Review Responses:

Starrheart- Of course! He's THE BLACK SWORDSMAN! He can't be seen in a sub par coat! That's like, half of his identity! XD Ain't nobody gonna get away with fucking with those he cares about! I actually STARTED over here on FF, then just shifted to cross posting on AO3, but maybe I should've mentioned that in my author's comments or something... I'm glad you were looking forward to it! You guys actually DEBATE that stuff?! I mean, I've definitely got things planned, but that you guys debate it...

fairygirl90- Have to wait and see what will happen with Sugu, won't you? 'Scuse you. I see your name, and your profile picture when I tell my phone to go to the desktop site. The entire premise of your guilds name is an eternal quest for answers, for eternal adventure, I'm just helping by giving you questions to seek answers for. XD But seriously, your review made me cackle evilly. I can't wait to see if you pick up on a question that needs to be asked about the next chapter, and subsequently your mini freak out in your search for them. It doesn't come without downsides, but Mike isn't about to complain about his exhaustion when it's for his sister's sake.

KyoudaiDoushi- Very mean. Especially since Alfheim's grand quest was actually designed to be unbeatable. Even if it was beatable, it would still leave mixed parties with the conundrum of who gets the infinite flight, especially since it's never actually even hinted at that there would be another grand quest after the current one with a reward of its own, that was simply a logical assumption on Kirito's part.

Roxas fleur- As long as there are no delays in writing, there should be one chapter every Monday.

HolyKnight5- No, it was legitimately just me being so focused on things that are coming up in the fic soon that it slipped my mind, but it's not a big deal, she hasn't been pushed to that point yet anyway, and even if she had it wouldn't open a Hell Portal. That isn't to say it wouldn't be really bad for Marzanna if she's pushed to that point under her current circumstances because it would definitely be really bad.

January 21st, 2025

Kirito charges the one eyed winged lizards, called «Evil Glancer», as they circle back around in their attack before slicing through both with one swing. The beasts had spawned as a group of five, for the third time in twenty minutes already, and they had some sort of attack that debuffed his stats, but it isn't enough to make much of a difference, so he just cleaves through them quickly. His sister doesn't seem to realize that though, as every time he was attacked with the debuff, she quickly counters it.

With the other four dead and the last mob only possessing twenty percent of its health, it tries to run away. Just as he makes to take after it though, his sister starts chanting a spell, and within moments she's shot five boomerang looking blades of magic, which hone in on the mob, destroying it instantly.

He looks over the drop menu for a moment before his sister grabs his attention, "Good work."

He turns to find her smiling at him and returns it as he holds up his hand for a high five, "Thanks for the backup."

She giggles lightly after high fiving him, then she tilts her head, "That said, your fighting style is a bit reckless, Onii-chan."

He tilts his head, "Eh? How so?"

She crosses her arms, "Generally, it's a good idea to use hit and run tactics for evasion, but you just hit and keep hitting!"

He tilts his head with a slight frown, "I can dodge or block if it becomes necessary, but they just weren't worth bothering with that. Besides, blocking and dodging, or even switching, are one thing, but hit and run tactics have never really been my style."

His sister sighs, "That may work in situations similar to this one, but not against a group of monsters that are a combination of melee and long ranged attackers. And if we end up fighting a party of players, they'll definitely use magic, so you have to be more careful."

He tilts his head, "Yeah, but couldn't I just avoid it?"

His sister shakes her head though, "There are lots of different kinds of magic. For power focused magic that goes straight, it's true that you can read its direction and avoid it, but for homing and area type magic that's impossible. With these types of magic you have to maintain high speeds and time your changes in direction."

He sighs, "Yeah, alright, I'll keep that in mind."

His sister smiles lightly, "Well if it's Onii-chan, I'm sure you'll learn quickly. You've got pretty good intuition and sharp eyes, not to mention your reflexes." His sister suddenly tilts her head slightly as though looking at something behind him, then looks over her shoulder at her wings just as they start to lose their shine, "Our wings aren't gonna last much longer. We should land soon."

As she says the last bit she points down at a clearing and he nods in understanding, "Alright."

He's rather thankful they'd already had to stop once, as it means he doesn't have to go through the uncomfortable lesson on learning how to land while using voluntary flight. Uncomfortable because he'd had more than one rough crash landing before getting the skill down, but he could do it with almost the same ease and grace as his sister now and no longer had to worry about landing on his face again, so he supposes it had been worthwhile.

As their feet touch down, his sister lifts both her arms in a massive stretch, and Kirito himself was rolling his shoulders. It was strange, but despite not having such limbs in real life, Kirito had found that the area around one's wings in Alfheim felt weirdly fatigued and strained after a long flight.

His sister turns to him with a slight smile, "Tired?"

He shakes his head, "No, not yet."

Leafa chuckles, "Tough guy are we? Well, either way, our flying is pretty much at an end for a while."

He glances at her in confusion, "Eh? Why?"

She points up ahead of them with a slightly serious look, "You see that mountain, right? It's above the altitude limit, so to pass it, you have to go through the caves. It's the toughest part of the trip between Sylph territory and Arun, or so I've heard. I've never been past this point either."

He tilts his head at the massive mountain still a fair distance away, "I see… Caves, huh? Are they long?"

His sister nods, "Yup. I've been told there's a neutral mining town midway that we'll be able to rest at, but that's it. It's already 7 at night, but we should be able to reach the mining town at least, but we should rotate out for now."

He looks at his sister in confusion, "Rotate?"

She gives a slightly awkward laugh, "With how good you are, I keep forgetting you've only been in ALO for a day… You know how I said you can't log out instantly anywhere but a town in your territory? Well, that obviously includes the neutral area, so you take turns logging out for a bit while the other guards your empty avatar. I don't know about you Onii-chan, but I'd rather take a quick shower and grab something to eat now rather than later."

He nods, "I see. Alright then. You can go first if you'd like."

