Chapter 21

I looked over at the player who said it as I knew what he meant, "No... We can't be soft blocked here!!!" I thought as other players asked "What's soft blocked..?". I explained to the confused players "Soft blocking means that the game is stopping us from progressing, the only way is to reset the game...".

The players looked between themselves as they said "We can't reset the game! We're so close to the finish line!!" as they began rallying up a bit. A few minutes turned into hours, as almost all of us sat down to re-think about the situation. By now we all knew that we were stuck in this place, despair was filling the atmosphere of the room.

I looked at Toru who had her head on my lap and holding my hand. She had taken her gloves off to hold my hand with her ring on, she sighed as I heard a wind chime sound again. I checked my messages as Kirito had sent me a message, "I have a hunch but... I need both of us to try something...".

I replied, "What do you need to do?" as he sent to me "I need the both of us to attack Heathcliff". I looked at him confused as we were a few meters apart from one another, I looked down and sent him a message saying "Why? Why Heathcliff, is it because you lost in the fight?".

He replied back "No, well kind of, but I just have a hunch that something's up with him, He's too calm in a place like this where we're stuck. It's almost like he has his own exit...".

I looked at him and he stared at me, I looked down at the text and replied "What do you mean by that?" as Kirito explained in a message,

"He's really calm in a situation where we're stuck...I think that he could be Kayaba... No other player should be calm while the feeling of despair is in this room... but how it leads to my hunch of him being Kayaba is...something that has to do with our fight..."

I looked at him a little concerned as he sent another message saying "Just...Trust me alright" as I sighed. I looked at him and nodded as I let go of Toru's hand and slowly got up. Kirito and I unsheathed our weapons as I switched my dual wield skill.

We blitzed towards Heathcliff from both sides as Kirito thrusted his Dark repulser and I swung my sword diagonally towards him. Our swords slammed into a force field as for the both of us a purple hexagon popped up saying "Immortal Object". Everyone saw this as Kirito and I jumped back now cautious of the situation.

"Heathcliff...?"

Asuna said as her, Toru, Kirito and I were the only ones to recognize that purple hexagon. Heathcliff looked around as everyone was shocked at this revelation, He sighed, dropping his act saying "Well the cat's out of the bag now...".

"You're quick to know Kirito, I assume you knew I was Kayaba from our fight huh?"

Heathcliff said in an almost emotionless tone, Kirito's surprised expression told me all I needed to know. I then asked him "Kayaba, Why did you do this! For two years now you kept us under this fucking world!!" as I was visibly angry.

He turned his attention to me as he looked at me and said "The Dark Knight wants to talk now? Oh please, go kill another orange or red player now would you." as I took that as an Insult.

"You self-loathing son of a bitch!!!"

I shouted as I swung my sword and slammed it against the purple hexagon once again. "Now that's the Kirin I know, always quick to temper, strong, and most importantly, willing to take another person's life in a second!" Kayaba said with almost an excited tone.

This frightened me a bit as I felt my body suddenly freeze up and fall to the floor. Kayaba then tapped an icon as everybody in the room froze up and fell to the floor. I then saw on my hud that it was an infinite paralysis effect.

"Well Kirito, since you found out my little secret with them, how about we make a deal"

Kayaba said as Kirito looked up, Kayaba then added on saying "You get a little freebie, what do you want with that freebie, Black Swordsmen?"."I want you to go fuck yourself by letting everyone stuck in this fucking game go.." Kirito said as Kayaba chuckled, Kayaba looked down saying "How about a little rematch huh? I felt like it was cheating having to increase my switch speed by a second.".

"Sure.. If it mean I get to kick your fucking ass..." Kirito said in an aggravating tone. "Sure thing, if you can beat me a second time." Kayaba said smugly as he let off Kirito's paralysis effect. Kirito got up as he looked at Asuna and walked over, he held her hand while secretly handing her a cleansing crystal.

"Use it when you think it's the right time..."

He whispered to Asuna as she gave him a small smile, Kirito then got up as he picked up both of his swords from the ground. Everyone around began chanting for Kirito to win, Kirito then said "Klein! This one's for you!" as Klein teared up saying "If we win...You're buying me pizza and some soda!!".

"I'll be sure to pay for it"

Kirito said smiling as Kirito got the duel request, with the condition being deathmatch. Kirito accepted the request as the timer began counting down. "Alright...No holding back Kirito..." I thought to myself quietly as the crowd went silent, nothing but the sound of the timer ticking down.

The timer hit zero as Kirito rushed in quickly, swinging his swords at Kayaba's shield. "Alright no more messing around..!" Kirito thought to himself as he used a horizontal square, breaking through Kayaba's guard. Kirito slashed at him, hitting a clean strike, and dropping his health down to low green.