January 7th, 2024

I knew this was a bad idea! What was I thinking, trying something like this, even with a full party—please, someone, anyone, help!

There would be no help coming, though. Lux was sure of that now. Pale green hair streaming behind her as she ran through the dungeon's dark stone hallways, she knew her only chance of survival was to run. Find someplace where she could stop moving long enough to get at her inventory, get out the Teleport Crystal she should've had ready from the start, and escape.

The rest of the party was already out, or dead; she wasn't sure which, after all the traps that had separated them one by one. Either was, she hadn't seen any of them in at least fifteen minutes—though she thought she'd heard a scream, once. Briefly.

Instinct prompted her to duck just as she rounded a corner, narrowly avoiding a whirling blade that swung out from the wall and nearly took her head off. If I get out of this, Lux promised herself, panting from fear and imagined exhaustion, I'm never joining a PUG again! And never, ever coming to someplace like this again!

It had seemed so simple. A dungeon on the Thirty-Second Floor, nearly twenty floors below the frontline, rumored to have really rare gear for that level of Aincrad. Lux wasn't exactly clearer-level, but even with the traps the dungeon was said to have, she and the pick-up group she'd ended up with had thought it a reasonable risk.

They hadn't counted on trapdoors and false walls. Between those and some unexpected elite-level mobs, they'd been scattered within twenty minutes; now Lux was all by herself, lost, and trying desperately to get just enough breathing room to make her getaway.

Taking a sharp left down a corridor she was pretty sure led in the general direction of the dungeon's entrance, Lux skidded to a halt just before she could run headlong into a Lizard Knight. Letting out a squeak of frightened surprise, she lashed out with her sword in a reflexive Horizontal; at the same time, the reptile's scimitar came down at her in a flashing Vertical.

Their blades met each other halfway, rebounding with a ringing crash and knocking player and mob alike off-balance—and the moment Lux's left foot came down again, her vision was filled with a blue flash.

For a second, she thought the Lizard Knight had somehow hit her with another Sword Skill. When she stumbled to the floor instead of hitting a wall, though, she realized the truth: she'd just found another of the dungeon's traps, and been teleported somewhere else within its maze.

On the one hand, she thought as she took stock of her new surroundings, this was about as bad as it could get: she'd traded a hallway with a single Lizard Knight for a big, boxy room with only one door—filled with at least half a dozen Porcine Brigands, all of them armed with swords as big as she was.

On the other—

They're all at the far end, Lux realized, virtual heart hammering in her chest. If I'm quick—! With trembling fingers, she brought up her menu, went to her inventory with only two false-starts, and materialized her precious Teleport Crystal. Gripping it tightly, painfully aware that the armed pigs had noticed her and were heading her way, she lifted the crystal high.

"Teleport: Zeronia!"

It took Lux a few moments to realize absolutely nothing was happening. When she did, her blood turned ice-cold, and the crystal slipped from nerveless fingers. An Anti-Crystal Area, she thought numbly. This is… another trap…

She'd heard about Anti-Crystal traps. There'd been a rumor floating around months before about an entire guild being wiped out by one. She'd hoped it was only a story. Now she was in one, and the only other way out was past monsters even the full party she'd come with might not have been able to defeat.

And the Porcine Brigands were coming closer.

Numbed by fear, Lux pushed herself to her feet, one-handed sword clutched in one trembling hand. Her only chance now was to make a break for it, try and get past without fighting them. Gathering herself, she pushed off in a dead run, yelling incoherently.

There was a gap, just a small one, between two of the pigs. If she could just slip through—

She almost made it. Then, just as she made it to the gap, she felt a terrific blow to her gut, and suddenly she was flying backward, sword tumbling away.

Lux landed hard, gasping from the impact. An icon blinking on her HUD told her she was in a Tumble status, but she hardly noticed; her head was spinning from the blow, flight, and landing. And her sword was gone.

Shaking, she managed to roll onto her back—and immediately wished she hadn't. Her sword was nowhere in sight, but the Brigands were. Right on top of her, now; at least three of them were already close enough to attack, and the light from their blades as they prepared to strike almost blinded her.

No! Lux tore her gaze away, eyes squeezing closed in terror. "No… no…! Somebody, anybody… help me!"

Running footsteps. The sound of blades zipping through the air in Sword Skills. Squeals of porcine anguish. Flashes bright enough to be seen through her eyelids, and the shattered-glass sound of virtual bodies breaking into polygons.

Silence.

For a minute, Lux didn't even realize none of those sounds had heralded her own death. Then, slowly, she realized her own HP was still well in the blue, and her vision was only the black of closed eyelids, not death. I'm… alive? Someone… someone saved me…?

Hesitantly, she opened her eyes—and realized she was anything but saved.

An eclectic group of players stood where the Porcine Brigands had been. A tall young man with a thin blade, most of his face covered by a skull-like mask; another with a knife dripping with poison, entire head hidden by a brown bag with eyeholes. Toward the rear, a wild-haired youth with a katana and an expression of twisted glee. Almost hidden in his shadow, a young girl in blue, bearing a rapier and a blank look.

All of them—save the girl, whose sign made no sense at all—bearing orange cursors.

Orange players, Lux realized, relief chased away by cold terror once again. Criminals… no, please, no!

"Well, what do, we have, here?" The boy in the skull mask tilted his head, examining her with bright red eyes. "Another one, from those idiots, we saw, before?"

"Who cares?" Cackling, the one with the bag mask and the poisoned knife stepped closer; frantically, Lux scrabbled back, only to find herself trapped by bare stone. "All I see here… is a bonus. One more chance for fun, right?"

Watching that knife come closer, Lux shook her head rapidly, whimpering. "No," she whispered. "No, please, you can't…!"

"Sure I can. Ain't that right, girlie?" he called over his shoulder. "Like we told ya—this is what the game is really all about!"

If the impossible girl made any reply, Lux didn't hear it. She was too focused on the knife, and the realization that she wasn't going to die to monsters. No, she was going to be murdered by people—people who killed and laughed like it was all just a game.

Cackling louder, the masked man swung the knife down.

"No…!"

"Wait, Johnny."

A centimeter from Lux's throat, the knife stopped. "What for, Boss?" he said plaintively. "C'mon, this is the best part! And you know we don't get a chance to kill girls much; in Aincrad, she's practically rare loot by herself!"

Lux shuddered.

"Oh, sure, I get that." The faintly-accented voice sounded amused; and when the owner of it stepped into view, the grin visible beneath the hood of his poncho bore it out. "But y'know, Johnny, I had another idea. One that'll make for a lot more fun than just killing her."

"What's, that, Boss?" the skull-masked one asked, red eyes flicking toward the group's apparent leader.

"Wait and see, XaXa. Wait and see." Idly flipping a knife in one hand, the man in the poncho crouched beside Lux. "Name's PoH, girl. And I've got a choice for you. Aw, don't worry, I'm not gonna hurt you," he added, seeing her flinch. "No, that wouldn't be any fun at all. And shut up, Johnny, just listen for a second."

"Ch-choice…?" Lux got out, shaking even more than before PoH's "reassurance".

"Yep. See, I'm starting up a little guild here. You can see from our cursors what we're up to, of course—which leaves us with a little problem." PoH raised his free hand, palm-up. "There's only so much we can do without being able to go into town, and people run from us on sight in the field. So… here's the deal. Option one, we leave you here, stuck in the middle of this dungeon, and you take your chances tryin' to get out on your own."

She swallowed. Only sheer luck had kept her alive this long, and that had been before she'd been teleported to a completely different area. There'd been no chance to check her map, but she'd have bet she was nowhere near anything she'd explored before.

Being left here, now, was as much a death sentence as letting "Johnny" kill her himself.

PoH could clearly see her reaction. "Yep, that's what I thought," he said, like it was one big joke. "Option two: you join up with us. Don't look at me like that, we won't ask you to hurt anybody—we need your cursor to stay green, after all. You won't have to hurt a fly. Just give us info, help us with supplies… that kind of thing. And… send some messages for us."

Oh, no.

Lux knew what that meant. Maybe these player-killers wouldn't ask her to actually attack anyone, but there was no question what the actions she did take for them would do. If they wanted help, it was for one thing.

"Hey, hey, hey, nice one, Boss!" Johnny cackled again, tossing his knife from hand to hand. "Bait, huh? Oh, yeah, I like it! That's way better than what I had in mind!"

"The game lasts longer that way, doesn't it?" PoH agreed. Turning his attention back to Lux, he smiled; she found herself wishing he'd glared, instead. "So, whaddya say, girl? Stay here and die, help us and live? Which is it gonna be?"

Lux shuddered violently. She knew what "bait" meant. She knew what they meant for her to do—but she was so scared. She'd always been scared, since Kayaba Akihiko betrayed them all, but this was worse than anything she'd ever felt, in all the months she'd been trapped in Aincrad.

Sooner or later, someone would find out, and she'd die for it then. But that would be then, and this was now. As horrible as what they were asking of her was…

"…Okay," Lux got out, hating herself with every fear-driven word. "Okay, I'll… I'll do it…"

PoH's smile turned to a broad grin. "I knew you'd see it our way." Tucking away his knife, he grabbed her hand, hauling her roughly to her feet. "Welcome to Laughing Coffin, girl. Listen up, everybody—it's showtime!"

January 10th, 2024

The mood in the meeting hall co-opted for the pre-boss meeting was grim. Situated in the town of Algade, it was a nice enough place—but that made it an exception on the Fiftieth Floor. The town looked to be a good place for a player hub; it had become clear quickly, though, that that would only be the case for the over-leveled.

Ten days the clearers had worked to conquer the Fiftieth Floor, and it had so far proven to be just as hard as had been feared. Even the basic mobs in the field were more difficult those of the previous by a greater margin than a single floor would normally imply. The field boss had been a major headache, and the labyrinth more so.

Sitting at the large table taken for the meeting, Kirito wasn't surprised to see some of the usual boss raid crowd missing. Everyone had suspected, after the nightmare of the Twenty-Fifth Floor, that the Floor Boss this time was going to be bad; clearly, some of them didn't have the courage to see it first-hand.

If anything, I'm surprised Asuna managed to scrape up enough people to replace them, he thought, catching sight of some unfamiliar faces. I wonder—who's worse here? The people too afraid to challenge the boss, or the ones crazy enough to do it knowing what it's likely to be?

He felt a hand squeeze his under the table. "Don't despair yet, my friend," Kizmel murmured in his ear. "This is not the same as The Adamantine Arachnid."

True. We don't have Kibaou going off half-cocked this time. Taking a deep breath, Kirito returned his partner's gesture. It was one that might've still felt awkward to him just a couple of weeks before, but things had been different ever since Christmas. He still wasn't sure how, or where it would lead, but right now he was just grateful for the support.