She nods as she gives him a slight smile, "Alright, thanks. I'll see you in twenty minutes, Onii-chan."

Without another word she opens her menu and logs out, her avatar immediately closing it's eyes and slumping down to its knees like a puppet with its strings cut.

With a sigh, he resigns himself to a rather boring twenty minutes, and plops down. Within ten minutes he's shifted to a lounging position and pulled out one of the few items he'd bought out of curiosity. It kinda looked like a small red straw of bamboo, but it was supposedly a really spicy food, which is why it had grabbed his attention, so he tries taking a bite. He's not disappointed, but in his opinion it could be spicier. Still, it tastes good and he lets out an appreciative hum.

Yui looks up at him in curiosity, "Papa, can I try it?"

Smiling as he recalls the spicy sandwich incident in Aincrad, he breaks a small piece off and hands it to her. She tilts her head at it in curiosity, then takes a bite. Quickly chewing it, she smiles up at him, "It's yummy!"

He laughs at her, "Isn't it?"

For a bit they just stay there sharing the spicy treat, though it's not long before Yui decides she's full. Absently putting the treat in his mouth, he mulls over the idea of whether or not Pixies actually had some sort of food limit that told then they were 'full' programmed in, or if it was simply Yui's learning algorithms taking what she's observed from other people and altering it to take into account her size. She may be truly intelligent, but she still learnes like an AI, by observing and mimicking, and for all that she seems like just a little girl, as an advanced AI she certainly possessed the skill to calculate such a thing.

He tilts his head as a sudden thought occurs to him. Back in the hidden dungeon beneath the first floor, Yui had said that she'd been watching them for a while. He loves spicy foods and while not to the same extent as him, Marzanna likes them as well. Was it possible that even before she'd taken a bite of one of Asuna's spicy sandwiches that she'd learned the concept 'spicy is good' from watching them? Hmm…

He's pulled from his thoughts by Leafa suddenly speaking up from behind him, "I'm back. See any monsters?"

He turns to look at her over his shoulder still munching on the stick thingy, "Welcome back. Nah, it was totally quiet."

His sister gives him a baffled look before pointing at his treat, "What's that?"

He looks down his nose at it, "I bought a bunch at an item shop last night." Taking it out of his mouth, he holds it up as he looks at her, trying to suppress a mischievous grin, "An NPC said it's a Sylph specialty."

His sister narrows her eyes, "I've never heard of it."

He casually tosses it to her, and she catches it easily, staring at it for a moment with curiosity before taking a bite. Immediately she starts coughing and he laughs. She glares at him a bit, "Onii-chan! You know I can't stand spicy food!" He just continues to laugh though, so she pouts at him, "You're so mean, Onii-chan…"

He gets his laughter under control as he sits up, crossing his legs comfortably, "Well, it's my turn now. Keep me safe."

She sighs, "Yeah, yeah. Big meanie. Right after I left you sandwiches on the counter and everything."

He chuckles slightly, "Well, thanks for that then. See you soon."

Without another word, he logs out. The world rapidly turns white before he blinks his eyes open to the sight of his ceiling. He takes off his NerveGear and sets it on his desk, quickly hurrying downstairs to eat his sandwiches. Despite his sister's preference of not taking a shower late at night, Kazuto would rather take one after he's done diving. His body may not move while he's diving, but it would still sweat reflexively if he fought hard enough or anything of the sort. So other than a quick stop to go to the bathroom, he's back in his room and laying back down with the NerveGear on within five minutes.

He comes back to find his sister has moved to sit near him and is blushing bright red with her eyes clenched shut while waving her hands in front of her, "Nothing!"

He looks at her in confusion, "What's nothing?" She recoils in shock, and he can't help but give her a weird look, "I'm back. Did something happen?"

His sister doesn't respond, but Yui, who's now on his shoulder, smiles up at him, "Welcome back, Papa. I was just talking with Auntie Leafa. About what it means to-"

His sister starts freaking out at that though, waving her arms wildly and cutting her off in a panic, "It's nothing!" Then she at least tries for an air of calm, though her smile is strained and awkward, "T-That was fast."

He shrugs lightly, "I'd prefer to shower later, so it was really just a break to eat and go to the bathroom."

Leafa nods, still a bit strained, "I see… Well, let's get going! We can fly to the start of the tunnel, but after that, it's all on foot."

She stands up and pulls out her wings, her smile relaxing a bit. He tilts his head at her, still wondering what that had all been about, "Yeah… Let's go, then."

He climbs to his feet and pulls his own wings out as Yui flies back into his pocket, but then his brow furrows as he gets that feeling of being watched. He turns to look around, straining his Search skill, though it was likely all but useless in this world of magic.

His sister gives him a worried look, "Is something wrong?"

He glances at her before continuing to look around, "It felt like someone was watching us… Yui, are any players nearby?"

His daughter looks at him with utmost seriousness, "No, there's no one around us."

His sister frowns, "Felt like you were being watched? Isn't that a bit… silly, Onii-chan? There's nothing like a sixth sense in the game…"

Kirito tilts his head, "Perhaps not, but… It was something skilled players in Aincrad learned to do. It doesn't even have anything to do with actual skills, like Searching. Some people theorized that since the system will have to reference the data of a player when they're being looked at, that despite the fact you should be totally unaware of it some people have learned to instinctively recognize it.(1) I'm not sure if I believe that particular theory, but it's the one that made the most sense, and that… ability saved my life more than once in Aincrad."

His sister's eyes widen, "Really? I've never heard of players being able to do anything like that… Then again, I suppose no one in this world actually has their lives depending on it…"

He nods, but then he sighs, "However, Yui says no one's around, so it must've been just a false alarm or something…" A bit quieter he mumbles to himself as he continues to stare into the trees surrounding them, "Though that's never happened to me before."

His sister still hears it though, and frowns heavily as she begins scanning the skies, "It's possible someone put a tracer on us."

