[Message from fanfic author Eleya Belle: "Hello everyone, sorry about the short break between the last update and this one. Had a bit of a hiccup in scheduling and was going to release this chapter yesterday, but here it is. I sincerely hope everyone reading is enjoying my individual take on the SAO story. There's a fair bit of personal push through it from my own experiences, so I genuinely enjoy the kind comments and would appreciate future comments. Also, do not worry if you feel the "end" is approaching. I plan to write all the way through to the end of "Alicization" and maybe a bit beyond.]
Yuuna stared at Kirito as she spoke with Nautilus about the strategy for the floor 70 boss fight. She was growing more and more intrigued with Kirito ever since she joined the guild. Every time she saw Kirito interacting with anyone, it were as if she knew exactly what was needed to straighten out their minds and get them back on track with whatever they needed. Recently it was Lisbeth and Leafa. It seemed that was also about to be the case with Nautilus.
Yuuna wondered if there was something particularly rare about Kirito. Maybe she saw something invisible to everyone else, or knew more than she let on about everyone.
Nautilus showed a bit of excitement for the plan Kirito was explaining, and Yuuna continued to be intrigued. Yuuna had only seen Nautilus so expressive when they were alone together. She felt a little lonely even though the three of them were discussing the battle plan somewhat together in the main hall of the floor 37 house. She was barely paying attention and had stepped back a bit. She wanted to observe Kirito more. They had been doing separate work more recently.
As far as what the floor 70 boss was going to be, it was a giant goblin. The goblins on floor 70 whether in the dungeon or on the floor were very varied. Size, colour, musculature, weapon types. The goblins were absolutely terrible and had claimed many victims. Everyone wanted to leave the floor as soon as possible. Especially the female progression members. Kirito was the most eager of all to leave, as if she had experienced something horrible from a solo goblin encounter.
Yuuna vividly recalled Kirito leaving on her own claiming that the enemies were only goblins and they couldn't be so difficult to deal with, but returning totally despondent. It was relieving to see the life back in Kirito's expressions, but Yuuna was still worried something might have happened then.
As Kirito and Nautilus finished talking about the floor boss fight, a hollow knock echoed through the main hall of the house. Yuuna was only a few steps away so she answered the door. On the other side of the door was a few men, wearing the colours of [KoB]. The leader of the men was someone she remembered fondly. He was a leader within the guild. One of the people who convinced people to stay in the guild instead of venturing out to other guilds.
"Godfree-san, to what do we owe this visit?"
Yuuna opened the door wide to show Kirito and Nautilus who was visiting and Godfree as well as another two commanders of [KoB] stepped in.
"It's good to talk to you again outside of running missions in dungeons, Yuuna-chan, Nautilus-kun. Heathcliff-san wanted us to check on the progress for analyzing the floor 70 boss. It's not like it's another mass scale boss and it has taken a bit longer to clear than usual. Is something wrong?"
Kirito stepped in and reached out a hand to Godfree. Godfree took the hand and shook with his big smile. The bearded man was like a fun uncle figure to those who got along with him. He was very sociable and wanted people to get along, as well as protect those he could. He didn't really stand out though as far as effort that went into clearing or have an appearance that was particularly noticeable. It was a bit of a pity.
"It's nice to chat like this. I was just talking with Yuuna and Nautilus about the plan as far as this floor's boss. There was a bit of a holdup due to one of my solo missions on floor 70 the other day running into a snag, but we should be able to clear it today. Please let Heathcliff-san know that the floor will be cleared today so we can move on."
Godfree let go of Kirito's hand and clapped before giving a bow.
"Thank you for your swift response Kirito-san. Would it be too imposing to add us to your ranks today? Heathcliff-san wanted to ensure that the floor is cleared as soon as possible due to the amount of casualties floor 70 has claimed. We don't have other work today, so it would be appreciated if you could fit us into your plan."
Kirito gave Godfree a happy smile and began running him down the plan for the fight as well. The other two commanders from [KoB] were paying attention, but one person who was even more ignored by people within [KoB] didn't seem to be as interested. Kuradeel was someone who always gave the impression of kissing up to Heathcliff, but also appearing envious of Heathcliff's position. It was well known to people within [KoB] that Kuradeel did not like Kirito in the slightest. The other commander, Yuuna didn't recognize. It was likely he was just someone that hadn't really been prominent within the guild before, but now that Yuuna's squadron was out of the guild, they needed another squadron leader to replace her.
The explanation was done rather quickly and Kirito put out a guild message to call in whoever she had already informed were coming along that it was time to meet up.
