March 4th, 2031

"Kirito," Asuna said as she looked down at the unconscious player. She looked at his vitals, and applied a health potion which cured him. "Kirito!"

He slowly woke up, and looked at the darkened sky. All around him, everything was covered in a fine layer of ashes. Even Asuna's face was peppered with soot. "Asuna?" he asked. "What happened?"

Asuna held him closely, and cried with him in her arms. "A lot of people died," she said. "You almost died. I was scared."

Kirito hugged her tightly and picked himself up off the ground to look around. Players were slowly recovering from the great shakes, and many did not get up at all.

Asuna stood up and hugged Kirito close to her once again. "Yes."

"Yes what?" Kirito had forgotten where their conversation had left off.

"I love you…"

In northern California, around the Laughing Coffin headquarters, many Laughing Coffin members were being taken into custody while the team continued to work to end the game. "Hurry up and get control of the system," Kojji Makatawa said to the FBI lead. "We have to get the players out of there, now!"

"I know," the FBI lead told him. "We're working on it… it's going to take some time."

In the altar of Gaea, the Death Oath waited out the storm. GothGod was growing more powerful every second as the knowledge of the game world flooded into him. "System command," GothGod suddenly spoke. "Grant player: GothGod administrator access. Validation ID: Heathcliff, password: e7hu197e6. System command, generate object ID: system console." Before GothGod, a black cube appeared, and he touched it and began to use it like a computer. He smiled, and then laughed. "Not so fast…" He hit a few buttons more, and an upload of some sort began.

"Sir!" Seijiro shouted. "GothGod just gave himself administrator access. We need to get the players out now!" The programmer looked back at Seijiro, and then got to work. "Everyone!" he said. "Hurry up. We're going to miss our chance." Before the team could do anything though, a pop-up appeared an all of the screens in the base. It was an upload progress bar.

Then, everything on the screen turned black, and the next thing to appear was the Black Prophet. He wore his plague mask, but everyone could see him smiling underneath it. "I applaud your efforts," he said. His voice was like a whisper now. "But you see. I am in control now. And this game is far from over… You will never stop me! I will never return to the real world. None of us will. Vearth and its players belong to me. If you try and change that, I will take Earth as well."

"What's he talking about?" Kojji asked.

"A gift for you," GothGod said. "To prove my threats are no joke." After that, the whole system shut down. Though the IVRTF couldn't see it happening, the servers and all data on them were being erased.

A few moments passed, and the lead FBI agent there got off the phone with someone. "I…" he said, looking to everyone. "I have just received word that there has been a launch… around the world."

"A launch?" Seijiro asked.

"Nuclear missiles. And not just in the US. One Nuclear missile from every armed nation has been launched. Is that what he meant? Does he have control of our nuclear arsenal?"

Kojji got the next call. "Yes, sir," he said. "We just heard… we think so… no, sir… I'll let them know." He hung up the phone, and turned to the group. "Fortunately, the trajectory of the missiles is going straight into space. He was just proving that he could do it… not attacking. Yet."

"How is that possible?" Seijiro asked.

"I think… I understand," the programmer that previously attempted to end the game said. "That upload screen. I think GothGod used system commands to upload the contents of the game in its current state, and all players to the cloud."

"The cloud?"

"The internet, in other words. If that's the case, all these servers are blank. Laughing Coffin used this base to maintain control over the game's data. If it's stored over the internet, which is to say, stored in tiny little fragments, hidden away on every connected device in the world, then it'll be harder to find, but less secure, so we would be able to hack in easier. It's also how he's controlling things in the real world now."

"It's that part that complicates things," Kojji said. "If he can launch nuclear strikes from within the game… we should be very careful about trying to interfere any further."

"Couldn't we just unplug the player from the game, killing him?"

"I doubt that would work," Seijiro said. "If what you said is true, then it's likely he's already anticipated that. Just before he became administrator, he used an item in-game called the Fruit of Knowledge. I'm only just now starting to understand that it went beyond knowledge of the game world. I think… he might now know everything… at least everything that's online."

