On Today's Episode: Only one last floor boss stands between the players of Sword Art Online and the final showdown with Akihiko Kayaba, and it's... a tag-team match?! Both of Aincrad's brother gods have returned for one final throwdown, and it's going to be the Clearers' toughest battle yet. Can the Sleeping Knights turn the tides of this massive battle and open the path to the Ruby Palace, or is this where Sword Art Online has the last laugh?
Episode 14: Dual Divinities
April 17th, 2025
4:31 P.M. Aincrad Time
Floor 99 Labyrinth
Asuna was still steeling her nerves even as the Knights of the Blood Oath and the Clearers approached the door ahead.
After a grueling trip through the floor 99 labyrinth, they had made it here to Cosmogenesis, a strange place that defied logic at times.
Or, to put it in simpler terms, they had made it to the doorway that led to the floor 99 boss fight. They only had to conquer this final fight, and then they could challenge Akihiko Kayaba on floor 100 to earn their freedom.
But the one question that remained on everyone's mind was, obviously, about what this boss was going to be. Considering some of the crazy and insane bosses they'd fought on the final twenty-five floors, everyone here was expecting something crazy.
None more so than Nick, Yuuki, Aiko, and Strea of the Sleeping Knights, who had seen more than their fair share of the worst that Sword Art Online could throw at them.
Nick spun Star Cluster around in his hands, happy to know that this sword had served him well for so long, especially considering some of the battles they'd been a part of.
"So, everyone, are we ready?" Asuna proclaimed, to which every member of the raid party cheered loudly. "Very well, then let us push forward! Only one more boss stands between us and Kayaba, so let's give it our all!"
"I'm as ready as I'll ever be, honestly," Nick stated, only to be surprised when both Yuuki and Strea kissed him on the cheek.
"For luck," Yuuki giggled.
"This way, it's worth double," Strea laughed.
Aiko just smiled at the adorable sight, though it did bring up a funny memory from back on floor 98 when a random female player had approached Nick after hearing about the amazing battle he'd apparently been a part of on floor 97 (word traveled fast around Aincrad, after all), and offered to go out with him sometime, obviously not knowing he had a girlfriend. Despite Nick's best efforts to let her down gently, the girl had only backed off after Yui had glared at her with all the malicious intent she was capable of.
Yuuki had laughed her keester off watching the player hightail it, and Yui had explained that she'd only done that to make sure Nick stayed faithful to Yuuki. The random affection from Strea, though, was okay with Yui, given what she'd been through.
Asuna walked up to the doorway and touched it, its runes glowing brightly for opening the door and the pathway to the boss chamber.
The chamber itself was, without a doubt, even stranger than the labyrinth itself had been, being a large, circular platform made of glowing green energy out in the middle of outer space. There were very few stars to be seen, but small orbs with spikes floated in the distance. The focal point of the space was an intricate golden crest with an ominous black silhouette that resembled Aincrad's brother gods. The numerous platforms floating around the chamber depicted stylized solar and lunar iconography, and it gave the chamber an otherworldly feel, like the space around them was incomprehensible to anyone but the gods.
"Okay, I feel like I'm tripping out," a random knight stated.
"Okay, good, so it's not just me," Aiko teased.
Just then, Nick's HUD pinged with a small red info blurb, telling him that his Lore Database had been updated.
Getting a very ominous feeling about what was most likely about to come, Nick took a few steps forward, glancing at a wall of ancient runes in the distance.
"The feud of the brother gods of Aincrad grew so great and destructive, that the higher gods eventually moved the Floating Castle Aincrad out of their realm, so the fledgling new settlement would not be annihilated by the constant fighting," Nick read. "The brother gods' fighting was only finally quelled when a group of brave warriors, chosen by the higher gods, undertook a dangerous ritual to seal the brother gods away in another dimension, where they would never trouble Aincrad again."
"Ooh, boy," Yuuki quipped. "If we just got the last lore update about the Legend of Aincrad, that can only mean..."
Suddenly, the space encompassing the boss arena changed from an outer space backdrop to one where two large waves of energy, one of light and one of darkness, were clashing with each other.
