November 6th, 2024

Fuurinkazan's guildhall was filled with quiet but cheerful chatter. The accompanying smell of cooking meat and baking bread from the kitchen was positively mouthwatering. With a fireplace roaring high against the winter chill, the atmosphere in the main hall was perfectly cozy.

Seated at the head of a table in that wood-paneled hall, Klein stared down at the virtual paper in his hands, and groaned. "'Twin-Blade Swordsman Defeats Demon Boss With Army Of Ghosts'… seriously, where the hell do they get these crazy ideas?" He read further; snorted, and tossed the paper down in disgust. "Okay, so they at least mention Asuna-san. Eventually. But I am not Kirito's sidekick, Fuurinkazan aren't his—what was the word, 'myrmidons'? What does that even mean?—and not even a word about Lux."

Which was just wrong. Bad enough his people didn't get proper credit in general. His flighty fledgling not getting recognition for fighting a Floor Boss when she'd never so much as scouted a raid before? He had half a mind to track down whatever idiot was rumor-mongering and give them a piece of his mind.

"Hey, if you want to take the credit, you're welcome to it." Curled up on a long couch by the fire, Kizmel tucked in against his side, Kirito gave a weary shake of his head. "The rumors are getting crazier every day. Grease the right info broker's palms, and you could probably convince people you heroically led us to victory." He sighed, slouching deeper under a blanket. "Maybe then I could get around Algade without taking back alleys all the time."

Klein brightened at the tempting thought. Not that he wanted to be called the hero or anything, he knew damn well the Gleam Eyes had only gone down from a team effort, but his people deserved recognition. More than the Army idiots do, anyway. Yeah, sure, they suffered, and it's a damned shame not all of them made it out. But this isn't a real army. They could have told Kobatz what to do with himself.

If they had, his old buddy wouldn't have had to hide so much. Which was the other big reason the proposal was tempting. He wasn't jealous of Kirito's fame, or of anything else he'd gotten. The kid—young man—whose day-one pointers had saved Klein a hundred times over deserved, needed, every good thing he could get.

He's come a long way, though. The scared kid I met two years ago wouldn't be sitting there like that.

Kirito's spot by the fire kept him away from the rowdy crowd at the table, but he was at least willingly in the building. Kizmel cuddling in close to his side was normal enough; letting Rain come so close on the other, not so much. And Klein had seen Kirito's hesitant smile when Asuna more or less shoved him into that spot in the first place.

Some people would've cursed his luck for having a "harem". Klein remembered a scared kid, panicked at the idea of working with just one other person, and breathed a quiet sigh of relief at how far he'd come.

"Hard to believe it's been two years, huh?" Klein mused, leaning back in his chair. "Two years to the day…. Gotta tell ya, Kirito, I didn't see any of this coming that day. Even after Kayaba's damned 'tutorial', if you'd told me this would be normal, I'd have called you crazy."

After all, there he was, holding court in a hall that would've been the envy of many a daimyou. If there weren't nearly as many people there as a real Sengoku Jidai warlord would've had as subordinates or allies, every single one of them was the equal of at least ten merely human warriors. Even Lux, when she puts her mind to it.

He honestly wasn't quite sure which was weirder, though, as he glanced around his guild's cozy hall. That he was leading a group of samurai who could've bulldozed a small army, or that the teenage girl who happened to do most of the raid-leading was in Fuurinkazan's kitchen, cooking up the best meal he'd smelled in two years.

Asuna the Flash, on arriving for the shindig Klein had arranged to mark two years of still being alive, had taken one look at the ingredients Fuurinkazan had gathered. Just one. Then she'd commandeered the kitchen, and dragooned half the guild into helping her prepare. The other half was bantering with Team Kirito's girls—and Argo, who'd claimed another spot by the fire but was much more willing to chat than Kirito.

"It's a good crazy, though," Kirito said, stretching. The smile on his face made Klein relax just a bit more. A year ago, he never would've thought to see the Black Swordsman looking so happy. "It's a lot better than I imagined things could ever get, that night."

Heh. I bet. You're married to a gorgeous girl, and buddy-buddy with practically all the other ladies on the frontlines, and probably more in the mid-levels. And I'm not even envious. Really.

Two years before, Klein hadn't been at all sure he'd survive the night, and he'd been terrified about how things were going in the world he'd left behind. Two years ago, he hadn't had the confidence that he could cut down anything that got in his way, or that his friends could do the same.

No salaryman ever accomplished what we have. I don't give a damn if it's all computer code. Our lives are on the line here, and we're winning. Maybe nobody on the outside will ever get it, but we will. That's all that matters.

"Yeah, a really good crazy," Klein allowed. Glancing sidelong at the swordsman, he started to grin. "Now, about that rumor-spreading idea…."

"Don't even ask me, Klein," Argo told him, a dangerous gleam in her eyes as she twisted in her chair to look at him. "You know me, I don't deal in rumors. An' I for sure don't deal in fake ones. I'll try an' set the story straight if ya really want, but that's it. And don't try to blame me fer the crazy stories they're printin' now!"

Bah. Too true, on both counts. She had a well-deserved reputation for extortionate prices, but the only reason she got away with it was because everyone knew her info was good. The only time it hadn't been, she'd made the person responsible pay. Viciously.

Right. Remember Johnny Black. Even if I really, really don't want to.

"It was probably those Army idiots, Boss," Dynamm put in. Emerging from the kitchen, the piratical swordsman—currently pressed into service as a waiter—carted a plateful of fresh bread with him. The smell alone almost made Klein forget what he was mad about. "The Vice-Commander whipped them into shape to keep fighting, but I don't think any of 'em was in any shape to get what was happening."

"Besides," Sachi added, following Dynamm out with the biggest stewpot Klein had ever seen, "I think Lux is better off staying out of it. Not everybody's forgotten Laughing Coffin."

"…I hate it when you guys make sense." The samurai slumped in his chair. "Still. If we had a little more attention, poor Kirito wouldn't have had to hide the last couple weeks."

Dammit, he was tired of Kirito having to keep his head down. The kid kept saving the clearers' bacon, and kept getting chased off into the wild for his trouble. It just wasn't fair.

…Why was Sachi blushing, and why was Argo barely even trying to hold back a chortle?

"Klein," the Rat told him, rolling her eyes, "any other day, I'd agree with ya. But trust me, Kii-bou's got no reason t' complain 'bout the last coupla weeks. Gettin' back ta clearing might not be fun, but he sure had the best vacation he coulda asked for!"

"Yes, he did. And you're going to stop talking now, Argo, if you want to have dinner." Asuna bustled out of the kitchen, carrying a plate piled high with roasted Eryman Boar cutlets. She was also blushing, and favoring the Rat with a glare that Klein freely admitted outdid his own. "He earned it, that's all that matters."

