Awakening (Cont.), July 7th, 2026 AD / November 7th, 380 HE Part 2

But Asuna grabbed her shoulder to hold her back.

"It's all right, Liena," she whispered, suppressing her own fear. This woman

had apparently been his instructor at the swordfighting academy he'd attended.

"Kirito will be all right. He won't lose to that awful man…He'd never."

And Ronie, whom Kirito had instructed in turn, tearfully agreed. "That's right.

Kirito won't lose this fight."

"...Of course," said Sortiliena. She reached up to squeeze Asuna's hand

where it rested on her shoulder.

But then, as if mocking their assurances, PoH's Mate-Chopper dug down

farther. Kirito's left knee hit the ground. The arm holding up the black sword

was trembling with effort. He seemed to be nearly out of strength.

PoH leaned in closer to Kirito's strained features. "Drop that piece-of-shit

sword and use your other hand already," he mocked. "Those Chinese and

Koreans you're keeping frozen were killing all your friends, you know that? Why

should you care if they kill one another this time?"

Despite the force pressing down on him, Kirito mustered an icy reply to the

devil's temptations. "I know exactly how you do things. You make people fight,

you sow the seeds of hatred, and you set up the next conflict. You caused

plenty of chaos that way in SAO, but you're not going to get away with that in

the Underworld…I'll make sure of that."

"Oh yeah? How so? Once they're unfrozen, they're going to slaughter the

surviving Japanese and all your precious Underworlders. The only way to stop

that is to kill them. Just smash them all to pieces while they're frozen. Your

friends can handle that. Just give the orders…Tell them to kill all the Chinese

and Koreans."

"..."

Kirito did not respond to the venomous suggestion. But Asuna could tell

exactly what PoH's plot was about.

The Chinese and Korean players wrapped in icy vines didn't seem to be in any

pain at the moment, but if they were broken apart, it would cause tremendous

agony. The pain would lead to anger and make whatever rage they felt toward

the Japanese players permanent.

The deaths of the invading soldiers would also spill a great amount of

resources that his Mate-Chopper could absorb. He would have enough power

to win the fight against Kirito and slaughter every remaining person.

Kirito had to know that, and he wasn't going to fall for it. But in order to

prevent that disaster, he had to use the sword in his left hand to maintain the

freezing spell, making his chances in the fight against his archenemy dire.

With each tremble of the hand holding off the huge machete, more sparks

flew off where they intersected. The heavy blade got closer, slowly but surely.

There was only a fist's worth of space between it and Kirito's left shoulder.

"…But if you wanna be stubborn and die, that's fine by me," PoH said, a

venomous smile on his lips. "Don't worry. After I kill you, I'll murder the Flash

and everyone else, too."

The reaper's eyes glowed like will-o'-the-wisps in the darkness of the hood.

His mouth opened all the way to his cheekbones, revealing sharp fangs.

"Come on…Let me taste your lifeblood, Kirito."

PoH licked his lips with a pointed, reptilian tongue and put even more

strength into the Mate-Chopper. The black sword screamed in protest. The fatal

edge was closing the gap, a fraction of an inch per second…

Suddenly, from just over Asuna's shoulder, she heard a voice praying, "Please,

Eugeo, save Kirito."

Asuna, Sortiliena, and Ronie turned around to see Tiese, the red-haired girl,

with her hands clasped before her chest. A moment later, Asuna sensed Tiese's

hair billowing outward nearly imperceptibly and a ripple like a breeze in the air.

She turned to face forward again.

The enlarged Mate-Chopper had just made contact with Kirito's shoulder.

That was enough for the fabric of his black shirt to split. Asuna held her breath,

anticipating the sight of her lover's blood flowing.

But…instead, the Mate-Chopper stopped there.

In fact, it was inching back upward, bit by bit. But where was Kirito's

exhausted arm finding the strength…?

"Ah...," murmured someone, either Ronie or Sortiliena.

Asuna saw it, too: another arm, golden and translucent, gripping the handle

of the black sword.