For once, the two of them had been among the first to arrive. With clearing on this floor so difficult, they'd been right in the thick of it, working more closely with the other clearers than usual; this time, they were left waiting for the leaders of the Knights of Blood and Divine Dragons Alliance to round out the meeting.

And… where are they, anyway? I'd have expected to at least see Lind already; he's usually here early to try and upstage Asuna.

They didn't have much longer to wait. The hall's doors opened one more time, letting in three more players: Lind, Asuna, and Heathcliff, all of them quiet and sober. Not exactly an unusual attitude from the KoB's official commander, but coming from the other two it was enough to make Kirito more than a little uneasy.

The three took their places with their respective guilds; unlike the others, though, Asuna remained standing in her place at Heathcliff's side. "I'm sorry for the delay," she said, taking the lead in the meeting as had become common. "Unfortunately, the scouts took longer than we expected to return."

"Something tells me that ain't a good sign, Vice-Commander," Agil commented from the "unaffiliated" section of the table. Folding his arms, he fixed the Knight with a grim look. "Give it to us straight. How bad is it?"

"Not good," she said frankly. "Worse, we're not actually sure how bad it is. Guildmaster Lind?"

Seeing Asuna willingly cede the floor to her own would-be rival, Kirito's unease deepened. She and Lind hate each other's guts. Just what is going on here?

Clearing his throat, Lind pushed himself to his feet. "As Vice-Commander Asuna says, the situation doesn't look good," the blue-haired swordsman said frankly. "The scouting team was led by my own guild—Shivata, more specifically—and they only barely escaped with their lives."

Kirito exchanged a look with Kizmel. Boss scouting was never exactly safe, but since their only job was to try and work out attack patterns, it wasn't usually the riskiest job in Aincrad, either. When things did get hairy, they were generally smart enough to run and let a full raid worry about the rest.

"Here's what they brought back," Lind continued."The boss is called 'Vemacitrin: The Six-Armed Automaton', and it resembles a mechanical Asura: three faces, six arms. The first pair of arms has no weapons; the second, a pair of axes. The third… well, Shivata's team saw scabbards, but never actually saw them drawn. The scouting mission didn't last that long."

"What happened?" Kizmel asked, leaning forward; under the table, her grip on Kirito's hand tightened.

The DDA leader grimaced, but unlike prior encounters it didn't seem to be anything to do with having to "put up with" an NPC participating in the meeting. "Well, the fight went smoothly enough at first. Vemacitrin's attacks in the first stage are unarmed skills with its lowermost arms; nothing we haven't seen before. Once its first HP bar had been taken out, though… Its head spun around to show a different face, and its middle arms pulled out the axes. That was a style none of the scouts had seen before. Neither have I," he admitted frankly.

Two-weapon style… no, I can't think of any mob or boss that's used that before. Kirito shot a very quick, discreet glance at his partner, and saw in her eyes that she was thinking the same thing. I have some idea of how to fight that, but it's not going to be pretty.

"Dual axes, huh." A KoB member Kirito didn't recognize, an older fellow with wild hair and a beard, stroked his chin. "Yeah, that doesn't sound good. Were the lower arms still using unarmed skills, too?"

"Not that Shivata or his team noticed," Lind replied, shaking his head. "The problem was the unfamiliar style from the middle arms—and the fact that Vemacitrin got a large speed and attack buff when it hit that second stage. Nothing that couldn't be handled by a full raid, we think, but it was enough to force the scouts to retreat."

"Fast and powerful. Super." Agil rubbed his forehead, frowning. "What about adds? Does this thing have help?"

"Not as far as the scouts managed to last, fortunately." Lind raised his hands, shrugging. "But we don't know what will happen when the second lifebar is depleted. We can assume it'll draw swords with its upper arms, but beyond that…"

"So we're going in blind. That's not good." A blonde-haired girl Kirito vaguely remembered from previous boss raids stared down at the table. "But… I guess we kinda expected that, right? This one is the halfway point, after all."

Yeah. It had taken over a year, and the better part of three thousand lives, but once Vemacitrin was defeated the clearing of Aincrad would officially be half done. That was an important milestone by any measure, and Kirito would've been surprised if Kayaba hadn't prepared something "special" for it.

I just hope he doesn't change the plot on us halfway, like so many RPGs do, he thought. I don't think we could handle the rules being changed now.

"We've all known for months now that this was probably going to be a rough battle," Asuna said now, retaking the floor from Lind. "Which is why we all have to work together, more than ever. Guildmaster Lind and I have agreed, especially in light of the number of clearers unwilling to participate in this fight, to assign parties without regard for guild affiliation. I trust that's acceptable to everyone?"

"Doesn't look like we've got much choice," Hafner said, from the DDA end of the table. He didn't look happy about it, but then Kirito couldn't remember him ever looking happy about a boss raid—especially not an irregular one. "I just hope some of the no-shows come back after this… What about the solos, though? You guys gonna be okay without having your pick?"

The blonde shrugged carelessly; a redhead to her left gave a shaky smile and thumbs-up. Kirito, though not exactly happy himself—not that he ever was, when he had to worry about anyone besides his partner—affected an indifferent air. "If we couldn't handle that, we wouldn't be here, Hafner. Not like we ever end up with the same party twice, anyway."

"Good." Asuna planted a flattened palm on the table, sweeping a serious gaze over the assembly. "In the interests of being rested for the fight, we'll set out for the boss the day after tomorrow. Let's assign parties and work out a basic strategy now; I suggest everyone get to know each other while you can. We need to be as coordinated as possible, especially if the final stages of the battle are as bad we expect."

How, exactly, Kirito found himself at a table for six in an Algade cafe an hour after the boss meeting, he wasn't quite sure. Actually, he couldn't remember the last time he'd been in a casual gathering that size outside of people he knew well, like the former Black Cats or Fuurinkazan; usually, he and his partner both kept to themselves, out of habit as much as anything else.

Asuna, he decided, as an NPC waitress delivered drinks all around. She was pushing me around ages before she ever took charge of clearing. I guess she hasn't lost her touch.

At least he didn't seem to be the only one who seemed out of their depth. Out of the party he and Kizmel had been assigned to, only the DDA's Hafner and the Knight of Blood Asuna had tossed their way seemed completely at ease; Kizmel looked it, sipping with apparent calm at her hot chocolate, but he knew her well enough to sense her own awkwardness beneath the surface.

"Um, I guess we should introduce ourselves?" the blonde girl from the meeting began, when the silence began to stretch on. Like Kizmel, she wore a cape, but hers was shorter, and topped possibly the first set of armor Kirito had seen in Aincrad that conformed to typical MMO eye candy conventions. "I know some of us have fought in boss raids before, but I know I don't really know all of you…"

"Good idea, young lady." Clearing his throat, the party's KoB rep set aside his coffee and stood. "The name's Godfree. As you can see, I'm with the Knights of Blood; I'm an axeman by trade. This will be my first Floor Boss, but I've been clearing labyrinths for a good twenty floors now. Don't worry, kids, I've got your backs."

Well, that explains why I don't know him. If he'd been involved in clearing labyrinths, though, that suggested he at least had the makings of a boss clearer. Under the circumstances, Kirito hoped that would be good enough. He sounds confident enough.

"Hafner, DDA," the two-handed swordsman Kirito had always thought of as a soccer player said simply. "I've been around the block a few times; this won't be the first crazy boss I've fought—right, Blackie?"

Kirito grimaced, remembering the Fifth Floor Boss and the twelve-player raid he'd found himself leading against it. Victory had been theirs, without a single casualty, but it hadn't been an easy one. "Well, at least this one doesn't use the boss room itself as part of its attack patterns, right?"

"Don't jinx us, Blackie, we still don't know what that last phase is like."

The blonde girl glanced between them, obviously confused. "Eh…? Well, never mind that for now." Coughing into her hand, she came to her feet. "I'm Philia. I use a one-handed sword, and I'm a treasure hunter by trade—so I've been clearing since the Thirty-Fifth Floor. After all, the best loot is on the frontline, right?"

Godfree frowned, but Kirito found himself grinning. "You got that right, Philia," he agreed. "Though you'd be surprised what shows up on lower floors, sometimes—there's a few places you don't want to try until you're way above the normal recommended level for a given floor, and I could swear there's quests sometimes that weren't there before."

"Really? I should look into that sometime, thanks!" Philia grinned back. "Of course, that'll probably mean paying the Rat's prices, but…"

Hafner tapped a gauntleted fist on the table. "You can talk about treasure some other time. Let's focus, guys." He jerked his head toward Kirito. "Your turn, Blackie. Doesn't look like these guys know you yet."

Kirito's good humor vanished instantly. "Ah, right." It was his turn to clear his throat nervously as he stood. "Well… I'm Kirito. My partner and I are usually off on our own during clearing, but we've been through quite a few boss raids together. I'll try not to hold anyone back."

He nervously scratched the back of his head in the silence that followed. Hafner knew him and the story behind his actions on early floors, but the newer clearers didn't; Kirito wasn't sure how much of the old stories of "Beaters" were still floating around. Or how many still remembered the exact origin of the epithet.

The Black Cats had, of course. That had been a good six months before, though—to the day, Kirito remembered with a sudden start—and in the death game, that could be a long time.

To his relief, Godfree and the new girls only nodded, apparently oblivious. That left Kirito free to sit back down with a suppressed sigh, letting his partner take the spotlight.

Taking one last sip of her chocolate, the elf girl put it aside and pushed herself to her feet. "My name is Kizmel," she said, inclining her head respectfully. "Late of the Pagoda Knights of the Dark Elf Kingdom of Lyusula, now of the Swordmasters. As Kirito said, we're mostly independent, but I have seen my share of battle with the Pillar Guardians. I believe you humans would say, I'll be in your care?"

Hafner and Philia took the introduction in stride; the DDA swordsman had known her for a long time himself, and if the self-proclaimed treasure hunter hadn't, she'd obviously seen Kizmel from afar often enough in recent months. The other new girl, though, looked at her with wide eyes, only now seeming to notice the pointed ears.

Godfree's reaction was another frown, mouth a flat line. "I'd heard the rumors," he said slowly, "but I honestly thought that's all they were… Are we really going to be going into a boss raid with an NPC? No offense, Kirito, but I don't know that that's a good idea."

Kirito's hand clenched under the table. Before he could say anything in his partner's defense, though, she reached over to gently squeeze his shoulder. "While I'm still not entirely clear on what an 'NPC' is," Kizmel began calmly, "I have certainly come to understand Swordmasters use the term to refer to those they regard as having… lesser ability than themselves. Or intelligence."

