Ten Swords

by Plasma Knight

What would become of the 6,147 players of Sword Art Online had Kirito fallen to Heathcliff on the 75th floor? Obviously, they would need to find the courage to press on, even without him. If a single sword can get you anywhere in Castle Aincrad, how far can ten go? For there were indeed ten unique skills. This is the tale of those ten swords.

9. Magic and a miracle

The following is a non-profit fan-based creative work. Sword Art Online is owned by ASCII Media Works, Yen Press, and Reki Kawahara. Please support the official releases.

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Happy April Fool's/Easter, everyone!

I don't have any pranks planned. I'm boring that way :(

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Even in retrospect, I'm not sure when exactly Asuna began making a name for herself. It was somewhere around the time Kayaba began forming the Knights of the Blood guild and hand-picked her to be his second that she started really becoming famous, but she'd actually always been there. I remembered seeing her during some of the raids against the early bosses, even before the twenty-fifth floor, but back then she was just one of many. But somewhere along the way, she revealed herself as a young woman with an inspiring aura and a swift sword-arm.

In some ways she was kinda like Seriyuha, but I would say the younger woman was more of a dazzling flame compared to the older's steady but sheer ice. In all things, it seemed like Kayaba was the quiet mastermind, while Asuna was the one who appeared in public. She had a knack for stirring people, something I never really got from her guildmaster. Kayaba had obviously noticed the same. Or he thought she'd make a useful distraction. Either way.

One thing I did know is that she wasn't even a gamer before she was trapped in SAO, which frankly stunned me. The heavens had blessed her with innate gaming skills and natural charisma.

There was a good reason we dared not attack the seventy-sixth floor boss without her.

---

Razler noted a sort of quiet energy building among his guildmates on the last day of Asuna's restriction. Nearly a full two weeks since the fateful day in which Kirito lost his life, and finally the system would allow Asuna to take to the field again.

It was about time.

Asuna's imminent return to the front lines also meant that they'd soon be fighting the boss of the labyrinth. That was Seriyuha's plan, and nothing since then had suggested she was changing it. Discussions among clearers had a way of becoming quiet when the fact was brought up, and even Razler didn't like to think about it.

He confided the fact in his sister and asked her thoughts on the inevitable fight, but Hinoka quickly promised him it would be different. She reminded him then that the twenty-fifth and fiftieth floors had been just as bad as the seventy-fifth, but the difficulty always dropped again afterward - for a while, at least. She was right, but Razler's stomach still tied up in knots when he considered the possibility that whatever was waiting for them would be worse than The Skull Reaper. They wouldn't be able to overcome that, not without Kirito and Heathcliff.

The Summer Knights spent most of that day practicing combat as a group with Silica against field bosses. It was obvious to both siblings that she and Pina were going to be important assets against the labyrinth boss, and she needed to be ready. Seriyuha hadn't announced anything or told them to say anything, but they still took Silica aside at the start of the day and warned her that they'd soon be fighting a floor boss. She had a right not to be caught completely off-guard.

The young girl went slightly green in the face at the time, but after recovering she insisted as sternly as she could manage that she was ready to do her part. Hinoka put her and her dragon - giant or normal-sized - through their paces all that day, first as a tank, then as a support. Pina was useful for either task, but there were still things Silica wasn't used to when it came to group combat. For one, she was used to fighting by herself and working on instinct. While she was decent at working under her own steam, she wasn't quite used to looking out for others just yet. Hinoka worked her hard but not unfairly so, and Razler couldn't help but wonder if she was trying to keep Silica distracted from the inevitable fight. If that was the case, he didn't mind keeping occupied helping with her.

His unease - and that of his friends - grew as the day went on, and by the time the sun began to set, nobody said much of anything that didn't pertain to Silica's drills. But by then, neither Hinoka nor Silica had much heart for them, and everyone was simply going through the motions. Then, the Summer Knights all received a private message from Seriyuha, informing everyone in the guild to come to the guild hall within an hour. The announcement hit him with a sense of inevitability. There was only one reason to call a full guild meeting...

They said their goodbyes to Silica, with Samson urging her to get some rest (and put her faith in the Lord), and then made their way back to the fifty-seventh floor. The members of the guild arrived slowly, but all were present long before Seriyuha's announced one hour had passed.

The Summer Knights were unusually quiet around the meeting table as they waited for Seriyuha to call the meeting to order; even Keh-keh was sitting silently at her spot. Seriyuha wasted no time, confirming Razler's worries almost immediately, "Asuna and I agree that we should confront the labyrinth boss tomorrow. We've been stuck on this floor for too long."

"Shouldn't she wait to rejoin the battle?" asked Samson. "She hasn't fought in two weeks, she won't be at her best."

"I agree, but Asuna insisted. I'd rather we be there if she's going to do anything reckless," said Seriyuha. Razler narrowly caught the guildmaster rolling her eyes. "We're all going to meet up at the village square on the seventy-sixth floor at nine am tomorrow. The KoB is sending word out to the smaller groups as well, so hopefully there won't be any delays."

Razler and a few others nodded, but most of the Knights were glancing at one another.

Seriyuha took a deep breath or two and frowned, before she finally sat down at her seat. "I understand that you're all nervous about tomorrow. We're heading into uncertain territory, and this is all with the hard fight against Skull Reaper still fresh in our minds. I'm not happy about the situation either."

She stood, and placing both hands on the table, leaned toward the guild, look at each of them at the same time as best she could. "But remember what we've done so far. We've cleared seventy-five of these one-hundred floors, and each of us has done it without dying. We've struggled and been challenged, and we overcame every obstacle in our way. And we'll get through this too."

Quietly, she reminded her guild, "Our only way out is through," which they echoed back somberly.

With a last reminder to take care of anything they would need before the following morning, Seriyuha called for the meeting to end. Without saying anything, Razler and Hinoka went back home.

Time seemed to flow slowly that night, and Razler spent most of it not sure whether he was awake or dreaming. It was a long experience, full of imagined things that might go wrong the following day. He was actually glad when the sun finally rose, giving him a reason to be up and about again. It was better than lying in his bed, thrashing and waiting.

He and Hinoka - and most of the guild - were among the first to gather at the village square at eight. They were quickly joined by other clearers; small guilds and single players. Razler sat against one of the platform guardrails and tried to look calm as he watched the others. Most of the players were keeping to tight huddles and speaking to one another, or pacing and rounding sources of sudden sounds. The players who came early were always the nervous ones, the ones who couldn't distract themselves from what lay ahead. Razler wasn't surprised to find that Silica had beaten him and Hinoka to the gathering spot. Very few of the players in town that morning seemed to have their own plans for the day; the top floor at any given time was almost always dominated by the clearers, and they had nowhere else to be that morning.

The KoB and the DDA always arrived for Labyrinth Raids as a group. It was probably a rule of theirs. And sure enough, a solid wave of white and red soon appeared from the teleport gate and began marching their way, the DDA having already arrived a few minutes before.

One hand on her hip, Seriyuha turned to the approaching KoB party, grinning. Razler watched her from the floor where he sat, not completely sure what she was so happy about. Maybe the sight of their matching uniforms amused her? The Summer Knights were a far cry from the pristine and (apparently) disciplined conformity of the KoB. But they also saved money on equipment cosmetics.

Asuna was naturally at the head the group. Most of the clearers looked up at her with excitement and whispered something to those closest to them. A few even cheered for her return and thanked her for coming. Asuna ignored them, her gaze focused purely on the Summer Knights - specifically, their guildmaster. Seriyuha walked out to meet her, and the two women shook hands.

"Are we ready to go?" Asuna asked immediately.

"Yes, your guild was the-"

"Perfect. Go ahead and use the Corridor Crystal. We can address the raid outside the boss' room."

Seriyuha narrowed her eyes for a moment, but she relented and pulled an indigo crystal forth from her inventory. Turning toward an empty space right behind her, she activated the crystal, calling up an indigo vortex of light and energy. Razler stared into the portal bracing himself. This was it. Asuna walked past Seriyuha and through the gateway without a word, her guild following behind her in a similar stony silence.

Seriyuha stared into the portal even after Asuna was through, her hands balled into tight fists. The clearers were all watching her, most of them quiet and motionless. The excitement that Asunua's return first generated had vanished in seconds. Hinoka shook her head but said nothing.

Asuna had essentially regressed into how she was before meeting Kirito, and her behavior was going to destroy morale among the clearers. It was starting to look like they might've been better off without her.

"Well," Klein called out loudly but a little awkwardly. "Let's get this show on the road, can't let the KoB have all the fun!"

A general murmur of agreement began to spread among the clearers, and slowly they started to move again. Klein and his guild were the first to reach the indigo vortex, and he and Seriyuha exchanged a glance before Fuurinkazan moved through. At that, the rest of the clearers began to move much more quickly into the portal. Seriyuha turned to her guild and mustered them, though the Summer Knights were some of the last through. On the other side, Razler found himself once more in that damp underground cave, standing before the massive door. The KoB members were arrayed before it, Asuna standing at the center. She waited until everyone was through, her arms crossed and her eyes narrowed at seemingly nothing.

Then, the moment the tide of arriving players showed signs of ebbing, she said, "We all know what we're here to do today. We have a boss to kill before we can continue on, now let's -"

"Wouldn't you like to discuss our strategy first, Asuna?" Seriyuha asked pointedly but not unkindly.

Asuna stared at her for a moment, as if confused by the question. Eventually she said, "There's not much we can do about that, we can't send scouts in anymore. We'll fight the same way we always have. We've got this."

"If I may?" Hinoka said, stepping up to the side of her guildmaster. Asuna turned to her, head tilted slightly for a moment. "Our general strategies in the past against raid bosses have been sloppy. We relied too heavily on the skill of a few players, Heathcliff and Kirito especially."

Asuna's eyes narrowed, and Hinoka took a step back. "And they're... kinda gone now. We should do things differently. We've got a ton of players here, but mostly we've just relied on dpsing bosses and switching to heal, but that's actually wasteful for our items and it's slowed us down. An actual raid strategy would work wonders if we could-"

"You were the one who led the raid against the river crocodile?" Asuna finally asked.

"Yes, that was -"

"That's fine, we'll do things your way."

Hinoka stood silent for a moment, no doubt stunned by how quickly Asuna yielded to her. After mastering herself, Hinoka briefly re-iterated her explanation of the battle formations used by the Summer Knight. This was mostly for Asuna's benefit, but a decent chunk of the raid hadn't been present at the fight against Kelenar. Once she finished, the raid assembled by where they fit best, just as they did at the head of the river. Klein again immediately joined Razler's team, and the two were exchanging pleasantries when Lyle elbowed his squad leader in the back.

