directly overhead, aimed at the enemy's red helmet.

"Seyyy…"

And struck.

"Yaaah!!"

His eyes went wide with shock beneath the thick visor, but before she could process the satisfaction, there was a burst of yellow-green light and a massive tremor through her hands as the

enemy flew backward.

His HP bar shot downward, but not even a third of his health

was lost thanks to his thick armor. More importantly, however, a

shock to the head of that caliber would ensure he'd be out of the

fight for precious seconds. Leafa immediately readied herself for

the next move.

Right here!!

The weakness in the salamanders' heavy attack was how long

it took them to regroup once they'd crossed paths with the target.

As soon as she shot past the other four enemies, Leafa twisted

hard, wings outstretched, in a sharp left turn.

Her entire body groaned with the hard horizontal g-force, but

she withstood it, pushing with her right wing and running control

with her left. Soon the enemy line came into view, still in the

process of turning to meet her.

Even if the armor-laden salamanders knew her plan, there was

no way for them to speed their rotation. She darted forward,

sword flashing at their flanks.

Her torso slash caught the leftmost fighter cleanly. Their formation fell apart.

Now I just need to force them into a melee!

Out of the five salamanders, only the leader Leafa had already

dispatched was using Voluntary Flight. The others were equipped

with controllers, which meant Leafa had a considerable advantage when it came to midair dexterity.

She looked around for Recon and saw him in fierce combat

with the rightmost salamander. His demeanor might not have

shown it, but he was a veteran player. Once Recon had a foe in

close combat, his skill with a dagger shone.

Leafa stuck fast to the rear of her target, meting out constant

and significant damage with her long katana. We might actually

win this, she began to think. The only concern in her mind was

the prior blast of fire magic: One of the five must be a mage. They

were all in heavy armor, which meant one of them was probably

just a spellsword with some secondary magic at his disposal. But

backup skills or not, even low-level salamander fire magic packed

a serious punch.

Common sense said that the mage would be on the right or left

flank, which meant that either Leafa or Recon was dealing with

him at this very moment. As tightly as they clung to their opponents, they were keeping either foe from firing off any spells. If

they could just take down these two, it would be an even fight

from that point on.

"Rahhh!!"

Leafa unleashed another of her patented overhand slices with

a bellow. It struck the salamander on the shoulder, tearing another chunk out of his already red HP bar.

"Damn it!" he cursed, and his body was suddenly crimson with

flames. The fire roared and ejected tiny red droplets until only a

short lick of flame was left floating in the air. This "Remain Light"

marked the spot the salamander had died. If a resurrection spell

or item was used on it before it died out, he could be instantly

brought back to life, but after a minute's time, he would be teleported to his race's home territory to resume play from there.

Leafa immediately banished the fallen foe from her mind and

set her sights on the next target. The three remaining were unsure with their giant lances, their movements too slow for close

combat. They repeatedly attempted awkward charges, but without any real momentum behind them, it was child's play for Leafa

to dart out of the way.

She glanced over again and saw that Recon was going for the

finishing blow. He'd lost some HP of his own but not enough to

need a healing spell. What had started as a five-on-two air raid

was suddenly a very winnable fight. She swung her sword again,

emboldened by their odds.

That was when another pillar of fire shot upward from the surface and caught Recon full in the chest.

"Aaaah!" he screamed, stopping in midair.

"No, don't stop!" Leafa shouted, but the nearly dead salamander's lance pierced Recon before he could react.

"I'm sorryyyy…" he wailed as green gusts of wind surrounded

his body. The "End Flames" death animation swallowed him

whole, and like the last man, he left only a small floating light behind.

Yes, he would come back to life elsewhere in the game in just a

matter of seconds, but it never felt good to see a friend fall in battle. Leafa gritted her teeth, but she had no time to mourn his defeat. Another series of flames burst up from below, and she had to

make a series of desperate turns to evade.

So the mage was the man at the lead!

If she had known this from the start, she would have followed

his fall and finished him off when she had the chance, but it was

too late to do anything about it now. The situation was dire.

But she wouldn't give in. She'd struggle until the very last ugly

moment, searching for that one blow to land, a philosophy and

point of pride she'd earned through years of training as a swordsman.

Two other salamanders who had recovered thanks to the distraction of the magic from below launched another long-range

charge.

"Do your worst!" Leafa dared, holding her sword high.

"Fmgh!"

