A/N: Hello and welcome to the next chapter of this fanfic.

In fact I have an announcement to make here: As of this chapter this fanfic will be the official prequel to my Traveller series starting later this year.

Oh yeah... and there is only one chapter left before this fanfic is complete. Not counting the epiloque.

HAVE FUN READING AND PLEASE REVIEW!

House of new beginnings

As Kirito, Lizbeth and Yui materialized at the Teleport Gate in the Starting City they were greeted with a quite troubling sight. Being surrounded by twelve members of The Army, Silber was obviously in trouble.

Instinctively reaching for his sword, which he hadn't equipped today, Kirito noticed something strange. Some of the players were trembling. A reverse spin-kick later, courtesy of Silber, and Kirito knew exactly why. While leaving Yui with Lizbeth, he equipped his Dark Repulser and jumped into the fray.

With his trademark black coat, the Army-members quickly recognized him and started panicking.

With the Army-members running away, some of them screaming, Kirito sheathed his sword. Turning around to face Silber, he saw three children running towards him.

"That was amazing!" the smallest of them, a girl with red hair and green eyes, cheered.

"The way you punched away the first of them was soooooooo~ cool!" the boy with brown hair and brown eyes squealed, trying to mimic a karate punch.

"Thank you for helping us out." the tallest of the three, a girl with blonde hair and grey eyes, said, bowing politely.

"Now you got me all flustered. "Silber said scratching the back of his head.

"And if Kirito here hadn't jumped in to help me, they would've overwhelmed me."

"What was up with them anyway?" Kirito asked.

"They are collecting 'taxes' from the players still living here." Silber answered, looking in the direction the group ran off to.

"And they are doing this by harassing innocent children?" Lizbeth asked as she joined the conversation with Yui by her side.

"They were afraid of someone else."

Everyone turned towards the source of the voice, going by the name of Yui.

"Yui?" Kirito asked, confused on how the girl would know that.

"…"

"You could feel it in how the wielded their weapons…" Silber said with a concerned look at Yui, "…, it just felt wrong."

"But how could Yui know something like that?" Lizbeth asked curiously.

"Sometimes children can sense the feelings of those around them." Silber stated.

"Let's get going, you still have that party to manage." Kirito said, ending their conversation right there.

After they arrived at a church a woman named Sasha used as the daycare centre, and were greeted by the same, Silber disappeared into the kitchen. After quickly helping with the basic preparations, Kirito and Lizbeth were sitting at a round table a little bit away from where the kids were sitting. Yui was sitting with the other children and laughing with them as they told her all kinds of stories about what they had experienced.

"So you found her on the 22nd floor…" Sasha said, thinking deeply.

"Yeah, and judging from her appearance she must have logged in with a parent or guardian." Kirito concluded with his right hand cupping his chin.

"I've never seen her…" Sasha said, looking over at Yui, "… but she seems to see both of you as her parents."

"Do you know any…" Lizbeth said but was interrupted by Silber coming out of the kitchen.

Now he wore a ridiculously colorful shirt with all the colors of the rainbow randomly sprayed across it, normal brown leather pants and boots and a party hat with the same ridiculous design as the shirt. Distributing the party hats among everyone he turned back to the kitchen.

"If I see anyone not wearing his or her hat, they'll only get one helping!" Silber declared with a grin before he went to the kitchen again.

The children were hastily putting on their heads while Kirito and Lizbeth just stared at their hats in disbelieve. Sasha just put the hat on with a smile.

Glancing at Kirito, Lizbeth could see him thinking for about a second before he just went with it and put the hat on. The picture of Kirito in his usual black attire with a party hat like that left Lizbeth with no choice but to burst out laughing.

After she, and some of the children, had calmed down somewhat, she decided to put her hat on as well. At the sight of this Kirito had to stifle a laughter as the expression Lizbeth made while shifting the hat around was quite funny as well.

Just at that moment Silber walked back into the room with a big plate of some sort of breaded meat in one hand and a giant bowl of salad that occupied the other arm of his. Soon after he put the food down on the tables the volume in the room turned up.

After they were done eating, it didn't take the children very long to gather around Kirito and Lizbeth and start asking about stories from their adventures.

About half an hour later the kids had split up, while some of them were still listening to the stories told by Kirito and Lizbeth, the others were playing hide and seek in the main hall of the church with Silber and Sasha.

Right in the middle of a story about how they went to gather the necessary material for the Dark Repulser Kirito stopped talking.

"There are about ten people approaching the entrance…" Kirito said with a concerned look on his face.

As soon as those words had left his mouth the sound of the wooden gate being blown to pieces reached his ears.

At the same time in the main hall Silber and Sasha were sneaking up on a girl hiding beneath one of the many benches. As the gate was blown to pieces Silber moved in front of Sasha to swat away a huge chunk of wood, which would have hit Sasha if he didn't.

As the dust cleared and the one responsible for this impossible feat stepped through what once was a gate, Kirito and Silber called out in unison.

"Kibaou?"

