Kuran just reached the gates to the great quest as he spotted Leafa and another Sylph… Recon was the name as far he remembered. Walking up to them he heard their conversation, "What happened to the Spriggans? Is your party disbanding?"

"Well… I don't know about Kuran but…"

Leafa was silent for a moment before telling "...I said terrible things to that person... even though I loved him, I said things that I shouldn't to hurt him... I am… a fool..." then she turned away. "I'm sorry to have said such strange things. Forget it. I won't meet that person anymore... let's go home, to Sylvain."

Kuran chuckled as Recon got his face red as the female Sylph looked back at him with a 'what'.

"Ly, Lyfa-chan you should not cry! If you are not always smiling, you are not Lyfa-chan! I… I will always be by your side... either here or in the real world, I will never leave you alone... I, I, I love you Lyfa-chan... Suguha-chan!" told Recon in the most awkward way that Kuran could imagine.

He cleared his throat and told, "If you two are done… may I know if Kirito is joining us today or are we going to break this off?"

"Kuran!" Leafa gasped and looked down. "Well… I… I don't know if Kirito is coming today."

"Given WHY he is here, I wouldn't be surprised if he wasn't trying this quest without us," told Kuran and Leafa looked away, knowing that Kuran spoke the truth.

"By the way… I have seen Kirito earlier downstairs"

Turning back to Kuran she asked, "Could you two wait at the main door? I… would like to clear something with Kirito… in private."

Kuran nodded and grabbed Recon while Leafa went to meet up with Kirito. Kuran was waiting at the main door with Recon and the two didn't exchange a single world until they saw Kirito and Leafa shooting into the air, fighting.

"LEAFA!" Recon shouted and wanted to take off but Kuran grabbed his shoulder. Recon wanted to free himself from the Spriggan's grip as he saw that Leafa and Kirito were hugging in the air while their swords were flying towards the ground.

"I think the two had to deal with something first, before they would try their luck on this quest."

Once the two are back to them, Kirito asked, "Are you ready?"

"As ready as we could be with only four players trying to do the great quest," Recon sighed and Kuran laughed. "No! There aren't four"

"Huh? Why?" asked Leafa and Kuran told. "I did some research while you were offline… one at what SAO was. And about the quest."

Kirito shifted slightly at the mentioning of Sword Art Online but Kuran went straight to the topic of the Great Quest, "From what I gathered, the guardians are not strong as single unit. It is their mass that makes them dangerous. And their spamming rate and behavior. They not only target those who are attacking them, they also go against the support. Meaning splitting up roles is fruitless. And their spamming rate is increasing the closer we get to the portal. In other words: to get through we need to punch a hole which is big enough to last for several seconds. And with only four this is impossible. And I am not really in the mood to do the impossible."

"It's alright," told Kirito. "Then we just try it with the three of us."

With that Kuran smirked, "I said we won't be four… I never said anything about the party having a decrease in number."

Having questionable looks on their faces, Kuran turned around and smiled, "WE have been waiting for you Lady Sakura and Miss Alicia Rue."

"Hi!" smiled the lord of the Cait Sith. "Sorry for being late! But it took time to prepare our gear."

"But… how?" asked Leafa and Kuran told. "After learning about what is happening, I made the effort of contacting the two and tell them about the reason why you need to get up."

"WHAT?" Kirito shouted and Kuran told. "Kill me for this but there is more than just Asuna! If you haven't logged out yesterday, you would know that a complete number of 300 SOA players are trapped in this game, having illegal experiments performed on them! Asuna will soon be reprogrammed into a willing pride and instead of trying only the World Tree, I thought of having somebody informing the authorities might help something. Though I admit, I don't know how serious a player could be taken, or in my case a sort of AI."

"While I say this might be just part of the quest you are forming. Nya," began Alicia Rue. "I didn't take the risk of this being true. I happen to know some other Cait Sith who recently got into the game and was asking around the Screenshot that was made by the piggy back action. Wonder if this could have caused a legitimate clearance if they had archived to reach the top of the tree."

"We may never know," told Lady Sakura. "Nevertheless, we owe the Spriggan a lot since thanks to his money, the managed to save up enough to prepare for the raid… though if this fails we end up bankrupt."

"Then we better not fail," told Kuran. "Do you mind if I explain the plan?"

"It was your crazy idea so do your honors," told Lady Sakura and Kirito asked. "What is the plan?"