"Don't look now, trouble's coming," he whispered to Razler.

Following Lyle's gaze, Razler saw Asuna approaching swiftly, a few of her knights at her back. Ordinarily Razler might have been delighted to be joined by the legendary Flash, but in her current mood Asuna was something of a wild card. Still, there as little doubt what unit she'd have joined. As he walked up to meet her, Razler hoped she wouldn't cause trouble.

"So we'll be working together!" he said to her, a forced smile on his face. "There's really nothing tricky about this, we just wait for Hinoka to give the word and we deal some damage to the boss before getting back out."

Immediately, Asuna glared, and he couldn't help but wonder just what he'd done wrong. "We spend a lot of time waiting?" she asked.

Razler was taken aback, not expecting the ferocity of her tone. He glanced around, as if to find some escape from his situation. The idea of damage-dealers not exposing themselves to taking damage in an MMORPG raid fight was so natural a concept to him that he wasn't sure how to explain the merits behind it. Surely it should have been obvious to Asuna as well?

Lyle stepped up to his side and said, "We're not exactly made to take damage, and these upper floor bosses hit hard. I mean we can use weapons to block, but a shield's better for that, right?"

Asuna glanced away and said, "If you say-" when her eyes fell on Lyle's arms. Specifically, the rapier in his right hand and the parrying knife in his left. "Y-you can-!?"

"Nah, not the way Kirito could," said Lyle. "I've been getting asked that a few times a week lately, let me tell you. I always used to wonder why Kirito gave me weird looks in raids."

"Then why're you holding two swords?"

"I know fencing in real life," Lyle said. Grinning, he briefly adopted a fencing stance for emphasis. "I don't need the system's assistance to fight."

"I see," said Asuna.

"If you want lessons sometime, I wouldn't mind helping you out."

Asuna thanked him half-heartedly and joined some of the members from her own guild, leaving Razler and Lyle to their own devices.

"She could probably do with a lesson too," Lyle muttered to himself. "Fencing is a great way to focus the mind."

Just as they had back at the river's source, Seriyuha and Hinoka stepped to the forefront of the raid once everyone had assembled with their chosen squad, and announced that they would be beginning the fight. Seriyuha tapped on the giant door with the shaft of her halberd, and it slid open smoothly and almost noiselessly.

She stepped forward and tapped her halberd on the ground, bringing everyone's attention to her. "Once we go inside, there's no turning back," she said. "Work together, and we'll force our way through."

On the opposite end of the massive door was a narrow and dark (though not long) stone passage, through which lay a great hall made from green and greenish-blue stone. The raid crossed into the passage, and began to cross through it within moments. Pillars framed the hall in pairs and foot-deep and foot-wide channels filled with flowing water criss-crossed its floor. Razler and the others peered in deeper to catch a glimpse of the floor's boss, but floor bosses were often hidden from sight while the room was unoccupied.

The front line began to move in first. Pina's huge frame took up a considerable amount of space in the hall, but she fit with room enough to stretch her wings and maneuver. The mid and then back line were close behind Seriyuha's party; any lull in player movement into the room would trigger the boss fight, sealing those already inside off from help. The front line stepped about halfway into the hall where a translucent barrier prevented further approach, leaving the rest of the raid sufficient room to enter behind them. Once inside the hall, Razler checked over his shoulder in time to see the last of the support party coming in. The doors slid closed behind them, and slammed home with a thud that felt like it shot through Razler's entire body.

Then, Razler heard footsteps from the far end of the hall.

Someone, a man robed in red, had stepped out from behind one of the far pillars, a thick book in hand that he was reading from. Edgar! Razler smiled in relief at the familiar sight of the enigmatic NPC, but immediately a tumult began to build from the raid among them.

"Bastard!" cried Klein.

"So you're back to taunt us again, traitor!?" demanded one of the KoB.

They were only two of the raid members to throw threats and insults. A few of the players even tried to break through the barrier to reach Edgar, but had no luck with it. Razler stared in confusion for a moment, before he remembered that Edgar looked just as Kayaba had on the day the players were trapped in the game.

"Calm down, it's not Kayaba!" cried Seriyuha.

Lloyd yelled over the commotion, "It's a magician NPC named Ed-"

"I don't suppose you realize how difficult it was? To raise that beast from the dead?" said the figure in red.

Razler frowned. It wasn't Edgar. The voice was unfamiliar.

The man raised one hand out from under his tome and pulled down his hood, revealing his face. It wasn't Heathcliff, but it wasn't Edgar either. The man's face was harder, his expression crueler. But he refused to look at the raid, his gaze on the pages of his book.

"Kennard, the Arcane Architect."

"And then you went and destroyed Skull Reaper so easily. I thought at first that I could simply watch you scurry about the castle, but you've gone too far."

The man slammed his tome shut and set it back, the walls near the end of the hall being lined with bookshelves. Standing at the center of the hall near its end, the man stared out toward the players. "Now it falls to me to put you back in your place. I am Kennard, the creator of this amazing flying arc, and the first and greatest of the Demon King's inner circle. You children rail against the god of this world, and now you must be put back in your place."

"Then let's get to it already!" cried Keh-keh.

Rumbling in support of her challenge broke out among the raid, but Kennard didn't react. Of course not.

"Well," Kennard said, grinning and with his hands rising slowly. "I hope you enjoyed your tour of Castle Aincrad, now farewell!"

Razler stared, not sure what exactly Kennard was about to do. He didn't appear armed, but he could be hiding anything under his cloak. Until he made the first move, there was no telling how exactly he'd attack.

"Form up," cried Seriyuha, "he's about to-"

Kennard uttered something that Razler didn't understand, and suddenly his vision blurred. It was as if heat distortions suddenly converged in a cyclone in the space between the raid and Kennard, and Razler was suddenly blown backward off his feet. Before he even knew what was happening, another player crashed on top of him. Pushing his ally off of him, Razler struggled to his feet, finding most of the raid on the ground or slowly getting back up. Completely bewildered, he looked around for what had hit them. There was no signs of damage to the hall around them, now were there any glowing lines on his or anyone's bodies that indicated damage, and yet they'd been attacked somehow. His hp had dropped just a little, though not enough to be a concern.

So the attack wasn't meant to damage them, anyway. What had Kennard done!?

Razler only needed a moment to find Kennard, for he hadn't moved. But what Razler saw made his mouth drop. Kennard was floating a foot off the ground, surrounded in mid-air by glowing runic shapes that twirled and spun about him. Razler gaped, hardly believing what he was seeing, but also recognizing too readily the appropriate cliches on show before him. Kennard was a sorcerer. Magic wasn't something that existed in a true sense in SAO. Crystals came close, but their functions were purely supportive, and they were simple Kennard was doing was a step above that.

Razler had been right about Kennard; they were dealing completely with the unknown when it came to this man.

"Those who cross the Demon King will die!" he cursed as he raised his right hand.

"He's attacking again!" cried one of the KoB.

The front line hurriedly moved to return to their proper formation, Seriyuha and Hinoka giving them hasty orders. Meanwhile, a white runic ring formed around Kennard's wrist and began to spin as it slowed turned a shade of bright blue. The light that the ring gave off grew brighter and brighter, until it reached its zenith and gave a single flash, the ring stopping.

Then, with a burst of light, a flurry of ice suddenly manifested from it, flying right at the raid. Razler barely had time to react before the barrage struck the shields of the front line, scattering chunks of frost and cold vapor across the raid. The front line managed to deflect the first few volleys of ice shards with their shields, but Kennard kept up his assault, and the tanks were forced back. The unrelenting barrage began to knock the defenders down and away, but then Pina moved in to take the onslaught with her own body. By the time Kennard's attack finally subsided, her health had fallen a little below the half-way mark.

Razler stared. How were they even going to approach him when he could do that!? And from range!?

"Reform the line," cried Seriyuha, "We have to get back in-"

"No, move forward!" cried Hinoka. "Move up and attack him at close range!

The raid just began thundering in confusion and looking at one another. Even Razler wasn't sure about this; charging right into a boss wasn't a strategy he was familiar with from his sister.

"Move forward?" thundered one of the DDA, "but we're under-"

"All players, move forward and surround Kennard!" Hinoka yelled over him.

Silica, her eyes narrowed, spurred Pina on, but Hinoka called out to her, "Silica, keep back, support unit, heal Pina quickly!"

More than a few players began to offer up complaints about moving forward without the support of their dragon, but finally Asuna ordered the raid to follow their orders.

Then everything changed; the raid finally began to move. The Summer Knights and KoB were the first to mobilize, with the others finally reacting shortly afterward. Only Pina and the support group remained at the rear, the rest moving forward without a keen heed to formation. The barrier that had cut them off from the rest of the hall had fallen with Kennard's first attack, but the hall was long and Kennard was chanting his next spell already. Razler ran amidst the mass of the raid, uncertainty clawing at him. Could they even reach Kennard with him casting spells their way?

Rune-disks had formed once again at Kennard's wrists - both of them a bright orange that time - and he uttered another threat before spreading his arms wide.

"Stop!" cried Hinoka, "Front line move forward, Mid line spread behind them!"

Kennard's spell disks suddenly turned red, and a thick stream of glowing yellow liquid shot forth from them - lava.

"MOVE FORWARD NOW, EVADE!" screamed Hinoka.

The players immediately scrambled onward once again, this time at a much more panicked pace. Razler had to avoid those around and behind him, lest he be trampled. He forced himself to focus solely on the space in front of him, and not at the flows of hellishly hot liquid shooting right toward him.

He wasn't entirely successful.

A few of the players did get knocked down in the confusion, only for those closest to them to help them back up. Guild didn't matter in that moment, they lived or died together. The lava streams sailed toward the raid in an arc, crossing around the pillars that framed the hall, and came to a crash - right where the raid had been moments before. Lava spilled onto the stone behind them, but it quickly cooled and crumbled to dust. Hinoka urged them onward regardless. With Kennard now coming near, they didn't have time to catch their breath.

They drew close to Kennard, and he began a new incantation. This one finished much more quickly than his previous two, and he soon raised his left hand.

Razler flinched, bracing himself for another magical assault, but Kennard cried, "Rise, Magic Wall!"

