AN: One more chapter to go, after this. The chapter's are going to be definitely going to be 3k words.

Also, Worker72, if Kibaou got the poison, he can assassinate anyone he wants. The DDA may hinder him, but that's all they might do.

And please review! I'm not totally reliant on reviews, but it's always very helpful, even if you're just complaining about a plot point.

Chapter 16: Eleventh Hour

Floor 1 Starting City: Black Iron Palace

"Too bad we didn't get the poison; would have made us be top guild again." A sub-leader drawled. Kibaou rolled his eyes.

"Relax. Fūrin Kazan has the recipe, but right now, they're trapped. They won't give it to anyone. And besides, no one can stop us now."

Thinker teleported to the center of the Starting City. The Black Iron Palace is directly ahead. The crystal dissipated from his hands. He strutted forward, people recognizing him as the partner to Kibaou, the one that mysteriously disappeared. The former leader to MMO Today, a guild dedicated to helping out weak players, a guild that merged with the Army.

The guard at the entrance recognized him.

"Thinker?"

"Hello,"

"You were gone for three days!"

"I'm back," The guard respectfully stood aside. "Can you come with me?" Thinker said. The guard nodded.

"Kibaou!"

The man turned around. A man with a blue long coat. His former partner.

The one he trapped to his death.

"I noticed you sent a guild down at the Hidden Dungeon. The guild that rescued the men you sent to the 74th floor,"

"They harboured a poison that can assassinate people quickly," Kibaou stated. "I'm glad you're back." Kibaou said hesitantly. Thinker scowled.

"They saved my life!" he yelled, attracting everyone's attention. Army players stopped and looked at the situation.

"What makes you better than them?! Maybe that poison is exactly what you want! It would've made killing me easier. Then you can get as much Col you want from everyone without me knowing." Thinker shouted, letting everyone here. He opened the guild section in his menu, and selected Kibaou to kick. In order to kick someone out of the guild, you need to have a majority of the guild players agree with you. A notification popped up in every ALF member's menu. They can choose to agree, disagree, or decline partaking in the vote.

Kibaou stayed silent.

"You left me to rot in that dungeon. I shouldn't have trusted you. I want this guild the way it was; helping out low to mid-level players. But it's pretty obvious even you can't handle that. Now who's with me?" Thinker declared.

The players looked at each other. Thinker looked at the Sub-Leaders, and recognized her wife, Yulier. The white-haired woman looked extremely pleased from the reappearance of her husband. Most chose to abstain, to play it safe. Almost all of the Sub-Leaders disagreed, except Yulier, who agreed. Some of the players were around with MMO Today since the beginning, and couldn't level up without the guild's assistance. They agreed.

Kibaou saw his guild logo disappear from his profile.

"Motion carried."

Floor 50- Granzam

Heathcliff entered his quarters, closing the door behind him. The gray-haired man sat down on his bed. He opened his menu, and pressed something. A clone of his player model appeared in front of him, and the model immediately went to the bed, taking a sleeping position. It came with all the data displayed by a player, a dummy, in case anyone entered the room.

Heathcliff then teleported away, transforming to Akihiko Kayaba.

He appeared outside Aincrad, at the edge of the skybox. He stood on air, with nothing but clouds below him. The gigantic floating castle was a shell around the hundred floors.

He sat down, sighing, then proceeded to open his menu again, and tapping another button.

[Cardinal]

Numerous holographic windows surrounded him, displaying player population, lists of players, distribution of players in floors, etc.

He then started maintenance. Cardinal usually handled everything, but sometimes, a human had to intervene to clean up bugs.

He skimmed through Cardinal's delete history. There were player names, and game enemies, but something caught his eye.

[Deleted Yui-MHCP001 at 01-11-23]

Kayaba clicked on the deletion report.

[Player "Klein" profile accessed by Yui-MHCP001]

Anyone who accesses another inventory gets kicked, or in this case, die.

"An AI did that? How?"

Cardinal keeps a 3D recording of everything in Aincrad. Kayaba accessed the records prior to that deletion.

A coloured hologram appeared in front of him. A massively scaled down Hidden Dungeon showed the Fatal Scythe attacking a group of players, most uniquely, Kirito.

