Author's Notes: Well, here it is. Finally. The next chapter has been worked for about a month and a half now, but with all the really rough spot my life is going through it's been very hard to find both the time and motivation to write. Still, I would like to apologize for the erratic and slow update rate since school started. That out of the way, now to the fun bit: the result of the vote on how you guys would like me to respond to reviews was narrowly in favor of doing it here in the author's notes, so starting with this, Chapter 9 of Attack on Aincrad, I will respond to 3 reviews pertaining to the previous chapter every time I update one of my stories. Here we go:

Coronadomontes: Thank you, it's always a joy to see your review after every new chapter. A part of your first question will be answered in this chapter, and as for whether any of the villians of SAO will be making an appearance besides Kayaba, I think you may notice a few familiar faces in this chapter as well!

knight of Eclipse: Keep in mind that the player in SAO canon who's stats we are most familiar with is Kirito, who was leagues ahead of all but the most powerful of the clearers by this point in the game, and even he can get tossed around by a boss-level monster of high-enough level. I had Klein equate the Titans to minor bosses not only becuase I felt that is how they would first see them as before they knew what they were, but also to give a medium of stat comparison.

urs-v: Thank you so much for your continued reviews and comments! I'm glad you like what I'm doing with the "world fusion", and I think you'll like what I have planned for Erwin later in the story.

Now, on to the main event: the chapter I took far too long in getting to you wonderful readers! Mandatory Disclaimer(ugh): I do not own either Attack on Titan or Sword Art Online. Enjoy Chapter 9!

Year: 2 SAOHI (Sodo Ato Onrain Hatsubai Irai)

Kayaba Akihiko, Klein thought with disgust as he gazed at the giant hooded avatar that now hovered above the surviving players of SAO. The bastard who sealed us inside this death game, the man who killed Issin and Dale. The unchangeable fact remained that the man who currently controlled the immense mockery of a GM help avatar that had just spoken was quite possibly the worst mass-murderer in Japanese history.

4,610. That was the current count of human lives that Kayaba had ended with his modifications to the Nervegears and the game he had sealed the players inside. People with lives, families, futures, all dead because they had decided to play a game. He's ultimately responsible for all the pain and suffering we've lived through these past two years, and he has the nerve to speak to us? Klein clenched his fists in a simmering rage, an anger that before the Titans he would not have thought himself capable of. Then again, of course the coward would have the nerve, he's a GM, he's as untouchable as a god in a game world. And, as he glanced for a second away from the hooded avatar back toward Liz, who was still too busy clinging to Asuna to look up at what had transfixed every other player, Klein reminded himself that Kayaba's unexpected forced teleport had saved lives, including hers.

The eerie, monotone voice of the avatar spoke again: "I am very pleased with what you players have managed to accomplish in these past two years. You've formed guilds, advanced your characters, dealt with threats such as Laughing Coffin, and cleared almost 3/4ths of Sword Art Online. Some of you have even discovered the more mysterious and beautiful of human emotions during your time here."

Amidst the clamor of players voicing their anger and demanding to be set free, Klein noticed Kirito's features especially tighten at the last statement, as if he and Asuna were being specifically mentioned.

"You have created lives for yourself in this world, and shaped a society around them." Kayaba continued, "You live by this virtual world's rules, not rigidly bound to the rules of the real world. You have made the world of Aincrad your own, which has been my dream and my goal from the moment the Nervegear began development, and for that, I thank you."

More incoherent shouting emerged from the assembled thousands of players, and Klein felt himself joining in. Meanwhile, Kirito stood silent, staring at the GM avatar with what Klein thought was the most apt example of a glare of pure hatred.

Kayaba continued with his monologue, either unable to hear or choosing to ignore the yells from the crowd below. "However, that dream, and all your lives, are now threatened by an external force. Aincrad, your home for the past two years, has come under attack."