His gaze snaps back to her, "Tracer? I can guess from the name, but what exactly is that?"

Leafa nods, "It's a kind of magic. It takes the form of a small animal or insect, and tells the caster the target's position."

He frowns, "I don't suppose you could get rid of it?"

Leafa shrugs, "If you can find it you can, but you actually have to destroy the tracer to get rid of it. However, the higher the caster's magic skill, the farther it can be from the target. It'd be nearly impossible to find out here."

He sighs, "I see… Well, there's still always the chance it's simply my imagination… Let's just hurry and go."

Leafa and Yui look like they believe it to be just a false alarm as much as he does, and Leafa hesitantly adds, "Well, there's not much reason to put something like that on us. The only real reasons to use that spell are if you're trying to spy on another territory or if you're targeting a specific party to PK. The first isn't really applicable to us, and the only real reason someone would want to PK us is if they saw us in the field, which usually doesn't warrant a tracer… Well, anyhow, let's just go. If there is a tracer, it'll be much easier to spot in the tunnels, assuming it doesn't have a distance far enough to make it impossible for us to see in there… Even with night vision, whether natural or from a spell, you still can't see as far in a cave as you can outside… Though that's also true for tracers, so they're have to get closer."

He nods seriously, but after a moment, his sister shakes her head, clearly putting it out of her mind as she smiles at him before taking off, and he's quick to follow. It takes a solid ten minutes before they reach the entrance, but eventually they're in the cave. They'd barely made it that far in before his sister suddenly grabs his arm.

He turns to look at her in confusion, but weirdly, she's just looking in his vague direction. He frowns at her, "Is something wrong?"

She sighs, "Yeah, I can barely see you, and even that is just your vague shape. I realize you can see just fine, but that's because Spriggan have natural night vision. I told you that last night. Anyway, open your menu. There's a tab that looks like a staff, do you see it?"

It's easy to spot as the only immediately noticeable difference between SAO's menu and ALO's, "Yes. I'm assuming it's the magic tab?"

His sister nods, "Yes. Look through it and find the night vision spell, you need to get pronunciation and the like right, so there's a button, like a little speaker icon, to hear how it's said if you need it. Do me a favor and cast it on me."

Clicking into the tab, he navigates the magic submenu slowly, entirely unused to it. It takes him a few minutes to find the spell in question, and he listens carefully to its pronunciation before focusing on his sister, holding his hand in front of him as the page said to, he gives it a try, "Ōsu nāza nōto raisa auga."

He can't help but smile as his sister's eyes immediately focus and look around, a tiny bit proud to have gotten it on his first try. Partially because he was sure that Marzanna, who seemed to love languages, would take this part of ALO rather seriously, and would probably be a bit proud of him.

Leafa laughs lightly, "What do you know, you Spriggans really are useful for something."

Giving her a slightly amused look as he was rather sure he'd already proven himself useful in a fight, he plays along, "Put that way, it kind of hurts."

His sister laughs, "You should take time to memorize as much magic as you can. Of course, Spriggans are only really good at illusion magic, which is only really useful for tricking people and mobs. It's not that useful in combat though." She gives him a teasing grin, "Well, even the lame Spriggan magic might save our lives someday."

She turns away to continue walking with a slight giggle, as though she finds the idea preposterous, and he stares after her with a slight frown, "... That hurt even more." Then he hurries to catch up, "... That was for the spicy thing wasn't it?"

She laughs a bit more, then glances at him, "You really should learn some spells though. While Orcs do spawn in here, really the only thing to worry about and they aren't stealthy in the slightest, so you should take advantage of this part of the journey to try and memorize a few spells. I'm sure there's got to be at least one other useful spell in what's available to you."

He glances at her with a slightly raised eyebrow, "Wouldn't that get annoying for you? Having to hear me listening to spells? And should I really just be casting spells in here?"

She waves her hand dismissively, "No, just like I can't see your menu unless you make it viewable, I can't hear you listening to the spells. As for casting," She glances back quickly, and continues upon still seeing his menu open, "right next to the speaker icon there's a speech bubble, do you see it?" She waits until he nods to continue, "Technically speaking, you can't cast a spell unless you raise or extend your hand or hands as the spell dictates, so you can practice saying spells without having to worry about accidentally casting, but if you click that and then try saying the spell the system will tell you if you're saying it right. That said, you shouldn't just try to memorize how they sound. You should learn the words of power's meanings, then memorize the spells, based on their effects."

He sighs, "I never thought I'd have to do something like learn an entire language in a game... Marzanna would probably be excellent at it though."

Strangely, that makes his sister tense up for a moment before she seems to force herself to relax, "Just so you know, the higher ranked spells have around twenty words."

He slumps in a defeated manner, "I'm just gonna stick to fighting…"

Leafa turns back with a frown, "No complaining, just do it."

For the next hour, they continue on, occasionally fighting, but mostly just walking while Kirito tries to memorize some of the spells that catch his interest or get pointed out to him by Yui, while Leafa leads them through the twisting maze like tunnel with the map data she bought in Sylvein. After a while though, a small orange circle appears in front of her with a few quiet notification beeps. She turns back to it with a slight frown, "I have a message. Sorry, just hold on a second."

He nods lightly, "Sure."

She clicks it then sighs, "Recon again? I'm sure it's nothing, but…" Then she reads it aloud with a look of slight confusion, "'I was right. Be careful, S.' What's this? 'S'? Sa… Shi… Su?"

He frowns at his sister's confusion, "What's wrong?"

Leafa turns her head towards him, "Oh, well-"

Yui suddenly sticks her head out of his pocket with a serious expression, "Papa, something's getting closer."

His hands go to his swords, "Monsters?"

However, Yui shakes her head widely, "No, players. Lots of them. Twelve."

Leafa half turns to them in alarm, "Twelve?!" She suddenly frowns heavily as her brow furrows, "I've got a bad feeling about this. Let's hide and wait for them to pass."

