Kirito and the gang returns together in one of the sectors of the OASIS. The team travels to a sector where it lies many type of colosseums or arenas for teams matches, singles matches, sporting matches and even free for all matches. This sector shows many type of places where a team could choose what type of matches they wish to be, while the crowd can sit back and watch the whole match to see who wins.
Kirito and the gang travels to the roman colosseum where in this place a player can have a one on one match or a team match in an open area. The rules in this arena forbids those who use serious technological weapons like the modern day or a futuristic weapons against their opponents. Only fantasy-based weapons and magic are the only things the players can use, which is the perfect place for Kirito to test his strength against many players in open battle.
When the team arrives through the portal, they meet up with a handful of competitor fighters who are ready for a team match or a singles match against someone. Just when they arrive, they end up moving to the side to allow some players to leave. They find characters like Minato Namikaze, Tracer and Sonic leaving the area by going through the portal the team just went through.
"Damn, look at these players." Klein said when walking forward and looking at many players nearby. He soon starts to blush when noticing a handful of female players walking past him and the gang. He saw female characters like Orchid, Dark Magician Girl, Erza Scarlet and Lara Croft leaving the area, but when they went past Klein, the girl who was Orchid gives Klein a wink before leaving.
"Seriously Klein?" Lisbeth said when turning her eyes to him and crossing her arms
Klein sighs when watching them leave "I do hope there actually girls and not guys in those avatars…" He then shivers when just thinking about it.
"There actually girls." Leafa walks up to Klein "There part of the Valkyries."
"How do you know that?" Klein asks
"Didn't you see the symbol on the side of their arms?"
"I don't think he was looking at their arms, Asuna." Kirito said
"There part of an old faction in the OASIS." Leafa said "They are a group with only women in there."
"How do they even know?" Klein asks "A guy could join the group as a girl."
"That's not possible." Said a player who heard the conversation. She approaches the group and brought their attention towards her. She stood in her twenties, looking a bit older than most of the members of the group except for Klein. She wears her own avatar creation with long purple hair that stretch down to her waist and blue eyes to match her colour armour. She wears a blue metal corset-shaped breastplate on her torso and a black skirt with white ends. On her arms she has two full length arm-guards with black cloth pauldrons, and on her legs she has thigh-high metal boots. The weapons she carries is a small silver kite shield around her left arm and a longsword seen in the sheath on her waist.
Klein felt a love-struck again, the same way when he felt when he first saw Freyja during his time on helping Kirito obtain the Excalibur. Before he could say anything, Asuna steps forward and asks "And who are you?"
"Haven't we met before?" Leafa asks when staring at this girl
The girl points to the top above her breasts to show a symbol of a symbol. It was a white sword with black and gold outlines and white wings spread out from behind the sword.
"You wear the same symbol as the girls who left." Lisbeth said "You're a Valkyrie."
"She's Michelle." Klein said and gives them all a surprise
"Of course you would know her name." Lisbeth said
"But we met her before." Klein looks to Lisbeth and looks to Kirito "That day when we bumped into that red haired girl?"
"Michelle…" Leafa mutters the name "I remember now…"
In another flashback, during the time when Kirito and the gang joins the OASIS, both Klein and Kirito went for a fly together through the sky across Aincrad for the night. Thanks to Aincrad being part of the OASIS, the players can now fly as much as they want, a special gift and an apology for false advertisement. The players could never reach the end of the World Tree and was never a reward at the top where the player can achieve better wings that allows them to fly. Thanks to the OASIS being part of ALfheim Online, every player can finally take flight and can stay in the skies as much as they want.
Right now, Kirito and Klein descends to the ground for a break and meets up with both Silica and Leafa in the forest at night. During the meeting, it was at this day that they come across players from the OASIS who ventures into Aincrad. This whole encounter became more of a damsel in distress, just like how Kirito met Leafa for the first time in Aincrad. The group encounters a battle taking place in the forest between the once small faction known as the Wings of Valkyrie and the Black Rings.
Michelle was part of the group, except she wore an avatar character of Lightning in her normal attire outfit. She and two other female players like Brigitte and Ahri was by her side, running through the forest and fighting against the enemy players. During the chase, Brigitte defends herself against an incoming attack from a male Qunari Arishok who came swinging two axes at her and damages her energy shield she put up. When she blocks his attack, another player came out and impales her from behind with a spear and shatters her into coins. The Arishok absorbs all of the coins then went after the other two who are still running.
Michelle and the other player Ahri stops when finding out that their friend just died in battle. They turn to face their enemy that comes rushing through and attacking them. The Arishok came rushing out and clashes against Michelle, while Ahri moves to the side to distract him from the rear. Just when that happens, the one who took out Brigitte, appears from above and dives down with her spear to strike down Ahri. She did see it on time and evades the attack, which distracts Michelle for a moment to allow the Arishok to strike her to the chest and sent her back away with just half the health she has right now.