After an endless fall, wailing helplessly all the way down, I finally landed somewhere unfamiliar. My cry was stopped short

when I came to rest not on my feet but on my face. After several

still seconds with my head buried deep in the grass, I slowly

rolled over onto my back.

I lay still in the grass for a good long while, savoring the relief

that the freefall was finally over.

It was night. Inside a deep forest.

A massive, gnarled tree that could have been centuries old set

its impressive branches sprawling in all directions far over my

head. Between the leaves I could see black sky littered with stars

and a large, golden full moon directly overhead.

Insects buzzed nearby. On top of that, the low song of a night

bird. Far-off howls of wild beasts. The scent of plant life tickled

my nostrils. A slight breeze caressed my skin. All these sensations

pressed in on my senses, terrifyingly vivid. It felt more real than

real life—the signature of a virtual world.

I'd been skeptical of Agil's claim, but upon seeing it for myself,

I had to admit that the quality of modeling in ALO was in no way

inferior to SAO's. Any potential disbelief that someone could create something so incredible in just a year of development was

swept away by the sheer volume of information assaulting my

senses.

"Well…here I am again," I muttered to myself, eyes closed.

Just two months after I was released from my old prison and

swore I'd never do this again, I was back in a full-dive VR world.

Didn't you learn your lesson last time? a voice in my head accused, and I grimaced wryly.

But this wasn't like the other game. Losing all of my HP

wouldn't cause the real me to die, and I could leave at any time…

With a start, I realized the path of dark memories that was leading me down.

What was the deal with that strange display error and sudden

teleportation? What was I doing in this particular spot? The navigator had said each player would start in his or her chosen race's

home city. But this looked like the wilderness.

"Th-this can't be what I think it is…"

Cheek twitching, I lifted my right hand and made a swiping

motion with my index and middle fingers, but nothing happened.

I tried it a few more times, a cold sweat running down my back,

then remembered the tutorial voice saying that menu call-up and

the flight controller were used with the left hand.

I tried again with my left this time, and a glowing menu

popped up with a pleasing chime. It was virtually the same as the

one in SAO. I stared at the buttons listed on the right side.

"Ah, here it is…"

Right at the bottom was a gleaming button labeled LOG OUT. I

pressed it just as a test, and a warning message appeared saying

that I couldn't log out immediately while in the wilderness, followed by a confirmation prompt.

I sighed in relief, put a hand on the grass, and lifted myself up.

Upon closer examination, I seemed to be smack in the middle

of a vast forest. Massive trees towered endlessly in every direction

without a light in sight. I still had no idea why I'd landed here of

all places, so I decided to check my game map. Just as I was

about to press the button, I stopped abruptly.

"Wha…?!" I exclaimed.

At the top of the window was the name "Kirito" and my chosen

race of "Spriggan." Below that were my numerical hit points and

mana points, reading 400 and 80 respectively—clearly starting

values, nothing remarkable.

What startled me was the skill data beneath that. I hadn't chosen anything yet, and I figured that section would be blank, but

there were already eight different fields there. They could have

been spriggan starter skills, but if that was the case, there seemed

to be too many. I touched the list to call up the skill window and

examine the details.

The variety was random—from battle skills like One-Handed

Swords, Martial Arts, Weapon Defense, to lifestyle skills like

Fishing—but the values were extreme. Most of them were leveled

to the nine hundreds, and some were at an even thousand with a

sign denoting they'd been mastered. MMORPG skills were designed to take an unfathomable amount of time to master, and it

was unheard of for them to be maxed out in a new character.

Something was clearly bugged. First that inexplicable telepor-

tation, now this. Maybe the servers were unstable.

"Is there something wrong with this game? I wonder if there's

a GM support option…"

I was about to flip through the game's options when something familiar tugged at my brain. I turned back to the skill list. I

recognized those proficiency values. One-Sword Skills, 1,000…

Martial Arts, 991…Fishing, 643…

It hit me like lightning, so fast it made me gasp.

No wonder I knew these numbers. They were the exact same

values I'd earned over two years of constant use in the world of

Sword Art Online. Some of them were missing, like Dual Blades

—likely because they didn't exist in the world of ALO. In essence,

the numbers that stared out at me were the final stats of Kirito

the Swordsman as he'd existed in the last moments of the floating

castle Aincrad.