"We're going to meet with the rest of the raid team I had planned out at the entrance to the dungeon. We have a limit of 10 people for fighting the boss, so I've made the adjustment on who's coming along. If you brought some food along with you or other provisions, you might as well let them sit in storage since I have a lot of provisions in my storage to share."
Kuradeel breathed a heavy sigh as if even hearing Kirito speak was exhausting. Godfree and the other commander were ecstatic that they were going to get some food Kirito had made for free. Yuuna couldn't blame them. Kirito's food had won her over too. It was intoxicating to eat food that felt and tasted real in a virtual environment. Instead of having anything less than real created through the regular systems of Aincrad whether it be crafted by a player using system control, or bought from an npc which had food items pre created. Food that was crafted with the system's guidance was boring, while when it was crafted without the guidance of the system, it could feel real. Kirito had been teaching some people how to cook through lessons because it had become apparent that people were more and more despondent the longer they went without feeling something "real" within Aincrad. Asuna and Leafa and a few other members of Alt were becoming more and more proficient at cooking, so it was more a guild skill and necessity to living in Aincrad than a one person ability.
Yuuna smiled and walked up beside Kirito as Kirito got the teleport command ready. As soon as everyone was within range to teleport, their environment changed with the teleport animation. The sparkling of the effect which shifted them from one place to another was particularly noticeable in the grungy and disgusting surroundings. The 70th floor of Aincrad was a wasteland. The story of the floor was that a horde of beasts had been trampled and their decay was what gave rise to the goblins. The goblins thrived on the surrounding death, and aside that, were very...unfortunately accurate to the most common lore for goblins. Being very cunning, cowardly and working together. They set their sights on female adventurers immediately and were it not for the system protecting people from certain unfortunate experiences, some of the female progression team might have outright quit progressing. Unfortunately that didn't stop the goblins from savagely killing every human they came across and making them suffer after they were done with them had they a purpose.
As soon as the teleport was finished, the clash of steel rang out through the surroundings as Kirito slashed her Elucidator to meet a hob goblin's giant two handed sword. The sword cracked and fell to pieces upon meeting the Elucidator and the goblins which had begun encircling the group ran away screeching. Kirito sighed and sheathed the Elucidator before leading the way into the dungeon. The goblins had run to the fields, so the thought of pursuit was gone.
"I'm so eager to get off of this floor..."
Kirito's expression was full of disgust. Kirito gave off an aura of tension and unease just being on the floor. It was very unlike her. Everyone within their current party of six were uneasy being on the floor. Goblins outright hated men and often acted without thinking, but if they deem their opponents too strong, they will flee. The first attack was aimed at Godfree, not Kirito. Thankfully her reflexes were as fast as they were or Godfree might have met a swift end since he had not moved to protect himself.
The quick paced walk through the dungeon, the swift slaughter of goblins who charged at them. Those things quickly brought the party to the boss room door. Thankful for having finished mapping out the whole dungeon and getting everything needed, Kirito summoned a wooden sheet which she placed on the ground and she sat on it. There was enough room for twenty people to sit on it with plenty room to breathe, so everyone else joined her.
"Does anyone here need a refresher on the plan for the boss fight?"
Godfree nodded lightly, happy to be free from the pestering of goblins.
"Right...so, the goblin chief boss on the other side of the door is a "shaman" type. He's not so strong on his own, but he "summons". This is a fake magic. Since there's no magic within Aincrad, it's all tricks. Goblins are cunning and all...so, we're going to have three tanks, not just two. The main tank will always be focused on the shaman. The shaman regularly gives a signal for giant hob goblins to join the battle. They crawl out of their holes in the ground, ceiling and floor, and they try to surround you. That's where the second and third tank come in. The second tank sometimes switches in for tank swapping mechanics with the shaman, but primarily works with the third tank on drawing the packs of hob goblins away from the main tank. Killing the hobs before the shaman is an instant death to us as the walls release a poisonous smog, so just keep yourselves healed or safe. The poisonous smog is unfortunately skin based, so even if we go in with poison resistance, it will effect us. So, make sure you as a tank have plenty of healing items if you are tanking. I think you were going to be replacing Agil's position as third tank, Godfree-san?"
Godfree nodded in reply.
"That means I'm just going to be kiting the hobs around the field the whole time and playing it safe, right? Easy! You really come up with some interesting fight plans Kirito-san. That means you're going to be providing me backup with extra healing potions right, Kuradeel?"
Kuradeel nodded and looked away. The sound of footsteps approaching nearly made him get up, ready to fight again, but he was met with Lisbeth, Asuna and two more of their former guild members as the owners of the footsteps. When he looked back, there was a setting of food laid down. A picnic on a giant wooden floor...which he finally realized was tatami.