Someone near Klein, a ranking member of the Divine Dragon Alliance by the look of them, yelled out the question that Klein imagined, if he didn't know what he knew, he would want to ask himself: "If the Titans are such a threat to your insane dream, why don't you just delete them? You're the game's one goddamn GM after all!" As the player shouted, Klein realized it was the leader of the DDA, Lind. Even as one of the most senior clearers, Lind did not know the truth about the Titans and their point of origin. Asuna had decided to keep the knowledge of the other world a secret for now so as to not cause even more panic and confusion. The real story of where their new enemies were from was known only to Fuurinkazan and the KOB members present that fateful day in the clearing, in addition to the members of the KOB high council who had been present when Kirito and Asuna had reported to Heathcliff about the Titans' destruction of the portal barrier.

Several other players, at least a hundred of them, seemed to echo Lind's sentiments, and for once Kayaba responded to them. "For one, aside from the tutorial and the events of today, I have always refrained from abusing my powers as this's game's ruler. For the second and far more serious reason, my power only extends to what I can control using SAO's operating, management, and generation program, the Cardinal System. Thus, only objects that have originated in this game world, such as your player avatars, the weapons you wield, and the monsters you fight, are under it's control. This new threat is not such an object. What is occurring is the invasion of Sword Art Online itself by a foreign program of unknown origin."

The entire central square of the Town of Beginnings became dead silent at this new statement. "Is that...is that even possible? The Sword Art Online servers were supposed to be impossible to crack, that's part of the reason the government hasn't shut this thing down and gotten us out!" Lind shouted, and Klein had to agree. From all he'd heard about it from some of the more tech-savvy players like Kirito, the firewall defenses Kayaba had set up for SAO were supposed to be nigh-on impenetrable, and that was even BEFORE the offical launch, where security surely would have been tightened.

"In this case," Kayaba said, and this time Klein thought he could almost detect a hint of sadness in the robotic monotone, "it was the Cardinal System falling into it's own hole. The system is designed to automatically scan the internet and all other connected systems for data to be used to create new monster types, items, and quests, with limited to no human interaction neccasary. Upon ending the tutorial, I set the system to be entirely automated. That was a mistake."

Does it really take the loss of 800 lives to make you realize you screwed up, you bastard? Klein thought, though he listened intently and could see the other players doing the same. The complete lack of sound in the normally bustling town aside from Kayaba and the voices of the players was undeniably unsettling. It seemed as if even the background music of the game had been temporarily disabled. At this point, Kayaba seemed to have the best idea of whatever the hell was going on, and if he told them, they needed to hear.

"While apparently searching for difficult enemies to use as monsters for the final twenty floors, the Cardinal system instead found another virtual reality, which seems to run on similar enough patterns to our own to allow data transfer. What this means is that a connection, or portal, operating much like the zone entrances in Sword Art Online, has formed between this world and the other. And the inhabitants of both worlds are able to cross over and emerge from the other reality's counterpart portal.

The avatar paused, as if to let that sink in, and a jumble of confusion traveled through the crowd. Before anything coherent was said, however, Kayaba continued. "I was unaware of this, until two parties of players from Sword Art Online wandered through and sustained casualties, while bringing three of the other world's player inhabitants back with them to obtain answers. While I was able to erect a barrier preventing the primary monsters of the other reality, known as Titans, from crossing over, I was unable to close the portal fully, as the Cardinal System's command controls have fused with those of the other program, greatly limiting my powers in the virtual world. And 5 days ago, through means that even I cannot entirely comprehend, the other system was able to destroy that barrier, and the Titans have been unleashed on the world I labored years to create and that you have spent so much time clearing and living in."

Again, an uproar went through the crowd, though this time it was coherent, and it was not directed at Kayaba but at the other players. "Who was in those parties? Who knew about this?" We should have told them, thought Klein. We should have told them the truth about that day, about what these things were capable of, the minute they showed up. Deep down though, the red-haired player knew it wasn't like that would have changed anything for the better. By the time Kirito and Asuna had told him about the breach, the Titans had already laid waste to the 75th Floor, causing more deaths than the players had seen in a single day since the first week after the launch of SAO. And now, it wasn't his decision to make.