A moment later, Kirito noticed it as well. His eyes widened, then his face

scrunched up. Tears welled in his eyes and fell, glistening in the light.

His lips budged, too, but she couldn't make out his voice.

Then, a moment later, a fierce scream erupted from his throat.

"Raaaaaaaaah!!"

He jolted the Mate-Chopper backward. PoH's arms were thrown back, and he

toppled over, swearing. Kirito promptly stood up from his kneeling position and

thrust his broken white sword upward into the air.

"Release Recollection!!"

An impossibly bright burst of light covered everything, turning the world

white. PoH put up a hand to block his face.

Through squinting eyes, Asuna saw the ugly, broken blade of the sword

collecting the concentrated and crystallized light as it regenerated itself. In just

a few seconds, the sword was whole again.

Schwing!! It flashed even brighter, a pulse that spread outward. After a

moment of silence, a pure, grand wave of sound came into being, like hundreds,

thousands of bells ringing at once. The four women looked around, wide-eyed.

The frozen-white VRMMO players from China and Korea sprouted millions of

flowers—brilliant-blue roses, as delicate as if carved from lapis lazuli.

The great bloom of roses began to exude silver particles from the blossoms'

cores. It was pure life resources—Asuna understood on instinct that this was

the HP of the players.

Players who had been surging with fury just minutes ago, ready to kill one

another, now turned to pillars of light with their eyes peacefully closed. They

vanished without pain or suffering of any kind. It was the most serene possible

way to achieve a forced log-out.

Now the seeds of hatred PoH had tried to plant in the other players would not

bloom into flowers of their own.

"What the hell…do you think you're doing?!" snarled the reaper, his plot

undone. But just as quickly, he regained his wild smirk and lifted his machete.

Asuna knew what he was planning to do. Now there were life resources—

what the Underworlders would call "sacred power"—floating all over the

battlefield from the millions of blue roses. He was going to use his weapon's

suction power to absorb all of it.

"Kirito…!" she cried, feeling a jolt of panic.

Absorbing the lives of two thousand murdered Japanese players earlier had

caused the Mate-Chopper to swell to three times its size and given it power at

least equal to Stacia's GM equipment. If it absorbed ten times that number,

PoH would turn into a demon…a true devil. If Kirito was immobilized from

executing the wide-scale art, then Asuna would have to help…

But before she could will a last burst of strength into her wilted legs, she

heard Yuuki's voice again, whispering into her ear like a gentle breeze.

It's all right…Look.

That was when Asuna realized that the silver lights gathering in midair and

forming several rippling ribbon strips were completely ignoring PoH's MateChopper. No matter how hard he thrust it into the sky and focused, they made

no motion toward the blade.

The voice sounded in her head again.

You said it, remember? Life is a tool that transports and relates the heart.

All these people from different countries who gathered in this place? They

don't really want to kill one another.

Everyone has the same wish. To go to a world of excitement and fun…A great,

beautiful, thrilling world like the land of fairies where you and I met, Asuna…

That's all there is to it.

"…Yeah. You're right, Yuuki," Asuna whispered, inaudible to anyone else.

Right on that cue, Kirito lifted the black sword in his other hand so that both

his swords were pointing to the sky. The swirling black clouds that PoH had

summoned began to reverse direction and dissipate. A little hole of blue sky

peeked through the center, allowing a ray of golden sun to hit the black blade

and make it shine like crystal.

"Release Recollection," Kirito said, for the second sword this time, savoring

the sound of the words.

Instantly, the softly rippling sheets of silver began to knit themselves together

and flow into the black sword.

"Suck!" screamed PoH in English, and he swung the Mate-Chopper to

compete with the flow. But the ribbons had a mind of their own and avoided his

evil dagger, fusing with Kirito's sword instead.

"…Eugeo told me that Kirito's black sword was once a gigantic cedar tree at

the very far north of the human realm," explained Tiese in a trembling voice.

Sortiliena nodded in recognition. "Of course…that's why it has the ability to

suck in sacred power…"

Their words fused with what she'd just heard Yuuki say, and Asuna finally

understood the nature of what was happening.

