This is my first fanfic, there might be some grammar issues but not too much. Also, I know I used too many commas, it's something I'm trying to do better by writing fanfics. There will 3 chapters to this, one from Kirito POV, 1 from Asuna, and an epilogue. Someone characters might be a it OOC but its fanfiction so it should be expected. I promise this has a happy ending.

Start

Kirito

Kirito stared at the red doors looming over him, entrance to the ruby palace. He calmed his beating heart and steered himself forward. This was it, the final floor of Aincrad. If he won this, Asuna and everyone would be free from this hell, he let out a small laugh to himself. This world was a wonder of human creation, every floor built from the ground up, each with its own environment and people, with its own wonders and mysteries. 3 years ago, he would've given anything to live in Aincrad, to be free from the other world and live in this fantastical one. Even when it became a death game, he didn't want to leave. He reveled in it, not caring about how it affected anybody else.

Everything changed when he met Asuna, he wanted her to be free from this world

He steeled his nerves and walked forward towards the giant door until he got a pop-up message

Would You like to enter the Ruby Palace he looked at the message and heard Asuna's voice in his head, "Kirito you can't, I can't lose you", He resolved and pressed Yes, immediately the massive ruby red doors opened. He walked in and was enveloped by light, he opened his eyes and scanned his surroundings, his eyes attracted to the one object in the room, a throne of red and black, and on top of it, the god of this world, the king of swords, Akihiko Kayaba. He took out a recording sphere and tossed it high into the air as he walked forward to the final boss of Aincrad

FlashBack

Kirito walked into the main office of the Knights of the Blood Oath's guildhall and saw Asuna with her head down resting on the desk, lightly snoring. He smiled at the scene, it wasn't often that he got to see Asuna sleep on the job but it happens and he loved watching and/or teasing her about it. Unfortunately, this wasn't the time for either, he walked closer and shook her a little, "Kirito?" she looked up and he gave her a tentative look/ "there almost here, you should get ready, I don't think the Lightning Flash wants to show up to a meeting with drool on her face." Asuna blushed, throwing a glare at him before getting ready for the meeting between various clearing guild leaders.

The atmosphere in the meeting room was tense, silent as the midnight sun as Asuna and Kirito walked in, "why have you called us here Black Swordsman?" Kibou shouted, breaking the silence, as he always did.

"Unless you have a way to def" he stopped himself mid-sentence once he saw Asuna's death glare. Asuna scanned the room looking for anyone else who wanted to say anything, no one said a word. Kirito smiled, Asuna had become quite the leader, commanding respect and fear from even the most powerful of players, after the Heathcliff incident, Asuna was forced to become the leader of the Knights of the Blood Oath and she led them masterfully with Kirito by her side, stumbling along the way but she eventually led them to the final floor. "As you know, the final fight dungeon of Aincrad is the Ruby Palace, but it is a dungeon unlike the rest, there are no monsters and only 1 player can enter at a time. We can reasonably assume that the final fight is a 1v1 between a player and healt- Kayaba,". She paused to catch herself, although everyone in the room knew what she was going to say "20 players have gone in and none have returned, so we know once you go in the only way out is to win or die''. Asuna finished with a grim reminder. "We already know this, you didn't call us here just so you could remind us that did you?!", Kibou slammed his fist on the table, his patience wearing thin, not that any person at the table cared. "Shut up Kibou, Asuna and Kirito wouldn't have called us here without having a plan, so what's the plan guys?" Kirito was about to open his mouth and put Kibou in his place for interrupting Asuna but Klein got him first, Klein gave them a thumbs up and smiled, showing his confidence in them.

Asuna gave him a small smile before addressing the other leaders, "we have a plan" Asuna looked into her inventory and materialized a recording sphere. "How is a recording sphere going to help us get information about Kayaba if we can't recover items from the fight?" The room murmured in agreement with Kibou, "EVERYBODY SILENCED", all eyes immediately turned to the Black Swordsman. Kirito glared at the guild leaders and turned to Asuna; Asuna smiled at him and resumed her talk, "Normally when a player dies, all the items they have dropped to the ground for anyone to pick up if no one picks them they despawn. Versus Kayaba, the items that drop would despawn and be lost, but in trying to make this game as realistic as possible, he gave us a way to defeat him, the Marriage System." Asuna could see the light in their eyes as she continued, "when two players are married, their inventories are merged into one. If one of the players dies, all the items in his or her inventory are transferred to the other player." The room once again fell into silence as the various leaders thought out the logistics of the plan.