There was a flash of light followed by a very feint blue cylindrical shape forming around Kennard. The light quickly molded into hexagonal sections which hardened into an almost crystal-like structure before partially vanishing. The parts of the barrier that were and were not visible shifted slowly, like waves flowing across the surface of a body of water.

"Don't attack that field right away!" cried Hinoka.

The raid came within range of Kennard's barrier, the tanks still up front, with Pina and the support unit hurrying to rejoin the others from behind. Ignoring them all, Kennard began preparing his next spell.

"Test the barrier with a few attacks carefully," Hinoka said quickly, "I want to make sure it won't blowback damage taken."

The defenders began striking Kennard's field with a controlled flurry of attacks, and the barrier appeared briefly with a flash of blue light each time a blade made contact with it. Kennard continued his next spell, heedless of the attacks against his defense. There was no apparent sign of any other reaction from the barrier, and with Kennard still chanting his spell, Hinoka gave a hurried order for the front and mid-lines to attack the barrier more aggressively, with the back line being left on standby. Razler remained where he was, sword held tight and shaking in-hand as he watched Kennard and his allies. There was no telling when the barrier would fall or how long it would stay down, and if Kennard finished his next spell before they broke through...

One of the DDA members struck a heavy blow from his axe, and red light shot across the barrier where the blade met it. The red light shot across the barrier like a crack, which rapidly widened and spread. Then, the barrier fragmented into shards of blue light framed in red, like broken glass, and a white shape shot through the hole and into Kennard. Asuna, living up to her title, was rapidly plunging the point of her rapier into their enemy.

Kennard dropped to his knees under Asuna's assault, screaming in pain.

Razler was so taken aback that it took him a second or two to recover from the surprise, but Kennard roared in anger and let loose another wave of force before the young swordsman could even prepare a sword skill. The raid was scattered from Kennard, and Asuna in particular was sent flying uncontrollably. Seriyuha caught the younger girl even as she braced herself against Kennard's assault with her halberd and shield.

To Razler's surprise, Kennard's health had dropped by nearly twenty percent - far more than any Labrynth boss should lose in a single combo. Asuna was strong, but not even she could deal so much damage to a standard boss so quickly. Kennard was obviously not built to take hits. That explained the shield, at least.

"You traitors would ruin everything," spat Kennard. "You'll suffer for this outrage!"

The bookcases the lined the end of the hall were suddenly thrown down, revealing passages behind them. All around the raid the water hall was opened wider, revealing a much larger circular temple of stone and water channels. Kennard ascended back into the air, his barrier reforming around him, and then he quickly flew out of the center space of the hall and into the newly-revealed areas.

Hinoka was watching Kennard while simultaneously trying to get the raid reformed. "Chase after him, don't let-"

"Soldiers of the Demon King," cried Kennard, "strike down these traitors!"

"That can't be good," muttered Klein.

"Nope," said Lyle, "sounds like-"

With a loud grinding sound, the massive stone door behind them was thrown open. Razler turned to see Splashers charging into the hall. Thankfully they weren't of the Royal variety, but there was still at least a dozen of them - and with yet more visible in the far distance.

"Yup," said Lyle.

"Hinoka, we've got Adds from behind!" he cried - just as his warning was echoed by others.

"What!?" Razler hissed at nothing as he whirled back around.

The entrance hall wasn't the only place where enemies were coming from. More splashers were approaching from the exposed portions of the hall - though in a more scattered fashion than those coming from the cavern behind. Their numbers weren't enough to completely fill the entire hall, but they'd be enough to slow the raid down as they went after Kennard. And Kennard himself was floating through the hall, preparing his next spell.

"Silica," began Hinoka, "have Pina cover the main passage behind us, Seriyuha, spread the front line around this centerpoint and help Pina so we can hold this area, Flashy, keep them healthy."

Finally, she turned to her brother. "Razler, kill that damn mage no matter what you have to do. Go with them and protect them from the Adds, Lloyd. Fight your way back here if you start to get overwhelmed."

She narrowed her eyes at him in particular. "Don't die out there."

Rapid whispering broke out among the back line; charging out ahead for an extended period was another new strategy. Well, there was a first time for everything. Razler immediately checked his squad-mates to gauge their condition. A few seemed uncertain, but most were either willing or ready.

"Yes, we get the best part!" cried Elise. The axe-woman was readier than most.

"Not sure I'd call that 'best', Elise!" said Razler. At least she was never against getting into a fight.

"At least it won't get boring!" said Klein.

Razler rolled his eyes. Now he had two of them to deal with. He cast a glance at Asuna, who was trying to marshal the members of her guild who'd ended up in Razler's squad. Well, at least he had somebody to balance out Asuna's sunny disposition.

The tanks took up their defensive positions while Razler and Lloyd's teams quickly linked up with one another to discuss their strategy. They didn't have much time to prepare, but going in too recklessly was a recipe for disaster.

The first of the splashers reached the living wall of defenders just as the attack group made ready to move out. From behind, Razler could hear Pina work her magic on the splashers, but he didn't turn toward her. In the narrower confines of the entrance hallway, she would have no trouble managing the splashers. He and the mobile force remained in place for a moment, waiting while the tanks made short work of the disorderly mobs. Once a lull in the fighting presented itself, the front line parted to allow the attacking squad out of the area they were holding. Razler immediately began gunning it for Kennard, the entire force behind him and beside him. Already more splashers were spawning from the far sides of the water hall and meandering toward the players. The only thing that left them any chance in succeeding in their mission was the fact that the splashers were not approaching as a united swarm.

Kennard was floating through the hall as a leisurely pace as he prepared his next spell, and the party closed in on him quickly. But the splashers were beginning to wander into their way.

Lloyd and Razler exchanged glances, and Lloyd picked up his pace, his team likewise pulling ahead of the back line. "Mid-line, kill the splashers in the way!" he ordered.

The more heavily-geared players darted ahead to beat back the splashers. The creatures fought savagely, but the players were well-used to their tactics by then, and worked together to make short work of them. Lloyd struck one with a long jab from pole, while Samson threw one at another. Razler watched them as he ran through, his stomach twisting at the thought of leaving his comrades to fight for him. Samson happened to meet his eye, and smiled. "We'll strike these wretches down and be right behind you!"

Nodding, Razler hurried on. They had almost reached Kennard, and they still had a job to do. The mage's spell-disks were taking on a distinct tan color, but he was paying no heed to the players coming his way. Realizing where Kennard was about to attack, Razler yelled over the commotion of the ongoing fight, "Hinoka, he's going to cast a spell your way soon!"

Hinoka began issuing orders to the defenders, and Razler and his squad moved even more quickly. With his sister in Kennard's sights, Razler ran on until his virtual legs began to burn from exertion. Razler gnashed his teeth and fought through it. As they came within striking distance of Kennard, Asuna suddenly shot ahead of the group, her rapier darting in a frenzy as she struck at Kennard's shield. The rest quickly caught up with her and began rapidly hammering away at his defense with little heed to skill or strategy. They had no time for such things, at least not when any splashers were near. Razler chained one sword skill into another, determined to cut off Kennard's spell, but the mage's magic barrier was still standing by the time its master launched his next assault. Razler struggled to ignore the sounds of the front line coming under Kennard's attack, and he pushed himself harder.

He didn't even have time to make sure Hinoka hadn't been harmed - he made himself believe she wasn't.

Finally the barrier shattered, and again Asuna was the first to get a strike in at Kennard. The Flash dropped the mage's health bar with a ferocious assault that dropped him to his knees.

Now!

Razler let loose one skill after another; Kennard had to die before the mage cast any more of his damn magic at his sister! But Kennard blasted them back once more, and Razler growled as he got to his feet. But the wizard was already floating through the hall again, though his health had fallen to a little over half. They would have to do this chase all over again.

Razler and the attack squad moved to cut him off before he could get very far, but a swarm of splashers suddenly appeared as if from nowhere. Bewildered, Razler looked all around, and saw the snarling, amphibious beasts everywhere in sight. Somehow they had to break through before Kennard got very far, but...!

Asuna darted in and struck one splasher down before turning and slaying another with a frenzy of jabs. Klein was with her, chopping the beasts down in a single slice of his katana. Razler and Lyle's swords flashed through the air and Elise's axehead split the splashers clean in half, but no gap in the splashers would reveal itself, until suddenly a very large figure appeared at Razler's side.

"The Lord's providence is with us still, Razler!" cried Samson.

"That's good!" Razler replied as he stabbed another Splasher. He could only assume Samson was congratulating himself on catching up.

"Catch up with the mage, we'll clear these out!" cried Lloyd.

The mid line surge in, and the two squads worked together to force open a hole in the splashers, through which the back line slipped through. Now with nothing in their way, Razler and his team resumed the hunt for the mage. Kennard hadn't gone very far, but they'd been distracted long enough that his next spell appeared to be nearing completion before the attacking unit even had time to resume the chase. This time he was staring right at them, and his spell-circles turned a deep blue. This spell was more familiar than Razler was comfortable with.

"He's going to launch more ice at us, we have to avoid it!" he cried. They didn't have anybody to tank for then, after all.

Razler tried to pick up his pace, hoping that it wouldn't come down to dodging. Avoiding and parrying physical attacks was one thing, but he'd already seen that Kennard could launch and overwhelming barrage. If they could just reach him first!

Kennard's spell was still underway when they reached him and began working on his shield. Kennard continued casting his spell as his defense weathered abuse, until finally the barrier cracked - and Kennard launched his ice flurry. Cursing at the sky, Razler held his shield before him and struggled to track every shard he could see coming his way. He managed to catch the first few projectiles, but the barrage intensified, and everything soon became a flurry of white crystals. He began to miss - one shard striking him in the shoulder, another in the gut. His hp began to drop, but there was no end of the attack in sight - until Asuna suddenly appeared.

The Flash darted between the crystals, weaving through and parrying the icy projectiles. Razler stared in amazement as the white swordswoman quickly wove a path through the assault, until she disappeared in the white cloud from whence it originated. And then, the crystals suddenly turned to vapor and scattered, the attack cut short.

Kennard was again off his feet, and again they savagely attacked him. He blasted them back again and got back up, and Razler searched for him once he was off the floor.

He didn't have far to look; Kennard hadn't moved. He was casting a new spell, one that sent all of his rune circles twirling. Then his body began to vanish in sections, until he disappeared completely from sight. He and several others blindly tried searching for him by swinging their weapons, but they hit nothing but air.

Realizing that Kennard must have teleported rather than turned invisible, Razler said, "Does anybody see any sign of-"

"Enough! It's time I put a stop to this charade!"