He tensed. No one had ever really tried to explain the term in her hearing, as far as he knew; it was honestly one of the concepts he was most worried about discussing with her. Obviously, the elf had figured some of it out anyway. Her definition was pretty close to the mark, even if she couldn't know the full truth—and that definition was more than a little insulting without knowing that truth.

"Truthfully, I'm finding that more understandable of late," Kizmel continued, surprising him. "I don't fully understand, but I certainly have seen that the term may have merit with many in the Steel Castle. That said, Sir Godfree, I would appreciate it if you would give me the benefit of the doubt. I may just surprise you."

Tension flowed out of Kirito's shoulders in a wave of pure relief—replaced with amusement at the way Godfree sat back in his chair, nonplussed. "You should listen to her, Godfree," he said, deliberately cool and casual. "My friend here—" he gave the word quiet emphasis "—used to drive Lind nuts."

"Got that right." Hafner snorted, throwing back his drink. "Though something changed a couple weeks back, in that little mess on Christmas Eve. Not that the boss will tell us what… Anyway. Get used to it, Godfree. I know it doesn't make any sense, but Kizmel pulls her weight as well as any player."

"I… see." Godfree favored Kizmel with another frown, but now it was more speculative than skeptical. "Well, I suppose we'll find out for sure day after tomorrow. For now, I think there's still one of us to be introduced."

Attention went to the last member of the impromptu party, who blushed as red as her hair—an unnatural shade Kirito assumed was from a hair dye potion. Besides Godfree, she was the only member of the party Kirito had never seen on the frontline before at all. Unlike the Knight, she looked as nervous as he'd have expected out of a newbie clearer.

Which might mean she's smarter than he is. If he's heard about the Twenty-Fifth Floor and isn't shaking in his boots, Godfree is nuts.

Smiling nervously, the redhead stood. "Um. Well, I'm Rain," she began, scratching the back of her head much as Kirito had earlier. "I'm a solo, and I joined the clearing group on the Forty-Ninth Floor. This will be my first actual boss—but I've done my research!" she added hastily. "I've read up on all the other Floor Bosses and most of the Field Bosses, and I've even asked around about the more famous clearers. I won't let you down!"

Kirito had the distinct feeling Rain's gaze was directly on him with that last; him and Kizmel, anyway. On the one hand, eep; depending on who she asked, her view of him could be colored by either horror stories or Argo's brand of blackmail material.

On the other hand, it suggested she was really serious about clearing, and not just some glory-hunting amateur primed to get killed.

Or, he pointed out to himself, I could be imagining things. With the boss we've got coming, I'm bound to be nervous about everything—I don't even want to think about what it must be like for someone fighting their first boss, knowing about The Adamantine Arachnid precedent. If I'm jumpy, Rain must be scared out of her wits.

"Welcome to the clearers, then, Lady Rain," Kizmel said, reaching a hand across with the table. "We'll do our best to aid you, as well."

"'Course we will!" When Rain hesitantly accepted the handshake, Philia slapped a palm down on the clasped hands. "Not many girls in SAO, and fewer still in the clearers. Heck, I think it's just us three, Liten, and Asuna-san. We gotta hang together, right?"

This time, it was Hafner Kirito found himself exchanging a bemused look with. Don't ask me, Hafner's expression seemed to say.

Sitting back, Kizmel leaned over to murmur in his ear, "It is, as Argo might say, 'a girl thing', Kirito. Though after all this time, I should think you'd have enough experience to begin to understand. Indeed, it's not often I see you spending time with men at all…"

Suppressing a groan, Kirito sank back in his chair. And that's something else I don't get, he groused to himself, lifting his cup of oolong tea to cover his expression. There's gotta be a three-to-one male-female gender ratio in the game overall, but two-thirds of my friends list are girls. I'm not specced for this!

Maybe Asuna was right, and he did have an Attract Implausible Events skill. That might explain why half his current party was female, too.

To his relief, after the introductions were finished attention was turned to having dinner, and the conversation shifted to lighter subjects. Hafner was grumpier than usual, but not too much; Kirito suspected it was as much reaction to the recent attitude of the rest of his guild as anything else. Godfree, surprisingly, didn't seem to take offense, despite the ever-growing rivalry between their guilds—though Kirito did get the impression the KoB man thought of himself as the only "adult" of the group.

Rain mostly sat quietly and listened, though she visibly relaxed over the course of the meal. Pre-boss jitters, he suspected, which was certainly reasonable enough. He was more than a little nervous; so it was a relief when he found himself drawn into a discussion with Philia about drop rates of materials needed to upgrade her sword.

"It's an unusual one," the treasure hunter said between bites of takoyaki. "You've seen those ridges on the back, right? Use the right skill in the right place, and you break mobs' swords with it. Really throws 'em off. Thing is, this kind of sword doesn't drop very often, and the mats to upgrade or forge them can be really hard to find."

Kirito nodded, munching on a grilled rib. "I know what you mean. Kizmel kept her old armor as long as she could, but finding mats for the last couple of upgrades took us to some crazy places. Then there was the sword I got from Amon, the boss back on the Thirty-Seventh. Good stats, but like your Swordbreaker, it had some weird requirements. This place on the Forty-Third—"

"I believe we agreed never to speak of that again, Kirito," Kizmel interrupted, a piece of fried eel halfway to her mouth. "We wouldn't want the wrong ears to hear that." She gestured at her face with her free hand, tracing lines on one cheek.

Ulp. Right. If there was one incident neither of them ever wanted to end up in Argo's files, that was it. For a number of reasons. Even Kizmel's boldness had its limits.

Seeing Philia's curious expression—one shared by the others at the table, he noticed belatedly—Kirito hastily cleared his throat. "Anyway, yeah. Exotic mats can be a real pain." Eager to change the subject, he added, "Though you don't actually need a special sword to break a weapon, if you know what you're doing."

"Whack anything long enough, it breaks," Hafner agreed around a rice ball. "Usually you're better off going for a regular kill, but some things are tough enough it's worth the effort."

"Actually," Kizmel said, setting aside her fork, "it is quite possible to snap a sword long before it wears out. With a properly-placed strike."

Godfree's bushy eyebrows went up. "Some kind of NPC trick? I heard you've got some kind of special skill set—"

"I've never seen an NPC do it, at least not on purpose," Kirito said, visions of the Reliquary crossing his mind's eye. "We found out about it from a player." He looked back to Philia. "Lucky me, he had a knife, not a Swordbreaker. It took him a lot longer than it would you."

He didn't mention that he'd experimented with it himself since. Or the discoveries he'd made about just how vulnerable some weapon types really were. His reputation in some circles was bad enough as it was, without revealing he knew quite so many PKer tricks.

I haven't had a choice, though. Sometimes, you have to know bad things to figure out how defend yourself against them.

The implications of what circumstances had led to him experiencing it in the first place weren't lost on anyone, though. Hafner in particular had a dark look on his face, probably remembering the fate of his guildmate Naga. Kizmel went back to her eel in silence, remembering, he was sure, what else they'd learned in that encounter.

Oddly, it was Rain who broke the uneasy silence. "Well," she said, with a good effort at a smile, "maybe that'll come in handy against the next boss, if we're lucky. I mean, sure, it's supposed to be fast, but it can only be in one place at a time; with eight full parties..." The redhead brightened. "Oh, yeah! Who's supposed to be our party leader for the battle?"

Hafner snorted, folding his hands behind his head. "Oh, I dunno… maybe the crazy guy who's been through more boss fights than just about anybody? I seem to remember a reckless nut who took on one boss with just twelve people…"

Four pairs of eyes—two of them clueless, one of them amused, one...something he wasn't sure about—turned to Kirito.

Groaning, he buried his head in his hands. "Honestly," he muttered. "It was one time. Can't I live anything down?"

"No." Hafner and Kizmel spoke together, though the latter offered him a sympathetic smile. "I'm afraid, my friend, that this is what comes of having a reputation. Although if, perhaps, you wore something other than black once in a while, you wouldn't always be recognized…"

"What, like putting on KoB white?" Hafner snorted again. "Don't even go there, Kizmel. You'd lose half the clearers to strokes, and Blackie would explode. And if that Kansai bastard Kibaou got wind of it, we'd lose the rest of his guild, too."

That drew a laugh even from Godfree, but Kirito was suddenly in no mood for humor. The rest of his guild… just like the others went down against the first quarter-mark boss…

There were still ribs on his plate, but his appetite, for once, abandoned him.

January 12th, 2024

Tension was thick among the raid group, as they approached the enormous doors at the heart of the labyrinth's highest floor. Of course, Kizmel couldn't remember a time when Swordmasters had been truly calm on the cusp of joining battle with a Pillar Guardian, but this was worse than any time she could remember.

Not that she was free of tension herself. She had only joined the clearers after the Twenty-Sixth Floor had been conquered, but Kirito had described the battle to her in frightening detail. It was only natural to be anxious about a repeat.

For once, when they paused before those doors, it wasn't Asuna who stood before the raid. For the first time in Kizmel's memory, the usually hands-off Heathcliff took center stage, resting his heavy shield on the stone floor. "I don't need to tell any of you how difficult this battle is likely to be," he began, voice soft but pitched to reach the entire group. "We all fear what happened twenty-five floors ago will happen again—and going by what we've seen here so far, that fear has justification.

"Just remember this: we are not walking in without proper intelligence, as the ALS did. If we're careful, we'll win this battle. And when we do—" Heathcliff's cool gray eyes swept over the group, as calm as ever. "When we do, we'll be halfway to winning our freedom."

There was, Kizmel thought, a subtle easing in many of her comrades' shoulders at the reminder. She wished she could've shared it; indeed, she was ashamed that it was her own selfishness that kept her from sharing that small measure of relief.

Curiously, Kirito seemed as untouched by the reassurance as she was. She wondered if it was his own sense of responsibility for the lives of those around him—or if, deep down, he shared the same sentiment she felt.

Now is not the time for that, she reminded herself. Later, when we celebrate our victory.

"The Commander is right," Asuna said, stepping to her leader's side. "Don't take chances, and we'll pull through." She turned to the doors, together with Heathcliff. "Let's go!"

The first thing Kizmel noticed about the chamber of the fiftieth Pillar Guardian was that its ceiling was considerably lower than usual; perhaps half the average height for such rooms. The second was the number of statues lining the walls, each depicting an overweight human in a lotus position. A burning crimson glow in their stone eyes provided a surprising fraction of the room's illumination.

Beyond that, at the far end of the room, she saw a figure sitting on a throne, one leg propped on the other. Its six arms were folded, and the calm metal face that looked upon the intruders was one of three. Everything about it was utterly relaxed, even casual; and if Kizmel was any judge, it was barely taller than Agil.

She couldn't remember being more frightened of one of Aincrad's monstrous guardians.

When the last Swordmaster had entered the chamber, [Vemacitrin: The Six-Armed Automaton] stood from its throne, unfolded its lowest pair of arms, and strode forward.