There was something going on he wasn't getting. But… I think I can live with that. Whatever that's all about, I don't think I wanna be in the middle of it. Besides, this is supposed to be a feast!

Two weeks since the Gleam Eyes had been taken down by the most reckless, cobbled-together raid ever, Fuurinkazan was hosting a get-together with Team Kirito and a couple of special guests. Klein's guild had spent over a week hunting down the rarest ingredients they could find, culminating in a huge drop of meat from the Seventy-Fifth Floor's Field Boss, the Eryman Boar. Nothing was quite S-rank, but most of it was darn close. Asuna's maxed-out Cooking skill handled the rest.

Even if it did feel really weird to see Asuna the Flash, Vice-Commander of the Knights of the Blood, bustling around his guildhall in casual clothes and an apron. Klein didn't often feel that envious of Kirito, honestly; he knew too much of the struggle behind the Black Swordsman's legend. This? This made him feel just a little bit green.

"It's nice to see this place… so lively," a voice whispered by his left shoulder. "I haven't seen something like this since… my old guild fell apart."

Klein glanced over, and couldn't help a smile. Still wearing the armor and cloak she'd apparently died in, Griselda was looking more stable these days; since a day or so after the Gleam Eyes battle, she'd gradually gotten more coherent. Still intangible, still obviously weak, but from what he could tell she was more in control of herself than she had been. How and why, he couldn't guess, but then he didn't know squat about ghosts.

If one decided to hang around Fuurinkazan, looking like a refugee from a Star Wars movie, Klein wasn't going to complain. She was a friendly ghost. And if she still didn't want to talk about how she'd died, well, that really wasn't his business anyway.

"You're right," he said, looking out over the hall. The members of Fuurinkazan not helping Asuna cook were gathered with Team Kirito on benches around a big table, just chatting as food was piled on.

For a second, he thought Kirito himself had fallen asleep; closer inspection showed he was chatting with Kizmel in a very low voice, in a language Klein couldn't quite decipher. Huh. Sounds like Kirito's been studying more than just the homework Kizmel piles on the team. Never seen him do that before. But hey, they want a private conversation, ain't my business.

"As busy as we've been," he mused to Griselda, "I don't think we've had time for anything like this since… probably not since we finally caught up with the frontlines."

Klein could tell they'd all really needed the rest. Just looking at how much more relaxed his guys and girls were—let alone the ever-busy Team Kirito—he finally realized just how much the stress had been building up.

Too bad Lux wasn't ready to go exploring, he mused. The former unwilling accomplice to Laughing Coffin was sitting close to Dale, Fuurinkazan's designated guardian of traumatized newbies. She did look better than she had before the Gleam Eyes battle, at least. Whatever went down with the girls, it sure did Sachi some good.

Not that Fuurinkazan's ambush predator had been her old skittish self in around a year, but she'd shed some of the lingering baggage in the week or so she'd been away from the guild. Klein wished he could think of a way to give Lux that kind of a boost.

As it was, she'd survived the Gleam Eyes raid. Anybody who'd survived that had what it took to be a clearer, in Klein's eyes.

Hell, if the Army survivors ever get their heads on straight, I'll put in a good word for 'em with the KoB or DDA. They weren't ready, and they freaked, but they lived. They're wasted on the Army.

Watching Rain question Sachi about where she'd gotten a particular sword, Philia dance around Harry One's leading comments about where to find some treasure or other, and Kirito just relax, Klein leaned back in his chair and smiled. Who cares about stupid rumors? None of those gossiping idiots are getting in here.

When Asuna brought out the last dish for the feast, he applied himself to the food as eagerly as any of them. He didn't even care that Argo the Rat was viewing the whole thing with an obvious eye to blackmail material. After two years fighting for their lives, this was what made it all worth it.

We've sure come a long way from two guys running away from a mob, haven't we? I got my guild together, even picked up a couple of stragglers, and Kirito got himself some real friends. Whatever else happens, I wouldn't give this up for the world.

Klein did feel some guilt, glancing up from the truly awesome roast boar, that Griselda couldn't join in. But the ghostly guildmaster only looked back at him, smiled faintly, and shook her head. "Don't worry… about me," she murmured. "This is as good as it gets, now…."

Sad. But he supposed, in her position, she had to take what she could get. It wasn't like he and the other living players weren't avoiding a giant elephant in the room themselves. In the hours since they'd all gathered in Fuurinkazan's guildhall, not a one of them had brought up the clearing progress.

We're managing, he reminded himself, focusing on the best damn mashed potatoes he'd ever had in either world. The mobs are tougher than they should be, but we're all above the level curve. We've got the best gear we can buy. We trounced the Field Boss. We're going to pull through.

And if there was one advantage to Griselda being a ghost, it was that she probably wouldn't have a problem when SAO was finally cleared. If Kirito was right that she couldn't be some technological ghost, shutting down the game wouldn't make her any more dead.

He wasn't going to look to closely at why that was important to him. And no, I don't care if that makes me like Kirito used to be. He had his reasons, I got mine.

Nope, no unhappy thoughts allowed tonight. His guild and Kirito's party were going to eat, drink, and be merry. In Aincrad, you stole every moment of peace you could.

…Klein so wasn't surprised when, midway through a pie his taste buds insisted was apple—and Kizmel dryly said he didn't want to know the actual ingredients of—Asuna abruptly stiffened, eyes wide. Then sighed, rolled her eyes, and brought up her menu.

"News, Aa-chan?" Argo prompted, for once deadly serious as she leaned over the table.

"Mm-hm," the brunette replied, eyes tracking back and forth as she read a message Klein couldn't see. "It's from the Commander. …He wants me back on the frontlines tomorrow. And he says to bring Kirito-kun and Kizmel with me."

"That doesn't sound good," Kirito said quietly, dark eyes narrow. "Does he say why?"

"Not exactly." Asuna looked up from the message, mouth tight. "But he does say they've been exploring the labyrinth faster than expected. …They found the boss chamber yesterday."

November 7th, 2024

The clang as their bootheels rang on Granzam's steel streets was as irritating as Kizmel remembered. The Steel City was one of her least favorite places in Aincrad, and the noise was one of the main reasons why. It was austere, cold, and loud; she suspected that was a large part of why the Knights of the Blood were essentially the only Swordmasters who still frequented the city.

Why even the KoB still favored it for their headquarters, even Asuna hadn't been able to explain. Kizmel rather thought it fit the Paladin Heathcliff's cool detachment, however.

In any case, as she, Kirito, and Asuna approached the steel citadel the KoB called home, she found herself envious of Rain and Philia. Since only two of them had been requested by Heathcliff anyway, the other girls had jumped at the chance to stay at the cabana and sort out supplies for what they all suspected was coming. Quite unfair of them, that.

Though as the three of them passed the KoB guards and stepped into the guildhall itself, that wasn't really the crux of Kizmel's unhappiness. Two weeks, she thought, stifling a sigh. Little more than two weeks we had for our honeymoon. Truly, I'd hoped for more, before we had to face the rest of the world again.

