Chapter 85: Suffocating Pressure, Kayaba Akihiko Appears!

Shinobu Kocho stood before the gates of the temple, unbothered by the mission in the dimensional group chat. Compared to demons—the monsters in SAO were much harder to handle.

Most importantly—she was raiding together with Shirakawa. Her clear purple eyes shimmered with quiet warmth, unfazed by the new additions to the party.

"Shirakawa, are we starting the raid now?"

Shirakawa looked over the resting players. He didn't seem to care and instead began carefully evaluating the team's overall combat power.

Asuna, steadily mastering her techniques...

Mito, a veteran MMO player...

And the unique class of bard: Shigemura Yuuna. Not to mention the frontline lancer, Sachi.

Frankly, it was still too early to attempt a proper raid.

SAO had only been live for a few days. Everyone was still a beginner. Their levels and gear were lacking, and their skills even more so.

"We can."

He shook his head with a smile. "But this time, I'll take lead."

"Shirakawa, why?"

Asuna looked puzzled. It wasn't part of the original plan. Was it because their performance against the kobold lord hadn't met expectations?

Her expression turned serious. "I won't hold the team back!"

"That's not it. For a new player, you've done great."

Shirakawa smiled. The second-floor boss fight was... unique. After dealing with the minotaurs—Baran the General Taurus and Nato the Colonel Taurus.

The true boss would appear: Asterius, The Taurus King.

To draw out Kayaba Akihiko—who had integrated his consciousness into the SAO system—he would either need to trigger a meeting or clear Aincrad entirely.

Which would be a huge waste of time.

Clearing the game meant destroying SAO's world. If he could block the side effect of real-world deaths, SAO would be a much better training ground than even Danmachi's dungeon.

"I have my reasons."

Shirakawa didn't explain further. With so many players around, he simply pushed open the doors to the second-floor boss chamber.

He was ready to try something different.

Kayaba Akihiko had created this game to craft a world that broke through the limits of reality. So—

If real magic from another world were used here, wouldn't that be the ultimate temptation for him?

And once Kayaba took the bait—

Shirakawa could trade with him and get the virtual world seed of SAO.

The easiest way forward.

Seeing the temple doors swing open, Mito's gaze flickered with confusion. She glanced at Asuna, who looked relaxed, clearly unsure what was going on.

All players had started from the same point.

Even if... Shirakawa had a special combat style, it still shouldn't be easy for one person to solo a floor boss, right? Though still full of doubt—

She followed the others into the temple.

Kachi and Shigemura Yuuna exchanged a look. As members of the raid group, they also had no idea what Shirakawa's true strength was.

Only Shinobu Kocho looked full of anticipation.

"..."

"Should we go in too, Commander Diabel?"

The game had only launched a few days ago, and yet they'd already cleared the first floor. The key blow had even been delivered using magic not native to the SAO world.

No player could resist being curious.

Just how powerful was Shirakawa, who now stood alone facing the boss?

This was tied to their hopes of escaping SAO. If Shirakawa could guarantee the raid's success, even if he just steamrolled every boss—

No one would complain.

"Go!"

"There might be places where he needs backup."

Diabel made a decisive call. Being able to gather a raid group of this scale, he subconsciously knew Shirakawa was no ordinary player.

And even if things got dangerous—

They could always retreat. There'd be no major loss of life.

He was the first to follow, and the hesitant players didn't lag behind. Together, they surged toward the second-floor temple.

And what happened next...

Would completely overturn their understanding of strength.

As they entered the temple, they were met with a massive creature on par with Illfang the Kobold Lord. Red-skinned and wielding a giant axe, it radiated oppressive pressure.

Shinobu Kocho and Asuna didn't move forward.

They stood off to the side with the rest of the group. Of all people, they were the ones who truly understood Shirakawa's strength. If anything, they were curious—

What was his plan this time?

Having only recently joined the group, Mito didn't yet understand Shirakawa's power. She asked, "Asuna, is it really... okay not to help?"

She looked ahead—

At the lone figure who had stepped into range and instantly drawn aggro from two hulking minotaur bosses.

"Don't worry."

"Actually... what you should be worried about is whether the temple will still be standing afterward."