The hooded avatar floating above them then seemed to look at it's disembodied right glove as if checking some sort of invisible watch. It then looked off into the distance, beyond the walls of the Town of Beginnings. "Speaking the names of the players concerned and those they brought with them would violate my neutrality even more than I already have. That is not why I have summoned you here, a violation of neutrality itself. I value the preservation of this world and it's inhabitants more than I do that neutrality, to a point. I have watched your attempts to resist and survive against the Titans, and while I am impressed with the displays of player courage and skill with which you have conducted yourselves during this crisis, it has not been enough. When you began to realize what you were up against, only once did you attempt to defend a floor, and that attempt failed due to overconfidence and a lack of numbers. That is why I have gathered you all here, on Floor 1, where you no doubt thought you would eventually make your last stand if you followed through with your evacuate and retreat pattern, should the Titan problem not disappear. But it is too late for that now. I now have reason to believe that some of the more unique Titan variants, such as the one that destroyed the barrier, are each controlled by an intelligent entity, possibly a player from the other virtual reality. The status of immortal object does not seem to impede them and under the leadership of the unique Titan that decimated Floor 61, who seems to posses the ability to coordinate their movements, the Titans were able to smash their way down to the lowest level of Aincrad without detection until right before I summoned you here. From what little I have been able to observe of it, this particular Titan is as dangerous as the Floor Boss awaiting you on the 90th floor. And as of ten minutes ago, it is leading approximately 300 Titans toward this city." Expectedly, with the conclusion of this last statement panic ensued.

Klein shot a worried glance toward Kirito, who now was looking towards the gates of the city, his nervousness plastered all over his youthful face. How did they get down here? And what does Kayaba mean, some of the damn things are intelligent? Is he suggesting that some of the people from the other side of the portal are controlling it? Klein had only really interacted with Armin, Jean, and Reiner for about an hour, but they had saved his life. Surely someone like that would never do such a thing.

All around them, players were pulling teleport crystals out of their pouches and attempting to escape, but despite the walls having not been breached, they had no effect. What the hell?! thought Klein, upon attempting it with his own unused crystal from the Lindas evacuation. The subsequent angry inquires directed at Kayaba were soon answered. "Using what remains of my GM authority, I have temporarily deactivated all your teleport crystals, though you will still be able to use their healing counterparts. I have also deactivated the teleport gate. In every sense of the phrase, you are backed into a corner, forced to make your stand. If you manage to stop the Titans here, the majority of them will be dead, and perhaps you may be able to reclaim the Floors you have left to them. If you do not, you will all be dead. And so, players of Sword Art Online, I bid you one final piece of advice: Fight your hardest, if not for this world, then for your lives you so value." All of a sudden, the red GM avatar's form melted into what looked like a giant glob of floating blood, which shot through the wall of WARNING hexagons that covered the sky and vanished. Those hexagons too quickly faded, as if they had never existed.

As if in some sort of sick parallel of the day two years ago, most people were simply too shocked to say anything. The surviving players of SAO stood there, terrified out of their minds and unable to do anything. Klein would have sworn one could have heard a penny drop. No one broke the silence until one player, someone who had not ventured out of the safe settlements on the lower floors often if at all by the looks of their equipment, ran onto the teleport gate platform in the center of the square, and screamed the names of several of the main settlements on the lower floors. Urbus, Taft, Mishe, Floria, among others, were all uttered in what quickly turned into desperation. We're trapped, Klein realized with horror. There's no more running away. We're going to have to fight for this city, and if we fail...we all die in the most horrible way possible.