At least Granzam's sparse population meant the only people around to stare at Kirito's swords were the handful of Knights they passed in the guildhall's metal hallways. Now that the secret was out, there was no more point in hiding his Dual Blades, but that made none of them any happier about the attention.

When they were ushered into the KoB's conference room, Kizmel quickly realized that was likely the least of their worries. The last time she'd been there, it had been for the briefing before the Laughing Coffin Crusade. She'd thought the faces there had been grim then. This time, several of those present were outright pale.

Heathcliff sat at the center of the semi-circular table, as usual, light from the tall windows behind him giving him an eerie cast. He was flanked by several of the KoB's team leaders; Kizmel recognized the bearded Knight Godfree at a glance, and her ears twitched at the sight of Kuradeel, standing off to one side. And just like the last time she'd been in that room, the DDA's Lind and Legend Braves' Orlando were also present.

She exchanged an uneasy glance with Kirito. Both of them kept their silence, as Asuna stepped forward. "We're here, Commander," the fencer said quietly. "What's happened?"

Unlike the others, Heathcliff was as cool and dispassionate as ever, his metallic eyes calm. "I apologize for interrupting your leave, Asuna-kun," he said, clasping his hands under his chin. "However, I feel we have no choice. Two days ago, we discovered the Seventy-Fifth Floor's boss chamber. We of course arranged a scouting party as soon as possible." He paused, just for a breath. "They were wiped out."

"Wiped out?!" Kirito blurted, startled out of his usual reticence.

Kizmel couldn't blame him. She could only stare at Heathcliff in shock herself. "How?" she asked numbly. "In all the time I've fought with the Swordmasters, not once has the scouting party so much as suffered a single casualty." Barring the Gleam Eyes, but what Kobatz did was pure madness. Surely the KoB would not have been so foolish…?

"We're not sure," Lind told her, his usual prickliness completely in abeyance. The DDA guildmaster was pale, hands fisted on the table. "As you may have heard, clearing of the Seventy-Fifth Floor has been grueling, but—up to yesterday—casualty-free. We mapped it out quickly enough, dealt with the Field Boss with relatively little difficulty, and even navigated the labyrinth without a single death. When a KoB party found the boss room, Commander Heathcliff alerted the other guilds, and a joint scouting party was assembled."

"Knowing that this is a quarter-boss, none of us wanted to take chances," Godfree put in, bearded face drawn. "This isn't the time for guild politics."

He would know. Godfree had been there for the Fiftieth Floor's climax, after all. Kizmel hadn't seen him in a boss fight since, but he certainly knew what the quarter-bosses were like from all too personal experience.

"We dispatched twenty players," Heathcliff said, picking up the story. He turned in his chair, looking out the tall window behind him. "Nine each from the KoB and DDA, and two solos. Ten of them entered the boss room—at which point the doors slammed shut."

Not unheard of. The very first boss raid Kizmel had aided, on the Fourth Floor—long before she'd ever joined the clearing group directly—had had the doors close behind the raiders, requiring outside assistance to open. That had been part of the boss' unique mechanics; lethal if faced conventionally, yet survivable with aid. When the doors were opened from the outside….

Asuna was clearly following the same train of thought. "The remaining scouts couldn't open the doors from the outside?" she asked, only the faintest tremor in her voice betraying the fear Kizmel could see plainly. "Like we could with Wythege, on the Fourth Floor?"

"Not by force, nor by Lock-picking," Heathcliff confirmed calmly. Looking out the window, up at the floor above—perhaps picturing that boss chamber, far above—he continued, "Ten minutes later, the doors opened again on their own. There was nothing inside. Not the boss, nor any of the scouts."

Kirito shuddered. "An anti-crystal trap," he whispered, hands clenching. "Right?"

Kizmel couldn't help a shiver of her own, her mouth suddenly dust-dry. The Seventy-Fourth Floor boss room had also been anti-crystal trap, yet the doors had at least remained open throughout, allowing her party and Fuurinkazan to rescue the Army forces.

But I remember a boss that did lock us in, with no escape via crystal. Seven of us went in, three came out, and one was forever broken.

She still remembered, vividly, the Commandant. The last Fallen Elf she'd ever faced, who with his small group had destroyed the Black Cats. Just as she remembered the only reason she had survived was Kirito, facing a terrible choice, leaping to her rescue.

She would never forget the sound Sasamaru made as he died in her place, nor Keita's scream of anguish.

"Asuna-kun reported that was the case with the Seventy-Fourth Floor…. Yes, we believe the same holds true here." Heathcliff turned back to face them, eyes still showing that terrible calm. "We checked the Monument of Life, in the Black Iron Castle. The results were as you surmise."

Kizmel edged closer to Kirito, hand nudging his despite the observers. More for his comfort, or hers, she couldn't say. They had all known the next boss would be difficult; after the Twenty-Fifth and Fiftieth Floor Bosses, that had been inevitable. This, though, exceeded even their fears.

Locked doors, and an anti-crystal trap…. Even against Vemacitrin, running away was always a possibility, if not a good one. This… no recourse, and no retreat. Nor reconnaissance. This is a battle we must do right, on the first attempt, or doom everyone in Aincrad.

She realized both she and Asuna were starting to lean against Kirito. Heathcliff noticed, too, and gave a slow, somber nod. "You see now why I called you here. Vice-Commander Asuna, Team Kirito, Fuurinkazan… we need all our best fighters for this. Only the strongest have a hope of defeating such a boss with no advance information.

"And if we fail, the six thousand players counting on us will never escape SAO."

Asuna stayed behind after the meeting, to help organize the KoB's parties for the boss fight. Kirito and Kizmel went to Fuurinkazan's guildhall, where Rain and Philia were already waiting. The samurai guild needed the news, and there wasn't room at Team Kirito's cabana for everyone. Not to mention, though Kirito would never tell a soul—except maybe Kizmel—he felt an urgent need to let someone responsible know. Just so that it didn't feel like it was all on his own shoulders.

Klein would say I'm being arrogant. He'd probably be right. Doesn't make it any easier not to feel that way.

Not that Klein seemed to notice how Kirito was feeling, as he digested the report. His guild and Kirito's party were gathered around the table in Fuurinkazan's main hall, and the guildmaster himself was staring hard at the tabletop. "Ten scouts dead," he said flatly, after a long silence. "An anti-crystal trap. And the doors locked behind them?" He swallowed, face pale. "Was the Fiftieth Floor Boss this bad?"

"No," Kizmel said quietly. Leaning heavily against Kirito's right shoulder, she slowly shook her head. "No, it was not."

"No trap, no locked doors, and the scouts got out fine," Kirito elaborated, gently rubbing the elf girl's back. At least comforting her distracted him from his own tension. A little. "As bad as the fight was, it didn't have gimmicks like that."

