Mother's Rosary

  Even with the power of flight, they could only freely enter those floors that had already been conquered. Above that, the outer apertures were solid, inviolable space. Asuna began to worry and opened her mouth to check, but just as she had taken a fresh breath, they turned ninety degrees yet again.

  Yuuki was heading for the twenty-seventh floor. If Asuna’s memory was correct, that was the current player frontier. They shot through the mossy outside and plunged into the interior, everything suddenly growing darker.

  The twenty-seventh floor of Aincrad was a land of eternal night. The outer apertures were extremely narrow, so barely any sunlight got inside, even at midday. On the inside, craggy rock mountains stretched all the way to the ceiling above, and enormous hexagonal pillars of crystal grew out of the ground, emitting pale blue light. It was rather similar in atmosphere to the underground gnome world at the northern end of Alfheim.

  The imp girl, who would have the second-best night vision behind a spriggan, pulled Asuna along through the rocks. At times, flocks of flying gargoyle monsters appeared ahead, but Yuuki skillfully evaded their search capabilities.

  Eventually, they plunged into a deep valley and flew at low speed until a small town nestled into the circular valley came into view: Rombal, the main city of the twenty-seventh floor.

  The town seemed to be scooped right out of the rock, a complex system of narrow alleys and staircases that was lit by orange lamps. It was an oddly soothing sight, like a little glowing fire in the midst of the dark of night.

  Yuuki and Asuna forged trails of purple and blue as they descended gently toward the circular plaza at the center of the town. Soft BGM began to play in their ears, the sign that they had entered the safe haven of civilization, and their noses were tickled by the faint scent of stew as their heels landed on the paving stone.

  Asuna let out a long breath and surveyed her surroundings. Rombal was meant to be a town of night spirits, and as a result, there were no larger buildings present. There were only numerous quaint workshops, businesses and inns crammed in tight, carved out of bluish stone and lit by orange lamps. The contrast gave it an eerie beauty and the bustling feeling of a night festival.

  In the days of the old SAO, the floor gave the player population trouble, but without any notable features or facilities, they didn’t have much reason to spend time there. She only remembered staying there a few days, at best. But as the current frontier of progress in New Aincrad, it was currently bustling with players, each bristling with impressive gear. Every face on the street gave off the impression of a hardened warrior with more than a little eccentricity, and the sight filled Asuna with both nostalgia and bitterness.

  She had raced through the floors up until the twenty-second, just for the sake of buying that forest cabin, but Asuna had hardly participated in any of the boss fights since then. The catharsis of opening new towns was better meant for those new players who hadn’t experienced it before, and being among the frontline players did not always bring up the most enjoyable memories for her.

  She shut her eyes and shook her head to clear out the past, then looked to the Absolute Sword nearby.

  “So…why did you bring me here? Is there something important in this town?” she asked. The imp girl grinned and took her hand again.

  “First, I want to introduce you to my companions! This way!”

  “Er, wait…”

  Asuna had to chase after the racing girl, who plunged down one of the narrow alleys that extended in a radial pattern outward from the plaza. They went up a small stairway, then down one, then over a bridge, then through a tunnel, emerging at last in front of a small building. They walked through the door, under a cast-iron hanging sign fashioned into a cauldron shape, reading INN. Inside, they passed a napping, whiskered old NPC at the front desk and went into the pub in the rear.

  “Welcome back, Yuuki! Any luck this time?!” came an excited boy’s voice as they entered the room.

  Five players were seated around a circular table in the center of the pub. There were no others in the room. Yuuki strode over to them and turned back to Asuna. She flourished toward the group and proudly announced, “Allow me to introduce you to the members of my guild, the Sleeping Knights.”

  She made another half turn and pointed to Asuna. “And this lady is, um…”

  Yuuki paused. She ducked her head a bit, rolled her big eyes, and stuck out her tongue impishly. “Sorry…I didn’t actually ask her name yet.”