"Alright!" A voice called out, calm, commanding. "Every player here who is under level 30, find shelter in the center of the city. Guild leaders and second in commands, meet at the Black Iron Palace for a strategy meeting!" I know that voice, thought Klein, but where from? As he tried to pick the speaker out from the crowd, however, Lind did his job for him.

"Why should we take orders from you, Thinker? You're no clearer, and unlike some of your bloated guild you never were!" The brown-haired leader of the DDA yelled. Klein could see the target of Lind's posturing now, several meters away immersed in a swath of players cloaked in Aincrad Liberation Force green, the massive guild that Thinker led. Already, he viewed several Army members locked in verbal battle over the comment with players in the blue and gray of the Divine Dragon Alliance

"Look at them." Klein turned, and was surprised to see Kirito standing next to him, watching the argument sadly. "Kayaba tells us he brought here to fight off the Titans as one, and the minute that damn GM avatar of his disappears, we're at each other's throats."

"That kind of attitude isn't going to solve ANYTHING." Asuna shot, having seemed to have overheard the last comment. She gently let go of Liz, who seemed to swallow even more fear and loosened her grip on the girl. Asuna stood up, and marched onto the teleport gate platform where she would be clearly visible to all the players gathered. The KOB leader drew her rapier, and leveled it at Lind from a distance. "We are going to follow those orders, Lind, because the 1st Floor is the Army's home territory. If we were all teleported to Floor 56, we would be deferring to you to organize the defense meeting." She paused, and when Lind, though sulking, offered no argument, continued to speak, this time to everyone. "Alright, you all heard Thinker! All the clearing guilds and any others that wish and are able to participate in the defense are to assemble in the courtyard in front of the Black Iron Palace, guild leaders and their command staff to the building itself!"

Though the crowd broke apart in a state of seeming disorder, the forceful commands of the orange-brown haired girl got through, and approximately 2,000 players began filing towards the imposing structure of the Black Iron Palace. Klein spotted the rest of Fuurinkazan not too far off, they'd been lucky enough to be teleported together. "Harry, take the others and wait in the courtyard." he said.

"What about you, boss?"

"I'll be in the meeting. Aside from Kirito and Asuna, we're the only ones who knew about this from the moment it started and if we have to come clean I want to be there for them." The ugly truth of it was, Klein could already hear murmurs going through the crowd, wondering who had been in the parties who had gone through the portal were. Some of them, mostly from the Army it seemed, were demanding that they turn themselves in to face interrogation. Probably the followers of that bonehead Kibao, thought Klein.

Fuurinkazan soon joined the line of guilds filing into the courtyard, their leaders at their heads. Ahead of them marched a group of 40 or so players, all in the steel plate and dark blue cloaks of the DDA. Lind was out in front, his greatsword sheathed over his back. The two years on the frontlines had taken their toll on him, and the clearer had even completely changed his hairstyle, wearing it in a short brown brown mess that shot out in horizontal directions, though not with the dramatic angles or ridiculous coloration of Kibao. It had once been long and straight, nearly covering his eyes, and blue dyed blue in honor of his fallen idol, Diabel, the first true clearer of Sword Art Online.

Behind them came the iconic red-on-white of the Knights of the Blood Oath. Although their numbers had now been depleted to a mere 20, they were the strongest players in all of Aincrad, the elite of the elite. Almost all of them had killed at least one Titan, and Asuna and Kirito were among a group of only 15 or so players who had killed multiple Titans. The couple was leading their guild together, but Klein could see that Asuna was refusing to meet Kirito's eyes. What's going on there? I can understand you're angry at him about not saving Liz, but it was between you and her, Asuna.

Klein snapped out of his internal dialouge when a sound like thunder was heard behind him. He turned around, and the red-haired player's mouth hung open for a second. Over 1,000 Army members, all marching in lockstep, took up the street behind him. They all wore matching infatry armor and similar-enough looking weapons, and their potlike helmets hid their faces, so that had he not known better, Klein would have sworn that they were a horde of medieval infantry NPCs given how identical they appeared. Though he too wore the dark green army colors, their's leader's uniform bucked this trend severely. Thinker's general's coat would have looked more at home in the 1800s than the Middle Ages, but he wore it well. A man of no particularly remarkable physical build, Thinker instead possesed a calm, kindly appearance. Even still, he managed to look intimidating when a full 1/5th of SAO's player population marched behind him.

