AN: Thanks to LordsFire for beta-ing. There's a chapter after this one on Spacebattles forum, and a link to that thread will be posted on my FFN profile soon. Feel free to drop by there with comments/reviews, though please do check the date of the last post there; if the date was over two weeks ago, please refrain from posting there.

Chapter 25

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A bit past what would normally be dinner time one hooded Salamander faerie, garbed in a rough traveller's cloak over a set of equally rugged armour, was seated in front of a café. His eyes scanned through a screen in front of him. At that plaza, the same scene was playing out with various faeries, in clothing not unlike what they were used to back when they were in a VR game, used their Medallions to access the public noticeboard and forum, not unlike teenagers using their smartphones to access the internet with Wi-Fi hotspots during the 2010s.

The subject of interest for many players there was the daily notices given out by the Faction Leaders, another report about their progress towards returning home. The more democratically minded Leaders wanted to limit themselves, have accountability to the voters that supported them, so they strove to be as transparent as they could – so the players could see what their Leaders were up to. Events such as the updated state of Mobs around major Capitals and matters discussed for the peace treaty with Tristain were but a few of the things within the report. Even the occurrence of an attack from an unknown third party on the treaty that day was reported, though the details were sparse.

After some time, the Salamander called over a waitress at the café to his table, and paid his bill in coins. That had garnered him some curiously raised eyebrows from both the waitress and the customers around him – the Medallion had been reworked into also acting as a bank card a few days ago, where players could pay for things without needing to carry around large bags of gold and mithril. In light of the fact a player could no longer materialize a large amount of coins from their inventory at will, and players couldn't lose the Medallion no matter what – not even death could cause it to be separated from the player – there were few reasons to not use the Medallion like a player would use their wallet back on Earth.

The cloaked Salamander ignored the stares, and casually left the café. Navigating the wide roads of Arrun, the Neutral Capital was crowded due to many players from all the Capitals that had moved to a central location for their own safety. It wasn't a metropolis like modern Tokyo by any means, but the density of people was higher than when Arrun was just a city in a VR game.

The Salamander took a detour, away from the nearby manor that was one of many that housed Faction Leaders, and acted as their residence and office outside of the World Tree – that one in particular belonging to the Leprechaun and Salamander Factions. The hooded Salamander saw several patrols of World Tree Guardians in the general area, and avoided them surreptitiously; those constructs were just one of many security measures for the Faction Leaders, and they logged the position data of every player that approached.

The Laughing Coffin's Guild Leader turned away and continued onwards, without a second glance back at manor.

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Sigurd, a tall Sylph with dark green hair and wearing heavy silver armour, scowled as he tackled the paperwork on the desk in front of him. Even though Titania had issued a general 'pardon' to all Renegade players that had left their Faction for one reason or another, allowing them back to their own Capitals for their safety, Sigurd was still unwelcome within Sylvain. Betraying their Faction and their charismatic Leader had not endeared Sigurd to many of the Sylphs – especially when considering the fact that if he succeeded many Sylphs would have lost their savings to rampant taxes by the invading Salamanders. There were still those that supported Sigurd, who saw his swift exile as a power-play set up by Sakuya, but their numbers was not enough to allow Sigurd to work for the Sylphs once more.

The disgraced ex-commander that was banished had been working as a mercenary in the immediate days after the Transition. The green-haired Sylph's employer at that point was the Leprechaun Faction – Rufus had snapped up the experienced commander quickly after the Transition, in order to bolster his own forces to hunt down the Mobs. Additionally, after the proposal from one of the SAO players about having alternate races joining the faction on retainer, and the confirmation that 'UPDATE 5.0', also known as Reincarnation into a different faerie race was possible, Rufus didn't rule out the possibility of allowing Sigurd into the Leprechaun faction – provided the renegade Sylph pulled his weight.

Thus, the clearing group the Sylph was attached to went to rest early, leaving Sigurd with the majority of the unimportant paperwork. Annoyance simmered within Sigurd; he hadn't had to do grunt work since he clawed his way up into the top players within the Sylph Faction, where he was a contender rivalling Sakuya for the Leadership position.

