(Mortifer)

Later that day 5PM, In the streets of «Yggdrasil City»

Confusion. Distress. Disbelief. Those were the three most dominant emotions I felt when I left the Yuzuki family home in Setagaya. I tried to talk with Ai in order to save myself from those emotions but the rules they had given me were no joke. The moment I tried to reach for Ai as I was leaving, Nagato grabbed the back of my collar and threw me across their stone-paved driveway. His strength shocked me since he appeared to be some old man but he easily threw me a few meters away from Ai. I had no serious injuries, just a mild numbness, but my morale was damaged severely when I realized how strict these rules might be. Even now, as I approached Zed and Paradox's home, I sensed danger.

The guild was gathered outside of the player home, unintentionally blocking most of the small street. The guild was gathered around Violet, who was curled up on the front steps of the player home. She didn't appear to be crying but she was clearly saddened. The guild looked confused, making me assume Violet hasn't told them yet. They were speaking with her and I strained my ears to listen but ambient sounds dulled their voices.

"And what exactly are you doing, Kirigaya-kun?" A deep voice bellowed from behind me, causing my eyes to open wide.

Before I could turn around and react, I was sent flying by a powerful shockwave. I flew towards my guild and skidded across the stone ground for several meters, causing soreness to my avatar. My guild backed away out of fright while Violet quickly stood up out of surprise.

"Katsumo—" she began to yell out my real name before catching herself. "Mortifer!"

"Hiding in the shadows won't do you too well, Kirigaya-kun. Especially against a Game Master…" the same voice spoke from behind me.

I, along with my guild and Violet, turned to face the person behind us. The figure was clad in red robes, just like the clothes Kayaba Akihiko had worn when he used his Game Master avatar in SAO's launch day. The man had his hood over his head but he pulled his hood down, revealing himself to be the ALfheim Online version of Nagato. The man's facial features were relatively the same except for his ears which were now pointy.

"Nagato-san?!" ViVi exclaimed. "Why are you here?"

"Ah… Vitushi-kun… It has been several years since I have last met you. You've grown quite a lot, though this is your in-game avatar…"

"ViVi, who is this guy?" Zed asked.

"A close family friend of the Yuzuki family. He's the CHRO of the Ymir corporation. He, along with his wife, works as the Yuzuki family's servants whenever they are not tending to the Ymir corporation." ViVi explained to us, still confused. "But, why are you here?"

"Ai-chan's parents has given me the job to enforce a set of rules upon both Kirigaya-kun and Ai-chan. Until that murderer fully gives up on her, I will accompany Ai-chan everywhere in this world and in the real one while enforcing these rules her parents have created."

Upon hearing the word murderer, the entire guild tensed up. They realized the seriousness of the situation and that it was no longer a time to be fooling around. Rizer and Cayonz looked at me with apologetic expressions, now knowing that the meeting did not go well. I stood up off the ground and faced Nagato, wanting the older man to show me mercy. Nagato waved his hand, summoning a rolled-up scroll in the process. He unraveled the parchment and began to read its contents.

"First, Kirigaya-kun must be greater than two meters away from Ai-chan. The two are not allowed to touch, hug or kiss the other, and talking is only allowed when necessary and granted permission by myself or other trusted members of the family. Second, Ai-chan will delete Kirigaya-kun from her Friends list and is not allowed to go to boss raids in which Kirigaya-kun will be participating in. Third, Ai-chan may not participate in the assassination missions of the Reapers of Sorrow or any mission that involves the death of players. Fourth, Ai-chan will have a curfew set at ten o'clock, both in the real and virtual world. Fifth, breaking the rules will result in a punishment directed towards Kirigaya-kun, even if it was Ai-chan who broke them. Sixth, these rules are absolute and cannot be argued upon. That is all the rules."

"Wait a minute! I can understand the first rule, but the rest of the rules are complete bullshit!" Violet cursed out. This was the first time I've heard Violet curse. Or, at least the first time that I remember. "These rules are completely unfair to me, to Mortifer and even to my friends!"

At that moment, another powerful shockwave hit me, sending me flying straight into the wall. The impact created a dust cloud and made a crater on the masonry, though it repaired itself right afterwards. Violet was shocked at what happened, as well as my guild. She looked at Nagato, who showed no emotions on his face.

"You broke the sixth rule Ai-chan. Therefore, according to the fifth rule, Kirigaya-kun must pay for it. I will show neither of you any mercy, especially you, Kirigaya-kun…"

I wanted to say, "That's fine", but I knew that it was a lie. I was not fine with these rules. As Violet stated, it was completely unfair. While I was fine dealing with these in-game punishments, the fact that even Violet was restricted so much ticked me off. I balled both of my fists and bit my lower lip out of anger. Nagato saw this and ignored my actions as if he didn't care. I stood back up and patted the dust off me. Violet began to approach me but I quickly backed away from her, not wanting to get sent flying once again. I held my hand out to stop her and shook my head, telling her no. Unfortunately, that also counted as communication, as I was sent flying upwards this time. I didn't hit anything, but I had gone up so fast that it made me disoriented. Eventually however, my body collided with the invisible barrier above the city, stopping my ascent. I fell back down but I managed to summon my wings in time to not suffer another period of numbness from the fall.