"Yeah, I think I get it now, too," Strea stated.
"Everyone, prepare yourselves!" Asuna exclaimed.
All of the players put themselves on edge as a wobbly-looking portal of chaotic energy opened up above the chamber and dropped two spherical objects onto the arena floor, one a large silver sphere, and one a malicious-looking eyeball.
"...oh, shit," Nick cursed, his suspicions having just been proven true.
Eight gigantic, feathery wings coiling around the sphere of light. Each wing was colored shades of red, blue, and yellow, giving the creature a majestic look.
A mass of organic-looking tentacles burst through the walls of the arena and wound their way around the eyeball much like Galeem's feathery wings had.
Four health bars appeared around the info windows of both bosses.
"Are you for real?!" Yuuki shouted. "We have to fight both of the brother gods at the same time?!"
"Hey, we've made it this far," Nick responded, readying Star Cluster for a fight. "Let's just hope they don't pull out any new tricks."
"Yeah, maybe the real challenge is fighting them both together," Aiko replied.
"We've come this far, there's no giving up now!" Asuna exclaimed, aiming Lambent Light for Galeem and Dharkon. "Let's end this once and for all!"
Galeem was the first to attack, floating slightly upwards, spreading two of its front wings to charge up a large ball of light.
"SCATTER!" Aiko shouted, and any nearby players complied and dodged to the side as Galeem fired the blast, the large light orb screaming through the sky and exploding on contact with the ground.
Two knights got caught in the orb's blast and were thrown backwards, but they thankfully hadn't taken too much damage, and this left Galeem's core wide open.
"Gotta go full force, Strea!" Nick exclaimed as he and Strea rushed to attack Galeem's core, occasionally jumping to avoid random tentacle whips from Dharkon in the process.
"Right!" Strea shouted as she started spinning around to strike the vulnerable core with a Cyclone, a spinning sword attack that did multiple hits worth of damage. And thanks to Invaria's passive effect, that damage was multiplied by a sizable chunk.
One of Dharkon's tentacles detached from the main "body" and began to fly around the arena, with its eye attached to the end of it. A couple knights attempted to attack the tentacle while it was flying around, only to be bashed aside when said tentacle sped up. Aiko moved in to strike the core with her rapier, and to her surprise, this actually stunned Dharkon, its tentacles temporarily leaving it and leaving the eyeball to drop to the floor.
"Huh. That didn't take much," Aiko quipped as she began to stab at the eyeball, unaware of Galeem moving its wings.
"AIKO, WATCH OUT!" Yuuki screamed.
Aiko looked up too late as Galeem rearranged four of its wings into a spear and stabbed them into Dharkon's eyeball, doing impressive damage to Dharkon but dealing significant damage to Aiko in the process, knocking her to the floor just as Dharkon's tentacles reformed around the eyeball.
"I've got her, Yuuki! You just focus on light boy!" Strea exclaimed as she doubled back to give Aiko a potion.
"Why did the light god attack the dark god like that?" one knight wondered.
Indeed, Galeem's surprise attack on Dharkon had drained almost half of the dark god's first health bar.
"Guess Kayaba did pay attention to the lore he created," Nick quipped as he jumped up to attack Galeem's core with a Drop Dash. "The brother gods hate each other, remember? So even though they're mostly focused on killing us, they probably wouldn't hesitate to take potshots at each other while they're here."
"I bet that's the gimmick we're gonna have to take advantage of in order to win," a fully-healed Aiko stated as she continued stabbing away at Dharkon's eyeball before doubling back to avoid the tentacles that were flying around trying to hit her.
While this was happening, Galeem's core floated downwards to fire a barrage of blue orbs to scatter the Clearers. Asuna deftly weaved through the barrage to stab Galeem's core with a Shooting Star.
Strea performed a Fell Crescent on Dharkon's eyeball as it lunged towards her, and this finally drained Dharkon's first health bar. Dharkon's tentacles curled around the eyeball before repositioning themselves, much like in the earlier battle, followed by Dharkon vanishing and creating a shroud of darkness around Nick that created a dark doppelganger of him.