"Follow the plan," Asuna called out, drawing her rapier. "Trade off, so no one draws too much aggro. Team A, forward!"

A mixed party of KoB and DDA players rushed forward to meet Vemacitrin, which was itself picking up speed. Just before the two clashed, Godfree turned a grin on their own party. "Well, at least we're not first, eh?"

"I dunno," Rain replied nervously, spinning her sword in her hand. "I'm not sure I like more time to think just now—there they go!"

First blood was from a DDA katana-wielder—Orochi, Kizmel thought, the one whom Klein had dueled on Christmas Eve. His blade came out in a Zekkuu aimed at Vemacitrin's middle-right shoulder; he hit, with a screech of metal-on-metal and a spray of sparks, but the Asura responded with a heavy punch to Orochi's stomach.

Orochi stumbled back, gasping; one of his fellows filled the gap, only to be struck by Vemacitrin's other fist before he could bring his two-handed sword to bear. He reeled, off-balance, while the Guardian unexpectedly went for a third player with a leg sweep that knocked him from his feet.

Then it was Vemacitrin's turn to be driven back, with the rest of Orochi's party striking from three angles simultaneously. A rapier's Linear took it under the lower-left arm, a spear's Straight Thrust grated against its neck, and a leaping mace's Hammerblow rocked Vemacitrin's head back.

"Team B, draw aggro!" Asuna snapped, gesturing quickly with her rapier. "C, get ready to move in!"

Team B was pure tank, led by Shivata and Liten of the Divine Dragons. They rushed in to interpose their shields while Orochi and his companions collected each other to pull back and recover. Not a moment too soon, at that; the Swordmaster who'd been knocked down had only barely been pulled away when Vemacitrin unleashed a flurry of punches. The pattern was broad enough to take two shields to block, and came hard enough to buckle the knees behind them.

Six-strike technique, Kizmel thought with a wince. She'd seen a couple of longer skills, but not many; for Vemacitrin to have used such so early was not a good sign.

Even so, she didn't hesitate when the time came. Her group started moving as soon as Vemacitrin's Gem Bombardment finished, and by the time the tanks had endured a Meteor Palm—at the expense of one of them being sent rolling at high speed toward a wall—Kirito was in range, and she was right behind him.

"Switch!" Kirito called out. Slipping through the gap the tanks opened between their shields, he led in with a Vertical Arc. More cautious than Orochi, after carving the V-shaped slash into Vemacitrin's forearms he spun on one foot, narrowly avoiding the Asura's counterattack. That gave Kizmel the chance to hit the over-extended arm with a Reaver; a weak opening blow, but fast, and its momentum carried her right past.

Godfree was next, spinning his axe above his head—only to have his Whirlwind repelled by Vemacitrin's Raging Upper. The clashing skills forced both to stagger back; Hafner took advantage to slam a Cyclone into the Asura's ribs.

In an impressive display of coordination, Philia and Rain took that last opening to hit Vemacitrin from either side, the blonde's Sharp Nail drawing an inverted triangle in red along its left flank, the redhead performing an admirable Snake Bite on the same arm Kizmel had hit.

Kizmel had only an instant to feel satisfaction at her group's contribution to the battle, and to plan her next move. Then Vemacitrin stuck both lower arms straight out to its sides, kicked off with one foot, and used its rapidly-spinning fists to smash everyone within reach.

That will teach me to be overconfident, she thought, watching the room whirl on every axis. When her head made contact with one of the wall statues, she could only be grateful she no longer felt pain.

Rain's friends had told her joining the clearing group was insane. One of them had stormed off in tears on learning of her decision, knowing—like everyone else who paid any attention to the clearing progress—what the very next boss fight was likely to be like.

She'd done it anyway, though. After months of grinding, hunting down rare mats for decent weapons, and buying up every scrap of information she could about previous bosses and the top-level clearers, she'd finally gone up and volunteered to fill one of the holes left by those unwilling to face the new boss. It was, to her, the right thing to do—the only thing to do.

Rain still thought she'd made the right decision. She was beginning to think, though, that her timing was bad.

But if I do live through this, she thought, ducking under a Fierce Punch and laying out a Horizontal Arc in return, I'll have proven I can handle it up here. There won't be anything like this for another twenty-five floors, right?

So far, Vemacitrin had been just as the scouting report said. The mechanical Asura was hitting like a truck—the front rank of tanks had already been forced to pull back to heal, leaving Team E to take over—but no one had quite hit the red yet. Though there had been a couple of close calls. Orlando of the Legend Braves had been unlucky enough to take most of a Gem Bombardment full-on, before Nezha's chakram had managed to interrupt the attack.

"Switch!" Rain called out, pulling back from her own attack. She was only just ahead of a Raging Upper—she wasn't actually sure she would've evaded it, had her own party leader not landed a Sonic Leap to cancel it.

"Team C, pull back!" the raid leader called over the din of clashing Sword Skills. "Team D will engage!"

Gratefully, Rain skipped back with the rest of her party, letting Asuna the Flash and her party take the lead. The KoB leader Heathcliff was first in, his tower shield crashing into Vemacitrin's fists to stall them for a few precious seconds; Asuna slipped instantly into the opening. Her attack was a Linear, the simplest attack available to a fencer, but delivered with such speed that Rain didn't even see it, just the brilliant flash of light.

She did see how Vemacitrin recoiled, though, allowing the DDA's Lind to follow up with leaping overhead of a Helmsplitter. He did eat a Raging Upper for his pains, knocking him across the room and his HP deep into the yellow.

The opening that gave wasn't wasted; Quetzalcoatl rammed a spear into Vemacitrin's guts in return, while Agil and Wolfgang circled around behind. Axe and greatsword slammed into the Asura's back together, biting off another chunk of its first lifebar.

Beside Rain, Kirito winced. "They shouldn't have surrounded it," he muttered. "It's going to—ouch."

Vemacitrin reacted just as he'd begun to predict, with the same Whirling Fist it had used earlier. Lind was still out of range, Heathcliff merely stood his ground behind his huge shield, and Asuna nimbly leapt back out of range; Quetzalcoatl and the merchants weren't so lucky.

Kizmel flinched as Agil sailed by, roaring a curse at the Asura. "We almost have it down to its second lifebar, however," she pointed out. "Nearly a quarter of the battle already."

It was Rain's turn to wince; an expression she shared with Philia. Behind them, Hafner heaved a sigh. "Let me tell you about another human idea, Kizmel: please don't tempt fate like that!"

"She's right, though," Godfree said, shaking his head. "So far, this is just like the scouts said. A little more, and—there we go!"

Asuna had just landed a Quadruple Pain, and was caught in the post-motion delay when Vemacitrin's first HP bar caught up with the damage she'd just done. The last bit of red emptied out of it—and a fraction of blue drained from the second.

In that moment, Vemacitrin's head spun, its calm face replaced with one glaring angrily. Its lower arms folded again, and the middle pair whipped out a pair of one-handed axes in a double-strike that caught Asuna across the chest, just before she could recover enough to move.

Rain was pretty sure it was the tanks of Team E that were supposed to move in when the second phase of the battle began. Instead, the very instant the raid leader was struck, Kirito and Kizmel blurred into motion, the latter calling Asuna's name, the former yelling a wordless war cry.

"Dammit, Blackie!" Hafner snapped. "Don't be reckless—! Oh, who am I kidding, anyway?" Grumbling to himself, he took off after them, already swinging his heavy sword back to charge up a skill.

Suddenly gripped by fear, Rain almost didn't follow. When Philia barely hesitated, though, and even Godfree started moving quickly, she did her best to push back that anxiety, gripped her well-crafted sword tight, and forced herself to join the charge.

They weren't the first to face the Asura's second phase, though. Even as they rushed to attack, Vemacitrin was already on the move, rushing ahead faster than before to meet the still-recovering Team B. Its axes flashed in a blur, before the tanks could get their shields into position.

Rain couldn't see exactly what happened next. Too many other players were moving around, and she didn't recognize the skill the boss was using. She could hear the yells, though, and caught flashes of light from Sword Skills and—she thought—Vemacitrin's axes bouncing off a shield.

If any of its strikes were being blocked, though, it wasn't by enough. The next sound she heard, next flash she saw, were proof of that.

A crash like shattering glass, a bright blue light, and azure shards scattering through the air, as the last echoes of a scream filled the boss chamber. Beowulf of the Legend Braves, a guild infamous in the early days of the death game, had paid the final price for his crime.

The shattering of Beowulf's body was like a punch to Asuna's stomach, smashing through the detachment she'd gradually built up as a raid leader over the past year. Since the Twenty-Fifth Floor's disaster, fatalities on the frontline had been few and far between, with none at all in over ten floors now.

Worse, this one was personal for her. After everything she and Kirito had gone through to first shut down the Legend Braves' upgrade scam, then save their lives from the consequences…

"Beowulf…! Damn you!"

The cries of anguish from Nezha and the other survivors of the guild snapped Asuna out of her shock before it could take her too far into that darkness. "Team E, hurry it up!" she shouted, in a voice she hardly recognized. "Team C, don't be reckless!"

Like they're going to listen right now, a corner of her mind thought, watching Kirito and Kizmel fling themselves into the fray again, blades glowing bright. They always have to be the heroes…

Someone had to hold off Vemacitrin long enough for the reserve tanks to get in position, though, and there was no one Asuna would've trusted more to keep up with the boss' new pattern. In the meantime, she couldn't just sit back and watch, even as Sword Skills started clashing in a brilliant lightshow at the center of the room.

"Team F, help B get healed up!" she ordered, gesturing with her rapier for emphasis. "G, H, as soon as E's drawn off aggro, get in there!"

Players scrambled around in what would've looked to Asuna like pure chaos just a year or so before, even as in the center of it all Kirito and Kizmel forced Vemacitrin's axes off to the sides with bright crimson flashes. The two other men of the party hacked away at the Asura's middle arms, while the girls stabbed it in the back; closer to Asuna, some players ran one way, more another, while she stood back and barked orders.

It looked like chaos, but Asuna knew it wasn't. Beowulf was dead, yet the raid was far from breaking; even the Legend Braves, she was sure, would collect themselves enough to rejoin the fight when the time came.

She didn't know if they would ever join another, but they would see this through. For now, that was the important thing.

Team E's shields were in place by the time her old partner's party had to pull back to recover, to Asuna's relief. They had to brace against Vemacitrin's buffed speed and power, once they got its attention, but somehow they held. Two of them were driven clear to the floor in moments by Vemacitrin's windmilling axes—but they held, until first Team G got around to unleashing a barrage of Sword Skills from behind, and then H when Vemacitrin whirled on G.

