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Chapter 7

Floating Castle Aincrad, 47th floor.

February 24th, 2024. 1:25 PM

The moment that Kirito will always remember until his dying day.

He had been searching for an orange guild by the name of Titan's Hand for nearly two days prior when he stumbled upon a player surrounded by mobs. The two Drunken Apes remaining by the time he had actually reached the area were about to finish off said player who was lashing out as if they were almost suicidal when he effortlessly cut the enemies down. The shattered mobs previously blocking his view revealed a petite girl no older than thirteen or fourteen sporting twintails held with red ribbons, wearing a silver breastplate and pauldrons over a yellow robe with matching boots and black shorts. After collapsing to the ground with exhaustion and grief despite her rescue, he found out that she had been a super-rare beast tamer.

"Had been" being the operative phrase, as all that remained of her familiar was a single feather after sacrificing itself to save its owner. Temporarily putting his search on hold, Kirito offered to guide her out of the Forest of Wandering on the 35th floor and escort her to the dungeon on the 47th floor where she could possibly revive her familiar.

A chance run-in with the suspected leader of Titan's Hand in the town of Mishe, however, led him to formulate a plan to catch them all at once after the young girl, whose name was Silica, inadvertently divulged her plans to resurrect her familiar with a super-rare item she was on her way to find to Rosalia, said suspected leader of the orange guild. As long as Silica was safely guarded, he would use her as bait to lure them out and send them to the Blackiron Palace Prison as his client had asked him to do.

After an eventful night in the inn chasing off an eavesdropper while detailing their trip, and an equally eventful morning trekking through the dungeon - including the poor girl somehow drawing aggro from almost everything with vines/tentacles just by her presence (which wasn't helped by the new equipment he gave her being slightly more revealing than she was accustomed to despite the incredible boost in stats she received from them) - Kirito and Silica finally made their way to the end of the dungeon and found the necessary item they were searching for.

They were almost back to Floria when Kirito stopped and held out his hand to block Silica's path. Looking at her briefly to signal her to step back a bit, he looked forward again and called out "Whoever's hiding out there, you can come out. Now."

Silica was confused at first until she saw a figure materialize from the nearby tree at the other end of the bridge they were on.

"R-Rosalia?" she asked in confusion.

Ignoring her, Rosalia looked at Kirito. "If you saw through my Hiding skill so easily, your Detection skill must be really high, swordsman." Finally turning to Silica, she said "Ooh, it looks like you were successful in getting your hands on the Pneuma Flower, congratulations" before her eyes and voice turned ice-cold "now, hand it over before you get hurt."

"What are you talking about?" Silica asked, still confused.

Kirito stepped between them. "No one's handing anything over, Rosalia, not to you, or the orange guild. Or should I say, Titan's Hand. You're their leader, right?"

Silica looked even more confused. "But Rosalia's cursor is green."

"It's an easy trick" Kirito explained. "The green members find their victims. Then, they lead them straight to the orange players for the ambush." Turning back to Rosalia, he asked "That was your pals eavesdropping on us last night, wasn't it?"

Silica quickly thought back to the night before, specifically the argument with Rosalia, who she was partied with at the time that caused Silica to split with them and attempt to navigate the Forest of Wandering by herself until Kirito rescued her. Then she realized how much information she gave Rosalia when she confronted her again in town.

"Then... The reason you were in that party with me and the others was to..." Silica trailed off.

"How perceptive. I was observing their strength, and watching them earn all that beautiful money" Rosalia said, licking her lips in the process. Continuing to eye Silica (and creeping her out while doing so), she continued "You were the one I was excited about, and I was so sad when you left the party. But then you said you were getting a rare item!" She then turned to Kirito. "What I want to know is if you know all this then why did you bring her here? Are you stupid, or does she have you wrapped around her finger?" she asked with distain.

"Nope. You're wrong on both counts" Kirito countered. "You see, I've been looking for you, Rosalia."

"What are you talking about?" Rosalia asked, distain still in her voice.

"Think back to ten days ago" Kirito challenged. "You attacked a guild called the Silver Flags. The leader survived, seven didn't."

"Oh, you mean the losers with no money" Rosalia said as she looked on with indifference, twirling her hair in her finger.

"The leader went back and forth from the warp point to the front lines from morning 'til night" Kirito continued "and with tears in his eyes begged everyone he met to avenge his dead friends. But he didn't want you killed. He wanted you to go to prison. Do you have any idea how he felt?" he asked, his anger starting to rise.

"Can't say that I do" Rosalia responded. "Only an idiot takes this seriously. So what if we kill someone here? There's no proof dying here means you're dead IRL." Rosalia shifted her position as she continued "Anyway, I think you should start worrying about yourself" as she snapped her fingers.

Nine other players appeared from the trees, all with orange cursors.

Silica stepped back, frightened of the intimidating force that just appeared.

"Kirito, there's too many of them! We should get out of here!" she pleaded.

