My black blade was engulfed with a grey glowing aura as I tightly held it high above my head with both hands. I swung downwards and released the built up energy against the strong and thick trunk of the tree, smashing mercilessly through the bark, sending splinters flying around me, and wedging itself deep within the light coloured inner wood of the old Oak tree.
I quickly wrenched the blade out of the trunk, with surprising ease considering how deep it had penetrated, and looked at the deep gouge that I had left in the tree. A moment after the sword left the tree the hollow began to glow bright white and within moments had regenerated itself back to its original state. I moved back a few paces and held Shadow Beam to my left side and began to charge up a red glow which smoked off from the centre of the blade. As I went to slice once again at the tree a white panel popped up in the bottom right corner of the screen, distracting me and ending the red glow on my blade.
The panel was a reminder notification which had been triggered by the time, 12:00; the notification read "Wedding today, arrive at Andrew's by 1". Today was the day that, after a month since the engagement, Andrew and Aurora were going to get married today after just under a months worth of planning and preparation. I swiftly sheathed my sword and closed the reminder without much thought, by now it had become second nature, and I opened up my friends list.
I looked down the short list of 10 people for Terra and found that, as expected, he was currently in his house on the 18th floor, both Aurora and Sky were also on the same floor and were presumably together, while Oliver and Andrew B were still up at the 58th floor obviously on patrol for the Frontline, out for some quick training or in the middle of a quest.
I then closed down my friends list panel and turned away from the now seemingly untouched oak tree and began to walk in the direction of the floor portal. Instead of going by the cobbled paths that lightly webbed across the floor I chose the more direct route through the secluded and wildlife filled forests that made up a good part of the 22nd floor. From memory I moved along my usual paths with silent feet against the dry grass of the ground, in my quietness the forest revealed its diverse and ever present wildlife varying from young deers grazing to the odd grey wolf sneaking low to the ground mid hunt.
It wasn't long before I reached the white granite floor portal, I jumped up the stairs and positioned my self under the distorted ball of blue light which hung suspended below the archway. "Floor 18!" I shouted, immediately the space around me was engulfed in an electric blue and white light which signalled the teleportation. A few seconds later the engulfing light began to recede around me.
Before the light had dissipated I had jumped down from the intricately carved grey granite floor portal and began to run through the cobbled streets of the quiet town. As it was still early in the morning only a few NPCs had begun to open up their merchandise stalls and I an even fewer number of players, all unarmed, that had got out of their beds for an early morning walk.
As soon as I reached Andrew's thatched roofed cottage on the outskirts of the town I saw that all of the lights were on and I could easily hear Aurora's loud voice coming from one of the rooms. With a roll of my eyes I knocked hard on the wooden door to make sure that someone heard me. It wasn't long before the door opened, revealing a slightly exasperated Sky. However she was quickly dragged away into another room by a slightly fuzzy haired Aurora who looked deadly serious with what was going on, not letting her head bridesmaid get away for even a second.
I stepped inside the doorway and quietly closed the door behind me. I walked down the hallway and through the door into the front room where I saw Andrew sitting down on the sofa flicking through menu panels. As I walked into the room he looked up from what he was doing and a look of relief spread across his face. I pulled up one of the chairs that stood near the door and sat down opposite him.
"Everything ready for today?" I asked him, getting straight down to the point, knowing that there was little point trying to get Andrew to talk about anything else with his mind so preoccupied.
"As far as I can see everything is ready. And as far as I can tell Aurora has every thing in order, although the way she is running around with Sky in tow you would have thought that we left everything till the last minute." He said in forced calmness obviously trying not to worry about the day ahead of him, a day that he had committed himself to knowing that there would not likely be a second chance.
"If you know everything is ready, why do you look so worried and scared?" I ask him in a somewhat joking way. He just looked at me somewhat questioning while almost accusatory knowing that I knew why he was so worried about the day. "Its coming up to 12 now and the ceremony starts at 1 so we might as well get moving so that we are there to make sure everything goes accordingly." I suggested considering it was one of the last things that needed to be checked and it got Andrew away from his house and outside for a while where he could calm down a little.
"Good idea, make sure everything is good down at the venue and sort anything else out over there in time." He said with a deep breath. We both pushed ourselves up from our seats and walked out of the room to the front door. As Andrew opened the door the warm spring sunlight poured past the door and into the house, warming us up slightly.
"We're off now, see you there!" I shouted back into the house so that Sky and Aurora knew that we had left for the venue, that was if either of them was paying attention to anything outside the room they were currently within. We walked out into the warm air and sunshine of the 18th floor. However instead of staying to take in the beauty of the scene the two of us walked at a faster than normal pace back over to the floor portal.
When we reached the portal the two of us jumped onto it and Andrew said in a clear voice "Floor 47". Once again the blinding light engulfed me for a few seconds before yet again dissipating to reveal the far reaching landscape of the floor. Directly in front of us was a large circular water fountain in the centre of a circular courtyard which was filled with pink and yellow flowers, growing within small quarters of the circle split apart by smooth stone roads, with the whole area surrounded by a large stone pillars connected together at the top creating archways to the rest of the floor in ever direction.
The 47th floor had quickly become known as the flower fields of Aincrad and had become the gathering point for most couples that were within SAO, the land beyond the courtyard consisted of small hills and long fields covered by a variety of flowers, areas of pure green grass with a number of closely packed ash trees dotted around the floor. It was undeniably the most beautiful floor in the whole of Aincrad and in my opinion one of the best places for Andrew and Aurora's wedding to take place.
After a second or two of taking in the scenery the two of us moved off of the floor portal and began to slowly walk along the smooth pathways towards one of the three large lakes that were located on this floor. As we walked I noticed that nearly everyone around us walked calmly and at ease with their surroundings, no weapons, no armour and no sign of anyone worrying about any possible enemies that could be lurking around, by now people had become at home in this world even if it wasn't real.
A few minutes of walking later and we had reached the lake which shimmered in the morning sunlight, most of the lake was surrounded by a thick clump of green ash trees, however we walked towards an opening in these trees where the lake was easily visible. As we approached the opening we saw rows of carved wooden chairs in two sections split up by a crimson red silk carpet. The carpet led up to a few stairs onto a heart shaped white wood podium surrounded by flowers of every kind, currently the podium only held a table and a dark wooden reading podium.
"Seems like everything is in order." I say, content with what I saw. Andrew also gave an approving nod and bore a large smile. "Now we just need to wait for people to arrive and then get you ready for the ceremony." I end with conviction, confirming the plans that we had set out for the great occasion.