The final battle comes between Heathcliff and Kirito, where Asuna sacrificed her life for Kirito to defeat Heathcliff and save everyone trapped in Aincrad. Kirito, filled with sadness and rage over his now dead wife, defeats Heathcliff to avenge her sacrifice. Kirito realizes that the final strike that Heathcliff used on Kirito drained his life bar far beyond normal and they both disintegrated into a multitude of pixels. Kirito finds himself on an edge watching Aincrad slowly crumble when Kayaba Akihiko appears and tells Kirito that he won, but Kirito says, "no, I failed. My only love is dead because I failed to save her." Kirito began to sob over all of the memories he had with Asuna. The S-rated stew, the cabin they bought, their marriage, finding Yui and becoming her parents. "All of these memories, but she isn't coming back," he says between his sobs. Akihiko said to him, "look to your left" as he fades away into the abyss. Kirito looks to his left to see his stunning wife sobbing because she can't find him either. Kirito gets up, wipes his tears away, starts running to her and screams at the top of his lungs, "ASUNA!" She looks up to see Kirito running to her as she starts to get up from the edge. She starts running to Kirito, crying in joy, screaming his name, "KIRITO!" They meet in each other's' warm embrace, kissing and sobbing for minutes. "Kirito," Asuna says when their lips unlock. "Asuna," Kirito responds, "how are you alive." "I don't know, and I don't care. I only want to be with you right now, I love you." They sit back down on the ledge and watch Aincrad slowly break down. Asuna lays her head on Kirito's shoulder as she slowly starts to cry tears of joy. As they watch the destruction, they see their log cabin fall into the void under Aincrad. Asuna say, "I'm going to miss that house. All the memories of you, Yui and I." "Yea, those were the days," Kirito says. Kirito asks Asuna, "before the end, I want to know our name." She says that her name is Asuna Yuuki. Kirito responds saying that his name is Kazuto Kirigaya. Akihiko appears to tell them that everyone that was in Aincrad has been safely logged out and should wake up soon. He also tries to tell them his reasons behind his sick game, but they didn't care, they just wanted to be left alone. Akihiko tells them that Aincrad will be entirely gone in 3 minutes and then promptly leaves. For their final 2 and a half minutes they just sit there with each other knowing that this will be their last moment together. Their final 30 seconds are spent locking lips. Right before the game is shut down, Asuna says, "I will always love you, Kazuto." Few minutes later, Kazuto wakes up in a hospital asking, "Where am I? How did I get here? How am I alive?" He awakes to find his cousin, Suguha, at the end of the bed soaked in tears trying to hold her some back, but failing to. She hurries to Kazuto hugging him and telling him how scared she was. Kazuto looks to his right to see someone with long, orange hair laying in a hospital bed slowly waking up. He realizes that someone in the bed was his one and only love, Asuna Yuuki! Kazuto tried to let Suguha go and he tries to get up to kiss Asuna, but she held him back saying, "WHAT THE F**K ARE YOU DOING?!" He explains to her that Asuna is his one and only love. He shakes Suguha off and he goes over to Asuna. "I've finally found you, Asuna," said Kazuto where Asuna replied with, "So have I Kazuto." Asuna tries to get up and hug Kazuto, but collapses over where Kazuto catches her. "Hey there, calm down. You're not as well as I am." While Kazuto holds her, they stare deeply into each other's eyes, wondering what will happen through the rest of their lives.