*Neither Sword Art Online or .Hack or any of its characters belong to me. This is simply a fan-fic using the characters and settings of both series for the enjoyment of fans of those works.

Chapter 1: Fated Encounter

November 2024, Aincrad 22nd floor, Kirito

Even though it was already 11, I remained in bed, staring at the ceiling and trying to make sense of yesterday's events. Although the 75th floor had been cleared, the cost was significant; over a dozen clearers, wiped out in this game of death. Even taking into account that it was a milestone boss, the casualty list should not have been that high. But even more difficult to accept was what had transpired after the boss had been defeated.

Immediately after the battle, I had noticed something odd about one man who had fought alongside us. Wielder of the unique skill [Holy Sword] and the leader of the strongest guild in [Sword Art Online], [Knights of Blood], it would not have been wrong to say that our victory had hinged upon Heathcliff's efforts. But the look in his eyes as he looked down upon us, tired out from the long battle, had triggered my suspicion. In a moment of clarity and, taking the risk that I would be branded a renegade, I had attacked him. He, whose life bar hovered just above 50%. Just outside the yellow zone. "No one had ever seen his life go into the yellow." That was one of the many legends circulating around SAO about this man.

Just as my blade struck home however, they were stopped, and a system message popped up. [Immortal Object]. A code built into the system to protect essential objects such as buildings from being destroyed. Not something mere players such as us should possess. Thus, the "paladin" Heathcliff was revealed as none other than Kayaba Akihiko, the creator of SAO. Our jailor in this death game for the past two years.

I recalled his parting words before he left us there on the 75th floor. How could I not?

"I will await your arrival at the [Scarlet Jade Castle] on the final floor…" There had been more as well, but the line that truly caught my attention was: "Kirito, since you figured out my true identity, I will reward you with an opportunity: you can have a one-on-one duel with me, right here and right now. If you win, the game will be cleared immediately, and all the players will be able to log out…is what I would have liked to say. But it seems that there has been an anomaly within the system that requires my immediate attention, so I must pass and meet you as planned on the 100th floor."

A chance to have cleared the game on the 75th floor…I wonder what the result would have been had I accepted. Would I have been able to defeat not just Heathcliff, but Kayaba Akihiko himself? Would I have been able to save Asuna, Klein, and all the others who have fought alongside me in this game of death for the past two years?

My thoughts were interrupted by the notification that I had received a message. I was tempted to ignore it for now, but a quick glance at the sender's name made that impossible. A letter from Asuna, Vice-Commander of the Knights of Blood. Asuna [the Flash], who had earned her nickname for the ungodly speed of her rapier strikes. Or more simply, Asuna, my in-game wife and the person most dear to me; the one for whom I wanted to clear the game as quickly as possible.

The content of the message was simple:

"Kirito, I'm headed to the labyrinth on the 76th floor. KoB, or rather, those of us who remain, are determined to see this through to the end. I wanted to wake you up, since your presence is a comfort in more ways than one, but your sleeping face was just too captivating for me to do so. –Asuna"

That got me out of bed quickly. I tossed on my combat gear (which in-game only required scrolling through a few menus) and ran out the front door.

Haseo

"Happy Birthday Haseo!"

I was blinded by flying ribbons flying towards my face the moment I walked through the front door into the guild house. [Canard] was originally a small guild, never totaling more than five members. The guild [ HOME] had been expanded considerably since the early days, but today, it seemed as if everyone I've ever met in this online game, [The World: R2], was here. Piros the Third took up a massive amount of space by himself due to that ridiculous bulky golden armor. There wasn't much room to move around.

"Wha—why are you all?" I couldn't contain the surprise in my voice. "How'd you even find out that today's my—?"

A small pig-like creature with hair and an outfit that looked similar to how I was back at level 1 walked up to me. "Aw, just chill out, oink. Your hair's going to go gray if you're so wound up all the time, oink." And, after taking a swig from what appeared to be a martini glass, it added, "You should be more like me, oink!"

