Chapter 6: The Truth that Bathes in Sunlight

"Mind if I sit with you four?"

Heathcliff, the leader of the second strongest guild in Sword Art Online, stands before us with the softest of smiles drawn across his face. For the first time since I've entered this game, and for reasons I don't fully understand, I get a knot in my stomach. I want to get him away from here, to push him back...to...to buy myself...

Buy myself what?

"Gary, it should be okay, right?" Asuna asks me, tugging at my bicep and shattering my thought process. Snapping out of my trance, I smile sexily at my buxom babe wife, my porcelain white teeth sparkling gloriously in the sunlight. She melts down into a mess of ecstasy at this gesture of approval, and wraps her petite body around my arm. She won't be leaving there for a while, it seems. A strange feeling, considering this isn't the appendage she regularly envelops, after all.

Huhah!

Now back to my usual self, I glance at the Crimson Knight, who is awaiting my response...

Ugh.

It strikes me that even with the hyper-alpha-male status both Kirito and I have, it would be a bit of a dick move to say no. Hell, it might even look bad in front of the three or four hundred players who've crowded outside the window to film Kirito and I with admiration and glee. My gut screams to get Heathcliff the hell away from us, but my pride won't take it. After all, this guy's just some old-ish dude in shitty crimson armor. Compared to me, who practically has monopolized muscle, testosterone, and virility in SAO, he shouldn't be a threat, right? He isn't even wearing black.

So what's this feeling?

"Go ahead, sit down" my voice slides smoothly out, causing the floor to vibrate more violently than it did at the dubstep/trap festivals I used to DJ at under the name "SkillEx", as in Skilled in the Extreme. Just like back in the day, the sounds I make causes a crowd of women to gush tears of joy, although this time skirts are dropping instead of the bass. Damn, I'm good.

Heathcliff, seemingly ignoring the largest flood since the Book of Genesis occurring around him, pulls a chair up to the end of the table and sits down with a calm, collected smile on his face. The five of us sit here in an intense silence; even Sachi reads the mood, desperately resorting to scribbling 死にたくない on the table mat. God damn, why can't I be alpha and speak up? What's up with this guy?

Fortunately, a lumbering figure approaches behind Heathcliff, notepad in hand. Huh, it seems like our previous waitress couldn't handle the two most powerful, influential men in the game as her customers. Heathcliff probably is pretty intimidating as well, poor girl. It's a shame, I'm married, but I'm sure that girl would have enjoyed a substantial tip. Maybe the rest of it, too.

Huhah!

"Whats up, B.B.G?" my charisma and confidence has returned to me once more at the comforting sight of Big Black Guy, who is standing before us, spinning a pen in his hand. Nothing like a token minority to dissolve a tense atmosphere.

"I go by Tiffany in this job, Gary. Are you guys ready to order drinks?"

Ah, hell yes, finally something to break the ice. A large percentage of the player-base may have been underage and had been never exposed to an unlimited supply of alcohol before joining this game, but there's nothing like a few pints of booze in a ID-free zone to get conversation running. As I'm a real man, I opt to order a pint of coke and rum. Or was it rum and coke? Hell, I don't know.

"I'll-"

"That won't be necessary." For the first time since I've entered this game, somewhat cuts my godlike voice off mid sentence. All eyes at the table, including mine, turn to Heathcliff.

"Gary Stunning, I challenge you to a duel."

The entire building goes silent. Outside, the chaos subsides, the passionate celebration of my masculinity replaced by looks of shock and confusion directed at Heathcliff.

"What the hell are you saying, you bastard?!" Kirito slams the table and stands up, getting in Heathcliff's face. Hell yeah, that's my best-buddy for you, always super manly and confrontational.

Heathcliff sighs, pulls up a system-menu, and with the press of a button, everyone around me drops.

"G-Gary..." Asuna, now with a yellow indicator next to her name, is paralyzed, attached to my arm as she was beforehand. I should be able to lift my arm pretty easily, even with her attached to it, but I feel bad for her as this isn't really the most graceful of positions for her to be in. Think Koala trying to effectively attach itself to "General Sherman".

"What's the meaning of this?" I turn to Heathcliff. I might be able to make people freeze up due to my ever-imposing presence, but a paralysis status is out of even my reach. Something's off.