If Kirito's black sword had the ability to absorb resources, then why was it

able to pull in what the blue roses were exuding, even though PoH's MateChopper couldn't, despite the fact that it, too, had absorbing powers? That was

because the evil dagger sucked in not life resources but death resources.

PoH himself had said it: The Mate-Chopper got stronger the more people it

killed. If it was the owner's power of imagination that granted the wicked knife

the ability to absorb resources, then it could devour death resources spilled by

bloody murder, but it could not suck up the life resources that the white sword

coaxed out through nonlethal means.

But Kirito's black sword was different. If it was originally created from a tree

that grew on the strength of the earth and the sun, then both the sword and

the mental association in the mind of its owner would allow it to absorb that

life.

The white sword in his left hand froze targets across a wide stretch of land,

releasing their life into the air.

The black sword in his right hand then sucked up that life power from all over,

converting it to energy.

It was a very simple but thus incredibly powerful bit of synergy. The perfect

pairing. Ideal partners.

As it drew in the vast length of silvery ribbon, the center of the black sword

began to shine a dazzling golden color. The resources were traveling through

the hilt into Kirito's arm, as well.

His shriveled body, as skinny as a stick, rapidly began to regain its original

strength. The recovery phenomenon wasn't isolated to just his body; the shirt

that had been ripped here and there during the fighting was instantly repaired.

Fingerless gloves appeared on his hands, and riveted boots on his feet.

The line of light traveled from his shoulders down his arms, then down his

back. A moment later, a shining black leather texture appeared there. It was his

trademark long coat from the SAO days. When the ends of the coat settled

down and lay still, the two sheaths lying discarded on the ground flew up and

affixed themselves to his back in a crossed configuration.

"...Kiri…to..."

Asuna, overwhelmed by emotion, stared at the figure of Kirito the Black

Swordsman, back in his dual-wielding form, through eyes blurred with tears.

Sortiliena and Ronie had shining streaks down their cheeks on either side of her,

too. Behind them, Tiese was sobbing.

A few seconds later, Kirito had finished absorbing all the ribbons of life, and

he easily lowered his swords. The majority of the Chinese and Korean players

on the battlefield had logged out already. Asuna turned around and indicated

her gratitude with a look to the red knight who'd tried to save Klein. Then he,

too, vanished, and the wasteland where so much horrible slaughter had taken

place was as quiet as though it had never happened.

All she could hear was the sound of dry wind howling and the high-pitched

squeaking of metal. It was coming from the black sword that glowed with a

golden aura, engorged with so much energy.

PoH gave up on seizing resources at last and lowered the Mate-Chopper in

silence. There was still a giant hole in his chest from Asuna's Mother's Rosario

skill. When the resource power left in his wicked knife was depleted, his life

would end.

That must have been clear to him, but he just stood there in silence now. No

insults or taunts. He didn't seem to be giving up, either. There was a freezingcold aura exuding from his skin, and Asuna could feel it prickling her just from

looking at him from a distance.

One side of his mouth curled into a sneer, and his lips parted.

"You really are the best, Kirito. Then and now, no one else has made me want

to kill them as much as you do. I hate to bring this all to an end, but I'm not

going to get a better stage to do it on than this one…"

PoH lifted the machete and thrust out his free hand. He beckoned with his

long fingers, curling them to show off the tattoo of the laughing face in the

coffin on the back of his hand.

"…Let's enjoy this, Black Swordsman," he said, an invitation of pure,

concentrated malice.

"Yes," Kirito agreed, "let's end this."

He spread his feet apart and dropped his hips, holding the white sword

forward and the black sword behind him. The hostility and concentration

between the two combatants intensified, sparks flying in the space between

them.

As they'd both claimed, the next trading of blows would be the last, Asuna

could sense. Her eyes were wide open, and her breath caught in her throat.

Another dry gust of wind blew past, and when it stopped, the Black

Swordsman and the black reaper moved together.