"Simple: we attack with the Mages and Wyverns of the two races to punch the mentioned hole. Afterwards, we use our two combined skills to reach the door. Once we got there, the Cait Sith and the Sylphs retreat."

"But… wouldn't it make the Spriggans the ones who becomes Alf if I happen to run into King Oberon?" asked Kirito and Kuran shrugged. "Avoid that and concentrate on Asuna."

"Kuran is right, Papa," told Yui who looked at Kirito.

Nodding confidently, Kirito turned and told, "Let's do this."

They entered the room which was behind the large doors. The place was made of the sprouds sprouts of the World Tree, but up to the top they saw rows of glass windows… the spawning points of the World Tree Guardians. Due to their arrival, said Guardians began to spawn.

From the design they were very plain… silver armors with four wings and no faces. However given the initial numbers, the size of their blades and the known information… that wasn't something to underestimate.

Everybody in that raid knew, while the basic idea of the raid was to punch a hole into this wall of monsters, the execution per se was the biggest problem. Endless spamming of the same monster, a rate that gets higher the closer when even a single player gets to the portal on the top. Up to a point were more guardians are produced then players could destroy… but all they need is to pull a hole into this wall of 'flesh' to give a chance for the secret part of the plan.

Kuran turned to Kirito and asked, "Ready?"

Nodding the other Spriggan told, "Ready."

And the two went into the air, announcing that way, the start of the raid.

The first attackers were the Cait Sith. Their forces were mounted on dragons which released constant streams of fire, burning every Guardian who was unfortunated enough of getting hit. Followed up came the Sylphs who shot blasts of wind magic at the opponents.

The Guardians began to rush at the players and many of them exchanged their blades for bows, which they made to rain down on the raid force.

The minority of the projectiles were blocked by shields and spells of the combined forces and players tasked to tank the incoming enemy or deal direct damage of any who came too close, clashed with the computer controlled foes.

Kuran got soon separated with Kirito and he swung and spun his weapon around to decimate any enemy who engaged him and he randomly threw his daggers to damage or take out any guardian who was in the reach of the darkness weapons.

Leafa and Kirito got back to back and moved to take any guardian to too close for them, watching for each other while the Cait Siths and Sylphs kept on their pressure.

These constant attacks began to thin out the enemies but due the spam rate, the hole they hopes to achieve was not coming close to reach.

Kuran just killed a guardian who wanted to get Recon and growled, "Damm! They come as fast as we take them out!"

"This is hopeless," told Recon. "Even if we manage to make this hole… how to make it through without being wiped out?"

"We just need a clear visual on this thing. Then we can use something to breakthrough," told Kuran. "So we have to keep pressing!"

"No! We have to be desperate!" shouted Recon and stormed forward, into the middle of the mass of guardians, starting to chant a spell.

Everybody who knew Recon on any level was shocked by the bold and reckless action of the Sylph player. While many knew what he is was capable of, nothing included at rushing blindly into such a force. Also, everybody except for Kirito and Kuran recognized the spell he used as a darkness spell… and a high level one due to the amount of words stacked on each other.

Kuran wanted to help but in the very moment Recon spoke the last word, a white light erupted, destroying every single Guardian in reach and Leafa gasped, "A self destruction spell… Recon… you…"

"What is so bad on it?" asked Kuran and Leafa told. "The harsh consequences… getting just killed is more preferable."

Hearing that Kuran told, "Then let's not waste the opportunity he gave us," and rushed up, closely followed by Kirito.

It took a few seconds for the guardians to fill the hole up again… but these seconds were enough for Kuran to pull the secret weapon out: his dark portal! The exit was close to the door while the other was just a short distance away from him.

However, the guardians are rushed at them at all sides to stop their process. Being prepared for that, Kuran sheathed his dual sword and pulled two of his darkness swords, starting to slash through the enemies.

To his surprise, Kirito suddenly shot pass him, having his and Leafa's blades in front of him and piercing through the enemies like a torpedo. Kuran followed the trail that the Spriggan was forming and the two got into the Dark Corridor, getting out on the other side, crashing into the Portal of the World Tree.

Wait… crashed?

Kuran and Kirito stared at the portal and Kuran asked, "Uhm… isn't this thing supposed to open up for us?"

"Something is definitely wrong!" told Kirito and Yui flew to the portal, telling. " There is no quest flag. And the portal self can only be opened by a Game Master."