  The five players sitting around the table all groaned and slumped theatrically in their chairs. Asuna couldn’t help but giggle. “Nice to meet you. I’m Asuna.”

  Suddenly, the small salamander boy sitting on the left leaped up, his orange ponytail waving. “I’m Jun! Nice to meet you, Asuna!” he blurted.

  Next to him was a large gnome. The narrowed eyes below his unruly, sandy locks added a touch of charm to his imposing bulk. He tried to suck in his bulging stomach and bowed, slowly adding, “Er, um, my name is Tecchi. It’s a pleasure.”

  Next to stand was a young, thin leprechaun. His neatly parted, bronzy-blond hair combined with metal-frame glasses to give him the look of a student. His small, round eyes went wide and he bent over, blushing for some reason.

  “M-my name is, um, Talken, and it’s, um, n-n-nice to…Ow!!”

  The woman sitting to his left kicked him hard in the shin with a heavy boot. “Get over that stammering habit, Tal! You do it every time you meet a girl.”

  The owner of that forceful voice stood up, scraping her chair against the floor. She gave Asuna a full-faced grin and scrunched up her flared mane. “I’m Nori. Good to meet you, Asuna.”

  Based on her tanned skin and gray wings, she seemed to be a spriggan, but the heavy brows, sharp eyes, and heavyset figure did not seem to match the wispy, illusionist spriggan race.

  The last was an undine, like Asuna. Her shoulder-length hair was an aqua so pale it was nearly white, and her long eyelashes hid gentle eyes that were nearly navy. She had a long-bridged nose, small lips, and a surprisingly fragile-looking body: perfectly fitting for the race that was meant to be healers.

  The woman stood gracefully and, in a smooth, calm voice, intoned, “It is nice to meet you. I am Siune. Thank you for coming.”

  “And,” said the Absolute Sword, jumping onto the end of the line, her amethyst eyes sparkling, “I’m Yuuki, the leader of the guild! Asuna…” She took big strides over and grabbed both of Asuna’s hands. “Let’s do our best together!”

  “Um…and what are we doing?” Asuna asked, a smile frozen on her face.

  Yuuki looked stunned for a second, then stuck out her tongue again. “Oh, right. I didn’t explain anything yet!”

  Flop! The five at the table slumped in their chairs again, and Asuna couldn’t hold in her laughter this time. She clutched her sides and chuckled, and eventually Yuuki and the others joined in with booming laughter.

  Asuna took another look at the Sleeping Knights, trying to stifle her giggles, and felt something shiver up and down her back.

  All of them were tremendous players. She could tell, just from watching each and every limb move. All six of them were completely comfortable with controlling their avatars in a full-dive environment. She was certain that with their weapons, they were each close to the Absolute Sword in skill.

  Asuna—and, she suspected, Kirito and the others—was completely unaware that there had been such a crack team of veteran players in the game. If they had all come from another VRMMO like Yuuki, they must have been quite a legendary guild in their old haunt. She wondered what would make them abandon their familiar avatars and carefully acquired items and move to ALO…

  At last, Yuuki got over her giggles and scratched at the red headband, noting regretfully, “I’m sorry, Asuna. I brought you all the way here without explaining why. I got so happy to find someone else as strong as me that I just got carried away…Well, allow me to ask properly. Help me…I mean, help us!”

  “Help…you?” Asu
na repeated, confused. A number of thoughts ran through her mind.

  It probably wasn’t a request to join their party to help them get more money, items, or skill points. A guild with this much manpower wasn’t going to be much different with Asuna added.

  At the same time, it was hard to imagine they needed help getting a certain item or buying a house. Unlike the old SAO, where information was traded for exorbitant prices, ALO had plenty of third-party websites that offered all the game info you could ever need, for free. By consulting those sites, resourceful players could get just about any items they wanted.

  Perhaps what Yuuki saw in Asuna was not just numerical strength, but the entirety of knowledge that went into mastering battle. Yet it was PvP play that needed that skill the most, not PvE monster hunting. And since it involved a guild invitation, perhaps what the Absolute Sword planned wasn’t duels like on that little island, but a major group battle—a massive slaughter with some other guild, no rules involved.

