Several minutes later, «Dragons Valley»

Despite the thunder cooling down my body, I still felt major fatigue from the fight I had with Eugene. Not only that, but my adrenaline was wearing away, making ViVi and Trish feel much heavier. I had almost disconnected from the AmuSphere's safety mechanism since my heartrate was abnormally high. Luckily, I managed to calm myself down as I didn't want to leave ViVi and Trish and the mercy of the enraged Salamander army that was still chasing me. After all, I still hadn't released them from their bindings as I didn't have the time. However, because I was slowing down so much, some of the faster Salamanders were catching up with me. Both Trish and ViVi were using «Magic» they had learned during their time in the game to try and stall them, but they were running out of mana to use.

Our saving grace came in the form of another army of players though much smaller than the Salamander army that was chasing me. The army that arrived to confront the Salamanders consisted mostly of Sylphs, and Imps. There were several soldiers from the other races, but their numbers didn't come close to the Sylphs or Imps. And even though the Salamander army was much bigger, they stopped a great distance away, hesitating to chase after me now that another army had shown up. The Salamanders, however, did spread out so far that they covered nearly half the width of «Dragons Valley» with soldiers still flying above others or behind them. I panted heavily as a lone Spriggan came down to meet me at eye-level. I didn't recognize him at first with his wet hair covering his face, but I quickly realized that it was Kirito. Asuna and Leafa also came with him to meet me, but I didn't see Agil, Klein, Silica or Lisbeth around. I then remembered that Agil was busy with the bar while Klein was working overtime to get some more money to buy stuff for this girl, but I didn't know what Silica nor Lisbeth was up to.

"Onii-chan…" Kirito spoke in a worried voice, placing a hand on my shoulder. "Your guild told me what was happening. They and the Lords are waiting back in «Alne». Sakuya thought that you would at least need an escort out of here, so she gave Leafa and I temporary command of the Sylph army."

"Sakuya-chan did manage to persuade the other Lords to send their armies as well, though it was difficult considering you refused help to begin with by killing their players," Leafa sulked.

"I was stubborn," I tried explaining. "I thought that I finish this up quickly like how I usually do, but I was too stubborn…"

"Well, you're safe now Mortifer-san," Asuna smiled, trying to lighten the mood. She proceeded to fly behind me and release ViVi and Trish from their bindings, freeing them.

At the same time, the Salamander army started slowly backing away and grouping up once again. After they were greater than a hundred meters away, they all turned their backs to us and retreated back into their territory. I noticed many sighs of relief coming from many of the players, including Kirito himself, and I found myself sighing as well. I opened my menu to configure my «Inventory». I unequipped my mask and placed it back into the storage as well as my two blades. I replaced my metal armor with my much lighter old armor, so I could lighten the load. The thunderstorm continued to boom around us, flooding the once dry valley with water. I grabbed my brother's left shoulder with my left hand, squeezing it to relieve some of the stress and pain I had within me. I then flew past him and the army and made my way to «Alne», fruitlessly preparing myself for what was to come.


(Kirito)

Almost an hour later, «Alne»

The former capital of ALfheim Online rested on the roots of the World Tree, being drenched by the severe thunderstorm. The night lights of the city were active despite it technically being the afternoon. «Yggdrasil City» glowed bright enough to be seen through the clouds, but its light could not reach its sister city below it. The weekend city life of «Alne» was muffled due to the storm, and all I could hear now were the wings of the escort army we had for my brother.

Mortifer hadn't spoken a single word, nor had he bothered to look back at me, Leafa, Asuna, ViVi and Trish. The five of us grew more worried about him every second that passed as he seemed to go through more than just a tough battle back there. While Mortifer clearly succeeded in rescuing ViVi and Trish, they hadn't told us what really happened over there. Did Mortifer kill the Salamander Lord? Did he fight Eugene? Or did he just take ViVi and Trish back and left? The three of us had no clue. Mortifer was giving us the silent treatment, Trish was crying for some odd reason, and ViVi was too busy trying to comfort her.

"Onii-chan!" Leafa called out to me through the storm. "Check the «MMO Tomorrow» website! Now!"

Without questioning her words, Asuna and I huddled close together as I opened my menu and pulled up the Internet browsing feature of the AmuSphere. I inputted the website's URL in the search bar while we approached «Alne»'s front gate. Another group of various soldiers stood under the threshold of the city while the Lords and the «Reapers of Sorrow» stood quietly in front of them. They too had screens of light in front of them, making me think that they were checking on the «MMO Tomorrow» as well. The website page started to load in as we made our descent towards them. When the page fully loaded, all that I could see now was a newspaper style front page depicting a picture of Mortifer, Eugene and Mortimer all together. The headline unmistakably read:

"The Reaper of Sorrow assassinates Mortimer, Lord of the Salamanders and narrowly wins in a duel against General Eugene!"

Mortifer violently touched down to the ground, making a large booming sound as he landed. He quickly got up from his knees and stormed his way over to the Lords and his guild. ViVi and Trish touched down behind Mortifer, and the dark-skinned girl quickly ran past Mortifer and into the arms of her guildmates. ViVi started running towards his guild as well before slowing down to a stop. He then dropped his head and remained put. Aqua seemingly crushed Trish, but the latter didn't seem to care. In fact, Aqua started to cry while Trish continued to cry some more, making me assume that there was something going on that I didn't know about. Paradox and Zed went to comfort Aqua and Trish while Konno went to see what was going on with ViVi. Only Rizer, Cayonz and Violet remained standing between Mortifer and the Lords of Alfheim. Before Mortifer could take two more steps, a bright flash of light appeared in front of him. The occurrence caused many of the nearby soldiers to draw their weapons, but they calmed down when they realized it was a GM who was appearing in. The GM, however, was Nagato: Violet's in-game bodyguard.

Nagato confronted Mortifer and the two of them began conversing so quietly that I couldn't hear. The two apparent enemies began to talk rather lightly towards each other as neither expressed hatred or anger. However, the quick thought was ruined when Mortifer forcefully pushed himself past Nagato, fearlessly pushing the GM to the side, causing many eyebrows to raise. Mortifer then approached Violet, who opened her mouth to speak but could not voice any words out of her mouth. The most shocking thing, however, was what happened right after. The moment Mortifer was within arm's reach of Violet, my brother stuck his right hand out, placing it on Violet's shoulder and quickly pushed his girlfriend aside with enough force to knock her down on her butt.

Everyone within the Reapers of Sorrow expressed absolute shock, as it was the first time Mortifer had ever done something like that to Violet in a long time. Asuna, Leafa and I also expressed as our shock, and I suddenly remembered of the time Mortifer had almost killed Violet during his execution day when he was consumed by his «Darkness Blade»'s ability. And even though I expected the man to act since he was so strict before, Nagato made no move against Mortifer and simply watched him with emotionless eyes as he approached the Lords. Only Sakuya and Alicia reacted to what had happened as only they knew the relationship between Mortifer and Violet. The two Lords also appeared to be surprised by his actions, but nobody could come close to the disbelief that was shown on Violet's face.

"Oi, oi, oi! Mortifer!" Zed shouted out in rage. "What the hell do you think you're doing?!"

"M-Mortifer…" Violet hesitantly called out to her boyfriend.

My brother completely ignored Zed and Violet and stopped right in front of the Lords. He opened his menu and fiddled with the options before he pulled out a screen of light. The screen clearly showed what I was saw in the front page of the «MMO Tomorrow». It was the article that informed everyone in the VRMMORPG world of the soon-to-be legendary event that occurred in ALfheim Online. My brother's successful assassination of Mortimer and his victory against Eugene.

"Even though I said that I wouldn't take the mission, I still did it," Mortifer grunted. "That's because you guys are responsible for my friends capture."

"W-What do you mean?" Sakuya asked.

"You guys had an information leak, so the Salamanders knew I was coming. They used my friends as a counter-offer for me to kill you guys."

"A leak?! Whose race? Did he tell you?" Silver of the Leprechauns questioned.

"You seriously think they're gonna tell me which race has a mole, fatty?!" Mortifer snapped, causing many Leprechaun soldiers to draw their weapons and fly closer to them. "For all I know, it could very well be your race considering how loud and obnoxious you are. This whole thing happened because of you guys being too trustful of your subordinates. So, you guys are going to let me keep the two billion I got from the Salamanders and pay me the one billion you were going to give me."

"A-Again Mortifer-san…" Alicia began. "You're being quite unreasonable here…"

In an instant, Mortifer drew out Lux with his right hand and made three quick slashes across Sakuya's chest, dropping her health severely and damaging her robes. He then placed the tip of his sword against Sakuya's neck and forced it up on her chin. She was forced to look up by the sword, and the fear depicted on her face caused the other Lords to back away. The Sylph warriors immediately charged towards Mortifer but was quickly stopped by Sakuya. Wanting to resolve the current situation, Leafa and I approached our brother, and put our hands on his shoulder.

"Onii-chan… Please, calm down," Leafa begged.

"Mortifer, put the blade down and let's resolve this peacefully." I pleaded him.

"You're going to give me the billion Yrd now, or I'll just kill you right here along with however many more Lords I can get," Mortifer threatened, ignoring us completely. "So, how about we be smart, and just pay up. I'm sure that killing all of you will be more profitable than splitting a billion, but I'm a generous guy. Give me the billion now, or all the Lords of ALfheim Online will die here."

"Everyone," Sakuya nervously spoke. "Please, give your share of the billion we agreed on."

The other Lords of Alfheim hesitated but eventually surrendered. All eight Lords summoned large bags of Yrd in unison and threw it all on the ground towards Mortifer. My brother sheathed his sword and quickly claimed all the sacks of Yrd on the ground before the Lords could take it back. He opened his «Inventory» to check on his current balance and appeared satisfied with it. He closed out of his menu and turned his back towards the Lords.

"If you still require assistance against the Salamanders, then I suggest you go look for someone else. Because of this, I assume that none of the other Lords wants to work with me. Regardless of them wanting to work with me or not, this was never my problem to deal with. Leave now," Mortifer commanded.

I saw many of the soldiers around us clench their fists, angered by my brother's words. The Lords, however, obeyed despite their supposed higher ranking within the game's social hierarchy. I believed they realized the fact that my brother didn't care about the social structure of the world and was not afraid of breaking it. The Lords summoned their wings and motioned for their respective armies to follow them. Sakuya, Alicia, Beatrice and their armies all headed west towards the «Butterfly Valley». Gilder, Silver, Drake, Iris, Ferrin and their armies headed east towards the «Rainbow Valley». We all watched them fly away and disappear behind the endless rain pouring down upon us.

I looked back at Mortifer, who looked at all of us with emotionless eyes. He scanned all our faces, not reacting to the different facial expressions he saw. He turned his gaze towards Violet, who was still looking at him in shock and confusion. My brother made no effort to comfort or apologize to her, and instead, approached Nagato without fear. He grabbed the GM by his neck collar and held the old man up to the sky. I expected Mortifer to get blasted away, but Nagato remained calm and instead appeared curious.

"Why did you lie to them?" the GM asked. "I already told you that I was the one who leaked the information of their plans. For a man who hates me so much, you are quite nice for protecting my reputation as a GM."

His words caught the gazes of everyone except for ViVi and Trish, who probably knew about this already. If the GM really did intervene with the events occurring within the game and committed an invasion of privacy against players who had done nothing wrong, then the reputation of ALfheim Online would drop drastically. It would also explain why Mortifer seemed more out of it than usual. Not to mention, he seemed to have struggled against Eugene as he took much longer than usual to finish a fight.