I could feel a vein throbbing in my forehead. This…creature, Death Grunty, was possibly programmed with the most annoying personality seen in [The World: R2] ever! Atoli, whenever she was here with me, would gush over how cute the deceptive little motor-mouth was and comment on how similar the two of us were. Me? Similar to that!? Speaking of which—

"I don't see Atoli anywhere," I noted.

"She said something about wanting to get you a present and went out with Silabus and Gaspard this morning," Kuhn said as he lounged on the couch.

Kuhn was one of my most trusted allies within the game and, with the exception of Ovan, he was probably the best [Steam Gunner] I've ever met. His avatar had long blue hair tied back into a ponytail and he wore a get-up that looked rather tribal, with a leather shirt and plenty of furs. Kuhn also happened to possess the Avatar [Magus, The Propagation], a powerful entity linked to the game which afforded Avatar users unique and game-breaking powers.

There were eight Avatars in all, each of them with powers to bend the rules of [The World]. Interestingly enough, almost all of them were gathered here today. Kuhn, who I've already mentioned, was currently flirting with every girl present in the room and failing (he would probably have had better luck if he tried one at a time.) Then there was Yata, holder of [Fidchell, The Prophet], Pi, who had [Tarvos, The Avenger], Endrance, linked to [Macha, The Temptress], and Sakubo, wielder of [Gorre, The Machinator]. The only two Avatar users who were absent from Canard's base at the moment were Atoli and Ovan, who possessed [Innis, The Mirage of Deceit] and [Corbenik, The Rebirth], respectively. As for the eighth Avatar, that was the one I possessed.

Thinking about Ovan inevitably made me think on events that had occurred recently. A long story short, he had hatched a convoluted plan that involved me fighting and using [Data Drain] to absorb the essence of the other Avatars so that he could reset The World and possibly free his little sister from a coma she had fallen into due to [AIDA], a virus or bug within this game which was capable of affecting the real world. In the end, his plan worked, but also freed [Cubia], a nigh-invulnerable monster that threatened not only this online game, but everything else in the real world that was connected to a network.

I don't know what happened to Ovan after [Cubia] was defeated. I'd heard rumors that the real life person who was Ovan in this world had died, but I'd like to think that my old mentor and friend managed to find some form of closure even after all that he'd put me through. And on some days, I get the feeling that he's still watching us grow, from somewhere out there in [The World].

"Yo, Haseo! This is your party, we can't have the guest of honor moping around like he lost a major arena fight!"

A hard pat on the back followed by someone jumping on and wrapping their arms around my neck threw me off-balance and into a table. Luckily, I didn't knock anything or anyone over. A moment later, I managed to free myself and turn around and face the speaker.

"Alkaid! When'd you get here?" I asked. "It's nice to see you again."

She placed her hands on her hips and gave me a piercing look, "I've been here the whole time. Don't tell me you haven't noticed?"

Alkaid was one of the people I most admired within [The World]. Despite not possessing an Avatar, she was still one of the strongest players I know in the game, doing more than her share in the final battle against [Cubia]. She was of the [Twin Blade] class and it was really something to see her when she was fighting. Her in-game appearance was about what you'd expect of someone who role-played as a strong warrior: She had on an outfit that could be described as an anime-depiction of a kunoichi, or female ninja, and a large, open fan strapped to the back of her top as a decorative piece. Her blazing red hair was a hint to the fire in her personality. She also happened to be very cute when one manages to catch her off-guard, which is why I try to do that as much as possible. Don't let her know that though, because she'd probably refuse to help as my arena partner for a month afterwards if she found out.

I was saved from having to answer by the door bursting open and Gaspard and Silabus running in, completely out of breath. They almost bowled over a couple of guests in their haste which wouldn't have been surprising for Gaspard, but was out of character for Silabus.

"Haseo! Haseo! Something terrible has happened!" Gaspard cried out.

"Calm down," I said. "And where's Atoli? I thought she was with you."

"That's what I'm trying to tell you," he said as he gasped for breath. "We were out in the field when the map started to glitch out. You know, like back when [AIDA] was around and corrupted the server?"

