Author's Note: I do not own SAO or Dark Souls.

-2-

In Thine Exodus

Kirito awoke with a heavy head, and an aching back. He felt cold air surrounding his body, and his lungs were filled with thick, smoky fumes scented in death.

"I…ugh…where am I?" He tried to raise a hand to support the back of his head, but noticed it felt awfully frail compared to his real arm. He could only imagine that he had woken up inside the virtual world, but nothing about his surrounding environment seemed like ALfheim Online. Even the thick, smoky air was distant compared to the ruined cities of Gun Gale Online. His mouth tasted bitter, and his eyes were weak with a haze.

"My arms and legs…they feel like they're on fire." His bones ached as he moved around in a dimly lit room, boarded with iron bars. It must have been a cell. He tried moving upward, but his skin was brittle to the touch, leathery and course.

"My skin! Why do I feel like I had the worst sunburn ever?" Kirito raised his decrepit hands up to touch his wrinkled face, which just like his hands, held a disfigured shape and hue like the meat of raw salmon. He sat in a dried pool of blood, and the stony floor did not feel cold on his bare skin. He was only covered by a small loin cloth wrapped around his groin.

"This is bad. I can't feel anything, but I know this is the virtual world. I need to turn on the menu…" He tried concentrating on a way to open his in-game menu, but suddenly, while his mind stood still, he could feel a piercing burn coming from the center of his chest.

Kirito looked down, and noticed the dark spot encircled with a burning light at the center of his chest. His eyes grew large, for he knew not what the symbol represented.

He had hints, though, and growing up as a fanatic of video games left him with wonders pointed in an educated direction.

"A mark…prison cell…I know what all this is…do I know what game this is…?"

*Slam*

Kirito could barely move, the exhaustion of some unfamiliar peril had taken his muscles from him. He looked up at a piercing light shooting through the roof of his unknown cell, and noticed a dead body, matching his, had just fallen through with a glowing orb attached to its side.

Kirito's eyes met the rooftop window, and a knight donning a helm with lined-metal armor matching his torso was looking back down, at him. He felt confused, but realized this man was seemingly trying to help him. The young Kirito raised his head finally, but at a sudden moment a large quake shook the entire building, and the knight from above was thrown from the ceiling and out of the boy's view. Kirito moved quicker to catch a glimpse of whatever monstrosity made that horrible rumble, but found nothing as the view from above returned to clear pale daylight.

Kirito gathered his surroundings, and knowing that the empty bucket and sack of straw sitting in the corner would do him no good, he knelt down and grabbed the orb from the fallen corpse's belt. It revealed a Dungeon Cell Key, which now gave him a clue for his next task. Standing up with soles both weak and stiff, the slightly undead Kirito wobbled to his feet, and collected a view down the gated corridor.

There was a broken sword on the ground, snapped off six inches from the hilt. Kirito grabbed the item, and gave the weapon a few test swings, realizing that it would thankfully require very little force to use it in battle. He limped slowly toward the door, and accepted the prompt to consume his Dungeon Key. The metal portal opened on its hinge, and revealed a damp and gloomy hallway.

Kirito moved even slower, and let the dim light of several glowing orange carvings scattered across the floor light his way to the other side. They appeared to read in his native Japanese.

They were simple, outdated messages, noting what the player should do to start their adventure, and had they not been illuminated by the glowing light of fire, he would have never seen the quivering undead man standing next to the third marking.

"Uh, hello…?" Kirito kept his weak slab of iron, and waited for the sobbing monster to reply, but the poor creature simply turned toward the swordsman, and lashed out at him with hands open like claws. He bashed it in the head, and watched it stagger around several times before hitting it again, watching it fall to the ground. A small white light spawned over its corpse, and Kirito's black spot on his chest consumed it whole. A small counter appeared at the bottom right of his visual, and the number 20 sprung up from 0. They were labeled souls.

He looked on, the walkway was scattered with green moss over brown stone, black torches hanging over the floor, and several more of the decrepit husks swaying about. The hero moved up the stairs, and discovered more rooms with dark green glows, standing water, and a ladder. He followed that up to the surface, and discovered an open, desolate courtyard framing a single rusted sword stuck in the ground, blanketed by warm ash at its base.

Kirito approached the sword cautiously, until a prompt to "light the bonfire" appeared. He tapped the command with a wave of his hand, and the sword with ash lit up in a small but bright flame. The station now let him rest, which he gladly accepted. He had only been here in this oppressive world for at most ten minutes, but it felt like eternity.

When he took a seat at the great flame, his bones and skin warmed with delight, and a small golden film trickled down his view. He could feel his energy replenish, and his health was now maxed out. The screen for operating the fire was left blank from there, however, and the only option was to leave, a reality that depressed him. This was the best he felt in this isolated virtual world, but reluctantly now it seemed that it was time to move on.