"You really think I care about that anymore?" Mortifer weirdly laughed out as if he were holding back his emotions. "You already heard me say it before, but I'm going to say it again. If you try to take my freedom away from me this time, I'll make you pay. You've already taken enough of it, and I can't deal with you taking anymore."

"Unfortunately for you, I cannot stop and will only escalate this situation to greater levels than before. I'm sure you already know of the last resort Ai-sama's parents have prepared for you, Mortifer-kun…"

"You guys are willing to go this far, just to separate me from her?" Mortifer croaked, finally showing a hint of despair on his face. "I've already tried so hard to forget what I had done in the past, and I'm trying to make myself a better person because of it. Why do you guys insist on making me suffer through it again? What do I have to do to make you stop?!"

"You already know the answer to that, Mortifer-kun," Nagato calmly stated. "You must break up with Ai-sama and promise to never see her again."

Mortifer's expression was now filled with despair. Even so, he didn't shed a single tear. Instead, the person who was shedding tears was Violet. Her tears were a mix from Mortifer hitting her, and Nagato's harsh words. Mortifer put down Nagato, who still held a blank expression on his face. My brother looked away from the GM and took a few steps back before turning his back to him. After moments of silence and despair, ViVi nervously walked up to the Gamemaster.

"N-Nagato-san…" ViVi stuttered out, attempting to reason. "Please… I'm sure that everyone here can get why Ai-chan's parents don't want her to be with Katsumoto-san. I get it… My friends get it… And, I'm pretty sure even Ai-chan gets it. But, I beg of you to please stop and try to understand why we've protected him all this time. Why we chose to forgive him… Because of him, we wouldn't be—"

ViVi was cut off when a sudden bright purple streak smacked him right on the face, sending the small Sylph flying a meter or two. ViVi landed on his face and slid half a meter or so on the rough stone paths leading to «Alne». The startling actions of Violet caused all mouths to drop open, including Nagato himself. The people who were most shocked were Mortifer and Asuna. Mortifer, like everyone else including myself, had never seen Violet so enraged before. Asuna couldn't handle the fact that her best friend was hurting so much and hid behind me. Despite the clear anger and frustration on her face, Violet continued to cry non-stop.

"A-Ai-chan?" ViVi stammered, shocked from her cousin's fit of rage.

"When will you ever learn!" she screamed at the top of her lungs. "When will you learn that running your stupid mouth isn't going to do anything helpful?! I've already told them to overlook what he's done in the past and just focus on what he was now! You really think they're going to change their mind when you of all people talk?! I'm surprised my brother hasn't even told you that he doesn't want to talk to you anymore!"

"W-What? What are you talking about? Why would he—"

"There you go again…" she sobbed, shaking her head furiously. "Even though we're in this stupid situation, all you care about now is your friendship between you and Hitori. He doesn't like you! He never did! And to think that I was the one who told him to give you a chance… The two of us were only friends with you because we pitied you. You had no friends for the longest time because you were too shy to meet others. Then suddenly, you kept on talking, and talking, and talking, wanting to gain friends so bad like you were having a tantrum. I didn't realize how annoying you were until a year before SAO, and I wish I never befriended you in the first place!"

"Then what about everyone else?!" ViVi desperately asked, turning around to face everyone.

Amongst his guildmates, none of them made a sound to tell him what they thought. Instead, they harshly expressed it by turning their heads away from him while remaining silent. It was clear that his guildmates agreed with Violet's words. If his guildmates agreed, then there was no doubting Mortifer's agreement. As for me, Asuna and Leafa, we were only friends with him because of the fact he was Violet's cousin. I knew for sure Asuna and Leafa found him annoying at times. I was probably the only person there who could tolerate him and be neutral, but I didn't know for sure.

"You see Vitushi… Nobody wants you," Violet grimly stated, glaring at her cousin while continuing to cry tears. "We don't want you in the real world, or even here in this game. You were always the weakest link, even in SAO. Even though Aqua and Trish were our runners, they were more useful than you despite being a damage dealer. You did little to no damage to any of the boss fights we participated in while we were in the Front Lines. You still haven't «Completed» your «Polearm» even though you had been training it for more than two years now. Why can't you be good in anything other than being loud and telling secrets! I'm surprised you didn't even tell anybody of Mortifer's identity when we were still in SAO! The biggest secret that we were supposed to keep, and you managed to do it. Yet here we are, in this stupid situation, all because you couldn't keep anymore secrets, no matter how important they were! This is all your fault!"

Violet ran towards ViVi with her fist raised high. ViVi, frightened to his wits end, desperately tried to crawl away but his small, weak arms could not gain any distance compared to the swift Violet. Knowing what was coming, he raised his arms to protect his face. However, before Violet's fist could even come close to his face, Mortifer quickly stopped her advancement by grabbing her arm. Violet stood there shocked much like everyone else. Her stunned expression disappeared quickly when Mortifer tightened his grip on her arm, causing Violet great discomfort but no pain due to the «Pain Absorber».

"Mortifer…" Violet called out.

"I'm sorry Violet… I really am," Mortifer spoke in a low voice. "It really pains me to say this, but given what has happened recently, what is happening right now, and what is going to happen in the future, the two of us must part ways from each other."

I felt Asuna suddenly twitch behind me, violently reacting to Mortifer's unbelievable words. Leafa yelped loudly next to us, quickly covering her mouth with both hands before welling up tears in her eyes. ViVi did the same thing with just one hand, but I could tell right away that he was crying more than my cousin. Other than Trish, who was crying into Aqua's shoulder, the rest of the Reapers of Sorrow had their mouths wide open in shock. I too couldn't help but look at my brother dumbfoundedly. The words that came out from his mouth just now were words that I thought I would never hear him say to Violet. Even if they weren't exactly the words I imagined, they meant the same thing, and that was what mattered at that moment.

"W-What do you mean?" Violet sobbed, her voice failing near the end. "Didn't you tell me that you can't live without me?! Don't you love me?!"

"I do love you!" Mortifer shouted back. "I always have, and always will love you! But… But… It's because of this love I have for you that I must leave you. I know it doesn't make much sense but let me explain. Your family... They're willing to turn me into the police just so that we can be separated from each other. If I get turned in, there is no doubt in my mind that I will be executed for what I've done. Your family's company has all the evidence they need for it, and the «SAO Case Victims Rescue» will rat me out if the information leaks. The players of the «SAO Survivors School» will also testify against me. If I die, then there's no way for me to love you anymore. I can't love you if I'm dead, and you can't love me back either. If I die, then that's it, which is why I have to leave you."

"No, no, no! That's not fair! I need you, and you need me! I don't want to break up with you!"

"Neither of us wants to break up with each other Violet… But right now, we have to."

"Then give me another reason! Otherwise, we're not breaking up! I don't care if I'm being selfish! You have always been selfish, so let me do the same!"

With every other word that Violet spoke, she repeatedly hit Mortifer's shoulder with the bottom side of her fist. She continued crying tears, looking at the ground while doing so. Despite how hurt someone like Mortifer would be right now, my brother shed no tears and didn't even show the slightest hint of crying. The FullDive mechanic of the AmuSphere is supposed to prevent a person from holding back emotions like sadness and forced players to cry if they felt like doing so, yet my brother only expressed emotional pain on his face without the tears. Was he not sad that he was leaving Violet? It couldn't be, right?

"Another reason…" Mortifer muttered through the rain. He stopped Violet from hitting him by grabbing her free arm, locking both in place. He slid his hands down her arm before stopping to hold her hands. He rubbed her fingers with his thumb and looked down at them with sadness in his eyes. "You're simply too far away…"

My brother let go of Violet's hands, leaving them to hang freely in the damp air. Violet's shoulders slumped downward at Mortifer's new words, clearly even more hurt by them. She fell to her knees, getting dirtied by the murky puddles she landed on. Mortifer took two steps away from Violet and began to look at the palms of his hands.

"I didn't notice it during our time in SAO because I had never met you in the real world. But in these past two months alone, the pieces were finally put together for me. Even though we're so close to each other in-game, we are light years away from each other in the real world. Not only does your family not like me, but I'm afraid that I won't even be able to care for you in the real world. I've never gotten a job, gone to college, or done anything of use to anybody except for myself. I may be strong in-game, but that's all I really have. Strength in a fake world that we don't live in."

"I don't care if you're weak in the real world!" Violet cried as she stood back up on her feet. "I don't care about being privileged, or rich, or having a nice home! I just want to live in this world with you by my side! Why do you think I'm too far away for you to do that?! I'm here in Japan, and I'm here right next to you in this world! I'll always be by your side from now on, no matter what happens, and I promise that!"

"And if I die, what would you do then?"

"I'll die along with you!"

"What if I don't want that?"

"I don't care anymore if you don't want me to die!" Violet screamed at the top of her lungs. With her volume, I didn't doubt that other players overheard, but I didn't think anybody cared if they overheard. "Like I said, if you can be selfish, then let me be selfish as well! From now on, I will, for all eternity, always be right next to you! If I lose you, then there wouldn't be a reason for me to live!"

"Don't say that…" Mortifer croaked out. His voice was weak, and he appeared to be on the verge of crying, but he still showed no tears. "Please don't say that… You can and will live without me Violet. It would be the best for you, and that's all I ever wanted. You may not be happy with it, but it's what you need."

"Of course I'm not happy with it! I'm not happy because it isn't what I need at all! I need you to live in this world, and you need me to live in thi—"

The boundaries of both my imagination and this world broke when lightning struck down upon the arched gate of «Alne». The bright flash blinded my sight as well as everyone else's. The following clap of thunder exploded my ear drums, making them ring so loudly that I thought I went deaf. The lightning bolt itself was so powerful that it made the ground quake, causing everyone to lose their balance. I lost myself and fell in a world of pure white, unable to see or hear anything. I could only feel the rain drops falling on my head, smell the musty city life of «Alne» and taste the stale, cold water that seeped into my mouth. But when I finally hit the rough, stone pavement of the road, the white world I was seeing dissolved back into a grey obscurity.

The droplets of rain fell on my face and I instinctively closed my eyes to protect them. I quickly rolled over so that my back was now against the rain. I fruitlessly wiped the water from my face with my already wet glove, simply spreading it out so that it covered an even bigger area. Realizing my futile efforts, I got back up on my feet and turned to face Mortifer and Violet once again. However, I wish I didn't as my mind couldn't comprehend what it was seeing, and I believed that it was the same for everyone else. I instantly flashbacked to the time of Mortifer's execution, right after he had gone berserk. I remembered Violet getting whipped by the very chains that bound Mortifer. It was the first time I had seen him attack her, even if it wasn't on purpose. Yet what I was seeing in front of me appeared to be the second time he was doing so, and on purpose.

My brother had drawn Lux from its scabbard, and he had thrusted the white sword all the way through Violet's stomach, making it protrude out from the other side. Violet's face was filled with nothing but shock, and the same went for Nagato, who surprisingly did nothing to stop my brother. Instead, he continued to stare at the two with his mouth open. Everyone around had the same reaction: Asuna, Leafa, Rizer, Paradox, Cayonz, Zed, Konno, ViVi, Aqua and Trish. Nobody expressed any other emotion other than complete shock, except for my brother. He was the only one who looked differently. He didn't convey any sort of sadness, shock or fear. Instead he showed the same face I had seen so many times before in the past that I was working on forgetting. The past where Mortifer was still an emotionless, sadistic monster. He tilted his head and stared at his own blade as if showing amusement. He twisted Lux while it was still inside of Violet, giving her enormous discomfort. He slowly wrenched the blade out of his girlfriend and stared at her wound for several more seconds. Violet was left speechless and didn't say a single word. She just continued to stare at Mortifer in shock, but now, fear was slowly growing in her face.