Kirito simply patted her head before giving her a teleport crystal. "No, it's okay. You'll be safe if you stay here. Keep that teleport crystal handy until I say so" as he turned back to the group and started walking forward, drawing his sword.

"Kirito!" Silica called out, scared of him walking into an ambush with no backup.

"Kirito..." One of the group murmured.

"Dressed in black, one-handed sword, no shield... Holy crap, it's the Black Swordsman!" another said. "Rosalia, he's the beater who plays solo on the front lines! He's from the Assault Team!"

Silica looked on in awe and murmured "No way... he is?"

Rosalia wasn't convinced. "Why would someone from the assault team be all the way down here?" she reasoned. "Go on, take him out! And take everything he owns!" She commanded, prompting the others to charge up various skills and charge at Kirito, who was still walking toward them almost leisurely.

He was at the end of the bridge when the first skills connected and he stopped, and without any attempt to guard himself, stood there as weapon after weapon hit him, leaving a plethora of red slashes, gashes, gouges and other impacts all over his virtual body. Silica was about to jump in to attempt some kind of rescue when something caught her eye.

Kirito's HP gauge was starting to fall when it inexplicably refilled itself, he himself not moving to show he wasn't using an item to recover himself.

As the nine players surrounding him stopped to catch their virtual breath, Kirito looked around and said "520 in ten seconds, give or take. That's about how much damage the nine of you can inflict on me. I'm level 72. I have 13,700 HP. My battle healing skill regenerates 550 HP every ten seconds. We can stand here all day and you wouldn't get anywhere."

"That's not possible!" another member of Titan's Hand spoke up.

"Wanna bet!?" Kirito shot back, looking at the one who spoke. "If your numbers are high enough, you're invincible. MMO's that used leveling systems like this are unfair that way." He produced a fancier looking teleport crystal and held it up as he continued "My client spent his entire fortune on this warp crystal, and he'll get his money's worth. It's been set to the coordinates of the prison" as he looked around at everyone "and I'm sending all you bastards there!"

Rosalia's anger had been rising steadily for a while, and by that point, she was ready to explode. Hefting her spear, she aimed it directly at Kirito, prompting the Throwing Skill to activate. She launched it out of her hand faster than the eye could see, but Kirito simply dodged it by twisting his torso around a little and leaning back a bit. He was about to say something about her aim when a sickening squelch from behind stopped him.

He turned around, half expecting to see one of the other members impaled by the throw. What he saw, on the other hand, froze him to the core.

Somehow, the spear narrowly passed between the arm and side of the Titan's Hand member almost directly behind him, and lodged itself directly in Silica's throat, almost perfectly balanced halfway through. The teleport crystal still in her hand, she blinked at Kirito and silently tried mouthing something before taking on an ethereal glow and shattering into polygons like everything else that was deleted from the game, the spear clattering to the ground breaking the deafening silence that had initially followed.

Everyone present was frozen at the death, in shock that it happened so quickly.

Rosalia herself stepped back before shaking her head and muttering "That... That wasn't supposed to happen..." then she looked at Kirito before all but shrieking "It's your fault! You brought her here and then dodged that attack!! You're cursed!!! You're--"

Whatever else she was going to say was cut off, literally, as her head rolled from her shoulders and shattered as it hit the ground, along with the rest of her still-standing body. Kirito recovered from the post-skill cooldown, turning to face the rest of the group, still frozen by what had happened, seeing a reddish golden glow in his eyes.

The moment he blinked forward and bisected another member in half without using a Sword Skill, the others broke out of their trance and either tried making a run for it, pulling out a teleport crystal in an effort to flee, or both. None of that mattered, though, as he cut down every last one of them in his fiery rage.

When he finally came to his senses, he was breathing hard. Looking around, he saw nothing but weapons scattered throughout the impromptu battlefield. Shaken by his actions and what caused them, he sank to his knees, looked up, arched back and SCREAMED.

An unknown amount of time passed before he collected himself, wiped the virtual tears from his face, and stood up. His almost lifeless eyes scanned the area before picking up the weapons and making improvised grave markers for those who he had cut down in his fit of maddened rage. For Rosalia's spear, however, he snapped it in half effortlessly before throwing the pieces in the creek below, watching as they sank to the bottom before shattering into polygons.

Upon reaching Silica's equipment, tears started anew as he stabbed her dagger into the side railing of the bridge and placed the teleport crystal beside it. Looking down in silent prayer, he spotted a dark grey feather lying on the ground beside a small delicate flower - the rare item they had collected at the end of the dungeon they had just cleared - and placed them around the dagger as well.

Standing there with his head bowed, he gave a quick eulogy to all the fallen players who would never wake up again, slain by his own hands, and renewed the vow he made with Asuna all those months ago to free everyone from this cruel, hellish trap, or die trying; it was the only way he could hope to make amends for his foolish oversight and his lack of restraint that led to the eleven whose lives were cut short that day.