He glances around, but there's nowhere that's really any good for hiding, "But where?"

His sister smiles lightly, "Just leave that to me." She pulls him over to an alcove, then pushes him inside behind her as she turns to face the entrance and lifts her hand above her, "Shikku shāru ōbisu gurōn roputo."

As she finishes her incantation, a wall of magic gathers and quickly forms a barrier between the rest of the cave and them. He nearly wants to smack himself. Magic, of course. Despite the fact he'd just been studying magic, his mind had immediately reverted to the way of thinking he'd leaned in Aincrad and discarded magic entirely, much less as a viable option.

He pokes lightly as the slightly off color barrier, which had disguised itself to look like part of the cave wall, though he was fairly confident in saying that it was likely only their side that was discolored. It ripples slightly, and his sister turns to him, whispering, "Make sure you whisper as quietly as you can. If you're too loud, it'll break the spell."

He turns to his sister and nods seriously, "I understand."

Yui, already soft spoken, is just barely audible when she whispers to them, "We'll be able to see them soon."

They all stare down the corridor, but then he spots a tiny red… something, bobbing around in the air, and leans forward a bit more to try and get a better look, "What is that?"

His sister gives him a confused look, "Huh? We can't see them yet."

He shakes his head minutely as he tries to get a better look at it, "It isn't a player…. A bat? It's small and red."

His sister gasps lightly and quickly turns to try and see for herself. For a few tense moments, she strains to see what he is, and gasps again, then quite suddenly leaps out of hiding, taking down the barrier in the process. He frowns at her in worry, "H-Hey, what's wrong?"

Leafa frowns severely, "That's a high level tracing searcher!" She extends both her hands in preparation of a spell, and the bat begins to turn to fly away, "We have to destroy it! Ekku sukīto tuttūgu sumāru sutorīda!"

With those words, twenty needles fire in rapid succession, a few of them managing to hit the tiny bat and destroy it. Without wasting a second, Leafa turns to him, "Run, Onii-chan!"

She doesn't hesitate to take off, but he does, calling after her, "Can't we just hide again?"

He catches up with her as she explains, "The enemy knows we blew up their tracer. We won't be able to fool them." She glances back at him with a heavy look, "And that was a fire element familiar. Which means that the approaching party…"

He frowns heavily, "Salamanders!"

She nods, "Yes. I guess this means you were right earlier. We were being watched." She turns and frowns back the direction they came from without slowing as they enter a huge cavern that was basically a huge lake with bridges and a small town suspended above it, "But what is a group of Salamanders doing here? Or more accurately, why are they hunting us so seriously?"

He gets distracted a bit as he stares at the beautiful lake, "Oh! It's an underground lake…" As they reach the halfway point of the bridge, he can't help but smile, "Looks like we're going to make it."

His sister smiles slightly at him, "Don't lower your guard and fall in."

Of course, that was the moment that two beams of magic shot ahead of them and raised a stone wall, he reaches for his swords and draws them, "We just had to jinx it!"

However, in the time he paused to say that, his sister seems to catch onto what he's planning to do and quickly stops him, "That won't work! That's an earth magic barrier, physical attacks won't do anything to it."

They come to a stop a few meters from the wall, "Can we jump into the lake?"

Leafa shakes her head, "Nope. Supposedly, there are extremely high level monsters in the water. Fighting without an Undine backing you up would be suicide."

He nods his understating, turning to face the enemies approaching the bridge and readies his weapons, "Then we have to fight?"

His sister looks at him seriously, "Yes, but it might not be too easy. If the Salamanders can use high level earth magic, they have a powerful mage."

His sister draws her blade, and he glances at her, "Leafa… It isn't that I don't trust your skills as a swordsman. I know better than anyone just how good you are. But could you handle support from here?" His sister gives him a startled look, so he explains a bit, "I want you to stay in the back and heal me. That way, I can fight harder."

His sister sighs lightly, but gives him a smile before jumping back closer to the wall. By now, three tanks equipped with the same armor as the three that had ganged up on Leafa, but with large tower shields, were nearly to the middle of the bridge. After taking a deep breath to center himself, he dashes at the group, the Salamanders immediately planting their shields and bracing themselves just in time for both his swords to slash at them horizontally at the same time. A shockwave tears through the air at the blow, shaking the bridge slightly and rippling across the lake. All three of the Salamanders recoil from the force, but manage to hold their positions even as their health drops by two thirds.

A second later though, the first line of three mages in the back finish their chanting, and the tank's healths fill back up. Then the second cluster of six mages in the very back finish their spells and Kirito gets slammed by no less than twelve fireballs as his sister shouts at him in panic. Falling to a knee, he tries to catch his breath after the highly uncomfortable feeling of being slammed into with such force, even if he can't feel pain. There's a brief pause as fire and smoke lingers on the bridge, then his sister quickly casts a spell and a warm feeling washes over him, dispelling the discomfort and returning his own health. He grins slightly before taking off again, the speed of it putting out the small fires and dispelling the smoke.

He attacks, this time in a manner then ends with a jump, in the slim hope it might be harder to hit him, again he depletes their health nearly to the red before they're healed and he's thrown back by fireballs, bouncing and skidding along the bridge. He climbs to his feet slowly as his sister finishes her spell, staring at the inferno before him as Yui quickly whispers to him.

Even though he can't feel pain, the force with which the fireballs slam into him and the heat from the blasts was highly unpleasant. That's likely why his sister calls out to him, "That's enough Onii-chan! It's just another few hours of flying from Sylvein, and whatever items are stolen can be bought back! Let's just give up."

He glances over his shoulder at her fiercely, "No way." His sister takes a step back in surprise, but he continues anyway, "While I'm alive, I won't let any party members die. I will never let that happen!"