"Both of us are quite stubborn Violet," My brother began. "You weren't really like that before I disappeared that night, so I guess it's my fault you're like this. I want to stay with you. I truly do… But, you're wrong about that… You're wrong about me needing you to live my life."

A single tear formed in Violet's right eye, and it fell to the underside of her chin. The tear fell and camouflaged itself on the hundreds of raindrops around it before hitting the ground beneath. Violet's head fell downward to examine her new wound, but Mortifer used his left hand to push her head back up. My brother made her stare at his cold-blooded face for a few more seconds before his empty eyes started to burn with anger, and his straight eyebrows angled downwards into a scowl.

"I never needed you for me to live my life. I never needed friends nor family. I never needed anybody. You and everyone else were just tools I used to get both love and happiness. But now, you all are broken, and broken tools should be thrown away."

For an instant, Mortifer's face flinched as if he were in pain, but it disappeared when he quickly spun around with Lux raised high. His cloak thrashed due to his sudden movements, impeding my ability to see what had transpired. However, I didn't need to see exactly what happened to know. In fact, I was glad I didn't see what truly happened, as the sight of Violet's decapitated head flying in the air was enough to make my stomach churn violently. The head flew straight up, rotating slightly as it slowed down its ascent. Before it could fall, Mortifer threw Lux so that the sword pierced the side of the virtual head, pinning it at the crown of the arched gate. Violet's virtual body fell flat on the ground in front of Mortifer before it quickly burst into flames. Her head remained on top of the gate for a longer period, but it too disappeared. Lux remained stuck on the wooden portion of the gate that it was embedded into, left all alone.

"Have the blade as a keepsake because I'm never returning to this game ever again. I hand leadership of the Reapers of Sorrow to you, Violet. Sayonara"

Mortifer violently took off the ground with his purple wings, pushing away nearby rain droplets with the wave of high air pressure he created. My brother ascended around twenty meters or so before slowing down to a stop. He then thrust himself forward, heading east across the central plains. His figure grew smaller and smaller until it became invisible to our eyes. We stood there, stunned, confused and scared of the events that occurred. To a normal person, it would just seem like a normal break up. But Mortifer and Violet's relationship transcended that of girlfriend-boyfriend and went into the realms of basically husband and wife. They may not had been of average marriage age, but their relationship was as close to one as you could get, if not more. The first to break away from the trance was Asuna, who immediately rushed over to Violet's «Remain Light». She took out the expensive resurrection item to restore Violet's status. Her purple flame began morphing into her Imp avatar, but the magical flaming silhouette suddenly turned into mush, melting and falling to the ground like lava. The liquid flames then disappeared into pixels, mimicking the death animation of perishable objects and NPCs. The weird occurrence caused Asuna and a few others to panic, but Nagato held his hand up and motioned for them to calm down.

"Do not worry. Ai-chan disconnected from the game before you could revive her. For some reason the disconnection symbol didn't appear since it doesn't usually appear for someone who was already dead. I will go back to the real world to tend to her now. I'll say my farewells now."

Nagato proceeded to commence a deep bow despite his higher authority both in the virtual and real world. He swiftly opened his insanely large administrator menu and logged out of the game. He too disappeared in a quick flash of pixels, leaving us all alone. Asuna, Leafa and I stood silent along with the rest of the Reapers of Sorrow. The first person to do anything was ViVi, who was still on the ground from earlier. The brown-haired boy buried his face in his arms and legs and cried into them, not even trying to hold back. Konno once again headed over to comfort him, kneeling to match the boy's level. Rizer took a seat at a nearby rock, and Cayonz joined him soon after. The two of them also had their faces buried in their hands. Rizer appeared frustrated while Cayonz oozed out sympathy. Trish stopped crying but she and Aqua were now sitting in the muddy grass, not caring for their now dirtied appearance. The rest of us stood still, unable to do anything else.

The tempest began to magically fade away, and the grey clouds slowly disappeared, leaving behind a clear sky. Even though the sunlight was directly hitting me, I felt nothing but an eerie coldness. Next to me, Leafa had her hands in a prayer-like fashion, covering her nose and mouth. Tears slowly streamed down her closed eyes as she silently cried. To my other side, Asuna was hugging my arm tightly, scared and crying. I shifted our position, and I enveloped her in the warmest hug I could possible give her. Even so, I still felt a coldness in my heart. I looked towards the sun which was slowly setting in the west. The sky was beginning to turn orange, but the sun wasn't below the mountains yet. It's radiant light, however, was slowly fading away.

"Have I always been this much of a douche?" ViVi sniveled. "Was I always this stupid to not realize my uselessness and egoism?"

"I think you mean egotism, but I guess egoism fits in as well," Konno responded, veering off to a different direction but quickly going back. "My question is, do you want the truth? Or at least my truth?"

"Since I've found out that everything has been a lie, then yes, I want to at least hear a single truth, even if it's just yours…"

"You are annoying, and you never shut your mouth even when you are told to. You want to be at the center of attention even if it isn't the appropriate time to be at the center. You are both dense and gullible. Amongst the guild, you are our weakest damage dealer, and the person who's done the least in terms of battles and missions. And for all I know, the only reason Zed accepted you was because I pitied you enough to persuade him to allow you to join us."

ViVi, who was already curled up into a ball, shrunk down even more and began shivering as if he were cold. He buried his head in his arms, so we could only see his brown hair.

"I can say one thing though," Zed began. "While Violet told the truth, the way she delivered it was too harsh. I can't really blame her though. Given the situation she's in, and you being the cause of it, it's kinda' hard not to get mad. But damn… What the hell's up with your brother Kirito?"

"I… I don't know…" I stuttered, still baffled. "All I can say is that my brother seems to have gone through a relapse."

"A relapse?" Paradox questioned.

"For one, the Mortifer that I met at the end of the game would never do that to Violet, unless he was brainwashed like his «Darkness Blade»'s ability," I started explaining. "I say relapse because his actions just now reminded me of what he was like back then. He's still rather merciless and emotionless now, but that's towards people he finds annoying. Back then, that same brutality was directed towards everyone. I mean, he beat up our grandfather one time for arguing against my brother dropping kendo and karate."

"Your brother did karate too?" Zed exclaimed, bewildered at Mortifer's long combat experience.

"Kyokushin to be exact… Why does this matter?"

"Ah… Sorry… I let myself get carried away," Zed apologized. "But jeez, his own grandfather? Did he get hospitalized?"

"My brother didn't go that far since my grandfather was still sick at the time. He just put our grandfather into an armlock and threatened him to back down. Our mom was so close to putting him into foster care and waiving her parental rights. It may have been in-game, but Mortifer basically did the same thing to Violet just now."

"Yeah… And to even imagine the mental damage it caused Violet-chan…"

"Both of their minds are probably about to break apart, but I'm really concerned for your brother, Kirito, Leafa," Rizer finally spoke up. "Not trying to disparage Violet's pain, but Mortifer has definitely suffered through more. What's he doing now?"

"Katsu-nii went offline," Leafa pointed out, showing her friends list to me. "I'm going to go back to the other side and check on him."

"Yeah, do that…"

"Eh, someone watch my body please."

Leafa ran over to a large rock sitting next to the road. She sat down and leaned her back against its rough, grey surface. She logged out of the game and her avatar's body went slump as if she were asleep. I looked towards the east, where the sky was turning to a dark blue. Mortifer was heading towards that direction before he left. I didn't know why at first, but I soon remembered the project he was working on over at the Gnome's territory. Yeah, he had to have gone there. There was no other reason for him to head anywhere else, unless he had some secret reason that I didn't know about.

We sat there for a minute or two before my sister came back online. She seemed a bit angry and hurt, as if she were annoyed with something. She stood up and crossed her arms over her chest. She took a long breath before speaking out her thoughts and worries.

"Katsu-nii locked his door, so I opened it with the keys to his room. But it seems that he has something really big behind the door since I can't even budge it. I tried calling out to him, but he wouldn't say anything. He's flipped something big to block window view and sounded like he was throwing around a bunch of stuff, making a huge mess. I hope to god he hasn't damaged anything or broken his computer…"

"What to do we now?" Paradox asked.

I thought about our next move, and checked on my friend's list once again, wondering if Mortifer was back online When I saw the grey circle by his name indicating his offline status, I sighed out and looked back towards the west.

"We can head over to the site of the project he was working on. I think he was heading there as soon as he left," I informed them. "He's not online right now, but we can try to meet him there."

"It'll take an hour or two to get there. You guys up for the flight?" Leafa asked everyone.

"I'm down, but I'm going to eat dinner soon," Zed said, looking at his menu's clock. His eyes widened instantly as soon as he read the time, and a hint of panic formed on his face. "By soon I mean right now. I'm running late for dinner. Plus, this whole thing has gotten me stressed. I need a break right now. See you guys later, I guess."

Zed quickly logged off without saying goodbye, but nobody argued. In fact, it seemed that everyone wanted a break from the game, considering what had happened. We all looked at each other and silently agreed to follow Zed's footsteps. The only one who didn't react was Rizer, who remained sitting on the rock with his face hidden away from everyone. Konno tried to approach him, but I stopped him in his tracks.

"Konno," I called out. He turned his head to me and I simply shook my head, signaling him to not bother the man. Konno obliged, and he too opened his menu to log out.

Konno was followed by Paradox, Cayonz and ViVi, who logged out with haste. Aqua said a few words to Trish before both of them logged out simultaneously. All that was left now was me, Asuna, Leafa and Rizer. Excluding Rizer, the three of us were about to open our own menus to log out, only to be stopped by the sudden voice of the man.

"I always thought the two of them would marry each other," Rizer spoke. He got up from the rock and summoned his wings. He hovered over to the gate and wrenched Lux out of the wooden segment of the gate. "When Mortifer came back to us after being in Laughing Coffin, the two of them looked so happy. Together, they enjoyed life's thrills and suffered through life's hardships. When I saw them leave our little island home in the 24th Floor for their honeymoon, I thought in my head that they were meant to be together. I thought that they had found their true love within each other. Violet accepted Mortifer's sins, and he accepted her weaknesses and her willingness to love him. Yet, here I am wondering how it went so wrong."

"You really think they were true love?" Asuna timidly asked, saddened at Rizer's unusually meaningful words.

"I didn't believe in true love before. It's not because I have been dumped or anything. I never had a girlfriend or someone who was as important to me as Violet is to Mortifer. I just thought there was no way two couples could be so perfect for each other that they never fought or disagreed with anything. They both liked the same thing. Hated the same thing. But, after seeing them together, and partly you and Kirito, I realized that true love wasn't like that. In my eyes, it's when both partners fully accept their life partner for the person he or she is, was and will be. It'll probably change if I meet someone I find special to me, but that's what I've gotten from the two of them. I may not have been there at the beginning of their story, but I was damn close to it. To see how far they've come, and for it all to just fall apart… I can't even imagine what's going on through either of their minds right now, and if your brother really meant those words he told Violet."

"The only way to find out is to see him for ourselves," I grimly stated. I summoned my own wings and hovered over to his side. I patted him on the back and tried to give him a smile. "Come on now big guy. How about we all get some fresh air before heading over to my brother?"