"I can't go with you," Eulsam said. The group met back up together somewhere in the city. It was hard to tell where, as the buildings that had stood through the quake were covered in ashes, and so were the streets. "I have a duty to the players of Vearth to stay here, and keep this town a safe haven."

"I can't stay, Eulsam," Asuna said.

He nodded. "I understand that. Go do what you have to do. I'll see you again soon. Xaela." Eulsam turned to address the gladiator.

"Yes, sir?"

"Make up your mind now. Will you stay and help me or go and bring the ones who did this to justice?"

"I'll go…" she said.

"Very good… Michiko…"

"I need to find my guild," she said. "I need to gather up everyone who's still alive. And if they're not… I don't know, I'll contact you."

"I'll go with Michiko," Xaela said, nodding slowly.

"Everyone else," Eulsam said. "I'd appreciate any help I can get, but you go wherever you feel you'll be needed most." Kirito left with everyone from his core group, mounting pegasi and started off with a trot. Asuna stayed behind for a moment longer. After they took to the skies, she turned to Eulsam. "Asuna… go."

Before leaving, she was about to say something, but cut herself off before starting. "I'll be back," she said, and then took off.

As Kirito and the others flew towards the Temple of Gaea, Sinon managed to catch a glimpse of low flying, undead dragons as they flew over the Dune Sea. She pointed them out to the group. "There!" she shouted, and the rest of them dove down towards the zombified mounts.

They all landed in front of them and the Death Oath riding their backs were kind enough to all stop and talk. GothGod dismounted from his dragon, and he told his allies, "Keep flying, and teleport me when I send you a message…"

"You did this," Asuna said as she dismounted her horse and started to walk towards the Black Prophet.

"Yes, I did this," he said. He pulled out his weapon, the Jade Scythe. "Are you going to punish me for it, Asuna?"

"How could you?" Kirito asked, drawing only his white staff. "How many must have died just now?"

"How could I? Well I needed something from the goddess of the earth, and she wouldn't give it to me. So I was forced to kill her. She could have given it to me and everything would be just fine, now, wouldn't it?"

"You're a monster!" Asuna shouted as she charged with her spear at the Black Prophet. He snapped his fingers and vanished in a cloud of smoke, appearing a few feet away.

"I'm too smart for any of you to fight me now," he said. "Don't try to strike me. I can see the future. I can tell when you're attacks are coming."

Kirito went in next, leaping at him, and slashing with his swords. Again, GothGod teleported a short distance in a puff of smoke. When he re-appeared, Klein used his Quickdraw to try and hit him. The Black Prophet reached out with his stick, and blocked the attack. "W-what?" Klein looked at the stick. "It's made of wood…"

GothGod grabbed Klein by the wrist, and threw him away. "It's made of dragon bone, actually… it's harder than Silver Steel, and as light as bronze. Now enough of this. It's time for you to die." The Black Prophet drew from his cloak a long sword. The blade appeared to be green, of jade, exactly like the Jade Scythe.

Lisbeth activated her Paladin mode, and charged in, wings unfurled and tail whipping behind her. She used her shield to knock away his staff. When she attacked with her sword, which was all lit up in flames, he parried the attack with his own. He snapped his fingers and was again gone, re-appearing away from the group. He held out his hand, and his staff flew over to him.

"Face justice!" Lisbeth demanded of him, as she charged again. She threw her shield at him, but before it hit, he whispered a spell, and the shield stopped in its path and burst into flames. She still charged, using both hands to swing her sword against him. He blocked the attack, and circled his sword around hers, disarming her.

"You're no match for me, Dragon Queen" he said. "You're not the only one with a player-boss class, now. Not even you can defeat me, dear." Lisbeth's Paladin mode wore off. Kirito and Asuna both charged. He tapped his staff to the ground, and a wave of energy shot out, knocking both of them away. Sampson and Klein moved in next, and he blocked Sampson's attack with his staff, and Klein's with his sword. Once they were knocked away, he started casting a spell, and Klein and Sampson's feet were suddenly grabbed by skeletal hands reaching from the ground.

