“Fall!! Fallll!!”
I shouted. This feeling was unlike the time in Jötunheimr fighting the Undine soldiers, a searing impulse for destruction drove me. The sword in my right hand sawed at the knight’s neck, I punched the knight with my left hand over and over.
That’s right - I once lived in this world. Wandering alone in one of the deepest dungeons, fighting at the line of death to forge my soul, I used monsters’ corpses to build my tombstone as I continued to swing my sword.
My fist finally went through the knight’s mask, and luminous lights scattered. I was still lost in that inner voice of destruction, and I thrust my left fist into the depths of the light. As my hand went through its head, the knight’s whole body melted and broke apart, and the white flame surrounded my body.
At that time, my heart was as hard and dry as a stone. Game clear or player liberation, none of it mattered anymore. I rejected others and thrust myself into the next battle.
Four or five more guardian knights raised their shining swords, and they fell with a sound like the voice of a onimous bird. A grim smile emerged from the side of my face, and I burst into the knights, my wings splitting the air. Every nerve in my body shook with a feeling of fierce acceleration, the electric pulses connecting my body here with my brain became white sparks crossing my vision.
“Uoooaaaaa!!”
With a courageous shout, I slashed horizontally with the sword I now held with both hands. I repelled the enemies’ swords. Rotating like a windmill, I accelerated to the limit aiming my sword at the guardian knights’ neck.
Chop, Chopp!! With a continuous dull sound, two necks that held the mirror masks danced through the air. The flame that appeared with their last moments formed a white rose that washed over my nerves, sending more heat over my body.
Only in the jaws of death could I see my own life. Throwing oneself into the last-minute battle, burning one’s spirit til the end, and then falling, I thought that was the only way I could repay those who had fallen before my eyes.
I turned around, and without losing any of the force of my spin, the toes of my right foot struck out, now more like a drill. My foot struck the chest of the guardian knight, and I felt within the hardness a soft moistness that came with unpleasant sounds as my foot penetrated the knight’s body. As my body stopped at the center of the End Frame, two swords approached me from the left and right, like a pair of scissors. I blocked the sword on my right with my sword and the one on my left with my arm, and taking no notice of my HP bar, I countered.
I quickly grabbed the wrist of the knight on my right side,
“Guuuuooooo!!”
With a roar, I swung the right knight over my head and threw it into the one on the left. I followed through and stabbed them both when they were locked together, giving them a fatal blow.
I thought I could keep fighting and massacring enemies no matter how many appeared. In those days, I was burning myself in the flame of the homicide, I polished my heart until it was as stone -.
No - that wasn’t it…
- Onto that heart which was increasingly dry, there where people who desperately poured water. Cline, Egil, Scilica, Lizbet, and Asuna.
I… I will help Asuna, to make that world truly end, I came here -
I lifted my head and turned toward the canopy, I found the stone gate was surprisingly close.
As I struggled to fly to it, something pierced my right leg.
It was a cold, shining light arrow. As if they had been waiting for me to stop moving, arrows poured down like rain. I was hit with two, three consecutive arrows, my HP greatly reduced.
Looking around, I didn’t know since when, but the guardian knights were surrounding me from a far distance, all pointed at me with their left hands, chanting spells in harshly distorted sound. The second wave of light arrows flew at me with a high-pitched sound.
“Uooooo!”
I swung my greatsword around me, blocking many of the arrows, but several still hit me, dropping my HP into the yellow area. I lifted my face, staring at the gate.
It was difficult to overthrow long-ranged enemies by myself. I moved forward, trying to break through the gate. The arrows of light were penetrating my entire body, but the my goal was right there. Enduring the attacks, I stretched my left hand to touch the stone door -.
- But.
Only a few seconds to go, my back suffered a tremendous impact. When I turned around, a guardian knight had approached me, with a distorted version of my smile looking at me, it had thrust its sword into my back. My posture collapsed and my acceleration stopped.
Then, Like a flock of white birds swooping on prey, dozens of guardian knights rushed from all directions. With a Dotsu dotsu sound, my body was pierced by sword after sword. I didn’t even have time to check my HP.
My vision was suddenly filled with a phosphorescent black flame. It took a while to notice that it was my own End Frame. Beyond the black flames, small purple letters emerged. [You are dead].
The next moment, there was a dry sound and my body dissolved.
Like one switch after another being turned off, the sense of my body disappeared.
When I was killed on the 75th floor of Aincrad in the final fight with Heathcliff, I clearly remembered when I fell. As that memory flashed through my mind, I was enveloped by a violent terror.
But of course, there was no interruption of my consciousness. Is this half conscious? I had experienced «death in the game», but not since the beta testing of SAO.
It was a strange feeling. My sight lost color as it faded to a monotone purple. In the center of my vision were letters in the color of a system notice saying [Remaining Revival Time], with a decreasing number to the right. In the far side of my view, the silver guardian knights that killed me seemed satisfied and returned to the stain-glass in the canopy.
There was no sense of my extremities. I couldn’t move, all that was left of me in this world was the small embers of my Remain Light like all of the people I killed in this world. I was lost in helpless, miserable, trivial feelings.