"Kibaou!"

Kibaou wore the typical armor that every member of The Army wore, except that he had all sorts of decoration engraved on the plating, and held a two handed sword in his hands that was shaped like lightning.

"I take it that you are the one who stood up against my tax collectors!" Kibaou said as he pointed his sword at Silber.

"Get the children out of here." Silber whispered to Sasha.

The brunette just nodded perplexed and started to lead the children in the hall towards the staircase to their sleeping quarters.

"If that's what you call your thugs, then yes." Silber answered after he turned to face the intruder again.

His eyes darted to the top left of his field of view for a split second before he focused on Kibaou again.

"What's the meaning of this?" Kirito asked, his hand already at the hilt of his sword.

"I can't let some wannabe do-gooder run around unpunished now, can I?" It was a question and yet it was also a statement.

One could nearly hear the malice and self-confidence dripping from his voice as he said that.

"And you need to dirty a holy place of peace just for that?" Silber asked back.

All the answer he got was a maniacal laughter that echoed through the halls of the church.

"Holy?! In this hell?"

"Stay back men, I'll handle this myself!"

As soon as he issued his command he charged forwards with a vertical slash. Silber evaded the attack by jumping to the left. Coming up from his roll he got into a battle stance with one hand open with the palm facing Kibaou while the other was hidden at his side.

Turning around he swung his sword horizontally at Silber, who dodged the sword by ducking and in the same movement spun around and swept his opponents feet away. Were it not in-game, crashing down with that momentum and armor would have knocked every molecule of air out of Kibaou's lungs. However, as this was a game, all that happened was that Kibaou was disoriented for a few seconds.

Kicking the two handed sword away, Silber walked over to Kirito.

"And this is how-"

Pain. The pain of being stabbed right through the heart spread through Silber's body like a bushfire. Looking down he saw the source. Kibaou's sword was really piercing his body right where his heart should be.

But in SAO pain should be impossible. And his HP weren't supposed to drop in a safe zone.

Not to mention that the sword shouldn't even be able to scratch him.

With a scream of agony Silber hurled himself backwards until he hit the hilt guard and used this momentum to bury his elbow in Kibaou's face. The assailant staggered backwards and let go of the sword.

"PULL THE DAMN THING OUT!" Silber yelled as he fell over face first.

He passed out as soon as he hit the ground.

Watching all that was happening in front of him, Kirito hastily navigated through his menu. Just as he had finished what he was doing he heard Silber's last scream. Rushing over to him and pulling sword out of his body he hastily poured some of the highest level health potion he had into his mouth. Carrying him back into the room Lizbeth, Yui and some of the kids were still hiding in was possible without interruption.

Seeing that he now carried two swords on his back Lizbeth looked at Kirito with a clearly worried expression.

"Kirito…"

"You know that I have to do this."

"Just… " Lizbeth was quickly manipulating her menu and materialized a light black and red sword, "… take this."

"This looks just like the Dark Repulser…" Kirito trailed of as he pulled the sword out of its sheath.

"It's its sister after all."

"Its name is Light Enforcer…" Lizbeth looked at her feet.

"I'll be right back." Kirito said with a smile as he equipped the Light Enforcer to replace his Elucidator.

"I was wondering if you had the balls to face me." This time something was dripping.

Blood?!

Kirito was clearly shocked at what he saw. Normally, even if you were stabbed in the heart you wouldn't even see a single drop of blood in SAO. Yet, that strangely formed sword was bathed in blood.

"What is going on here?" Kirito asked as he drew his swords.

"I could ask you the same, dual wielding is not allowed in this world." And with that, Kibaou charged at Kirito.

Bringing his sword in a diagonal uppercut Kirito could only avoid the attack by sidestepping. The next move was a horizontal slash that used the former momentum. Kirito crossed both of his swords in front of him to block the strike and was pushed back by about six meters, not to mention that his HP went down by five percent.

Kirito immediately jumped forward unleashing a barrage of slashes but even though Kibaou was unable to block more than half of the attacks the system prevented him from taking any damage.

"You can't hurt me inside a safe zone you idiot!" Kibaou shouted in between his laughter.

"LOOK! Even the mighty Black Swordsman cannot harm me!"

The members of The Army who were still standing outside started to talk excitedly… and with fear as well.

They began exchanging blows again. But no matter what attacks Kirito unleashed on his opponent, he was unable to inflict any damage on him.

Dodging a three-hit-skill Kirito started up his Starburst Stream to knock Kibaou back and maybe knock the weapon out of his hands. Kibaou however just used his two handed sword as a makeshift shield and blocked every hit of the skill, leaving Kirito defenseless as his skill induced a short delay.

Enough time for Kibaou to launch a skill of his own. And the Avalanche that hit Kirito reduced his HP into the red zone.

Jumping back, Kirito put a few meters distance between them. Having no hand to take out a Healing Crystal and being the only thing standing between a madman and his beloved, he was in a dire situation. Crossing his swords above his head to block the next incoming vertical hit his HP decreased even further. He went down on one knee because of the force of the impact.