Soon, the other members of Fuurinkazan took notice of the loud din of the metal boots of the Army soldiers, and their mouths too fell agape. All the games we've been through together before getting stuck in SAO, Klein thought to himself, and we never imagined seeing something like this. I just hope there's more to the Army than just numbers. Klein turned away from the spectacle, and toward the equally impressive building that they were now approaching. The Black Iron Palace was large and imposing, a structure that appeared halfway between a massive mosque and a European royal estate. True to it's name, the structure was pitch black in color, which only added to it's menacing, untouchable appearance. Klein had never been inside; unless you were an Army member or had some business with one, there was only one reason to enter it, one Klein and every other player would rather avoid. Behind the main living quarters, dining hall, barracks, training yards, and council chambers within, housed the prison, where every player either system-reported for physical harassment or criminal succesfully caught by another player was sent, to be guarded and contained by the Army. The most dangerous players in all of SAO are in there.

With that line of thinking, however, Klein had a horrible thought. "Thinker!" he said, turning to face the Army leader. "What happened to the prisoners during the teleport?"

Thinker noticeably paled, but it was another Army member who spoke, whose armor appeared to be adorned with some sort of fancy rank insignia. "Hadan, get in there and search the perimeter! Take as many of our men as you need, but I want those prisoners FOUND!" Klein recognized the speaker from his voice, it was Kibao. The player named Hadan, who appeared to have some sort of officer markings on his armor, waved over eleven of the other Army members and the dozen soldiers ran off into the palace ahead of the main group, their armor clanking all the way.

"If the prisoners were teleported to the plaza like the rest of us..." Thinker trailed off into silence but the grim looks that the other players wore spoke the rest. The 12 or so Laughing Coffin members we took in alive after the Crusade, that either we managed to hogtie or had the sense to surrender, were sent there. They could be wandering around in this city as we speak. All those lives we lost that day could be for nothing. Klein hoped with every fiber of his body that wasn't true. Before he and the other clearers had stopped them in an en masse attack in the Laughing Coffin headquarters, the "murder guild" of SAO had in their 9 months of operation created a body count nearly half that of the Titans, over 300 people. They were ruthless killers, fully divorced from the morals of the real world, going so far as to announce their presence to the rest of the players in January by massacring a 20-man guild celebrating the new year.

PoH, Red Eyed XaXa, Johnny Black; these and a few other names floated through Klein's mind. They were the names of the deadliest players in LC, all of whom likely were alive. PoH, the sadistically charismatic leader of the murder guild, had evaded both death and capture. Both XaXa and Johnny had been among the captured players held in the Black Iron Palace.

It was at that moment that Hadan returned, breathless and obviously concerned. Klein could feel his face fall as he almost knew what the report was going to be even before the soldier spoke. Still, it was crushing when Hadan said, "I'm sorry sir...it seems Kayaba didn't think to leave the prisoners where they are, or teleport them back when he was done with his announcement. All the cells are empty. They're gone." There was a collective gulp among the assembled players.

"How many criminal players were in those cells, Thinker?" Kirito asked, giving the Army leader a questioning stare.

"Approximately 200 total players..."

"200!?"

"Most of the players we imprison are thieves or harassers, which are annoying enough but not really DANGEROUS...but approximately 70 of them were PKs." PK, Klein thought with revulsion. Player-Killers. In most MMORPGs, they were simply players with a taste for the more rougish play style and griefing of inexperienced or unthinking players, harmless if mean fun. But in Sword Art Online, the actions of PKs, such as the members of Laughing Coffin, resulted in murder of the living human being in the real world whose avatar they killed.