"What? But that renders the entire quest as an impossible task," told Kuran and Kirito guessed. "I think this is the intension."

"Then we have to use this GM card we got," told Kuran and looked at Kirito who pulled it out to let Yui handle it.

However, they heard also cries of players… which confused the two: the Cait Sith and Sylphs should have retreated by now.

"Kirito… I go back down. Get through the portal!" Kuran exclaimed, floating down while slashing guardians who had decided to focus on them.

"Right! Good luck Kuran," told Kirito and Kuran replied. "Get your girl and get out of here"

Kuran slashed and stabbed anything that was hostile and came too close. A white flash appeared behind Kuran as he looked behind, neither Yui or Kirito were seen. Guessing the two had passed the portal, Kuran made a dive down, dropping like a bomb and since the minority of the guardians were paying their attention downwards, the break was much easier than up… if it wasn't for the cooldown, Kuran would have instead used a Dark Corridor… and by the sight he was given, he wished he could use it in this game to get out of the tree.

The entire raid force was in a complete mess. Many were by the door and tried to attack it, since it was closed for some reasons. Alicia Rue and Lady Sakuya had their hands full to keep even some kind of discipline to avoid being completely eliminated.

He rushed to Leafa and saved her back being impaled by a guardian as he asked, "What is going on?"

"The door closed at the moment you made your way up. We didn't notice until the retreat and now we struggle not to get killed or even hurt."

"Not even hurt?" asked Kuran while slashing a guardian and Leafa shouted."The pain absorbers… they are off!"

Kuran looked and asked, "Ehh… what?"

"This means we feel every scratch we receive!" told Leafa. "The first ones who noticed it, are either killed or unable to keep fighting."

"Oh shit!" cursed Kuran and stabbed another. "That explains everything!"

"But not why you are here!" told Leafa and Kuran told. "The portal can only be opened by somebody or anything with GM rights. And Kirito went through as we concluded by the cries that something was wrong."

Nodding she sliced a guardian and the two rushed to the main force, to have their backs better watched. Though… due to the chaos, they should be lucky that they weren't hit by friendly fire.

Kuran started slaying one guardian after another, but given that they just regenerated in seconds, these kills were only drops of water trying to stop a volcano from eruption.

Just as Kuran killed two more, one slashed his back. The eyes widened in the pain and he couldn't shout or cry due the shock. His body didn't move anymore and he fell down, hitting the ground hard. While the hit and the landing didn't kill him, the pain of both caused him to groan and slowly he rolled around, looking at the force.

The others were getting overwhelmed as well and Leafa was backing off after her arm was scratched rather deep. However, unwittingly she gave an opening to a different one and all she could was brace herself to get impaled… but the pain never came. she slowly opened her eyes and saw that the guardians were gone… much to everybody's confusion.

Lady Sakuya looked around… while she heard for instance that monster got deleted or due to a bug or error that a monster got considered being slain without being hit… there was never an instance where the entire guardian force of the World Tree just… ceased to appear.

Groaning, Kuran slowly got up and fighting the pain he moved up to Alicia and Sakuya, asking, "Did this happen before?"

"Something like that? Never," told Alicia. "Never was the exit closed or the pain absorbers off."

"Or did the guardians just… cease to appear," finished Sakuya before calling out. "Everybody! Tend everybody who got hurt in the process. We don't know how much breathing room we have so once we are back in a decent shape, we start leaving. In the meanwhile, somebody should call the GMs."

The other players listened to the Fairy Lord and they began to help each other with healing spells and items… only to have the next confusion showing up.

The options to call GMs were out. And several players thought of leaving by logging out but that wasn't an option either.

While not able to call a GM might have solid reasons, unable to log out caused many players to get uneasy… after all there were 10 000 players trapped in a death game by simply removing the ability to log out.

"Before anybody starts thinking about a second SAO incident," called Sakuya, having noticed that many players are started to think about Sword Art Online. "Remember that the AmuSphere was designed to PREVENT a repeat of Sword Art Online. Which means that while we might have no means to log out, logged out by outside force can be still done."

Kuran thought and remembered what she meant… Sword Art Online was the presuccessor of ALfheim Online… and only 10 000 copies of the game were produced. And on the very launch day the trap closed. The players were unable to log out and if they died ingame OR anybody outside the game removed the Nerve Gear, the tool used to log into the games, got his brain fried due to microwaves, which were used to remote the signals of the brain to the computer game, while the said brain received the information directly from the game.