Yuuna quickly got to work on her portion of the lunch, while Nautilus was a little more shy about it, and everyone else just passively worked at their eating. Kirito continued filling in where anyone was feeling they might be forgetting how to handle a mechanic during the fight.
She wondered how Kirito managed to do it. To know how every person fit into a fight. Especially when she had been so powerful not so long ago, that she could cut down monsters on her own with ease. That she could remind people of exactly what their role was going to be in a fight, the smallest thing they were forgetting. It was so reassuring to have a mind like hers leading the charge.
Yuuna could imagine with unfortunate vivid ease how devastating it would be to lose Kirito in the progression group. The bickering that had happened before, the disarray between everyone, the forgetfulness of how to deal with certain situations. It would all fall apart in moments. She saw quite easily how important Kirito had become to getting out, and she desperately wanted to support her. Yuuna's father had wanted to give her a chance to grow, to live her dream within Aincrad. Yuuna had been having fun inside Aincrad. But, she had a lot of reason to get out now. Between wanting to meet her friends in person outside, to having new crowds for her music, and being able to talk with her father again and thank him for the opportunity she was given, there was nothing but positives to clearing Aincrad. Certainly she could play her music freely in Aincrad until the day she couldn't play anymore, but where was the fun when the music was just for the sake of music in itself?
Yuuna stood up noticing it was time for party buffs to be initiated. She opened her instrument inventory and picked out the flute first. She played a light tune with it which increased the party wide dexterity for up to an hour, a daily use skill. Next was the lute which increased party strength. Then finally the tambourine which increased agility. The tambourine was interesting to her. It was the only percussion instrument which was natural to bring along for giving party buffs.
"Alright, everybody has their buffs on?"
With nods in varied unison, Kirito faced the door and pushed it open. She walked in instead of charging like usual, leading the way and signaling everyone to their positions. Once everyone was in position, she moved in at a light charging pace before suddenly she appeared like a blur. She slashed her Elucidator through the tower shield of the shaman, but was quickly repelled back. She moved with the agility and nimbleness of a natural predator. She didn't ease up on the shaman at all. The large club it wielded in its hand which didn't hold the shield raised and the first wave of hob goblins charged in from the walls Godfree shouted and waved his arms, beginning his kiting jog around the perimeter of the room. He ducked and dodged the attacks with relative ease at first, until he understood his pace.
The battlefield took shape quite cleanly. Kuradeel kept up somewhat well with Godfree, tossing a potion at him whenever he would take a hit from a goblin. Kirito kept the shaman's attention very well and carved away at the shield until it was no longer usable. Asuna offered her full flurry of stabs and gouges with her saber and took chunks out of the rear hide of the shaman, while Lisbeth hit him from the side. The three of them moved with such fluid grace, it was like watching a dance. The shaman was like a striking dummy before them. Everyone else contributed their parts smoothly, fitting into place perfectly. As the shaman's hit points drifted ever closer to nothing, Kuradeel's aim with potions and his sword faltered greatly. He didn't have any stamina it seemed. Kuradeel tripped on the grungy floor and one of the speed boosting potions he was throwing at Godfree hit a hob goblin which was chasing him.
The sped up hob goblin caught up to Godfree very quickly and that end of the fighting went quickly to mess.
"Lisbeth, go cover Godfree-san, I can handle this."
Lisbeth huffed in response and took off like a bull toward the crowd, slamming her heavy mace against the ground to gather the hob goblins' attention, and began leading them away. Yuuna's duty was to cover Lisbeth's health so she paid close attention to Lisbeth who was now acting as the distraction for the hobs.
The one fast goblin caught up to her very quickly, so she slowed her pace to meet the globin, and swiftly ducked down, swinging her mace at its feet to catch the ankles with the handle of her mace. The intended action stopped her from causing serious damage to the hob's hit points, and allowed her to stun the rest of the goblins as well. She drew their attention back where they had been chasing her from, and the kiting continued.
The one disaster averted, Godfree was quickly healed up by Yuuna's music and potion use, ready to take the hob goblins back on. After that, the fight soon ended with the shaman bursting with its hit points reaching zero. With a hide too tough to slice anything off, Kirito and the group needed to beat on the Shaman until its hit points ran out. It was the unfortunate effect of boss monsters on the later floors they were on. Slashing resistance was so high, you needed to have a legendary weapon to get through any of those defenses. Sadly, even the Elucidator wasn't a legendary weapon. It was going to be an immense amount of energy for each fight after they cleared Aincrad as of floor 69's boss.