Kirito put the sword back on his belt, and walked forward to see two great doors closed at the top of a stoop. He arrived to their port, and put two hands on either side, pushing the two doors open to reveal the darkened sanctuary within. It looked like an empty church from old Europe, and while the columns either side of the hall were withering to dust, another set of great doors sat just on the other side. Kirito pressed on, but again with caution as his hands returned to grab his shattered sidepiece. As if the broken sword would do him any good for the monstrosity that waited above.

A great green beast, wrinkled with folds of fat and boils fell from the sky. Its monstrous yellow horns were gnarled and sprouting in all different directions. Its mouth was agape with vile anger, and a sturdy grey hammer crinkled with blunted edges of iron sat in its hands as a cloud of smoke cleared from its clawed feet.

Its name read Asylum Demon, and it was a fitting guardian for this lofted haul of death and despair.

Kirito reared back for a moment in shock and fear. He looked to his feet and found another orange message. "Get Away!" it read plainly, which forced him into further fear as he darted around the room looking for an exit.

"If I had a real sword! I'd take this punk down easILYYY!" He just dodged a slamming attack from the beast's club. The Asylum Demon chased Kirito about the room, smashing down several more columns before the half naked husk of a fighter found an exit to his left. Kirito bolted through a small door, and escaped clean from harm as a steel gate shut soundly behind his fleeting feet.

He ran down the stairs and looked for more clues around the asylum. He discovered another bonfire, lit it, and after taking a rest walked around a stony corner to find yet another glowing orange message.

"I'm thankful for all the tutorials, but if there are so many, wouldn't that make the game… huh? 'get your shield'?"

He read the message out loud, and heard more footsteps down up the hallway to his right. Kirito slowly charged through the archway, and just as he passed through the gate, a sharp metal arrow flew right for his head. He let it fly past, and dodge rolled into a room to his left. His head found a wooden plank shield lying on the ground, so he picked it up to help maneuver down the hallway. The arrows flying for his chest found his shield instead, and he noticed one of the husks from before shooting him from the other end of the hall.

He growled into his teeth with frustration, and carefully stepped in the doorway through the slow onslaught of flying arrows. He found a lofty wooden club sitting next to where the husk was standing, and picked it up as the zombie ran away down a second hall.

He made it, eventually, and slayed the archer, but noticed more down the corner of a second hallway. He would only discover more husks with unknown motives wondering about the empty hallways, each one trying to kill him the moment he crossed their paths. Kirito eventually came across a glowing white door, but it only led him to an open balcony of the first courtyard with the bonfire. He discovered a set of stairs, then discovered a rolling boulder that smashed him into the ground, lowering his health down to half. The boulder crashed through the wall to his back, breaking the wall into pieces and opening a brand new path.

"Ugh…this game sucks." He stood, and pressed on, but met the being that pushed the boulder down at the top of the stairs, and the husk was still armed after, slashing him down with a blunt steel sword. Kirito rolled out of the way, and bashed him in the back of the head to kill it in a quick hit. He tried moving on, moving more cautiously than before. He relocated the bonfire from earlier, remembering that every time he sat down it revitalized his energy and health to maximum. The young fighter moved on around the now opened hole in the wall with total suspicion, but finally discovered the most interesting sight of the evening.

A man. A fully armored knight laid face up in a pile of rubble, with a single beam of light shining down on his dull iron helm. He had metal armor lined with blue leather and red cloth, and an ornate shield of gold and deep blue sat by his fallen hand, next to a lonely sword stuck in the rocks.

Kirito walked slowly toward the fallen knight, and as he stopped, the man spoke with a calming voice.

"…Oh, you…You're no Hollow, eh?"

He sounded as if he knew Kirito. The gamer playing the role of a naked prisoner had no idea what a Hollow even was.

"Thank goodness…" The defeated man carried on. "I'm done for, I'm afraid…I'll die soon, then lose my sanity…"

"Your sanity?" Kirito took those words with an ominous meaning. He let the broken man before his feet carry on.

"…I wish to ask something of you…You and I, we're both Undead… Hear me out, will you?"

"I'm…undead?" Kirito felt his crinkled leather skin tingle with the fear of that reality. He gave the fallen man a slight nod, and heard his proposition.

"…Regrettably, I have failed in my mission…But perhaps you can keep the torch lit…There is an old saying in my family…"

The knight's head turned away from Kirito, and looked on towards the light above.

"…Thou who art Undead, art chosen…

In thine exodus from the Undead Asylum,

maketh pilgrimage to the land of Ancient Lords…

When thou ringeth the Bell of Awakening,

the fate of the Undead thou shalt know."