Having seen this song and dance before, Nick simply stayed away from his clone as it eventually exploded, leading Dharkon to return just as Strea moved to strike Galeem's core and deplete its first health bar as well.
Galeem dipped backwards, its wings shuddering, only for Galeem's core to vanish and its wings to expand outwards. A column of light surrounded Strea, creating a light doppelganger of her that she simply batted away with Invaria, swinging whenever it got too close, until it exploded well away from her.
When Galeem returned to the battlefield, it spread all of its wings wide, and small purple lines extended from the tips of its wings to specific spots on the arena floor, the purple lines erupting into violet laser beams.
"You're open!" Nick exclaimed as he struck Galeem's core with a Brave Rondo, in which he performed an X-shaped cross slash, followed by a leaping uppercut slash, and finishing with three spinning slashes.
Yuuki was all over Dharkon's eyeball as it flew around on one of its tentacles, slashing it a few times to get it to stay still so she could unleash a Starburst Stream on it.
"This is working! Look at that damage!" Yuuki proclaimed.
Galeem shook two of its wings and created a small field of six small spheres around itself. When Strea tried to get close, the spheres detonated into plus-shaped energy blasts that floored her, draining about a fifth of her health.
Nick jumped in to help Strea back to her feet, then charged forward to hit Galeem's core with a Rage Spike, doing enough damage to stun it, its wings briefly bursting away and the core dropping to the ground.
Remembering what had happened to Aiko, Nick wisely backed away as Dharkon furled up some of its tentacles into the shape of a hammer and brought it down on Galeem's core, draining half of its second health bar and leaving the whole bar almost empty.
Strea obviously took advantage of her opportunity by performing Ray Brandish, a full-power downward slash with enough force to cause a tectonic fracture in a medium-ranged straight line in front of Strea, dealing multiple extra hits beyond the highly damaging first slash. This was enough to empty Galeem's second health bar, causing it to fly back slightly, its wings trembling.
After dealing with two more light doppelgangers, Aiko and Yuuki moved in to attack Dharkon's eyeball, only for Dharkon to plant two of its tentacles into the ground, its tips glowing with dark energy. A few seconds later, pillars of darkness began to erupt from random points on the floor of the arena, forcing everyone to stay on the move for a few seconds.
It was child's play for Yuuki to weave through the lasers and land another Starburst Stream on Dharkon's eyeball, finally draining the second health bar. Dharkon's tentacles all shuddered before forming a cocoon around the eyeball and creating two dark doppelgangers of Aiko and Asuna.
While they led their clones away from the other players, Galeem managed to stab an approaching knight with its wings, instantly draining his health to zero and causing his avatar to explode into a shower of glowing polygons.
Dharkon did something similar when it came back, stabbing a spear wielder with multiple tentacles and killing him rather easily as well.
"Oh, this isn't good," Nick quipped as he jumped back to avoid a double overhead slash from Galeem's wings.
"Don't panic, everyone! Panic will only get us killed faster!" Asuna shouted as she hit Dharkon's eyeball with a Star Splash before dashing away to avoid its whipping tentacle barrage.
Galeem floated into the air, opened its wings slightly, and created four orbs in front of itself.
"Everyone, block, NOW!" Nick shouted as Galeem detonated the first orb, which erupted into a large shockwave of light that covered the entire arena floor. Thanks to Nick's warning, the players in range of the shockwave were able to defend in time so they didn't get paralyzed by the shockwave.
"We need some room here!" a katana wielder exclaimed as he tried to fend off Galeem's wings.
"All over it!" Yuuki responded, swinging Dark Repulser to hit Galeem's core with a Serration Wave, inflicting Bind and keeping Galeem locked in its current spot.
Yuuki switched back to dual-wielding and rushed over to help Strea attack Dharkon's eyeball. They were able to drain a fifth of the third bar before Dharkon moved its tentacles and eyeball to resemble a gatling gun.