His sister seems to be at a loss for words at that. It wasn't as though he was losing himself in the moment, as though he was forgetting this wasn't like Aincrad. He was fully aware this was different, it was just that after Aincrad, he just couldn't bear to let anything happen to party members, whether in a regular game or not. Turning back around be sheaths one of his swords as the fire begins to die down before disappearing all at once with a 'whoosh'.

As soon as he got a clear view of the enemies, he can't stop himself from roaring with rage, causing them to flinch in shock as he rushes forward. Grabbing the edge of one of the shields, he forcibly separates them enough to jam his second blade between them.

The action seems to surprise the tanks, as the one using the shield he's holding grunts out, "What the hell? What's he doing?"

Seeing the attack mages chanting, he quickly lets go and jumps back. After a few seconds in which he starts to seriously worry, Leafa begins to chant quickly and relief washes over him that Yui had managed to convince her to use her magic to block the next attack. Thousands of bright blue butterflies descend around him before disintegrating into a shield seconds before the enemy mages finish their casting.

He waits a moment as the spells slam into Leafa's shield before Yui calls out, "Papa, now!"

Immediately lifting the hand still holding a sword above his head, he begins one of the chants Yui had pointed out and told him to learn earlier, "Seā urāza nōto diputo, ren herubegūru."

As soon as the spell is cast, he feels himself begin to change, the whirlwind from it twisting the inferno around him into a tornado of fire. However, within a second something… sparks inside him, and the change itself shifts, twisting into something else.

As the fire dissipates, he roars a challenge to the Salamanders, the very sound creating a shockwave, and one of the tanks stumbles back in fear, "D-Dragon?!"

Without thinking about it, he shoots forward, slamming a claw onto the ground and skewering two of the tanks with his talons in the process before it occurs to him that he's not actually touching the ground, but hovering just a bit above it, and that he moved with a back and forth motion similar to a snake. It shouldn't have been so easy to simply lunge towards them to attack, and it should take a bit of thought and coordination to slash his other claw at the remaining tank, but it doesn't. It feels… natural. As easy as breathing.

The mages stare at him in shock and fear for a moment before the only mage with unique gear, who seems to be in charge, stutters out, "E-Explosion magic!"

The mages glance at him unsurely, then raise their staffs and start chanting in trembling voices. Kirito feels a thrill go through him, 'You want fire? I'll give you fire!'

Taking a deep breath, he exhales a torrent of flame onto the irritating healers. They briefly scream in terror before their avatars disappear into the tiny looking Remain Lights.

The chanting of the attack mages trails off as they freeze up in fear, and Kirito gives another furious roar, prompting the mage in charge to stutter out another order, "R-Retreat!

As they begin to back away in fear, he narrows his eyes in fury, then crosses the distance, twisting around them to close his long body into a loose circle, trapping them inside as he stares the terrified mages down. They'd hunted himself, his daughter, and his sister, stalked them until they'd cornered them, then attacked them with the intention of wiping them out. There was no way Kirito would let them get away.

He lunges his head down, snatching one up with his mouth and bites into him as he slashes at two more with his talons. The mage in charge tries to take advantage of this 'distraction' to climb over his tail, but Kirito simply flicks it and sends the screaming man into the lake as he crushes another mage into the ground with a claw.

He lowers his head, staring the last mage down, then slowly opens his jaws as fire curls up from his mouth. Just as he's about to ignite the final mage, his sister calls out to him, "Wait! Onii-chan, let him live!"

He narrows his eyes briefly, then closes his mouth and straightens up. The mage stumbles back and falls on his butt, and he shifts his gaze to his sister. Seeing her approaching, he shifts his tail out of the way, then leans over the ledge of the bridge in curiosity. Unsurprisingly, it's neither his, nor his avatar's face that looks back at him, but the large head of an eastern style dragon, which was primarily black with a red underside.

Yui giggles slightly, "That was awesome, wasn't it?"

His gaze shifts back in time to see his sister draw her sword and point it at the mage with an angry expression, and he quickly releases the spell as she snaps out, "Now, why don't you tell us who sent you here?"

The Salamander flinches away, but bravely forces out, "K-Kill me if you want, but I won't say anything!"

His sister's scowl deepens, "Why you…"

He rolls his shoulders as he approaches them, cutting across his sister who despite having been playing for over a year, still doesn't seem to have grasped what makes most MMO players cooperative, "Oh, that was fun…" Walking over, he couches in front of the mage and gives him a friendly smile, partially to ease the man and partially because he's legitimately in a better mood now that he's blown off some steam, "Hey, nice fight." The mage gives him a slightly confused incredulous look, but Kirito just grins at him, "That was a good plan. If I'd been alone, I wouldn't have lasted a minute."

His sister looks just as confused as the last remaining mage, "W-Wait, Onii-chan!"

He smiles at her and raises his hand to stop her, "Give me a second." He winks at her, then leans forward to casually rest his arm on the guy's shoulder as he makes the drop menu from the fight visible to him with a conspiratorial grin, "So, I have an offer for you. These are the items and Yuld I won in the last battle. If you answer my questions in a satisfactory manner, you can have them!"

The man glances around, likely double checking that the other Salamanders Remain Lights had disappeared, then leans towards him slightly, "Seriously?"

He lowers his voice to whisper in a conspiratorial manner, "Totally."

He and the mage share a grin, and his sister gives them an exasperated look before turning away, "Men."

Yui sighs, "He's pretty blunt about it. Mama's definitely been rubbing off on him."

The mage nods, so he stands up and taps his sister on the shoulder Yui isn't sitting on. Once they're all paying attention to him, the mage begins, "It was earlier this evening when G-Takusu-san… The leader of the mage squad that you threw into the lake that is, messaged me on my phone to meet up. When I arrived, he said twelve of us were going to go hunting for two people. I thought it was overkill, but… He said you were the ones who took out Kagemune-san, so it made sense."

He tilts his head at the familiar name, "Kagemune?"