"Looks like we're on to the next step," said Lyle.

"Razler," Lloyd said as he and his group rejoined Razler's, "we should regroup with the others first, your team's not at their best, and we'll need a new plan"

Double-checking his hp - which had fallen almost halfway - Razler was forced to agree. If Kennard was about to start some new attack, they'd need to be at full health. The attack group quickly cut their way through the splashers that stood between them and others, and reunited with the rest of the raid at the center of the hall. The attacks on the central part of the map had died down as the mobile squad returned, with the defenders cleaning up the last of the attacking splashers. Razler scanned the hall, bewildered. Why would the adds stop spawning before the fight was over? That couldn't be good...

Hinoka turned away from managing the defense as Razler and the others returned - Razler catching a brief sigh of relief from his sister - and she quickly heard what had happened with Kennard. Hinoka called for the raid to begin scouring the hall for signs of Kennard, but the wizard's voice suddenly echoed through the arena - laughing. He appeared again at the far side of the water hall, opposite the entrance door. Hinoka ordered for the raid to charge the mage down, but beams of light suddenly rained down from above. There were dozens of them, scattered all throughout the hall, though they seemed to favor Kennard's side of it. Hinoka quickly called for the charge to slow and reform ranks, though they didn't stop moving forward. Then, the beams flashed, and swarms of splashers appeared from each one.

Just like that, they were again surrounded, with a veritable army standing between them and Kennard.

"Soldiers of the Demon King, lay down your lives to defend this castle!" cried Kennard.

The splashers emitted their fishy war cries, and began to charge. A wave of killer amphibians were fast approaching.

"Everybody, back into defensive positions!" cried Hinoka. "We have to weather this attack and find a way to get to that wizard!"

"Hinoka, the door closed behind us!" Silica cried from behind.

Confused, Razler checked the rear of the raid, and confirmed what Silica said. The door leading into the hall had slid shut again at some point while Kennard was summoning his reinforcements.

But that meant...

"Silica, move to the front! We're going to use Pina to force our way to Kennard," said Hinoka.

Silica nodded, her face screwed up in determination, and she turned Pina around back toward the front. The players in her way parted and then closed back around her.

"Silica, move forward! All other players, support Pina! Once we reach Kennard, the mid and rear lines will give him everything they've got while the others encircle him and keep the splashers at bay!" cried Hinoka.

The raid cried out in acknowledgement, and the feathery dragon began moving forward.

"You traitors will understand real magic," said Kennard.

"I don't like the sound of that," muttered Klein.

Kennard, his eyes closed and his expression deep in focus, began preparing a new spell. All of his spellcircles began rotating at high speeds while giving off ever-changing spiraling patterns of light. Waves of energy flowed off of him, scattering across the ground. Razler could well imagine that whatever was coming, they didn't want to get hit by it.

Silica stared at Kennard, her eyes wide. She wasn't going to lose her nerve, would she? But finally she shook her head, and narrowed her eyes at him. "C-c'mon, Pina, let's clear a way!" she cried.

Pina gave a deep roar that shook the hall, and began rumbling forward. The first few splashers reached her, but she scattered them with a long swipe of her claws. She stepped over the fallen creatures and moved onward, leaving her considerably smaller allies the task of cleaning up. Getting ahead of the other players, she was briefly surrounded by a larger group of the splashers, but the raid quickly caught up with her and forced the fish monsters back, allowing her to dispatch the entire group with a sweep of her tail.

As the raid moved past the relatively closed space of the center of the hall, the splashers began coming at the players from the sides. With Pina and the tanks busy clearing the worst of the monsters up front, it was left to Lloyd and his squad to defend the sides. Flashy and her unit kept very close to Razler's, Keh-keh and the other rogues helping to manage some of the splashers wherever they could.

And meanwhile, Kennard continued channeling. A few of his spellcircles had stopped spinning, and were instead hovering in place behind him while radiating pure light. That could only be the progress of whatever doomsday spell he was casting - he looked to be about a little less than half done. And with the state the raid was in, Razler could only watch until they got closer.

They pushed on, though somewhat slowly. Pina was their fastest bet at wiping out the splashers, but if she went too far ahead of the players she'd simply be surrounded, and the creatures spawned almost as quickly as the raid killed them. Razler and his team could do little but watch and kill what few splashers made it around to the rear of the raid, helpless to do much beyond await their opportunity to attack.

"We should be attacking with Pina, we won't make it in time," Asuna said during a relatively calm period for the back line.

"The front line's already doing that," said Razler.

"I mean we need to be going in, we're not doing anything."

"If we charge ahead we'll break formation," said Lyle. "We haven't got infinite space to move around here, we'll just crowd out the tanks and Pina if we try to go in."

"Yeah," Elise said, frowning, "And Hinoka gets pissed if we-"

"If we break formation we put everybody at risk," said Razler. "We all have a part to play, ours-"

"Kirito wouldn't just wait to be told he could attack!"

"Yeah, and he's dead now," muttered Keh-keh.

"Knights of the Blood, move ahead!" screamed Asuna, "carve a path to Kennard and kill him!"

"We can't break formation, Asuna!" cried Razler.

But it was no use, she was already pushing through the front. Seeing their guildmaster moving ahead, the knights in white moved to join her as if awoken them from a daze. They quickly rallied near the center of the raid and then surged ahead, past Pina and into the splasher swarm. With other players in her way, Pina's forward attack was slowed.

"ASUNA, PULL BACK NOW!" Seriyuha ordered over the noise of battle.

"We have to keep in formation or we'll get overwhelmed!" cried Hinoka.

Asuna kept at her reckless charge. Whether she hadn't heard Hinoka or didn't want to listen, Razler wasn't sure. He suspect it was the latter, though.

"This is why I hate teenagers," muttered Lyle. He glanced at Razler and added, "No offense."

"None taken," breathed Razler.

The raid's attack slowed to a crawl, the different formations beginning to intermix in their confusion. The DDA clustered back together as if out of reflex, and the smaller guilds began to drift to the sides. Silica gave Hinoka a desperate look. To make matters even worse, Pina was likely running low on her transformation timer, and Asuna's wreckless charge was holding her up at the worst possible time. Even Razler had no idea what he should be doing. Something had to be done, but taking charge now could just make things worse.

He looked to his sister, memories of the twenty-fifth floor coming back to him. But it was different now. She was watching everything, her expression calm. It wasn't going to be like then. He breathed a sigh of relief.

"Okay," Hinoka began, "front line, move ahead and support Asuna's attack. Do not try to move past her. Silica, keep Pina just behind them and support them with her abilities. Leave the fighting to them. Mid line, get back together and guard our flank from the splashers!"

He frowned in disbelief. What was she talking about? Razler watched her for a moment, expecting further orders, but none were coming. Razler briefly left Klein in charge of the back line and began fighting his way over to his sister. The raid was moving around in a frenzy, getting beck to where they should be in the formation, and it took a little bit of pushing and shoving before he finally got close enough to tap her on the shoulder. She turned on him, surprised. Ordinarily distracting her this way wasn't approved of, but in this case...

"What's our plan, sis?" he asked. "You're leaving our siege dragon behind the people she's meant to be leading the way for."

"Asuna and her guild are no longer part of this raid," she said thickly but quietly. "If they can't follow orders then they're on their own."

"Some of them might die out there," he hissed at her.

She shot him a glare, and he instantly stepped back.

"Members of raids who don't follow the raid leader are a liable to the others. Asuna knows the risk. Now go back to your position."

Razler nodded and hurried away. He hadn't seen Hinoka that mad in a long, long time. He rejoined his team, re-assumed command from Klein, and watched the fight unfold before him.

By all accounts Asuna and her team made progress - at first. They avoided the problem Pina faced in being unable to clear the splashers from all sides at once, but they lacked the dragon's sheer durability. As the splashers got in lucky hits, the KoB members would have to step back, and the mass of players in white pretty quickly became a confused ball of different players calling "Switch!" to one another, with fresh players ready to fight becoming more and more of a rarity. Eventually they began to bust out the crystals, health potions working far too slowly. Switching tactics were fine against a single large enemy - it was a good way to confuse the AI - but against a swarm of small fry there'd always be a few enemies who hadn't yet assigned a dedicated targeted.

Razler watched grimly. The disorganized mess reminded him all too much of how their battles tended to go. It hadn't mattered for a long time because players like Kirito and Heathcliff could hold lines for a very long time, but now...

The raid members tried to come in around the KoB to keep them from getting overwhelmed, and with the extra help they managed to get moving again, but Kennard's last spellcircle was finally beginning to slow down.

"Silica, get ready to charge Kennard's barrier head on when I say so," said Hinoka.

"Okay!" the young dragon tamer replied.

"Front line, pull back around Pina and make ready to charge," Hinoka continued.

Seriyuha glanced toward Asuna for a moment, a troubled look on her face, but she nodded and pulled her squad away from the KoB guild.

And finally, Hinoka looked to Asuna and shook her head. "Asuna, get back in formation with the others, you're about to come under attack!"

But Asuna didn't so much as look at Hinoka, and her knights followed suit. Razler stared from the rear, helpless and frustrated by it. Why was she refusing to listen!?

"Still confused, vermin?" cried Kennard. "Perhaps this will make it all clear!"

Kennard raised his hands slowly, as if struggling against a great weight, and then suddenly extended his right hand toward the raid, all of his many spellcircles gathering along the length of his arm. Razler immediately felt the air almost drying around him, and his vision seemed to distort. And the KoB were still fighting off the splasher swarm. Why weren't they getting out of the way!? Didn't they notice the danger they were in?

But even as he thought that, he understood the problem. It was the same reason Hinoka didn't fight in those sort of large-scale battles; it was simply impractical to observe everything around you while you were focused so intently on a single task. And fighting a swarm of monsters was a very distracting thing. It was almost certainly the case that Asuna and her unit, bogged down as they were, were simply unable to check Kennard's condition. It was the very reason that Hinoka had to observe battles from out of battles.

"Get out of there, Asuna!" he screamed.

Asuna turned toward him for just a fraction of a second, before she turned back to finish off the splasher she'd been fighting. And then, finally, she called for the KoB to scatter - but too late. The top half of a sphere erupted right in their midst, the edge of it clipping partially into Pina and the rest of the raid. The dragon and her allies scrambled to safety immediately, and the KoB tried to do the same, but the splashers closed in around them even more, as if signaled by Kennard's spell. Even the wounded joined in the break for freedom, but the splashers didn't give an inch. And then the light within the sphere inverted, and the players and splashers still within it seemed to freeze.