"Yeah… Sure…"


A few hours later, Night, «The Misty Valley»

Leafa and I tried calling out to Mortifer for dinner earlier, but we obtained no response from him. The two of us tried to push open his door, but the obstruction behind it was too heavy for even both of us to push aside. Because of that, only the two of us ate dinner, and we did so in silence. Despite making my favorite teriyaki chicken burgers, they didn't taste as good as usual. Even Leafa had trouble as neither of us finished our meals despite having not eaten for hours prior. If we were already affected this much by the situation in such a short amount of time, I couldn't even imagine how much it would affect us later down the line.

Now, we were currently heading to the site of Mortifer's project. Leafa and I knew of its general location, but we waited for Rizer and Cayonz to get back as they knew of its exact location. The two of them took longer than the rest for reasons unbeknownst to us, but we didn't bother asking. Given its name, I expected to see as much as a normal foggy day or even less. That wasn't the case as we could only see as much as a meter or so in front of us. We were forced to hold on to each other to not get lost. However, even with them guiding us, we still managed to get lost in the unbelievably thick fog of the «Misty Valley». Apparently, the landmarks they used to easily traverse the valley had been displaced, some even destroyed. I suspected it was my brother's doing, but we didn't even know if he was here. All we knew is that he was currently online.

"I think we're getting close…" I heard Rizer's voice call out from the front. I couldn't see the man as he was seven persons away from me. Between the two of us was the rest of the Reapers of Sorrow, while Asuna and Leafa were behind me. "Hover back down, now."

As commanded, eleven of us made a descent towards the ground which was much closer than I thought. Leafa and a few others stumbled due to moving too fast, causing our chain to break. Leafa recovered, and the others did as well as Konno, who was in front of me, nodded his head to inform us. We slowly walked forward, still holding hands. We appeared to be following some stone path, but the stones were sparsely placed, allowing grass to grow in between them. I believed we traversed in the fog for a solid minute before I started to notice the fog getting much lighter.

"Hey, I can see better now!" Zed exclaimed up ahead, now partially visible.

"We're almost there," Rizer shouted out from the front, though still not that visible. "Typically, we'd be able to see the lights of the entrance by now, but I see nothing up ahead. Mortifer must've taken them down."

"Well, at least we know that he's here," Paradox sighed in relief.

"We don't know if he's really here or not," I told her from the back. "But, the chances that he is here is much higher now."

"Ah! We're here!" Rizer shouted in glee. "As expected, he did remove the—"

Rizer's words were cut off for some unknown reason. I expected someone to ask him what was wrong, yet nothing came out. We instead took several more steps until we were all out of the fog. In front of us was a large natural gorge. Flowers of different varieties were placed at the bottom, and I could see vines reaching down from the top. Also on the top were stone archways evenly distanced from each other, However, the first one right above the opening was broken in the middle. Its missing part had fallen down to the bottom of the gorge, partially destroying the beauty of a skillfully made stone-paved road. The fallen piece uprooted nearby stones and even the ground itself, making an ugly spot in the middle of a breathtaking canyon.

"Did you guys not support this enough?" Asuna asked them.

"I built these archways weeks ago," Cayonz quickly affirmed as if offended. His reaction didn't surprise me as he was the mason of the guild after all. "I used the exact same techniques and materials, so there's no way only one of them fell. Plus, the piece didn't fall exactly below the archway. Look, its several meters off. The shape of it also doesn't call for it to roll."

As the man said, the fallen archway did indeed land far away from its original location. It was as if something had pushed it as it broke off the archway. Typically, player homes and generated instances counted as «Immortal Objects», but player-constructed homes and some natural foliage and formations were destroyable. Even so, a solid stone archway made by a skilled mason shouldn't be capable of being destroyed so easily.

"It had to be Mortifer's doing," Cayonz determined. "But, I don't think that even the Buster Sword could break the archway to such an extent…"

"I-If he had a blunt weapon like a hammer or even my quarterstaff, I'm pretty sure he'd be able to do it," ViVi chimed in. The boy was silent the entire time, scared of talking. Even now, he was nervously shaking. "He may not have any blunt weapon «Skills», but he can still use the basic «Sword Skills» to do massive damage given his high STR stat."

"ViVi-kun is right," Trish spoke up, walking over to the fallen arch. She crouched down and examined a certain spot on the arch where numerous cracks originated from. "This spot here is where Mortifer-san likely hit the archway to fully break it off. The sides have similar spots on the top, so he didn't do it all in one hit. He probably weakened its support then knocked it off. But, why did he do this?"

"Most likely to let out his anger. Considering what had happened, I'm surprised he didn't break all of these archways," Zed scoffed.

"Anger…" Rizer murmured quietly. He had one of his arms across his chest while the other held up his chin. The man appeared to be thinking until his eyes quickly widened as if realizing something important or crucial. "Shit! How much of it did he destroy!"

Without saying even another word, Rizer sprinted ahead of us, quickly followed by Cayonz, who also appeared to be very anxious. Seeing nothing else to do, we all followed the two of them down the canyon pass. Despite our hastiness, we cautiously took our steps as the stone road was still wet from the thunderstorm from earlier. With almost no earth to seep into, puddles covered the smooth beige stones. They reflected what little moonlight reached them, giving us a distorted and upside-down view of our surroundings. We occasionally ran into some low-hanging vines that grew both on the various archways and the sides of the cliff. We ran down the path for almost a minute before we came upon a surreal landscape, the likes of which I had never seen before.

The hidden gorge revealed to us a pasture confined within its vast earthen walls. The blades of grass which grew up to my thighs brushed against everyone's legs, occasionally tickling us due to how incredible soft and smooth they were. The flat plain didn't cover the entire valley, as it was later cut off by a river which separated it from a large hill. Sparsely dotting the field were small saplings whose roots protruded through the soft ground. There was a single tree of gargantuan size that towered above its younger siblings. It stood in the middle of the valley, with roots so big it could very well be used as a home. Its vivid pink leaves evoked memories of cherry blossoms during the spring season while its drooping branches spawned images of wisterias. The grandeur of the tree silenced our group as we could not help but admire its beauty.

Except for Rizer and Cayonz, who rushed on ahead past the tree, we slowly approached it, captivated by its appearance. I traversed off the road and into a small grassy circular area. The road itself diverged into two separate paths which wove around the tree before converging once again to make one single path. I rubbed my hand against its enormous roots and noticed the several cuts that were embedded into them. I traced the cuts along the roots until I reached its main trunk. It was there I found Mortifer's sword Sanctus stuck deep inside the tree's wooden body. Scorch marks surrounded a small area next to the sword, making me assume my brother had used a fire-elemental «Sword Skill» on the tree. Even if his intentions were to destroy the tree, the desecrated surface was much too small to sabotage the pink tree's charm.

"No fucking way…" Zed's voice shuddered to my right.

I gazed at his face, seeing his eyes glisten in the moonlight as he marveled at a concealed sight which I could not see. I stepped out of the tree's shade and went back on the stone path around it. I joined everyone as we all slowly and cautiously walked towards the extravagant project my brother, Rizer and Cayonz had been working on for the past few months. Despite its size, it managed to hide behind the tree's enormous canopy, invisible to our eyes back at the entrance. It stood there—past the green fields of the valley, across the sparkling blue river—atop the monumental mound that covered much of the gorge.

The forsaken ruins of a once majestic castle withered away before our eyes. Countless hordes of rubble could be found near the bottom of the walls or even down in the rivers below it. Cavities in the walls exposed the castle's interior, which also seemed to be as badly broken as its exterior. The front bastion above the gate had been destroyed completely, and its broken pieces had fallen down next to the drawbridge connecting the mound to the rest of the plains. One of the four towers in the corners of the fortress toppled over the rooftop, breaking into hundreds of pieces. The entryway itself was terribly damaged as one of the two wooden doors had been unhinged, causing it to collapse flat. The other half of the door was missing an entire chunk as if some monster had bitten off it. I could see a bright light emanating from within the castle, and flames suddenly ignited within the main hallway.

Creeping from the once dark interior of the castle came the radiant flow of molten rock. It burned the wooden doors, spreading the inferno even further and sending clouds of smoke into the sky. The lava flow slithered past the doors, squirming into the small cracks in the stone path before it began to travel downhill towards the bridge. Despite seeing their own creation being destroyed in front of their own eyes, Rizer and Cayonz did nothing to stop the lava from continuing its fiery rampage. It was most fortunate that it happened to stop just before it fell into the river or got close enough to ignite the wooden platform of the drawbridge. Even so, hell proceeded to wreak havoc within the castle. The heat of the flames crippled the mortar of Cayonz's masonry, causing more walls to collapse. Seeing the flames consuming the castle seemingly scorched my spirit, as I began to cry from the despair the sight brought before me.

"It's too late to save it now…" Rizer croaked out. His spirit was also weakened from the sight of his work being destroyed. "The castle that we had been building for three months now gone in a single night. We still had so much left to do—"

The man stopped his sentence short as he rubbed his right cheek with his right hand. He looked upon his palm as if expecting something to be there. Rizer then turned his gaze upwards towards the foggy night sky above us. He had his mouth open in wonder, prompting Paradox, who was concerned for him, to bring him back to reality.

"Rizer, what's wrong?"

"I… I thought I felt rain just now." The man whispered. His eyes suddenly widened as the moon which had been hiding behind the black fog came out to shed light upon the world.

Behind the burning castle were two mystical waterfall that fell from the top of an overhang nearly a hundred meters above the castle itself. An identical tree to the one now behind us stood atop this overhang, in between both waterfalls. I thought that Rizer may have felt water from the waterfall until I saw a continuous trail of droplets falling from the edge of the overhang where the stone jutted out like the tip of a blade. My gaze found itself narrowing down to a single point, allowing myself to barely recognize a small figure from that distance. Its shadow was being cast on the sides of the canyon, revealing the figure to be sitting down upon the edge of the overhang and looking down upon us. Small parts of the shadow constantly moved around, giving me the image of a cloak swaying in the wind. Considering what was going on around us, and why we were here in the first place, I knew right away that the figure was Mortifer.

I spawned the wings on my back, and the others did the same. With me at the front, I led everyone upwards to the sky, aiming for the overhang which my brother was sitting on. My brother appeared to have seen us flying to him, so he proceeded to back away from the ledge, retreating towards the tree. As we continued our ascent, a warning sign appeared in the sky far above us, informing us that we were reaching the altitude limit. However, we didn't slow down as the overhang was well below the height limit, giving us plenty of space. By the time we reached the same level of the cliffside, Mortifer had already reached the tree, and he was rubbing its trunk with the tip of his fingers.

"Onii-chan," Leafa attempted to call out.

"It was so hard to hold them back," he spoke in a rather weak tone.

Mortifer, whose head was looking downwards, lifted his head up for us to see. His hood was off, letting his hair sway freely in the soft, constant breeze. A seemingly endless river of tears streamed down from both of his eyes which were red from crying. Tears from both eyes rolled down to the bottom of his chin before falling off his face. The sorrowful droplets fell to the blooming flowers beneath him before disappearing into the earth. With his gloved hands, he seized his cloak, and used it to wipe away and stop the tears. However, no matter how many times he buried his face in the torn, black cloak, his tears continued to pour endlessly down his face.