As with his attempt to join the Salamanders, Sigurd wanted to be on the winning side, and on the continent of Halkeginia of the new world the Faction of blacksmiths and crafters were a powerhouse matching the Salamanders. Many of the hard limits that existed purely because of 'Game Balancing', such as the number of stat-boosting trinkets someone could equip at once, or the race-specific limitations of certain high-end spells, have vanished after the Transition – and so far it seemed the Leprechauns benefited the most from the changes.

The Leprechauns, along with the Cait Sith and the Puca, were at an advantage in the new world in that they could learn other races' specialties more easily than others could learn theirs; the racial traits of those three Factions was not one of the elemental magic branches. For most people, incantations were easier to grasp than musical notes or the affection of myriads of beasts. However, the way the Puca and the Cait Sith were set up demanded the players of those Factions work together in order to maximise their own potential. The gimmick of the Puca faeries needing to be in groups to use high DPS was well known in ALO, and the Dragon Cavalry of the Cait Sith needed groups of tamers to keep the dragons under control, fed, and so on. In contrast, while the Leprechauns needed similar efforts to be powerful, they didn't have the limitation of needing other players to have access to 'Endgame' levels of ability. If all it required to get ahead in their situation was overwhelming firepower, the Leprechauns had an advantage in that aspect.

Unfortunately for Sigurd, martial prowess – both on the scale of individuals and of Factions – were no longer truly important. The path to success at that point for the ALO players lay not with defeating other players, but in removing various kinds of hostile Giants from Jotunheim. Mob extermination on the surface had long since lost any significance to the players, dropping to the level of farming materials in a game instead of anything that could endanger the flight-capable 'faeries'. Even if the Mobs still posed a threat to the local people of Tristain, the country which ALO had been transferred to, it was a reality far removed from safety of various Faction Capitals.

For all of the Leprechauns' might, they didn't possess the decisive factor in eliminating Jotunns. Even Rufus, whose skill was the definitive example of a Leprechaun munchkin, couldn't do much more than hinder a Jotunn if it came down to a fight. Winged Beast Gods mounts, with their powerful magic attacks, were fast becoming the only method to achieve a victory that allowed a successful kill of a Jotunn before casualties reached over 25% of the group; there were very few other options that could breach a Jotunn's hide. However, the Winged Beast Gods had a low taming rate, and for every one of those mounts gained there were at least five raid groups that wanted to get their hands on them. Sigurd might not have participated in Jotunheim raids himself after the Transition, but the quarrels over who should get access to the newly tamed Mobs had boiled over to the point even he had heard about it. Leafa, and many of the SAO players that had been found in the World Tree, had been busy trying to keep the peace below between different Factions.

The frustration within the Sylph gnawed at him. Before his exile, Sigurd was also in competition with the blonde Sylph for the title of the strongest sword-wielder of Sylvain in tandem with his political ambitions. It irked Sigurd to no end that his other rival was also thriving in the new world like the Sylph's Leader, placed in a position of power where only a handful of people were her superiors in all of Alfheim; in contrast he, the better strategist and overall fighter, had to crawl around doing tasks like a lapdog.

And it's all that Spriggan's fault… Sigurd thought darkly. Whatever loathing he had for others was eclipsed by his ire at Kirito; without the Black Swordsman's interference Sigurd would have succeeded with his ploy to assassinate two Faction Leaders at once. Sigurd didn't blame Mortimer for not holding up the Salamander's side of the bargain – that was nothing personal. The exiled Sylph had failed, and if the situation was reversed Sigurd wouldn't have accepted himself into the winning side either. Without Kirito's interference Sigurd would have won, and consolidated his position to the point Mortimer couldn't remove him. Even if the Reincarnation update was not yet released, Sigurd could have done what Rufus did with the Leprechauns, and took control of the Sylphs in the aftermath of the Transition – there was no-one else in the Sylphs skilled enough to contest his claim for leadership. Furthermore, in light of the unexplained switch of the Salamander region with the Undines in Tristain, Sigurd wouldn't even have had much trouble holding back unwanted Salamander intrusions.

A loud 'snap' from the door shook Sigurd out of his thoughts – he wasn't aware he had left it open, nor did he hear it being opened. Looking up in surprise, Sigurd found someone had materialized a few steps in front of his desk. Hooded, with rugged leather armour underneath his cloak, the intruder would not have looked out of place roleplaying a rogue in a seedy bar. A broad rectangular dagger was belted to his side, but other than that the intruder was unarmed – not that it meant much when any player could feasibly kill someone with a basic spell to the head, HP bars be damned. The only visible patch of skin on the intruder was the exposed lower part of his face the hood didn't cover up, and it was tanned like some of the desert-swelling Salamander players' avatars. Not that it meant much in determining which race of faerie the intruder was from, considering many physical traits were changeable on a player's avatar.