Asuna herself bad barely escaped in time - shoved out by one of her squad leaders - and could only turn and watch as the sphere seemed to solidify around the majority of her guild.

And then the sphere cracked.

The dark sphere Kennard had made broke into fragments that then dissolved, leaving nothing but a fine black grain that scattered across the hall. Standing there, still frozen, were a couple dozen players and thrice as many splashers. For one moment nothing seemed to have happened, and Razler didn't even breathe, but then every monster and player who'd been caught in the attack convulsed, and their health dropped instantly. All of the splashers died instantly. The players suffered grievous loss of hp. The ones who'd already been hurt before the attack... One by one, they shattered to pixels and scattered to dust. Six players were taken from the world in an instant.

Razler began breathing again at some point, but he could do little else but stare.

"Silica, charge now," said Hinoka.

Nothing happened.

"Silica," snapped Hinoka.

Silica gave a start, and fumbled to touch Pina by the neck. "R-right, sorry. Let's go girl!"

Oh yeah... They still had a fight to win.

Razler chanced a glance at his sister. She was staring straight on at Kennard, not looking at Asuna or the KoB.

Pointedly not looking... And shaking from head to toe.

Pina moved forward at a slow while she crossed carefully over the sprawling KoB members, but she quickly gained speed once she was clear of her allies. Kennard's deadly assault had also cleared out most of the splashers between himself and the raid, and Pina simply barrelled through what remained on her way to the mage. Bellowing a roar that shook the hall, she wedged Kennard and his barrier in between her maw, and bit down. Red light danced across the surface of the barrier, but Kennard gave no reaction to it.

"Is it just me or is that dragon pissed?" Lyle whispered.

Razler wasn't sure. Could Pina feel? He'd have to ask Silica later...

Hinoka gave an order for the others to join her, and Razler and his team began to move.

Razler's gazed lingered on the KoB members as he passed through them, his stomach twisting into knots. One them looked to him, and he immediately turned away. He had to focus on his enemy. It was the sorcerer that mattered most just then. Kennard's barrier held out long against Pina's abuse, but finally it shattered as it had several times that day. Kennard immediately retaliated with his blasting spell, knocking Pina aside, but the raid quickly took her place. The army of splashers began to swarm them more aggressively than ever before, and the defenders turned to hold a defensive line while Razler and the rear line moved in for the kill. With Kennard exposed right before him, Razler sliced the wizard across his midsection, his attack quickly joined by other cuts, jabs, and slices. Kennard's health dropped rapidly, until it came within pixels of emptying.

One skill into another, Razler unloaded everything he had on the wizard. He wouldn't let him get off another sell - the mage was going to die.

Kennard fell to his last hit points - and Razler found himself swept off his feet and engulfed in water. He flailed around, desperately searching for where the water ended, but he found himself slammed against cold, hard, stone first. He struggled to his feet, sputtering and searching every which way for Kennard. He was surrounded by other players doing the same.

What had happened?

Someone grabbed him from behind and helped him up.

"What's going on?" he asked.

"A load of water suddenly shot you guys away from the wizard," said one of the DDA members.

"What!?" Razler demanded. Looking around wildly, he saw that Kennard was on his knees, a sliver of health sustaining him. He couldn't have launched that attack, so who did? "Did you see-"

Beams of light broke through the roof of the hall again, and several figures suddenly appeared in the space between the raid and Kennard. In the center of the group was a twelve-foot tall female splasher, clad in ornate armor from the waist-up and possessing a flippered tail in place of legs. She simply rested on the tail, her upper body leaning back as if with poise. Directly at her side was a another female splasher, a few feet shorter and wearing more rugged and battle-scared armor. Arrayed around them were twelve more splashers - six Splasher Royal Knights up front, and six female Splasher Sirens in back. The Sirens were new; they came dressed in robes and were female and tailed, like their giant leader. The splashers that had spawned and spread all throughout the hall had dropped to one knee, not a single one of them moving to attack.

The be-tailed Splasher was called "Merrow, the Queen Under the Deeps", and she twisted her upper body toward Kennard. "Lord Kennard, I told you to ask for our help in this. Please don't use my children as you please."

Kennard simply growled loudly and slowly got to his feet. No doubt sensing the lost opportunity, a few of the players lunged forward, but were blasted back by a translucent barrier arrayed between the raid and the splashers. Razler remained where he was, immediately recognizing the situation before him as plot development.

He just couldn't remember something like this happening in a labyrinth before.

"You take care of the traitors then, Merrow," said Kennard. "I'm returning to the top of the castle!"

Kennard wove one last and very brief spell before vanishing in a burst of spellcircles. Merrow nodded calmly, her eyes on the players before her.

"Lord Kennard has underestimated you humans for the last time, I hope," she said softly. "I'll respect your accomplishments and allow you onward, but on the next floor is where your progress ends."

She spread her arms, toward the armored splasher knight at her side, and the other, lesser splashers around her. "You will soon see the true strength of our tribe. Savor this victory."

Merrow waved her arms in a circle, and vanished in a small plume of water. One by one, and faster as the seconds passed, the rest of her tribe did the same, until the hall was free of the monsters. Razler couldn't believe what he was seeing. They were just being let go for once? But the splashers were showing no signs of returning, nor of launching sneak attacks. The hall finally fell quiet again, and congratulatory screens began flashing before everyone's eyes. The light in the hall dimmed, and a passage at the far end slid open.

"I think it's finally over," Hinoka said quietly.

All at once the players began celebrating. Some cheered among their fellows, others exchanged handshakes or even hugs, and some simply fell from their feet in exhaustion. Most of the raid tried to figure out who got the last attack bonus on Kennard, assuming it even counted given the manner in which they'd defeated him. In the middle of the celebration, Razler felt someone slap his back hard, and found Klein standing there behind him.

"That was a pretty crazy fight back there," the red swordsman said.

"Yeah, I wasn't expected to see a wizard in one of these dungeons," said Razler.

"We probably haven't seen the last of him either," said Lyle.

Razler agreed, though he wasn't too concerned. At least they'd know what to expect from their next fight with Kennard.

The only players who weren't in high spirits were the members of the KoB. Razler caught sight of Asuna and her guild quietly heading on to the next floor. Concerned, he made his way over to Seriyuha, who was busy talking with some of the leaders of the DDA, and caught her attention. He silently gestured toward the retreated KoB, and Seriyuha nodded.

"Perhaps we can finish our discussion later? We have a new floor to explore," she said pleasantly to the DDA members.

The DDA members looked toward Asuna and the KoB, and agreed with her.

Seriyuha stepped out before the raid and tapped the shaft of her halberd against the stone, (eventually) bringing the attention of the raid back to her.

"Well done, everyone," she said, smiling at her allies. "We're one step closer to freedom, and we've proven we can do this without Kayaba's 'help'."

The raid cheered, and she allowed them a moment of jubilation before quieting them down once more.

"But don't forget the sacrifices of the ones who have died here. For their sake as well, we cannot give up, and we will not fail."

Some of the raid members shuffled their feet, others nodded solemnly. There was no great outcry, of grief however. Without doubt it was because... it was the KoB members who had suffered losses, and they had already left. Almost nobody who was still there had suffered a personal loss.

"For now let's put these things behind us," Seryuha continued, "we still have work to do. On to the next floor, everyone!"

Seriyuha turned toward the passage that had opened at the back of the hall, and took the first deliberate steps toward the next floor. The others followed behind her as a mass, no heed left to them for formation or order. There was no need for it any longer, after all.

As he fell in line with the rest of the party, Razler's heart thumped against his chest. Finally they were going to leave the sodden seventy-sixth floor behind and move on to something new. No more trudging through that damn river. It took some time for the raid to filter into the comparatively narrow doorway that lay at the end of the hall, but eventually Razler stepped into the smallish, dim stone passage, at the end of which he could see the floor stairway. After a brief period of slow forward progress, he set foot on the first jade step, and began to ascend. The top of the staircase trailed off into a bright light that consumed all that stepped into it, such that Razler could no longer see anything. Upon taking the final visible step he found himself engulfed in light, and then he felt the warmth of the sun on his face. Stepping forward, his vision cleared and he saw yellowish-white all around.

It was a beach.

A white sandy shore spread all before him, with grassy hills in the distance. The foamy blue waters were lapping at the coast, but snaking all across the surface of the ocean was a vast white architecture of some sort. Screening the sun out of his eyes with his hands, he saw that the white stone roads and buildings spread inland, to the space where he was standing. The floor's central town was made from the same material and in the same style as the buildings out over the ocean. It almost looked like a cross between a village and a temple; a city of white marble.

"So, a beach floor," said Klein.

"They're just hitting all the cliches, aren't they?" asked Keh-keh.

Grinning broadly, Razler sprinted away from the Teleport Gate to look around, and quickly realized he was surrounded by splashers. His first instinct was to draw his sword, but he noticed just as quickly that none of them were armed nor armored, and they didn't have the red marker of an enemy. It was the telltale sign of an npc. A town of splashers?

Hopefully they wouldn't be too upset about all the ones the players had killed on the floor below...

"Summer Knights!" cried Seriyuha. The guildmaster was a few meters from the base of the teleport gate and facing it. "We're heading back to the guild hall for a meeting, c'mon!"

Razler shrugged and immediately turned back to the gate. He wanted to explore the new floor, but it looked like it would have to wait. Seriyuha liked sticking to her routine.

So, once again, the Summer Knights found themselves gathered in their guild hall on the fifty-seventh floor. The trip there had been one of the quickest Razler remembered making in some time; he wanted to be done with it, not avoid what lay beyond it.

"Well, I'd like to congratulate you all on a well-fought labyrinth raid," Seriyuha began, wasting no time. She turned to Hinoka, a warm smile on her face. "I think Hinoka in particular deserves credit for her leadership after such a long time without commanding a group of that size."

The guild cheered for their strategist, and Hinoka blushed almost immediately. Smiling goofily, she managed to stammer a "thank you," before sitting down.

"It's just too bad Asuna went and Leeroyed like that," muttered Keh-keh.

"May the Lord have mercy on those poor souls," Samson said quietly. Of all the players, he was the only one who seemed unhappy.

"Did anybody see what happened to her after she left?" asked Lloyd.

Razler winced, remembering only then that there was a chance that Asuna would lapse back into depression given her recent mistake. If it happened again, it would only be harder to pull her back out of it...