  Asuna mulled it over, bit her lip, then said, “Um…if it involves helping you in a war with some other guild, then I’m sorry, but…”

  Player-versus-player fights that didn’t happen within the structured tournament system or some other rule set always left her with unresolved emotions afterward. Naturally, it was a minority of players who held a long-term grudge over a momentary competition, but she couldn’t discount the possibility that such actions might end up causing trouble not just for herself but for her friends.

  For that reason, even if she suffered boorish, unfair behavior from others out in the hunting grounds, she made sure never to draw her sword on another player.

  Asuna opened her mouth, ready to explain her philosophy as briefly as she could, but Yuuki gave her a wide-eyed shake of her head.

  “No, no, we’re not going to war or anything. It’s, um…well…You might laugh at us, but…”

  She looked down, mumbling shyly, then looked up at Asuna and admitted, unexpectedly, “The thing is…we want to beat the boss of this floor.”

  “H-huh?!” Asuna stammered. That was not at all what she expected. She had been anticipating something even more grandiose and extreme than a guild war, and instead got the most orthodox answer of all: beating a floor boss. It was the exact same thing that just about every other player on this floor had to be thinking.

  “When you say…‘boss,’ you mean the kind at the end of the labyrinth…? Not some kind of timed mob with a unique name?” she asked, just to be sure. Yuuki nodded.

  “Yep, exactly. The kind you can only beat once.”

  “Hmm…I see, a boss…”

  Asuna looked at the other five members of the guild, whose eyes were shining as they awaited her answer. It seemed as though Yuuki’s team wanted to be counted among the “advancement guilds” who specialized in defeating bosses to push the player base’s progress onward. Freshly converted with no personal connections, they wanted instruction from Asuna to help them join the ranks of the game’s expert players—perhaps.

  “Well…given how good you are, Abso…I mean, Yuuki…”

  After much surprised blinking and a few attempts to switch her mind into gear, Asuna pondered the practical possibility of the request. At present, the frontline players working on Aincrad were about 80 percent ALO veterans and 20 percent comeback players from the original SAO. For now, the two groups were meshed together, with many guilds featuring a combination of ALO and SAO types, but shortly after the Aincrad update, relations were stiff. After all, they each had their pride: The “fairies” were playing the oldest game for the AmuSphere, while the “swordsmen” had played the very first VRMMO in existence. Asuna was much the same way.

  If a group of converted players from a different game barged in and asked to join the raid, their prospects might not be great, but Yuuki the Absolute Sword was the kind of off-the-charts power that created exceptions. If the other five were equivalent to her, they just needed a chance to display that talent.

  “Let’s see…I understand they’ve mapped out this floor’s labyrinth up close to the boss chamber, so I can’t make any guarantees about getting a spot on this raid party, but as long as you start off by participating on the next floor, they might see the merit in allowing you to join the raid…But the maximum member count for a raid is forty-nine, so I can’t be sure they’ll make room for all six of you, either,” Asuna explained. Yuuki shrank back shyly a bit, and once again she blew the top off of Asuna’s expectations.

  “Um, well, that’s not exactly what I mean. I don’t want to join a big team…I want to defeat the boss with just the seven of us.”

  “…Wh-whaaat?!”

  Asuna’s shriek was the loudest noise that had echoed off the walls since she arrived in the pub.

  The reason was quite simple.

  Compared to the boss monsters that loomed over each floor in the original SAO, the New Aincrad bosses were considerably stronger. What with the changes in the game’s system, it wasn’t such a simple comparison, but given that with proper strategy and planning, the old bosses could be defeated without losing a single player, it was telling that the new bosses scattered their human foes like dandelion fuzz with ultrapowerful standard attacks and unique moves.