This death game went for two years and was only recently solved a few months ago. That many players may fear a repeat of this death game was not farfetched.

For Kuran, there wasn't any difference if he was in a death game now or there… since he didn't know if he would be revived in this game as AI, he wouldn't bet his life on it.

Turning to the Lords, Leafa and he wondered, "What do you suggest we do? Given the fact, suicide cuts off since nobody would be willing to feel the pain of doing so. Logging out and calling GMs are also not an option in our current situation."

"That is a good question," told Sakuya. "Something I fear lack the answer right now."

"I have also no clue. Nya," admitted the Cait Sith.

"Well… as long as no monster appear and declare that we are all doomed, everything will be fine? Right?" asked a Sylph warrior, what caused Kuran to slap his face. "Don't…"

The place darkened and dark creatures with yellow eyes and a red symbol on their bodies began to emerge from the walls, all of them flying or floating around, waiting for some sort of order.

"Jinx it…" finished Kuran and turned to the Sylph. "If you had EVER watched a video or played a game on this matter, you should know that bad things ALWAYS happen when somebody speaks them out loud!" Turning around he cursed, "Bet Will would also have a piece of mind about this! After all he chewed me out a few times for jinxing everything!"

"Greetings, Players of ALfheim Online," boomed a voice and everybody turned to see who spoke. Kuran saw the large Heartless floating in the very center of this place and guessed this guy was the Heartless he had to deal with in this universe.

"My name is Orcus and I have to excuse myself for your unfortunate trouble here. You see… your King Oberon and I have a little deal and while I kept my part of the bargain, he obliviously failed in one last task. Now it is up to me to clean his mess up and show him he is only… a living being."

"Orcus…" mumbled Kuran, grabbing harder on his weapon.

Looking around at everybody's confused reaction he continued, "You noticed that you feel real pain and cannot log out. That was my doing. With my GM rights, I lowered the pain absorption to zero and disabled for ALL ALfheim Online the ability to log out. Of course it won't stop any relative of yours to pull the plug. But it gives me and the Heartless enough time to… deal as many as possible."

"Is this a kind of sick joke?" asked Lady Sakuya and Orcus shook his head. "I am afraid not! We would have destroyed this place and your universe a long time ago! But due to the FullDive Technology, this place had… some value for us. Now this value if over and we breach into your world by turning every player we can kill in this game into one of us!"

A sword appeared in his hand and he told, "And you all brought this to yourself, by not KILLING a single Spriggan. That's right Kuran… your appearance cleared the path of this dimension's destruction! Now face the consequences!"

Kuran summoned his Keyblade, to the further surprise of everybody and declared, "You won't get a single heart of this universe! I will seal the keyhole before you even get a single one!"

"Great words for a heart so full of darkness!" declared Orcus and zoomed down at the raid group. Acting as a signal, every single Heartless began to fly down as well and started attacking the raid group… in worst case every single player in ALfheim Online if the leader's words are true.

Kuran speeds into the air and locked blades with his Heartless opponent, exchanging blow for blow. Each time their blades touched, sparks were emitted and they pushed each other off.

Orcus was larger and had some magic advantage. Kuran, on the other hand, has his darkness abilities, a smaller hitbox and more agility. Also, his weapons provide very good block and counter maneuvers.

But the pressure on his shoulders didn't lift since every single of these players was were now fighting for their lives. No one knew if the claims of this GM was true but everybody had heard about the rumors of receiving damage with zero pain observation, might affect the real life body and NO ONE was willing to test out, how far and how grave these effects could be.

Kuran, on the other hand, truly understood the stakes. If it was possible, then each player turned into a Heartless, would be a Hearltess in the real world. The following panic and catastrophe were in no measurable scale.

Due to the fact many already suffered damage and others were unable to fight any further due to different reasons, Kuran tried to finish this off quickly by dropping his defense and diving for a full force attack.

The plan was to unleash and onslaught that made his opponent crumble beneath it, until Kuran had a clean hit to end the Heartless.

However, he didn't think about the many other Heartless which were around and fighting.

Only seconds before any of his blades could have made contact on this attempt, Kuran cried loudly as pain exploded on his side, due to the impact of a fire ball. He flew to the side due the force and once he recovered, he cried again, this time from striking thunder spells.