"..."

"The temple?"

Mit wanted to ask more, but the next scene rendered both her and Shigemura Yuuna completely speechless.

They were stunned, unable to even ready their weapons.

Facing a minotaur general and a colonel—

Even with pure physical combat alone, Shirakawa's god-tier stats, enhanced to over 50 times a normal human's level, made it easy for him to crush them, even with the most basic weapons.

"Low-level magic should be enough... If I have enough mana, maybe I can even chain-cast."

He looked at the oncoming minotaurs with their giant axes.

With a massive surge of mana, he summoned dozens of magic circles behind him. With the Arch-wizard's elemental mastery trait—

He had access to all basic elemental spells!

His raw mana converted to ice in a flash, like a scene out of the Gate of Babylon. Countless ice lances filled the air, and the temperature plummeted.

The ground cracked.

With a calm expression, Shirakawa completed the conversion, unleashing the ice lances in a devastating storm toward the two minotaurs.

The sweeping chill—turned the air itself to frost. The ice lances, moving faster than the eye could track, punched through the minotaurs with terrifying penetration.

The explosive force—skipped their berserk phase entirely. All three health bars were instantly wiped, and their massive bodies disappeared!

[You successfully killed Taurus Colonel. Gained EXP: +3000]

[You successfully killed Taurus General. Gained EXP: +5000]

For monsters at this level—

Shirakawa was actually worried that using explosive magic might collapse the whole temple. Calmly, he murmured to himself:

"Now Kayaba Akihiko should show himself, right?"

"..."

The entire battle lasted mere seconds, stunning every watching player into silence. They stood frozen with wide eyes—

Their minds had shut down.

Two hulking minotaurs, exuding pressure, had been obliterated by magic ice lances in an instant. No chance to retaliate.

Only when the central gears in the temple began to move, and a staircase slowly rose up, did the players snap back to reality.

"Is... is it over?"

"Honestly, I think we should just handle the mobs. With him around, we can clear Aincrad lying down."

"Where can I sign up for that?!"

"Could this be some kind of cheat magic created by exploiting a game bug?"

"Maybe he's a GM? But if he were a GM, he could just let us all out of SAO already!!"

"..."

Faced with such overwhelming power—even if Shirakawa was abusing a bug—none of the players complained.

At this moment...

That figure was their only hope of escaping SAO.

Mito, who had just joined the raid group, couldn't even describe her emotions. She turned to see Asuna and Shinobu Kocho.

Both completely calm.

They clearly already knew.

Mito then glanced at Kachi and Shigemura Yuuna's blank faces. Seeing them just as lost as she was gave her a strange sense of comfort.

So...

She wasn't the only one clueless!

Seeing the Taurus King appear on the newly risen platform, she couldn't help but call out, "Shirakawa, watch out! There's another one behind you!!"

"..."

"I don't eat beef."

There was no need to warn him. While he did hold a certain respect for floor bosses, Shirakawa's overflowing mana now surged above the temple.

The familiar build-up of explosive magic began again.

His raw mana whipped into a vortex, darkening the entire temple. Bursts of rainbow-colored light erupted violently.

The pressure—was enough to suck the air out of the room. Asuna and Shinobu Kocho, realizing what was coming, began immediate evacuation.

Thanks to the dimensional chat group, they understood the scale of this attack.

This could very well—level the entire temple.

The other players, only now catching on, panicked and scrambled to flee. One thought dominated their minds:

If they didn't get out now—

They were going to die!

Meanwhile, Kayaba Akihiko, who had fused his consciousness into SAO, saw things spiraling out of control and could no longer just observe.

He used his GM privileges to delete the Taurus King.

Replacing it with the avatar he created using his soul, Kayaba appeared in person. Staring at Shirakawa's calm face, he felt nothing but dread.

A chilling presence pressed down on him.

Kayaba hurriedly shouted, "Stop!"

"Stop right now! The entire temple floor is going to collapse. You want me out, right? Well, here I am!"

"..."

But the skill kept charging.

As the creator of SAO, Kayaba Akihiko finally dropped his pride and pleaded, "Please, outsider—deactivate your spell!"