  That necessitated changes in battle strategy, of course. A raid party needed close to the maximum number of members, and more healers were needed to stem the tide of deaths. Rather than having one member sacrifice himself to deal ten damage, get ten members to safely and reliably deal eleven. Asuna was participating in the boss battles up to the twenty-first floor, and even at those low floors, the number of 7x7 raid parties with the full forty-nine members that ended up completely wiped out was uncountable.

  Naturally, the bosses got tougher as the floors went on. The recent Christmas update unlocked the floors in the latter twenties, but the twenty-sixth floor below them had taken the best and brightest of several major guilds to clear.

  So no matter how powerful Yuuki’s little guild might be, adding Asuna to bring them to a total of seven wasn’t going to make a bit of difference against the boss. She tried to explain that to the girl as simply as possible, choosing her words carefully.

  “…and that’s why…I don’t think having just seven of us is going to work…”

  When she finished, the Sleeping Knights looked among one another and smiled shyly for some reason. Yuuki spoke for the group.

  “Yeah, it didn’t work at all. We tried it on the twenty-fifth- and twenty-sixth-floor bosses already.”

  “What?! The…the six of you?!”

  “Yep. We really did pretty well, in my opinion…but we couldn’t get enough MP and healing potions to do the trick. While we were trying out different strategies and load outs, a bigger group came along and beat them each time.”

  “Oh, I see…So you are taking this seriously.” Asuna examined the six faces again.

  It was certainly a reckless and pointless attempt, but she had nothing against that sort of pluck. Once players were fully familiar with a game, they became too set in their knowledge of what they could and couldn’t do. The spirit of ambition that pulsed through the Sleeping Knights was very fresh and exciting to Asuna—and familiar, as well.

  “But…why? Why do you want to beat the boss on your own, rather than with other guilds?”

  Of course, beating a boss with so few members would result in an absurd amount of yrd and exclusive loot for each person. But that didn’t seem like a motive that fit the people she’d just met.

  “Um, well…um, well,” Yuuki chattered, her amethyst eyes wide. But the words did not come. Her mouth opened and shut in hesitation as she tried to find the right way to describe their plan.

  That was when the tall undine named Siune came to Yuuki’s aid. “I will explain. But first, please be seated.”

  Once all seven of them were sitting at the table and had received an order of drinks from the NPC waitress, Siune neatly folded her long fingers and began her explanation.

  “As
you might have surmised already, we did not meet in this realm. We were part of an online community that had nothing to do with games…and found that we all got along quite well. We’ve been friends for about…two years now.”

  She paused to reflect on the past, her eyes downcast.

  “They are the most wonderful companions. We have traveled to various worlds and gone on many adventures together. But unfortunately, it’s only through the spring that we’re likely to be able to continue. Everyone is going to be…busy after that. So before we break up the team, we decided that we wanted to make one last, unforgettable memory together. Out of the countless VRMMO worlds out there, we looked for the most enjoyable, beautiful, and exhilarating world, so that we could work to achieve some grand goal together. After converting to various games, we eventually arrived here.”

  Siune looked around the group in turn. Jun, Tecchi, Talken, Nori, and Yuuki each nodded, their faces shining. Siune smiled wanly and continued. “We have found that Alfheim, land of fairies, and its floating castle Aincrad, make for a splendid place. The beautiful cities, forests, plains, the World Tree, and this castle—none of us will ever forget our memories of flying together here. If there’s one more thing we want…it’s to leave some trace of ourselves in this world.”

  Beneath her half-closed lids, Siune’s navy blue eyes took on a light of intent. “If we defeat a floor boss, our names will be left on the Monument of Swordsmen found in Blackiron Palace on the first floor, I understand.”

  “Ah…”

  Asuna went wide-eyed, then nodded. It was true that the names of the players who defeated bosses were recorded in Blackiron Palace. Asuna herself was listed in the twenty-first-floor slot.

  “Well…it’s only for stroking our own egos, but we really want to have our names on that monument. There’s just one problem. If a single party beats the boss, all of their names are written down, but if the group is multiple parties, only the party leaders’ names are recorded.”