My mind roiled. This was impossible. It was an entirely different game run by an entirely different company. Did my save data

somehow transfer over? Or, even more unbelievable…

"Am I actually inside SAO?" The words tumbled from my

mouth as I sat in the grass.

It took several dozen seconds before I could recover my

thoughts. Shaking my head, I forced my brain back into gear and

looked at the menu again.

Whatever was happening, I needed more information than

what I had now. I checked my inventory this time.

"Oh, geez…"

This time I was greeted by line after line of corrupted text.

Random Chinese characters, numbers, and letters were jumbled

together in unintelligible strings.

Most likely, this was what remained of my last items in Aincrad. Somehow, I had the old Kirito's data with me.

"Hey…in that case…"

I was struck by a sudden idea.

If my items were still here, that included something extremely

valuable to me. I pored over the item text, using my finger to

scroll through the menu.

"Please, please carry over…"

The garbled text sped past at high speed. My heart was racing

in my chest, clanging like an alarm bell.

"…!"

My fingers stopped of their own accord. Just below them,

glowing in a soft lime green, was a string of text reading

MHCP001.

I forgot to breathe. With a trembling finger, I traced that

name. The item was selected and the color inverted. I dragged the

item over to the EJECT button.

A white light arose from the surface of the window and quickly

concentrated into a tiny object: a colorless, transparent, tearshaped crystal. There was a softly pulsing glow inside of it.

I carefully cupped the gem with both hands and lifted it up.

There was a slight warmth to it. Just that little detail threatened

to bring moisture to my eyes.

Please, God, I prayed, tapping the crystal twice with my index

finger. Instantly, light exploded in my hands.

"Wha—?"

I stumbled backward. The glowing crystal hovered in the air

about six feet off the ground, growing brighter by the second. It

shone so powerfully that the trees around me appeared to be

white, and the moon above was dim in comparison.

As I watched, wide-eyed, the center of the pulsing vortex of

light began to take form. The contours became clearer, and color

appeared. I could see long black hair flowing in all directions. A

pure white one-piece dress. Slender limbs. A young girl, eyes

closed and arms crossed over her chest, gently descended toward

the ground, glowing as if she were a personification of light itself.

The explosion disappeared as quickly as it happened, and the

girl came to a stop to hover just off the ground. Her long eyelashes trembled and slowly rose as she opened her eyes. Within

moments, eyes as deep as the night sky above stared directly into

mine.

I couldn't move. Couldn't speak. Couldn't blink.

Her light pink lips slowly cracked into a smile that could only

be described as angelic. Emboldened by this response, I finally

found my voice.

"Hey, Yui…remember me?"

No sooner were the words out of my mouth than I looked

down at myself with a start. My appearance was completely different from the last time she'd seen me. I had no mirror to check

for myself, but my clothes and facial features had to be entirely

different than before.

But my fear was unfounded. Yui's mouth opened, and her familiar bell-like voice rang out.

"Finally, we meet again, Papa."

Tears glimmering in her eyes, she spread her arms wide and

jumped to embrace me.

"Papa…Papa!"

She cried it out over and over, slinging her fragile arms around

my neck and nuzzling me with her cheek. I held her small body

tight. I could feel a sob leak out of my throat.

Yui. The girl I'd met in the old Sword Art Online world and

lived with for just three days before she vanished. It was a short

time in the grand scheme of things, but those precious memories

were forever burned into my mind. They were the only moments

in that long, painful battle in Aincrad that I could honestly say

that I was happy.

I don't know how long I stood there holding Yui, feeling a

painful sweetness tinged with nostalgia. Miracles were real. I

could surely see Asuna again somehow. We could go back to the

life we had.

It was the first time I was sure of it since I'd come back to the

real world.

"So what the heck is going on here?"

I'd found a stump to sit on, in a corner of the clearing that I'd

landed in just a few minutes earlier. Yui was perched cradled on

my lap, and I was resisting the impulse to ask her immediately

about Asuna.

Yui stopped rubbing her cheek against my chest in sheer bliss

long enough to give me a blank look.

"…?"

"We're not actually inside SAO, right…?"

I gave her a brief explanation of what had happened since she

disappeared. How I compressed Yui and saved her as client-side

data before the server could delete her entirely. How we beat the

game and Aincrad was destroyed. How this was a new world,

Alfheim, and yet the old Kirito's data was here. The only thing I

couldn't put into words was that Asuna still hadn't woken up yet.