"It was still bad enough." Rain's fingers were clenched tight around a steaming mug of tea, and she was staring at the table. Probably, Kirito figured, having the same flashbacks he was. "Eight dead. If it weren't for Heathcliff holding the line and Asuna rallying the survivors, it would've been worse."

"A lot worse." Philia's quiet voice had none of her usual cheer, as she sat sideways on the bench, knees drawn up to her chin. "I'd been in boss fights before. I've been in a lot since. None of them were like that… that thing. Most bosses, they don't feel personal, y'know? Vemacitrin did."

Kirito nodded. Not that Vemacitrin was the only one that did that. That thing laughed at us, like it was hyped up on the battle. Before that, though, that two-headed giant that almost killed off the ALF… that one was smug, too. Grinning. And it came off as downright mad, when it was close to dead.

But he was the only one in the room who'd been there for that horrible battle. No sense making anybody even more tense, as bad as things already looked.

"It's a quarter-boss," he said finally. "Fiftieth was worse than Twenty-Fifth. This is going to be worse yet." Kirito looked at the pale faces around the table—especially Lux, who was shaking like a leaf—and tried to force his voice to stay level. "We need all the help we can get for this one. But if you guys want to sit it out, I don't think anyone will blame you."

Definitely not me. I'm just about to run screaming for the lower floors myself. If I stop to think about what tomorrow is really going to be like, I….

Somehow, looking around the table, Kirito wasn't surprised when Sachi was the first to break the stillness. Taking a deep, shaky breath, she looked over the rest of her guild. Her eyes finally settled on Klein, and she gave a firm nod.

Klein grimaced, but after a quick glance of his own at the others, it was his turn to nod. "Lux stays here," he said quietly. "But the rest of us…." His eyes flickered over the others, none of whom flinched. "We're in, Kirito." He squared his shoulders. "We have to be."

Kirito tried not to sag in relief. He hated the idea of dragging Fuurinkazan into a fight he knew was going to be bad. All the same, there was no guild he'd have rather had with his team. More than the KoB, way more than the DDA, he trusted Fuurinkazan to take care of themselves.

He couldn't bring himself to speak, though. He just nodded back, and tried not to make it too obvious he was leaning back against Kizmel. He couldn't thank Klein, not for this. Not when he felt like he was asking them all to walk into the jaws of death. From the wry smile on the samurai's face, though, Klein at least understood.

He always does.

After another long silence—marred only by Dynamm hauling out and wordlessly pouring sake for everyone—Rain cleared her throat. "Have to say, I'm glad you guys are coming," she said. "So… maybe you can help us out a little?"

Eh? Kirito exchanged a puzzled look with Kizmel. Not that he'd really thought ahead beyond getting Fuurinkazan's take on the whole situation, but he couldn't think of anything they might've needed from the guild.

Klein took a swig of sake, set the cup down, and met the redhead's eyes. "Name it," he said firmly. "Anything we can do for you, you've got it. Especially now."

"We're going into a quarter-boss." Rain leaned forward, resting her elbows on the table and chin on her hands. "I don't think this is a good fight to go into shorthanded."

Kirito covered his face with his free hand. He really should've thought of that himself. "Asuna's going to be busy with the KoB this time," he said, thinking aloud. "And most of the other solos are probably going to just sit it out. Yeah… that could be a problem."

A hand immediately went up on the Fuurinkazan side of the table. Klein didn't even bother to look, only smiling wryly again. "I think we can give you a hand there. Even with Lux staying out of it, Fuurinkazan would be over the party limit, and I don't want any of us going with a stranger. Sachi, you mind moonlighting with the Black Beaters?"

…Whoever told Klein about that joke, I'm going to maim. Even if I had a guild, I wouldn't name it something so edgy!

"I'd be glad to," Sachi said, lowering her hand and smiling wanly. "Team Kirito's done a lot for me. It's time I paid them back." She turned that smile on Kirito and Kizmel, and gave a sitting bow. "I'll be in your care again tomorrow, then."

"Y-yeah." Kirito tried not to flinch, and reminded himself firmly that a lot had changed since the Commandant. Even if it didn't turn out great, everybody survived Nicholas. And she and the girls had a great time last week. This will be fine… right? Forcing back bad memories, he cleared his throat. "We'll be glad to have you with us, Sachi."

"Yep!" Philia swung her legs off the bench, and raised her sake mug in a salute. "But… that still leaves us one short, right?"

Too true. Kirito frowned, mentally reviewing the unaffiliated Swordmasters he knew. Lisbeth could handle event bosses, but nothing on the frontlines, much less a Field Boss. Argo was completely out of the question, with her fragile build. Um. Who do I know who can handle clearing, and might be up for this…?

The guildhall's door abruptly swung open, startling him. "Hey! You guys start the party without me?"

Trying to twist to look back without tumbling himself and Kizmel off the bench, Kirito managed to get a glimpse of the door. The sight left him blinking in surprise. "Agil?" he blurted. "What are you doing here?"

"Klein called me in," the big merchant replied, sauntering in with a grin. "Said something big was going down—though I coulda guessed that, with the rumors flying around." He swung himself onto a bench, and his expression sobered. "He also said you guys needed a hand or two. That right?"

Klein, you're just…. Heh. Fine. "We're shorthanded, yeah," Kirito admitted. "Fuurinkazan's loaning us Sachi, but that still leaves us with one open slot." He hesitated, eyeing the axeman carefully. "You sure you're up for this, Agil? You haven't been in a Floor Boss in ages."

"Hey, I may be more a merchant than a clearer these days, but how do you think I get the good stuff?" Agil tapped the handle of the heavy two-handed axe slung over his back. "I may not be at your Level, Kirito, but I'm still right up there with most of the KoB or those DDA jokers. And I'll bet you I've got better gear than most. You need a sixth guy, you've got one." He paused then, and gave the group around the table a long look. "…Second guy," the merchant amended, a grin sliding back onto his face. "Damn, but you really do find every girl on the frontlines, don't you?"

That got chuckles, easing even more of the tension. Along with a blush from Rain, an impish grin from Philia, and a downright smug smile from Kizmel. The elf girl leaned into Kirito's shoulder again, much more relaxed than she'd been earlier.

Kirito groaned. He didn't bother trying to retort, though. Not like he could really deny that most of the Swordmasters on his Friends List were girls, after all.

Agil seemed to decide to let him off easy, fortunately, and turned his attention to Klein. "Speaking of girls. I don't see Griselda around today. Everything okay there?"

"Hey, it's not like she's around all the time…." Klein was hiding a grin—poorly—but his expression quickly turned serious. "I haven't seen her since yesterday. She said she had a bad feeling about something, so she went off… somewhere. I think it's got something to do with her old guild, but I didn't want to ask." He shrugged. "She's a ghost; can't imagine she's in any danger. Enough about that, though! You're here anyway, Agil, so how about we make some deals?"