However, that wasn't the end of attacks either. Orcus came and slashed his body with the blade in his hand before impaling the Spriggan. Crunching in the pain, Kuran struggled to get the sword off while his life bar was turning red. These sets of attacks dealt a huge blow on him and if he didn't find something to recover, he would soon know if he could die in this game or not.

Orcus grinned at him and asked, "Afraid of death? Look at it as an experiment… a wonderful, dark and twisted experiment."

Pulling the sword out, he grabbed Kuran who was still gasping from the pain and squeezed his throat, "Too bad we were a little late to interfere with Sword Art Online more directly… or we could have shown true terror to this world."

"Just… die," Kuran coughed while trying to get the grabbing hand off.

"As you wish!" he grinned. "Assuming with 'just die' you mean your own death."

Then he threw Kuran at the wall and ordered the Heartless to blow him up. Devastators lined up on this order and transformed in mid air. However, instead of changing into a ground form, they formed a sort of construct that began to create an energy ball between them.

Kuran's eyes widened, realizing what that attack was used for. He tried to move but was pinned at the wall by a pair of Gargoyles… for the keybearer it was clear that these two would be used as sacrifies to make the attack a sure hit.

Leafa had seen how the boss of these creatures had pummeled Kuran and for a final attack, she let out a cry and stormed forward to help her friend.

But the monster… just grabbed her and forced her to watch with a grin, "Wanting to save your friend? Too bad that we have business with the blood… so I guess I have to take you out as well."

"KURAN!" Leafa shouted and Kuran weakly looked up, seeing Kirito's sister in trouble. Narrowing his eyes, he began to fight the grip of the Heartless, trying to get away from the prepared attack. Due to his desperation something reacted… something he preferred avoiding using...

Leafa kept struggling but froze as this Heartless construct shot its attack, impacting with Kuran, causing a large explosion. Smoke was seen due the blast but as it settled… the only thing that remained from Kuran was his Remaining Light… meaning he died by this blast.

While there was still a chance to be resurrected by a spell or item, someone had to reach him first to do this… and given the current situation nobody could. Worse: while normally Players would respawn at a certain location, there was no guarantee that anybody would right now. Not of how dead serious this monster and Kuran were.

Laughing he stated, "It must have been his friends endurance that allowed him to deal with two of my group!"

Then he turned to Leafa and smirked, "And now… be happy, since I am turning you, and anybody you care for into a Heartless."

Fear filled Leafa's face as the monster raised its blade, intending to end her. She closed her eyes to not to see the incoming attack.

"Welcome to the Heartless!" declared Orcus and swung his blade but… the sword never made contact.

A shockwave pushed everybody, causing Heartless and Players alike to be disorientated. Everybody looked at the source of the wave… which was the Remaining Light of a dead Spriggan.

"Impossible," muttered Orcus and stared at the flame in mid air. Then he looked closer and gasped, "Did he seriously… but... he was reduced to a flame. THERE IS NO FREAKING WAY THAT HE WAS ABLE TO PULL AN ITEM OUT THAT SURVIVED THIS BLAST AND AFFECTS THE AREA!"

Leafa looked closer at these words and spotted something in the flame… it was a sort of gem… a very dark purple gem. But with a visible darker slit on it, causing it to look like a form of reptilian eye.

The gem was starting to shine and the flame expanded, getting so dense that nothing could be seen from within anymore.

Then the flame began to whirl, causing a small twister before the entire flame formation was tore apart, disappearing slowly while a new figure was there.

From the head it looked like the Spriggan Kuran… but the armor he wore now didn't resemble anything that any Player had seen in ALfheim Online… and the way he sustained in the air was even more unsettle: wings of a dragon or demon, depending how one viewed them. Also, the visible tail sprouting behind the man.

Nobody dared to speak, only gasps were heard in surprise. And the loudest one was Orcus.

"No… way…" he mumbled, backing off slowly. "He… he became a Dragoon?"

To answer his question the system made two things: it showed that Kuran's HP were back to 100 percent and gave him a new name: "Kuran, the Darkness Dragoon."

Not wasting time after the initial shock, he called out, "Kill this bastard!"

The Heartless instantly stormed forward to attack. Kuran looked with his now green reptilian eyes at the incoming force. Then he raised his hand… with a single wave countless weapons of darkness shoot away from his body, impaling any Heartless that showed even the slightest hint of hostility.