"Nagato-san… Please… Stop…" Violet began to cry. "I hoped that you would have at least gone easy on us, considering how nice you are to me all the time."

"You have me mistaken, Ai-sama," Nagato began. "I am simply following the orders of your parents. I am only nice to you because your parents ask for it. In reality, I hold no feelings."

Violet covered her mouth and began to sob up tears. She took several steps back and bumped into the guild. Paradox, Aqua and Trish worked on comforting her while everyone else remained still, unable to do anything about the current situation.

Now that I'm looking at it, just joining the guild in floor clearing expeditions is bad enough. If Violet gets into a bad situation, I'll instinctively jump in and save her. I don't doubt the fact that if I do so, Nagato will likely launch me straight into danger right afterwards. This whole situation is not only affecting our guild, but our ability to cooperate with the Front Lines and our ability to carry out missions. This really is a terrible situation. Right now, the guild needs to head to Aincrad to resume our floor clearing but I won't be able to join them anymore. I guess I'll just work on finishing the project for now while Violet has her turn with the guild…

"Since it's come to this, I'm going to head over to the project site and resume working. I'll come back to help you guys in the Front Lines during a better time. Rizer, Cayonz… You can join me if you want, but I'd prefer you stay with Violet."

I summoned my wings and ascended a meter off the ground. My guild looked at me with worried eyes while Violet continued to cry in her arms. Nagato glared at me with threatening eyes, causing me to stick with my decision even more. Above all else, I didn't want to make him and Violet's family any angrier.

"See you guys…"


(Violet)

Two hours later, 3rd Floor Aincrad

While Mortifer was gone to work on his project alone, the rest of the guild stuck with me. We farmed up mobs around the Labyrinth, trying our best to avoid the Field Boss, who guarded the entrance. Tomorrow was the planned date for the Field Boss raid, but it wasn't going to go as planned with these rules I had to abide to. Not only that, these past two hours gave me a glimpse of how strict my parents were going to be.

During the whole time we worked on clearing mobs, Nagato had been hovering far above us, watching us intently. Because Mortifer wasn't nearby, he distanced himself much further from me. I suspected he did this so he didn't have to deal with me complaining or trying to beat him up. I honestly wanted to so badly because this entire situation was totally unfair. But… I understood why my parents were doing this. After all, Mortifer's history wasn't the prettiest or most promising to any parent. I had already suspected for the meeting to not go so well, but I didn't expect it to be this terrible.

"You okay, Violet-chan?" ViVi asked me. Before I reacted to his stupid question, Zed did the honors and punched my cousin on the back of his head. "Ow! What was that for?!"

"How exactly is this dumbass your cousin Violet?" Zed grumbled. I wanted to tell him that I didn't know, but refrained from doing so. I was already in a bad mood, and I didn't want to make it even worse.

"L-Look, Violet-chan… I-I'm sorry," ViVi stammered out. "It was my fault that your parents ever found out about Mortifer… I just thought that they already knew about him, so I—"

"ViVi… That's enough… I don't want to dwell on this any longer…" I quietly cut him off.

I looked at the time display on my avatar menu and saw that it was about to be eight o'clock soon. I still had two hours left according to the rules. Even so, I didn't feel like staying inside of ALfheim Online any longer. We hadn't done anything relatively fun this whole entire day which made my whole mood much worse. What was the point of remaining inside the game when we couldn't do anything at all?

"I'm going to bed early tonight…" I told my guild. Their eyes wandered off different directions and looks of worry formed in their faces. I felt like telling them not to worry, but that would have been a clear white lie. "Good night you guys…"


(Kirito)

June 2025, The next day,3rd Floor of Aincrad, the fields outside of the Labyrinth

Seeing the «Forest of Wavering Mist» again on this floor gave me the chills, as it reminded me of the «Laughing Coffin» raid we did back then in SAO. However, it made me happy to find out that the «Elf War Campaign» still exists within the game. Asuna and I felt a wave of nostalgia when we met the Kizmel once again, though we were a bit disappointed that she didn't recognize us. The ALO servers ran an older version of SAO, so it was to be expected. We were at least lucky to have been able to save Yui when she knew us.

We were waiting on an open clearing inside of the forest, a minute of flight away from the Field Boss. The Imps and Pookas joined the Front Lines, taking the Salamanders' place since Eugene was absent. Nobody complained however, as the Field Boss was going to be fought inside of a small pass inside a mountain. Explosion magic wasn't really needed in such close quarters, and only proved to be a threat to our own allies. The Imp Lord Ferrin was talking rather casually to Sakuya and Alicia. The Pooka Lord Beatrice wasn't talking much but provided the entire group with music along with her companions. We were waiting on Mortifer's group who is currently late, though only by a few minutes. Due to my curiosity, I was about to message my brother when the ground at the center of the clearing suddenly exploded, creating a dust storm.