"Go on," I replied, feeling a chill run down my spine. Whenever [AIDA] was involved, there was no such thing as good news.

"Well, Atoli said for us to stay back…and told us not to worry because she had some sort of protection against it," Gaspard continued before bursting into tears.

I patted him on the back, trying to calm him down, but the tears just kept flowing. In the end, it was up to Silabus to fill us in on the details.

"Well, I'm not really sure what happened, but the background of the zone we were in started to get really shaky. There was this—I can't really describe it, but it just felt—wrong. Well, that feeling expanded around Atoli when she went to take a look and she just…disappeared," Silabus finished.

"What do you mean, disappeared?" I asked, unable to believe it. After all that we've been through. After dealing with the Avatars, [AIDA], and [Cubia], I just couldn't believe that [The World] was still unsafe.

"She just vanished without a trace. And then the feeling of uneasiness I had faded away a little," Silabus said. "I wanted to follow after her, but we needed to let someone…let you know first, Haseo."

I immediately stood up and asked, "What was the keyword for the map you were on?"

I intended to go rescue her immediately, everything else could wait. The party, the celebration, [The World], none of it was as important as this.

"Δ Sword Heart Hope," he answered. "You aren't planning on—?"

"Damn right I am," I replied. "Atoli means a lot to me. Also, I can't rest easy knowing that something related to [AIDA] might be returning."

Most of the party guests immediately clamored about coming with me. However, parties in this game are limited to three people and I didn't really want to risk anyone else falling into whatever trouble had befallen Atoli, so I politely refused. Of course, that only made them more insistent.

"Look, you guys," I explained. "We can't have half the Avatar users go missing in one day in case this really is related to [AIDA] and [Cubia] since only you guys can deal with it." A few months ago, Yata and Pi would have given me a whole load of bull about talking about Avatars outside of the circle of Avatar users, but after the [Cubia] incident, almost all my friends were already in the know about the whole thing. "You can't come along, alright?"

They grumbled about it, but eventually conceded that I was right. Unfortunately, I completely failed to persuade several other players from insisting.

"I'm coming with you. I'm not an Avatar user, so staying behind to protect [The World] isn't an issue for me," a certain battle-crazed, red-haired girl demanded.

"You're insane if you think I'm going to bring you along," I replied to Alkaid. "Not having an Avatar makes it even worse! Don't you remember what happened the last time you came in contact with [AIDA]?"

She gave me a level look and replied with a hint of a smirk, "No, because I was in a coma after that. I know the risks and I'm still coming whether you want or not. Atoli's important to me too, as a friend."

I thought I heard her quietly add "as a rival" after that, but my mind was preoccupied and I must have imagined it. More importantly, Alkaid was the type to follow me even if I tried to stop her. Investigating on her own was what got her into trouble with [AIDA] in the past and how she had ended up in a coma. I sighed, no way around it; if it came down to that, I could probably protect her better if we were partied.

"Fine, you can come along," I relented. "But if I tell you to stay back, stay back, alright?"

"Psh, you're always so reckless when it comes to Atoli," she replied. "I'll watch your back and you watch mine. Arena rules, alright?"

I had to smile a little at that, but that was cut short with Silabus interrupting.

"I'm coming along too," he said. "I'm at least partly responsible for all this and even if you say no, I'll follow behind as a solo."

"What the? Silabus, who the hell did you learn to use that argument against me from?"

It really was surprising since Silabus was never the type to make demands. And aside from one incident where PKing was suddenly allowed in the major cities, I'd never seen him so determined before. Just seeing his expression made me want to take him along.

Silabus pointed at Death Grunty. For his part, that little rodent suddenly started whistling innocently, staring at the ceiling as if he were inside the Sistine Chapel.

I pointed a finger at the little runt. "You'd better hope I'm not in the mood for bacon when I get back," I growled.