PoH's Mate-Chopper emitted a dark-red light, sticky and viscous in quality. As

he shot forward with terrifying speed, his body split into three.

Asuna didn't know this sword skill, but for his part, Kirito left his right sword

down, activating his white sword with a crimson glow instead. That would be

the One-Handed Sword skill Deadly Sins.

PoH slashed at him, forward, left, and right, but Kirito's combination attack

deflected each of them. The giant bloodred dagger and the ruby longsword

caused the earth and the atmosphere to quake with each impact.

Once the three PoHs had attacked twice each, six times in total, the left and

right afterimages vanished. The real one then pulled back and swung down

ferociously. Kirito swiped at a left angle to block the attack. A shock wave and

an explosion of sparks resulted.

Deadly Sins was a seven-part skill; it would cause Kirito to suffer a movement

delay. If PoH had another attack ready, Kirito couldn't defend against it.

The reaper's hood blew back from the impact of his overhead swing being

blocked, exposing his full appearance for the first time since the SAO days.

There was a ghastly smile on his face, which was fiercely sculpted and not

quite Japanese looking. PoH swung his gloomy, glowing knife toward Kirito's

shoulder yet again: an eighth attack.

But in that moment, Kirito's black sword flashed red. It was a shade deeper

and hotter than that of Deadly Sins—the color of flame.

Canceling out the delay that should have lasted at least a full second, the

black sword was thrust with impossible speed. He was executing a technique

that only he could do: Skill Connect, a seamless transition between sword skills

with separate weapons.

With a roar like a combustion engine firing, the heavy thrust Vorpal Strike met

in midair with what was probably the last of an eight-part combination attack

from PoH.

This caused the greatest shock wave of all, which rippled outward, creating

cracks in the ground. It whipped up ferocious winds of dust and heat, but Asuna

narrowed her eyes only the minimum amount necessary; she was determined

to see the end of this duel.

When the gust of wind had dissipated, she saw the two of them motionless,

tips of the black sword and red machete intersecting before them. The fight

wasn't over yet. They were focusing the maximum amount of energy into the

minimum point of intersection, each pushing with all his strength to overpower

the other.

In terms of the accumulated resources in each weapon, Kirito's black sword

ought to be utterly overwhelming PoH's Mate-Chopper, but it wasn't turning

out that way. In this world, the power of imagination, the power to envision—

what the knights called "Incarnation"—had the potential to overturn any

numerical value.

The simplicity of PoH's Incarnation was what made it so powerful. He fought

to kill…to fill the world with discord, mistrust, hostility, and malice.

Then why did Kirito fight?

Here in this world, he had lost a treasured friend. And while there might have

been external circumstances involved, he had experienced enough despair to

be in a vacant state for half of an entire year. But now he was standing again,

wielding his swords. What kind of Incarnation was giving him strength…?

Asuna couldn't put the answer into words—but she didn't think she needed

to. Kirito had fought with so many things on his shoulders to this point. He'd

done it in SAO, in ALO, and in GGO. He was doing it right now.

Hesitation, suffering, and sadness could be strength, too. Tears could be

turned into light. And that light would never be defeated by PoH's darkness.

Isn't that right…Kirito?

Asuna didn't know whether her prayer reached his ears. But just then, there

was a faint but definite sound in response.

Crack.

PoH's weapon of evil, the Mate-Chopper, created so that man could kill man,

now had a glowing red crack running from tip to base like a bolt of lightning.

Then the huge machete burst into countless tiny shards—and Kirito's Vorpal

Strike extended onward for another twenty feet, obliterating PoH's right arm.

Another gust of wind interfered with Asuna's field of view. She could no

longer sit; she had to rise. So did Tiese, Sortiliena, and Ronie, and behind them,

Klein, Silica, and Lisbeth.

In time, the dust settled, revealing the two former SAO players locked in tight

formation.

PoH's remaining arm dangled at his side without a weapon, Kirito's black

sword penetrating deep through his chest. But that was the place where Asuna

had burst the hole in the first place, so he didn't appear to have suffered any

new physical damage.