The Twin Swordsman, he thought, and kept watching. They were mostly in critical condition. The AI, touched a player, and the player was boosted; Kayaba saw the health at least triple, and his skills artificially boosted past maximum level.

The dungeon quickly lit up with yellow light emanating from the Sword Skills. He found it interesting, and kept watching. The reaper died, and they sat around for a while, talking and resting. Kayaba still listened, wanting to know why Yui-MHCP001 broke rules.

"When I touched that console, the black box in the middle of the white room, everything about the game was downloaded to me. The system coding, the number of deaths... But Cardinal corrects everything." The girl-looking AI confessed. Something stirred inside him.

He saw Kirito rush to the console room.

"Look, Kayaba's in the game. He's a player, a powerful one!"

Kayaba sharply inhaled, hoping that Cardinal had deleted her by now.

"Who?!"

"Heathcliff."

Kayaba bowed his head, sighing in stress.

My own creation betrayed me… That line echoed in his head, a repeating mantra.

Kayaba remembered the days leading the Assault Group to epic battles. He never had that euphoric rush since his childhood.

But this secret may ruin everything! This perfect world he built from years of work!

He pulled up the roster of Fūrin Kazan from the servers, drawn towards the obvious solution.

[Kick selected players (12)?]

He managed to stop himself, however. He always had a fascination with the dual wielder. He held a sort of competitive rivalry with him. Kirito's stats stood further than the rest. And his followers weren't very far behind. It was a bit upsetting to kill them for such a selfish and cowardly reason.

He decided to wait until they show up at the Clearer meetings, see if they turn him in, reveal the secret.

He was a benevolent god.

Floor 22

"I'm calling a meeting." Kirito said out to the cabin, and sat down on a corner, besides the sliding glass door, kicking Dynamm from his nap, getting a colourful complaint.

Not that he cared.

He saw the guild gather eventually.

"Alright," Kirito said to the two dozen, " Any ideas for our next move?"

"Not really," Issin admitted.

"Okay, then what about that guy in the dungeon that we helped escape?"

"He's probably Thinker, a sub-leader in the ALF," Suguha responded, "He's supposed to be Kibaou's partner. He was, nice, actually."

"Maybe he went back to HQ?" Dynamm suggested. "Vouch for us?"

"Didn't Kibaou send him down there to his death?" Kunimittz countered, "If he went back, he might be dead,"

"Still, it's the closest thing we have." Kirito stood up. "I'm going to find out."

"I'm sorry, what?" Klein stopped him. "You're literally the most recognizable person here. Hey look, dual blades!"

"That's the point. If he's alive, he'll recognize me. If he's not, I'm running."

"We'll all come, then. More recognizable." Asuna affirmed, and stood up.

"A bit stupid, but I can't stop you."

Bare knuckles rapped the door. He froze.

"Who the hell is that?" Kirito whispered.

"Pizza, Kirito! I don't know!"

He approached the door carefully, sliding Dark Repulser out of it's sheath. Dale positioned in front of the door, and Silica and Recon pulled out throwing knives.

Kirito opened the door, a glowing sword ready to stab…

Lisbeth. She took one look at the numerous weapons aimed at her, and turned around, walking away.

"Lisbeth?!" Kirito caught up. "Wait!"

Dale lowered his greatsword.

"Well, this is embarrassing,"

"Lisbeth, come on!" Asuna ran out.

"You guys were going to skewer me! That was scary as hell!"

"Why are you here?" Kirito grabbed her shoulder.

"Asuna gave me your coat, and I made something out of it." She explained.

"What did you make?" Kirito asked, secretly excited.

"A sword." She materialized a black metal sword, with a bone blade.

"I had to use some really expensive stuff to this. Like, really expensive. Drove me out of business." She griped. Asuna shook her head confusedly.

"Drove you out of business?!" Asuna complained, "Why would you do that?"

"You are literally my only business. Those guild smiths are driving me out." Asuna sighed.

"You really want to join us, don't you?" Asuna replied.

"I gave you free stuff. And, I was thinking, and I thought that it would be useless sitting around, selling almost outdated weapons. So I want to be a Clearer."

"It's not going to be like X'rphan." Kirito warned, but Lisbeth continued to the cabin. "I know."