"They shouldn't be that hard to find." Kirito said, "Unlike the other criminal players, their orange cursors won't have changed back to green."

"Hold on, Kirito." Klein said, thinking back to something he'd heard during the planning meeting for the Crusade. "Didn't PoH find a way within the game to turn his cursor green again a while back? He might've told some of his higher-level followers."

"I think it was some really out of the way quest on Floor 19, way too difficult for the Floor it's on. The only ones who would possibly know about it are the dozen LC members who had the sense to surrender, and they wouldn't have had the chance to do the quest since we took them directly to the prison afterwards." Kirito responded. Klein could tell that he too was relieving the memories of that battle, unpleasant ones not wanted with the doom already hanging over their heads.

"We can worry about recapturing the PKs later." Asuna interjected. "Right now, we have 5,000 people to save from the Titans.

"Umm...yeah, right. This way." Thinker motioned for them to follow him, and the various leaders of the clearers and other powerful guilds followed him, while the players under their respective commands waited in the courtyard in front of the imposing palace.

It was not a minute into the discussion that things got ugly, as Klein had figured but hoped against given the competitive personalities the players who were fighting on the front lines tended to posses. They had all gathered in a room that resembled a small college lecture hall, composed of tiered comfortable benches in place of desks in a half-circle around a central round table. It was ornate, with glass-stained art adorning the many circular windows that stretched from knee-height to the high ceiling, and brightly lit. This table was reserved for the two lead clearer guilds, the KOB, represented by Asuna and Kirito, the DDA represented by Lind and his DPS coordinator Yamata, as well as the Army. Thinker had, to the irritation of many of the early clearers who had known the cactus-head when he was a clearer, decided to bring Kibao as his second. Though given what little Klein knew of the current Army command structure, Kibao was actually the one in charge of most of the Army's higher-level players, so his presence was not unwarranted. But almost as soon as Asuna had begun the discussion on what to do to fend off the Titans by yielding the floor to the Army to describe the city's pre-existent defenses, Kibao spoke, in his thick Osakan accent: "First of all, I want answers and I want them now. I know we all do. WHO WERE THE PEOPLE WHO WENT THROUGH THE PORTAL?!"

"How do you expect any of us to have any better idea than you, Kibao?" Lind said.

"The Titans first appeared on Floor 75, which means that's where the portal is. If it was a party on Floor 75, then they were a clearer and therefor under the jurisdiction of one of you." Kibao said, eyeing each clearer guild leader in turn. "Even I wouldn't believe that your precious little subordinates didn't report to you about what happened, especially since Kayaba mentioned the players from the other side coming back with them. Who's hiding something?" Klein shot Kirito and Asuna a nervous look; Kirito merely stared at Kibao, while Asuna looked deep in thought, as if wrestling over going back on her decision to keep the events of those days a secret now that Kayaba had partially let the cat out of the bag.

"Commander Heathcliff of the KOB went missing the same day the Titans showed up in SAO." offered one guild leader, not quite clearer tier but one of the ones that was always mapping out the areas beyond the Floor dungeons themselves after the clearers had ascended a few levels above. "Maybe someone in that guild had contact with the players from the other side and got advance warning of the Titans, which could have been why Heathcliff dissapeared."

Asuna shot up at this accusation. "Commander Heathcliff would never-"

"Abandon us, and leave you, his second-in-command, with the immense load of leading the foremost clearer group?" Kibao asked sarcastically. "And yet look what happened. The strain looks to be taking it's toll on you, I would say."

Now it was Kirito's turn to look pissed. "Why you..."

"I'm not finished." Kibao continued, evidently pretending to be not threatened by the black-haired player trying to burn a hole in him with the fire in his eyes. "Aside from Heathcliff's suspicious dissapearance, there's also the fact that, aside from evacuating their headquarters on Floor 55 without a fight before the Titans, I heard NOTHING about the KOB until that fiasco in Algade. While the rest of us were fighting and dying to resist the Titans, you hid in the shadows until you thought you could take all the glory for yourselves."