The battle over, Kirito went through the rewards and quickly sorted them out to everyone. Kuradeel was yelling at Godfree for embarrassing them in the middle of the fight and Godfree was just sighing because he didn't want to argue with Kuradeel.
"Why did you trip over so easily?! You are such a disgrace to our guild! Why in the heck did Heathcliff ever think you were deserving of being a higher rank commander than me?!"
"Is everything alright over there?"
Kirito walked over to them to figure out what was going on between them. She had noticed the accident during the fight, but she had accounted for there being mistakes.
"This oaf you had running third tank position made it impossible to keep up with him! He tripped! With those kinds of mistakes, he really shouldn't be part of the progression this far in! Yet he's a commander in our guild!"
"Calm down."
Kirito's voice was chilling. Hearing someone that seriously saying those two words made everyone stare in horror, hoping she wasn't going to rip into them. They knew she wouldn't, but they knew how deadly she was.
"Godfree-san did his job. There was reason to have him as third tank. I'm not entirely familiar with his or your skill level, so I had Lisbeth and Yuuna ready to cover you in case there were some mistakes. That you both only made one significant blunder tells me you're both meant to be up here. Fighting among each other is very unbecoming. I will speak with Heathcliff-san about this quarrel. Thank you for joining us today. You three from [KoB] are dismissed. I have already distributed loot to you, so your business here is done."
Kirito's tone of voice was very neutral. The fact that she wasn't yelling, but very passively telling them that they were not part of her plan, and was accounting for them making mistakes made them pick themselves up and leave immediately. The fear she could strike into people was terrifying.
"Was it okay to tell Kuradeel off like that?"
Nautilus's concern had Kirito and Yuuna surprised. Nautilus had been quite vocal with Yuuna before about how much he disliked Kuradeel and his attitude.
"It's alright. If Kuradeel complains about me to Heathcliff, I'll deal with it just fine like I have before. Let's go activate the teleport plaza for the next floor."
The group made their way out and when they arrived in a snow storm, they sighed in relief, then groaned from the new difficult condition they would be facing. The grungy disgusting floor they just freed themselves from was a massive relief, but a blustery freezing floor wasn't exactly going to be pleasant either.
After activating the teleport plaza, Heathcliff was the first through. He glared at Kirito, but he couldn't keep up the stoic silence with the bluster of the snow beating down on them.
"I request you to accompany me to [KoB] headquarters, Kirito-san."
Kirito nodded and waved to the rest of the guild.
"I'm going to come along."
"Me too."
Asuna then Yuuna offered to join Kirito. They were concerned Kirito might start a much more significant fight than was had before.
Heathcliff turned away from them but stood in place. The three were close enough, then he ported them away. The remaining crowd balked.
"I guess...we'll take the rest of today off? Or explore?"
Nautilus became the semi-leader as Lisbeth shouldered one of her coats.
"Everyone here has coats in inventory, let's explore this floor so we don't lose any time."
Everyone followed Lisbeth's lead and Nautilus paused to take mental notes before also following along. He was taking every opportunity to learn from the guild leads.
Kirito Asuna and Yuuna followed Heathcliff through the giant castle that [KoB] had claimed as their guild headquarters. There was a giant stadium within the guild, which was where some pvp occurred of late.
Through a double door, Heathcliff waited after opening and closed the door behind them before sitting on the throne like chair on the other side of a desk in the middle of the room. Much of the decoration was familiar to Kirito, as most of it was crafted by her.
"I'm glad the decorations I made for you have made this place quite lived in."
"I must thank you for that, Kirito-san. However, I've brought you here because of conflict between you and one of my officers, Kuradeel."
Kirito shrugged and glanced around the room a little more.
"Maybe you need to keep a tighter grasp on your officers. Kuradeel-san is very easily upset by Godfree-san. Maybe it wasn't a good idea to send them together, unless you wanted this argument between us. Kuradeel and Godfree don't give the impression of being in the top echelon of people fighting to clear us out of here. I recognize them, but from early clearing."
Heathcliff settled in and stared at Kirito as if he was looking at a project, someone to be analyzed. Asuna and Yuuna looked back and forth between them.
"We really shouldn't be fighting among the progression group, so can you please let this go, Heathcliff-san?"
Asuna's suggestion made the room quiet. She wondered if she really had any place in the conversation, but the mood lightened a little.
"Right, which is why I would like to loosen up the tensions between our guilds with a dueling tournament."
Heathcliff's suggestion was met with blank stares.
"No? And I thought you were gamers."