"Yes," said Seriyuha, "I caught sight of her splitting the KoB into squads to explore the floor. She and her guild were leaving just as the rest of the raid made it up to the floor."

"She's just trying to distract herself. Pretend that nothing's wrong," said Lloyd.

"Maybe so, but that's better than the alternative," said Samson.

Lloyd frowned, nodding. "Good point."

"We should get started too, I wanna hit the beach!" cried Elise.

"Very good point," said Seriyuha. "We'll begin exploring the seventy-seventh floor today by splitting up into teams as usual. Nothing out of the ordinary; try to cover places other players aren't and don't do anything foolish just because we won a major victory today."

Her gaze fell on Elise. "And don't get distracted playing on the beach, either."

Elise only laughed and smiled at her guildmaster.

Thus excused, the Summer Knights got up from the table and made for the door. Razler went to join his sister first, but Seriyuha suddenly called out to them, "Hinoka, would you mind staying back for a few minutes?"

The siblings immediately turned around on Seriyuha, finding her smiling at them. They exchanged a glance, and Hinoka turned to return to her seat.

"Don't worry, Razler, you'll have your sister back before long."

Razler shrugged and continued for the door, wondering to himself just what Seriyuha wanted to discuss with Hinoka. She wasn't going to demand answers for the KoB, was she? He stood where he was for a moment, wondering whether he should argue in his sister's favor. What happened wasn't her fault. But... He'd never known Seriyuha to be unfair. It was probably going to be okay.

And in any case, he hadn't seen the coast in years. He turned and left his sister to the guildmaster. She could catch up.

Meanwhile, Hinoka took a seat closer to Seriyuha as the rest of the guild slowly filtered out of the meeting room. Hinoka watched the others leave, curiosity running wild inside her. There was no doubt that Seriyuha wanted to discuss the incident with Asuna and the KoB during the raid. Hinoka glared into her lap as she remembered Asuna's open defiance. Stupid girl... getting her guildmates killed like that... If she'd only listened to the plan. It wasn't Hinoka's fault. She'd done all she could. She had to make a choice. Asuna forced her to do it.

One thing was for sure: Seriyuha wouldn't be happy about the dead players, and Hinoka would have to justify abandoning the KoB.

As the last of the Summer Knights began leaving the meeting room, Hinoka quickly prepared her retorts. Then, ThunderCavalier finally left, leaving the two alone. Seriyuha immediately turned to Hinoka and the young woman braced herself, several points in her defense ready to be given.

"Asuna told me something very unusual the other night, and I wanted to see what you'd make of it," said Seriyuha.

Hinoka stared at her for a moment, all justifications scattered like leaves before a wind storm. "O-okay," she eventually managed.

But if Hinoka thought she was confused then, it was nothing compared to how she felt as Seriyuha launched into her second-hand story. By the time the tale of Yui was finally finished, Hinoka was sitting back in her chair, arms crossed.

"So," she finally said as Seriyuha fell silent,"'Yui', huh. Some people don't give up..."

"What do you mean?" asked Seriyuha.

"Well," she began, "back when I was trying to break into the game, I was looking up a lot of Kayaba's information, like from his days in education or early work. Around the time he was in university he had a huge interest in AI, except he wanted to make..."

She frowned, searching for the right words. "'Actual' Intelligence, I guess you could say. A sentient AI. He called his experimentation back then, 'Project YUI'. I forget what the acronym was meant to be."

Seriyuha stared at her, eyes wide.

"Oh, it was preposterous, of course," Hinoka said immediately. "You can't make artificial intelligence to work like human brains. Sounds like Kayaba just named one of the system AI after his old work. So Asuna happened to meet a corrupted AI that imprinted on her, and she thinks that AI is actually sentient, huh?"

Seriyuha frowned. "Yes, that's about the size of it. I take it you're not convinced?"

"Oh," Hinoka gasped as she threw her hands up in front of her. "I didn't mean to suggest Asuna was lying it's just - do you know the difference between us and AI?"

Seriyuha simply gave her a confused look. "They're metal?"

"Aside from the obvious part," Hinoka said impatiently, "AI can think, but they can't feel. Feelings defy logic, and computers run by logic. Even the most sophisticated AI in this world is bound by its programming - and whatever comes with that. Like that wizard, Kennard? His programming told him to do what he did. He can do things that line up with that - he can attack us in different ways, he could try other strategies - but he can't ever decide to change sides if his programming says not to. Not unless he was corrupted, like this Yui was."

"Then how do you explain Yui's behavior? Why would an emotional support AI abandon her duty and imprint on two players?" asked Seriyuha.

"Well, like I said, she was corrupted," said Hinoka. "For some stupid reason, somebody disabled her function without disabling her. Human error - happens all the time in game design. The contradiction in her programming starting corrupting it; she was probably never told how to behave if she were literally unable to perform her function."

Seriyuha continued to stare at her, and Hinoka finally blushed, uncomfortable with all the attention. "You've thought a lot about this..."

Hinoka scoffed. "It's my job."

Nodding, Seriyuha fell silent and stared at the floor. Hinoka watched her for a time, expecting more questions. Surely she hadn't held her back just to ask about some rogue AI? Finally, her patience finally gave out. "So why're you asking me about this? What does this have to do with anything?"

Sighing, Seriyuha straightened up in her chair and leaned toward Hinoka. "Are you doing okay, Chigusa?" she asked.

Hinoka flinched at the unexpected use of her given name. "If this is about the raid, we both tried everything we could to get Asuna back into formation with the others."

She paused for emphasis, and then looked Seriyuha dead-on in the eye. "We both know what happened the last time we tried to save people who wouldn't follow the plan. I had to choose between the raid and Asuna's guild, and I stand by my decision. Do you disagree with me?"

"No, of course not," Seriyuha said instantly. "I trust you completely to decide our strategy, Chigusa. If you say you believe in your decision, then I believe you made the right one."

Hinoka glanced at the floor. "It's better than no decision." That wasn't a point she wanted to ever face in her life again.

"I agree," said Seriyuha. "Do you think we're likely to lose the trust of the KoB over this?"

Hinoka rolled her eyes. "Maybe," she muttered. Actually it was more likely to be "probably," especially if Asuna didn't want to cooperate with her strategies anymore. But either way, it wasn't something she could help.

Anyways, rumors were going around that a few players had left the KoB to form smaller guilds on their own - a fact she considered with some satisfaction. It wasn't so very long ago that the same had happened to the Summer Knights. The Knights of the Blood were starting to feel what a fall from glory was like, and all the faster because their founder was the maniac who'd trapped them in that world in the first place.

Served them all right.

But Seriyuha probably wouldn't be satisfied with what she'd just said... Losing the help of the KoB would be a serious problem for future labyrinth raids.

"But the results today spoke for themselves," she continued, "nobody who followed the plan died today. The other players will notice that."

"That's true," said Seriyuha.

"What does any of this have to do with Yui anyways?" Hinoka asked. The two subjects didn't appear the slightest bit related, but Seriyuha wouldn't have mentioned them both for no reason.

Seriyuha leaned forward over the table and tented her hands in front of her mouth, staring right into Hinoka. "Asuna's going to be a problem, the raid today made that obvious. She's back to how she was before she met Kirito, and she approached the fight as if we still had him and Heathcliff on our side."

"She's not used to them not being around," said Hinoka, "she'll realize the difference sooner or later."

"Probably, but I'd rather she do it sooner."

Hinoka leaned against the table and asked, "So, are we staging another intervention on her?"

"Yes, this time we're doing something different," said Seriyuha.

---

Razler spent a few pleasant hours exploring the seventy-seventh floor. He - and most of the players - chose to search the great white stone structure that sprawled along the surface of the water, realizing quickly that it stretched far further than it first looked. It even went under the water in enclosed transparent passages for long stretches. Aside from just that, it was also rather maze-like, twisting and turning and leading into dead-ends. Mapping the stone temple was surely going to be a major priority.

Splashers reprized their roll as the primary enemy of the floor, and Razler was starting to get sick of the fishy beasts. The scout tactics from the previous floor were still common, but Royal Guards were starting to come to their aid. He heard rumors from other players that the npcs back in town were saying that the splashers were more dangerous at night. Seriyuha and Hinoka would want to investigate that. Elise already made it quite clear that she did.

At least this time they didn't have to ride a boat in and out of town.

It wasn't until nearly sundown that he finally received word from Hinoka. Instead of telling him what she'd spoken about with Seriyuha, she just asked him to return to the teleport gate. Confused, he traded goodbyes with Samson, Flashy, and Elise before making his way back to town. Hinoka was waiting for him back at the gate, and waved to him as he approached.

She was smiling; at least it didn't look like Seriyuha had given her a hard time about the KoB.

"So, didja see any cute girls in swimsuits out there?" she asked as he came into earshot.

"Elise wanted to put one on but she'd lose a ton of strength without her beast skin gear," he said, grinning. "Then Samson made some weird biblical comments about controlling urges or something and she got confused."

Hinoka grinned. "Sounds like him," she said.

"So what'd Seriyuha want?"

"We've got a secret mission down on the first floor."

Razler stared. "Oh," he eventually managed. "What're we doing down there? Does it have something to do with the Army?"

"Sorta," Hinoka said as she stepped onto the platform. "I'll explain on the way."

Razler joined his sister on the platform, and the pair teleported all the way back down to the very bottom floor of Castle Aincrad, where they hadn't been since the day the second floor had been opened. Once he materialized and stepped off the platform, Razler stared out across the plaza, memories of that fateful day coming back. Even the dusk sky looked the same. The one difference was...

A virtual wind blew across the plaza, rustling the trees. It was the only sound he could hear.

The floor was so empty now. Desolate. The crowds that once lined the plaza and main street were gone. A decent number of players stilled lived on the first floor, but most had dispersed across the castle by then. It was a far cry from the ten thousand that once stood there. It was all so different then...

Hinoka tugged gently on his arm, "C'mon," she said quietly.

Razler turned and followed her. They didn't have time to get lost in memories... After a few moments he realized that they were heading toward the Black Iron Palace, and he remembered that they still had a job to do on the floor. Was that their destination? What did they need there?

"So Asuna and Kirito discovered a secret dungeon underneath the floor a few weeks back," Hinoka began, "that's where we're going. Seriyuha wants us to meet her, Asuna, and Keh-keh there to investigate. The dungeon probably gets bigger the further you go, but she wants to be sure."