A few of the players drew out their weapons and quickly went to their Lord's aid while the rest remained still. The dust quickly cleared up, and I saw my brother lying in the center of the newly formed crater. He wasn't wearing his mask, which was unusual since he always wore it despite the conditions. He had a rather angry, yet nonchalant expression on his face. He groaned loudly as he got up from the crater and patted the dust off his clothing. His guild appeared above the forest and landed at the clearing. A figure dressed in red was with them, standing right next to Violet. The players around us began to whisper to each other, but my ears couldn't pick up what they were saying.

"Kazuto-nii…" Leafa quietly called out to me, tugging my arm sleeve while doing so. "Why is there a GM with Katsu-nii and his guild?"

"GM?!" I repeated, bewildered. Now that I looked at it, the person wore clothing that resembled Kayaba's attire when he appeared during SAO launch day. "I have no clue…"

Mortifer's guild walked up to us while Mortifer remained standing on the crater, looking off into the distance. The GM followed his guild as well, sticking very close to Violet. An invisible wall seemingly separated her from the guild, as nobody was within a two meter range from Violet. She expressed an ominous sadness in her face while also looking at the GM with contempt. The GM was an older gentleman with a mix of white and black hair with white being the most dominant of the two. He looked around, inspecting us players, unamused by what he was seeing. He then began to levitate off the ground and quickly skyrocketed upwards, easily going a hundred or so meters above us.

"Anybody care to explain why a GM is currently with us?" Sakuya questioned the newcomers.

"A buncha' stuff happened…" Zed began. "It'd be better off if you just leave Violet and Mortifer alone for the time being. That GM is here because of them."

"What happened? Did they try to hack or cheat in-game?" Alicia giggled.

"Like I said… A buncha' stuff happened…"

Mortifer's guild proceeded to walk towards our group. They were all trying to avoid eye contact from everyone but us. It seems something bad has happened between Mortifer and Violet. Now that I think about it, he did go to her house yesterday, and Violet's family leads the company. If there's a GM monitoring the two of them, then the situation is much worse than it appears to be. I was so deep into my thoughts that I didn't realize Zed, who was standing right next to me, trying to talk to me.

"Kirito?!" he shouted into my ear.

"Yeah! What?" I quickly responded.

"Did your brother tell you yet?"

"Tell me about what? The situation between him and Violet? If so, then no."

Zed sighed, and turned to face Violet, who was standing in her lonesome. Mortifer was even further away from the group, staring out towards the nearby forest. Meanwhile. the «Reapers of Sorrow» began to form groups of four, making me assume Mortifer's original group temporarily disbanded due to the current matters.

"Violet's parents know about what Mortifer did in SAO…" Rizer quietly told us.

My eyes opened wide with shock and nervousness, as did everyone else in my group. Silica had her mouth covered with her hand, Liz scratched her head, and Klein began to whistle while he kicked nearby pebbles. Everyone in our group understands what my brother has gone through, and to an extent, has forgiven him. But they too once experienced the fear he brought to players in SAO, and held some hatred and disgust towards him. They can easily relate to someone who doesn't know the full truth of his actions in that death game.

"So, what will you guys do?" I asked them.

"Well, first of all, Violet won't be participating in the boss raid. Well, she could if Mortifer wasn't participating," Zed explained. "They can't participate in the same boss raid together for whatever reason."

"Losing one damage dealer shouldn't be too bad…" Asuna spoke, trying to lighten the mood though she was clearly sad that Violet won't be participating. "Mortifer alone is good enough for five to ten people, right?"

"Not to mention, the guy fights better when he's not in a good mood," Rizer pointed out. "I guess it's his way of dealing with stress. He just lets it all out, though he's gone overboard plenty of times. How many times do you think that guy has gone berserk?"

"Including his «Darkness Blade»?" Paradox asked. "If so, I believe he's gone berserk about five times. Three times with his «Darkness Blade», and twice without it."

"He's gone out of control many other times as well, even in the real world.\," I informed them, briefly remembering a certain fight my brother had in school a long time ago. "He went berserk twice during our journey to save Asuna. One of those times was much scarier than even his execution back in SAO."

"Seriously? Jeez… I feel sorry for the poor guy who had to deal with that," Zed sympathized. Neither Asuna, Leafa nor I responded to his comment, as we didn't feel that bad for Sugou. All I knew back then was that my brother had gone completely overboard, and Sugou was almost dead by the time my brother finished him.

"Can we move on from this pointless conversation?" A voice grumbled out.