Yuuki and Strea started running in circles as Dharkon's eyeball began to fire a barrage of blood-red energy bullets around the arena. Thankfully, with Dharkon's attention on them, it didn't notice Galeem once again turning its wings into a spear until it was too late, the wing-spear shanking Dharkon's eyeball and draining another half of its third life bar.
"Ah, thank goodness their brother spat is actually helping us, huh?" Strea giggled, only for her expression to turn serious. "Oh, jeez, YUUKI, INCOMING!"
Yuuki looked back just in time to see Galeem unfurl four of its wings and turn them into drill-like appendages. Yuuki dove for the ground, just barely avoiding the drills as they all pounded into the ground where Yuuki had just been.
While this was happening, Dharkon moved towards Nick, stabbing its tentacles toward him from five different angles. Thankfully, Nick was able to parry all five strikes, only for Dharkon to then stab all five tentacles towards him at once.
Nick suddenly felt someone grab him by the shirt collar and yank him backwards just in time for the multi-stab to miss him completely.
"Oof," Nick quipped. "Thanks, Strea."
"No problem, Nick," Strea giggled, kissing Nick on the cheek before turning her attention to Dharkon. "Now watch me poke the eye."
As Dharkon recovered from its stabbing attack, Strea moved in and raised Invaria in a parry stance as Dharkon whipped its tentacle at her, only for Strea to activate Hollow Silhouette, a counter skill that did two heavy hits. The first hit broke Dharkon's stance and the second hit did enough damage to completely drain Dharkon's third health bar, which caused its tentacles to stretch out in an unnatural fashion before snapping back around the eyeball.
Back with Galeem, Asuna unleashed Starry Tear, stabbing Galeem five times in different spots, then slashing Lambent Light five more times, the slashes and stabs combining to form the shape of a star. Asuna bent back before thrusting Lambent Light forward into the center of the star shape, then finishing with a lunging uppercut slash, draining Galeem's third health bar completely.
Galeem spun around in midair, its wings spiraling around the core, until the core started shining with an otherworldly glow.
"Uh-oh," Aiko quipped.
"Everyone who needs to use a crystal to heal, DO IT NOW!" Asuna shouted.
Thankfully, the players listened to Asuna's advice, though this time they were given more time to do so, as Dharkon's eyeball did the same thing. Both bosses dropped their energy spheres to the ground so that they covered the entire arena, turning it into an Anti-Crystal Zone.
Waves of light and darkness began to flow around the outer edges of the arena, combining to create a strange wave of chaos around the arena that actually drained a katana wielder's health much faster than expected before she could get out of it.
Then, to everyone's surprise, Galeem and Dharkon started fighting each other.
"Um... they are attacking each other, right?" Strea quipped. "I'm not hallucinating this?"
"Like I said, leave it to Kayaba to actually put a lore detail into this boss fight," Nick stated. "Let's just see where this goes."
Thankfully, Galeem and Dharkon continued to fight with each other for a good five minutes, giving the exhausted players time to recuperate and prepare for whatever madness the final phase of the battle was going to pull.
After those five minutes were up and both Galeem and Dharkon had taken each other down to half of their final health bars, they both looked at each other, then looked back at the players as if to say "oh, right, they're still here" and then started floating forwards to attack again.
"Should have figured that wouldn't last forever," Yuuki giggled.
"It's time to make the final push, everyone! This is our moment!" Asuna exclaimed, and all of the players cheered and went to work, attacking Galeem and Dharkon with everything they could muster.
It took another five long, grueling minutes of battle, but the brother gods were eventually brought down to their last slivers of health.
"Ooh, me, me, me!" Strea proclaimed, running towards Galeem's core. "I wanna finally get to show off the OSS I created last week!"
Strea skidded to a stop in front of Galeem before slashing Invaria three times at different angles, tracing the shape of a triangle. Strea then did three more slashes in the opposite direction, tracing an inverted triangle over the regular triangle. Finally, Strea hopped back before rushing forward to stab Invaria through the two triangles, shattering the shape and draining Galeem's final health bar to nothing.
However, Galeem didn't immediately explode like it had before.