Razler's eyes widened at the news. A secret dungeon underneath the castle, huh? "We shoulda guessed there'd be a secret dungeon, that's classic RPG stuff there," he said ruefully. "I bet we'll find top-tier equipment at the back of it."

"Definitely," said Hinoka.

But where was it? How could he have not heard about a secret dungeon under the first floor after so long? And what might be down there? RPG secret dungeon design

Razler expected Hinoka to lead him into the Black Iron Palace - though he wasn't sure how they'd sneak past the Army - but she actually moved around the side, to an exposed drain pipe off near the back of the castle. Razler stared at it as he approached, utterly baffled, but he soon saw that the the bars on the grille were worn and broken, easily allowing the pair to slip through. Where he expected a dank sewer, instead he found himself standing in a clean stone passage. It looked like nothing more than a standard basement level of a field castle. But then again, Hinoka wouldn't have brought him there for no reason. And Seriyuha was there too, and he quickly found Keh-keh sitting on an alcove above the entrance.

"Hey, welcome to the party!" she called down at him.

Razler noded to her, though he privately wondered why so few had been brought out to the dungeon. It was sure to be a challenge. "So what's going on?" he asked.

"Yeah, I'm curious too, you said you'd tell me once Razler got here," said Keh-keh.

"Wait for that," said Seriyuha, "Asuna will be here any-"

"Actually," said Keh-keh, "I hear her footsteps already."

Seriyuha glared up at Keh-keh, but didn't have time to reprimand her as Asuna climbed through the entrance hole a moment later. Seriyuha gave her a second to take in her surroundings before she approached the younger woman, saying, "Hi, Asuna. Thanks for coming out here."

"Are you planning to lecture me about the raid?" Asuna asked, her voice thick.

Looking at her again, Razler realized her eyes were slightly sunken and devoid of feeling. He looked away from her. He'd been so occupied with the new floor and now a secret dungeon that he'd had no time to even think about the players who had died in the raid that day. Was he heartless, or was death just something he'd gotten used to?

Neither was a pleasant thought...

"Of course not," Seriyuha said quickly, "You've had a hard enough time already. How are your guildmates handling things?"

"They seem split down the middle," muttered Asuna. "Some of them are saying that the raid strategy was too timid and that your guild let us take the heat..."

She fell silent for nearly ten seconds, staring at the floor. "And some of the others are questioning my ability to fill in as the commander..."

"What, you don't blame Hinoka, do you?" Keh-keh called out from above.

"I don't know what to think," Asuna said slowly.

"That's not what I called you here about," Seriyuha said firmly.

Asuna sighed and looked back up at her. "Then what's going on?"

"I wanted to investigate this dungeon," said Seriyuha. "We've cleared two floors since you and Kirito were here last, we should see how much more of it is opened."

"I don't want to come back here..."

Asuna, her arms crossed, looked away from Seriyuha, but Hinoka stepped up, a feeble and forced smile on her face. "We all think there's probably something valuable down here," she said, "why else would there be a dungeon in the opposite direction of our final goal?"

"It'll only be for one time," said Seriyuha, "we weren't there before, so we won't know how much the dungeon has changed recently. We need your help, Asuna."

Asuna stood nearly motionless for a while, eyes closed tight. Razler just watched her, completely clueless to what was bothering her. Clearly something had happened in this dungeon - something bad. He wished that Seriyuha had chosen to tell him some more about what was going on, but he also wasn't sure he even wanted to know. What could Asuna and Kirito have found down in the secret dungeon?

"Fine," she eventually said, "but why only us? Do you remember what I told you about the boss we found here?"

"Yeah, that's why we don't want to bring too many people here, actually," said Hinoka. "It's better if we keep this dungeon under wraps until we know more about it. We don't want people blundering around down here and running into high-level bosses."

"So am I here to see if other players are sneaking around?" asked Keh-keh.

"Yeah, we don't want anybody following us down here," said Seriyuha.

"This makes sense," said Asuna. "Is that why you waited until the evening?"

"Yes, we shouldn't be missed if we're only gone for a few hours," said Seriyuha.

"Then let's get this over with," said Asuna.

The woman in white quietly walked past Seriyuha and led the way through the gates of the secret dungeon, the Summer Knights falling in behind her. Razler expected something more dramatic awaiting further inside - walls lined with skulls, maybe - but the corridors of the dungeon remained smooth stone, and the enemies within weren't terribly difficult. He recognized some of them as originating from the twenty-range floors, which admittedly would be incredibly deadly for the the first floor, but hadn't posed a challenge to him and the clearers for over a year.

But surely the enemies would get more dangerous further in. It wasn't unusual for RPG secret dungeons to start with weaker enemies.

"What's with this dungeon anyways? You never mentioned anything about this, Hinoka," he said.

"It didn't exist back in the beta," said Hinoka, "today was the first time I heard about it."

"So how does it work?" he asked.

He looked toward Hinoka, but she shrugged and indicated toward Asuna. The Flash said nothing.

Finally, Seriyuha volunteered, "It seems that this dungeon gets longer over time, probably because of things we're doing on the floors above. The Army discovered this area first, and they've kept it secret."

Asuna flinched. Razler wanted to ask how she and Kirito came to learn about the dungeon, but he could guess from how Asuna was behaving that it wouldn't be a good would just remain a mystery for now.

They passed by many side passages along the way, which Razler often saw leading to nowhere but a wall. Perhaps these passages would open up and lead somewhere else later on? The idea of a growing dungeon was interesting, but he'd rarely heard of examples doing anything other than wasting a lot of time by forcing players to constantly re-explore them.

But then again, with enough players with nothing else to do with their time...

Asuna had also mentioned something about a dangerous boss in the dungeon... So were there super minibosses running around? Razler checked again at the low headcount of his team, and wished they'd thought to bring the entire guild along for the ride. Running into a raid boss with such a small group would get them all killed.

Luckily, they found their way without running into any particularly dangerous enemies, until they came cross a T-intersection, where Asuna suddenly stopped. She remained there just at the edge of the intersection, staring straight ahead, her whole body shaking. Razler stared at her, alarmed. What had she seen? He automatically looked toward Hinoka, only to find his sister staring solemnly at her. What was going on?

"Hey?" asked Keh-keh. "Earth to Asuna? Is there a boss ahead or something? I only see a safe room."

Seriyuha moved closer to Asuna and took hold of her left hand gently, a soft frown on her face. "Is this where...?"

"Yes," said Asuna, her head down. "Why did you bring me back here..."

Razler stared in rapt attention, feeling the oncoming of a storm. He finally began to suspect that there was more to Seriyuha's plan than there seemed.

"Is the terminal in there still working?" asked Hinoka.

"Probably. Why would it matter."

"There's a lot of reasons it would matter," said Hinoka. "And I might be able to restore her, you know."

Asuna gave a strangled gasp. She gaped at Hinoka for a second, her eyes wide and desperate. "H-how? You can't login from here, can you?"

Hinoka smiled at her with considerably puffing of her chest. "I might be able to. How does that terminal work?"

"R-right, I'll show you where it is."

Asuna began moving - at a considerably faster clip than Razler had yet seen, toward the safe room. The party followed close behind, Razler shaking in excitement. Something was happening - if only they'd told him what was going on though!

They made it to the safe area in just a moment, with no enemies attacking on the way. Safe areas were somewhat rare locations - almost always in dungeons - where monsters would neither enter nor spawn. They were almost always characterized by bright light, and had no apparent duration.

On the other hand, the game almost seemed to play monster noises as background ambiance while a player was in a safe area, making it almost impossible to actually relax while in one.

The particular safe room they were headed toward was a simple white room with a large obsidian block standing in the middle of it. Immediately upon entering, Asuna began gesturing to the block, but Razler could only stare at it. He couldn't remember seeing something so distinctly un-computer-like in his life.

"This is it," Asuna said breathlessly.

Eyes narrowed, Hinoka approached the black and examining it closely. First she merely used her eyes, but then she began feeling it with her fingers, checking every inch of it she could. Everyone watched her quietly - even Keh-keh, but finally she just stood and stared at the block, her hand on her chin.

"I can't find anything like a power switch. How did Kirito get this thing running?"

"He didn't, Yui did," said Asuna, "it was still on when Kirito used it."

"Did Yui say how she turned it on?"

Asuna's face fell. "She didn't. She just said she touched the stone when I pushed her into this room, and that restored her memory."

"Asuna, try touching her pendant to the stone," Seriyuha said instantly. "It has Yui's code, right?"

"Oh!" gasped Asuna.

With her hands fumbling, she pulled her necklace off from around her neck and set it gingerly on the stone. Blue light suddenly erupted from it, making Razler jump back. The light quickly narrowed, forming a small squares - unmistakably a keyboard. Hinoka leaned in close over it immediately, a wide grin on her face.

"Oh god, a keyboard! What a sight for sore eyes!" she squealed. She poked at one of the "keys" experimentally, and the small stone section depressed under her finger. Her grin widened, and she giggled to herself.

In the meanwhile, a semi-transparent screen - an in-game menu - appeared and began floating above the stone. Still grinning, Hinoka cracked her fingers and said, "Game time started," to herself.

A login screen - naturally requesting a username and password - was dominating the window, and Hinoka's allies closed in around her.

"What're you going to do now?" whispered Asuna. "Wouldn't Kayaba have deleted all the accounts other than his?"

"You're gonna show us some hacking now, right Sis?" asked Razler. He was smiling as well; he'd never actually seen his sister at her illicit "work" before.

"Eeyup!" said Hinoka. "Well let's give this a shot." She filled in a user name and password, and struck the enter key. A loading bar appeared briefly, followed by a screen with several sub-options; a main screen.

"Hah!" Hinoka cried, her hands on her hips, "I've still got it!"

"How'd you do that!?" cried Razler.

"Woah, you got that in one try, that is spooky," said Keh-keh. She did a double take toward Hinoka, then grinned sheepishly up at her. "Uhh, I officially apologize for all the pranks I pulled on you. I didn't mean any of it. Really!"

Hinoka was too busy grinning and preening at the screen to pay Keh-keh any heed, however.

"Where'd you learn his password?" asked Seriyuha.

"Automated system making attempts after I narrowed it down by figuring out some personal information of his," Hinoka said with a shrug.

"Aren't you supposed to, like," Keh-keh said, frowning, "rapid-fire type and... I dunno, go through tons of flashing windows? And maybe cybernuke them?"