Mortifer appeared right next to me, and he stormed past both my group and his guild. He was clearly not in a good mood, and he had his mask on. I faintly saw the hatred burning in his eyes, and he was directing it all towards the Labyrinth ahead of him instead of the GM that was causing all of his current problems. Without warning, my brother summoned his wings and took off towards the Labyrinth, charging straight towards the Field Boss's lair.

"Mortifer-san, wait!" Asuna shouted in vain.

"What is Mortifer-kun doing now?!" Sakuya exclaimed, bewildered at the man's actions. "We haven't even started the meeting and he's charging right in!"

"Well, if we're lucky, that guy will take it down himself. Though with the power increase of «New ALfheim Online» bosses and the lack of levels, I doubt he can do it solo," Rizer affirmed.

"There's no way to stop him if he starts hitting that boss," Zed determined.

"We have no choice but to help him then," Konno laughed out.

"Yup. He's already started too," Aqua informed us, focusing her Cait Sith vision towards the Labyrinth.

"Let's head out then. No point in wasting time," I declared.

"Violet-chan! We're heading out now!" Asuna shouted out to her friend. Unfortunately, Violet ignored her and simply stood there, staring out into the open. "I'm really not liking this situation…"

"Hopefully it will get resolved soon… Hopefully…"


Several hours later, inside the Floor Boss Room

"Kirito, your brother is absolutely insane!" Zed shouted towards me as he and his party dodged the venomous spit of the Floor Boss.

"We don't have the people nor the resources to fight the boss at this moment!" Sakuya declared, a hint of anger in her voice.

"Why did we follow this man into the boss room again?" Ferrin asked the Sylph Lord. His voice was filled with worry, but I sensed no hatred within it.

"Hey, my group is running out of mana to support you guys…" the Pooka Lord Beatrice quietly announced.

"Then we'll just increase our damage to end this fight faster!" Alicia joyfully cried out, jumping into the heat of battle with her soldiers.

Originally, the plan was to take on the boss on Wednesday or next weekend, but Mortifer had cleared the Labyrinth so quickly that we found the boss room with little to no effort. Not only that, but he persuaded both his guild and my group to take on the boss with him. Because of that, Sakuya, Alicia, Ferrin and Beatrice naturally joined along. Violet was also in the room, though she was being heavily guarded by the GM who was monitoring her. She floated quite a distance above us, spectating the battle inside magical floating bubble. A worried expression was clearly painted on her face as we struggled against the Floor Boss we weren't prepared for.

«Lycia the Chimera» was a well-rounded boss with some versatile moves. Its giant body is the size of a public transport bus, and that's only if you excluded the goat head and snake tail. It was quick on its feet, giving us a short window to attack before it goes through its cycle once again. Massive claws and razor sharp fangs to attack close-range, a flame-breathing goat to burn anything nearby to a crisp, and a venom-spitting snake tail that acted independently from the main body. It frequently spat out pools of acid that contaminated the ground, making it dangerous to step on. Our raid team's tanks can't even tank properly as the acid wears down all affected equipment at an absurd rate. Some of us have near broken equipment, forcing us to switch to others in order to not lose our precious equipment.

Of course, Mortifer was the only exception as dodged the acid with ease and attacked even if the boss was in the middle of an attack of its own. The only attacks that hit him consistently were the flames due to its massive range. However thanks to resistance buffs from Trish and the Pookas' music, Mortifer didn't take much damage. This however only made him more reckless, causing his health to be below half no matter how many times we healed him. At this point, it seemed like he was silently telling us not to heal him.

"The chances of winning this fight are already slim…" Asuna deduced, "If we really want to defeat the boss now, we need to keep Mortifer alive for his high damage outputs."

"Actually Asuna-san, Mortifer-san doesn't seem to be doing that much more damage compared to the others," Trish chimed in. "I actually think that the boss is resistant to physical attacks."

Nearby, all eyes wandered towards to the dark-skinned girl in the white witch outfit. We looked at her, slightly confused and curious as to why the boss was resistant to physical attacks. All New Aincrad bosses lacked HP bars, making it significantly harder to tell how much damage had been done on it. Determining resistances and weaknesses of the boss was close to impossible without the use of a health bar, but that doesn't mean there was no way to do it.

"You know… Now that I think about it, my blade ever so slightly slides when I first make contact with the boss's hide," Ferrin mentioned. "You may be on to something…"

"Even if she is right, we lack in any sort of magical attack power," Sakuya reminded. "We'll have to settle on pure physical attacks alone."

"Have you guys not unlocked any elemental «Sword Skills»?" Trish questioned.

As soon as her words came out, everyone's eyes widened at the sudden remembrance of the new combat system the Ymir corporation had added. It wasn't the fact that we hadn't been using it, but SAO had no «Sword Skills» with elemental effects. I hadn't bothered learning about the new ones as I completely forgot with all of my schoolwork and dungeon clearing we'd been doing.