Lisbeth charged in again, jumping up and striking down with a heavy hit. GothGod held up both his staff and sword to block the incoming attack, and then threw them away. Lisbeth went in and attacked with her tail, sweeping at his feet, but once more, he vanished.

"Why did you do it?" Kirito shouted. "Why did you decide that knowledge was more valuable than the lives of thousands of players?"

"System command!" he shouted. Kirito blinked, and then charged. GothGod interrupted his command to cast a spell, this one caused Kirito to fall in place as if his right leg were suddenly broken, and he took damage. He screamed out in pain and grabbed his leg. "System command! Set pain absorber level to twenty percent!" An icon appeared in front of GothGod, displaying the falling level of the pain absorbers. Kirito screamed out louder.

Asuna charged in again. GothGod swung his sword up through the air, and a series of green and black jagged rocks shot up at her, and knocked her away. He did a downward chop afterwards, and the spines jutting up from the ground grew out farther, and stabbed her. She was knocked back, left bleeding from the damage. She cried out and rolled into a fetal position.

Lisbeth started hurling fireballs at him, and he teleported out of the way of the first few. After that, he cast another spell, and the next two to hit were absorbed, their explosions vanishing in a green mist. "You really are a persistent bunch," he said. Lisbeth charged him again, and he cast another spell at her, which made her suddenly blink out and in of unconsciousness, she hit the ground right after she woke up, and shook her head. The Black Prophet followed through by slashing at the base of her wings, one after the other. She roared out and shuddered, paralyzed from the pain.

"You coward," Kirito said as he forced himself to stand, and he was slowly healed back up as Leafa cast her healing spell. "You use your advanced class and your cheating knowledge of the game's mechanics. And using system commands like that… You're horrible! We will bring you to justice."

"System command!" Kirito charged him again, but he was still shielded, and when Kirito hit the shield, he was blown back with the force of Lisbeth's fireballs, and dropped down to near death. "Give player ID: GothGod item Sands of Time." He then approached Kirito, and as he did, Asuna charged at him, her health back up. He stepped out of the way of her spear, and when she tried to hit him with her shield, he swung his sword at her head, leaving a huge cut in her face. It caused her strength to fail, and she yelled out in pain, dropping her weapons to hold her wound.

The Black Prophet grabbed Kirito's arm, and held him up on his feet. "You think you're better than me… with your morals, and your constitution. But, I will tell you the truth now. You're not." He shrugged. "No, in fact, any one of you could have been as bad as any of the player killers you hated so much. In fact… any one of you could be worse. Hmm? Want to see?"

Sampson finally freed himself from the bone claws holding his feet down, and charged at GothGod, going into his bull rage. In response, the Death Oath leader tapped his staff to the ground, and another series of black and green spires of jagged rocks shot out from him in all directions, knocking Sampson away. He still held Kirito up, and so Kirito wasn't hit by them as they emerged from beyond where GothGod held him. After that though, he threw Kirito to the ground, where he writhed in pain.

GothGod began casting a spell after he called the Sands of Time in front of him. Leafa made her next spell an attack, once Kirito was healed back to fifty percent health. A bolt of green energy shot at the Black Prophet. He used his sword to swing at it, and the blade absorbed the attack. It was too late now, the spell was finished and there was a flash of light.

Leafa went back to healing her allies, and looked around as she did so. "What was that?" Kirito asked once he reached full health, and stood up. GothGod was typing out a message to his friends, and soon after, he was teleported away from the fight.

Asuna got up next, and then Klein finally freed himself. Lisbeth took the longest to heal, but eventually, her wings grew back, and she folded them into her body. "He probably went to Newberg… We should have never left," Asuna said.

"Too late now," Lisbeth said. "Leafa, do you have enough mana left to mass teleport?" She shook her head.

"Asuna…" Kirito said. She looked over to Kirito, but Kirito himself was baffled. He hadn't said anything.