"… So, it wasn't enough for that bastard Kirito to disgrace me, he sent someone to kill me as well?" Sigurd grunted, his hand tensing and almost reached for his two-handed sword. However, Sigurd knew it was a futile attempt if he decided to fight; if the intruder wanted to, he could have killed Sigurd stealthily, without purposely closing the door in a manner that would bring notice to himself.

"Hmm?" The hooded man tilted his head. "What makes you think I'm with him?"

"Are you blind?" Sigurd retorted. "Your gear looks nothing like what's available in ALO. I've been around since almost the beginning of this game, and I've looked up online about the kind of things that might screw me over in ALO. That cloak for example has a good stealth bonus, but it's not Spriggan or Sylph material – and they're the only two races with the equipment for this kind of thing."

The intruder chuckled. "Good eyes. I admit, I'd thought the gear is similar enough between the two games, but it seems this 'Alfheim Online' tend towards the showier side for their armour."

"Cut the crap and get to the point," Sigurd spat out. "If you wanted me dead, you probably would have done it already. So, what did that bastard want to tell me? That if I even attempt to rise up in status he'd gank me until I'm brain-dead?"

Sigurd would have been impressed by the brutal method, if he wasn't on the receiving end of it. Nobody would believe the Sylph if he said Kirito did it, due to Sigurd's previous plotting marking him as an untrustworthy person. The Sylph ex-commander was a capable strategist, true, but that didn't equal being reliable. Sigurd didn't believe that Spriggan had the guts to go that far for his goals, but it seemed the Sylph was wrong. Sigurd felt he would probably die and be revived once, just so Kirito would get his point across.

"It may surprise you to hear this, but not all of us 'SAO Survivors' are working for Kirito-kun," the hooded man replied smoothly. "I'm in the same situation as you are – on his bad side, and if given an excuse to Kirito-kun would lock us up and throw away the keys."

"Right…" Sigurd decided to humour the intruder. "So, why are you here?"

"I'm in a rather more precarious position than you are, Sigurd," the man began, "where if Kirito knew I merely existed here there'll be an order given to his lackeys to kill me without hesitation. Myself, and a few others, need some help in avoiding spending the rest of our remaining lifespan blind, deaf and mute."

Sigurd snorted. That particular method to deal with rule-breakers have been leaked onto the public message boards by one of the Faction Leaders' advisors, ostensibly as an protest to some of the Leaders' support for the inhumane treatment. The Sylph player didn't doubt it was a more subtle way of saying 'either the players accept the Leaders' authority, or else'.

"So why should I throw my lot in with someone higher up on Kirito's shit-list than me?" Sigurd asked with contempt. "That's just asking for me to get killed along with you."

"What makes you think that once you started getting ahead, Sakuya and the others won't do something similar to you?" The man countered.

Sigurd stilled. That was a disturbingly likely possibility, at least to him.

"Gossip has it you're trying to become someone important again," the man continued. "Whether it was a disgraceful exile, or an unjust decision, it doesn't change how you went from someone that's practically second-in-command of the Sylphs to just a Renegade. And though Renegades don't have the protection of their Factions, when it was all a game it didn't matter – there were other places to go, and things to do even if you weren't affiliated with someone. Now though…"

The man didn't finish his sentence; though he didn't have to. Sigurd had kept up with the news, and he could see where things were going. The 'Faerie Lords' titles were a better description for Sakuya and the others than something as simple as 'Faction Leader', in that they were literally the rulers of Alfheim and making all of the important decisions. The only ones above them were Titania and Kirito, but the former seemed apathetic to the players beyond ensuring their basic wellbeing, and the latter was singing the same tune as the Leaders. If the Leaders wanted something done then it would be, as long as it wasn't against common decency – or maybe even if it was a heinous action, considering the Leaders had no check on them apart from each other. Collusion would remove many of the limits placed upon the Faerie Lords.