"Everyone, briefly look at your «Skills» and try to remember as many elemental «Sword Skills» as possible!" Asuna commanded. "Mortifer—"

When Asuna tried to tell Mortifer of the newly found information, she stopped momentarily before looking away. I turned to face Mortifer myself, and as I suspected, he was already using elemental «Sword Skills». Now that I thought about it, he had been using it since the near beginning of the fight. But because he wasn't saying anything, we never knew about it until Trish figured it out. I can't tell if it was meant to train us and his guild, or because he was trying to relieve his stress by going on a rampage in-game. I decided on the latter, given the current situation he is in.

"Breath attack in five seconds!" Yui shouted out, alerting everyone. "Four, three, two, one!"

At the same time her countdown ended, the goat's head opened its mouth, revealing a growing fireball forming inside of its throat. Everyone except Mortifer backed away from the Floor Boss as a massive blaze consumed much of the area around the boss. Mortifer was completely covered by the flames, preventing us from seeing him and his health bar. However, in the midst of the fiery chaos, I saw a bright flash of yellow along with a nearly indiscernible outline of Mortifer's two-handed sword. I soon heard the slicing and dicing of Mortifer's massive blade as well as the roars and groans of «Lycia».

When the flames dissipated, I could see Mortifer's sword surging with electricity before it too disappeared. When I looked back at the Floor Boss, I noticed that its snake tail was no longer intact, making me assume Mortifer had cut it off. The boss must have been low enough in HP for Mortifer to do that, but we still have the goat and lion to deal with. To add to that, Mortifer was in the red zone.

Fortunately, Mortifer backed away from the boss, hiding behind everyone including the mages to recover himself. From how he reacted to his situation, he wasn't trying to be completely reckless and was at least trying to live in order to help us beat the boss. Paradox rushed over to aid him with potions and magic, while everyone else took the opening Mortifer created us, as the snake tail was supposed to be the next to attack.

"With the snake gone, you have thirty seconds before it uses its next major attack!" Yui shouted out for everyone to hear. "If you can avoid the random claw attacks, you can all attack it with ease!"

"You heard the pixie girl! Go!" Zed cried out.

Everyone in the vanguard charged forward with weapons raised high. Behind the main fighters and tanks, the Pookas casted damage amplification spells on nearly all attackers, seemingly using up all of their mana as they fell to the ground right after. Aqua, along with Alicia's archers made a combined effort to weaken the boss while supporting us at the same time. Aqua and two others shot out «Explode Arrows», dealing magical damage to the boss while the rest of the archers immobilized the boss with «Chain Arrows». Even Paradox and Cayonz participated in the offense, by using «Aqua Stream» and «Ice Arrows» respectively.

With the boss being so big, sharing space wasn't a problem. Slowly but surely, I felt my attacks getting easier and easier. Each «Post-Motion Delay» I experienced between each «Sword Skill» seemed to get much shorter than before, and I managed to land several basic attacks, a Howling Octave, a Savage Fulcrum and even Vorpal Strike before the thirty seconds were up. However, I ended my attack with the Vorpal Strike, disabling my movements due to the «Post-Motion Delay». In fact, half of our vanguard ended their attacks with a «Sword Skill», so while half of us backed away before the next attack, the other half was at the mercy of the Chimera's. I was amongst the worst of that half as I was directly in front of the boss.

"Shit!" Zed exclaimed out of frustration, also stuck along with me in front of the boss.

"Kirito-kun! Zed-kun!" Asuna shouted behind me, safe from the next attack.

"«Lycia» is about to do a powerful swipe attack in front of it!" Yui shouted. "Run Papa!"

"I can't move!" I told them.

Agil, Rizer, Konno and the rest of the tanks all tried to move in front of us, but they were too far away. Everyone else didn't move as they were paralyzed from the delay, or knew that they weren't healthy enough to take a full hit. Even so, the one and only person to even attempt to save both me and Zed was Mortifer, who was in the red zone earlier but was now barely in the green. Using the blunt end of his massive blade, he shoved me and Zed out of harm's reach while taking a massive hit from the massive lion paw. His cloak was destroyed while his tunic fell off his body, almost broken into two pieces. He was topless, exposing the tattoo he had on his back from transferring his SAO avatar to ALO. I saw as his health bar dropped all the way down until it was a mere pixel away from zero. Before anybody could react to Mortifer's near death, my brother recklessly attacked the boss with the little HP he had.

Mortifer began to use Astral Hell, a high level «Two-Handed Sword» 7-hit attack that increases in speed as it progresses. With his Buster Sword, he slashed the lion's face several times before finishing off with a powerful downward strike down the middle of its face. At the same time however, «Lycia the Chimera» swiped its paw at Mortifer, hitting him with the very tip of its sharp nails. The boss shuddered momentarily before it fell flat on its belly. Mortifer fell forward right after, morphing into a purple «Remain Light» before his body hit the ground. As for the Floor Boss, it exploded into millions of pixels, officially ending the boss raid with a final attack from Mortifer, who died in the process.