"Look out!" Kirito suddenly shouted. Asuna whipped around and a man stood behind her, the spitting image of Kirito, only something was… different about this one. His cloak was dark, but had a hint of red shade to it, and his eyes were crazy looking.

The false Kirito attacked, and he wielded two swords, neither of which were Elucidators. Asuna held up her shield to defend herself, and used her sword to block a second attack. "What the hell is going on?" Asuna shouted as she moved quickly to defend herself, but very soon found herself disarmed of a sword and using both hands to wield her shield.

Lisbeth charged on this new Kirito, and so did the real one, but they were both baffled at how quickly this false Kirito had parried and disarmed them of their weapons, and then charged for Asuna once more. "Asuna how could you?" it shouted. "After everything I've done! After everything we've been through together, you betray me?"

Asuna drew her spear, and defended herself as best as she could against the insane Kirito. "Kirito," another voice said, like Asuna's. "Run… Run now!" A second Asuna attacked Kirito, and he quickly drew his weapons to start blocking and parrying attacks. "Kirito, I'm so sorry!" this one shouted. "Please forgive me!" Kirito turned and ran from this newcomer.

"Okay," Leafa said, watching this. "I'm officially confused."

"The Sands of Time," Sampson said. In his head he was trying to figure it out. He wasn't quite there before another clone appeared, this one was Lisbeth, except her name plate read The Dragon Queen.

Lisbeth saw it, and charged for her. "Sampson! Watch out!" she shouted as she engaged her double. The other Lisbeth blinked as she began fighting herself, but it made no difference to her. The two were at least evenly matched, and so Lisbeth took her double to the side, and held her attention.

Sampson had ducked, and when he saw Lisbeth fighting again, he charged in to help her. The others were ready to fight now. Sinon finally got an arrow off against the duplicate Asuna, hitting her in the back, but she didn't relent in her strikes, so Sinon fired at her again. It missed though, as she felt a whisper from behind. "Bang," she heard, and whipped around to see herself. The double seemed just as surprised to see her, and she held up her weapon, a bow made of dragon's bones. There was a moment's hesitation, but she fired, and Sinon quickly ducked out of the way. As she looked back, she saw on her duplicate self, painted on her face, the symbol of the Laughing Coffin.

Klein jumped in to help Sinon engage her double, and when he did, she turned with her next arrow, and activated her special ability. Klein engaged his Quickdraw at the last moment, and dodged four shots that would have hit his face to strike at the double.

Leafa looked from player to player, and casted heals wherever she got a chance, but soon a shadow loomed over her, and she whipped around to see the giant Sampson, only his hands were the color red. "Oh darn…" she said, speaking softly under her breath, and turned to run. The Sampson doppelganger went into a bull rage and chased her down, wielding a massive axe. "Help!" she shouted, but everyone was busy. Silica was busy fighting off a Laughing Coffin Klein, and a duplicate Leafa and Silica were fighting one another.

Kirito looked around. He seemed to have lost the duplicate Asuna, and so he started searching for the real one. "Asuna!" he shouted as he looked through the darkness. He found himself in a forest area, and started running back towards the desert to see if he could find her.

Meanwhile, Asuna, the real Asuna, was struggling to defend herself against the false Kirito. She entered her Valkyrie state, and pushed her shield into him, knocking him back. Then she activated her third ability, which she had kept hidden until today. Her body seemed to move like lightning, sparks shooting every time she stopped. She swarmed around Kirito, making quick strikes against him at the speed of sound. This duplicate Kirito got hit a few times, but ultimately caught up to her movement speed as he activated Blade Dancer's Fury, and the two of them fought a duel that the eye could not keep up with.

"Asuna!" Kirito shouted as he saw the two of them fighting. He ran in and activated his Starburst Stream to join the fray, and together, he and Asuna were able to get the false Kirito to back off.

Now that he was still, they got a good look at his weapons. Both must have been dragon bone, as the Black Prophet introduced to them, because they appeared as wood. Each blade was also lined with a series of teeth. Each weapon had a name carved into them. One spelled Wrath and the other Ruin. "I don't know what's going on here," he said. "But we will meet again, fake Kirito… fake Asuna…" He then turned and fled into the jungle.