"The game was trying to make me cry so badly earlier that it hurt trying to resist it. But now, I'm trying too hard, yet I can't seem to make my tears stop. They just keep coming out so quickly that I can even see a trail of tears, sort of like a river. Heck, with all this crying and the wind, maybe I can even douse the flames of the castle. Maybe I should try that now."

With a hint of odd excitement in his face, my weeping brother waded through us and made his way back to the cliffside. I stared at my brother as he sat back down the edge of the cliff and continued to cry in silence. He was most definitely in pain, as he usually lets thoughts and impulses take over whenever that happens.

I shifted my gaze back to the pink tree behind us. I didn't notice it before since my brother had covered it up, but there was a missing piece of bark in the middle of the tree's trunk. There was a small, exposed area on the trunk that had engravings on it. I walked a bit closer to the tree since I couldn't read it from the distance I was at, and I found myself right next to it since it was also dark. The letters "M" and "V" were carved into the wood. The "V", however, had been crossed out with two thin cuts while a larger cut separated the two letters.

"You know, I just remembered something Kazuto…" Mortifer finally spoke from behind me. I quickly turned my body to face him and paused to see what my brother would say. "Back when I saved you guys from Kuradeel, in the canyons of the 55th Floor, I relived a precious memory I had with our parents. It was the day after you were born—the day our parents died. It was such a happy memory that I had forgotten because of how little I cared back then. Even when I relived it, I was only reminded of how important you were to me. I didn't bother remembering what our parents looked like, or how their voices sounded. Just now, I suddenly want to hear mom and dad's voice so badly."

Even though Mortifer was already crying out a stream of tears, his tears increased, causing the stream to turn into a roaring river. Not only did he start crying even more, but his words started cutting deep into me, and I felt my own tears form. Next to me, Leafa also started having tears in her eyes. Asuna noticed my sadness and embraced me from the side, ineffectively giving me comfort.

"I want to hear them yell at me for doing bad things. I want them to tell me to stop doing whatever stupid shit I was doing. I want to hear them tell each other 'I love you'. And most of all, I want to hear them tell me that they love me. I realized that I don't remember them saying that to me ever. And now, I want to hear them say it so badly that it hurts. Why did they have to leave us behind and move on to the other side? I want to show them how much I've changed. I want to show them how much I really cared for them deep inside. I want to show them how much I've protected you all this time. I wanted them to at least say they were proud of me, even if I was a son they didn't want."

Even though I never had memories of my real parents, I could still very much relate to my brother's despair. When I found out about my true parents, I no longer felt any emotion when my adoptive mom or aunt gave me compliments or told me that she was proud of me. I just seemingly lost the trust in her words as she never told me the truth.

Thinking about it made me shed even more tears, which then caused Paradox, Trish and Konno to start forming tears in their eyes. However, the most shocking was Cayonz, who broke down completely. The tall, quiet giant caught us off-guard with his sudden crying so much that our jaws dropped from shock. His breakdown prompted him to retreat behind the tree to hide from us. Rizer started making his way towards Cayonz before he stopped in his tracks. He was probably thinking about leaving the man alone, which I would have done since I knew almost nothing about Cayonz. I assumed the same for the guild as well since Mortifer even told me that of the entire guild, Cayonz was the person he knew least about. And, as I suspected, Rizer decided not to chase after Cayonz and instead remained with us.

"Why does it hurt so much…" Mortifer sobbed out. "Has it always been this painful to lose someone important to you? I didn't feel a thing when I lost Oka-san, Otou-san, and Ojii-san. Heck, I didn't even feel anything when Vincent left either. Yet, all those lies I told Violet earlier felt like thousands of hot knives piercing into my soul…"

Mortifer raised a hand to his chest. I couldn't really see, but I assumed he was trying to grab his heart as his clothing shifted slightly. His whole body was shuddering from his inability to stop his emotions from flowing. He then raised his free left hand up to the side of his head, and seemingly squeezed it as if he were in pain. While he did so, Asuna tucked against my sleeve to get my attention, and I looked over to face her.

"Who's Vincent?" Asuna asked me while looking at my brother.

"Vincent?" I repeated. "Well… I think he was an old friend of his… I don't remember much, but he's long gone now."

"Did… Did he die?"

"Die? No, he didn't… He just left the country to go live back at his home overseas."

"The Voices… I can't hear any of them except for hers…" Mortifer finally spoke up. "Not only that, but the scene keeps replaying in my head like an endless nightmare. Even now, I can't even see what's really in front of me. I just see Violet in front of me, screaming out words she didn't say. Yet, every time it repeats in my head, the words just keep getting more real. Did she tell me that I was a murderer? A monster? I can't even remember anymore. I just want to forget it all."

"Violet's voice is in your head?" Leafa asked.

"Of course it is… I killed her in-game… And now, I'm trying my best to kill the memories I have with her. Yet, each time I try to do it, they just keep coming back so vividly that I want to experience it again so badly. I just can't let go of her, yet I must for both of our sakes. If I continue with this relationship, not only will I eventually lose all of my freedom, but Violet will lose a lot of hers as well. She may even get an arranged marriage, just like what your parents did to you Asuna… Isn't that right, Nagato-sama?"

Mortifer tilted his chin upwards looking up at the sky. He reached out to the sky with his right hand as if reaching for something. I thought he was hallucinating since he mentioned Nagato, but when he closed his hands, the air in front of him shimmered slightly. The devious GM came into full view, floating silently in front of my brother, and shocking all of us but him. Mortifer was holding his red cloak with a vice grip, and tugging it towards him, causing the man to move slightly closer.

"You know, if you guys are going to make an invisibility function, you may as well make your bodies intangible," my brother choked through his tears. "I felt your cloak on my boot when I tried to lift it. There was an odd heaviness to it. Even so, I expected you to watch me. After all, I'm confident you want to make sure that my words were indeed true while also enjoying my suffering."

"Unfortunately, only the first statement applies," Nagato corrected. "I don't take pleasure in the suffering of others, but I shall cause the suffering if necessary. So, will you please fully confirm, Reaper of Sorrow?"

"What more do I have to confirm?!"

Out of rage, Mortifer tugged hard on the GM's cloak, causing the admin to stagger forward. With one swift motion, my brother choke slammed the old man to the ground and pinned him down by sitting on his chest. I was afraid he would get blown away like always by the GM, but the elderly man chose not to retaliate. He simply let himself get pinned by my brother and stared at him with an odd curiosity.

"I need you to say that you no longer love Violet and that you will never approach her ever again for the rest of your life," Nagato demanded, causing Mortifer to bite his lips out of frustration.

"I've already promised to not get near her anymore! Why do you still insist to make me hurt myself even more?!"

Mortifer pushed himself off Nagato, and stood back up, towering over the GM. Typically my brother looked down towards people he disliked in a condescending manner, but his pitiful state showed the complete opposite. He was at the complete mercy of Nagato and the Yuzuki family, unable to do anything but stand there in silence. Instead of assaulting Nagato some more like he would usually do to someone, my brother retreated to the edge of the cliff. He stood and looked over the edge at the burning castle.

"Every second that passes, I see her screaming at me words she probably never said before. She along with the other Voices are just constantly demoralizing me and breaking my spirit. It's hurting so bad that I don't think my heart can handle it anymore. Even now, the system is warning me of my heart rate. Yet… Every time I see Violet, I just can't help but love her even more. I can't help but love her sunny, caring and slightly dark personality. I can't help but love the way her voice softens when she is trying to comfort me when I'm down. I can't help but love those eyes of hers that always envelope me in warmth despite being so dark themselves. Yuzuki Ai… I love you…"

Mortifer turned his gaze upwards towards the moon. He reached his hand out towards it and tried grabbing it to no avail. He brought his empty fist back to him and opened it to reveal the emptiness of his hand. He remained silent for almost a minute before his voice reached our ears once again.

"So long ago I was consumed by the darkness, turning me into the person called Mortifer. I had always thought that Mortifer was who I really was, and that I'd always be like him for the rest of my life. It wasn't until I met Violet when I found my salvation. I rediscovered and saved Katsumoto from being completely erased by the monster that was Mortifer. With the help of Violet, I was able to slowly tear away the darkness within and replace it with her light. But now, since you're taking her away from me, my lifeline is gone, and the darkness is overtaking me."

Mortifer started to shiver violently as he crouched down and rolled up into a ball. He buried his face in his legs and completely wrapped himself up with his cloak, like a child wrapping themselves in their blanket during the night.

"Just thinking about turning back to him makes me so scared. I don't want him to come back. I don't want him to do any more bad things. I don't want to go back into being alone in the darkness. It's so cold in there. I want to stay here, in this place filled with light and warmth. I want to be Katsumoto, not Mortifer! Why did you have to do this to me! It hurts… It hurts so much…"

My brother's voice was breaking along with his spirit. By this time, he had pulled the heartstrings of everyone in the vicinity, causing tears to form in each and everyone's eyes. While the girls cried considerably more than the guys, they still could not compete to Cayonz, who was still crying back behind the tree. Most surprising, however, was Nagato, as even he was affected by Mortifer's words. Tears streamed down his cheeks as he listened to my brother's suffering.

I didn't notice it before since I never really paid attention. But now, it was clear in my eyes. My brother had been lost in a seemingly endless sandstorm, unable to find his way through it. The harsh gales powered the rough sands, slowly whittling down both his lifeforce and willpower. He had lost track of himself, unable to find where he was, who he was, and what he was. An identity crisis of extreme proportions that caused him so much pain, yet everyone except for Violet was too blind to see it. Had it been before SAO, I would not have cared at all, as I held no remorse for my brother. But now, I couldn't help but cry just as much as my brother. Here I thought I'd try repairing my relationship with Leafa, whom I had abandoned in my childhood, yet I can't even save my own brother.

"Hey…"

The voice that reached us was unlike what we had been hearing. The weak, hoarse voice of someone who had been crying disappeared into thin air. What was left was the voice of my brother as if nothing wrong had happened to him. In fact, he had stopped shivering, sniveling and any other action he was performing for the past several minutes. He opened up his limbs, letting himself stretch in a sitting position before standing straight up. He inched closer and closer to the edge till he was on the verge of falling off. The front half of his feet hovered in the smoke-filled air while the other half were firmly planted on the ground. Mortifer stared down at the fires below and stood there in silence before finally speaking again. The words that came out from his mouth, however, implanted a terribly dark thought that paralyzed me and everyone else.

"Have you ever wondered what it's like to die?"

The sorrowful figure hidden inside the black cloak lurched forward and plummeted down to the inferno below. We reached our hands out and spread our wings, but all was in vain. Our hands reached and grasped nothing, and our wings failed to lift our bodies. The reality I lived in began to distort right in front of me as I watched the falling body tumble its way down towards the flames. Night turned to day, and the flames turned into clouds as I was reminded of the horror which I witnessed during that day. After I had already witnessed the demise of the Moonlit Black Cats, I was forced to watch as Keita, the leader, threw himself off the edge of Aincrad and into an endless abyss which he perished in. The reality I was witnessing echoed that of my memories, as my brother was soon consumed by the flames. At that moment, my heart sunk as I imagined the same scene play out before me, but on the other side where reality is the truth.

As I myself disappeared from my shattering utopia of virtual reality, I became blinded by a brilliant realm of light. I then found myself in an endless darkness, consumed by my harrowing nightmares. After being lost in a void of hopelessness, I was able to return to my dystopia of reality.