He'd been the leader of the Salamanders that had ganged up on Leafa, the one that sorta owed him a favor for letting him go. The mage seems to take the questioning tone as confusion to Kagemune's identity and explains, "Yes. He's the leader of the lancer squad. He's famous for hunting Sylphs. But yesterday, he got wiped out in battle, and ran back. That was you, wasn't it?"

He shares a look with his sister, who immediately turns her gaze back to the mage, "But why did this G-Takusu guy come after us?"

The mage shrugs, "It sounded like it was someone higher up that ordered it. Something about you interfering with the plan."

He doubts the man knows any more than that. One of the reasons he'd attempted persuading him with the items and money was because he doesn't seem to be of high ranking amongst the Salamanders, but he tries asking anyway, "Plan? What plan?"

Unsurprisingly, the player shrugs, "They wouldn't tell someone at the bottom of the totem pole like me. But it seems like they're planning something big… When I logged in today, I saw a huge number of fighters heading north."

His sister brings her loosely curled forefinger up to her chin in thought, "They must be… going for the World Tree."

However, the player shakes his head, "No way. We figured the whole army would need at least ancient weapon class equipment, so we've been saving money for that." His sister turns thoughtful again, and after a beat of silence, the man continues, "That's all I know." Then he turns his gaze from Leafa to Kirito, "You weren't lying about what you said earlier, were you?"

He grins slightly, "Nope. I'm a man of my word, and I'd never lie about a trade." Opening his menu, he opens a trade with the Salamander and quickly deposits the items and Yuld before accepting the trade as is, "Thank you for the information!"

The man smiles widely as he sees the stuff, "Ehhe! Thanks! A deal's a deal, so… I'll just be going."

He nods and extends a hand to help the man up, then moves out of the way and lets him go. He and his sister watch the man leave for a moment before his sister speaks up, "Hey, that monster I just saw… That was you, wasn't it?"

He nods, "Yup!" Then he grins and pats her shoulder as he passes her on the way to the town, which was now open with the wall retreating back into the ground, presumably at the death of the mage who cast it, "Hey, what do you know? My lame Spriggan magic just saved our lives!"

There's a pause, then he hears her hurry to catch up. She takes a quick breath to say something, pauses, then lets it out, and repeats the process a few times before giving up, clearly unsure what to say to that. He glances back and chuckles. Yui giggles as she drifts from Leafa's shoulder to his own, and he smiles warmly down at her.

Leafa sighs, then shifts back to the previous subject, "So… That was just you rampaging?"

He shrugs, "Not really. Sometimes I just kind of snap in battle, lose control, and start forgetting things. That's when I really rampage. This wasn't anything like that. I mostly remember this time."

His sister's footsteps falter, and she mumbles to herself, "Ah… Scary."

He ignores her, and continues with what he'd been saying, "At least, I think remember everything this time. I used the spell Yui suggested, and then I was huge… My swords were gone, so I just used my talons."

Yui pipes up from his shoulder, "You were chomping on them too."

He nods as he remembers that part, he hadn't really been thinking about what he was doing at the time, having trapped his prey, he had just been acting almost without thought, "Come to think of it, yeah … I got to feel like a mob. It was lots of fun!"

Leafa hesitantly asks in a morbidly curious tone, "Did they taste like anything?"

Feeling like messing with his sister a bit after her jab about Spriggan magic earlier, he stops in his tracks and bluntly says, "A texture like yakiniku just before it's burnt."

His sister seems to quickly change her mind, "Actually, never mind. Don't say anymore."

Turning with a small grin, he grabs her hand, opens his mouth, and chomps down on her hand. His sister promptly overreacts, letting out a scream, and without thinking about it, slaps him.

He pulls away from her, shocked by the slap, and Leafa slowly turns red as she realizes what she'd done, then hurries past him in embarrassment only to pause and look around in wonder when they finally get to enter the town, "So this is Legrue?"

He rubs at his face, and Yui pipes up again, "That one was your fault."

His sister nods in agreement, "Seriously!"

He huffs as he stares at his sister wearily, "It was a joke. To lighten up the tense mood."

His sister glares at him over her shoulder, "Next time you do that, I slice you in half."

He sighs, "What an overreaction. You've really got no sense of humor, do you Leafa?"

Leafa places her hands on her hips in annoyance, "I do too!"

Yui giggles slightly, "It's ok Papa. Not everyone appreciates your… particular brand of humor like Mama and me."

Leafa sighs, then looks away, only to perk up at the sight of a weapons stall. Moving over to it, she picks up a blade and starts to examine it before something occurs to him, "Oh that's right…" His sister turns to him in question, and he tilts his head at her, "Didn't you get a message before those Salamanders attacked us?"

That seems to startle his sister, "Yeah… I forgot." Setting the weapon down, she opens her menu, navigating it quickly before she frowns, "What's with Recon? Did he fall asleep? His cursor says he's offline... but he never gets off this early, and after sending me such a weird message too..."

He tilts his head again, "Do you want to log out and try to reach him?"

Leafa thinks it over for only a few seconds before nodding, "Yeah, ok. I'll log out really quickly and check with him. Just wait a moment please." Then she turns her gaze to Yui with a slight smile, "Take care of my body, Yui-chan. Make sure Onii-chan doesn't do anything weird like trying to chomp on me again."

Yui straightens into a salute from where she's hovering above his shoulder, "Roger!"

He sighs, "Seriously…"

One step forward by proving Spriggan magic can be useful, two back into being the canon fodder for jokes by trying to lighten the mood. His sister moves over to a bench, then gives them a brief smile before logging out.

He sighs as her avatar slumps down, and Yui giggles lightly, "Papa isn't very good at waiting."

He smiles lightly at her, "No, I'm really not." He stretches his arms above his head, still trying to work out the charged, electric feeling that was left behind by the transformation spell, "It's one thing if I'm just lounging around, I have total control over that, but generally when you have to wait for something or someone, there's nothing you can do to speed it up. There's nothing you can do but wait."