"WE'RE the ones who've been hiding in the shadows? Where have you and your followers been since Floor 25, Kibao? Oh, that's right, you've been cowering here behind these palace walls in the Town of Begginings!" Kirito shot back. "You haven't fought what we're up against. Have you even seen a Titan?"

"Of course I have, you insufferable Beater!" Kibao said, raising his voice even further. The rest of the room had grown quiet, but Klein could tell that most of the players were either rooting for his friend or cactus-head. "I was at the evacuation of Floor 49!"

"The one time the Army made itself useful in this whole mess..." Someone muttered under their breath.

"Not only that, how dare YOU call us cowards! I sent a whole platoon of my best men to help the clearers who were growing lazy about freeing us from this death game only three weeks ago!" That was Corvatz's group, Klein recalled. Look at us. We're all in danger, with combining our forces here being our only chance for survival. And what do we do? We go at each other's throats. Kirito said that, and even he's joining in. Hell, I'm rooting for him. It was the worst side of gamer nature emerging at the worst time, and someone needed to put a stop to it.

Klein stood up. "That party you ordered to make a go at the 74th Floor Boss you mean? If my guild and the members of the KOB sitting right over there hadn't shown up, they'd have all died! That was a suicide mission! Now can we all just focus on the defense? I don't want anyone else dying today!"

Most of the other players stared at Klein for a second, before guiltily looking at the ground. "We can resolve the issue of whoever withheld information about the other side later." Asuna said. "Right now we just need to find a way to make it through this alive." The other players nodded their heads in agreement, and Thinker shot Kibao a disappointed look.

"Have it your way." Kibao said. He then turned to Kirito. "This isn't over, Beater." With that, the angry Army member took his seat. Finally, thought Klein. I was worried he'd never shut up.

"The city is protected by a 15-meter high and 2-meter thick wall, which is composed, at least as far as game materials seem to go based on appearances, of thickly-packed stone." Thinker began, after Asuna motioned for him to open the defense discussion as originally planned. "Obviously we haven't been able to actually analyze the material by removing a chunk, it being an immortal object after all, so we're just going off appearances. I haven't seen a Titan, but according to the refugees that have come earlier from the upper floors and what Kayaba said earlier, I can gather that the status of immortal object is nullified by the proximity of one due to their status as an object from another game disrupting the system."

"That is correct." Asuna said. "So those walls won't hold them for long if we just wait behind them. Inversely, Titans the selves are significantly harder to destroy than the average monster. Different parts of a Titan's body such as limbs can sometimes be severed with a powerful-enough Sword Skill, the damaged parts regenerate within a matter of of 3-60 seconds, depending on the appendage. The only way to decrease a Titan's HP, however, is a deep strike at the back of the neck."

"But...some of them are over 10 meters in height...it's impossible to reach, at least without being grabbed and devoured..." one of the guild leaders said.

"The strategy we've been using to defeat the larger ones," Lind said, now speaking for the first time in the meeting,"is by having faster players dart in and slice their ankles, then having a tank leap onto the toppled monster and kill it then. However, unless the Titan is alone, such a manuever is usually..."

"Suicide." Kirito finished grimly. He's right, though Klein. If there are other Titans nearby, they'll grab you when you're exposed and you're a goner. He'd seen it happen, which is why he'd only had Fuurinkazan risk the tactic once, during the disaster that had been Algade. "Also, engaging Titans safely becomes harder if the Titans enter the city. Not only will the buildings make any coordination between defenders get harder, but it's easier to get sperated and cornered. A lone player facing down a Titan will probably be eaten." The black-haired boy shuddered.