(Kazuto)

Real world

The gloominess surrounding this single day alone was as solid as the black night. The roaring calamity that is my brother's situation coincidentally coincided with another terrible situation in the real world. Not only was it storming in-game, causing a much more depressing mood for everyone, it was also storming in the real world on a scale that matched the in-game tempest at its peak. Thunder shook the very earth, surely causing distress amongst babies, young children and others who may fear lightning.

I pushed open my bedroom door with such force that I was afraid of breaking it. However, my worries quickly disappeared as there was something far more dire present in the house, and it was hiding behind Katsumoto's barricade. I cared little for the structural damage and self-harm I could have caused, repeatedly rammed into my brother's bedroom door with my entire body. The door shuddered violently while also creaking from the strain. I only had less than a meter of space to gain momentum, so I made sure to put all my strength into my legs.

"O-Onii-c-chan!" I heard Suguha's voice sniveled out.

I rammed into the door once more, bringing pain to my entire right arm and shoulder. I then paused to look down the hallway where Suguha was standing in her lonesome. She was still shedding tears though not as much as her avatar in-game. Noticing her awful state, she wiped the tears away and calmed herself down, so she could speak clearly.

"Katsu-nii went offline. He must've logged off or disconnected from the AmuSphere. I don't really know," she explained to me.

"That's good to know then… Katsumoto!" I shouted out with all the strength my lungs and vocal cords could muster. "Open up the damn door now! And don't do anything stupid while you're at it!"

I didn't wait for his response, as I knew he would either remain silent or not give me anything of use. Instead, I continued to use myself as a battering ram, slowly making the door move ever so slightly. Because it was beginning to move, I figured that I already broke the door frame and the lock, so I continued without hesitation.

"Onii-chan, let me!" Suguha proposed. I hesitated to let her ram the door, but I quickly remembered her monstrous strength as well as the growing pain in my arm.

I stepped aside to let my sister take the painful reins of being the battering ram. She hugged the wall opposite to Katsumoto's door, and quickly tensed up. Her muscles that had been developed from years of kendo bulged out of her body, showing the amount of effort she was putting into her limbs. Then, with the ferocity of a lion and the speed of a snake, Suguha exploded off the wall and went shoulder-first into the door, aiming for the side with the doorknob. With one hard push, Suguha created an opening in the doorway. As I suspected, my brother had toppled over his king-sized bed behind the door. Our combined efforts managed to push the bed far enough to make an opening big enough for our heads to fit through. Suguha stuck her head inside the room and crouched down to allow me to see as well. When I stuck my head inside, I was only slightly shocked at what I saw, but not too much.

Clothes were scattered everywhere, and the walls had scratch marks from furniture being thrown around. My brother's gaming chair sat in the middle of his room, broken into two pieces. While the base of the chair remained relatively intact, the head was utterly bent and disfigured, as if it were folded in half. He probably smashed it multiple times against the floor and walls to bring it to that shape. As I scanned around the room, I noticed that his window was no longer blocked and was wide open. Gusts of wind entered the narrow opening as well as the rain, drenching the floor underneath the window. Realizing that he wasn't in his room, I pulled my head out of the doorway and ran downstairs.

My hastiness caused me to slip and fall along the middle of the staircase. Thankfully, I didn't slip forward but backwards instead, causing myself to land on my butt and slide all the way down. The pain disabled me from standing up too quickly. After recovering, I limped towards the living room. From there, I saw the sliding glass doors wide open, letting in a lot of the rain into our home. Over by the kitchen, the refrigerator door was left open, and many perishables were thrown out. One of our kitchen drawers was also pulled out, and I noticed several small knives lying on the ground beneath it. That's when I noticed a dark puddle of blood in the center of the kitchen as well as a trailed that led outside of our home from the living room. Suguha followed closely behind me, visibly scared of what was going on.

I didn't stop to think, nor did I think I had the time to do so. I completely let my instincts take over as my body brought me outside of our home and into the raging storm. I followed the faint blood trail smeared on the walls and wet ground as it brought me past the front of the house, and then around towards the back. I passed by a bloodied shirt lying on the ground, and I quickly assumed it was Katsumoto's. I set my sights upon our family dojo which was left completely vulnerable to the storm with its open doors. Noticing the blood trail on the front steps of the dojo, I rushed on over along with Suguha to investigate. Surely enough, Katsumoto was lying face down in the middle of the dojo, shirtless and unmoving. A large pool of blood was slowly expanding from his body as his arms and legs continued to bleed profusely. Suguha screamed and ran back to the house, hopefully to call an ambulance. He had a bloodied kitchen knife in his right hand—the one that he'd use whenever he cooked anything—and the sheath on the left.

I hastily rushed over to my brother and checked to see if he was responsive, but I didn't even need to yell into his ears to find out that he wasn't. Not only had he targeted the veins of his arms, but he stabbed deep into his legs as well. In fact, he had cut so deep that he most likely severed an artery as his wound was spurting out blood like a fountain. With this amount of blood and the number of major blood vessels severed, the extremity of his hemorrhage was bound to cause unconsciousness.

"Suguha! Hurry! I need your help now!" I shouted at the top of my lungs as I took off my drenched shirt.

I wrapped the sleeves of my shirt tight around Katsumoto's bleeding thigh and tied it as tightly as I could. I ran out of the dojo momentarily to retrieve Katsumoto's shirt, so I could use it for one of his arms. I fashioned his shirt into a poorly made tourniquet and tightened it around one of his arms. I tried to look for something within the dojo I could use to bind his other arm, but I saw nothing of good use, which forced me to leave one arm bleeding as I had to apply pressure to his bleeding leg instead. I pinned my brother's right arm between my right armpit, and I raised his bleeding leg up so that it pointed up at a low angle, and applied pressure on his wound, hoping it would stop.

"Don't you dare die on me Katsumoto! You said you would protect me, right?! You can't protect me if you're dead!" I yelled at him, helplessly shedding tears that blinded my vision. "You're the last real family I have left… So don't fucking die on me! Suguha! Hurry up!"

"The ambulance is on its way!" she shouted from the house. "I'll go get the first aid kit!"

"Hurry!" I shouted out of desperation before applying even more pressure than before. "Katsu-nii! Katsu-nii!"


(Katsumoto)

My eyes were closed, leaving me in darkness. I could no longer feel the gales of wind blowing against my body, nor the cold, wet rain drenching my clothes. The metallic taste of blood was no longer present in my mouth, and the agonizing, yet numbing pain of my bleeding limbs no longer hurt. However, my limbs felt like they were being held down by heavy chains that prisons use to keep their inmates in check. I was probably one of those inmates right now, though I felt as if prison was going to be heaven compared to the hell I was going to go to.

"Am I dead?" I asked, as I opened my eyes to a realm filled with light.

"Not yet, my son," a soothing voice spoke. "Not yet."

I turned my body around and looked upon the faces of two very important people in my life. To the right stood my mom, and to the left was my dad. The tears came almost instantaneously, and my cold heart began to thaw out of its icy prison as I immersed myself in the presence of my beloved parents. I stumbled my way towards them, dragging my heavy legs across the floor, and making a strenuous effort to reach my hand out towards them. My mother reached out her hand as well, coaxing me to take it. But, as soon as I got close enough to hold her pale white hands, my own hand phased through it as if it were made of mist. My mother remained in front of me, and her hand was still there, trying to reach out to me. I lamented at the fact that I could not touch her, and she too was disheartened. I assumed the same for my father as he mirrored my mother's sorrowful expression.

"I see… If I'm not dead, then I must be hallucinating about you guys…" I sulked. "You're not really here are you?"

"We can be here. We also cannot be. What does your heart say that you want?" my father asked. "If you believe we are truly your parents then, by all means, do so. It will only make us happier to know our beloved son cares so much more about us than we ever thought he did."

The tears in my eyes welled up even more, rivaling that of the tears I shed back in-game. I lost the power of my legs, causing me to fall forward. Despite the world's oppression on my shoulders, I fell right into the arms of my parents who saved me from damnation. I could feel their hands' warmth as they held on tightly to my forearms. They did not turn into mist like before, but rather continued to maintain its solid form of matter. I wanted their arms to remain like that forever, always holding me up and saving me from my own demise. I didn't know it before, but it was all I ever wanted in this world.

As if my arms were rusty parts of a machine, they struggled to turn and latch on to my parents' arms. When they did, their feeling of warmth grew more powerful, and the chains holding down my limbs melted away like ice. I dragged my feet ever so closer to them, bringing myself to an upright position. Each inch I progressed became far easier than the last, and soon, I found myself standing next to them. I was at eye-level with my father, and slightly taller than my mother. With tears in their own eyes, they surrounded me with the warm embrace I had been longing for so long now. It was hidden away in my subconscious, waiting to be found at the right moment. This was this moment, and I couldn't have been happier for finding it.

"Don't blame anything that has happened on yourself Katsumoto. It is our fault for leaving you at the state you were in before, and for thinking that you were born to be what we thought you to be," my mother sobbed.

"You're a good kid. Kind, caring, and extremely gifted. With these gifts that you brought upon yourself, you'll be able to survive Katsumoto," my Dad told me. "This world has really become a terrible place. Both your mother and I realized that very early on in our lives, which is why we resorted to helping each other out. Even if you may no longer be able to be with Ai, you still have Kazuto, Suguha and all of your other friends and family with you."

"You were so happy when you saw Kazuto reunite with Asuna-chan. If you can learn to use him and everyone else important to you, then you can at least distract yourself from how cruel this world is," my Mom suggested, unveiling recently clouded thoughts in my head. "You remember, don't you? You promised us to protect Kazuto?"

"Yeah… When you told me that back then, I thought it was simply a command to keep your one 'true' son alive. But now, I realize that you told me that so I wouldn't be lonely. Even if it isn't someone like Violet, I'd still have family to lean on," I said, wiping away tears in my eyes.

"That's right my son… So, don't give up just yet! If it really becomes too much to bear, then we give you our word that we will be waiting here for you! We'll be waiting to take your hand and guide you into this new world that we have yet to explore. We will make sure that you will never be alone again!" my mother shouted as she proceeded to crush my chest with her tight embrace.

"As long as you still believe in us, then you better believe it that we're going to wait here for you," my father said, smiling wide with tears in his eyes. "Don't let your past consume you any longer. Just like what you said earlier to the world Katsumoto: don't pull back, and always push forward. We lo—"

My parents' arms turned into mist around me, and I felt a mysterious force tug against my back, pulling me away from my parents. They tried to reach their hands out to grasp mine, but their hands continued to turn into mist. I attempted to claw my way out of this vacuum in vain, desperate to stay for a little bit longer. Realizing that I would no longer be able to see them for a long time, I took one last look at their faces, trying to burn the beautiful image in my head.

"Did I make you guys proud?" I asked with tears running down my eyes. In unison, their mouths opened and voiced out the words I wanted to hear. Instead of reaching my ears, their voices penetrated directly into my brain, telling me:

"Of course you made us proud Katsumoto... Of course you did… We love you..."


(Kazuto)

Tokorozawa Hospital, Afternoon of the next day

To everyone, it was a miracle that my brother managed to stay alive, despite how many blood vessels he severed and the amount of blood he lost. To him, it was probably the complete opposite as his wounds clearly showed his conviction to die. After all, he used such a brutal method to carry out the attempted suicide that even the doctors were surprised he didn't die from it. Suguha and I were lucky enough to make a tourniquet effective enough to stop his femoral artery from bleeding too much, while also applying enough pressure to his bleeding arms. However, we still don't know the extent of the damage my brother caused himself. He lost at least sixty percent of his blood volume, so organ damage was highly likely, but we still don't know for sure. Keeping him alive was the number one priority for the doctors operating him. Now, Katsumoto was back in the ICU wing, though at a different room.

