After a about a year-ish, I've finally found the time to 'finish' this story. If anyone wasn't satisfied with the ending of Chapter 6: Awakening and wanted more like thegreatnations or MikageHime, this one's for you~ Thank them for this chapter... and me too ;)

-SmartyPandazOVERTAKER

P.S. This chapter will be in Kirito's P.O.V.


Previously from Ch.6:

"What are you?" he calls out in confusion. The creature responded saying that its name was Creer and explained everything to Kirito, but he stopped understanding after its name as if he could hear it. It's not as sinister as Kirito thought. He expected a bit more than that.

As soon as Creer finished explaining what nonsense that it said, it starts to attack Kirito with various techniques. As good as Creer is, Kirito had to put in more effort to repel Creer's attacks. As he was on defense, Creer didn't slow down one bit. Its energy was so high that it could last enough to last one day. However, its power was decreasing. The attacks degenerated, but it was still strong. As a recoil from one massive attack, Kirito takes the role of offense. Kirito has high stamina, able to withstand any other. As a final attack, Kirito gathers all of his power into one and unleashes a supernova-like attack that not even Creer with its speed could outrun. An enormous amount of energy is released into the atmosphere and into the sky panels.

"Well, well... Just look what we have here..." an eerie voice says out of no one and to no one.


BOOM. Luckily, the impact doesn't affect me as the power I unleashed wasn't in my direction. I could faintly see the energy reach the sky panels of the 'world'. I almost didn't hear what I turned my head in various directions trying to find the owner of the anonymous comment. "Who's there?" I call out to the darkness.

"Surely you should recognize my voice, Kirito," he spoke again. I cringed when he said my name as if we were the best of friends. Memories of the previous people I met swarmed by brain, trying to find a matching frequency.

"Oh, I forgot to formally introduce myself... I'm the Papa of the Arcana Famiglia, Mondo."

Bingo.

"Mondo? The Papa of the Arcana Famiglia?" I ask, tightening my grip on the sword in my hands. He wasn't feeling well a while ago. No one should be able to heal that fast. My senses are tingling from the possible danger I could be in. I'm Kirito, the Black Swordsman who beat the life-changing game of SAO, and I should be confident. I am.

"Mondo?" the voice repeats. "Oh, the voice.." He coughs. Then, Mondo comes into view with his hand covering his mouth as he coughs again. "Better?" He's in the bed clothing I saw him in a few hours ago. There's something different about him... His eyes. They're blood red.

"You're not Mondo, are you?" I question. "You're-"

He cuts me off, "Nope." A devious smile creeps up Mondo's face. "Creer." He pulls a long silver sword from the leftover ruins from the explosion I created just a few moments ago. Creer? I thought I already... No. No. The surprise must have been evident since he said, "You're right, but I'm not going to disappear that easily. An explosion isn't going to make me disappear. Plus to your earlier statement, I'm the Papa. Not the loved, Mondo. But then again, I'm in his body for the time being." My brain gathers his words and saves them into a notepad. "I guess you're right again... Kirito." He carefully runs Mondo's fingertips along the sword's edge. His pointer finger gushes out a bit of blood. It trickles down his finger onto his hand. "This is the last battle, so don't worry about me being resurrected."

"What's your goal? What do I have to do to win?" I prepare myself for an attack, lifting my sword and balancing my weight on my legs.

"Oh that?" He lifts Mondo's eyes from the blood rippling down his skin to meet mine's. "That won't be fun just by telling you. No, no." He shakes his head. "Let's play a game," he says, taking a step closer to me. I stay frozen in the same position, reading to strike. Taking my silence as a yes he continues, "We both fight with our swords. The first to reach the other's heart wins."

"What if I win?" I ask. "Will you tell me how to beat this game?" This has got to be the most frustrating game I've ever encountered. I mean, first I sliced him and next thing I know he came back as another person. Isn't that the cause to why Mondo was feeling ill? Creer's been using his body to do the handiwork and no one would suspect anything since Mondo's the Papa. Clever. Clever indeed. The things I could decipher using minimal clues are amazing and useful, especially in this type of game.

"We'll see, Kirito. But if I win, you'll have to join me." He eyed my sword. I made a disgusted face. Is he trying to take over the world or something? And why would he need me? "I guess you're not up to it?" he taunts.

I subtly flinch. "I am," I proclaim.