"If we are to stand a chance against them, we'll need to fight them outside the city. Out in the open fields." Asuna said, and an even greater collective fear descended upon the room's

"But what about the mobs in the field?" Thinker asked nervously. "Won't they get in the way and damage us while we're trying to fight off the Titans?"

"They shouldn't do anything at all to anyone over level 40. That said, anyone lower than that will also have significantly more dismal odds of surviving, and should not leave the city anyway." Kirito answered.

"That cuts the number of players the Army can send significantly. How many does that leave us with, Kibao?" Thinker asked his subordinate.

"Only 400 that are worth anything in a fight." Kibao said, sounding still pissed off from earlier.

"400?!" Klein exclaimed. I thought the Army was mostly lower-level guys! Then he reminded himself that before the massacre of the 25th Floor boss fight, some of the founding members of the Aincrad Liberation Force had been aming the foremost clearers under Kibao's leadership.

"Only a portion of our players, but it will have to suffice." Thinker said.

"We should begin taking stock of exactly how many players we have, and organize our defense." Asuna said, and then raised her to voice to make sure that EVERY player present heard her. "I want every guild leader to report the exact number of players they have who can fight!"

"Before we do that," Thinker said, "we should send a party out to let the civilian players know what we're doing."

"Why?" asked Yamata. "Shouldn't it become obvious when the fighting starts?"

"So that they don't get caught in the middle and devoured!" Klein responded sharply. "As for informing the civilian players, I volunteer my guild for the responsibility."

"Thank you, Klein. You're the leader off the Fuurinkazan guild, correct?" Thinker asked, to whcih Klein nodded. As he rose to leave, however, Thinker spoke again. "Before you go, exactly how many members does Fuurinkazan have again? It's for the organization."

"Si-four." Klein said, having nearly said the number before the Titans and the game took his friends away from him forever.

"Four?! That's not a guild. That's not even a party!" The leader of one of the minor clearing guilds exclaimed. Asuna shot the speaker an icy stare that would have froze the sun, and the player instantly paled. Still, he's right, Klein thought. That day a week ago left a hole in my life, in Harry's life, in Kunumittz's, and in Dynamm's. It ripped through all of us. That's why...that's why I don't want anyone else to die needlessly to those things. We've lost too much already these past two years.

"Leave the man alone, he's lost more than a lot of us here." Thinker said. Even he, the master of approximately 1/5th of the game's total player population, knew that one-party guilds in Sword Art Online usually only formed between close friends who had usually known each other IRL before being trapped inside the virtual reality. "Klein, you may go." Wordlessly, the red-haired player walked toward the door.

As he approached the exit, Klein found his eyes glancing over to the clock on the upper-right corner of his UI. Huh, he thought, what a coincidence. All of a sudden, the loud boom of the city's clock sounded, signaling a new hour. It's 5 PM, November 6th, 2024. Exactly two years since this nightmare began. Right as he was wrapping his hand around the doorknob, however, a knocking came from the other side. The other players, who had once again immersed in discussion about what to do, slowly fell silent as the knock came again.

Klein opened the door, on the other side of which was a player in Army uniform, who looked frankly terrified out of his mind. He looked around the meeting chamber, before spotting his leader at the central table. "Thinker!" He said, and bowed respectfully before righting himself once again. "The city watch has spotted the Titans, sir!"

"How many are there?" Lind asked.

"Approximately 300, just like Kayaba said!" The players gave a collective gulp. "And, sir..." the Army player looked to be positively shaking, "they will be here within the hour!" Two years and an hour after this started, Klein thought as he ran out of the building to assemble Fuurinkazan for their task. Two years later, we either hold our ground...or it all ends.

Author's Notes: I hope you enjoyed the chapter! Please feel free and encouraged to leave a review of what you thought, as well as any changes you might want to my review response system. I fully intend to break my back on Chapter 10 over this coming Thanksgiving Break to make up for the long wait for the past couple, and you can likely expect it by the end of the first week of December! Thak you for reading, and happy holidays!