Michiko and Xaela rode together on the backs of pegasi towards the Black Bog, where the Black Wardens were headquartered. As they rode, Michiko looked down to see a party of eight of her wardens riding for Newberg, beating out a path through the Ring Forest. She and Xaela turned back and flew down to meet them. The two pegasi landed in front of the traveling wardens, and the eight of them all stopped.

"Wardens of the Black Bog," Michiko said to them. "What's the news from headquarters?"

The eight wardens all wore heavy armor, colored in black and dark green, and each wore helmets disguising their identities and voices. "Demons," one of the party said. "And other evil creatures. The shake broke open some kind of doorway hidden in the citadel. We are all that's left."

"Darkwatch is gone, too," Michiko said. "I think I saw Aincrad crash into it."

"Aincrad?" the muffled voice ask.

Michiko nodded back. "Newberg is recovering from the disaster. If that's where you're headed, keep moving on, find Eulsam and offer to help anyway you can."

The warden nodded, and the party of eight continued to charge onward. Michiko opened her player menu, and looked through the list of her guild members. "There's still more of them out there," she said. "Let's keep moving." Xaela nodded, and the two flew back into the sky, towards a player Michiko was tracking down.

When Kirito and Asuna returned to their group, they had found the duplicate Lisbeth and the duplicate Sampson dead on the ground, and Klein moved his own body to join the two of them. "Okay," Leafa said. "So explain that for them now, Sampson."

Sampson turned to see Kirito and Asuna. "I'm sure the first thought everyone had was clones." Kirito and Asuna nodded. "Except… why were the Sands of Time involved in making clones, and why did each of these enemies appear to have their own history and their own character? I thought about what GothGod said, that each of us could have been bad. These," he pointed out. "These are ourselves from alternate realities in which we wound up choosing evil instead of good."

"That's not all of us," Asuna pointed out. "Where did the rest go?"

"They ran away out of confusion," Sinon said. "I'm sure we'll be seeing them again."

"I suppose that makes some sense," Kirito said. "But why?"

"It's a distraction," Lisbeth said. "Now GothGod and his Death Oath are in Newberg, doing whatever it is they were planning on doing. Though somehow I think he expected them to kill us."

"He could have done that himself, though," Asuna said. "He had system commands. He could just have the system kill us."

"Too easy…" Kirito said. "He's like every other insane person we've seen running these death games. He wants to beat us, not just kills us."

"I hear something," Sinon said. "It's Asuna… or… her double…" Sinon and Asuna went to where the noise of whimpering was coming from, and they looked down to see the duplicated Asuna curled up into a ball.

"Asuna?" Asuna said. "You don't want to kill us or something?"

The false Asuna looked up, and shook her head. "I never wanted to hurt anybody… They made me… they turned me into a weapon."

Sinon blinked. "Then why did you attack Kirito?" she asked.

The false Asuna cried again, and shook her head. "I really can't help it. I don't want to hurt him, but I can't stop myself. Wait a minute…" she looked up. "What's happening? I'm… I'm Asuna, but, so are you. And I thought I saw two Kirito's back there, but… Kirito's already dead."

"This sounds familiar," Asuna said. "Open your inventory, I want to see it."

"Why?" the double asked. She did as she as requested though, and the real Asuna looked through it. "What are you looking for?"

"A death note," Asuna said. "It's a little slip of paper, the Death Oath used one to make Kirito try and kill me in this world. I'm guessing things were reversed in yours." She shook her head. "But I don't see it."

"I could have told you that," the false said. "It's not something in-game that makes me want to kill him, it's the experiments."

"The experiments?" Asuna asked.

A few moments later Asuna and Sinon returned to the group, but left the fake one where she was. "Okay," Sinon said. "Well we figured out that one's story, if anyone's interested. Basically, she's a terminator."

"Kirito," Asuna said. "Remember Alfheim online, and Sugou?"