Kirito shook her head and focused herself before continuing.
"Heathcliff-san, we may be gamers, but we're earnestly working to get out of here. I honestly hope you haven't been training your guild to be like Kuradeel and Godfree-san. The teamwork is atrocious, the skill level is low, and their mobility is lacking. As commanders of a guild, an army setting guild, they are sorely lacking in qualities of leaders. In the large raids we've been running together of late, aside yourself your guild is a complete mess. What happened?"
Heathcliff stood up and looked out the window at the stadium in the middle of the castle. There wasn't any fighting going on in it, but someone jogging the perimeter as exercise.
"Honestly, I think I lost what direction I was heading somewhere along the climb up. I had intended to train up a guild that could carry everyone out of here. Instead, I've ended up watching you so curiously become a marvelous leader in spite of your rampant social anxiety. You are such a strong, reliable person. People respect you immediately whether it be because of your achievements in here, or because of how relatable you are. People here see a bit of themselves in you, which is what has made it so easy for you to be a leader. I believe I am sadly lacking in those qualities you have so naturally. I have let my guild fall apart. I suggested the dueling because...maybe I could earn the respect of my guild members and reign them in. Get them to listen to me because I'm not just the fool who challenged the hero in here and lost marvelously while cheating."
The expressions of Kirito Asuna and Yuuna changed as they listened to Heathcliff explain himself. Yuuna's expression fell on disbelief when she heard the word "cheating" come out of him.
"What do you mean...cheating?"
Yuuna's words echoed through the room for a while, and Heathcliff turned around to face them.
"Ask Kirito-san what she discovered in my duel with her earlier in our journey here in Aincrad."
Yuuna and Asuna both faced Kirito hoping to understand one more secret Kirito held onto.
"I almost entirely forgot about that...Akihiko-san."
Yuuna and Asuna both gave a confused expression at first, but their expressions quickly changed. They looked at Heathcliff and the tall stoic man with long silver hair wearing brilliant armour had become a man not much taller than them with black hair, wearing glasses and wearing a lab coat over trim dress clothes.
"I wanted to believe there was a good reason to your dragging this out. I wanted to have another reason to doubt you. To reveal you to everyone stuck in here. I wanted to show everyone that the person who trapped everyone away from their families and friends outside was among us. I wanted to do that for so long, but now you so easily reveal it. Why?"
Kayaba sighed and adjusted his glasses, before getting upset and just holding them at his side.
"I had plans. I had dreams of this place becoming something cemented in reality. Another real place for people to be able to go to. One that was well lived in, had history. This world has history written into it, but it's just a story without characters. You became the main characters and took my place. You perform the role so brilliantly that you steal it from the person who it was designed for. If that was my explanation, that would be a lie."
He tossed his glasses onto the desk and looked Kirito in the eyes.
"I was truly captivated by the concept of living in a world not our own. I couldn't give my world life though. I could put characters into it, but I couldn't make it live. I was lacking a quality. I was lacking something fundamental. So, I needed others to fill the void for me to be honest. I don't know why I made this world a trap. It was a moment of bad judgment. I could have ended it at any point, but I felt I needed to play it through to the end after so many died in the first days. Now, I can end it. We just need the right time and place to reveal this to everyone in here. Please, hero Kirito. Help us end my story."
Kirito stared with unbridled rage at Kayaba and shook her head as tears dripped down her face. Rage so strong it evoked tears.
"Your excuses are horrible, Akihiko-san. But I somehow understand, thanks to Ela-san. We had talked about it. She was the only person I told because she's not in here. Tell me when you intend to let us out?"
He sat down and pressed his thumbs against his forehead.
"You have two choices. Defeat me in a one on one duel here with safety turned off, or defeat floor 100 as planned. Both options will be broadcast to the entire population of Aincrad and to everywhere I can connect outside. Can you have miss Ela broadcast your perspective as well?"
Kirito nodded her head.
"I will take the duel option."
"No, Kirito no!"
Asuna grabbed Kirito's arm and shook as if it would convince her against taking the duel option.
"I have a way to get us all home as soon as possible. I have to take it. Besides, don't you have any faith in me after all the time we spent together?"
Yuuna shook her head and the fear in her expression traveled through her and told her that something was wrong.
"No, Kirito. Now isn't the time."
Kirito looked at Asuna and Yuuna and sighed.
"Can I postpone the duel to tomorrow?"
Kayaba nodded his head.
"Whenever you are ready, hero Kirito. Please, bring a brilliant end to Aincrad's story."
Kirito, Asuna and Yuuna ported away to the floor 37 house and Kirito sent out a guild message.