Two members of H were flung across the room, and one of G was sent reeling away with his sword arm lopped off. Even still, they held. Vemacitrin's second lifebar was whittled down, bit by bit, carved down to half only fifteen minutes after Beowulf died.

By the time Asuna's Team D drove in again personally—Heathcliff splitting off to make up for Beowulf's loss from Team B—the boss was down to only a quarter of that second lifebar. Almost twice as long as the scouts had managed to last, and only one death. They were holding strong.

Though as Asuna drove a Linear in toward Vemacitrin's gut, she wasn't sure she would. Hers was an AGI build minoring in STR; her armor wasn't exactly the greatest. It took Agil and Wolfgang holding off its axes, and her own speed, to get her into that range without her HP being carved up.

Still. She was the Flash, and if she didn't have Kirito's ridiculous reflexes, she was even faster than he was when she actually got moving. Her simple Linear rocked Vemacitrin back on its heels—giving Lind the chance to carve up its back with a Treble Scythe—and she was already leaping back again by the time it could recover. Ducking beneath its attempt to take off her head with a scissor-like pair of converging slashes, she darted right back in to sting its right foot with an Oblique.

Ten percent of its second lifebar left. They were holding.

Another ten minutes, with each team rotating in and out, some having to heal more than others. Team D was back in the fray once again when the last fraction of the second lifebar was chipped away; Asuna had just pulled back from a Triangular, hissing wordlessly as a retaliatory double-chop took off twenty percent of her own HP, and almost her right arm with it. Wolfgang was bringing an Avalanche right down on Vemacitrin's head—

At the moment the third lifebar was reached, Vemacitrin's head spun on its neck once again, its axes fell abruptly to the floor, and its upper arms whipped out in a blindingly-fast blur.

Wolfgang didn't even have a chance to scream as his right arm spun away, taking his sword with it. In the same moment, his head went sailing off in another direction, it and the rest of his body shattering with shocking suddenness before they ever reached the ground.

The rest of Team D leapt, stumbled, and rolled back, far too late. Vemacitrin held a gleaming katana in either hand, already recovered from the twin-Iai strike, and its third and final face bestowed a frozen, bloodthirsty grin on them all.

The frozen tableau might've been an instant; it might just as well have been an eternity. It was broken by a harsh, metallic laugh bursting from Vemacitrin's throat, as it leapt for the healing players at the edge of the boss room.

Most of the time, Kirito hardly thought about Kayaba Akihiko himself anymore; he was too busy surviving the world of Sword Art Online to spare much concern for the unseen mastermind behind all the death. Someday he had every intention of hunting down the mad programmer himself, but in the meantime he had to just survive.

Watching Wolfgang, one of the Twelve-Man Raid on the Fifth Floor, follow Beowulf into death left Kirito mentally cursing Kayaba's name with every expletive he knew.

Worse, he had a horrifying dread that the merchant wouldn't be the last death in this battle. Better than probably any other player in the game, he knew what kind of threat Vemacitrin's new style represented.

Because he knew that, despite his surging fear, Kirito threw himself into a leap, yelling at the top of his lungs, to block Vemacitrin's rush toward those still on healing rotation. His Sonic Leap crashed into Vemacitrin's back, staggering it just slightly; as he'd counted on, Kizmel dashed in after him, using that opening to carve a Reaver into the Asura herself.

By rights, that should've gained them enough aggro to at least distract the boss from players who hadn't even been attacking for several minutes. Vemacitrin's AI apparently wasn't so kind, though, and after that short stumble it only let out another metallic laugh and kept right on going. Twin katana flashing, it bore down on an unlucky lancer, a solo Kirito knew only vaguely from previous boss fights.

Kirito launched himself forward again, this time thrusting a Vorpal Strike right at Vemacitrin's spine with a wordless scream. This time, though, an attack with double the reach of his own blade wasn't quite enough. His sword fell short by precious centimeters, doing nothing to stall the Asura's advance.

The lancer screamed, terrified, scrambling back. Vemacitrin cackled, and its swords whirled like fans; once, twice, three times each, spraying red particles into the air with every blow.

The sound of shattering glass filled the boss room again, silencing the lancer's screams. Still cackling, the Asura whirled to pursue an axeman who'd turned tail and fled; instead of running, Vemacitrin took off in a low, long leap that brought it down within a couple of meters of the unlucky player.

This time, neither Kirito nor Kizmel was even in a position to try and do anything. He was almost to the point of trying to throw his sword, if only to distract the boss, knowing it wouldn't do any good—

With twin screams of their own, Philia and Rain crashed into Vemacitrin from the side. The blonde's Swordbreaker snapped back and forth through the Asura's left arm; the redhead drove a brutal Vorpal Strike through its mid-left shoulder and deep into its guts.

That, finally, was enough to distract Vemacitrin from its weaker prey. Stunned briefly by the blade buried in its ribs, as soon as the immobility wore off it turned quickly on one foot, almost throwing Rain from her feet. Desperately, she ripped her sword free and scrambled back, while Philia triggered a Horizontal Arc to try and block.

Vemacitrin's twin blades rushed down in a "V", knocking Philia's sword out of the way and almost taking her arm with it, clearing the way to a frantically-guarding Rain—just as another yell filled the air. Hafner dropped a Cascade square on the top of the Asura's head, and with a grunted "Ho!" Godfree buried the head of his axe in its back.

Then Kirito and Kizmel were in range again, and the next few moments with a confused flurry of steel-on-steel that even the Black Swordsman couldn't consciously keep up with. Here he caught one of Vemacitrin's katana with part of a Vertical Arc; there, Kizmel battered the other blade aside and ripped into the boss with a Treble Scythe. Hafner took a vicious stab to the stomach with one katana, while the other bit into Godfree's shoulder and nearly took off both his arm and his head.

Kirito was vaguely conscious of his HP, and his teammates', going down, but in those frantic moments all that mattered was cutting down more of Vemacitrin's HP. As long as we keep hurting it, nothing else matters! We just have to kill this thing! "Die, dammit!"

The only response he got was another of those grating, metal-on-metal-scream laughs, followed immediately by a sudden spinning attack Kirito actually recognized as a variation of a skill from another two-weapon style—only stronger. Strong enough to throw all six of Vemacitrin's attackers into the air and away in all directions.

Time seemed to slow to a crawl in Kirito's perception. Sailing away toward a wall—not for the first time in that fight—he could see Vemacitrin look over its victims, as if gauging which of them to try and finish. Quickly, and not surprisingly, its manic gaze settled on Godfree, still trailing red from the blow that had nearly killed him before.

Vemacitrin set itself, cackled. Sheathed both katana, blatantly telegraphing its next attack. Took a single step toward the helpless Knight,. Began to draw again, a motion so fast only Kirito's adrenaline-sped perceptions could even recognize it.

Tumbled from its feet, as the surviving Legend Braves body-checked it as one. Piling on with incoherent screams of rage, Orlando, Enkidu, Gilgamesh, and Cuchulainn drove their swords into the Asura with frenzied force, while Nezha rolled free to gain the distance for his chakram to add to the punishment.

Kirito wasn't heartened. Between the damage he incurred from landing and fear for his comrades, recognizing what was going to happen next only dropped his spirits lower. "Get back!" he choked out, hand scrabbling to pull a healing potion from his belt pouch. "It's going to—!"

Vemacitrin surged upright, hurling the Braves off with sheer muscle power. Its swords came out again a moment later, one of them slicing off Enkidu's hands at the wrists with casual ease, the other intercepting Nezha's chakram. The blade arced off into a corner of the boss room, while Vemacitrin turned to slam a kick into Enkidu's chest, knocking him flat on his back.

Kirito's hand tightened around the now-empty potion, gripped by helpless fear and rage, knowing if he attacked now he'd do nothing by die himself. The Braves had saved his party, and now…

"Number Three!"

The unorthodox battle cry was the only warning Vemacitrin had before a rapier pierced its back with inhuman speed; a roar of anger heralded a heavy axe following it in, biting deep into the Asura's back.

The Legend Braves' attack had been reckless, but it had saved lives—and bought enough time for others to save theirs.

"Pull back, all of you!" Asuna ordered, ducking under Vemacitrin's whirling retaliation. "Kirito-kun, that goes double for your party! No arguments! Heal now; we'll need you at your best!"

Kirito didn't like that order. At all. But as Asuna danced with the Asura, barking more orders all the while, he could say nothing to disagree. His entire party was in the red, an experience he'd never had before and devoutly hoped never to again.

Actually, he was pretty sure what he was actually feeling was sheer, howling terror. For himself, or for others, he couldn't quite say for sure.

"We should do as she says, my friend," Kizmel said wearily, dropping to a rest beside him. "This battle is far from over."

"Elf-girl's right," Hafner agreed gruffly, handing out potions to the other girls of the party. "We're getting a handle on this phase's attack patterns now, Blackie. Let the rest of 'em handle it 'til we're ready." His gaze flicked to Godfree, who was downing his second potion already. "I don't know about you, but I've got a bad feeling about the last phase."

Kirito shivered. In the center of the boss room, Asuna and Lind were somehow coaxing order back into the chaos, but he couldn't help but feel Hafner was right. Both state changes so far had killed at least one player—and unlike the first two, he couldn't even guess what the last phase of the battle would be like.

A quick glance told him Vemacitrin was already below half on its third lifebar. Whatever was going to happen, it was going to happen all too soon.

Those who became "clearers" in SAO generally had one thing in common: a determination to clear the game that bordered on insane, given the odds they faced on a routine basis. Especially those who had persisted after the disaster of the Twenty-Fifth Floor, and chose to risk the precedent that represented by taking on the Fiftieth. What drove that determination, and how skilled they actually were, was considerably more varied.

Hafner didn't consider himself any kind of hero, and he knew he was far from the best among the clearing group. As far as he was concerned, somebody needed to fight on the frontlines, if any of them were going to get out of the death game alive; that was what had driven him to follow Diavel against Illfang, and brought him into Lind's Dragon Knights.

The kind of elitism some of his guildmates indulged in, and Kibaou had gone too far against, was no concern of his. What mattered was clearing the game and getting back to the real world, and if that meant relying on oddballs like the Black Swordsman and his NPC partner sometimes, he was entirely prepared to do so. It didn't matter if he wasn't that good himself; he'd just do his own part, as well as he could.

Which, if Hafner did say so himself, wasn't exactly bottom-tier among the clearers, either. He had survived The Adamantine Arachnid, after all—which was exactly why he smelled a rat with Vemacitrin. After so many boss fights, especially knowing going in what kind of precedent lay behind the fiftieth boss, he hadn't been surprised by just how bad the second phase of the battle had been.

Now that they were late into the third, with three dead already—no, he corrected himself with a wince, four now—Hafner was forced to admit to himself he hadn't expected it to be this bad.