Everyone fell to the floor first before they began to clap from the victory. That's just how tiring and stressful the boss fight was for us. While we all recovered our breath, Mortifer's «Remain Light» continued to hover next to where the boss died. Leafa hurried over to the flame and resurrected Mortifer with some sort of item. His flame grew in size before it transformed into his body. His Buster Sword was now strapped behind his back, and he didn't look too happy.

"You all fought well," a voice sounded from above us. I looked up and saw Violet descending along with the GM. "It was a splendid fight to watch. You would have lost had you not realized the boss' weaknesses and for that boy's efforts."

"Can I get out of this bubble now?" Violet murmured out, looking at the GM.

The man snapped his fingers and the bubble popped, allowing Violet to move around. Usually she would approach Mortifer, but instead she moved further away from everyone, including the GM that was guarding her.

"If you guys are going to jump into a boss fight that recklessly again, we're not going to help you guys with these boss raids again," Sakuya declared.

"Well I thought it was fun Sakuya-chan! Even if it was a bit stressful!" Alicia meowed.

"Fun? Maybe… Stressful? Most definitely…" Ferrin sighed out.

"I-I agree with Ferrin-san…" Beatrice concurred.

"Let's just hurry up and open up the teleport gate to the 4th Floor," Zed groaned. Zed and most of the Reapers of Sorrow began making their way to the newly formed staircase, leaving behind Mortifer, Violet, Rizer

"I'll follow you guys up on that," Klein heaved, trying to catch his breath while following them. Silica and Lisbeth hesitantly followed him as well, looking back towards us to see what we were going to do.

The Sylphs, Cait Sith, Imps and Pookas all went ahead with Zed to the 4th Floor, leaving behind me, Asuna, Leafa, Agil, Cayonz, Rizer, Violet, Mortifer and the GM. Soon, Mortifer too began to advance towards the staircase, only to be stopped by the GM, who seemingly teleported in front of him.

"You have a rather interesting blade…" the GM said, looking behind my brother's back to admire the massive Buster Sword.

The GM raised his right hand towards Mortifer, and held it steady in the air. Without warning, the Buster Sword began to magically slide out of its own sheathe. The two-handed sword then slowly made its way towards the GM before Mortifer stopped it by grabbing it.

"What do you think you're doing..." Mortifer murmured.

"I'm simply doing something that the system hasn't done yet: delete a foreign object from the game," the GM grimly stated.

Upon hearing his statement, Mortifer put both of his hands on his blade while Violet rushed over to the GM, trying to push his hand down. Her face which used to be filled with sadness was now filled with desperation. Mortifer's face also changed from one of sadness and apathy to one of anger and desperation. Even though he was struggling to hold the sword still, he kneeled down to the ground, bowing his head to the GM.

"Nagato-san! Please don't!" Violet begged, "You have already taken too much from him!"

"Violet-sama… Why do you care so much for a murderer like him?" Nagato pondered.

I turned around to make sure others didn't hear. Unfortunately, it seemed to me that Sakuya and Alicia heard what the man stated, or at least some of it. The two Lords looked over to our direction with great concern, and I shook my head to warn them of trying to eavesdrop. Thankfully, they nodded their heads and carried on.

"It's simply an in-game weapon. I swear to you that I will replace it with a weapon of equal stats. But I cannot let this man have a foreign weapon that even I don't know of. Especially one as powerful as this."

"Nagato-sama… Please…" Mortifer spoke in a low voice. "Don't take this away from me too… This blade is very dear to me."

"Well, that gives me even more of a reason to take it away."

Nagato thrust his free hand out towards Mortifer, creating a near invisible air cannon that collided with Mortifer. My brother wasn't prepared to take such a hit, and was forced to let go of his blade. He was sent flying to the outer perimeter of the boss room, crashing into the unbreakable walls of the dungeon. The impact reverberated throughout the room, causing Sakuya and Alicia to look back once again as they hadn't passed through the gate yet. When I looked back at both Mortifer and Violet, their faces expressed defeat as they were helpless before the GM. Not even a second later, Nagato took the Buster Sword into his own hands, and swung the blade towards the ground. The impact caused the massive blade to shatter instantly, breaking into several pieces before breaking into pixels.

The spectators of the event watched in silence as Violet fell to her knees, and Mortifer dropped his hands to the floor. His mouth was open in shock while Violet began to well up in tears. All throughout the tragedy, Nagato simply stared with an apathetic face, not even sparing a glance to the emotionally broken Violet. Even though Violet seemed to be banned from getting near Mortifer, she still attempted to crawl, but it was Mortifer who stopped her by holding his hand up. Before she could question his actions, Mortifer opened his menu and quickly logged out of the game, leaving Violet more distraught. Asuna hurried over to comfort her while rest of us continued to watch in silence.