"Let's go," he says, taking the sword into his deathly grip. I suppose taking over Mondo's being had its advantages: his size and strength. I nod.

He takes the initiative move and advances towards me, lifting the blade above his head. I swiftly dodge from the attack and jump back towards the pile of weaponry ruins. I take my sword and shield myself from Creer's second attack, aiming for my heart. I deflect it and strike back, pushing the tip towards his cheek. A droplet of blood sprinkles from the line of blood. Creer hides the pain and comes at me with all his force. He slashes through the air as if to prevent me from dodging until he slices off a strip of my clothing as it lands on the floor, covering his blood stains. And I was getting used to this suit too. We danced around the weaponry room, often colliding swords, until he backed me onto a corner of the dreaded, dark place.

"Ready to give up? To join my forces?" he snarls raising his dark weapon, ready to aim for my fast-beating heart.

I take a step backwards until I felt the wall's cool texture. I look up to meet the broad man's eyes and said, "No." His eyes widen as he moved the sword downwards. I quickly ducked down and just before I slipped away, someone moved behind Creer and stroke him with a sharp, thin blade before another weapon, a wider sword, attacked him as well. It was dark, but the room was lit with the moonlight shining through the windowsill.

I focused my eyes on the two beings until I realized who they were: Liberta and Nova. Liberta directed a light nod in my direction as Nova struck Creer with a katana. I sprint towards them with all my might and aimed my sword right above his heart, where Mondo's would still be.

"Game over," I whisper. Before I knew it, Mondo's body fell as if he loss the strength to withhold his weight; his legs can't hold him up anymore. A dark flame rose up from Mondo's heart and swirled around in the air before coming transforming into the same black hole that I fought earlier, just white. "Again? I thought you said that was it."

"This is it. I wouldn't lie, even if I'm the bad enemy," it said. For some odd reason, it's words were actually more understandable, maybe it wasn't enunciating before. Hmm. Creer might not be that bad.

"Back to our deal, Creer. Answer my questions," I demand, slipping my sword into its sheath. Nova and Liberta are still behind me, though I don't think they would understand anything at the time being. I guess they heard the racket we were creating down here and tried to help. That works too.

"Alright. I'll only say this once so listen up." I nod as he continues, "Technically, you've already won the game since the time you've beaten me just a few seconds ago. However, this is a one player game and only you could have beaten me. That suit you're wearing proves that you're the player. Those two over there-" I look at the twosome. "-just so happened to appear and helped you out. But by the data, eXper has collected from you, you would've won anyways. So I don't necessarily know why it says for you to keep going in the game. This is the first I've seen it. Usually, Nova and Liberta would be in a deep slumber with every-" He pauses. "Wait a minute." Creer drifts towards them until he was face-to-face with the two. "How'd you two wake?"

"I just got up since I saw that Kirito wasn't in the comfortable bed I made him," Liberta responds, shrugging.

"While I just heard some swords smashing and chaos so I thought I'd check it out and found Liberta wandering the hallways, so we unexpectedly went together," Nova retorts, crossing his arms together across his chest.

"Hmmm, so I guess it was our fault then," Creer decides. He floats back to me and says, "I guess we can say that you won. You were pretty good out there for a kid your age."

"Thanks, I guess." I rub the back of my head with my hand.

"I'll just input that into the data and we'll be all good," Creer concludes.

"What about Papa?" Nova asks, turning his head to see Mondo's still form on the floor. Everyone followed his eyes to the lifeless body.

"Oh. He'll be fine after a nice sleep. I didn't overwork him that much." I can imagine Creer's malevolent face if he was human.

"Alright. Thanks." Nova gestured to Liberta to help him lift and carry Mondo out the door to his respective room.

"I guess you made an influence on those two," Creer adds, watching them carry the heavy man out.

"I'm not sure, Creer. Maybe I did," I respond.

"Anyways, I'll let you out of the game now. You had trouble the last time you tried, right?" He asks.

"Yeah, thanks," I said, truthfully. Creer floats upward and moved out the window as I followed him. I continued watching him until he disappeared from my sight. I waved my hand across the invisible screen until the menu popped up as I logged out. I could've sworn that I heard Creer say, "It's not over by a long shot. A very long shot." But maybe it was just me. It's just me, right?


A/N: I hope you guys enjoy this ending more than the so-called 'cliffhanger' I had in the last chapter~