Should have, though, he berated himself. After healing up and waiting for his team's turn to come up again, he was pitting his heavy blade against Vemacitrin's twin katana, and even with five other players he wasn't enjoying the experience. That damn spider was bad enough… damn you, Kayaba, and the PC you rode in on!

It didn't help that his two-handed sword was not a weapon meant for quick blows. He managed to knock one of Vemacitrin's blades aside with the first blow of the back-and-forth Cataract, and even landed a solid hit to the ribs with the second strike, but Hafner knew full well he couldn't have done it without help.

The way Kirito and Kizmel's incredible reflexes somehow kept pace with Vemacitrin despite its speed buffs was probably the most immediate reason he hadn't been shish-kebabed already; the way the other two girls kept somehow stabbing the boss in the back was another big help.

Hell, even Godfree was helping spell him here and there, which was better than Hafner really wanted to admit of a member of the KoB.

This ain't over yet, though, he thought, swearing as one of Vemacitrin's blades carved a gash in his gut before he could quite get away. If it's this bad now, when we haven't quite got it down to the last lifebar… Dammit!

"Team C, pull back! E, back up B while they draw aggro!" Vice-Commander Asuna gestured sharply with her rapier, still looking as composed as she had when the battle began. "Team D will attack next!"

Gratefully, Hafner retreated with the rest of his party, happy just to not have been knocked flying during that round. Vemacitrin's fondness for AoE was really starting to get on his nerves.

"Is it always like this?" Rain asked, when they'd all drawn back to the far wall. Her hands were shaking as she lifted a potion to her mouth, but to her credit she didn't look like she was about to break.

"Not usually," Philia told her, dropping into a crouch to rest. "I've only been clearing for about fifteen floors, but this is only the second boss fight I've been in where anybody died. Most of the time, it's… scary, but not like this."

"The gimmick bosses can be bad," Hafner said, after draining a potion of his own. "Or just plain weird. Remind me to tell you sometime about the Fifth Floor's big golem… But it looks like we were right after the spider: the quarter-bosses are bad."

"On the bright side," Godfree put in, with a grin Hafner thought looked more than a little forced, "after this, we should be in the clear for another twenty-five floors."

Yeah, Hafner agreed silently. On the not-so-bright side, if Vemacitrin is bad, whatever's on Floor Seventy-Five is gonna be murder…

"Tanks, get back!" Kirito suddenly shouted, startling the rest of the party. "You've got too much aggro, and another hit will—"

Hafner looked up just in time to see what he meant: Vemacitrin had taken enough damage from the last round of DPSers that, in the process of drawing aggro to themselves, the tank groups had just about finished off its third lifebar. Just a little bit more, even from defense-focused builds, would tip the scales, and none of them knew what would happen after.

Whatever it was, it would be far, far safer if a freshly-healed party bore the brunt of it, rather than tanks who'd just endured a battering.

Whether they understood Kirito's warning or not, though, didn't matter in the end. Nezha's chakram was in flight, and it carved a glowing bite out of Vemacitrin's head while the Black Swordsman's voice was still echoing.

This time, the moment the Asura's HP was reduced by another lifebar was heralded by a loud, harsh laugh that boomed powerfully enough to make Hafner's ears ring. At the same time, its other arms unfolded again, and all six limbs took on the crimson glow of a Sword Skill.

Oh, hell no!

If Kizmel never saw a six-armed foe unleash a skill with every limb at once again, it would be too soon. She couldn't make out exactly how many hits were involved, but in the first three seconds after its final lifebar was touched, Vemacitrin battered three members of Team E so hard they went flying across the room. One of them shattered just after his feet left the floor, while the other two very nearly followed.

And Vemacitrin's attack was far from finished.

The skill pulled it through the gap left by the scattered tank group, barreling straight into Team H. They split in all directions at the Asura's approach, but the leader couldn't quite move fast enough; a blur of fists and katana tore him apart more viciously than Kizmel had ever seen, even in the war with the Fallen Elves. Even as his terrified scream echoed, he was cut quite literally to shattered pieces.

Still, Vemacitrin was not done.

She'd never seen a skill like the one that led the Guardian careening in a circle around the chamber, not even in her recent training with Kirito. One party after another was hit by Vemacitrin's charge, and if not all of them suffered fatality, it was a very near thing for the survivors.

The most that could be said was that by the time it was Team C's turn, they at least knew what was coming. The problem, of course, being that none of them were even close to full health again yet.

Even so, she and her partner lunged to protect the less-experienced members anyway, putting themselves between Vemacitrin, the other girls, and Godfree—and in a move that filled Kizmel's veins with cold fear, Kirito arranged to put himself slightly in front of her, as well.

There was no time to argue or plead, even if there'd been reason. Vemacitrin was bearing down on them, manic grin frozen on its metallic face, all arms ready. A pair of heartbeats, no more, and it would be on them… and Kizmel could see in the corner of her vision what would happen to the both of them when it struck.

If we can only save Philia and Rain, at least. Please—!

Impact. A loud scream. The distinctive sound like shattering glass, and a bright blue flash—followed by the sensation of her body colliding with cold stone and warm cloth?

Kizmel shook her head, trying to clear it. How could she possibly be alive, after taking a hit like that in her condition? It made no sense—

"Hafner!"

Her senses steadied, finally showing her what she'd actually hit: the floor, and her own partner, having taken a blow that knocked them both aside without actually harming them. Above them, having appeared as nearly as she could tell from absolutely nowhere, Heathcliff held his massive shield firm against Vemacitrin.

As Lind's anguished scream had warned her, Hafner was nowhere to be seen, and his lifebar was no longer hovering in her vision.

He saved us, Kizmel realized numbly. He pushed us aside and took the blow… for us… Why…?

She wasn't sure it would even matter. The entire raid was in disarray, entire parties scattered, several dead, more sprawled on the cold stone floor. It was, by any measure, a rout. Kizmel could even hear Asuna shouting something that sounded like it might be a call for a retreat.

"We stand here!" Heathcliff shouted into the chaos. Pushing forward with his shield, he forced Vemacitrin back a pace, its devastating skill stopped cold. "Everyone, heal and regroup! I'll buy you time! We stand here!"

Easier said than done, as far as she was concerned. The Asura recovered quickly from the KoB commander's assault, arms glowing as it prepared another Sword Skill—but in the fraction of a breath before it could unleash it, Heathcliff's shield glowed in turn, and with a wordless shout he charged Vemacitrin. With a sound like a ringing bell, the Shield Rush technique that was the sole providence of Heathcliff's Holy Sword skill dispelled the impending attack, and kept on going to force Vemacitrin clear off its feet.

"We stand here!" Heathcliff shouted again. "Pull yourselves together! We haven't lost yet!"

That, finally, brought Kizmel back to her senses, and soon she and Kirito were helping each other up. "Pull back and heal, just like before," Kirito told a shivering Rain, pulling her to her feet next. "I don't know how long we have, so let's hurry."

"I've got a couple of healing crystals," Philia said shakily, almost clutching Kizmel as the elf girl helped her up. "I was saving them for—well, something like this."

"I don't know if it'll do us any good, though," Godfree bit out, looking more rattled than either of the girls. He got to his feet without assistance, but his eyes were wide, and his stance unsteady. "If we get hit like that again—"

"If we give up now, it's all over!" Kirito said sharply. "We've got the boss down to its last lifebar; we won't get another chance like this!"

Kizmel feared he was right. As rattled as the survivors were now, they still had more than enough fighters to win, if they could only regroup. If they were routed now, after the casualties that had been taken, she wasn't at all sure another attempt would ever be made.

In a true war, such casualties are mercifully light, she thought, drawing back with the remains of the party to the far wall. My people would press on, accepting the losses as the price of victory—but few of the Swordmasters are truly warriors. It's nothing short of miraculous that they've held the line this long.

Some of them had found that warrior spirit within themselves, though. Asuna stood tall even now, bellowing orders that gradually brought order back to the raid one more time; her armor was tattered, rapier looking little better, yet her spine was stiff and her voice strong. "The Commander is right! Regroup, heal up, and get ready to finish this! Knights of Blood, we stand here!"

"You heard her!" Lind's voice was hoarse, face ashen, but he stood his ground, gesturing sharply with his scimitar. "If we run now, our sacrifices will have been in vain! Divine Dragons, we will not let that happen!"

If she'd had the energy, Kizmel might've favored the guildmaster with the human gesture of applause. She had many differences with the man, but she couldn't help but acknowledge his leadership in this moment. Between him and Asuna, the raid gradually rallied, parties reforming around the survivors. A force of warriors once again, not a beaten-down rabble.

The one who truly impressed Kizmel in that moment, though, was the man who made that rally possible. As precious seconds turned, impossibly, to minutes, Heathcliff stood between Vemacitrin and the battered clearers. She knew as well as any knight how being pushed to the brink could draw out skill and strength a warrior might never have realized they had, and in this dark hour it seemed the KoB leader had found his.

The final phase of the battle had seen Vemacitrin dominate the battlefield with its powerful rushing technique, but Heathcliff refused to allow it the opportunity to use it again. Any time the Asura tried anything with more than a moment's preparation, the red knight's shield hammered it. In that gap, his sword licked out, scraping at Vemacitrin's life a sliver at a time.

Time and again, in the minutes after the charge that claimed Hafner's life, Vemacitrin's blades and fists struck a solid blow with lesser skills, but Heathcliff stood firm. His heavy shield bore the brunt of the majority of the Asura's strikes, with only a small few reaching past; his own life was carved away, little by little, yet far more slowly than for anyone else.

Kizmel had no idea how Heathcliff had acquired the skill to use his shield and sword in such a powerful combination, but she was grateful for it. More than once, Vemacitrin tried to break free and assault the still-weak clearers, only to be blocked by the red knight interposing his shield with impressive speed. A minute, two, five; Heathcliff held the line.

Even he cannot win this battle himself—but he won't have to.

Swordmaster lifebars climbed back, point by precious point, toward full, and as even Heathcliff's started to fall perilously close to the halfway mark, Kizmel tossed aside one last potion to shatter on the floor, and drew her saber once again. "I'm ready," she announced. "Kirito?"

"Just a second," her partner replied absently. His health, too, was blue again, but he was doing something with his menu now. "If I'm right—"

"Good to go here." Philia stepped up, and if her sword wasn't quite steady, her blue eyes were. "Ready when you are, Kirito."

"Me, too." Rain swallowed hard, bringing her blade up. "If you guys are going back in, so am I."

Godfree hesitated, hands flexing nervously on the haft of his axe. "This might be too much for us, my friends," he said anxiously. "The speed and strength buffs on this last phase—"

"Then stay back and out of the way." Kirito's voice was uncharacteristically cold and abrupt. He made one last, forceful gesture at his menu, and the sword on his back disappeared in a blue flash. "We can't afford to stop now." A different blade materialized in its place, and he drew it in one smooth motion. "Come on, girls. Asuna will be giving the order any second now."