"Just wait, we have to do something first. When we return, we'll decide." Asuna let her in the cabin.

"We're going to Floor One," Kirito called to the guild.

Asuna smiled to Lisbeth. "Wait in the cabin. If we don't come back tired, I'll tell the rest of the guild, and we'll see."

Asuna caught up to Kirito, leading the path to the Teleport Gate at the main town.

"Uh, Kirito? Why is Lisbeth staying at the cabin?" Klein looked back, seeing her sit down on a couch. "I'll tell you later." Asuna offhandedly answered.

"Asuna, I thought we deleted everyone in the friends list." Kirito looked at Asuna. "Alright, I left Lisbeth in." she said embarrassingly, prompting Kirito to sigh.

Floor 1

"This is it. Moment of truth." Kunimittz breathed out at the sight of the Black Iron Palace.

Nearby onlookers recognized the guild, and started to attract attention. Kirito started strutting forward, through the gates of the Palace.

The guards didn't really care; a good sign.

They went into the inside, red and black clothes and armor a telltale sign. The Elementals.

"That's the guy in the dungeon." Klein pointed out. Thinker, in his dark blue jacket, was in discussion with a new council of sub leaders, a white-haired woman by his side.

"Oh, hey!" Thinker stood up, heading towards them. "Thanks for saving me!" He suddenly hugged Kirito.

"…alright then."

"So, Kibaou?" Asuna asked. " Kicked him out," a sub leader answered, "He's not here."

"How did you escape?" Thinker asked. Klein quickly jumped in.

"Long story,"

"Well, anyway, what can I do for you?" He said warmly.

"Can you release someone in the dungeon? It's not Laughing Coffin members." Asuna requested.

"Of course, but why?"

"We might as well tell him Kirito," Issin drawled. Thinker stopped.

"What story?"

"The reason why we were thrown into the dungeon." He turned around. "We have to speak privately."

Kirito watched a ALF player unlock the bars holding the Moonlit Black Cats.

"Thanks, Kirito," Keita grinned.

"No problem,"

They waited until they were out of the prison when they spoke.

"How did you get us out?"

"We rescued the leader from a dungeon."

"Why was he there? Did he go alone in the dungeon? Did they actually call you?" he fired one question after another.

"Another time, Keita." Asuna interrupted. He shrugged.

"I guess so," Thinker awaited at the exit.

"Well. Kirito, again, thank you for saving me."

"I'll do the stuff you wanted me to do. There's also a Clearer meeting tomorrow. Took longer for them to scout the Labyrinth." Keita kept that last part in his head.

"Thanks." Thinker watched the guild walk away. He smiled, but there was a solemn look in his eyes.

"Hey Kirito , what did you ask Thinker to do?" Issin asked. The whole guild looked at him curiously.

"I asked him to convince the DDA that we're not a threat."

"Do you think they would believe him?"

"ALF's a huge force. They got lots of power." Klein answered. Kirito reached the teleport gate.

"We haven't been training a lot lately. That's why, we're going to head to the 75th floor. Klein, pick up Lisbeth, sell the cabin. Buy back the manor we sold. We're meeting at the 75th floor Labyrinth entrance."

"For once, I got a good feeling about this." Kunimittz smiled.

Floor 75 Main City- Corinth

They ventured into the black dungeon,

"Right, let's do this!" Lisbeth excitedly delivered, attracting lots of attention.

"Woah, hold on." Issin gestured, "What's your level?"

"Um, it's a bit low,"

"Really low, if you didn't train after that encounter with X'rphan." Klein nudged Lisbeth. "I'm not coming, aren't I?" she said dryly.

"Yeah, probably. Go back to the manor. Maybe there's a workshop there, I dunno. Look at the guild inventory time to time." Klein waved goodbye. Lisbeth nodded, and cracked a crystal, heading back.

"Wait!" Lisbeth ran back, giving Klein a black sword.

[Demonic Blackwyrn Sword +15]

The sword was mainly black, with accents of red in the tips and handles. The bottom of the handle protruded a small piece of dragon teeth. The blade was made of dark grey bone, judging from the texture.

"Thanks! Oh and by the way; welcome to the guild!" Klein waved goodbye, then ran to catch up.