"The Medallions Titania have given us aren't a tool for our convenience," the man stated. "It's a shackle, a collar. One that we cannot escape from, as long as we live here. Everything, from what we buy and where we go, are under scrutiny of Titania – if they want us gone, there's no escape as long as we're in Alfheim. And considering how the 'Fairy Queen' is the fucking 'Asuna the Flash', another SAO Survivor in a different white dress, if Kirito or the other Lords and Ladies wants someone to just… disappear… well, I doubt she won't help her boyfriend if he begs for it.

"If I'm gone, they're going to just continue down the list of the people that annoy them. I don't doubt that one day you'd reach the top of that list, Sigurd, and chances are Rufus isn't going to consider spending the effort to keep you out of Sakuya's clutches as a worthwhile investment."

"… Sakuya wouldn't do that," Sigurd argued. "She doesn't have the guts to come after me like that. If she did, the Sylphs wouldn't be behind the Salamanders in the first place. Not to mention that ruthlessness would go against her act of being the fucking eye-candy figurehead to buy votes from the rest of the faction."

"She won't, maybe," the man shrugged noncommittally. "But what about the others? From what I've heard, Alicia-chan probably won't hesitate in shutting down any threats to her friend… and what's to say Mortimer won't decide to remove a potential threat? Or get rid of evidence that goes against their so-called 'cooperation' between the Faerie Lords? The details of your plot is not yet common knowledge, and considering how cold-hearted Mortimer seems to be, I won't rule out how he'll hang you out to dry before it hurts his position."

Sigurd gritted his teeth. Those scenarios sounded very likely to him.

"Anyone that has wronged the current set of Leaders will be fair game to be hunted down, without even the masses noticing anything different," the hooded man continued. "After all, the outcasts are shunned, and nobody would care to find out what happened to them. That was the case in Japan, that was the case in Sword Art Online, and I'll wager it is no different for the players of Alfheim Online."

"And what do you have planned for that?" Sigurd asked with a raised eyebrow. "I doubt you've come to me just to point out how we're all screwed."

"Oh yes, I have a plan," the man's lips twisted into a smirk. "If the system is designed against you… then we just don't play the game. 'Titania' seems to be taking the role of the GM faithfully, and with all her changes she seems to have stuck with one fundamental rule: you can't force someone to play a game, exceptions such as Kayaba's NervGear aside. And considering Asuna-kun's own experiences in Aincrad, it was no surprise she didn't go as far as Kayaba did.

"As things are, if someone wants to they can abandon everything Titania has built up for them, and go Renegade once more in this new world. Throw away the Medallion, and fend for themselves."

Sigurd knew what the hooded man was talking about – he had gone through the manual attached to the Medallions in detail in order to look for anything that could be of use to him. Players could 'opt out' of being a part of Alfheim if they wished to, and Destroy their Medallion in the process. It was as close to Logout from ALO as it was possible after the Transition, to remove themselves from the setting of Alfheim. In exchange for that freedom, Titania would no longer be obliged to protect the players that had chosen to do so, and the Faction Capitals would be off-limits to the new Renegades.

"… You're crazy," Sigurd concluded. "That's as much a death sentence as being screwed over by the Faction Leaders. There'll be no way to reliably get food, no Safe Zones-"

"The Safe Zones aren't exactly safe, here," the hooded man pointed out. "We're protected from Mobs, perhaps… but it's always people that are the more dangerous threats. I'd take my chances against something like a rabid dragon charging through my window over an entire raid group teleporting in.

"Besides," the man shrugged. "Some of us literally have no other choice. The last time Kirito and others caught up to me, they killed two thirds of my guild; if we don't run, my friends and I will die."

"Seriously?" Sigurd raised an eyebrow. Intellectually, the Sylph knew that SAO was a death game, but it was another to hear about someone being killed. The ex-commander wouldn't put it past the intruder to feed him a sob-story to get his aid either.

"I don't expect you to take my word for it," the hooded man replied. "Or expect you to go Renegade. All I want is some help so I can give one last 'Fuck You' to Kirito before I start running. You won't even have to do anything that breaks the rules, if you want to play it safe."

"Hmm…" Sigurd considered it. He wouldn't mind wiping the smirk off of that Spriggan's face, and odds were that, while painful, there wouldn't be any lasting harm done… worst case scenario, the revival function still worked in the new world.