Kizmel raised one eyebrow at the sight of the Baneblade—a weapon inferior to the one he'd just switched out, going by the Swordmasters' numerical reckoning—but nodded without comment. She would trust his instincts, as she always had before.

Beowulf, Wolfgang, Hafner—you will be avenged.

"Time!" Asuna shouted. "All teams, move in! Pull back and heal when you need to—otherwise, give it everything you've got!"

Heathcliff had bought them precious time, against all odds. Now, with Vemacitrin having shown its last stratagems, the Swordmasters were ready to finish.

"Now! Charge!"

Before, the Swordmasters had used a slow, cautious strategy against Vemacitrin, never knowing when it would reveal another unexpected skill or greater strength. Now, at the last, it was clear that the only true "defense" against the Asura's final fury was to keep it from doing anything at all.

Heathcliff's HP was barely a sliver above half when the remaining Swordmasters made their assault. When Asuna led them in, accompanied by Lind and followed closely by Kirito, the KoB guildmaster leapt clear, healing crystal in hand. He had held the line long enough; now was the time to end it.

Kirito was the first to raise his voice in a wordless yell; Kizmel quickly joined him, and soon the chamber was filled with the battlecry of the Swordmasters, matching Vemacitrin's laughter.

Enough! Letting Kirito and Asuna take the lead, Kizmel took a leaping step to the side of the main assault, halting twice the length of her saber from Vemacitrin. She turned the momentum from her charge into a spin, bright crimson light bridging that distance from her sword to the Asura. This ends now!

Together with Asuna's Flashing Penetrator and Kirito's Vorpal Strike, her Dancing Hellraiser tore into Vemacitrin's last strength, leading the Swordmaster tide.

Rain had never been in a boss fight before, but she had seen one massed assault before. Witnessing the field battle with The Hobgoblin had, in fact, been one of the things that inspired her to try and join the clearing for real, seeing what an entire raid of clearers could do.

Even so, that hadn't come close to preparing her for the final charge against Vemacitrin. The previous strategy abandoned in favor of just hitting it as hard as they could, the once-orderly battle had dissolved into players vying for opportunities to run sharp objects into the boss, driven by sheer terror and more than a little rage at the deaths they'd suffered so far.

Rage Rain shared in full. She'd known some of the players who'd died, and those she hadn't, she never would now. That was enough to drive her as furiously as any of the others. She'd been stopped from knowing people important to her before; she put that pain and anger into a Vorpal Strike of her own, right behind Kirito's.

"Stop laughing!" she shouted, when Vemacitrin's only reaction to the latest attacks on it was another of its grating cackles. "Just die already!"

She was almost thrown from her feet before she could recover from the post-motion, shoved aside by a screaming lancer; the order Vice-Commander Asuna had managed to impose was falling apart again in the heat of close combat. In a way, though, Rain was grateful, since it knocked her out of the path of Vemacitrin's next attack.

It was on its last lifebar, and that lifebar was being drawn down slowly but steadily; but if Vemacitrin was dying, it wasn't dying without a fight.

It was hard for Rain to follow what happened from then on. The scream of metal-on-metal was louder than she'd ever heard, skill after skill biting into the Asura, preventing it from launching another of skills that had nearly wiped out the raid. The players themselves added to the din with their voices, and the brightly-colored flashes were nearly blinding.

Here, she managed to drive in a short Vertical; there, Agil landed a Beheading Blow against Vemacitrin's neck. She caught a flash of Orochi plunging a Hirazuki into the Asura's chest, before being flung back by a Fierce Punch.

A brief, bright flash, and one entire section of the assault was thrown away by another of Vemacitrin's twin-katana skills; an abruptly-silenced scream and a shattering sound told Rain another player had died.

Her own teammates rushed into the gap, Kirito wielding a rusty-looking sword she'd only heard rumors of. Shining strangely through the tarnish, he swung it with the snicker-snack of a Snake Bite—and Vemacitrin's upper-right arm flew away, taking one of its katana with it.

Kizmel took advantage of the momentary stagger forced on it by the loss of its limb, launching into possibly the longest Sword Skill Rain had ever seen. Angled slashes came down again and again, from the left, the right, and the left again, hammering Vemacitrin a full eight times before it ended.

The post-motion was painful, though—almost a full second of immobility, during which the Asura's remaining pair of right arms slammed together into Kizmel's stomach and chest, catapulting her away. At the same time, its left limbs began to glow for another skill.

Asuna the Flash blurred into view at that moment, rapier stabbing once, twice—six times, etching a cross of red wounds on Vemacitrin's chest. The sheer inertia of the thrusts drove it back on its heels; Lind was waiting behind it carve up its back.

Vemacitrin was probably the most powerful boss yet. Almost a full raid of players all trying to get a piece of it at once was finally beginning to overwhelm it.

It was still dying hard, though. Rain only barely avoided a Raging Upper in the process of slicing a Sharp Nail into it; its remaining katana almost took her head off as she tried to retreat, and did hit her shoulder hard enough to send her spinning away. Kirito and Philia made it pay for it right after, Baneblade and Swordbreaker going for its surviving right arms.

She didn't know how long the battle took, once the final assault began. She only knew a flurry of swords, the cacophony of clashing metal and screaming voices, and the desperate struggle to kill Vemacitrin before it killed her.

It did kill at least one more player along the way, a young KoB member Rain didn't know whose saber shattered under Vemacitrin's blade, before it pounded four fists into his chest all at once. Then Philia was darting in again, screaming like a banshee, hooking the ridged back of her sword under the Asura's katana.

A flash, a shriek of tortured metal, and Vemacitrin's sword snapped in half.

"That's it! Let's wrap this up!" Agil's axe whirled overhead in an azure arc; came down like he was chopping wood, and lopped through the Asura's now-weaponless arm just as easily.

It tried to retaliate with its fists, still laughing madly—only for Heathcliff to suddenly reenter the fray, smashing his shield into Vemacitrin to knock it off balance once more. "Now!" he called out. "Finish it!"

Only then did Rain check its HP again, and realized it really was almost over. Barely five percent of its last lifebar remained, flickering a deep red.

With a yell, she joined the rush to tear the boss to pieces once and for all.

Swords stabbed and cut, staves and maces smashed; axes whirled and hacked off two more of Vemacitrin's arms. Asuna and Kizmel took it from the sides, unleashing lightning-quick stabs and slashes faster than anything Rain had ever seen. HP draining away rapidly, the Asura settled into the pre-motion for its AoE spin one last time.

"Not this time, you bastard!"

Coat streaming behind him, Kirito took Vemacitrin full in the front, Baneblade blurring into motion in yet another skill Rain hadn't seen before. Three fast slashes, left-right-left, the last leading right into a complete spin; two more of those, ending with him facing the boss again, and he kicked up in a backflip that ripped his sword from between Vemacitrin's legs clear up through the top of its head.

At long last, Vemacitrin's laugh grated to halt. Finally deprived of all six arms, it stood there in silence for a moment, as Kirito's boots touched the floor again. Then, slowly, it began to split apart along his last cut, falling toward stone in two halves—and shattered, an instant before impact.

I'm still… alive?

This isn't the worst boss fight I've ever been in. The Commandant… that one was worse, in more ways than one. But this one is close.

Kirito didn't even bother looking at the [Congratulations!] notice, and paid no attention at all to the victory fanfare that accompanied it. He did take notice of the Last Attack Bonus message—yet another new sword, something called "Elucidator"—but that was only to buy himself a moment to steel his nerves for what he really had to do.

He was still counting the dots remaining on his map when Asuna's voice broke the silence. "…Eight dead," she said, her whisper carrying through the stillness of the boss chamber.

A murmur swept through the room at her quiet announcement, and Kirito winced. That was no worse than the Twenty-Fifth Floor boss—better, really; the reinforcements had lost eight members that day too, but the ALS had been nearly wiped out before that—but considering they'd gone into this battle prepared for trouble, the numbers were worse than they appeared.

And it could've been even worse than that, he thought bitterly. Would've been, if it weren't for him; I sure wasn't any kind of hero today.

"It's not too late!" another voice burst out. "We can still bring somebody back, at least—c'mon, Black, get the revival item out, hurry!"

Shoulders tensing, Kirito turned to face Orochi, uncomfortably aware that all eyes—including his own surviving party members—were on him now. The Dragon Knight was staring at him with wild, angry eyes—and he had no idea what to say. "Orochi, I…"

"Hold up a second," Agil put in, stepping forward with a glare. "Who exactly are you planning on reviving, Orochi? The DDA ain't the only ones who lost somebody today! Wolfgang—"

"The KoB took casualties, too." Godfree pushed himself up from where he'd spent the last stages of the battle, looking shell-shocked. "This isn't a decision that can be made unilaterally. We need to discuss—"

"What's there to discuss?!" Orochi said angrily, gesturing sharply with his katana. "Hell, the DDA should've been the ones to get that item in the first place! After everything, we should have first call on it!"

"Why, you—!"

As the guilds and solos disintegrated into bickering, Kirito closed his eyes. Not again. This is just like after Diavel died. This is exactly what I wanted to prevent by getting that guild flag. We're halfway up now, we can't afford to be divided like this now!

And it's all for nothing, because it isn't even—!

A hand on his shoulder startled him, and he looked up to find Kizmel by his side. Her gaze was serious, but as reassuring as ever. "Kirito-kun," she murmured, too low to be heard over the argument. "I'm here."

…Yeah. You are, aren't you? Just like always. She couldn't help what was going to happen, when he said what he knew he was going to have to say, but he knew she wouldn't fault him for it. He couldn't be sure how Philia or Rain would take it, but he knew he could trust his partner.

Heh. How crazy is my life, that I get along with NPCs better than human players?

"That's enough!" Asuna shouted into the chaos. Her rapier was sheathed, and she was considerably shorter than any of the belligerents, but she put enough fire into her voice and glare to match any of them. Hands on her hips, she continued, "Eight players are dead now, and bickering about it isn't going to bring them back! We're halfway up now, and we need to keep going—"

"Don't try to change the subject, 'Vice-Commander'!" Quetzalcoatl snapped back. Fists clenching, he started to stalk toward her. "Once we get that item from the Beater over there, it'll only be seven dead, so just shut up and—"

"I don't have it. And if I did, it wouldn't matter anyway."

The argument stopped dead at Kirito's cold declaration, and all eyes turned to him again. "…What did you say, Black?" Orochi said slowly. "What do you mean, you don't have it? You expect us to believe a Beater wouldn't keep a drop like that to himself?" His lips curled in a sneer. "Or did you get careless and have to use it on your pet right after you got it?"