A group of players ran past her, chain mail wearing players with masks and curved blades.

"Been a long time since we grinded. We must be a couple levels short." Klein remarked. "We'll get there," Dale reassured, marching ahead.

Conversations stopped for a moment when a pack of black armor clad players rushed past them with incredible speed.

"Kotaru?" He identified the levels of the runners, which confirmed it. They were beta testers.

"Asuna, can you get map info from them?"

"Sure, why?"

"Actually, never mind. Dunno if you can catch up-" Asuna launched right there, dashing fast across the path.

"-uh, okay."

Asuna went back equally as quick.

"They want us to join them."

Kirito shrugged, and went forward. "Well, alright."

"Wait, what's happening?" Dale asked around, as they followed him. "You don't recognize them?" Issin responded, as the black masked players came into view.

"Fuumaningun players. Exclusively beta testers." A player removed his mask, revealing brown hair and grey eyes.

"Kirito. Geez, your level sucks. Are you sure those guys aren't dragging you down?" he said a bit arrogantly, pointing to the people behind Kirito's back.

"Nice to meet you too," Kunimittz replied, causing a few to chuckle.

"Sorry, you must've fell behind when you were hunted." Kotaru apologized, "The DDA placed bounties on you, a few thousand Col each. Even more to that guy over there. Of course, you worked with us for months, so we kept quiet." He pointed to a boy with a grey cloak and staff. Recon.

"Long story. We're here to boost our levels. Do you have any map data?" Kirito asked. Kotaru smiled, and opened a trade request, exchanging maps for free.

"Of course. Hey, do you want to come with us? We're trying to find the boss door."

The closer players are to the boss door, more enemies spawn. So this offer would speed up levelling.

"Sure."

Floor 74

After hours of searching, Lisbeth finally found a workshop in the grand manor. The basement. It was home to furnaces, forges, workbenches, and grindstones. It was pretty much like heaven to her. The stony walls and lack of windows sort of made her feel like a dwarf.

"Maybe they already have some loot from the frontlines," she opened the guild inventory. Sure enough, it was filled with rare ores.

She got to work.. A bit too excited.

"We're making good progress," Klein muttered, slashing a skeletal spider for the millionth time. They forged through new paths in the Labyrinth, in search for the boss entrance. Harry One shattered another set of crawling bones, before his brother whined.

"Where the hell is a safe area when you need it?"

"Relax. It's probably close-" Harry One replied to his complaints until someone cried out in excitement.

"Holy crap! The boss door!" A Fuumaningun scout bellowed, everyone rushing over. The door was unusually dark, with small torches.

And the dungeon was very dark already, multiplying the scare factor of the bony red eyed spiders that spawn here.

"We're not going in there, are we?" Kunimittz's voice cracked.

"Kirito, wanna check it out?" Kotaru said daringly. Kirito immediately backed out.

"Our levels are still a few levels below yours, so we'll stay here." Kirito responded.

"Suit yourself. We're going in." Kotaru whistled to the ninja-like players.

They pushed open the doors, sword in one hand, crystal in the other.

Only darkness stood before them. Kotaru advanced forward, intent on revealing the boss.

Asuna saw the doors move on it's own, closing rapidly.

Like the one in the Floor 1 dungeon.

The one responsible killing Sachi.

"The doors are closing!" She dashed forward and pushed against the door, trying to hold the door open. The people behind Asuna started to help, piling up strength against the metal entrances. The doors moved seemingly without restriction, ignoring the pushing players.

"Run back!" A player in there screamed, and everyone ran back, desperately trying to escape.

"Teleport: Corinth! Teleport: Corinth!" A player shouted hopelessly, raising his crystal.

"Anti Crystal?!" Klein cursed.

They moved incredibly fast.

But speed is not enough.

"Kotaru! Come on!" Kirito shouted, buried in arms strained against the door, looking at a tiny gap. Dynamm pulled back, unsheathed his sword, and jammed it against the remaining closing gap.

In the precious moments when Dynamm's sword held, there was a haunting glimpse.

Kirito saw Kotaru turn around, as a huge, white, terrifying creature dropped down.

Five HP bars. The name was too far away to read. But it was clear.

The scouting party's fate was sealed.

The sword disintegrated, and the doors closed.