"You've been difficult to handle, Gary Stunning. This wasn't supposed to be how to game turned out."

"What are you talking about?" Any doubt in my mind is gone, and now my voice is sharp, icy, an cold. Freezing even. Frigid. Yeah, I'm totally not worried. What the hell is this nagging feeling at the back of my mind? I feel suffocated.

"You've blown straight through every boss I've thrown at you. Your posse made short work of even the ones I buffed to almost impossible levels. Frankly, Gary, you're bullshit."

"Shouldn't you be celebrating the fact that he's so strong?! Who cares how Overpowered he is as long as he's on our side!" Big Black Guy proclaims from the ground, where he has fallen due to paralysis.

"He's not on mine. I'm not going to have my world turned upside down by some random." Heathcliff states, his eyes fixated on mine.

"Your world, huh." My suspicions are starting to be confirmed.

"Yes, I am Kayaba Akihiko."

Cries of surprise reverberate through the inn.

"Why the big reveal?" I ask Kayaba..

"I'm revealing myself to challenge you, Gary. If this game continues with you alive, it'll be cleared as if it were some shitty 90s arcade brawler. Frankly, having our battle here now instead of on the 100th floor will save all of us some time, in the event that you win." he explains.

"Woah, what the fuck! Isn't that a super contrived reason to bust your cover?!" Klein yells out from the back of the restaurant.

"Shut up, Klein!" literally everyone else yells in response. Gotta love mob mentality.

"Contrived, maybe. It could be worse though..." Heathcliff shrugs the comment off.

"Yeah, someone could straight up have tried attacking you randomly to prove you weren't legit, risking their lives and standing as a front-liner and player." a member of the crowd suggests.

"Oh yeah you're right, like, what if Heathcliff was actually legit? Wouldn't they have like, potentially killed one of the best hopes for getting out of the game?" another member of the audience chimes in.

"Yeah, that'd be absolutely retarded." Kirito, still paralyzed, gives his agreement. "That aside, you need to win this, bro."

"It'll be easy, don't worry." I assure this to my bro and turn to Kayaba, my entire body brimming with confidence.

" You ready to die, bastard?" At this proclamation, men and women alike woo at my bravery. I pull my two swords off my back, in my right the best sword in the game, in my left a blade I had Lisbeth make for me after I paid her quite well. With cash, unfortunately, because Asuna wouldn't allow any other method. I'm one of the two people in this game who can dual wield, along with Kirito, and at the sight of such a rare skill murmurs run through the crowd.

Without a doubt, this will be a duel to decide the fate of this game.

"You took the words straight out of my mouth." Heathcliff replies, drawing his sword and shield. Ah, I think this situation couldn't get any more cliche. "Anyways, before we begin," he continues, "shouldn't you do something about her?" he points to Asuna, who is still attached to the arm carrying Lisbeth's blade.

I take a look at my beautiful wife, dangling in an immovable state from the hulking mass I call my arm.

"Don't push me off, Gary, I won't want to live anymore if he kills you!" Asuna squalls. Somewhere outside the game an activist for stronger, more realistic and independent women in storytelling keels over and dies, their last thoughts consumed and overridden by deep-rooted pain.

"It's okay babe, I can fight with you by my side" I reassure her. Well, on my side, technically, but let's not sweat the details. I'm used to fighting with women clinging on to me, so it should be alright.

I send Kayaba a duel offer, one to to the death of course, and he accepts without hesitation. I set the timer prior to the duel pretty low, but I don't regret this.

"15...14...13..." The countdown begins.

The whole world is banking on this... my whole world.

"12...11..10...9"

"I don't want to die!" Sachi yells out in fear.

"Shh, Sachi, you're not the one dueling" Kirito's words comfort her, as he can't exactly move to hug her in a state of paralysis.

"8...7...6..5...4..."

That's right. Asuna, Loli Girl, Kirito, Big Black Guy, Sachi, Tits McGee; fuck it, even Klein, you're all counting on me. The whole world's counting on me. I look towards Asuna one last time, and flash a manly grin at her.

I've got this.

I tense my ankles in preparation for a charge.

"3...2...1..BEGIN."