Kirito had started out having to force the same cold arrogance he'd affected to head off a witch hunt over a year before. Hearing Kizmel—his partner, his friend—be called a "pet" set off a burning anger, and he had no trouble at all aiming a glare at the DDA player.

"I wasn't fighting to get it for myself, Orochi," he said flatly. "I didn't even think it existed. I was helping out a friend, that's all."

"Oh, a 'friend'. Like you've got any that aren't AI? Tch." Quetzalcoatl tossed his head in derision. "Well, we know damn well it does exist, so why don't you tell us who you 'gave' it to, so we can—"

"If you even think about that, you'll regret it," Kirito said softly, fingering the special blade he still held. "Kizmel and I don't have anything to do with guilds. Think about that for a second." He let that implied threat hang in the air for a moment, then sheathed the Baneblade. "Not that it matters. Like I told you, it wouldn't matter now. Didn't you pay any attention to Argo's newspaper? The Stone has to be used within ten seconds. It's way too late now."

From the way the DDA members—and even some of the KoB, he noticed—looked at each other, he suspected some of them either hadn't read it, or hadn't believed it. Which, he thought, wasn't as surprising as it might've been; Argo had a well-earned reputation for honesty, but he supposed it was fair to suspect she might be biased about things he was known to be involved in.

They're idiots if they do think that, though. If they knew how much blackmail material she has on me…

"Even ten seconds might've helped at least one," Lind put in at last, favoring Kirito with a look the latter couldn't quite interpret. "Heathcliff blocked the boss less than ten seconds after Hafner died, Kirito."

Kirito flinched. The truth was, that one he couldn't quite deny. He'd been hit with Tumble status when Hafner bowled Kizmel into him, but he'd been perfectly capable of using items in those precious seconds. If he had still had the Divine Stone with him—

It would've been close, but I might have been able to get it out in time. Maybe. Between the Tumble and how disoriented I was—scared, even—it would've been hard to get it out in under ten seconds. And if Heathcliff hadn't been there, there's no way I could've.

He thought about trying to explain that. Explain how slim the chances really would've been, and just why he hadn't had the Stone anymore in the first place. But even if—if—Lind had accepted it, he could see his guildmates wouldn't have. From the look of it, he wasn't sure everyone in the KoB would have, either, despite Asuna undoubtedly vouching for him.

And you know what? I don't have it in me to deal with this anymore.

"Believe what you want," Kirito told the room at large, suddenly feeling every bit of the fatigue his virtual body ignored. "We just cleared the Fiftieth Floor; we're halfway to winning Kayaba's game. If you want to waste time worrying about what might've been, go ahead. I'm going to go and get the next floor open so the rest of the clearing group can get to work."

With a few quick motions, he brought up his menu, dissolved the party—not risking even looking at Philia or Rain, after the way Godfree's attitude had changed—and quickly sent a new invite to Kizmel. As soon as she accepted, he turned on his heel in a swirl of black coat, and headed for the now-open door where Vemacitrin's throne had been.

Kirito had made it most of the way when he heard light footsteps, and a hesitant voice. "Kirito-kun—"

"Kirito," Lind called, interrupting Asuna. "Hafner died for the two of you. I trust you'll remember that."

He paused only briefly. "I know, Lind." He couldn't for the life of him understand Hafner's decision—Heathcliff had been the true hero of the day; he had no doubt the tale of him holding off the boss for ten minutes, by himself, would be all over Aincrad by morning—but he had no intention of forgetting it.

Too many have died. Kirito stepped through the door and onto the first steps leading up, only Kizmel's presence at his side holding any of the chill at bay. For all that I'm starting to love this world, I can't stop now. We still have fifty more floors to clear…

The staircase leading up to the next floor was longer than usual, Kizmel noticed. Part of it, she was sure, was related to how much lower the guardian chamber's ceiling had been than the norm, but it seemed to her that that couldn't quite explain all of it.

Of course, she also suspected she only noticed because she was trying so hard not to think about what had just happened. About how the Divine Dragons had made clear their feelings toward her and her partner—or about how costly their latest victory had been.

Eight Swordmasters dead, Kizmel thought as they climbed. More than any have fallen in such a battle as long as I've been with them, yet far fewer than were lost among the Royal Guard in the war with the Forest Elves. Fewer even than fell in our last assault on the Fallen Elves' Twilight Citadel.

…So why does my heart ache so much more for the Swordmasters than it ever did for my comrades?

She hadn't even known most of those who'd died against Vemacitrin. Not well, at any rate. Hafner was the only one whom she'd known more than distantly, yet she felt their deaths more keenly than any of her own people save Tilnel.

…I don't understand…

A warm breeze gradually drew her out of her dark thoughts, a feeling totally at odds with the winter air of the previous floor. Aincrad's unnatural origin made itself known afresh, and when she and Kirito finally emerged at the top of the stairs, she found out exactly how.

Where the Fiftieth Floor had been experiencing much the same season Kizmel's home on the Ninth would have been that time of year, the Fifty-First was warm and damp. Warm, damp… and sandy?

"…Is this… a tropical island?" Kirito muttered in clear disbelief.

"It seems so, my friend." The staircase from the previous floor's labyrinth had left them at the top of a hill overlooking a beach. A beach, with straw-roofed huts built on poles reaching out over the water; water that stretched out as far as could be seen, broken only by other islands and a wall marking the very edge of the floor.

Only then, seeing the moon reflecting off that water, did Kizmel realize night had fallen; the Pillar Guardian had taken even longer to defeat than she'd thought. Which means if it is warm now, morning will be even worse. …Speaking of which…

"Y'know, I don't even care right now," Kirito said, expressing her own opinion with a slump of his shoulders. "I'm too tired for this… Let's find an inn, Kizmel."

"Agreed."

To her relief, one of the buildings seen from the staircase was exactly what they were looking for—technically, Kirito referred to it as a "bungalow", but she failed to see any practical difference—and soon they were in a room built out over the water. Thankfully, she thought, a well-ventilated room, allowing the sea breeze easy access.

One thing Kizmel did find puzzling though, as she traded her cape and armor for a nightgown (behind Kirito's back, in deference to his peculiar human modesty). Instead of the beds she was accustomed to in human dwellings, the room contained what looked for all the world like a pair of nets tied to vaguely resemble beds. "Kirito… what are these?"

"Hammocks, I guess. Fits with the sea theme, anyway." Kirito eyed them with obvious hesitation. "It's been years since I saw one… They're pretty comfortable, actually, but there's kind of a trick to getting into them."

He wasn't joking, she soon found. The first time he tried to climb into one of the "hammocks", she had to stifle a giggle when the contraption promptly flipped over and dropped him right on the floor. The second attempt almost tossed him clear out the nearby window.

Only with the third did Kirito manage to actually settle into the hammock and stay there; and after a few tense moments in which he obviously wondered if it was some kind of trick, he relaxed with a sigh. "Ahh… that's better. C'mon, Kizmel. Try it out."

Moving carefully, she took hold of the edge of the hammock, trying to imitate his motions. Once she was sure of her grip, she gently swung herself up and in—and unlike her partner, she managed to stay in place on her first attempt.

"K-Kizmel?! Wh-what are you…?"

Of course, the fact that Kirito was already in it did seem to help stabilize it.

"Just this once, please, Kirito-kun," Kizmel murmured, shifting to rest her head on his shoulder. "After this last battle… I don't want to be alone tonight. I fear my sleep will not be peaceful."

Not after Hafner's sacrifice. What was he trying to accomplish…?

Slowly, she felt arms curl around her back. "…Okay," Kirito whispered back. She could feel his heart beating fast, but he still drew her closer, as she'd hoped he would. "I could probably use the help keeping away nightmares tonight, too…"

"Thank you, my friend." Physical contact wasn't something often sought by the Dark Elves; Kizmel, though, had found it increasingly a comfort, in the months she'd traveled with Kirito. Especially since the realization she'd come to during the Yule Festival.

In the wake of Vemacitrin's defeat, there was nowhere she would rather have been.

"…Halfway there, huh?" she heard Kirito murmur, as she edged toward sleep. "Fifty floors to go…"

"Mm," Kizmel hummed in agreement. Another year, perhaps a little more, she mused to herself. Well… one way or another, we will prevail. Hafner, Wolfgang, Beowulf… Everyone. Your sacrifices will not be in vain. I will remember you, always.

She made that vow to herself, committing the day's fallen to her memory alongside the Moonlit Black Cats. Then, knowing there was nothing more she could do for the dead, she focused on the living beat beneath her, and let the sound of Kirito's heart lull her into exhausted sleep.

Author's Note:

You know a chapter is serious when Argo finally fails to appear. …I think I just killed off more characters in one chapter than I have since the last time I wrote a Gundam battle.

So. Yes, I'm alive, and in fact while my health was something of a factor in the delay, it was mostly simply an inability to concentrate due to my home undergoing extensive renovations. Naturally, almost as soon as those were done, Hurricane Irma rolled in…

I'm fine after that, too, as it happens. Lots of fear, lots of frantic preparation—and all we ever got where I am is really loud wind, three power outages lasting mere seconds, and a lot of tree branches strewn over the lawn. "Sound and fury, signifying nothing," to borrow a phrase. My prayers to the rest of the state, though, since most of it apparently wasn't so lucky.

Anyway. Very serious chapter finally done; lots of death, plenty of darkness—and foreshadowing. I wonder how many of you will figure out just how many plots I laid the groundwork for here? I had a couple of new thoughts when writing this one… At any rate, the next chapter, as might be surmised from the setting at the end of this, will be much cheerier. Time to finally follow up properly on the events of Christmas Waltz, and generally decompress from the dark and edgy stuff (don't worry, it won't be completely pointless fluff; the questing will still be relevant to ongoing subplots).

I hope Lux's introduction wasn't too bad; I was unable to find the manga chapters that covered her past, so I had to wing it based on the summarized information I did find. Apologies if I screwed it up.

Also, regarding the boss raid, I should probably mention while I do have a fair bit of MMO experience, the vast majority of it is from Star Trek Online, in which even group content generally boils down to "shoot until the target dies". Proper boss raid strategy is something I have basically zero experience with. In short, I write such battles based mostly on guesswork, so my apologies if I've got the tactics completely wrong.

Finally, as is usual I've also re-uploaded several previous chapters to fix yet more typos and continuity errors; mostly pure proofreading, but I should note the first couple of chapters have more significant alterations to fit better with the overall continuity I've established since. With that, all the major edits should finally be finished.

Hm… Guess that covers everything for now. Hopefully everybody waded through the admittedly-gigantic chapter well enough. Let me know if I pulled off the boss fight—and the Laughing Coffin mayhem—adequately, yes? -Solid