"Onii-chan… What's going to happen to Katsu-nii and Ai-chan?" Leafa asked.

"I don't know Sugu… I don't know…"


(Kazuto)

July 2025, 1 month later, «SAO Survivor School»

The situation between Katsumoto and Ai hasn't gotten any better. In fact, it's gotten worse since Ai has tried to escape from her bodyguards both in-game and in the real world. In fact, one of her three real-world bodyguards is currently standing right next to her lunch table. Usually she sits with our big SAO group, but the circumstances forces her to sit alone. Even if she can sit with us, it doesn't seem like she wants to.

"How long is this going to last… It's been a month since this has started. More and more students are taking note of Ai-chan's bodyguards and are spreading rumors about her," Asuna whispered across the table.

"It lasts until Katsumoto gives up on her right?" Ryu (Zed) whispered back. "But there's no way that's going to happen. Katsumoto would never give up Ai, and she would never give up Katsumoto. They are too close to each other to simply break apart just like that."

"But, like… What's the worst that could happen?" Vitushi (ViVi) asked, trying to lighten up the mood.

"Shut your mouth Vitushi. You're the one who caused this in the first place," Ariel (Aqua) grunted. "You don't have a special someone who's important to you like Katsumoto-san does. If the two of them get separated again, who knows what the two of them would do."

"T-That's my question! What do you guys think—"

"Dude!" Haru (Konno) snapped. "Shut up! Can't you see that none of us wants to talk about this right now?!"

"But, wasn't it Asuna-san who started it?"

Ryu slammed his fist against the table, catching the eyes of nearby people as well as Ai. He quickly stood up from his seat, and pointed to a random direction. He glared at Vitushi with enraged eyes, clearly done with the Ai's cousin.

"Go sit somewhere else Vitushi," Ryu commanded. "You clearly don't get the meaning of shut the fuck up, so leave now!"

"I'm sorry! Please, let me stay! I don't have anybody else to sit with!" Vitushi begged.

"You think I give a shit? If Katsumoto were here, the guy would have beaten you up by now. So if you don't want me to do it for him, I suggest you get your ass off that seat and go fuck off somewhere else."

Despite Ryu's excessive cursing that matched Katsumoto's savagery, nobody argued against him. Rather, almost everyone supported Zed in a way. Only Patricia (Trish) and Keiko (Silica) seemed to feel bad for Vitushi, but they didn't bother protecting him. Vitushi took his open bento and carefully walked away from the table, hanging his head down out of shame. Ryu slowly sat back down, and because of his ragged breathing, Midori (Paradox) proceeded to rub his back while leaning on his shoulder.

"How is it on your side Kazuto-kun?" Midori asked me.

"Not too well…" I told them. "Katsumoto already had poor eating habits before, but now I don't even think he is eating at all. He's lost so much weight. I feel like he's spent more time out of game than in-game too. I feel as though those missions you guys have been doing are his way to distract himself, even if it isn't working well."

"Speaking of missions, what is everyone's Saturday missions?" Aqua questioned.

"I have a protect and escort quest with ViVi in the morning. We have to go «Gattan», down in Salamander territory," Patricia chimed in.

"Eh?! Down there?!" Rika (Lisbeth) exclaimed. "Vitushi-kun is going to burn up if he wears that much clothing down there. But you should be careful as well."

"Yeah, the Salamanders haven't been nice lately," Ryu mentioned. "Katsumoto has been going on multiple missions down in that region. The Sylph and Cait Sith Lords won't give him a break, though I don't see him complaining. In fact, he's meeting up with them tomorrow once again for something important. Sometime during noon."

"Don't you think Eugene has figured out that Katsumoto''s the one who's been messing with his background plans?" I asked.

"Oh, I don't doubt it. After all, Katsumoto''s the only one I know of capable of defeating large groups of enemies without struggling. It makes it even easier since the culprit is an Imp. That's why Sakuya and Alicia have been sending him to do at least two missions a day so that they can stall Eugene enough before they directly target your brother. Anyways… I have an assassination mission to do tomorrow evening. Not a big fan of this type of mission, but it rolls in some cash, even if I don't get most of it."

"Haru. Aqua and I have to go down to «Jotunheimr» to help out a group farm some Evil-God class monsters," Midori stated.

"And I believe Zach (Rizer) and Zoan (Cayonz) will solely be working on that project of theirs. Have you seen it Kirigaya-san?" Haru asked me.

"Not yet, though I'm planning on going there soon. My sister knows of its location, but hasn't visited ever since my brother started his project," I told them. "He's very dedicated to it, despite his situation."

"What are we going to do with the Front Lines then if you guys are going to be out for most of Saturday?" Keiko questioned.

"We'll just stick with exploring the Labyrinth. I mean, we've focused on clearing so much that we've reached the 10th Floor already. They haven't even opened up anymore floors above the 10th," Ryu declared.