Yes - I was so miserable. Maybe somewhere inside I still felt that this was just a game, and this was the retribution for feeling that way. After all, my strength was just a few numbers in my status data. Yet, beyond the boundaries of the game, beyond the limits, I thought I could do anything I wanted to.
I wanted to meet Asuna. I wanted to wrap her in my arms, to loose those feelings and thoughts and finally heal. But now my hands could no longer reach her.
The second display was decreasing. I wondered what would happen when it reached zero, I could not remember.
No matter what happens, there is only one thing I can do. I would crawl back to this place and challenge the guardian knights again. No matter how many time I fell, even if I understood that I couldn’t win - even if my spirit was worn down, until the moment I completely disappear from this world - …
At that moment, a shadow sailed across my vision looking below.
Someone invaded the open dome and raced up toward me at with terrible acceleration.
‘Don’t come’, I tried to yell, but my voice didn’t come out. Looking up at the windows, I saw that it was once again lined with white and guardian knights were being produced.
White giants shouted as they passed by my side in their headlong rush for the intruder. From my experience just before, I already knew that one person would not be able to fight them. ‘Hurry and run away’, I desperately prayed, but the shadow shot up toward me in a straight line.
The guardian knights in the front row grasped their swords and brought them down in sequence. The intruder evaded the attacks with agile and alert movements, but the time lagged attack made the sword grazed the intruder. The delicate body went into a big tumble.
But the intruder used that tumble to accelerate further, slipped pass the rows of knights and kept rising. As the intruder drew closer to me, more knights appeared to stop that, with a strange chorus, they flew around a n
arrow space.
The shadow’s right hand held a katana, but that was only used for defense. Avoiding the enemy groups and parrying with dazzling movements, it came closer and closer. It was a painfully desperate flight.
When she finally arrived in front of me, the player’s tears scattered as she cried:
“- Kirito-kun!!”
It was Lyfa. The Sylph girl stretched out her hands and wrapped me tightly in her arms.
We are already very close to the gate, but the knights would never allow us to rise, they closely crowded in the sky, creating a wall of flesh several layers thick. But having secured me, Lyfa quickly turned and flew, this time aimed straight for the exit.
From the rear, curse like spell chanting rose. Immediately, arrows of light came flying. Lyfa wove from side to side, avoiding the aim of the enemy, but the arrows rained down so densely that it wasn’t possible to evade them all. One of them hit her and the shock reached even me.
“Ug…!!”
Lyfa choked out, but her dive speed didn’t decrease. Lyfa’s body was pierced by arrows in quick succession. In my vision, her HP was swiftly cut in half.
Arrows of light were not the only thing chasing us. There were two guardian knights chasing, fast and furious. I could see swords swinging down from the left and right in a cross.
Lyfa did a quick right spin, avoiding one sword, but the other caught her squarely in the back.
“Ah…”
With her cry, Lyfa was thrown like a ball, crashing into the ground. After bouncing several times, we slid on the ground, eventually coming to a stop. There, several knights descended to make a fatal blow.
Lyfa pushed her body up with a trembling hand, and flapped her wings once. That made her roll - bright light suddenly surrounded my vision. We were already outside the dome.
Part 5
Surviving that hopeless situation, Lyfa stretched out her body, chilled with fear, on the cobblestones. Turning back to the door, having passed the time allotted for the event, the door was closing and the white giants were soaring up behind it.
In her hands, the small black flame flickered. Kirito-kun -, Lyfa cried in her heart, but there was no time to be immersed in those sad sentiments. She sat up, and leaning against the leg of the huge stone statue, waved her right hand and opened the item window.
Since Lyfa hadn’t mastered water and holy attribute magic, she couldn’t cast the high-leveled revival magic. So she turned «Sap of the World Tree» into an item, and she picked up the small blue bottle that materialized.
Dismissing the window, she uncorked the bottle and sprinkled the shining liquid over Kirito’s Remain Light. A three-dimensional magic circle similar to that of revival magic unfolded in an instant. A few seconds later, the figure of a boy in black materialized.
“…Kirito-kun…”
Still sitting down, Lyfa called his name, smiling through her tears. Kirito also knelt on the stone pavement with a harrowed smile, placed his right hand on her hand.
“Thank you, Lyfa… But, don’t be that reckless again. I’ll be fine… I don’t want to cause you any more trouble.”
“Troubled… I….”
‘Am not troubled at all’, She was going to say, but Kirito stood up first. He turned away and started walking - again toward the door leading into the World Tree.
“Ki, Kirito-kun!!”
She was stunned in amazement, Lyfa put strength to her trembling legs, and somehow stood up.
“Wa, wait… it is impossible for a single person!”
“Maybe so… But I must go…”
Kirito whispered with his back turned, Lyfa felt like a glass image pushed to the limits, desperately trying to find the words. But she wasn’t able to speak the words burning in her throat. Her arms stretched out in a daze, she held Kirito’s body tightly.
She’s being attracted, she strongly felt. In order to give up on Kazuto, she forced herself to love this person in her heart, at the same time, she thought this might be fine. She felt that this feeling seemed to be true.