Spotting a food stand only a few feet away, he looks down at Yui as he points at it, "Hey, I'm gonna go grab something really quick. I'll be keeping an eye on things over here, but shout if anything happens."

Yui nods with a smile, "Ok! You gotta share it with me though!"

He smiles at her, "Well of course I will!"

Going over to the stand, he goes over the small selection quickly, then chooses some sort of meat kebabs. Hurrying back over to his sister and daughter, he sits down on the bench and pulls one of the chucks of meat off, then hands it to Yui.

She smiles as she clutches the piece of meat that's at least half her size, "Smells yummy!" Kirito nods in agreement, then takes a huge bite. After her first bite, Yui gets a thoughtful look, "It tastes… Hmm, not bad. It's pretty good actually, but it's… weird, I suppose."

He swallows his bite, "Tastes like frog legs. I had them once in the real world. Good, isn't it?" Yui nods and he grins at her, "See! I told Hanna-" His mood and expression both drop as he tightens his grip on the stick, "... I told her those toad legs would've tasted good…"

Yui turns a bit sad as well for a moment, then smiles up at him, "We'll save Mama soon. Then we can show her these! Right, Papa?"

He smiles gently at her, "Right."

There's a few moments of silence, then he shakes his head and shifts his attention back to his food. Just as he's about to take a bite though, Leafa suddenly shoots up from the bench looking conflicted. He turns to her with a worried expression, "Su- Leafa? What's wrong?"

She bites her lip, "... I just spoke to Recon. Sakuya, the Sylph leader is supposed to be meeting with the leader of the Cait Sith to discuss the last few things and sign an alliance agreement. However, Sigurd, the leader of my former party that we had that… disagreement with back before we left Sylvein, turned traitor and sold out the meeting to the Salamanders. The Salamanders are attacking in force. Sakuya is my friend, so normally I'd go and try to help, but with all this stuff about Marzanna-san and Asuna-san…"

He tosses the rest of his kebab as he climbs to his feet and Yui quickly drops the remainder of her food to dive into his pocket, then he grabs his sister's hand as he passes and breaks into a run, "This matters to you, right?"

His sister's voice is confused, but she follows without hesitation, "Y-Yes. As I said, Sakuya is my friend, but-"

He shoots her a smile over his shoulder, "But nothing. If she's your friend, then you should go and help her. We will go and help." By now they've reached the bridge on the opposite side of town from the one they used to enter, and he turns back to face forward to watch where he's going while he thinks, "That said, mind if I ask some questions?"

His sister is now running next to him, so he sees her shake her head out of his peripheral, "No, go ahead."

He doesn't hesitate to start in, "How do the Salamanders benefit from attacking the Sylphs and the Cait Sith?"

His sister sighs, "First, they can stop the alliance. If an information leak on the Sylph side kills their leader, the Cait Sith would pull out of the alliance. It's even possible there could be war between the Cait Sith and the Sylphs. That alone would be more than enough reason for the Salamanders to attack, but that's not even mentioning the fact that if you kill a territory's Lord, you get thirty percent of the territory's money, and you can invade its capital for ten days and levy whatever tax you want. In other words, you can nearly bleed a territory dry if you do it right."

He glances at her with wide eyes, "You can do that?"

His sister nods, then hesitates again, "So, Onii-chan, this is a Sylph problem. You have absolutely no reason to get involved. If we go to the meeting, we probably won't survive. We'll have to start at Sylvein again." Then she bites her lip and slows to a stop, "Actually, Onii-chan… If your goal is to reach the top of the World Tree… You'd probably be better off working with the Salamanders…"

He turns to her in confusion, but she won't meet his gaze, and there's a weirdly pained look in her eyes that she's rather obviously trying to hide, "If they pull this off, they'll be perfectly positioned to make an attempt at the World Tree. Since you're a Spriggan, and you've already proven your skill by taking out both those Lancers and that group just now, they'd likely hire you as a mercenary if you make it clear that your only goal is the birdcage from the photo… It-... It might just be in your best interest to kill me now and go help them. Given the reason for your goal, I… I wouldn't complain if you did. You'd just be doing what's best for your goal."

Apparently unable to take even looking at him in her peripheral, she lowers her head and closes her eyes. He can't help but stare at her, more than a bit saddened by the fact his sister honestly believes he could kill her, even in a game, "... In the end, it's just a game, so do what you want. If you want to kill someone, kill them. If you want to steal, you steal."

His sister clutches her hands at that, seeming to prepare herself, but he simply continues, "I've met more people who think that way than I like. In a way, it's true. I used to think the same way as well." He turns to walk back towards her and his sister flinches at the sound of his boots coming closer, but she makes no move to even try to defend herself. His sorrow increases slightly, but he pushes on to what he's trying to say, "But it's not right… If there's one thing I learned from Aincrad, it's that there are things you have to protect because it's a virtual world, no matter how stupid you look. If you give in to your impulses in this world, the price is that your personality in the real world reflects those changes."

It was something he'd seen with his own eyes in every player from Aincrad. It was true that they were under vastly more extreme circumstances, but he felt it was true even without the threat of death. The most extreme case he'd seen was Rosalia. He'd visited her in prison shortly after he was released from the hospital. After she'd been forced to see the truth, to realize that she really had killed those people, she'd confessed to everything and pled guilty of her crimes in court. When he'd seen her, she'd become a shell of her former self, devoured by guilt for what she'd done. Even he himself had changed, infuriated with his atrophied body that was unable to run, to fight, the irritation that his fighting was no longer up to par, even though there was no longer a reason to.

He sighs as he tries to explain that to his sister, "The player and the character are one and the same. You're my sister, whether you're Sugu or Leafa. I'd never hurt you, and even if you weren't my sister, I'd never attack someone like that just for my own benefit."