"Give me just a moment." Yui shut her eyes, tilting her head

slightly as though listening for a voice I couldn't hear.

"I believe this world," she said, her eyes popping open and

looking into mine, "is a copy of Sword Art Online's server."

"Copy?"

"Yes. The core program and graphics system are entirely identical. That should be clear from the fact that I'm able to exist in

this form. But the Cardinal system's version number is a bit out of

date for some reason. Plus the game component resting on top of

all that is completely different."

"Hmm…"

I thought hard.

ALfheim Online had been released twelve months after the

SAO Incident and not long at all after Argus was shuttered and

RCT took over management of its assets. If RCT had absorbed

Argus's technological property, it was quite possible for them to

essentially re-skin it into a new VRMMO. As long as they hooked

everything into the simulation/feedback engine that was the core

of the game experience, the development costs would be a fraction of what they might have been if it were created from scratch.

It perfectly explained why I thought the world of this game was

just as detailed as Sword Art Online's.

So ALO was running off an altered copy of SAO's system. That

made sense. But…

"Why would my personal data be here in ALO?"

"Let me take a look at your data first, Papa." She closed her

eyes again. "Yes, that settles it. This is your exact same character

data from SAO. The formatting is almost entirely the same, so it

just overwrote your skill data with the old information. Hit points

and mana points are derived from a different equation this time,

so they weren't carried over. It seems your items are all corrupted, though. We should get rid of them before you get caught

by the error detection protocol."

"I see. Good idea."

I ran my finger across the whole inventory to select all the corrupted items. Some of them were mementos of Aincrad packed

with memories, but the situation called for cold pragmatism. Besides, I couldn't possibly pick out and save individual items when

their very names were illegible.

I summoned up my will and deleted them in one fell swoop,

leaving only my starter equipment behind.

"But what about this skill data?"

"The system has no problem with it. They're unnatural based

on your playing time here, but you'll probably be fine as long as a

human GM doesn't take a closer look."

"Oh. Okay…I used to be a beater, now I'm just a cheater, I

guess."

No problem with my character being high-powered, though. I

needed to climb this World Tree and find Asuna—I wasn't looking

for a rewarding gameplay experience.

Besides, looking closer at the skill window gave me the sense

that a character's numerical data didn't tell the whole story in this

game. There was no agility or strength stat like in SAO, and the

gains to be made in HP and MP were slight at best. Raising

weapon proficiency only unlocked more weapon types to use, and

it had no effect on power. And biggest of all, SAO's abundant

sword skills were gone.

In other words, ALfheim Online was an action-heavy game in

which a player's actual movement and decision-making made the

difference, not stats. It would not be like SAO, in which a highpowered character could simply stand still while much weaker

foes failed to put a dent into him.

The one major unknown was the existence of magic, which

was not a part of SAO. There was an "Illusory Magic" in my skill

list—probably a starter skill for spriggans—but I wouldn't know

more about how it affected gameplay until I used it…or had it

used against me.

Window closed, I had another question for Yui, who was still

snuggled against my chest with her eyes shut like a contented cat.

"By the way, how are you handled in this world, Yui?"

She was not actually a human being but an artificial intelligence that broke free of SAO when its mental counseling program

bugged out.

In the present day of 2025, several research laboratories had

announced the development of their own A.I.s that were extremely close to human intelligence. The ability for programs to

act in an intelligent manner had improved to the point that the

line between false intelligence and true intelligence was blurring.

Those A.I.s that straddled the boundary were some of the most

advanced technological feats in existence.

Yui could possibly be counted among them. She might be the

very first true artificial intelligence. But none of that mattered to

me. I loved Yui, and she adored me. That was enough.

"Let's see. Here in ALfheim Online, it seems they have humanlike programs designed for player support, just as in SAO. They're

called Navigation Pixies…and that's how I'm categorized."

As she said this, her brow furrowed. A second later, her body

glowed and disintegrated.

"What the—?" I shouted in alarm. I was about to leap to my

feet and look around when I finally noticed what was resting on

my knees.

She was no more than four inches in height. Tiny limbs extended out of a light magenta dress styled like flower petals.

There were even two pairs of translucent wings on her back: the

very image of a fairy. The size might have been different, but the

adorable face and long black hair were unmistakably Yui's.

"This is what I look like as a pixie."

She stood up on my knees, hands on her waist, and flicked her

wings back and forth.