"This is not good…" Michelle mutters to herself when looking at the two players. She looks at her friend and asks "You going to be alright."
The female player with the spear stands next to the Arishok and reveals to be the avatar character of Aranea Highwind, but the only thing different is that she change the hair colour of her to a darker red.
The woman leans her spear to her shoulder and responds "Give it up. We're done giving chase and killing one of your friends at a time."
"The rest of the Valkyrie's will come for you, you know that, right?" The girl who was Ahri said
The woman laughs and responds "Do you think we care? You only have twelve members of your group and we already killed several of you. You're faction is good for the picking." She looks to the Arishok and said "Finish it."
"Finally." The Arishok twirls his axes and approaches the two at the ready.
As he gets closer to his targets, a sudden interference happens when Klein storms out of the bushes and confronts the player. Everyone stops and turns their heads towards him when he appears, standing before them with his sword drawn and ready to take on this player.
"That's far enough!" Klein shouts out after revealing himself to the group "As a samurai, I can't stand by and watch you harm them."
Both Kirito and Leafa comes out of the bushes behind Klein. "So much for the element of surprise." Kirito said
Leafa sighs and crosses her arms "Yeah, nice job Klein."
"Hey!"
"And just who the hell –" The female player stops and gazes her eyes towards Kirito and Silica who stands behind him. She was stun at first when seeing his face and brought a slight flashback of seeing Kirito in his Sword Art Online appearance. "It can't be…"
"What should we do?" The Arishok replies
"Hey you." She aims her spear towards Kirito "Boy with the black hair. What's your name?"
"Huh?"
"Tell me your name?!"
"It's Kirito."
"Son of a bitch…"
"Am I supposed to know who you are?"
"You're the asshole who locked me up and my gang in Sword Art Online. It's Rosalia!"
"Rosalia…" Silica shakes her head and holds onto Kirito's arm tighter 'No…"
"You know this girl?" Leafa asks
"She was a red player in SAO. She and her guild kill players." Silica said to Leafa "She was trying to steal Pina from me."
"If it isn't Silica and the little lizard." Rosalia looks towards her and her pet blue dragon that still remains on her head "I can't believe you're still alive."
"….."
"You guys should get lost. This doesn't concern you anymore, this isn't even SAO anymore."
"Well, we were in the neighbourhood… And." Kirito scratches the back of his head "Couldn't stop Klein from saving people and couldn't really stop him."
"Yeah. So why don't you two just back off." Klein responds fiercely
The Qunari looks back to Rosalia and asks "There's too many of them."
"I know… It's him that concerns me…" Rosalia stares at Kirito for a while. She looks back to the two Valkyrie's, but soon sighs and ends up calling the retreat "Let's get out of here. We'll get them another time." She then looks back to Silica and aims her spear towards her pet dragon "I'll be seeing you two later. I promise you that."
The Qunari snarls and leaves the area by taking off the headset, which makes him shatter to pixels. As for Rosalia, she turns back and walks away. Ahri was about to pursue Rosalia, but Michelle grabs her and told her to stay and let her be for the time being. She then looks towards the others and approaches them.
Michelle bows to Klein first and got him fluster by the way her avatar looks. She responds "Thank you very much for saving us." She raise her head up and responds "My name is Michelle. It is nice to see some nice people in the OASIS."
"It's been a while."
"You change your avatar." Kirito said
"I…" Michelle looks down at her avatar then back to them and responds "I thought of making my own avatar."
"I represent the Valkyries. I heard you're conversation and you're misunderstanding the concept on how we operate in our faction."
"You have a way to determine a player's gender?" Kirito asks "I thought you're not allowed to do that."
"That's true, although the last player who told his true identity to the world, ended up getting everyone to help him stop a company from conquering the OASIS."
"The Hero of the OASIS…"
"So what's you're secret then?" Asuna asks
"It's simple… We have an Infinity Stone."
"A what?" Klein, Kirito and Lisbeth all said that at the same time when looking at Michelle
"It's true… You don't know about the six Infinity Stones of the OASIS?" Michelle turns her eyes left to right when looking at each individual of the group
"I've heard about the Infinity Stones." Leafa said "There was talks that three Infinity Stones have been found in the OASIS."
"That's right." Yui comes out and floats above their heads "The Valkyries and Castle Wolfenstein possesses an Infinity Stone. Some say that either the Hellfire Crusaders or the Black Dragon Emperor possess the third one."