"This plan of yours is well thought and by all measures a good plan, but it requires someone to sacrifice themselves to get us the information without the guarantee of us even winning the fight with the given information," Eneryu, leader of the 13 Kings guild, stared at Asuna and Kirito as he continued, "Is that why you called us here? I will not sacrifice any of my guildmates for this endeavor." The other guild leaders nod in agreement with his statement, although they wanted to win and get out of the death game, they weren't willing to sacrifice their friends who had made it here with them. It was Klein who spoke next, "Kirito, Asuna, I support you guys through and through but to sacrifice someone, that's that's-", Kibou interrupted him before he could finish "its insane, I never thought you guys would even come up with this plan, weren't you guys the ones preaching about having to save everyone? Who's going to willingly fight Kayaba knowing they will lose and die? Who would be stupid enough to do that?" Kibou looked at Asuna and Kirito like they just lost their heads. Kirito stared at the people present in the room and looked at Klein as he spoke, "I will.". Everyone's attention immediately gathered onto Kirito, all of them with expressions of shock and disbelief. Kirito could see the disbelief and fear in Klein's eyes, it was the same look that Asuna gave him when he told her his plan, but he knew that he couldn't stop, this was the only way that he could guarantee that Asuna would be released from this world alive and well. Klein gave him a look and Kirito knew that they would talk after the meeting, and Kirito already knew what Klein was going to say.

After snapping out of their shock and disbelief, the guild leaders thought out the full plan and realized something, "what do you need us for?" asked Eneryu, he realized that the plan didn't involve them, it seemed that Kirito and Asuna had everything planned out. Kirito looked at them intensely before he spoke, "I want a promise" the other guild leaders looked amongst themselves before they turned back to Kirito, "A promise to what?'' Asked Kibou, Kirito eyed him directly "if I lose against Kayaba '' Kirito could feel Asuna tense up when he spoke the word lose, "I want you guys to give everything Asuna needs to win against Kayaba, every item that she needs to counter any of his skills, any potions that can help her, anything that will give her an edge I want you guys to give to her." Kirito looked around and waited for their confirmation, after a moment of silence, it was once again Kibou first, "OK, the Liberation Army will give everything they have to help Asuna if you fail." After Kibou spoke, the other guild leaders gave their promise as well.

Klein waited until all the guild leaders had left before he went up to the duo, he glared at Kirito "We need to talk" Klein watched as Kirito began to walk towards one of the private rooms in the guildhall, Asuna began to walk after him before he stopped her, "Me and need him to talk privately," the look Asuna gave him would normally make Klein summon his mount and get out as fast as possible but he glared back at her and he saw her flinch, the first time he had ever seen Asuna flinch from anything, she wasn't herself he realized, she was as against this idea as he was maybe even more. Kirito managed to convince her somehow, "I'll talk with you as well after I stopped him from trying to be the hero." Klein said as he ran to catch up to Kirito.

Flashback end

Kirito looked at the face of the man that had trapped them in this death game for 4 years, 4 years of their lives ripped from them, the man who caused the deaths of over 4000 people, some of the children not even 10 years old. He always imagined the anger that he would feel once he came face to face with him, yet he felt none of that anger as he stood before Kayaba, all he felt was curiosity and disgust, the curiosity of why he would do something like this and the disgust of how he could do something like this. He looked at Kayaba's face and realized that he was smiling like he was expecting him.

"I've been waiting for you."

"If I knew you were waiting, I wouldn't have come."

Kayaba laughed at his response.

"I see you haven't changed since our encounter on the 74th floor, people like you are rare, it saddens me that you must die."

Kirito narrowed his eyes, "should I be honored by that compliment? Besides the one that dies today is you."

Kayaba laughed once again, Kirito started to feel angry watching him laugh, it felt as though he thought all of this was just a joke.

"Why are you doing this Kirito, risking your life to fight me? Is it to release everyone from this world? Or is it for a more personal reason, perhaps saving Asuna?"

Kirito tensed when he mentioned Kayaba, a motion that Kayaba noticed.

"So the hero comes to fight the demon king to save his princess, what a cliche story. Unfortunately in this story, the hero will not win."

"Are you done talking?"

"Don't you have a question to ask me Kirito?"

"You know my question Kayaba, but I know you won't answer it now"

Kayaba laughed again this harder while Kirito took out his sword.

"If you defeat me, I will tell you everything you want to know and answers to questions you don't even have."

Kayaba drew his sword, and the timer began to countdown, Kirito breathed in and focused his mind, this was the hardest battle he was even going to fight and he would give it his all, for Asuna's sake.

"3"

"2"

"1"

End

it took me three weeks to write this one chapter so don't expect updates often, thanks for reading. I don't have a beta reader so if you're interested hit me up.