Please forgive me…

His HP were close to zero as he closed his eyes.

100… 78… 42… 16… 1…

Exhaling one last time he prepared to face the Gatekeeper at the bridge to the realm of the dead.

~KLANG~

The sound of metal clashing against metal.

~SHHHHHUUUUUU~

The sound of someone rushing past him.

~CRATCH~

The sound of metal breaking.

"HEAL!"

The voice of an angel yelling the command that should heal his wounds.

~koff~

The sound and feeling of someone hugging him from behind. The same someone who was sobbing uncontrollably.

As Kirito opened his eyes again he saw a wall of armor standing in front of him. Focusing on the person hugging him from behind he could make out that it was Lizbeth. Looking towards the upper left corner of his vision he could see a completely filled health bar.

"Don't go off dying on me when I finally worked up the courage to tell you that I love you!"

"I…"

"Sorry…" Kirito laid down his swords and laid his hands on top of Lizbeth's.

"I'm sorry to disturb you…" a deep voice came from the wall of armor. "… but we'll need your help with this."

Looking up Kirito looked straight into the eyes of the leader of the KoB, Heathcliff. And looking past him he saw Asuna and Silber engaged into a fight with Kibaou.

"How…?" Kirito asked relieved.

"I had some of my scouts watch the activities of this certain individual for the last few weeks." Heathcliff answered.

Only now Kirito's mind registered the fact that Silber was… surrounded by a bluish green glow.

"Papa!" Yui came running out of the door and hugged him forcefully.

"Be a good girl and stay with Liz for a little while longer, will you." Kirito said as he took up his swords again.

This time they felt like they were resonating with each other. And with him.

"Lock released… harmony levels rising in the area… disabling the security protocols in a radius of 30 meters… commence battle now." Yui's voice was monotone as she said that.

"Yui?" Kirito and Lizbeth asked at the same time.

"No, right now I am Cardinal… I will offer you assistance in eliminating the individual with the name Kibaou… his weapon and its effects are not part of this system and must therefore be eliminated… because of an unknown error however I am unable to delete this item…"

Jumping to their side were Asuna and Silber.

"As much as I want to discuss with you our release from this prison, right now is not the time to do this." Heathcliff stated flatly.

"Sadly…" Silber sighed.

"Kirito and I will take care of occupying his attention while Asuna and Silber inflict as much damage as possible. " Heathcliff ordered drawing his sword from his shield.

Everyone nodded in agreement. A moment later they charged, Heathcliff at the front swatting away the enemy's attack with his shield. Trying to use the momentum gained from that action Kibaou spun around to take advantage of the opening Heathcliff presented right now. But just as he came around Kirito struck the weapon with both of his, stopping the strike before it could even come close to the KoB leader.

Using Silber's outstretched arm as a stepping stone, Asuna jumped over Kibaou's head and changed her stance to execute the skill Star Splash. Without the ability to react to any of the attacks, all the three initial thrusts to the chest, the two slashes at the legs and the two strong high and low jabs connect and inflict enough damage to drop his HP by twenty percent.

Jumping back and raising his shield above his head Heathcliff provided a platform for Silber, which he gladly made use of by jumping onto it and charging the skill Embracer. Jumping of the shield, and getting a boost from Heathcliff, Silber soared forward and pierced Kibaou's chest with his hand.

Taking the opportunity of a stunned opponent Asuna aimed her Linear for the head of their enemy and pierced straight through.

That combination eliminated the rest of Kibaou's HP and he burst into polygon splitters with the sound of shattering glass and a scream of agony.

And with him his two handed sword.

"Item deleted… restoring safe zone and reinitiating lock… I thank you all for assisting in the elimination of this anomaly…" Yui stumbled a few steps backwards and looked around with a confused expression.

"It's over…" Kirito sighed as he sheathed his blades.

"And we've just missed our ticket out of here." Silber added, the glow surrounding his body growing weaker by the second.

"This just means that we'll have to rely on our own strength, just as we did up till now." Heathcliff finished.

The players outside had fled right at the moment they had seen the KoB's top players arrive.

22nd floor

Watching the sunset while sitting on the edge of a walkway reaching about 5 meters into the lake, Lizbeth was resting her head on Kirito's shoulder.

"I was really afraid of losing you there…" Lizbeth whispered.

"Yeah…"

Kirito laid his arm around her shoulders and pulled her closer.

"You know, I still haven't heard your answer." Lizbeth said with a blush creeping onto her face.

"My answer to what?" Kirito asked curiously.

"Don't play dumb with me." Lizbeth demanded lifting her head from his shoulder to look him in the eyes.

"I love you and I will repeat that as long as it takes for you to give me an answer."

Now it was Kirito's turn to blush.

"Ahhh… well…" Kirito stammered.

Lizbeth looked at him with great expectation.

"… I l-love you t-too…" Kirito finally stammered out.

Overpowered with joy at those words Lizbeth threw her arms around Kirito's neck and kissed him passionately.