-o-

The field looked peaceful enough, the kind that Atoli seemed to love the most. Walking on the flowing grass made me remember a conversation the two of us once had about [The World]. Back then, I had been a bit of a revenge-obsessed jerk to everyone, desperate to catch Tri-Edge and beat him to a pulp in an effort to save a friend. To the me of back then, Atoli's cheerfulness and love of everything in [The World] had been irritating. I regret it now, especially since she was right in some ways, but I had reprimanded her on that day, declaring that everything we saw in the field was nothing but "packets of data."

It really was a beautiful scene. Grassy hills and flowing rivers. But most impressive of all was the background. I never really paid much attention to the story behind [The World], but apparently it involved some war of the gods. Many of the backgrounds in the fields had large ruins or other impressive structures that supposedly dated from that war. The background here was different. There was a massive castle floating in the sky, beyond reach. It was layered, like a cake, and at a first glance, it must have had about a hundred floors. The part of me that came to love [The World] marveled at the sight. The part of me that remained a cynic argued back with "what a waste of processing power."

"Alright Silabus, lead the way to where you guys were when it happened," I said.

He nodded and began walking ahead of me. Silabus' class was [Blade Brandier], a fairly balanced class that wielded a single katana-like sword. It was a class with few weaknesses and few strengths. His appearance was…how to put it…kind of how I would have imagined Robin Hood to look like, actually. Greens and tans made up the majority of his outfit, and he had short hair aside from the curled ponytail that hung to his waist. Nothing about him really stood out, unless you counted his overly nice personality which, incidentally, wasn't an act at all.

I checked my inventory as I followed behind. [AIDA] infected areas were strange places. Strange, but always dangerous. Stocking up on healing items and revival items was a must, since failing to use them when needed could result in the player falling into a coma; I wish we had a [Harvest Cleric] in the party to take care of healing, but ironically, Atoli usually took on that role.

Zelkova had been extremely helpful in helping us prepare. Contrary to his boyish appearance, he was the leader of one of the largest guilds in the game, [Moon Tree] and had access to a plethora of rare items. Thanks to him, all three of us were stocked up on full revives and other helpful items. In addition, I suspect that Zelkova, who was actually one of the most prominent hackers within the game, had altered our character data somewhat in an effort to protect us on this journey. I doubt I would need it for myself, but for the two non-Avatar users in the party, it might just save their lives.

"We're here," Silabus announced, calling a halt.

Immediately, I could see why he had described the area as giving off a sense of wrongness earlier. I could feel it too. The air felt charged with electricity and it occasionally warped, twisting about and distorting what could be seen.

"Stand back," I told the other two. "I'm going to try to data drain it."

The members of my party nodded and followed my orders. I focused on my willpower on calling out my Avatar, a process that seemed to get easier the more I called upon it.

"Come on, come on, come on," I muttered. "I'm—Right—Here!"

In answer to my summons, my Avatar, [Skeith], came forth and the two of us merged. I can't really describe the feeling too well, but [Skeith] has a personality unto itself. When the two of us become one, it takes a lot of control to not lose myself in that mass of rage. I'd like to think that I'm in control whenever this happens, but the truth is, sometimes I'm not even sure which of us is who whenever I call [Skeith] out. Time seemed to freeze, as it always does when an Avatar makes its presence known; normal players are unable to see Avatars at all and battles involving Avatars which take minutes for an Avatar user only last a split-second from the perspectives of normal players.

Thinking back on it now, I'm not entirely sure why I decided to use [Data Drain] on the anomaly instead of hacking into it with one of Zelkova's programs. I suppose that it was partly because that twist in space gave me a foreboding sense of dread. Whatever the cause, the effect was immediate.

The entire map twisted about, sky and ground spinning about until they blurred together. It was almost enough to overwhelm my sense of sight and I was about to close my eyes when everything just…shattered. Silabus, Alkaid, and I plunged into the depths of darkness, but that too, did not last long. Seconds later, we landed on something hard and, as my sight adjusted to the dim lighting, I saw that we were lying down on a stone tiled floor. Ominous blue flames shot up along the sides of the room and a menacing growl made us turn about.

