I do not own Sword Art Online or any of the characters. This is somewhere between the point when Kirito and Godfree were poisoned by Kuradeel and Kirito and Asuna's honeymoon. This story will take a chapter or two before I explain specifics.

Ray of Hope

Kirito stepped out of the town and looked up. It wasn't a conscious decision, more just a simple act of instinct. Of course, the moment he did, he couldn't look away. And soon he was joined by others. The sky was beginning to turn red, as it had in the Town of Beginnings. There was about to be an announcement.

Sure enough, the entire sky soon turned red and the various animals and monsters in the area froze. Then, blood began to leak from between the announcement alerts. It again formed Kayaba, the figure floating over them but making no sound.

"You'd think he'd speak up given how much he loved the sound of his own voice last time," a player nearby snorted.

Kirito snickered and Kayaba's head turned to them.

"Hello again my fellow Gamers," Kayaba finally spoke. "It has come to my attention that there seem to be more dead than alive. It seems that roughly eight thousand three hundred have died. I have decided to give a chance to correct this mistake. However, this will be a limited offer. I have written in a new item called Yggdrasil's Favor. It is a crystal filled with the sap of the Tree of Life. Yggdrasil's favor allows you to return life to those who have died in Sword Art Online. However, I should not have to point out that the bodies themselves died as well. This means that only a body that could, in theory survive can be reanimated. As well as that, the corpse must be wearing their NerveGear."

"I thought when we died the NerveGear fried our brain with microwaves when we died," one of the players pointed out.

"Not literally," Kayaba replied. "In reality, they only use enough to force the brain to shut down. If the NerveGear sent a second pulse, the brain would restart, but the body must also have its heart restarted at the same time."

"A defibrillator?" a female player questioned.

"Wouldn't the charge damage the NerveGear?" a male beside her spoke up.

"NerveGears are non conductive to anything except their own pulses and the frequency in your brain," Kirito stated. "AEDs, defibrillators, use a massive charge but the wrong frequency to mess with the NerveGear. The problem is that unless you have a time machine with your Yggdrasil's Favor, no one already dead yet can be revived."

"A fair point," Kayaba agreed. "However, I have added an item to each of your inventories that will allow you to communicate with the outside world through emails by using gamer tags."

"How?" a male gamer questioned.

"Didn't you enter your email and that of one family member when you signed up?" Kayaba questioned.

Everyone fell silent looking around before Kayaba began again.

"Now, for the items to take root, the system will need to reboot," Kayaba stated as the announcement alerts began to turn black. "Oh, and each Yggdrasil's Favor is guarded by a special creature. Good luck."

"Hold on, what happens when we use them?" Kirito shouted. "There's no way the guy that designed a death game would just create a way to revive the dead without a negative effect."

"You're right," Kayaba nodded. "However, you will see when you get one, or should I say if? However, they are limited because there is a limited number and they will disappear forever after one use."

Then, the sky turned black and a moment later, Kirito woke up in an inn in the Town of Beginnings. He could see Asuna in the next bed and beyond her was Klein.

"You guys okay?" Kirito questioned.

"Yeah," Klein nodded sitting up. "Wonder what the creature is."

"I'm going after one," Kirito stated. "I have a promise to keep. However, It's probably too late."

"I want a Yggdrasil's Favor," Klein stated.

"What difference does it make?" Asuna questioned. "We can't revive someone unless the timing is perfect and someone has the sense to turn on their NerveGear, preserved their body ahead of time, and uses a defibrillator at the exact time that you use the Yggdrasil's Favor."

"I know," Kirito nodded typing away at a message and sending it. "I'm checking and prepping. Now, where are they?"

He pulled up a map and the others did the same, all scanning before stopping and sharing a knowing and worried look.

"Found one," they all stated.

They compared maps, seeing the same one and headed out. The one they were heading for was dead center of their level and was being closed in on by just about seventy players of high levels and a host of different guilds. The three of them sprinted as fast as they could, taking advantage of no in-game pain until they slid to a stop, seeing the creature. It was battling a pair of players in heavy armor that likely gave them near-max endurance but clearly slowed them a lot. They also both made the mistake of wielding greatswords that would remove speed and were hard to swing. As a result, they weren't coming anywhere near putting a scratch on the creature that had six full health bars. It, however, was easily zipping around slashing them and proving that full endurance was worthless as they rapidly dropped to zero health and their avatars exploded.

The creature turned toward them, a three dimensional shadow with arms shaped like wide katana blades, legs that were bent more like a dog's with a massive spike jutting up from the back joint, a tail that ended in two prongs, and a pair of horns two feet long making it look like a demon's shadow. Kirito pulled up his menu and switched to dual wielding with his two signature swords then traded his usual jacket for another that increased his speed greatly along with speed shoes, and the rest endurance items. The result was that his speed was maxed, his endurance was a bit higher than usual, but his attack power and total HP were lower than usual. The shadow seemed to sense a challenger because it began walking forward at a normal speed but sliding forward at a normal sprint.

"Get clear," Kirito instructed drawing his swords. "I'll kill it."

"Why?" Asuna questioned. "Is this all for Sachi?"

"I promised I would see her out of this game alive," Kirito stated. "And I pray I can."

And with that, he charged the shadow.

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