I sat next to my unconscious brother, pondering about the pain he went through to attempt such a thing. Suguha was back at home, unable to calm herself down from the situation. Although I warned her against it, she told everyone of the situation as a way to cope with the stress. The group chat she created between our large circle of friends continuously sent messages in rapid speed, but none of them reached me. I didn't even want to look at what they were saying. However, I didn't need to look to know that there was going to be one rule amongst us, and that was to not tell Ai about any of this. The two of them had gone through enough, and Ai especially didn't need anymore stress placed on her.

"How long was I out?" a cold voice rang in my ears. I looked up to the bed and saw my brother with his eyes wide open. He had an empty expression on his face while he stared at the grey ceiling of the hospital room. He turned his head to the side to face a clock, and squinted his eyes. "Two-thirty… Been more than twelve hours then."

Both joy and anger fueled my emotions, causing me to tread my way over to my brother. He was definitely aware of what he did if he was asking about how long he was unconscious, yet he was being so nonchalant about the entire situation. I made my way to his side, shedding a few tears in the process. I was heavily tempted to hit him, but I instead resorted to just kneeling down beside the bed and resting my head against the frame.

"You idiot… What the hell were you thinking?!" I yelled, probably allowing others nearby to hear. "What makes you think taking your own life would've done anything to help the situation?! What if Ai finds out about this?!"

"I'd rather she not find out, but if she does, so be it… I'd rather not think about the past right now Kazuto..." Katsumoto responded coldly.

"Do you seriously not care about how Ai feels anymore?" I asked, hurt at the words I was hearing since I didn't want him to let her go.

"Kazuto… Please… I don't want to dwell on the past right now… Once I've recollected my thoughts, then we can talk about this. Right now, I just want to rest and get this stupid hospital thing out of the way."

"Even if you recover, you're still going to be monitored in the psych ward. Oba-san can't forcefully put you in a mental hospital, but you're still going to have to go through some counseling." I said, wiping some of the tears while trying to calm myself down.

"Oh… Of course… Such a pain in the ass."

"They're just trying to make sure you won't try to do it again Katsumoto. It's for your own benefit."

"Yeah, well I've already told myself I won't do it again, so why can't they just let me go?" he questioned.

"What makes you they're going to let you go with a petty excuse like that?!" I exclaimed, bewildered at his unreasonable wishes.

"Because I won't do it again…" my brother affirmed, irritation building up in his tone. He gave me such a contemptuous stare that I quickly understood the message even before he said it out loud. "Don't make me repeat myself."

"B-But… Why the sudden change from wanting to just end it all to suddenly wanting to live again?"

"I was reminded that I still have promises to keep. Mom and Dad reminded me while I was knocked out."

His words froze me in place. Not because I was affected by him mentioning the names of the parents whom I never met, but because I knew of their importance to my brother. I didn't know much at first, but after last night, it was beginning to get clearer to me as to how important they were to him, even if he never projected it.

"Did you get to see their faces?" I softly asked, not wanting to anger him.

"Yeah… Or, at least I believe so… It could have been just an illusion created by my mind to help fix itself, but I believe it was really them. I felt their spirits embrace me in that dream. Even now, I still feel their presence behind me, watching my back to make sure I don't fall down any longer… Anyways, any post-traumatic effects?"

"Your leg is messed up since you stabbed it. You're not gonna be able to move it properly till it recovers. The doctors have yet to determine any lasting organ damage, but apparently nothing seemed wrong so far. Other than your mental health, you're in complete recovery. Your abnormal healing played quite a role in saving yourself."

"I guess I'm just too hard to kill…"

"You should thank Mom and Dad for making you like that," I joked, hoping to lighten the mood.

"I guess I should… Agh, I just wish I didn't have to go through all the mental health counseling," Katsumoto grumbled. "I'll probably be diagnosed with some mental illnesses by the time I'm done with it. PTSD, schizophrenia and anxiety may be some of the ones they'll find. Not to mention the fact that I may have to reveal to them my criminal history."

"Kikuoka Seijirou said he's got that handled. I contacted him about your suicide attempt. He said that he'll send a personal mental health counselor to help you out and make sure you don't do anything." I notified my brother.

"I don't get why that guy wants to keep my identity a secret. In fact, I'm surprised people haven't spilled the beans already. There has to be someone out there who's going to rat me out."

"Maybe you just don't put enough faith in the goodness of humanity."

"Faith? I don't the meaning of such a word."

"IDIOT!" a shrill voice screamed from the doorway. Katsumoto and I turned around and met face-to-face with Suguha, our Oba-san and a few doctors. "WHAT WERE YOU THINKING!"

Suguha bawled tears as she ran over to Katsumoto, burying her face in his blankets. Katsumoto placed a hand on her head and pet her like a dog. Oba-san came over to sit down next to me and Katsumoto, holding a sorrowful smile on her face. The doctors went to go check on my brother's vital readings and started questioning him about what had happened and asked a few questions to see how his mental health was. Even though all of these events were happening regarding my brother, the only person that was left on my mind now was Yuzuki Ai.


A week later, «SAO Survivors School»

A week had passed since Katsumoto's suicide attempt, and everything had been a blur for me. Both in the real world and virtual reality, I felt like I was stuck in my own time while everyone else accelerated forward. I would look at people's faces and talk to them, yet I wouldn't recognize them nor the words coming out of their mouths despite the words being Japanese. My mind was just too absorbed with two certain things: Katsumoto and Ai.

I wasn't the only one like that, as everyone else in our circle of friends were affected by it. It affected us students even more so since we were having our final exams. Unlike other schools who held the exams two weeks ago, our school held it on the last few days before summer break began. The recent events affected our ability to concentrate on our studies, and we had to get into one big study group to help each other out. Midori tried inviting Ai to our group but failed to even get her attention. In the end, we decided to let her go since it would be easier to keep Katsumoto's suicide attempt a secret.

Our group met both in the real world and in ALfheim Online to study non-stop. We heavily relied on Patricia in the beginning since she was the smartest, but we quickly realized that we were placing too much weight on her tiny shoulders to bear. Instead, we sought to find answers in the only other person in our group who already graduated from high school and wasn't working a job: my brother.

I brought him his AmuSphere so he could play in the hospital whenever he had the time. Usually, he'd just be holed up in his castle, rebuilding the scorched stones from the ground up. However, when we were online to have our group study sessions, everyone relied on him for answers to our questions, even Patricia. Even though he hadn't been in school for a few years, he still gave us answers to all our questions. Our reliance made me think that we shifted the stress over from Patricia to him. When I asked him about it, however, he didn't seem to mind and even stated that his therapy counseling stressed him more.

In the end, we survived our exams, but we noticed just how much the whole thing with Katsumoto and Ai had affected us. Patricia, who had always been at the top of her grade and class, was ranked fifth instead of first. Ariel thought she would be depressed about it, but Patricia took it quite well despite being such a hard-working student. Everyone else's rankings dropped as well, with Vitushi receiving the lowest passing marks when he was usually a B-student. Even with our lower rankings, everyone was relieved that they survived through that last week. On our last day of school before break, everyone in school was too busy thinking about the summer break to do anything. Because of it, our professors simply decided not to teach and allowed us to roam the school grounds until the day was over. Our group decided to claim the rooftop for ourselves since it was the most isolated place in the whole school.

"Does anybody have plans for the break?" Ariel questioned as she drained the contents of her juice box.

"We're going to Thule Island to find a quest for Yui-chan," Asuna stated. "She said she wanted to go see a whale and Kazuto-kun told us about this certain quest at that location."

"I hear Thule Island is a nice place to have fun at the beach, but it's so far south and filled with dangerous monsters that nobody goes there," Midori recalled. "I've also never heard of a quest on Thule Island."

"The quest isn't actually on «Thule Island», but at an «Undersea Temple» near it. Heck, I don't even know if there really is one since I only heard rumors about it," I sighed, hoping that I wasn't fooled by the forum post by some random insane player. "Either way, you guys can join us in the quest if you want to."

"I'd rather we just hang out on the beach and wait for you guys," Ryu spoke up as he stared into the sky. "After everything that's been going on lately, I just want to relax and not deal with any troubling matters. Taking a nap in a warm summer's day at the beach sounds very nice right now."

"Speaking of troubling matters, have you guys seen Ai today?" Haru asked, looking down at the school grounds from the fenced ledge of the rooftop. "I haven't seen her at all."

"Nope, haven't seen her at all," Rika shrugged. "It may be because we're at different grades, but it's kinda' hard to miss someone with such vibrant purple highlights.

"Oh, I see her!" Keiko exclaimed, pointing out towards the front of the school.

Everyone hurried over to the side of the rooftop, peeking through the gaps of the metal fence. Surely enough, a girl with black-purple hair was slowly walking across the parking lot to the entrance gate of the school. Her black hair with purple highlights swayed in the wind and glistened the in the summer sun. Ai had her backpack with her as she walked further and further away from the school grounds. At the gate, I noticed a single black car with a man waiting in front of it.

"Isn't that Nagato-san? The Yuzuki family's butler?" Asuna questioned.

"Yup. Definitely. I will never forget that bastard's face," Ariel snarled, still angry for him using Patricia and Vitushi as bait for Katsumoto.

"Is she leaving? In the middle of the day?" Ryu wondered.

"Her parents probably forced her to leave to scold her," Vitushi finally spoke up. Everyone turned their heads to Vitushi, wondering what his words meant.

"Scold her? For what? She hasn't talked to Katsumoto in a while now," I affirmed.

"Did you guys not notice it? Ai-chan wasn't listed in the exam rankings." Vitushi grimly stated as he stared at Ai with sorrowful eyes.

"Actually, I did notice that… I was looking for her name in the list for her grade, but I didn't find her anywhere," Asuna recalled. "Did something happen with her exams?"

"Oh something happened alright. I'm surprised you guys don't even know. It's been the talk of the school. After all, if the student council president does something out character, then everybody's bound to now."

"Vitushi… What happened with Ai?" I demanded an answer, walking up to him.

Unlike his usual reactions, he didn't show any fear of me and almost ignored me. In fact, he just turned his gaze towards me, showing me the sadness written on his face. He let out a long sigh and looked back at Ai, who was getting into the car. A moment later, a tear formed in Vitushi's eyes.

"She's not listed in the rankings because she didn't take any of the exams given to everyone by the school. The moment she got each exam from the teachers, she furiously tore it to bits before going to sleep on her desk."


(Katsumoto)

A week later, Kirigaya family home

Rain fell, and thunder boomed outside as I picked up the scattered clothes in my bedroom. My family hadn't bothered to clean up the mess I created that night as they were too focused on my physical and mental health. While I was discharged from the hospital, my actions were being heavily monitored. During my hospital stay, I repeatedly saw this one counselor who was always with me, monitoring me and my every move. Afterwards, I was told that I had to go see this certain counselor every week, but I was already refusing to go as I didn't enjoy being with him. I understood why he couldn't instantly believe my declaration of never attempting suicide ever again, but I figured he would give some leeway. Still, it was probably my fault for being like this in the first place. I just wished I didn't have to see him for the rest of my life.