The knight sighed with a weakened, unexpected delight. "Well, now you know… And I can die with hope in my heart…"

Kirito felt sorry for this man, even if he was just a figure in the virtual world. He had traveled far too often in virtual realms to take characters like this for granted. He put an open hand over his heart, and nodded again.

The knight smiled beneath his steel. "…Oh, one more thing…here, take this…An Estus Flask, and Undead favourite…Oh, and this…"

Kirito received several golden bottles, known as Estus Flasks. They appeared on a hot bar circle underneath his left eye. He also received an item labeled Undead Asylum F2 East Key.

Kirito hated leaving this man to die, but stayed to listen to his final words, as a thank you for the gifts.

"…Now I must bid farewell…I would hate to harm you after death…So, go now…and thank you."

"What happens after death?" Kirito remembered his mention of 'hollowed', and wanted more information. The knight was dead now, far past the point of giving replies to curious adventurers. Kirito received 100 souls for compensation on his guide's timely end, but would have liked more information instead.

He pressed on, with his new key and flasks, and after reading more orange letters, figured out Estus Flasks were tied to bonfires. The key came in handy as well, and allowed him to travel up toward the second rung of the building. After slaying more single enemies, a larger, more ominous white door stood above a small flight of steps. Kirito knew danger lurked on the other side, but was wholly surprised to find an open balcony looking over the same church room from before.

He held a puzzled expression, and that never changed as his eyes looked downward to see the Asylum Demon from before staring up at him from below.

"Can that thing track me through walls? How strong is the aggro in this game?" He wanted to say more, but as he lingered too long, the great monstrosity jumped high in the air, and slammed its great hammer down on the balcony floor. Kirito rolled sideways, and barely avoided getting smashed, while somehow managing to stay on the overlook.

Kirito let the demon land back down before letting his anger fully build. "Alright, you stupid thug, let me show ya a trick from ALfheim!"

He twirled the large wooden club in one hand, stuffed his shield on his back, and brought his weapon over his head as he took a plunge off the balcony, and slammed the hammer down hard on the demon's skull. Kirito slid off the monster's back, and let it scream as three quarters of its health disappeared.

"Okay…" He grinned assuredly. "So, there are hidden mechanics in this game. That's pretty interesting."

Kirito watched the towering monster turn for his target, and noticed the great beast now had a small white circle at sword level of Kirito's vision. It had appeared on every enemy so far, which had to mean it was an automatic targeting system of sorts. The monster had its own way of attacking as well, though, and as it brought the giant hammer into the ground, it swung the slab of steel around to send a wave of rocks and wind right for Kirito.

The dried husk of Kirito rolled away, but took half his life as damage as he found a nearby pillar to hide behind. He took a breath, and watched the great grey hammer slam into the column to his side.

Kirito was sitting with the same level of health as the monster, but he was much smaller, as was his health bar. He rolled away from the pillar, and let the demon take several vases with a swing of his hammer. Kirito realized that his roll dodge would be his best chance of survival for this fight, and finally, as he arrived behind the beast, he used his large wooden club on the demon's tail.

"That's it!" Kirito smiled. "I know your sweet spot!" Kirito found a weak point on the monster, and just as the large, immense Asylum Demon went in for its final slam, Kirito brought his weakling of a club right to the center of the monster's abdomen.

The club shattered into two pieces from the strength of Kirito's arm, and the health bar of the Asylum Demon shattered with it as the red energy retreated to nothing. The demon glowed grey with a shivering haze, then exploded into dust as a new message flashed across his vision.

VICTORY ACHIEVED

Kirito breathed with heavy air, and wiped his wrinkling brow as his body absorbed 2000 souls from the dead Asylum Demon. He was hoping for the dead monster's lofty weapon, but ignored the desire as the large doors before him were free for his advance. He used a dropped key from the demon to open the portal, and exited into a small cliff full of shattered stones, burial markers, broken steps, and an empty clearing that rose above it all in the distance.

Kirito took his time walking through the land, still with minimal health. He limped down around the rocks to find a peculiar soul item, then made his way for the clearing above. When he stopped to sadly admire the desolate land around his view, a cold wind fell on his shoulders.

Then, a great bird, black as a crow, swooped in with wide wings and open talons, clutching Kirito like prey in a field. The bird took the departing Undead, and flew toward the great beyond past the cliffs on the horizon. His fate was unknown, but his quest was very familiar.

"Only in the ancient legends it is stated,

that one day an Undead shall be chosen,

to leave the Undead Asylum, in pilgrimage.

To the land of the Ancient Lords,

Lordran."

Kirito braves the Undead Asylum and beats the demon! He seems to be very forgetful though. We'll find out where Asuna is and if Kirito can remember her next time!

Until Then!