"Oooh…"

Impressed, I jabbed her cheek with a finger.

"Hey, that tickles!" She laughed, flitting up into the air with a

jingling sound to escape the wrath of my finger, before perching

on my shoulder.

"So, do you still have admin privileges like before?"

"No," she said, slightly disappointed. "All I can access are reference data and general map information. I can also view the status of players I've contacted personally, but I can't seem to get

into the main database."

"I see. The thing is…" I composed myself to deliver the most

important news. "Asuna, your mama…is here in this world."

"Huh…? Mama's here?" She leaped off my shoulder and hovered just in front of my face. "What do you mean?"

"…"

I was about to explain about Sugou but stopped at the last moment. It was the weight of negative human emotions that originally brought Yui to the brink of ruin. I didn't want to expose her

to any more malice.

"Even after the SAO server disintegrated, Asuna never came

back to reality. I came here on some information that a person

who looked like her was spotted in ALO. It could just be a coincidental stranger, but without anything better to go on…"

"I had no idea…I'm sorry, Papa. If I had the authority, I could

run a check through the player database and tell you right away,

but I don't."

"Actually, I have a good idea where to find her. It's called the

World Tree. Do you know where that is?"

"Ah, yes. That would be to the northeast, but it's quite far off.

More than thirty miles by real distance."

"Wow, that's really incredible, huh…Five times the diameter of

the base floor of Aincrad…By the way, why did I get logged in to

such a remote stretch of forest?" I wondered aloud, but Yui didn't

seem to have an answer.

"Either your locational data was corrupted or your information got mixed with another player diving within your real-life

vicinity. But I couldn't say for sure."

"Would have been nice if I'd been teleported right next to the

World Tree. Anyway, I was told you could fly in this game." I got

to my feet and craned my neck over my shoulder. "Hey, I've got

wings!"

Sprouting from my back were sharply angled, clear gray wings

—they almost looked like insect wings. I had no idea how to use

them, however.

"So how do you fly?"

"It seems there's a controller for assistance. Put out your left

hand and motion like you're gripping something."

Following Yui's instructions, I held out my hand and squeezed.

Suddenly, I was holding what looked like a simple joystick.

"Let's see, if you pull it back, you fly up, and pushing it down

makes you descend. Turn left or right for rotation, the button accelerates, and letting go decelerates."

"Sounds simple enough."

I tried slowly pulling back the stick. The wings on my back

sprung to full extension and began glowing gently. I pulled hard.

"Whoa!"

Abruptly I was floating, gently rising from the forest floor.

Once I was a few feet off the ground, my body went into neutral,

and I tried pressing the spherical button on the top of the stick. I

started gliding forward, smoothly and effortlessly.

After a few experiments with descent and rotation, I started

getting the hang of the controls. Compared to the flight-sim VR

games I'd tried before, it was actually quite simple.

"Okay, I think I've got it down. Next, I need some basic information. Which way's the nearest town?"

"There's a place called Swilvane to the west. That's the closest

—Oh…"

She looked up suddenly.

"What's wrong?"

"Players are approaching. It seems like a group of three chasing one…"

"Ooh, a battle? Let's go check it out."

"You never have a care in the world, do you, Papa?"

I gave Yui's head a quick knuckling, then turned to my inventory to ensure my starter longsword was equipped on my back. I

pulled it out and gave a few practice swings.

"Yikes, this thing is so cheap and flimsy. Oh well…"

Once the sword was back in its scabbard, I produced the flight

stick again.

"Take the lead, Yui."

"Roger!"

She alighted from my shoulder with a jingling of bells, and I

started off on my first flight in the game.

The salamander's gout of magic fire finally hit Leafa square in the

back.

"Urgh!!"

There was no pain or heat to it, of course, but it felt as though

a giant hand had caught her right in the back, and the shock wave

toppled her balance. It didn't do much damage, thanks to the pro-

tective wind spell she'd cast during her escape, but sylph territory

was still a long way off.

On top of that, Leafa's speed was starting to slow. It was that

damned flight limitation. In less than a minute, her wings would

lose their power, and she wouldn't be able to fly at all.

"Hngh…"

She gnashed her teeth and dropped into a steep dive for the

trees. With the enemy's mage, she wouldn't be able to hide for

long, but it wasn't Leafa's style to give up and get hit.