"Oh?" Agil grinned. "The magic word, my man! And wouldn't you know it, I've got some pre-boss specials right now. For example, some rare mats that might be perfect for that Demon sword of yours…."

As the others started talking supplies, Kizmel lifted her head to look at Kirito, one eyebrow arched. "'Black Beaters'?" she murmured, a hint of a smirk curling her lips.

Kirito groaned. "It was a joke Agil made, back on the Third Floor," he muttered. "When the major guilds were starting up, and some people had the crazy idea I might want to start one, Agil suggested I call it that. Still don't know if he was joking; he and his merchant buddies looked like they might be considering it. Crazy people…."

He clung to Kizmel's quiet laughter. In that moment, life was good. He wanted to hold onto that, as long as he could.

Staring at the spreadsheets floating in the air before her, Asuna couldn't suppress a sigh. She'd much rather have been at her home in the lakeside town of Selmburg, doing more research on recipes. Instead, she was sitting behind a metal desk in her office in the KoB headquarters, looking at lists of known clearers. Trying to put them together in a useful configuration, she was quickly discovering, was even harder than working through SAO's Byzantine flavor engine.

It would be nice if the Commander would get his hands dirty with raid planning once in a while, she groused to herself, nudging the names on one of the lists with an idle finger. But no, he's busy coordinating with Daizen on gearing up, instead. Sure, we need that, too, but honestly!

Not that being saddled with raid planning was new to Asuna, fifty floors after Heathcliff recruited her to be his second-in-command. Still, this one was different. She couldn't count on all the usual suspects being available for the raid; too many of them were too scared of fighting a quarter-boss, and even more had taken themselves out of the running after the scout report had come in. The pool that left was a lot smaller than she liked, and that was leaving aside how many of them she wasn't sure she wanted in a raid.

So far, the list in the center of her menu was about half full. She was relieved to see most of Fuurinkazan on it, and more to see they'd lent Sachi to fill out Team Kirito. Agil taking the other spot was a pleasant surprise; between them, it meant she didn't have to worry about her old partner. At least, no more than usual. That was also a full quarter of the raid group right there, taking a load off her Vice-Commander shoulders.

And I'll give Lind this much, Asuna mused, tracing her finger down the next batch of names. He runs a tight ship. I know we can count on Shivata and Liten… and I may not like Orochi or Quetzalcoatl much, but they're good fighters. Okotan's reliable enough when he's not getting ahead of himself. And… okay, Schmidt, I can live with.

The former Golden Apple tank was just about the most skittish clearer Asuna knew. He was also, since the mess on the Fifty-Seventh Floor, generally a lot more afraid of what would happen if he didn't fight than if he did. She supposed his guilt over Griselda's death had a lot to do with that.

The DDA list was incomplete, but she'd trust Lind to fill in the placeholders in time. As much as his ego annoyed her, there was a reason his guild was the biggest on the frontlines.

It's mine I'm worried about.

The Knights of the Blood were supposed to be an elite. When Heathcliff had founded the guild, in the wake of the disaster on the Twenty-Fifth Floor, it really had been. He'd personally recruited the best Swordmasters willing to keep going, even poaching a couple from the ALF survivors. For the guild's first year, he'd held to those high standards, and secured the KoB's reputation as being even better than the DDA—as well as, just incidentally, making Asuna the default raid leader.

Lately, I'm not so sure. Ever since the Commander started delegating recruitment….

Sighing again, Asuna struck one name from the KoB's raid candidates with a vicious swipe of her finger. She had no idea why Kuradeel had even put himself forward for consideration, and she honestly didn't care. She did not trust him to have her back—or anyone else's—in a raid. His behavior during his brief stint as her bodyguard had disturbed her greatly, and her duel with him had proven decisively he had neither the skills nor the gear for a major fight anyway.

With no regret, she tossed Kuradeel from the list. The next did give her pause, though for a different reason. Godfree's asking to be part of the raid? He hasn't fought a boss since Vemacitrin. I thought that scared him off raids completely. The bearded two-handed swordsman had focused on training up new members of the guild ever since.

He did have the skills, though, and his training duties meant he'd kept reasonably up to date on leveling. Lack of recent raid experience wasn't ideal, but she had to admit they weren't in a position to be that choosy. With a shrug, Asuna slid his name over to the raid list.

A quick glance over the other Knights failed to give her immediate inspiration, so for a moment she shifted her attention to the "miscellaneous" page. One thing she'd noticed immediately was that the Legend Braves had popped up again; that guild had a tendency to fight brilliantly through two or three Floor Bosses, then disappear from the frontlines for a month or more. As nearly as Asuna had ever been able to tell, they always made sure they had the very best equipment they could buy, went broke in the process, and had to grind for Cor as soon as their latest gear was obsolete.

Probably, she thought with a pang, making sure they don't have a repeat of Vemacitrin. They haven't been the same since they lost Beowulf. I'm surprised they're willing to try another quarter-boss.

Well, if they were up to it, fine. She had no qualms adding them to the raid list. The next two, though, genuinely surprised her. Kumari and Krueger? Weren't those the ones Kuze controlled with that Armlet, back on the Fifty-Seventh Floor? Never thought I'd see them on the frontlines again.

Honestly, Asuna didn't know much about them. Right then, though, beggars couldn't be choosers, and "unknown" was better than some of the "knowns" from her own guild.

So, that's about three-quarters, assuming Lind comes through with the rest of his people…. Ugh. Right now I wish I had a Vice-Vice-Commander to toss this on. Kirito-kun and Kizmel are probably at a hot spring or something right about now.

She hoped so, anyway. The one silver lining to her own task was that it kept her from thinking too much about what the raid itself was going to be like. As twitchy as she'd seen Kirito being lately, she knew he needed the best distraction he could get, too.

It took another hour after that to put together a full list of forty-eight players both available and suitable for the raid, between questions of competence and having to get in touch with some of them individually to check their status. Finally, though, all was in order, and Asuna gratefully pushed herself up from her desk. All she still needed to do was turn in the list to Heathcliff and get her own gear in order, then she could go try to relax for the balance of the day.

When she stepped out of her office, she was unhappily surprised to see someone waiting for her. "Asuna-sama!" Kuradeel called out, straightening from a too-casual lean against the wall. "Are you finished organizing the raid party?"

"I am," she said coolly, setting off toward Heathcliff's office at a brisk walk. "The final list will be announced at the meeting tonight…. Did you have something to say to me, Kuradeel?"

Not very polite of her, but then hovering outside her office was pretty rude, too.