"What do you have in mind, then?" Sigurd finally said.

The smirk from the hooded man became even more predatory.

"You only have to keep an eye out for others that might feel cornered as well," the man replied. "See if anyone else might be screwed over by the Faction Leaders, and pass the names on to me. I'll take over from there onwards."

"I meant what are you planning to do to Kirito," Sigurd clarified. "The bastard isn't exactly easy to beat up – he beat Eugene using only subpar gear, and he's only gotten harder to kill with that Runebound stuff Titania have been handing out."

"Who said I was going to kill him?" The hooded man said with clear amusement. "Death, while simple, is hardly the worst thing that can happen – especially when the paradigm Titania is enforcing lessens the consequences for dying a great deal. No, I have something else in mind for Kirito-kun…"

The green-haired Sylph held back an involuntary shudder; he had been mistaken about the hooded man's motives. Judging by the intruder's seriousness, he really believed what he was saying. Sigurd was not surprised that after living through SAO, the survivors were all unhinged in one manner or another. The ease of speaking about taking another's life, without mincing words and using game terms like 'ganking' to pretend it was anything less, made that painfully clear – and the hooded man planned on doing worse.

"… I'd say more, but it seems I was wrong about you Sigurd," the intruder said with a touch of regret in his tone, his words stabbing into Sigurd's heart like an icicle. "Considering our mutual suffering caused by Kirito, I had expected you to share my opinion on how to deal with him."

"Fuck off," Sigurd spat, his hands blurring in the process of snatching up his blade and raising it at the intruder. "I might want to see Kirito pay for what he did to me, to hurt him, but not badly enough to participate in something like this. I'm not like you assholes that gets off from cold-blooded torture, so get lost and take your SAO survivor insanity with you."

The intruder's smirk widened as he chuckled, showing gleaming teeth in the process.

"Yes… you have a point, Sigurd," the hooded man mused. "This new world isn't a death-game, a cauldron of despair filled with potential just waiting to be tapped. Not everyone here is used to the idea and casualness of death. My recruitment method sticks out like a sore thumb just like my gear, with only the craziest ones willing to help if I let too much slip. It looks like I need to adjust more than my methods of killing to fit this new world, it seems."

"If you're done monologing, get out," Sigurd growled. "We're done here."

"Yes," the intruder agreed. "We are."

The man's hand shot towards his dagger, and then a strike flew towards Sigurd. The Sylph hastily parried the blow, his arm jarring from the strength behind it – the intruder was higher levelled than the ex-commander, stronger and faster than the Wind Faerie. Sigurd desperately attempted to chant the words for a binding spell, but he got no further than a few syllables – the follow-up attack from the hooded man severed the Sylph's right arm, slicing through both flesh and fae-metal like the proverbial hot knife through butter.

A scream slipped through Sigurd's mouth, his focus lapsing from the pain. The intruder then tripped the ex-commander, forcing Sigurd to crash down onto the floor; and in the process he stabbed two needles into the Sylph's neck. Sigurd wished to scream further, but his lips was locked up by a combination of Silence and Paralysis.

"I'm afraid I can't let you go, after all you have heard," the intruder said with mock sympathy. "A shame, really – you could have been amongst the best of our kind."

Sigurd glared back at the hooded man with defiance and contempt. While he could not speak, the Sylph tried his best to let the intruder know what he felt about his words.

"It's refreshing to have a victim that doesn't freeze up in fear at the sight of us," the man chuckled as he sheathed his dagger, and then bodily carried the unmoving Sylph over one shoulder. "That instinctual terror on their faces gets boring, after a time. It lacked the fun of driving them to that point.

"We'll have fun dusting off those skills on you, Sigurd – see what works and what doesn't under this new situation. Don't worry though, we'll be putting them to use on Kirito soon enough; your experiences will help achieving your wish for revenge."

The hooded man and his baggage vanished from sight, and the laughter disappeared with them soon after. All that was left at the scene was a desk covered messily with documents, and an overturned chair; the severed arm of the Sylph dispersed into wisps of light, with the blood spilt onto the floor and walls soon following after.

AN: SAO Vol8 (Early and Late) shows PoH's dagger, the Mate Chopper, is a Demonic Sword. Eugene's Gram ignores 'Parry' actions, while Mate Chopper ignores armour defence.