“Enough… Stop already… Return to the usual Kirito-kun… I… I, Kirito-kun…”
Kirito gently held her right hand in his hands. A quiet, intense voice flowed into her ear.
“Lyfa… I’m sorry… If I don’t go there, nothing will end, and nothing will start. I must see her, again…”
“Again… Asuna…”
Lyfa did not understand what she had heard for a moment. Her mind had gone blank, and Kirito’s reverberation slowly faded away.
“…Now… now, what… did you say…?”
Kirito tilted his head, looking slightly puzzled and replied:
“Ah… Asuna, that is the name of the person I’m looking for.”
“But… I mean, that person is…”
As her hands covered her mouth, Lyfa took a half step back.
While her mind was frozen, afterimages of memories revived.
A few days ago, when she had sparred with Kazuto in the dojo.
When they first met, Kirito had beaten the Salamanders in the Ancient Forest.
The two people in her memory, when the battle was over, slashed with the sword in their right hand and quickly put it away on their back. The exact same movement.
With a burst of insight, the two silhouettes melted together. Lyfa’s eyes went wide open, and from trembling lips barely forced out a voice.
“… Are you… onii-chan…?”
“Huh…?”
Kirito heard these words and his eyebrows went up in surprise. His dark eyes looked directly into Lyfa’s eyes. The light floated in the pupils like the moon swaying on the surface of the water, then -
“- Sugu… Suguha…?”
The Spriggan in black whispered in a sound that’s barely a voice, calling that name.
The stone pavement, the surroundings of Aarun, and the whole world with the huge World Tree seemed to be collapsing. Lyfa / Suguha staggered back a few steps.
While travelling with that person for the past few days, Lyfa had felt that the virtual world was more vivid. Her heart was excited just to fly side by side.
Suguha adored Kazuto, Lyfa liked Kirito, if she said she wasn’t feeling guilt, that would be a lie. However, it was Kirito that taught her that ALfheim wasn’t just an extension of a virtual flight simulator like she had thought for a long time, but a whole new reality. That is why Lyfa was able to realize that the feelings that she had in this world were not just digital data, but her true feelings.
She forcefully frozen her feelings for wanting Kazuto, even her deeply buried pain, will eventually be forgotten if she stayed by Kirito’s side, she felt like that. - Yet it is true that this «reality» was given form by the spirits of the «real» humans that come here, but still it was an unexpected result.
“…How cruel… This is just too much, this…”
Lyfa shook her head left and right, talking like someone delirious. More than that, she didn’t want to stay in that place for even one more second. She turned away from Kirito, and waved her left hand.
Touching the lower left corner of the window, she almost ignored the confirmation message, and pressed. Under firmly closed eyelids, the rainbow faded, leaving only darkness.
Waking up in her bed, the first thing she saw was the deep blue ALfheim sky. Where that color had always invoked feelings of nostalgia and longing before, now there was only pain.
Suguha slowly took the Amusphere off her head, and held it in front of her eyes.
“U… u…”
Sobs which she couldn’t hold back leaked from the depths of her throat. She applied a little more strength to her two hands holding the delicate machine with its two ornate circles. The ring bent with a faint scream.
She would destroy the AmuSphere and shut the passage to that world forever, she thought. However, she couldn’t do it. The girl by the name of Lyfa on the other side of the rings was just too pitiful.
Throwing the machine onto the bed, Suguha sat up. She put
her feet on the ground, closed her eyes, and bowed her head. She didn’t want to think about anything anymore.
The silence was broken by a modest knock. Then, from beyond the door, came a voice that was different from Kirito’s, but it had the same cadence.
“- Sugu, can I?”
“Stop!! Don’t open the door!”
She cried out of reflex.
“Let me be alone… for a while…”
“- What happened, Sugu. I was surprised too, but…”
Filled with confusion, Kazuto’s words continued.
“…If you are angry that I used the NERvGear again, I apologize. But it was absolutely necessary.”
“No, it’s not that.”
In a moment, conflicting feelings spread throughout her body. She jumped out of the bed and went to the door.
She turned the handle and opened the door, there was the figure of Kazuto. His eyes were full of worry as he looked at her.
“I… I…”
Her feelings, with her tears overflow out.
“I - betrayed my heart. Betrayed my feelings of loving onii-chan.”
Finally saying ‘love’ face to face with her target person, but that was like a blade piercing her chest, throat, and lips. Feeling the searing pain, continued in a hoarse voice.
“I forgot everything, gave up, and was just going to love Kirito, I thought. No, I had already. - and yet… even though…”
“What…”
For a few seconds, Kazuto was at a loss for words, then he said in a whisper.
“Love… me… But, we are…”
“I know.”
“…What…?”
“I already know.”
‘I can’t’, she thought. But she couldn’t stop. With her glance embed with all of that passion looking at Kazuto, she spoke through trembling lips the following declaration.
“Onii-chan and I are not true siblings. I’ve known since two years ago!!”
Oh no. Her mother had wanted her to wait before telling Kazuto that she knew about this, it’s not for her to use this as a weapon for her remaining feelings. The reason she was told was so she could use the time to think about it, she thought.