She plunged through the canopy and made her way toward the

surface, darting among the many layers of branches, her speed

rapidly falling as she did. Eventually, she found a relatively clear

space with plenty of thick grass. Leafa made a quick landing, the

soles of her boots sliding on the ground to provide traction, and

darted for cover around the back of a large tree ahead. Once out

of sight, she put her hands in the air to cast a hiding spell.

Just as in fantasy movies, magic in ALO required the chanting

of spells out loud. The game system required them to be spoken

at a certain volume with clear pronunciation. Any slip of the

tongue would cause the spell to fail, and then the caster had to

start all over again.

Leafa successfully rattled off the memorized spell as quickly as

she could, and a light green vapor issued from around her feet

and upward, concealing her from the enemy.

This would protect her for the moment, but a high-level

Search skill or clairvoyance spell would quickly see through her

disguise. She held her breath and stayed as still as possible.

Within moments, she heard the approaching dull buzz of multiple salamanders. They landed in the clearing behind her. She

could hear their measured shouts over the clanking of heavy

armor.

"She must be around here somewhere! Search!"

"You know sylphs are good at hiding. We should use magic."

After that, she heard the dull chanting of a spell. She had to

hold her tongue to avoid uttering a curse. Just a few seconds

later, the rustling of grass being parted came closer and closer.

The small shadows crawling over the massive tree's roots toward her were lizards with red skin and eyes—actual salamanders. They represented the clairvoyance spell in effect. Several

dozen searchers spread out in a circle formation from the caster.

If they noticed any hidden players or monsters, they would leap

out to make contact and burst into flames to alert the caster to

the location.

Go away! Try somewhere else! Leafa silently commanded the

lizards. They crawled on their paths at random, but her prayer

went unheeded. One touched the surface of the vapor concealing

her and instantly unleashed a high-pitched cry before lighting

into vivid flame.

"There! She's over there!"

Sounds of clanking metal rapidly approached, and Leafa had

no choice but to leave the shadow of the tree. She spun around,

sword in hand, to see three salamanders facing her with lances at

the ready.

"You're a pain in the ass, girl," the man on the right said angrily, raising the visor on his helmet. The man in the center, who

seemed to be their leader, continued.

"Sorry, but duty calls. Leave your money and items, and we'll

let you go."

"Why? Let's kill her! We haven't had a girl sylph in ages!" the

man on the left said this time, also sliding up his visor. The look

he gave her was drunk with violence and power.

Her year of experience had taught her that there were more

than a few who made a sport of "women-hunting." Leafa's skin

crawled with revulsion. Hurling sexist taunts and groping others

outside of battle set off the game's antiharassment protection, but

killing was central to the game's conceit. Some sick bastards even

claimed that killing a female VRMMO player was the greatest

pleasure to be found in the game.

It was already bad enough in ALO, which was run with all the

proper checks and balances. Leafa couldn't even imagine what

happened in that other legendary game without a chill running

down her back.

She felt her feet grip the ground and raised her beloved twohanded blade over her head, saving her most powerful glare for

the salamanders.

"I'll take at least one of you down with me. Do your worst, if

you're not afraid of the death penalty," she growled. The two men

on the sides swung their lances, snarling with rage. The leader cut

them short with a gesture.

"Give it up. Your wings are at their limit, and we have plenty of

stamina to spare."

He was right. Stuck on the ground against a flying enemy was

the last place anyone wanted to be in ALO—especially one against

three. But she wouldn't give in. Especially not if the alternative

was giving them money and begging to be set free.

"You've got a strong will. Very well."

The leader shrugged, raised his lance, and beat his wings so

that he hovered off the ground. The salamanders to either side

followed his lead, controllers in hand.

Leafa's biceps clenched, preparing to deliver at least one

deadly swing at full power, even if it meant she wound up pierced

by a trio of spears. They spread out to surround her on three

sides. But just as they were set to charge, the scene was interrupted.

The shrub behind them rustled, and a black silhouette

emerged. It slipped just past the salamanders, went into some

kind of tailspin, and crashed into the grass with a tremendous

clatter.

This wholly unexpected diversion caught Leafa and the salamanders off guard. They all stared at the mystery interloper.

"Ugh, oww…I've got the flying down; it's the landing that's the

tricky part."

That carefree comment came from the lightly tanned man who

pulled himself off the ground. He had lively spiked hair and large,

slightly slanted eyes. The overall combination suggested a rambunctious kid. The clear gray wings on his back marked him as a

spriggan.