In a matter of seconds, all of Orcus forces within the World Tree where wiped out, they're nothing.

"Such… power," told a shocked Alicia. From fighting these dark creatures, she knew that some were easy to deal with but others caused a lot of trouble, not to mention their sheer numbers. And now this named Character was dealing with them like nothing.

Whatever caused this transformation… it was a damn large jump of strength.

Kuran's gaze fell on Orcus who laughed weakly, "Well… guess… I lost so I leave now… right?"

As reply Kuran open his mouth, but no words came… only a large roar that made everybody get back even more, before Kuran stormed forward in blinding speed. Before Orcus could even react, a massive blow was dealt to his stomach and he flew at the wall behind him before Kuran had him again and swiped him several times with the claws he possessed now.

Orcus roared in pain and gave a weak moan as he got Kuran's knee slammed into the face before the Dragoon backed off.

Seizing the opportunity, the Heartless released energy balls which all shot at Kuran. The Dragoon didn't even bother to dodge the move and let them impact. Not a single flinch was seen and the damage done to it… barely scratched the life bar.

In the first time in his existence as Heartless, true fear stroke Orcus since one of his strongest attacks didn't even had much effect.

'Not even the original Dragoons wielded that kind of power. What was that caused the Darkne…' realization dawned in him… which made the whole mess even more frightening.

The Keybearer's own Darkness reacted with the Dragon Spirit. And this reaction caused an increased output of power…

Deciding that wasn't a battle anybody at his level could survive, not with the given system stats, he tried to escape but he didn't go far…

Shackles, made of darkness wrapped around his limbs, pulling him towards the ground, binding him there.

Looking up, he saw Kuran having called out his Keyblade aiming at him… and he saw that he wasn't holding it… IT WAS FLOATING BETWEEN HIS HANDS!

Energy lines of light and darkness began to form a ball by the tip of the keyblade. A black orb with a white center.

"Impossible…" mumbled Orcus. "The report said he couldn't use magic… he is breaking every rule he set up…"

As the orb of Kuran's attack reached the size of a boulder, the Heartless just mothered, "I want back to mommy…"

With a loud roar, Kuran unleashed his attack and the impact caused a large explosion with a shockwave that pushed everybody but the Dragoon back.

Later, there would be reports that shockwave left the World Tree, traveling through the entire continent and destroyed every single Heartless who were still inside the game boundaries.

Having now a solid grip on his Keyblade, Kuran just stared at the spot where he just blasted the Heartless of this universe. His Dragoon form just wore off and he returned back to himself… this time… he remembered it all. From the very moment the Dragon Spirit reacted from within his inventory, the taking over of the spirit and the direction of their combined rage at the Heartless… Kuran was still uneasy at that kind of power… but this time it helped him out a lot.

However, this action took its toll. From the energy it consumed, Kuran was damn tired and he didn't know if he could sustain into the air any longer.

Not to mention there was an entire raid party that would demand soon answers from Kuran of what just happened.

He tried to think of something as suddenly something else took control of his body. Trying to resist it, he failed, like he tried to resist the control of the Dragoon Spirit if he entered Dragoon state.

"Fearies," his body began to tell. "I thank you for helping me in finding the evil darkness that had threatened the World Tree, and with it, the whole continent. For the bravery of helping me, I reward you all with a Weapon of Darkness."

With that a black ball appeared on every Player's hands and Kuran explained, "This is its rare form. You can change it into any form you wish. However, be careful! Once you made your choice, the weapon will keep the form you have chosen forever. The weapon might be weak in your eyes, but it will grown in strength as long you use it."

The Players looked at each other before they heard the final words, "With that my work is done. I return to my place to keep up with my duty."

"What is your duty?" asked one player suddenly. Kuran turned and explained. "My duty is to fight those who threaten the existence of the world itself. Be it good or evil… light or darkness… or any other element or form of existence. Once I learned of the evil darkness, I came down as regular a fairy to counter the darkness. And now… I return to my place, to watch. Farewell, fairies."

Kuran flew up and passed an appearing dark portal. Everybody looked after him and Sakuya muttered, "For an NPC… he acted too much like a regular Player."

"Perhaps he was?" asked Alicia. "A regular Player with scripted NPC figure for this event."

"You mean he could act like he wanted until scripted events happened?" asked Sakura. "Sounds bit farfetched"

"But still a possibility," offered the leader of the Cait Sith.