He smiled confidently, blood dripping from the hole and his mouth, probably

because the Mate-Chopper was no longer providing him with the resources to

keep him alive.

"…Yeah…that's more like it. But…this isn't the end. I might log out of this

world, but I'll always come back to threaten you," he vowed. "Over and over,

until I've slit your and Flash's throats and carved out your hearts…"

Kirito betrayed no hint of emotion. He quietly replied, "No, this is the end.

You won't be logging out of the Underworld."

The black sword flashed for a brief instant.

When the light subsided, Kirito slowly pulled the blade out of the hole in

PoH's chest and took a few steps back. Despite the lack of support, PoH did not

collapse. The same awful grin was slapped across his face, and he tried to say

something else.

But when his mouth opened, it made a creaking noise and froze in place. So

did his limbs. They paused in an unnatural pose, cracking and changing texture.

The shining black leather turned to a kind of fabric, covered in hairline cracks.

The metal rivets became protruding lumps. The Grim Reaper was undergoing an

abnormal transformation of sorts.

Kirito went on: "This sword was originally a huge tree that the people of Rulid

called the Gigas Cedar. For two hundred years, they chopped at it with their

axes, to no avail. I sent the memory of this sword into your body."

Indeed, over half of the surface of PoH's body was turning into a kind of

charcoal-black tree bark. His legs fused into one limb, growing roots into the

earth. His arms turned into eerily gnarled, twisted branches, and his hair

sharpened into needles. Lastly, his eyes and mouth became a trio of small

knotholes.

"When they see that the Chinese and Korean players are logging out, your

friends will resume the time acceleration. I don't know if it'll be years or

decades until you're let out of the STL, but you'd better pray it's on the shorter

side. If some enterprising frontiersmen start a village here, you might have

children coming to chop you down with an ax."

It was impossible to say whether PoH actually perceived the words at this

point. There was no longer a human being standing there across from Kirito, but

an ugly cedar tree only six feet tall.

Kirito stared at the tree for a moment before turning to Asuna's group. He

smiled and nodded to them, then looked at the wounded Japanese players and

Underworlders. He raised the black sword again, which still harbored a golden

glow at its center.

"System Call. Transfer Durability to Local Area."

Shaaaa…

A sound filled the battlefield, faint in volume but stretching from end to end.

It was raining.

The resources released by the sword took form in the sky overhead and

descended to earth as little droplets of delicate light. The wounded and

exhausted Japanese players and the members of the Human Guardian Army

who were utterly spent from consecutive battles all felt their bodies being

healed. And perhaps their hearts and minds, too…

Having expelled all of the black sword's resources, Kirito put it and the white

sword he was holding in his other hand back into their scabbards over his

shoulders.

Asuna watched the black-clad swordsman take step after deliberate step

through the all-healing rain of light. She couldn't move or even speak. It felt like

all of it would vanish if she spoke, returning to illusion. So she just kept her eyes

open, smiled, and waited.

Instead, it was Klein who stepped forward.

His severed left arm and skewered torso were back to pristine condition. But

the samurai still clutched his chest like he was in great pain, tottering forward.

"Kirito…Kirito, man…," he said, his usual cheery self, though his voice cracked

a bit. "You gotta stop it with takin' all the juiciest, most heroic scenes…"

He was practically crying. The tall, lanky samurai grabbed the dual-swordsman

in black by the shoulders and pressed his bandana-less forehead against the

shorter man's neck. His back trembled, and huge sobs left his throat.

"Aaah…aaaaaaaah…"

Kirito put his arms around his weeping friend's back. He shut his eyes and

clenched his jaws; there were shining tracks down his cheeks, too.

"…Kirito," Ronie said. She got up and began to run for him. Teardrops flew off

her face as she plowed straight into his shoulder. Sortiliena followed close

behind her.