"Um, wait, why isn't it dying?" Aiko quipped.
"We probably need to kill the other guy quickly, too," Yuuki proclaimed, moving to attack Dharkon's eyeball. "I'm through playing games, brother gods! SAY GOODNIGHT!"
Yuuki shouted a loud and passionate battle cry, gripping Elucidator tightly as she stabbed outwards five times, the stabs tracing a horizontal line across Dharkon's eyeball. Not done just yet, Yuuki spun around and stabbed at Dharkon's eyeball five more times, tracing a vertical line. This caused the lines she had traced to form an X. Finally, Yuuki reared back and, after a loud battle cry, thrust Elucidator forward with all her might, driving the point of the blade straight into the center of the X she'd formed with her earlier sword stabs. Purple trails of light exploded from the point of impact, the damage registering and completely draining what remained of Dharkon's health.
Galeem's core began shuddering as its wings began spiraling around it, eventually constricting around the core before disintegrating into glowing feathers that blasted outwards in all directions. The core fell silent, cracks adorning it, before falling to the arena floor and exploding violently into a cloud of glowing polygons.
Dharkon's tentacles began wildly convulsing around the eyeball before aiming themselves at Yuuki like it was trying to take her down with it. Thankfully, Dharkon's eyeball exploded into great torrents of darkness and the tentacles all collapsed to the ground, shriveled up and exploded into a massive cloud of glowing polygons that rained down across the boss chamber.
When the rain of polygons finally faded, the large CONGRATULATIONS message popped up over the boss chamber, and all of the remaining players couldn't help but cheer loudly, realizing that they'd conquered possibly the toughest obstacle in their path so far.
Naturally, both Yuuki and Strea were hugging Nick for dear life in their celebration.
Ever the reliable commander, Asuna began sweeping the remaining players, trying to count how many they'd lost in this final battle.
"How many people did we lose, Asuna?" Aiko wondered.
"Out of the fifty players we brought to the raid, twelve players died," Asuna proclaimed. "That's the most casualties we've had during a boss fight in quite a while."
"But you know what this all means, right?" Nick stated, sheathing Star Cluster for the moment. "All that's left is Kayaba himself. This is our chance to avenge every single player we've lost to this despicable game. So, what do you say, commander? You want to head to the Ruby Palace and end this shit once and for all?"
"You don't have to be so vulgar, Nick," Asuna laughed. "But yes, I'm ready. Kayaba's waiting for us, and it would be rude to keep him waiting."
And so, after a short break to rest up and prepare, the Sleeping Knights, along with Asuna and the remaining Clearers, all headed for the Teleport Gate that would take them to the Ruby Palace.
It was time to settle the score with Kayaba once and for all.
April 17th, 2025
8:21 P.M. U.S. Central Time
Office of the SAO Task Force
"Mom? Dad? Why are we here so soon after the last meeting?" Melissa wondered as she and her parents sat down among other people in the office for this branch of the SAO Task Force.
"Honestly, we're not sure," Melissa's mother replied. "Apparently, we all just got a text message from Kikuoka telling everyone who has loved ones trapped in SAO to come to the nearest office immediately."
"I wonder if this means that something big happened in SAO," Melissa's father stated. "That really would be the only reason that Kikuoka would bring us all in to his office."
To the crowd's surprise, Seijirou Kikuoka himself actually walked out from behind the room's curtains.
"Hello, everyone," Kikuoka proclaimed. "I assume you're probably wondering why I have called all of you here."
Kikuoka gestured to a nearby viewscreen as he played back the footage he'd gathered, namely, that of the Clearers fighting Galeem and Dharkon, the dual bosses of floor 99.
"Earlier today, the Clearers have defeated the floor 99 boss," Kikuoka explained. "Logically, this means that the only obstacle that remains in the game would be Kayaba himself."
"W-wait, Kayaba's in the game?!" one mother exclaimed.
"Didn't you hear?" a father responded. "He was disguising himself as Heathcliff, the leader of the Knights of the Blood Oath."