Kuran on the other hand found himself in a dark room. Looking around he wondered where he was and a voice told him, "Welcome Kuran. I was looking forward to seeing you."

"Huh?" asked Kuran and in front of him a man in a lab coat appeared.

"I am Kayaba Akihiko, creator of Sword Art Online and with that the Cardinal System… which is also used for ALfheim Online."

"So you are the one who made this death game," told Kuran. "What do you want from me?"

"Just saying my thanks for… getting rid of those creatures that were corrupting my cardinal system," told Kayaba. "And to explain what just happened to you… your sudden appearance as AI in the system caused some trouble, so that my 'Reawakening' went up faster than I thought."

"Reawakening?" asked Kuran and Akihiko explained. "As Kirito defeated me in Sword Art Online, my Nerve Gear was triggered and performed a high frequency scan of my brain. It killed me but with a chance one to one thousand, my mind was copied into the computer. Of course it took time to reconstruct my being as an AI… and like I told Kirito earlier, it just recently finished the process. I just didn't tell him how recent it was."

"So… and what did you do to me?" asked Kuran and the answer was. "As you arrived here at first, you created a new character. So far nothing wrong happened. However, as you descended to your home city, the system discovered an error regarding you. You were suddenly registered as AI and Player at once… a player with files which wanted to add themselves into Cardinals databases to bring your items and skills into the game. Cardinal was to refuse the files due to the lack of Admin rights but many of its subroutines demanded the installation to keep your stability and having registered that your… 'Keyblade' was an counterpart of the Heartless files, giving a chance to balance it out."

Kayaba paused for a moment to let everything set in. Then he continued, "Due to the confusion and errors it caused in the system, you were 'frozen' to pause your process while increasing my recreation to have somebody with the right admit rights to decide on the procedure. Once I was back, Cardinal gave me everything and I decided to let the files installed while I looked at your memory files. Your life surpassed everything I had ever seen so far. You were a worthy competitor to Kirito but I also doubted that the two of you would fight. After fixing the issues, I kept watching you and Kirito as well. I protected you from being erased and once a quest which should destroy you was made, I created with Cardinals Auto Quest routines a to counter the quest with unique items. And once the 'quest' was finished, I took control over your Avatar and pulled some strings to ensure the Players wouldn't ask what just happened."

"Why did you go so far to help me?" asked Kuran and Kayaba told. "I didn't want the Heartless to destroy the universe. Also, I couldn't let the one who stole the 300 lives get away. Kirito and you were, in this case, my tools. For Kirito… it's up to him what he does with my request about the seed. For you, I made one more item."

"Why should I need a new item?" asked Kuran with a raised eyebrow. Kayaba produced a yellow crystal and told, "As I analyzed your items, the crystal you were given to travel between realities brought up very interesting data. From these data I made this one-use crystal. It will allow you to leave this digital world, into the real one. Thought Though a copy of your being will remain in the system."

"So if I wake up here, I have to take your word that I really left to keep on my quest?" asked Kuran and the creator of SAO just told. "Believe what you want. It us up to you."

Kuran nodded and took the crystal, "Then I have one more request: if I really have a copy of mine here, then make sure he won't stay frozen forever."

"I will make sure. I shall just make a few more modifications and write some files so that whoever works on your copy, knows that you are an independent Player AI that was made to run in VRMMO for random quest encounters."

"Works for me," told Kuran and raised the crystal. It shattered and a yellow portal opened. "Goodbye Kayaba."

Then Kuran stepped through the portal.

Once he stepped out of it, he found himself inside of a hospital and Kuran asked, "Why did I end up here?"

Then the next sound he heard made him froze. Somebody was shooting. Running toward the source he stopped to see a man holding his gun at a girl's head while a boy was forced to stand in front and security guards were behind the boy, however due to the gun, nobody moved.

The man spoke, no shouted something but Kuran couldn't hear it but the last few words were not hard to understand. "DIE! DIE! DIE!"

Not wasting any moment, Kuran opened a dark portal, appearing in front of the boy and created a dark shield. The bullets hit the shield until nothing but clicks came from the gun. Not wasting a moment, Kuran made the shield disappear and jumped forward, punching the man into the face, forcing to let loose on go of the girl and falling fall down on the ground.