Asuna didn't bother to look to see Kuradeel's expression, but the long pause spoke volumes. "You should be staying out of this battle, Asuna-sama," he said, boots ringing on the steel floor as he hurried to catch up with her. "This boss fight is going to be bad, we all know it. If something goes wrong, we need you—"

"I'm needed to make sure it doesn't go wrong, Kuradeel," she replied flatly. Though several other Knights were passing through the hall, glancing curiously at the exchange, she didn't bother to lower her voice. "I know what I'm doing."

A sigh, hissing through clenched teeth. "Then at least tell me I'll be in the raid," he pleaded. "You need someone to look after you, make sure you aren't hurt!"

The one good thing about that statement was that one Knight hurrying toward the armory stopped in his tracks, giving Kuradeel an incredulous look. That told Asuna that some of the guild's lower ranks had something resembling brains.

She herself paused, just meters from Heathcliff's door, and took a deep breath. I don't care about his opinion, but tearing his head off in front of the guild wouldn't look good right now, she told herself.

Finally, she turned her head, just enough to see his shoulder out of the corner of her eye. "Kuradeel. You are not ready for a raid. If you want to participate in the next floor's boss raid, I suggest you talk to Daizen about better gear, and join one of Godfree's training classes."

Asuna didn't have a Dark Elf's ears. Her stats were still more than good enough to pick up Kuradeel's teeth grinding. "Asuna-sama—"

"This isn't a debate, Kuradeel. And I have work to do. As, I'm sure, do you." Without waiting for further response, she walked quickly to Heathcliff's office, somehow restraining herself from throwing the door wide open.

I'm really going to have to talk to the Commander about him, after the raid. And I think I'll crash at Team Kirito's place tonight; I don't want to risk finding him stalking my house again….

"…Never escape, huh…?"

Kirito stared at the wooden ceiling of the bedroom, illuminated only by Aincrad's sourceless blue night-lighting, and desperately wished he could sleep. He'd done all he could to keep his mind off the reality of what would be happening the next day—off Heathcliff's ominous proclamation—but in the end there had only been so many ways he could distract himself.

After the meeting with Fuurinkazan, his team had taken up as much of the day as they could sparring, brushing up on even the Sword Skills they didn't use very much, too slow or awkward for ordinary encounters. Making absolutely sure their two-week vacation hadn't dulled the fine edges they needed for frontline fighting. Asuna had joined them in the middle of that, once she'd done everything she could to prepare her guild for what was coming.

None of them had wanted to think too much, remembering Vemacitrin, and knowing what was coming had hazards even that horrible battle had lacked. Hours of training, Kirito suspected they'd all hoped, would help them sleep through the night.

For Asuna, it looked like it had even worked. She was tucked into a hammock they'd set up on one side of the master bedroom, just for nights when she stayed over like this, and was breathing slowly and evenly. Philia and Rain, he thought, might well have managed, too, from how tired they'd looked when they turned in for the night.

Kirito wasn't so lucky, and for all her own silence, he could tell the elf girl in his arms wasn't resting peacefully yet, either. The others were just remembering Vemacitrin. The two of them had that—and the memory of another battle, more than a year before, that had had the deadly conditions this new boss fight promised.

Bad enough to be trapped against a minor event boss that was balanced for ordinary content. If we'd had accurate intel, the Black Cats would've survived the Commandant, easy. A Floor Boss, and a quarter-boss on top of that? …This is going to be bad. Maybe the worst thing ever.

The last time he'd been this scared, it was when Kizmel learned the truth of the world.

Remembering that fear, as well, Kirito couldn't help shivering. The memories, the future, all that he had to lose—he'd tried not to think about it for months. Now all of it was crashing down on him, and he couldn't ignore it or put it off for later. In barely twelve hours, he risked losing everything. Even if all went well then, he was still one big step closer to what really terrified him.

Kizmel noticed his shaking, then, and lifted her head to look at him. Though she kept silent, the look in her violet eyes spoke as eloquently as any words. Without saying anything, she demanded an answer.

"…Kizmel," he whispered, so low only those long, pointed ears would catch his voice. "I… I know this sounds crazy, but… maybe we should just sit out tomorrow's boss fight. Just this once…."

For a long moment, she only stared at him. "I have known you for two years, Kirito-kun," she said finally. "That may be the first time you've truly offended me."

The words hit Kirito harder than any slap. He flinched, swallowing hard at the sharp look in her eyes, and the deep frown she was giving him. She'd never looked at him like that before.

"I, too, fear what awaits us tomorrow," she said, quietly but sharply. "I have little doubt it will be the hardest battle we've yet faced. Likely, people will die." He flinched harder at that, but she kept on. "But Heathcliff was right. If we don't give this our best, everyone still hoping for escape from this world will die. The other clearers know all this. They are still going to fight.

"If we run from this, Kirito-kun, we're nothing but cowards."

Kirito squeezed his eyes shut, unable to take her hard stare any longer. Or her cutting words. Because he couldn't deny any of it. Six thousand people were counting on them, and if they failed, the four thousand who'd already died would have died in vain. But… but I still….

"This isn't like you." Kizmel's voice softened, and he felt a hand reach up to his cheek. "Kirito-kun. This isn't just about the boss, is it?"

He took a long, shuddering breath. Opened his eyes, and caught her hand with his. "…I don't want the game to end," he whispered. "Kizmel… I love this world. I love being here with you. Do we… really have to leave it? Leave all this behind?" He gently rubbed the ring she wore on her left hand, the only thing she wore to bed now. "I'm afraid… of losing this. You. My friends."

Friends. It was still so strange, to realize what he'd gained in the last two years. How close he'd gotten to some of the people around him. He'd never be an extrovert, but there in Aincrad, he'd found he wasn't completely alone. There were people who trusted him, in ways he'd never thought possible.

The first time, after that shocking experience in the sauna, that Philia had walked right in on him in the bath at the cabana, Kirito had choked and fallen into the tub. He'd nearly drowned right there, so startled that the girls had really meant it when they accepted his presence that time. Since then, seeing that much skin from the other girls in his team had become just another part of their normal, not even worth remarking on.

After their long sparring, that very day, his team and Asuna had even gone to Onzenna's hot springs together. Without even talking about it, they'd reaffirmed the trust they had, in each other and in him. With none of the awkwardness from Erumo's sauna, it had just been… normal.

They trusted him with their lives. With their everything. As natural as breathing, his friends trusted him.

"Everything I have," Kirito said haltingly, his free hand gently running up and down Kizmel's smooth, toned back, "everything I am… Aincrad gave it to me. When that's over…."

He didn't even want to think about it. The Steel Castle, gone? He'd spent two years walking its paths, exploring its dungeons. Living in its farmhouses, castles, island retreats. Living its lore. Loving what—who—was born here.

Kizmel stared at him for a long, long moment. Then, finally, she leaned in and kissed him, long and deep. When she eventually had to break away for air, she cuddled closer, breath ticking his ear. "It frightens me, too," she murmured. "I remember the Commandant, and Vemacitrin. I remember that we still don't know what I am, or exactly what will become of me when this twisted game is won. But, Kirito-kun… as much as I would love to remain here, safe, with you, this life could never last forever."