His sister finally opens her eyes and lifts her head, "Onii-chan…" He smiles warmly, and her eyes tear up as she clutches her hands in front of her chest, "Thank you."

He blushes slightly and glances away as he rubs the back of his head sheepishly, "Sorry, that came off sounding sort of arrogant, didn't it? It's a bad habit."

His sister shakes her head with a small smile, "No, it made me happy to hear that from Onii-chan…"

He smiles lightly, then suddenly remembers the reason they were having this conversation in the first place, "Crap! We're wasting time, aren't we? Yui, we're going to run. Lead the way."

His daughter pops her head out of his pocket with a wide smile, "Roger!"

He reaches out for one of her hands, "Let me borrow your hand…" He grabs her wrist firmly, but not to the point that it would be uncomfortable and turns back around, "Let's go!"

Without hesitation he turns back around and takes off as fast as he can, his sister screaming in shock as she's yanked off her feet. With how fast he's going, she ends up being parallel to the ground and doesn't once drag across it.

He follows Yui with total trust as she leads them through the twisting and turning cave system. It's not long before he sees orcs spawning, and his sister nervously stammers out, "U-Uh, m-monsters!"

His sister screams again when she realizes he isn't slowing down, but he weaves his way through them, carefully avoiding their heavy clubs despite the speed, then glances back as his sister, smiling lightly when he sees her eyes clenched shut. The mobs attempt to give chase, but he's simply too fast. Technically speaking, aggroing a bunch of mobs like this is considered very bad manners, considering any unwary party in their path would likely be annihilated, but given the circumstances he doesn't care much.

Thankfully, he sees the rapidly growing white light indicating the end of the tunnel without them running across any other parties, "There's the exit!"

Without slowing in the slightest, he launches them out away from the cliff the exit is apparently on as soon as they're clear of the cave. His sister stares with wide eyes and a gaping mouth at the view below them, and he quickly opens his wings to go straight into a glide and preserve their momentum. His sister on the other hand, flails uselessly for a moment, dragging him down slightly before she finally gathers enough of her wits to pull out her wings. She immediately catches an updraft that nearly yanks her hand out of his, but he holds on tight until her flight stabilizes.

She lets out a sigh of relief and glances behind them. Following suit, he sees more than a few orcs falling off of the cliff behind them, then turns his smile back to his sister. As though she can feel his gaze, she turns back to him only a split second later with an annoyed expression, "That took years off my life!"

He laughs lightly, "It saved time though."

She purses her lips, "Honestly…" Then she seems to notice something and her eyes widen with slight awe. Turning, his own mouth drops open as he sees the absolutely massive, and admittedly beautiful, World Tree already looming over them despite the distance. It already seemed huge from the Sylph territory, but the closer they get, the more they truly begin to understand its size. It's so huge in fact, that it seems like it was a massive pillar supporting the sky, rather than reaching for something forever out of reach. Seeing it now, he really can't imagine what it would be like to stand at its base. It was probably an intimidating sight.

For a moment they just stare in shock, then he clears his throat and turns to his sister, "So, where exactly will the talks be taking place?"

His sister finally shakes her shock off, "Let me see..." She opens her menu, navigating it quickly. Looking it over for a moment, she points forward, but a bit off to the left, "To the northeast, near that mountain."

He nods seriously, "How much time do we have left?"

His sister is tense with worry, "Twenty minutes."

He clutches his jaw, the mountain seeming way too far off to make it in time, but this matters to his sister, so he absolutely refuses to give up until he has to, "Then we'll have to push it if we want to make it."

Without another word, he accelerates to his top speed, his sister quickly following suit, actually able to keep up with his slower air speed.

After a tense fifteen minutes, he breaks the silence, "I don't know if we'll make it there before the Salamanders."

His sister nods sharply, "I know. Even if we can warn them, we'll either barely get the Lords out, or all die together in battle."

He frowns heavily, but a moment later Yui tensely speaks up, "Player signals! A group of sixty-eight players is ahead. That's probably the Salamander attack force." He shares a look with his sister as they slow down. Passing above a low cloud, glimmers of red below catch his attention, and his eyes widen slightly as he realizes it's the Salamanders. Yui suddenly points ahead to a small plateau, "Fourteen more players are up ahead. Most likely the Sylph and Cait Sith diplomats. Fifty seconds until they make contact."

His sister's expression turns to sorrowful acceptance, "We didn't make it in time. Thanks, Onii-chan, but this is far enough. You go to the World Tree. I'm going to try and save Sakuya." Then she smiles at him happily, "It wasn't for long, but it was fun playing with you."

Thinking quickly, he rapidly murmurs to her, "Running away isn't really my style." Then he smiles tensely, "Besides, I've got a plan. It's not a good one, but it's crazy enough that it just might work anyway, so when we get there, stick close to the Lords and protect them. I'll handle the Salamanders. I know you're bad at acting, but try not to react to anything I say, act like you already knew, ok?"

Leafa glances at him in confusion, "Wha- Onii-chan, what are you-"

He shakes his head and pushes her towards the meeting, "There's no time! Go to the Lords!"

Without another word, she picks up speed, hurrying to do as he'd instructed. He takes a deep breath and centers himself, pulling on a poker face he hasn't used since the day the term Beater was invented. Having gathered himself, he takes off at top speed, briefly overtaking his sister before slamming into the ground, feet first this time thankfully, with enough force to create a loud 'BOOM' and kick up a cloud of dust. Taking one last deep breath, he gathers up an aura of command and confidence, lifting his gaze towards where the force of Salamanders had formed up to attack. The dust begins to settle and he stares down the gathered Salamanders in an unimpressed manner. It was time for the show.

(1): I didn't actually come up with this. The idea of being able to 'feel' their data being referenced is given by Kirito in the light novels. It's not the first time I've used ideas from the novels that were cut from the anime, but it's off the wall enough I felt like I should throw that out there.