The man rose weakly and stared at Kuran, who made a step back as he saw the face… whatever happened to him must have been a terrible experience. Then two security guards overwhelmed the man and the girl panted loudly.

Kuran looked back and asked, "Asuna?"

"Kuran?" asked the girl and the boy also asked. "Kuran?"

"How did you get here?" was the question of the two and Kuran told. "Long story. And right now… I still have to do something and have to find it first."

"Anyway… thanks for the rescue. I thought he would be down for longer," told the boy, Kirito.

"And I am sure nobody expected that he would take the gun from somebody of the security," told Asuna.

"But now it is really over," told Kirito and Asuna and he got into an embrace. Once they broke apart, Asuna took her Nerve Gear, staring at it for a moment before shrieking in surprise. The helm fell off her on her lap and inside Kuran could see the Keyhole.

"Inside a helmet… how funny," told Kuran and took his Keyblade out, aiming at the Keyhole and shot it close.

Once this was over, he told, "Looks like somebody else has to make the wrap up for you."

"Why?" asked Asuna and Kuran told. "Have to leave. No clue if we will ever meet again, but thanks to somebody, a copy of my being should be still in ALfheim Online."

"If ALfheim Online doesn't cease to exist," began Kirito. "I make sure to meet you there."

Nodding, Kuran took his original crystal out and held it up, opening the Dimensional Corridor, "Farewell, Asuna, Kirito."

And he stepped through the corridor.

In the following months, King Oberon, AKA Sugou Nobuyuki was sentenced for the illegal experimentations on 300 people while said people, except for Asuna couldn't remember anything from between logging out of SAO and being freed from ALfheim Online. This incident dealt a huge blow on the VRMMO industry, combined with the 2 years of SAO, it nearly destroyed this young industry. However, then the Seed file appeared, which was a stripped down version of Cardinal and made it easy to make VRMMO games. Also, a network was born where a player could convert his game stats from one game to another one, giving the players a chance to not start from zero again.

Furthermore, a new company was born from the collective work of the SAO survivors, Ymir. They bought ALfheim Online for a small fee and brought it back online, with a minimum loss of players… and they found a surprise in there.

Kirito and his friends were flying above the World Tree. After Ymir took over the game, they dropped the Great Quest and placed a new town in the tree and gave every Player the ability of endless flight.

Everybody was waiting for the evening's event as somebody tipped on Kirito's shoulder. Turning around he found Kuran, or rather, the AI generated copy of him.

"Hey Kirito!" told Kuran. "Everything fine?"

"Yeah! Just looking forward the event," told Kirito.

Kuran's AI copy was activated as soon as it was found. Quickly, new AI Players were generated from his data… though they weren't so complex or good like Yui or Kuran themselves, it gave the game a surprising random factor since no Player could tell if the one asking for help was an AI Player with a quest or a regular Player needing help.

Kirito got from Kuran a Dark Sword for helping him in the World Tree… at least the Cardinal System had ordered this to Kuran since Kirito was involved as well in this quest in some kind.

Grinning, Kuran flew away, "Then see you later! Got a few quests to give out!"

"See ya!" told Kirito and Asuna waved after him.

Kuran knew exactly what was coming: a new Aincrad. The location of SAO rebuild into ALfheim Online. While nobody knew from where exactly it came, Kuran knew it was coming and a set of quest were made for exactly the first floor on the first night of existence.

While he had mixed feelings of him existing twice… one saving the multiverse, the other stuck as an AI in a video game, he was glad that he got a purpose in the game. And he is was looking forward to carry it out.

At an unknown location, Orcus walked a few steps before falling to his knees, grabbing his arm in pain, "D-Damn bastard!"

"You look like you've seen better days," the Heartless looked up at the one looking at him.

"The last thing I need is you rubbing it in my face Stalwart Blade!" Orcus spat.

"How did you manage to revise injury?" the armored Heartless wondered.

"That bastard Sugou must have neglected to tell that setting the pain absorbers to near zero affected everyone in that area. I'm am going to personally make him suffer for that... but right now I'm just glad to still be alive."

"For now just get some rest," Stalwart Blade suggested.

"That reminds me, has anything been going on while I was gone?" Orcus asked.

"Hostel Program is working with the data you got. Not to mention that Dustflier has to decide to make her move, but knowing our luck she'll more than likely bump into the other Keyblade wielder."

"I see…" Orcus said before standing up. "I'm going to rest up a bit."