"I'd agree with you on that, though next weekend when school gets out, we're going to head down towards «Thule Island» to take this special quest for Yui," I informed them. "She wanted to see whales with her own eyes, and the quest is rumored to do just that."

"Sounds fun. Good luck with that," Midori said, smiling.

The school bell dinged loudly for everyone to hear. Saying our silent goodbyes to each other, we all went to our respective classes.


(Mortifer)

The next day, Noon, «Yggdrasil City»

Back in school, weekends always seemed to be the days I loved most. Yet here I was, sitting outside Zed and Paradox's home in «Yggdrasil City» in the middle of an impossible thunderstorm. How was it raining in a city above clouds? How was it raining when the World Tree's branches are numerous enough to block out the sun? Are there really clouds above me, or was there just so much rain that I couldn't see the blue sky that I was longing to see this whole day?

"Mortifer-san," a voice seemingly called out, but it was so faint against the rain that I ignored it.

The rain… Sometimes, I have no clue what to think of it. Is it happy, or sad? Does it make things ugly, or beautiful? I guess a light shower in a sunny summer day would make things look beautiful, while a heavy thunderstorm like this one would make things ugly. Rainbows would form after the rain on a sunny day, making the sky even more beautiful. Yet when you look at the ground, there's mud, dirty puddles, bugs and worms everywhere.

"Mortifer-san!" another voice shouted, but the voice was lost in the storm.

Puddles… I saw them back when I first met Violet. It had rained the night before on the 1st Floor, creating puddles everywhere. Most people would avoid any sort of puddle, especially murky brown ones like the ones I saw back then forming on the road itself. But occasionally I'd find a beautiful puddle, clear of any impurities. That night, those puddles shone just like Violet's eyes, reflecting everything I saw like a mirror. I often see people looking into bodies of still water like that all the time. Whether it be a pond, lane, or a puddle, people would sometimes stare at themselves through the mirror-like surface of the water. Who was it that fell in love with his own reflection… Ah yes… Narcissus… He died because he fell in love with himself. Yet here I was, looking at a reflection of myself in a puddle that was continuously being broken by the rain falling on it. I kept staring at the ugly image of my despair until it was blocked by a giant boot.

"Mortifer! We're here!" a familiar voice yelled into the storm, breaking my train of thought.

I looked up and saw eight figures directly in front of me. They varied greatly in height and size, but their appearances were masked by differently colored cloaks. I did however recognize the faces of Sakuya, Alicia and even Ferrin and Beatrice of the Imps and Pookas. The other five however were faces of people I had never seen before. The tiny specks of hair on my arm stood up, sending a tingling sensation throughout my body. I looked to my sides and noticed large groups of cloaked players, standing with their backs turned towards us. All of them were armed, giving me a sense of danger. But when the cloaked players in front of me pulled down their hoods, I knew I wasn't in danger, but rather the people in front of me.

"I am Gilder, Lord of the Gnomes," the tallest and biggest one grunted.

"I am Drake, Lord of the Spriggans. It is a pleasure to be acquainted with you, Reaper of Sorrow," the one in the black cloak bowed.

"I am Iris, of the Undines," smiled the girl cloaked in blue.

"And I am Silver, the best blacksmith of the Leprechauns! And I'm also their Lord!" the one wearing a helmet bragged.

The eight of the nine Lords of ALfheim Online stood before the doorstep of this tiny home in «Yggdrasil City», along with forty or so warriors from each respective group. Typically, a normal player would feel honored or intimidated by their presence, but I was simply caught off guard. In fact, I was more curious as to why eight Lords were standing in the doorsteps of a player home like this. Had I known there would be this many people both of high relevance and low relevance, I would had chosen the meeting place to be at the project site, even if it wasn't complete yet. But still…

"Sakuya… Just what exactly is going on here?" I asked the Sylph Lord.

"It is exactly what you see in front of you Mortifer," she stated. "Eight of the nine Lords of ALfheim have teamed up for this mission."

"Speaking of which…" I mumbled, eyeing the Lords and soldiers who were looking back at us. "What kind of mission is this going to be anyway?"

"Why you're favorite, of course! Assassination!" Alicia beamed, but her attempt was interrupted by a sudden boom of thunder that scared her and some of the other Lords.

"Assassination is the least favorite of the missions I do…" I corrected her.

"Oh poo… You haven't been fun at all lately…"

"Let's get back on track," I groaned, standing up from my seat on the staircase. "Who the hell am I assassinating for so many important people to show up? Huh? Is it Eugene?"

"Try higher kid," the Gnome Lord Gilder laughed out.

"Higher?"

"Mortifer…" Sakuya chimed in.

Sakuya went up the steps of the staircase and met me at the top. We were eye-level with each other, so we simply stared into each other's eyes. I could tell from her eyes alone that this time, she definitely wasn't fooling around.

"Your target is Mortimer. The Lord of the Salamanders"