Disclaimer: I am not the owner of ROTG or Sword Art Online.

Chapter 11

Dear Player,

Congratulations on defeating the strongest boss in the game. I assure you, from here on out your battles will only be easier. If you are reading this, then it means that the Big Five have been chosen and that you are all united. You see, all of you are very special to me, very important for my plans for the world in the future. As the name of this letter implies, all will be explained in due time.

By now you must have used the item I gifted you with, the Staff of Winter. I do hope you don't mind your isolation from here on out, but it was necessary to show you the truth. You are the player that most resembles Jack Frost, just as the others are the closest representatives of the other Guardians. All of you are the ones that embody the hope, wonder, dreams, fun, and memories of childhood, the very things I seek to destroy in reality. This game is only phase two of my plan, the plan to end the Guardians once and for all.

By this point, you are likely wondering why you received this letter. You are asking, why was I chosen to be given any answers? Why did I not receive an enhancement to my powers like the others? Well, that is rather simple. Jack Frost is powerful enough with nothing more than his staff, just as you will be in due time. The only thing he was ever missing was an answer, the answer he was so afraid of never finding. He wanted to know why he was chosen, why he was forced to live in the shadows, unseen by the world. This is why I have granted you this answer, the one thing that might make you stronger than the real Jack Frost. However, before I get to that answer, I must explain a few things to you first. In time, you will receive the answer you seek, this I promise you.

There are plenty of things in the real world that you are unaware of, just like most of the world. They would rather remain ignorant of the truth, write off strange occurrences as a coincidence or simply forget about them entirely. In reality, there are magical beings that exist in the real world. Beings that you believed in as a child, the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny, the Boogeyman, all of them are real. They bring many children so many wonderful things, but there is just one thing that is regrettably absent these days. They are missing that touch of fear that keeps them alive, that keeps me strong.

This is my motive, the reason for my actions from day one. By now, I have tried and failed to destroy the Guardians with mere force alone. Stage One of my plan had involved destroying belief in the world, belief in them. Without that belief, they would slowly vanish away until nothing, and when that happened, everything they stood for would disappear as well. Inspiring fear is a brilliant way of eliminating belief in children, but it isn't quite enough to snuff out every last hint of light in the world. A little bit more is required, which is the very reason that I was defeated during my initial attack. This is why my plan was always deeper than they realized, going further than simply destroying belief. While I was distracting them with my attack, I was already moving forward with Stage Two, the stage which you are now a participant in.

I had watched the growing interest in technology humans had over the years, observing the introduction of virtual reality games into life. When I saw them, I realized just how much potential they truly had. With just a bit of technology, I was able to convince adults of my existence, something that had been impossible for even the Guardians to achieve. By creating a virtual persona for myself, I managed to become someone in reality, someone everyone knew of but no one had met in person. I became Kayaba Akihiko, the brilliant mind behind Nerve Gear and Sword Art Online. The Guardians never suspected a thing, never even realized that games could inspire so much fear in the world until this game was finally released.

The game you are in now is vastly different from the beta I had once created. The beta version had been used to gain interest from the public, to show everyone that this style of game was safe to be played. Once everyone believed that there were plenty of safety precautions in place, I was able to alter it to my needs and create the real world of Sword Art Online, the world in which fear rules over all and hope, dreams, and wonder have all become a thing of the past. Even the AI counseling program I was forced to include was blocked out, unable to help any of the players cope with the situation I put them in. Even so, I knew that this world alone was not enough to erase everything I despised in the world.

You see, I've realized that using games to win has one fatal flaw for Stage Two that will result in the end of SAO. They are designed to be fun, something you understand all too well. Fun leads to happiness, which makes players hopeful once more, making them forget their fears. Even with complete control over this world, I cannot stop players from finding ways to have fun here. It is only a game, after all, and it is part of what makes the next part of its programming so interesting.

I have created a system that runs this game entirely on its own, without requiring any interference from myself or others. It is known as Cardinal. It regulates everything in this world, from the monsters that you fight to the drop-rates for items and money. However, there is one thing that I did not allow it to change, one thing that I personally saw to inserting within the system. This was the monsters that would spawn for three specific bosses: the Floor Bosses on floor seventy five and on the final floor as well as the one you just fought and defeated. All three were designed by me personally, tailored for you and your friends to defeat.