Kirito nodded, and shuddered. "I try not to…"

"In her timeline, you failed. Her mind was taken over and warped into falling in love with that creep. But when he died, things seemed to fall apart. Nothing made sense to her, and she kept having dreams about you. One day, though, she was taken by the Laughing Coffin. They continued the experiments with her, and the memories of her love for the Kirito of her timeline returned. Laughing Coffin had something sinister in mind. They knew you would be there in their new Death Game, and they wanted revenge. Apparently, in that timeline, you did a lot more than thwart a single group of psychotic killers, you took down half of their operations."

"I probably had to fill the void you left behind," he said.

"That Asuna," Asuna pointed over to where they found her. "Was reprogrammed by the Laughing Coffin to be a killing machine. She has every single move you can make downloaded into her brain, knows every counter, every weakness… They only changed what they needed to make her kill, though, caring not for her emotions, and sent her out into their new death game to kill you in combat. It would be a fitting revenge in their eyes. And… in her timeline, she did just that."

"I kind of feel sorry for her," Sinon said. "She's like a worst case scenario Asuna."

"The others are likely similar," Sampson said. "Worst case would have been Lisbeth never being freed from Smuldur. I don't know under what circumstances I would have joined the Red Hand, but I'm sure there was some story behind it."

"My worst case must have been joining the Laughing Coffin after the events of Gun Gale Online. She probably never even met Kirito in that timeline," Sinon said.

"I'm guessing same here," Klein said. "If Kirito never showed me the ropes in SAO, I don't know what might have happened."

"The other me seemed absolutely insane," Kirito said. "He was trying to kill Asuna, but it didn't seem like Asuna's double where he had no choice. He had swords made from dragon bone, named Wrath and Ruin." Lisbeth shuddered, and shook her head.

"What do we do with my double?" Asuna asked. "She's kind of an innocent in this whole situation. It'd be wrong to kill her, but if she sees or even hears Kirito again, she'll attack."

"I have some rope," Silica said out of the blue. The rest looked at her, and Kirito shrugged, and then nodded.

"You just want to see me tied up," Asuna said, glancing at him from the side. He chuckled and nodded again. "Well, it's all we got for now…"

Michiko and Xaela were flying north now, and they dove down into the trees as they approached another Black Warden member. When they landed, they found a player on the ground, stuck with her leg pinned in the stone. "Michiko!" she shouted as she saw her arrive. "I'm stuck…"

Michiko dismounted, along with Xaela, and approached the player, whose name read Caliah. "Hold tight," Michiko said as she looked around, figuring out how to get her unstuck. As she examined the rock, she heard Caliah whimpering in pain. "What's wrong?" she asked.

"I don't know," she said as she groaned. "I got stuck here when the world shook and the sky started falling. I was fine at first, but then all of the sudden, the pain just hit me out of nowhere."

Xaela listened, and pulled out a cooking knife she had in her inventory. She carefully pressed the blade to the palm of her hand, and cut herself, only slightly. "Ow!" she said, shaking her hand and looking at the knife. Michiko looked back at her. "Pain absorbers…" Xaela said as she licked her wound.

"They must have turned them down or something," Michiko said. Then, she got to her knees, and started digging around the rocks that pinned her fellow warden down. "Don't worry," Michiko said. "We're going to get you out of her, and get you a health potion and you'll be good as new…"

Caliah nodded, and looked up at Xaela. "Is that your girlfriend?" she asked. Xaela blushed slightly, and then glared at Michiko. "She looks a little younger than I expected. Of course… so do you… I've never seen you without your helmet…"

"How old are you?" Michiko asked. Xaela was on her knees helping her dig now.

"Eighteen. January birthday… was fifteen when I got here. You look about the same… How old are you?" Michiko looked up at her, and smirked before getting back to work.

In the keep in Newberg, which was now less a keep and more an empty shell of a building, GothGod and his Death Oath stood in the ground floor room, and looked around. No one had noticed their presence, and he chuckled a little. After that, he pulled out a few items, and started to cast a complex spell.