"Yeah, he betrayed everyone on floor 95 and now he's supposed to be the final boss of the game," another man stated. "How the heck are these players supposed to defeat someone who created that entire game world, and probably knows its inner workings inside and out?!"
That was when Melissa decided to speak her mind, standing up so everyone could hear her speak.
"Hey, if anyone could do it, my big brother and his friends can," Melissa proclaimed. "I mean, look at what the Sleeping Knights have been doing lately, especially considering that jerk dip from RECT Progress and what he'd been planning."
That got everyone talking, as before the floor 97 boss fight meeting, Nobuyuki Sugou had been discovered infiltrating the game in order to use the players of SAO as test subjects for his program about controlling people's emotions. A search of Sugou's offices and subordinates who weren't in the game had turned up more than enough evidence for the police to raid his offices, claim and destroy all of the research he had done into emotional control, and basically fire him from his position at RECT. Now, all that the police still needed to do was wait for the game to be cleared and everyone else to wake up so they could incarcerate Sugou for his crimes.
"I firmly believe that, as long as he has his friends by his side, my big brother can do anything," Melissa stated matter-of-factly, drawing applause from the crowd for her passionate speech.
And Melissa truly believed it, too. She firmly believed that her beloved big brother and his friends were going to be the ones that would defeat Akihiko Kayaba and put an end to Sword Art Online.
And as the crowd began to disperse from their impromptu meeting, Melissa asked her parents to drive her to the Dearly Beloved Memorial Hospital so she could be there to greet Nick when he woke up.
She wanted to be the first thing Nick saw when he woke up for the first time in almost two and a half years.
April 17th, 2025
9:00 P.M. Aincrad Time
Floor 100
The Ruby Palace
"Wow, this place is pretty majestic," Nick admitted as the Clearers approached the Ruby Palace, a large, glittering tower at the very top of the Floating Castle Aincrad that served as the final stand for everyone still trapped within the game.
Because Akihiko Kayaba was no doubt waiting inside for his challengers.
"Kayaba's all that's left," Yuuki proclaimed. "Just one more battle, and we're free."
'I don't think it's gonna be that easy, Yuu," Aiko answered. "After all, we're going up against the creator of Sword Art Online and the creator of the NerveGear. He's probably got everything in this game down to a science. One slip-up and we're toast."
"I know, sis, but I'm not going to back down now," Yuuki responded. "This game has dictated our lives for long enough. One way or another, this ends today."
"Okay, now to the obvious question," one of the knights asked. "Who should go in first?"
"I say we let the Sleeping Knights take Kayaba down," a katana wielder proclaimed. "They're the highest leveled of all of us."
In the Sleeping Knights, Nick was currently level 145, Yuuki was level 148, Aiko was level 148, Strea was level 120, Silica was level 105, Lisbeth was level 109, Sachi was level 102, and Lux was level 103.
"What better way than for the girl who was gifted Dual Blades by Kayaba to be the one to take him down, as he intended?" a spear wielder stated.
"You guys really believe in us that much?" Yuuki asked. A chorus of affirmatives resounded in response.
"Then we won't let you down," Nick proclaimed. "The next time you see us, everyone, it'll be back in the real world."
With everything said that needed to be said, the Sleeping Knights all moved towards the gigantic double doors that led into the Ruby Palace.
Yuuki reached out to grasp the door handle. This is it, Kayaba, Yuuki thought. We're coming for you.
And she opened the door.
To be concluded...
On the final episode...
Yuuki: H-Holy crapbaskets, I can't believe it! This is the final battle, you guys!
Aiko: Two and a half years of everything under the sun, and it's all come down to this.
Strea: I'm ready if you guys are! Let's put that paladin-y jerkface in his place!
Nick: Truer words have never been spoken. Well, everyone, this is it! All that remains in this grand adventure is the final showdown with Akihiko Kayaba, and I dare not spoil anything that happens. You're just gonna have to tune in to see how this death game ends, next time on the final episode of Sword Art Online: Twin Memory, "Endgame"!
The Sleeping Knights: This may be a game, but it's not something you play!