Now, we have finally reached the answer you were looking for. The answer as to why you were chosen in this game. The Cardinal system has watched over you for this entire game, knowing your every move and your every word as you fought your battles and survived my world. It logged your behavior, categorizing you as being someone who valued fun above all else, making you the best representative of the Guardian of Fun, Jack Frost. The same was done for the others, and they were all respectively chosen for their similarities to my enemies in the real world. All of your unique skills and items have been chosen to be identical to those of the real Guardians, to enhance your usefulness in my own plan. In this virtual reality, I have chosen and recreated the Guardians, the enemies which I must face and defeat in reality in order to be victorious.

By now I have likely created another question in your mind. You are wondering how I knew who you were, how I knew that you and your friends had these special abilities. I imagine you kept them hidden from the others, after all you are smart enough to realize that other players would grow jealous of your newfound strength and magic in a world where it does not belong. The answer is rather simple. This boss was specially programmed for the five of you, for all of you to defeat together as one. Alone, you would have failed and perished. Other players would have met the same fate. As stated at the beginning of this letter, this boss was designed to be stronger than any other in the game, on par with the strength of the final boss you will face. However, I did give it a rather unique weakness. In the presence of five players, it would gain an immense weakness to ice magic. This was not the only programmed weakness, either. If a massive amount of NPCs entered the room, it would lose the ability to target any player. Already you are seeing the pattern, noticing that it was weak to two of your abilities if all of you were present. I do not think I need to continue elaborating this any further, therefore we will move on to the next point in this letter.

Now that you are all together, the true purpose of this world has been created. As amazing as the fear is that this game has created, you five were my real goal. I needed a way to practice defeating the Guardians, a way to learn their weaknesses inside and out. While you five aren't exact replicas, you are the closest that could be found out of thousands of players. We will have many battles from here on out, this I promise you. This dungeon you are currently in has been monitored since it opened, watched over by one of my Nightmares. Yes, even your bad dreams take on a life of their own with a bit of magic. They are my greatest allies, the weapon I need to perfect before returning home.

I know who all of you are now and I am free to come and fight you whenever I please. Now, I promise I won't kill you immediately. After all of this effort to create you in this world, it would be a waste to destroy you so quickly. No, you will live on in fear for the remainder of this game, always wondering when I will come for you. We will battle and during each fight, you will wonder if this is the time I will finish you off. That is an answer I will not give you, Jack Frost replica, for even my generosity has its limits.

I will leave you with one last warning before the end of this letter, the end of your answer. Should this game end, should you actually manage to defeat me, I will move on to Stage Three of my plan. Back in the real world, my battle with the Guardians will resume and you will always be wondering, have I won? Are those Guardians still out there keeping me safe? Once again, even in the real world, you will be a target, one of those precious believers that must be eliminated for my world to exist once more. However, if you do not fear me or even death itself, I will give you a chance to beat this game immediately. If you and your friends are ready, tell the one with the snow globes to open a portal to Pitch's Lair. Here is where you will find me, the final boss of SAO and the only obstacle in the way of ending this world once and for all.

I do hope this letter has been enlightening for you. While I know that you aren't truly Jack Frost, I feel as if we already share that same connection. We both understand what it is like to be invisible, just like Frost understood it in reality. Should you, unlike Jack, decide you wish to aid me, simply destroy this letter as soon as you've read it. Then, I will know you are on my side and I guarantee you, I will do nothing to harm you in the end. With your power on my side, I can finally understand the secret behind the winter spirit's strength and be able to destroy him when I return. I do hope you make the right decision, player.

Inspiring fear deep within your heart,

Pitch Black, AKA the Boogeyman

I know, there isn't a whole lot of action this chapter, but I wanted you guys to see exactly what Pitch wrote in that letter. To be honest, I had a lot of fun creating it too. After writing a few of stories for Fairy Tail that focus on Zeref (for any of you who are familiar with Fairy Tail, feel free to check them out!), I've come to realize that I find it interesting to write from a villain's perspective, which made me want to write this letter out entirely.

Next chapter, we'll have Jack's reaction to the letter and what happens as a result. Feel free to review and tell me what you think!