Leafa couldn't believe her eyes—both that a spriggan would be

here, so far from his territory in the distant east, and at the equipment he appeared to be wearing. He was dressed in a simple

black doublet and trousers, no armor whatsoever. A flimsy-looking sword was his only weapon. It was clearly starter equipment.

What was this newbie thinking, wandering out deep into neutral

territory like this?

She called out a warning, unable to stand seeing a clueless

newcomer brutally hunted for sport. "What are you doing? Run!"

But the boy in black didn't budge. Did he not realize that PKing was legal among the different races? He shoved a hand into

his pocket, surveyed the scene of Leafa and the three airborne

salamanders, and said, "You need three heavily armed warriors to

attack one girl? That's kinda lame."

"What did you say?!" Two of the salamanders took offense to

his lazy insult and flew over to flank him, front and back. They

lowered their lances and prepared to charge.

"Ugh…"

Even if she wanted to help, Leafa was effectively pinned down

by the leader, who was still watching her like a hawk.

"You must be an idiot, barging directly into our business like

this. Let's start with you!"

The salamander positioned in front of the boy loudly snapped

down his visor. The next moment, his outstretched wings glowed

ruby red, and he charged. The one in the rear prepared to charge

on a slight delay, so he could catch the boy if he dodged the first

attack.

It was a helpless situation for any new player. Leafa bit her lip

and averted her eyes, not wanting to see the boy run through…

But something unbelievable happened.

With his right hand still in his pocket, the boy extended his left

hand and simply grabbed the deadly tip of the charging lance.

The air was shattered by the light and sound of a successful guard

effect. As Leafa watched, openmouthed with shock, the boy used

the salamander's momentum to hurl him backward, lance and all.

"Aaaah!"

The salamander wailed in surprise as he collided directly with

his waiting partner, and they fell to earth with a metallic clatter.

The boy turned around to face them, put his hand on the

sword behind his head—and stopped, looking to Leafa hesitantly.

"Um…so am I allowed to waste these guys?"

"I'd say so…That's certainly what they're trying to do to you,"

she answered, still taken aback by the boy.

"Ah, good point. In that case…"

He pulled the weak-looking sword from its scabbard and let its

tip trace along the ground. For all his talk about "wasting" their

foes, neither his movement nor his manner suggested much confidence. His weight was balanced much too far forward, with his

left foot perched in front, when—

A sudden shock wave erupted where the boy used to be. Even

Leafa couldn't follow his path, and she'd never once been caught

blind by an attack in the game. She spun around hurriedly to see

the boy crouched over, far from where he'd been standing. His

pose suggested he'd brought up his sword to slash directly in

front of him.

The salamander who was closer to standing after their collision suddenly erupted into red End Flames, then disintegrated. A

small wisp of flame was left floating in the air.

How can anyone be so fast? Leafa wondered, terrified. Her

body was trembling with the shock of witnessing a move she'd

never experienced before.

Only one thing defined a character's movement speed in this

world: the speed of the brain when processing the signals sent by

the full-dive system. The AmuSphere sent out a pulse; the brain

received it, processed it, and then sent feedback in the form of a

movement signal. The quicker that response system, the faster a

character could move. It was said that only through considerable

experience could one eventually move faster than his or her natural reaction speed.

Though she didn't like to toot her own horn, Leafa was one of

the very fastest among the sylphs. She'd honed her reflexes over

many years, and twelve months of experience in ALO had taught

her that no one could get the jump on her in a one-on-one fight.

But this shattered that preconception.

As Leafa and the airborne salamander leader watched,

stunned, the boy got to his feet and turned around, sword at the

ready.

The other remaining salamander was still baffled as to what

had happened. He was swiveling around, looking for his foe in

the wrong direction.

The boy didn't wait to be found. He prepared another brutal

attack, one that Leafa swore she wouldn't miss this time.

His first motion was easy, lazy, unhurried. But as soon as his

first step hit the ground—

He blurred as another shock wave ripped the air. She actually

saw it this time. It was like watching a movie in fast-forward, unconnected frames burned into her vision. The boy's sword shot

from below to above, severing the salamander's torso. Even the

flash of the visual effect was a split second late. He traveled forward a few extra yards and ended with the sword brandished high

over his head. Another burst of flame announced a new fatality,

and the second salamander was gone.