Even Agil's eyes were wet. Lisbeth and Silica were hugging each other and

crying. The Japanese players in the area—the ALO leaders like Sakuya, Alicia,

and Eugene; Siune and Jun from the Sleeping Knights; and many others—had

faces wet and shining, from both the rain of light and the tears that adorned

their cheeks.

Even the soldiers and priests of the more distant Human Guardian Army were

uniformly red-eyed. They knelt as a group, each pressing a fist to their chest and

hanging their head in salute.

"...From the moment I first met him, I knew. I knew that he would save us all

with his two swords," said a gentle voice behind Asuna.

She turned around to see the young Integrity Knight Renly and his dragon

mount behind him. Both had been gravely wounded, but the signs of their

damage were now limited only to the armor they wore.

Asuna was so full of emotion that all she could do was nod once or twice.

Renly's head bobbed in return, then he walked to Tiese, who was still kneeling

on the ground, and crouched next to her.

An examination of the battlefield showed that not a single one of the twenty

thousand Chinese and Korean VRMMO players was left. Every last one was

gone.

Once the attackers discovered that the players had logged out, they would

surely cancel their strategy of bringing in real-world help and raise the

acceleration rate to maximum again. Once that happened, Klein and all the

others using AmuSpheres would automatically get kicked out.

Kirito must have been aware of that, too. He clapped Klein on the shoulder,

pulled away, and looked out on the rest of the Japanese players.

Then he bowed his head deeply and said, "Thank you, everyone…Your

feelings for me, and the blood and tears you shed, will not go to waste. Truly,

thank you all."

Yes…the battle was not over yet.

The deadly PoH and his army of American, Chinese, and Korean players were

gone, but there was still the head honcho of the enemy left, Emperor Vecta. He

had kidnapped Alice the Integrity Knight, the core of Project Alicization, and was

flying south at this very moment to the distant World's End Altar.

Asuna sucked in a deep breath and stood up at last. She made her way

through the other players, all standing stock-still and reeling with their own

emotions, and walked steadily toward Kirito.

He lifted his face and looked straight at her.

For an instant, she was seized by a powerful urge, and she held her breath.

She wanted to leap into the arms of her beloved. She wanted to cry with the

abandon of a child, to unleash all her pent-up emotions.

But she kept them in check for now—barely—and reported the present

concern.

"Kirito…Emperor Vecta took Alice."

"Yeah. I do remember the situation, if fuzzily," Kirito said, his expression

sharp. He held out his hand. "Let's go save her. I'll need your help, Asuna."

"...!..."

It was all she could take.

Asuna rushed over to seize his hand and pressed it to her cheek.

His other arm went around her back and pulled her in close.

The embrace was only momentary, but Asuna felt that, within that moment,

an incredible amount of information that couldn't be expressed in words was

traded between them.

He gazed into her eyes again, right up close, nodded, and looked to the sky to

the south. He raised his right hand in that direction, his fingers waving around

as if searching for something.

"...Found them."

"Huh…?" Asuna murmured, but Kirito only grinned and did not elaborate.

He looked around at the rest of the group again, clapped Klein on the

shoulder, rubbed Ronie's head, and said, "Well, we're off."

And then…

Lisbeth watched as Kirito and Asuna burst off into the sky, glowing brilliant

green and heading south at a phenomenal speed. She blinked a few times in

surprise, then exhaled long and slow.

"Well, I guess he hasn't lost his edge or his sense of abandon…"

Nearby, Silica giggled.

Klein clapped his hands together. "Damn, who does he think he is…?" he

shouted, then name-dropped the hero of an action comic from generations ago.

"He's freakin' invincible. He always gets all the best scenes, I tell ya…"

Fresh tears glistened on his cheeks. Ever since they'd first met in Aincrad and

he'd been smitten by Kirito, the youth had always been that to Klein: an

invincible, unstoppable, eternal hero.

He is to me, too.

Lisbeth looked to the south, her vision clouded by endless tears. She wanted

to commit this world to her memory before she logged out in a few moments,

never to return to it.

All so she could relate the image to the many players who'd been logged out

in agony and humiliation, to let them know that their painful efforts were not in

vain.