"We Valkyrie's have been struggling at times against some factions, since they now know that they know we have an Infinity Stone." Michelle said "The Black Dragon Emperor is our enemy faction and Castle Wolfenstein is holding a bit of a grudge against us, but luckily for us, they don't care about fighting another faction. As for the Hellfire Crusaders, some say that they might end up starting either a friendly or a serious fight with the newly Night Sentinels that is being made right now."
"Damn… Talk about a serious faction wars." Kirito scratches the back of his head
"It's been crazy since the High Five acquired the three keys and solved Halliday's Easter Egg." Leafa said "They added new sectors and different places, but since that whole quest is finally over, the only thing people do now is join a group and fight each other."
"I'm wondering what would happen if one faction got all the stones." Sinon said
"I'm wondering the same thing." Klein looks back
"Sounds curious, but if they unite all the Infinity Stones together and forged the Infinity Gauntlet…" Kirito said with a concern look
"The player could wipe out half of the players in the OASIS." Yui mentions.
"I don't think we will have to worry about that." Kirito said "I doubt anyone could ever unite all of them together."
"I guess you're right."
"Hey… Isn't that one of Eugene's followers?" Leafa asks when pointing towards one of the members of the Salamanders.
"Wonder if he knows where Eugene is." Kirito walks over towards him and calls out his name "Hey. Kagemune."
Kagemune looks back at the group when they all approach him from behind. "Oh, it's you guys." He looks back at the screen and responds "Figured you guys would show up."
"What's happening?" Kirito asks "Where's Eugene?"
"You just missed what happen to him." Kagemune replies "See for yourself."
The group watches the screen that shows the full view of the arena through an invisible, floating camera that moves around to film the match and broadcast it across the colosseum. They see Eugene still alive, dropped down on his knees after forfeiting his match against a stronger opponent who was able to defeat him. Despite the fact that he wields a powerful sword, Eugene was no match against this player who stands before him with a legendary sword of his own to match against his. This player has the avatar form of the Black Luster Soldier, named Le0nhardt.
"No way." Kirito said, shocked at seeing Eugene on his knees "He lost?"
"You should have seen the match." Kagemune said "This guy is the second player to ever defeat him…" He looks back to Kirito "You manage to destroy him completely, thanks to a little help." His eyes then turns to Leafa who looks back at him for a moment
"So who is that guy?" Lisbeth asks
"I know him." Michelle approaches the screen next to Klein, which got him blushing a little and tries to hide it. "That's Le0nhardt. He's the leader of the Espada. It's another old faction."
"Looks like he wants a challenge." Kagemune said. After saying that, a screen appears in front of him and everyone in this whole room. It was a message saying 'Do you wish to challenge Le0nhardt. yes or no?'
"Anyone up for the challenge?" Kagemune looks back to the others and looks towards Leafa "What about you?"
"If you got something to say, say it to my face."
"I'll do it." Kirito replies
"What –" Asuna turns to Kirito and saw him pressing the 'yes' icon "You going to fight him? He defeated Eugene."
"He'll be alright, mommy." Yui replies and flies on her shoulder "Daddy defeated him and he'll defeat him too."
"Your friend is insane on picking a fight with the leader of the Espada." Michelle said
"I've heard about them." Leafa said "Heard they've lost a handful of players."
"The way you people fight with swords, I'd expected you would try to join their group." Michelle looks to Asuna and the others
"We're fine with what we have." Asuna said
"That's right." Lisbeth replies and looks back to the arena "Our group is fine with what we have."
"You should join us." Silica said to Michelle
"I can't leave the Valkyries." Michelle responds "I've been with them since I came to the OASIS."
"That's a shame." Klein mutters the word. Michelle looks towards him and got him to look away.
Meanwhile….
"So… Your name is Kirito." Le0nhardt responds to him
"Yep. That's right."
"I remembered that name before. You're the one who finished Sword Art Online."
"Yeah. That was me." Kirito draws out both swords from his back and stands in an attacking stance. He aims his Excalibur at the front and his other sword behind him.
"I see you wield the Excalibur. Let's see how it shall fare against my weapon." Le0nhardt aims his blade forward. It was a black sword with cyan markings over the blade and shows to glow in the same colour as well. It also features a red circle in front of the guard.
"What kind of sword is that?" Kirito asks when gazing to the strange sword
"This is the Black Blade Stormbringer. You'll find out about this sword in the fight."
Kirito smiles "Guess I'll have to find out."
"I've seen that sword before." Leafa said when trying to stare at Stormbringer "Kirito was looking at that sword a while back. Stormbringer is what it's called."
"I don't know much about the sword." Lisbeth said "But I can tell it's really powerful."