Lightning flashed outside, and I counted five seconds before a rumbling boom followed. As the house shook slightly from the powerful lightning bolt, I folded up the last piece of clothing and returned it back into my closet. I brushed the dust off my hands and turned my head towards my broken gaming chair which I had placed beside my computer desk. With the beating I made it go through against the walls of my room, the chair was beyond repair. I needed to get a new one if I didn't want to stand up as I used my computer. Speaking of which, my computer had been on for the past two weeks, draining electricity from the house. The monitor was turned off, but the CPU was still running quietly since nobody turned it off. I probably ruined it in some way, but I could just make a new one.

I approached my desk and kneeled in front of the blank monitor. I booted up the monitor, causing my desktop to appear in front of me. It was exactly how I left it two weeks ago: an open letter of the mission details the Lords of ALfheim had sent me, and two separate windows for YouTube and the «MMO Tomorrow» website. Even after the two weeks, the news of my successful assassination of Mortimer and duel against Eugene was still on the front page of the «MMO Tomorrow». The YouTube page refreshed itself and showed that I was currently trending around the world. Surely enough, I was number one on trending as well. Popular Japanese gaming YouTubers even made videos about me and victory which also trended in the country. I was afraid of all the attention I was getting as it would be hard even for Kikuoka to monitor something as big as these websites.

My inbox was also riddled with emails from virtual strangers who were basically fanning over me. Because my «MMO Tomorrow» account has my email linked to it, I accumulated more than a hundred thousand emails in the past two weeks alone. They were a mix of fan messages, mission requests and hate comments which I quickly tossed into the trash. Since I could only delete a hundred at a time, I knew I would be there for a long time.

I repeated the same tedious process for several minutes, becoming severely drowsy due to the dark lighting and somber mood. It wasn't until I got to the seven thousand range when I found a certain email that didn't have a lengthy subject such as 'I AM UR BIGGEST FAN PLS NOTICE ME' or 'Can you please help me with this mission up in the Gnome territory where I have to clear out a certain cave?'. The subject was simply 'You Promised'. It was short and straightforward, and I was about to delete it when I noticed the sender's username. The email came from the username Torntomatter. I had no clue what kind of person would choose such a name, yet the name sounded so familiar to me. It intrigued me so much that I stopped my mass removal of emails to go and check on the email. It was written entirely in English.

"Winter of 2018. I wonder if you remembered what happened during this time. It wasn't that long ago, yet to me, it seems like a distant memory. It was a rather dark time for both of us, wasn't it, Katsumoto-san? You were still recovering from that accident at that time. The memories of that night still haunt me. Is it the same for you? Have you changed since then? Are you still that cold-blooded loner who buried himself in his study books? Or did I turn you into a gamer with all the fun times we had together? It's weird. Those last few months we spent together were both the best and worst times of my life. However, the best memory of all was our trip to Omiya Park on your 15th birthday. At that day, you made me a promise. Do you remember? You promised that if you get internationally famous whether it be real-world accomplishments or online achievements, you'd come to visit me. You laughed at your own promise since you didn't think you'd do it. But, I always believed that you would do it, as you always did what others could not. And here we are now, in 2025, where YouTube's number one video is about a player by the name of Mortifer. The same exact username I suggested you take on. My old online alias. At first, I doubted myself since anybody could have such a username. That's why I searched your name up in the «MMO Tomorrow». Surely enough, I find a picture of an Imp dressed in all black like a grim reaper. To add on, the guy's bragging about his extraordinary skills in the game which is now recognized by everyone in the whole world. Your pride knows no bounds, Mortifer-san. You better keep your promise, or I'll hunt you down myself. You are not the only one who's changed ever since that day."

The lengthy email ended there, leaving me utterly speechless. The memories flooded into my mind as I read each word, and now, I fully remembered exactly what had happened at that time. I remember the car crash and being hospitalized for at least a month. I remember the white flowers of the sakura trees as we strolled underneath their branches, and I remembered the junior high school graduation ceremony. I shed no tears, but I was being overwhelmed with emotions. These emotions were not sadness but guilt. I could not believe I could forget him. He who was so close to changing who I was before I met Violet.

"Vin—"

Police sirens suddenly wailed outside my house, and all emotions disappeared instantly. I stood up from the ground and headed to my window. I could barely see the rooves of multiple cars parked right outside our home. Three police cars with officers on standby were parked outside, as well as a single black Rolls-Royce. A very familiar butler exited the driver's seat of the black car and pulled out an umbrella to shield himself from the drizzling rain. He opened the rear passenger seat doors to reveal three more very familiar faces. My brows naturally creased as a nearly uncontrollable rage built up within me. Ai's mother, father, brother and butler were all standing outside our house with a large group of armed police officers.

Those sons of bitches decided not to keep their promise after all. Even though I already gave up Ai and nearly my life, they still want to take my freedom away. I backed away from the window and stormed towards my bedroom door to head downstairs. However, I stopped midway when I looked back at my personal display cabinet. Several schools, karate and kendo rewards were on top of the cabinet while several games were in smaller compartments on the side. The middle section, however, housed something much more intriguing to my eyes. I quickly opened the middle cabinet and grabbed the regal green box contained in it. I carefully placed the box on the floor and unlocked its latches. I opened the lid slowly to reveal the Kirigaya family heirloom: a century-old traditionally crafted katana. It was never used as a weapon but only for display. Because of that, its edges were as sharp as they were a hundred years ago. It was a katana of the highest caliber.

I drew the sword from the sheath and admired my reflection within it. I stared back into my own dead eyes, as I resolved myself to carry out what I was going to do. It looked like I wouldn't be able to protect my brother for long or be able to keep my promise to him. However, that still doesn't mean I can try to keep my freedom for as long as possible. If they wish to so badly take my freedom away, then I shall do the same and take away theirs.


(Ai)

A few hours later, Yuzuki family home in Kyoto

The summer sun gazed down on me, drying my wet hair that I had been brushing with my hand for the past half hour. There was a constant mountain breeze that continued to bother me as it blew my hair into my face. I didn't mind it though, as the wind brought about the wonderful scents this garden of ours brought us. I always spent most of my time out in this garden since it was very dear to me. My grandmother and I had planted those lavender brushes and sakura trees, making this garden infinitely more beautiful. Yet, here I sat, thinking that its beauty didn't seem to match up to what it was like before she had passed. Maybe it was because of the current season, as cherry blossoms didn't bloom in July.

No… I knew exactly why the garden didn't look as beautiful as before. Even so, I refused to accept it as the reason. I had been refusing it for so many days now, but it wouldn't stop attacking me. Every time I look at a guy near my age, I see him staring back at me with those same black eyes. When I hug my pillow in the night because of the dark, I imagine him in my arms, protecting me from the misery of this world. Now, I was left vulnerable to all that misery, and there was no way for me to fix it. Well, that's what I would like to say, but I figured that there was a solution to everything, whether it be a good or bad one.

I stood up from the stone bench I was sitting on and walked my way to the hanging cliffside of our mountainside home. The surreal view overlooked the Kyoto countryside, with the city in the distance. Past the intricate stone guardrail was the far drop into the vivid landscape below our elevated home. The more I stared at it, the more I became captivated by its beauty. At the same time, I was becoming more and more saddened at the fact that I would not be able to see it any longer.

"There's still so much I want to do with this life of mine," I whispered to myself as I perched myself on the guardrail. "I want to travel the world and see places I've never seen before. I want to learn music and create a song about my life. I want to dive into different virtual worlds and experience all I cannot experience here in the real world. But most of all, I want to spend my life with you, and build it from the ground up, together… Katsumoto…"

Tears quickly formed in my eyes as I remembered his face one last time.

"I'm so sorry… I hope I get to see you again as I move on with my life… I love you…"

I took a hard step forward in my life, feeling nothing but the cold, merciful air below me. I let my arms break free as I let go of all my responsibilities. Fearing what's to come, yet not wanting to go back, I let myself fly away into the darkness below me, hoping to see if death can offer me a life better than what life itself had offered.


(Katsumoto)

The summer sun beamed down through the vividly green leaves of palms, blinding our eyes from seeing what was front of us. Ai used her own hands to shade my eyes while she turned her own head to the side, resting her cheeks on my left shoulder. She began to slip off my back, and so I readjusted her position by pausing momentarily and allowed her to move further up. I placed my hands on her thighs and held on more tightly as we traversed barefoot on the sand-covered earth. We continued to advance closer and closer to the light, helping each other take on the world's challenges. When we finally broke through the darkness of the trees, we looked upon the most divine heaven we could ever find in this new world of ours.

The sea-green waters of our heaven were sparkling in the summer sun, its beauty unharmed by the atrocities we'd seen already in this world. The white sands were scorching hot, but the heat warmed my soul as the cool sea breeze swept past by.

"You can set me down now," Ai whispered into my ear, captivated by the view in front of us.

I listened to her orders, and kneeled down for her to get off my back. After doing so, she ran out to the sandy beach, out into knee-deep water. Her clothes dampened as she produced salty splashes with her feet. She joyfully basked in the sun and turned around to me.

"So, this is what heaven feels like!" she cried out gleefully.

"Yeah… I thought I would never get to experience it."

I stepped into the cool, salty seawater, wading out to where Ai stood. I took my time as I wanted to admire the view, but Ai grew impatient and hurried over to drag me further away from the shore. I allowed myself to be pulled into the sea by Ai up until we got to waist-deep water where it became too hard for her to pull me. I noticed a sandbar further ahead and decided to pick up Ai once again like a damsel in distress. She playfully laughed out from my sudden movements and reluctantly let me carry her. I began a slow ascent into the protruding sandbar, slipping occasionally from the slippery sand underneath my feet. When we reached the top, the water only reached up to my heel. The two of us admired the afternoon sun for a brief period until I noticed Ai look back towards me.

"You can put me down now," she told me.

"And if I don't want to?" I teased her.

She gave me a mischievous smile before quickly rolling out of my arms. She landed on her feet, splashing both water and wet sand all over the two of us. All of a sudden, Ai jumped towards me with great speed, and wrapped her arms around my neck as we made contact. Her momentum carried over to me, and my unpreparedness caused me to fall from the lack of balance. I landed hard on my back, but the fall didn't hurt me. The seawater did splash into my eyes, irritating them greatly. I groaned from the impact and tried to sit up, rubbing my eyes to cease the pain. Before I could sit up, Ai positioned herself right on top of me, sitting directly above my stomach. She pushed hard against my chest, forcing me back down.

I chose to remain lying down, and Ai gave me her special smile, approving of my submission to her. She flipped her hair around her head so that it gathered at the right side of her face. Her wet hair clumped together instead of flowing freely and separately, showing a sexier side of Ai that I rarely got to see as I always saw her wearing some type of armor or casual clothing. Her hands slowly slid down my chest and towards my abdomen before they began to come back up from my sides and past my shoulders. She planted her hands in either side of my head and bent down so that our faces were a few centimeters apart. I stared at her in wonder, anticipating a kiss. She seemed to have read my mind as she gave me one of her special smiles. She then closed the gap between our faces, and our lips connected with a fiery passion.

Ai moved her arms, pulling up my head slightly so that she could wrap them around it. Her body was now much closer to my own, and I lustfully placed my hands on both her hair and lower back. Our kiss continued for a long time, eventually turning into a make-out session. We were so focused on maintaining our connection that neither of realized that I somehow managed to get on top. We only noticed when we finally stopped to breathe for air, causing us to open our eyes. The sight surprised both of us, and Ai found the scene to be funny. She started to giggle, causing me to chuckle in response to her contagious laughter.

"The two of us can finally be alone again… Seems like death actually gave me a life better than life itself."