She slipped one arm under and around his back, pressing herself close to his chest. Her other hand found his, fingers twining with his. This close, he could feel her heart clearly, beating faster than her calm voice suggested.

"I've spoken with Argo, and Asuna, about this," the elf girl whispered. "Klein and Agil, too. And I have read many books, in the Library of the Ancients." She took a shaky breath. "Kirito-kun. Your real bodies… they are all kept alive mechanically, aren't they?"

Kirito nodded against her shoulder. A few days after Kayaba's twisted "tutorial", every Swordmaster had received an abrupt disconnect notice, and spent a harrowing hour in darkness. With the gamemaster's warning still hideously fresh, he was sure he hadn't been the only one expecting to see the [You Are Dead] notice.

They'd all survived, and by some miracle—or some foresight from Kayaba, in the interests of "fair play"—no one had even died to monsters in that time. The best guess he'd heard was that that had been when the players were all transferred to hospitals, for the long-term care few families could afford at home.

"I may not know the 'real world' very well, Kirito-kun," Kizmel continued quietly. "But everything I've heard and read agrees: your bodies cannot be so sustained forever."

He felt a sudden, bone-deep chill at that. A truth he should've already known; probably would have, if he hadn't deliberately shut away thoughts of the real world. Though their bodies were functional, so all that was likely needed was nutritional aid, the human body simply wasn't designed to be so completely sedentary for years on end.

And that's healthy bodies. Anyone with health problems….

Kirito swallowed hard. "You're saying there's a time limit, no matter what we do. No matter what Kayaba does."

"Indeed. And, forgive my cynicism, but I suspect there is a limit to how long those responsible for caring for your bodies will do so."

He couldn't help a wince. The Japanese government, he believed, was a compassionate one, but sooner or later someone, somewhere, would make a cost-benefit analysis. One that would look at hard numbers, not sentiment.

"…I don't want the game to end," he breathed, closing his eyes.

"Mm. But it must, Kirito-kun. We've not the right to prolong this for our own selfish happiness." Kizmel drew back far enough to meet his eyes again, hand cupping his cheek. "Kirito-kun. We must believe that there is a way for me to leave this world with you. I cannot believe even Kayaba would be so cruel. And truthfully, I want to see your world. Even were it possible to stay here forever, I would rather see a larger world."

Kirito made himself focus on that thought—on Kizmel, brought to Japan, whatever miracle it would take—and managed a smile at some of the images that conjured up. "I think you'll like Tokyo Tower… but picturing you doing karaoke is breaking my brain."

The smile the elf girl gave him in return helped push away more of the paralyzing terror. "Then I will have to try it, just for the look on your face. Though truly, the first thing I want to see is your home, and your family. My own family, whatever they might have been, are gone now. If your family is anything like you, I cannot wait to meet them."

…That's still a scary thought. Suguha's brain will break, and Mom and Dad…. I'll have to warn Kizmel not to do—this—when they're home. If that's even….

"Kirito-kun." When his eyes focused on her again, Kizmel shook her head. "Everything you have, you may have gained here… but why in the world do you think you will lose it all, when the Steel Castle falls?" She nodded to Asuna, still sleeping quietly across the room. "Do you truly believe your friends would abandon you, just because this world is gone?"

"…I have no idea," Kirito admitted. "I don't even know who they really are." Even Asuna had only ever dropped a few hints, in the months they'd been partners, and the year and more since. Just enough to tell him they came from very different levels of society.

"You know who they are here," Kizmel said firmly. "Whatever—whoever—else they may be, you know them as Swordmasters. Some may try to forget this world, when they return to 'reality'. You, and those who have bonded with you, will always carry this world with you. I'm sure of it."

She leaned back in then, snuggling close. The feel of her soft warmth, the smell of pine and sakura blossoms, overwhelmed his senses. Sleep, finally, began to creep up on him.

"We will fight tomorrow, Kirito-kun," she whispered. "We must. …Promise me, Kirito-kun: promise… that you'll show me your world's stars…."

November 8th, 2024

Kirito had never seen Collinia, central town of the Seventy-Fifth Floor, before. His team had let Fuurinkazan activate the Teleport Gate, after the Gleam Eyes' defeat, and spent the weeks since on lower floors. The first he saw of the town was its Teleport Plaza; as he and his team walked out of the Gate, he suspected he wouldn't be seeing much else of it for awhile.

There was already a crowd milling about. Around the fringes of the Plaza, he could see a fair few yellow cursors; mostly shop keepers and other NPCs going about their business, but several were also watching the Gate with programmed curiosity. More than that, he recognized a crowd of green cursors—Swordmasters come to gawk at the raid, he figured. Over two weeks since the floor had been opened, he doubted the tourist types were still hanging around.

The ones here in the Plaza itself, though….

Behind him, Rain sighed in relief. "Looks like we've got a full raid forming up after all. I was afraid a lot of the usual gang would be too scared to join up for this one."

For this raid, the redhead had modified the style she'd mostly kept to since the Fifty-First Floor. Like Kirito, she still wore a long coat, but hers only went down to her knees, and this new one was deep red, with chitinous armor plates over the chest. Though she only visibly wore one sword, Kirito knew she'd spent most of her savings strengthening as much of her collection as she could for this battle.

"Anybody who was gonna flake out that bad would've after the zombies, Rain." Philia stretched, the picture of nonchalance. "'Sides, whatever happened to the scouts, us beating the Gleam Eyes with a botched raid prolly helped. Us frontliners are ahead of the curve, and everybody knows it now."

The treasure hunter had chosen armor that left her entire midriff exposed, along with more of her chest than Kirito thought was quite decent. As far as he could tell, her short cape was about the only thing covering her back. She claimed the outfit had defense bonuses better than Rain's armored coat.

Probably does, too, if I know my RPG armor. Even if SAO doesn't have much armor like that, I bet it makes the ones it does have count.

"We'll have to be," Asuna said quietly, chin lifted and face set in her "confident Vice-Commander" expression. She still wore the same armor as ever, but given that it was made by the KoB for their favorite leader, Kirito was sure it was top of the line. "This is a battle we can't afford to lose."

Yeah. There had been a couple of bosses, in the past two years, that had forced the clearers to retreat and try again. This time, that wasn't an option. And we don't even have scouting reports on this one. …I have a really bad feeling about this….

Kizmel gripped his hand. "We will be," she said firmly. "And remember, everyone: if we defeat this boss, we should have little to fear until we reach the Ruby Palace itself. We must remember, not every battle will be like today's."

"Damn straight, Kizmel." As Team Kirito stepped out into the Plaza to make room, Klein led Fuurinkazan out of the Gate's blue glow. "We beat this thing, then we kick back and save the worries for the end. By the time we get there, we'll be ready to beat Kayaba himself, if we have to!"