There before us stood a massive beast. Golden eyes, massive horns atop its head, and wielding the biggest axe I've ever seen up close, it was a minotaur. A heavily armed minotaur that obviously did not like the presence of three very startled intruders in its lair. A name appeared above it, [The Rock Reaver]. Clearly a boss battle. I reached out and tried to summon my dual pistols, weapons that were granted to me by the hacked fourth form, [Xth form], that Zelkova had been forced to program into my character in order to save my life.

They didn't materialize. It was then that I realized what had happened. Spiked armor, black as death, my armor appeared unquestionably demonic. Somehow, I had been returned to the form I gained after my second job advancement.

A battlecry drew my attention back to the situation at hand. Alkaid had charged the monster and was going toe-to-toe with it, dodging the monster's attacks gracefully and returning the favor. The four bars of health that I saw next to the monster slowly decreased, a feature that was not present within [The World]. However, aside from this novelty, something else seemed strange. My instincts as a gamer told me that we should pull back for now. And moments later, I learned why. In [The World], players and creatures under fire from skills and attacks were stunned for as long as they were getting hit. This didn't seem to be the case here, as the creature simply raised an armored gauntlet and backhanded Alkaid across the room.

"Alkaid!" I shouted as I ran towards her. Her health bar (when did that appear?) had decreased halfway in that one hit, something again, that was rare in [The World] considering her high level.

A shout of pain stopped me before I could even get close to her. Taking advantage of the distraction Alkaid had provided, Silabus had snuck up behind the boss and unloaded a swift combo to its back. The boss' health decreased further, but still had around three bars of health remaining. Infuriated, the boss swung its weapon about in a whirlwind of steel, dealing two blows to Silabus from two different directions nearly simultaneously. He managed to block the first, but apparently the force was too great and knocked his thin blade aside. The second strike hit him full-on and sent him skidding across the floor where he lay prone. Even from here, I could see his health bar; at roughly 15%, he was in the red.

My party was split into two, Alkaid on one side, Silabus on the other. I myself was in the center of the room. No matter how you look at it, this was a desperate situation.

"Use a healing item!" I shouted at the two of them. Alkaid nodded and did so, if a little shakily. Silabus, however, wasn't moving.

Damn it! I thought. What the hell is going on?

I no longer had [Xth form], but I was in my third form. That meant that, as an [Adept Rogue], I should still be capable of using three weapons to fight. In order to match that ridiculously oversized axe…I supposed the broadsword would be best. I materialized the weapon I wanted without any trouble and rushed at the enemy, dragging my blade behind me before swinging it in a diagonal arc across the monster's chest.

[The Rock Reaver] screamed in pain, an unearthly sound, and leapt backwards. From the corner of my eye, I could see Alkaid making her way across the room to Silabus' position. For now, I had the undivided attention of the boss.

The minotaur roared once and charged forwards, swinging its weapon in a smashing, overhead arc. I managed to sidestep the attack, but it swung its free arm at me as I did so, forcing me to block the blow.

Gah! That backhand was ridiculously heavy! The attack bowled me over to the side as if I weighed nothing at all and my broadsword was knocked out of my hand. I coughed once, trying to quickly get air back into my lungs as the monster leapt back and prepared for a second charge. My health had gone down to 75% from that one hit. This wasn't looking good at all. At this rate, we'd be stuck in an endless cycle of trying to heal ourselves up until the boss finally wore us down.

I'd like to say that I didn't once think the words "it could be worse" at this time. But even if I didn't, whatever genius programmed this game obviously had those words in mind, because [The Rock Reaver] roared loudly once more and two smaller minotaurs appeared out of thin air in the room.

This latest development drove me into a corner. Seeing the determined looks on my friends' faces as they faced down this new enemy and, knowing that I was the one responsible for allowing them to come along…there was no helping it.

I closed my eyes and focused.

"[Skeith], if you're still here. I need you now. To protect my friends. To find Atoli. To defeat this enemy. Come on. Come on. Come on," I muttered. "I'm—Right—Here! [SKEEEIIIITTHHH]!"