"Well that works in anime, I guess," Hinoka said without taking her eyes off the screen. She began moving through various sub-sections of the main screen - though too quickly for Razler to properly follow. She was mostly focusing on system commands, but he could guess what she was searching for.

"Can you log us out from here?" he asked, heart racing.

"Probably not," she said quickly. "I'm already seeing that this terminal has restricted functions. Kayaba wasn't taking any chances with somebody screwing up his plan. I won't know for sure until I've had some time to go through this system with a fine-toothed comb."

"Shouldn't his login have access to everything?" asked Seriyuha.

"Depends on how he secures the system."

"What about Yui?" Asuna asked pointedly.

"Looking into that," Hinoka said as she continued looking through windows. "Kirito said he copied her code into this item before she was deleted, right?"

"Yes, he moved her into his NerveGear and as an item in the game," said Asuna.

"Wouldn't they have thrown his NerveGear away after Kirito died?" asked Keh-keh.

"They might keep them around to study," said Razler, though he privately agreed with her. At the very least, the magnetic discharge probably wreaked havoc on the NerveGear itself.

"Yes, but Yui's data and this item would also be contained in the SAO server," said Hinoka, "and since Kirito and Asuna were married, it would remain with her in their shared inventory."

Asuna's face fell, and she clenched her hand over her chest. Razler stole a glance at her before looking away. So their marriage may have saved this Yui... Razler still didn't know the full story, but he felt he was beginning to put the pieces together from what he was picking up.

Hinoka hummed pleasantly to herself for a time as she began going through windows, until she came across what Razler quickly realized to be a full list of all the items in Sword Art Online.

It stretched on and on.

He came close to gaping as Hinoka scrolled through dozens of items, realizing only then the sheer scope of all the pieces of the game world. It wasn't just consumables either; anything a player could place into their inventory was there, including many many items he'd never heard of before.

"Why the hell isn't there a search option on this database though," Hinoka muttered to herself.

"They probably didn't figure anybody would do anything serious with an ingame console," said Razler. He wasn't even sure why it was there to begin with. Surely a GM would just use a personal menu option to carry out any task that needed doing. His best guess was that it was an aesthetic decision - though that was still stupid.

"Aha!" cried Hinoka. Her selection had scrolled over the item, "Yui's Heart." "Jeez, Kirito," she muttered, "talk about hasty work here, he just found the 'Heart' item for Scuttle Crab pets, removed the time limit, and had it point to a copy of Yui's npc data."

"Poor Scuttle Crab owners," said Keh-keh.

"He only had a few seconds to save her, the system was deleting her!" cried Asuna.

"Not sure why it missed the copy of Yui," Hinoka said, mostly to herself. "Even if we used a Pneuma Flower on her that might not work, so I'd rather not do it that way. Anyways, the main system would probably just delete her again. He was probably planning on just storing her here in this inactive form so he could take apart her code and re-assemble her outside SAO, but since that's not her native environment that'd be a huge risk for corrupting her data."

She stepped back, arms crossed, and frowned at the window. "No, I'd better not do that... Let me see what I can do."

Asuna nodded, and stepped back. "Whatever it takes, please save her..."

Hinoka opened her mouth, then stopped, and turned to Asuna. "I will," she said, smiling at Asuna. "I owe Kirito too much to not do this one last thing for him."

The two girls interlocked gazes for a moment, Hinoka not blinking once, and then Asuna nodded and walked quietly

Razler turned aside and sat against the wall, leaving Hinoka to her work. He stared at her, hoping that she would succeed for the two of them. He owed Kirito just as much as she did, but he couldn't do anything for his memory... If only he knew a few practical skills like his sister did.

Seriyuha sat quietly beside him, knees folded against her chest.

"Yui was their daughter," she whispered.

Razler stared at her blankly. "An AI? They adopted an AI?"

"Yes, she was a psychological program but became corrupt because she was unable to perform her duty. And then the game's central system decided she was rogue and tried to delete her."

So he'd designed an AI, and then tortured it by not letting it do its job. That was just like the capricious monster...

Razler punched the stone he sat on, glaring at nothing in particular. There really wasn't anybody who was safe from Kayaba's pointless cruelty. People - AI - they were all toys for his games. He looked back up at his sister, and at Asuna, and thought he could empathize with Yui's suffering. If she was a psychological aid, that meant she had to have access to player emotions. Which meant she was left unable to do anything but watch widespread despair, despite having the power and the purpose to help.

He'd learned a lot about how painful that was... Seeing suffering and being unable to stop it...

But how would Hinoka bring Yui back without subjecting her to that again?

And just then, Hinoka suddenly said, "Okay, here goes nothing."

Asuna practically leaped from where she'd been sitting, and dashed over to Hinoka's side. "You're done!? Where's Yui!?"

Smiling softly, Hinoka handed Asuna the necklace, and set it in her hands. "Try using it now."

Asuna, her hands shaking like a leaf, opened her menu, and went through a few windows to her inventory. After some quick scrolling, she found the item she was looking for, held her breath, and pressed her index finger against the menu.

Immediately, bright light shot from the stone of the necklace. Razler cried out and covered his eyes, as did the others. After a moment he chanced a glance, and saw something dark forming in the center of that light. And then the harsh shine suddenly faded. A girl was hovering in the air in front of him, curled into a ball and suspended off the ground by an orb of soft white light. The glow slowly faded as the girl descended to the floor, where her legs dropped to shakily support her weight. Asuna just stood there, her eyes wide as saucers as the girl opened hers, blinked several times, and began to look around herself.

Razler's first impression was that the girl had a sort of ethereal air about her, from her pale skin to her dark black hair. She looked younger than even Keh-keh, though he could guess better than to brush her off as a child. She was cute, for sure, almost unnaturally so.

So this was the AI that Kirito and Asuna adopted. Hinoka stared at her, one hand over her chin. She was the only one who was wasn't staring at the girl in awe.

Asuna took a step closer, reaching out slowly toward the girl. "Y-yui, is that really you?" she whispered, her eyes moist.

Yui rounded on her, blinked, and broke into a wide smile. "Mama!"

Asuna froze, and then launched herself toward the small girl, pulling her into a tight embrace. The pair, mother and child, dropped to their knees and repeated each other's names tearily, their words slowly becoming less and less distinct. At his side, Seriyuha was watching with the widest, warmest smile he could remember ever seeing from her, tears in her eyes.

"Mama," said Yui, "I never thought I would see you again! I could feel you and Papa somehow, but I could not see or feel myself! What happened to me? I should have been deleted!"

"Papa saved you," said Asuna, "and then she -" she looked up at Hinoka, Yui following her gaze "- she brought you back."

Hinoka smiled awkwardly at the pair and raised her hand up. "Y-you're welcome!" she said.

"Thank you!" cried Yui. She flashed Hinoka a smile, then turned back to her mama. "But Mama? Where is Papa?"

Razler gnashed his teeth and looked away reflexively. And the reunion was going so well, too...

It was... a while before Yui was in any condition to say or hear anything... Eventually, the small AI recovered enough to learn the details behind what had happened after her Papa's passing, by which point she'd been sat on the obsidian block.

Yui's sobs slowly gave way to a somber stare toward the ground.

"Mama, it must have been so awful," she said quietly. "I thought I could feel something wrong - I could feel your pain. Even in the state I was. I was so worried."

"Mama had a lot of help from people who care about her very much," Asuna whispered, her hands closed over the little girl's.

"Was that you?" Yui asked, looking at Hinoka.

"I was involved, but it wasn't just me," she said.

"Yeah, I stole her sword, that helped," said Keh-keh.

Yui gave her a confused look, but turned back to Hinoka. "I am different than I used to be, did you change me?"

"Yes," said Hinoka, her arms crossed, "I modified some of your parameters and removed your original function as a psychological unit so that the system wouldn't immediately recognize you as your previous self. Part of this involved some finagling in your emotion-recognition routines, otherwise you might have been corrupted again. As long as you keep your head down you shouldn't be deleted a second time."

Yui gasped, and nodded. "Thank you very much! I will run a full self-diagnostic later, but your work appears quite satisfactory for now."

Hinoka grinned. "I think I'm starting to like you."

"Oh no, she's got someone to nerd with," Razler said, though he was grinning at his sister.

Keh-keh, sitting on the floor with her legs crossed, suddenly gave a gasp of recognition and leaned forward. "Hey Yui, can you log us out from here? You're a system GM, right?"

"No, Miss Keh-keh," said Yui, "all sub-terminals in this world had core functions removed when the main system administrator Kayaba Akihiko re-wrote the game's code to trap all of the players inside."

"So there's nothing we can really do with any of these?" asked Hinoka.

"No, but the primary terminal located in the outside-space region accessed through Floor One-Hundred retains full functionality."

"'Outside Space'?" asked Razler.

"A region beyond the borders of this game world, ordinarily hidden from player awareness," said Yui. "They were leftover boundaries from development or used in debugging and testing. Often they are still used to hide monster spawns."

"Wouldn't they just delete them?" asked Keh-keh.

"No, not if the players can't get to them," said Hinoka. "You see that all the time in video games. Debugging areas are often left alone. Deleting them means more work."

"Yui," asked Asuna, "does this mean we could log out if we reached this terminal?"

"Most likely, Mama," said Yui.

Razler couldn't help but grin. So that was it. There was a way to escape - without fighting Kayaba. They could pull the rug right out from under him, and it all started with this little AI's knowledge of the game. Bringing Yui back had changed everything.

"Yui," said Hinoka, "would you mind sharing what you know about the floors above?"

"Hinoka, I don't want you treating Yui like a wiki," said Asuna.

"No, Mama," said Yui, "please, I do not mind. I would like to repay them for restoring me!"

The pair locked eyes, and Asuna nodded slowly. "I guess we owe them this much."

Yui leaped from the stone, and bowed to Hinoka. "I will help you however I can, but please understand that gaps in my memory exist. I apologize, but I have limits in my current state."

"That's quite all right," said Hinoka, "I'm sure you know plenty left that could help us."

Smiling, she looked up to the others. "I think we've seen enough here for now? Shall we go back?"

Her allies agreed eagerly. The party paused only to set a corridor crystal into the safe room, and then Asuna led them back to the exit of the dungeon.

The way out was so much more pleasant than the way in had been...

---

Remember how Hinoka said she read the game's code back in the first proper chapter? :p

Also, I've recently been improving on the first few chapters. They were shockingly low quality and quite frankly I'm disappointed you guys put up with that level of quality :C

Nah, I'm kidding. About the disappointed part, anyways.