"Powerful enough to defeat Eugene's Gram." Asuna said
"Isn't Eugene's sword the second powerful weapon? While Kirito has the world's strongest sword?" Silica looks to Lisbeth
"That's what it used to be." Michelle said and got their attention "The OASIS has created so many powerful swords that can match the Excalibur."
"Guess that explains it."
Meanwhile, back into the arena, when Kirito stands face to face with Le0nhardt, something changes in his eyesight that forces him to remember an event that is closely similar to this one right now. In his eyes, he saw Le0nhardt change to Heathcliff from SAO, the one he fought in a duel that cost him his defeat and brought him into the guild. This entire scene, the stances and the situation are very close to what happen to Kirito in SAO. Now the game has return to this exact moment and to see if Kirito could defeat someone like him again in the OASIS.
"This is my second chance now…" Kirito thought to himself and waits for the timer in front of the two to hit zero.
The moment the timer expires, Kirito lands the first strike with his Excalibur against Le0nhardt's Stormbringer. Kirito begins attacking at full force with both blades, attacking with one sword after the other and only deliver no blows to Le0nhardt personally. Once Le0nhardt saw the chance, he pushes Kirito back with his large shield and swings his sword down at Kirito, forcing him to block his strong swing with both swords in front of him to form a cross.
This fight would go on for a time, as Kirito struggles the same way when he fought Heathcliff; however, as he tries to work around by redoing his mistakes, he manage to find a way to attack him without performing relentless assault to his shield. He soon decides a different approach by attacking his right side, targeting just his sword and making sure that Le0nhardt does not use his shield to block his attack. His plan was to attack only his right side and continues moving to the right to use his Excalibur to clash with Stormbringer, while using his other sword to try and deliver a blow. The plan did work a few times, delivering only a few hits, but when Le0nhardt knew what he was doing, he ends up quickly countering this and delivers his own counter attack against Kirito.
"Come on, Kirito." Asuna mutters to herself and holds her hands together in front of her, praying for Kirito to win this.
Kirito continues his onslaught against Le0nhardt and manage to gain a few blows against him, but Le0nhardt lands a critical one when he almost took a stab through the chest. Luckily for Kirito, he blocks his attack and jumps back, forcing the two to stop for the moment. Kirito stops and was down on one knee, looking back at Le0nhardt as he stands his ground with his large shield forward.
Kirito thought to himself "I got to get around that…" Once he had an idea, his eyes widen for a moment and gives this plan a shot against him.
Kirito charges for one more final attack against him. Le0nhardt uses his shield to prepare a shield bash, but out of nowhere, Kirito uses the shield as a boost jump for him to jump over him and strike him from behind. He performs a perfect flip over his head and when being upside down, he swings his sword, while Le0nhardt turns to try and counter his sword with his. Kirito manage to succeed on delivering a decisive blow against him by lunging his Excalibur through the right arm and when he lands, he swings both swords to strike him to the chest before he had a chance to block that attack. Le0nhardt suffers a fatal blow and knocks Kirito back with the shield.
The match finally ends after that attack Kirito delivers, since there was a time limit to this match and it finally ran out. The match was over and both players was able to survive the time limit without losing all their stuff in the process. As for the victor, it went straight to Kirito, since that serious blow he just did to Le0nhardt brought the match to his favour and made Le0nhardt lose the match against him.
Asuna and the entire gang cheer as Kirito won and survive the battle against Le0nhardt. Yui was circling around the top of Asuna's head with joy, while Silica was hugging her pet dragon too. Michelle just sits there, impressed after what she just saw and surprise to see someone like him was able to defeat someone like him on the first try.
"I'm impressed." Michelle said "There are not that many people in the OASIS that could defeat Le0nhardt in a one on one battle."
"Yeah, but Kirito is something different." Klein said
"I guess your right about that."
Kirito was relief to see the end of this fight was over. He falls to the ground, sitting back and dropping his swords next to him. As for Le0nhardt, he approaches Kirito and places both his shield and sword into his inventory before speaking to him.
"I must admit, you've did a pretty good job. Is this the second time you fought someone strong with a shield?"
"Yeah. How do you know that –"
"It is pretty obvious. By the way, I haven't really introduced myself to you. I am the leader of a guild known as the Espada. I am known as Espada number one; Le0nhardt."
"Leader of the Espada…"
"You would make a perfect applicate for the Espada. You should join us."
Kirito grabs his swords and gets back up off the ground "Thanks… But I have to pass on that." He then places his swords in his inventory and looks out towards his friends "I've already got a team."
"Fine then. But if you are in need of any help, I will assist you. Think of this as a reward for not killing me and taking my stuff."
"Cool. I'll be looking forward to seeing you again another time."