76th floor of Aincrad, Kirito

It has been five days since Heathcliff had been revealed as Kayaba Akihiko. In that short time, the [Knights of Blood] had nearly fallen apart. Most had left for other clearing guilds because the reputation of the KoB had taken a huge hit after the revelation. Amongst the few that remained were Asuna and I. For Asuna, the reason to remain in the guild was personal; she wanted to confront Heathcliff on the final floor as the Vice-Commander of the KoB. As for me, I didn't really care about being in the guild or not, I just wanted to be by Asuna's side. I would protect her and she would protect me, that alone was reason enough to stay.

"We must be getting close to the boss room now," Asuna said to the group of clearers as we rested in a safe area within the labyrinth. Even now, she took it upon herself to organize and plan boss fights.

"I have to agree," I added. "Judging by past patterns in mapping a new level and how quickly we've been exploring this floor, I wouldn't be surprised if we found the door to the boss by this afternoon."

My prediction turned out to be correct, because shortly after lunch (which, for me, was a homemade sandwich from Asuna which I savored every bite of,) we ended up at an extremely ominous looking door. Grey stone worked with carvings of contoured skulls and demonic-looking imagery. It was almost enough to drain the fighting spirit of the clearing team before we even entered.

"Shield-bearers enter first," Asuna commanded as everyone moved into formation. "Stay on your guard. The bosses from now on are only going to get harder and we can't afford casualties."

The two of us exchanged nervous smiles that were loaded with all the words we wanted to say to one another but were too embarrassed to exchange with this many people around as the clearers in the front pushed the door open. The doors creaked open slowly.

It was surprisingly bright within the room, torches blazing yellow-red at the sides of the room. It almost looked as if the room had been cleared already. But there, sitting in the center was a presence that made my blood run cold. Clad in armor that looked as if it had been forged in the depths of hell and wielding a massive scythe, that form was no bigger than a human being; the smallest boss we've seen so far. It had its back turned to us, seemingly oblivious to our presence. Perhaps this was Kayaba Akihiko's way of mocking us, saying "You'll have to fight a human being on the final floor, I might as well give you practice now."

But the appearance wasn't the only thing that was chilling about that figure. There was an indescribable [Aura] around it. A cloud of hatred and rage that transcended words. If Kayaba's goal was to intimidate us, I have to admit that it was working. One of the clearers, letting his fear get the better of him, screamed as he charged forwards, shield raised before him. I silently cursed.

The figure, taking this as an act of aggression, finally turned. I caught sight of those fierce red eyes for the first time then. Red pupils that did not blink shut once as the figure spun his scythe around with one arm and battered the charging man to the side with the back end.

A name appeared above the figure's head. A figure that had the appearance of a boy not too much older than myself. His name?

[The Terror of Death]

*notes: I've actually gotten into SAO only recently, but I have to admit that the story and the characters are really very interesting. As for the .Hack series, I'm sort of a lukewarm fan of them, having played part of the first set of games, watched some of the anime, and beaten all of the G.U. games. I thought about what would happen if the characters in each met up, and this chapter was the result of that ruminating.

This is more of a pilot than anything else…a way to test the waters, as it were. I decided to use characters from the G.U. timeline rather than the others for two reasons. First, because I've actually played through all the games and liked how Haseo had matured thoughout them. Secondly, because I think he and some of the G.U. crew have personalities that would either mesh well or clash with the ideologies and personalities of the SAO crew. Imagine a scenario where a former PKK like Haseo, upon learning what happens when someone dies in-game in SAO, encounters a guild like Laughing Coffin. Yeah, that's a reason why I picked G.U.

As for the scenario proposed here, Kirito never got the chance to beat Heathcliff on the 75th floor, which means that there are still 25 floors to clear. Considering the large number of casualties on the 75th floor, one might think that there won't be many survivors at the top but—remember that the intruders from the .Hack-verse are carrying a large supply of healing/revival items with them—and we know that at least the healing ones work. In order to balance that out, should I continue this story, I'll probably bring back the 10 second rule from the item Kirito had received in the Red-Nosed Reindeer sidestory as well as make Kayaba Arihiko aware of the presence of said items early on.

I hope this chapter was enjoyable for you, and I hope to get some feedback.