From the very first millisecond of the duel I launch myself at him, leaving a sonic boom in my wake. I bring my arms down in an overhead attack, striking directly at Kayaba's head. To my surprise, he moves at an equally inhuman speed and deflects my attack. What's up with these "INHUMAN reactions" he's suddenly capable of?

I slice again with both swords simultaneously, but he skillfully parries them upwards once again with his shield, and this time draws his sword down towards me in response.

Easy.

I bring Lisbeth's sword forward to knock it aside, raising it into a hanging left guard at lightning speed. To my horror, its durability wasn't prepared for a collision at this velocity, and it shatters under the hit. Kayaba's sword continues down towards my body, and I reflexively move my arm to block it.

Damn it, am I really going to die here?

As it turns out, Asuna takes one for the team.

"Asuna, no!" I cry out in the manliest way possible. She shatters before she can say much, like pretty much everyone else in this game did. Guess the health-bar hits zero rule is pretty hard-set, huh? Shame she was on my arm as a shield, though. Wait, she died in one hit? Ah whatever.

Without skipping a beat because I'm not a pussy-bitch who'd completely mentally break down in this situation, which would effectively make Asuna's sacrifice worthless, I stab Kayaba in the heart with my remaining blade.

A mellow, soothing wave of light envelops the bar.

Gone is the red plated armour. Before me stands a girl, dark hair and sunken, solemn eyes which dig into my own. Behind her lies a sky of red and orange, the sky outside of Aincrad. I stare at this girl who has the sunset draped around her shoulders and it occurs to me that we are, somehow, standing on top nothing. We are hanging above everything that matters. Or outside of it, perhaps.

It occurs to me that this isn't the first time I've felt this way.

"Sachi?"

She smiles in response. I notice, to my horror, that her entire body is dominated by a grim, foreboding transparency

"Sachi? What the hell. Are you..."

She nods calmly.

"It's you, too." she states. I can see sympathy in her eyes.

Ah... of course.

I never reached this sun-stained plane of existence, did I?

I stare at the backs of the couple speaking to the God of this world, Kayaba. The slim frame of a man, no, a boy; his figure shrouded in clothes as dark as his hair. The girl next to him draped in white and red, a beauty by anyone's standards. Darkness and light, each "shining" in their own extremities, and meeting in a happy, appropriate middle ground. A couple which, without a doubt, can stand before this world's god.

They do not look my way. Even if they could, they would have no reason to. I've been gone for a long time now.

It seems I had more in common with Sachi than I thought. I look over to her as she fades for what must be the second time; her hands and feet slowly disintegrate into the glittering, hideous cyan shards that are consuming her, consuming this world. We are alike in our mediocrity. We are alike in how normal we are. If I am honest, we are alike in our temperament as well.

Both of us feared death with a passion. And ultimately failed to avoid it.

I don't want to die, huh?

What a useless thought.

I raise my hand towards the sun as the tingling feeling reaches my upper body. My legs are already gone. The sun is bright and beautiful, showering light on my body, as unworthy as it is. The familiar sight of my frail upper arm, perhaps slightly wider than my wrist, doesn't make me uncomfortable anymore. I stretch out my fingers, grasping at the orb in the sky. It's so far out of my reach. All these hands ever were good for was writing self-inserts and playing MMORPGS, it seems. For escaping reality. I don't mind this as much as I thought I would. Sure, they're not the muscular hands of hero. But at least they're mine.

For my first time in this game—no, in my life— I'm at least partially satisfied with who I am. The fact that Asuna and Kirito would never really have looked my way; hell, that even Klein wouldn't be bothered with me, is somehow unimportant.

Hah, if only this had come sooner.

I feel strangely comforted as the cyan shards envelop what's left of me, shattering me, dragging me slowly up towards the sky. To a place I could never reach alone. The light feels so warm, so familiar... perhaps I should sleep? I deserve some rest, after this whole ordeal.

The last floor of Aincrad cracks and breaks into pieces and the Red Palace goes up in a glorious stream of blue. The world below me, which I never properly experienced, is coming along. How kind of it.

My eyes slowly shut. My breathing slows. I can feel my heart beating, ever so faintly. Like Aincrad, it fades.

And then, darkness.