Klein. Kirito's first friend in Aincrad, and the most reliable man he knew. If Fuurinkazan was going to be there, in top shape, he could let himself be that much calmer. As good as some of the KoB and Divine Dragon clearers were, he knew Fuurinkazan. Even Sachi, late addition though she'd been, had turned out to be one of the best fighters he'd ever seen.

As expected, one face was absent from the lineup. "She doing okay?"

The samurai nodded slightly, not needing to ask who Kirito meant, and leaned in close. "Lux is back at the guildhall," he said quietly. "Griselda turned up again this morning, so she's keeping her company."

"Good to know."

Even if Kirito wasn't quite sure having a ghost for company would quite calm Lux down when her guildmates were facing what was probably going to be the worst boss yet.

"More importantly!" Klein turned back to his guild. "Sachi? You ready to help out this gang of misfits?"

Sachi nodded, trotting over to Team Kirito with a smile. "Of course. Just like old times, right?" Her smile slipped. "Well… hopefully better than old times."

Yeah. Hopefully. Kirito liked Sachi, he really did, but the times he'd worked with her directly had been some of the most traumatic of his time in Aincrad. Even if only one led to anybody dying. …Anyone I knew, anyway, he amended, even as he sent the blue-haired girl a party invite.

He was distracted from that, though, by the Gate flaring again. This time it was a single tall, dark-skinned man who stepped out, axe casually slung against his shoulder. "Yo! Hope I'm not late."

"Agil!" Asuna ran over to meet him, smiling. "I'm glad you made it, Kirito-kun's party really needs the help…. Are you sure your gear and levels are up to it, though? You haven't been in a Floor Boss raid in months!"

The big merchant grinned. "What, you think I could miss a fight like this? C'mon, girl! Of course I'm generous enough to help out. It's worth closing my shop for one day for this. And don't you worry. Business has been booming, so I got the best gear I could buy, and I've been out farming mats for the store enough my levels are just fine."

Kirito couldn't help a smirk at Agil's antics. "So," he called out, "since you're feeling generous today, we can leave you out of divvying up the loot, right?"

Agil's eyes widened, and he quickly raised his hands. "Now, hold on, let's not be taking advantage of my generosity, here! A man's gotta eat!"

That got some much-needed laughs. And if Kirito suddenly felt self-conscious, from how the laughter even spread to the Divine Dragons, he still couldn't regret it. They needed to relax, if they were going to pull through. Terrified people made mistakes. Lethal ones.

It's not going to be lethal, he told himself, shifting his shoulders and the twin scabbards slung over them. We're using every advantage we have today. I'm not holding anything back, either. Not this time. …Huh. Even if the Gleam Eyes hadn't forced me to reveal it, I'd probably still have to pull out the Dual Blades today. I guess it was better to get the surprise over with, instead of distracting people today.

He hadn't been able to do much for his own equipment before the raid. They still hadn't found the next upgrade condition for the Baneblade, for one thing. But he did have a new coat, and he'd stopped by Lisbeth's shop that morning to squeeze in one more upgrade for Elucidator. It would do.

At least he'd managed to get Kizmel a new breastplate and shield during their honeymoon. That gave him much more peace of mind than anything he'd done for himself.

Concerns about his own equipment were pushed aside in a moment anyway, as the Teleport Gate flared one last time. First came the DDA's Lind, accompanied by his longstanding lieutenants Shivata and Liten. Behind them—

Kirito supposed they didn't call Heathcliff "the Paladin" for nothing. Leading his personal team out into Collinia, he was the picture of calm, holding up his longsword and tower shield like a banner. Where Asuna inspired raiders through beauty and stellar tactics, the KoB's guildmaster had saved entire raids by the sheer example of not being scared.

Asuna was a star, blazing through the night. Heathcliff was a rock, the man who always came through in the end and radiated the sense that he would never fall. That he would never let a raid fall, either. He couldn't save everyone, but no raid he'd led had ever failed.

Too bad Lind still can't accept Heathcliff's the better leader. If he'd just throw in the towel, merge the DDA with the KoB, I'd give them the guild flag. We'd all be better off.

…Yeah, fat chance.

Between the KoB, DDA, Fuurinkazan, and independents like Agil and Kirito's own team, the Teleport Plaza finally held the forty-eight Swordmasters of a full raid party. Much better than the crazy mix they'd gone into the last Floor Boss with, and even Heathcliff looked faintly pleased. The KoB's Guildmaster looked over them all, nodded with a small smile, and moved to stand before them all.

"Thank you all for coming," the red-armored Paladin called out. "You all know how dangerous today's battle will be, yet you all know the stakes just as well. Today, more than any battle before, we need our very best. My Knights of the Blood, and our Vice-Commander—who has led more raids to victory than any other." He gestured grandly with one hand, as Asuna stepped up to his right. "Guildmaster Lind's Divine Dragon Alliance, the guild which was seen more boss raids than even the KoB."

Lind stepped forward, Dragonscale Cloak swirling around him. "My guild has had its differences with the KoB," he pronounced, squaring his shoulders. "But we still carry the will of the first raid leader, Diavel. There's no place for conflict between us today. It doesn't matter who strikes the Last Attack, nor who receives any other bonus. None of that matters today."

Kirito saw Asuna roll her eyes. Not that he blamed her. Two years on, and you're still talking about being Diavel's successor?

Heathcliff ignored Lind's grandstanding, though, and pointed to Klein. "Fuurinkazan, the one guild which has never lost a single member. The samurai who are an example to us all."

Klein blinked, obviously surprised at being singled out. He quickly rallied and gave a deep, formal bow, looking more the samurai lord than bandit for once. "Never lost a guildmate, not going to start today," he said firmly. "We'll hold up our end of things."

He would, too. Kirito regarded Klein as a complete goof most of the time, but there was no one more reliable when the chips were down. If Fuurinkazan had been on the frontlines back then, he was sure there would've been fewer deaths against Vemacitrin.

That was all three major guilds involved, but Heathcliff wasn't done. Turning to the scattered unaffiliated Swordmasters, the guildmaster nodded directly to Kirito himself. "And let us not forget the efforts of those who work best outside the guilds. Merchants like Agil have kept us all supplied, these past two years. Team Kirito has scouted territory no one else would risk. Now, today, we will be counting on the Dual Blades to help tip the scales."

Deeply uncomfortable at the attention—even if he could feel Kizmel's smug smile—Kirito could only manage a jerky bow. "I'll do my best."

"You always do. Even in the dark places, and even when others see only your mask." Heathcliff's gaze lingered on Kirito a moment longer. Then he turned, facing the raid in general again. "You all know the risks. You all know the stakes. And remember: once we've defeated this boss, the difficulty curve will flatten again. Win this, and one of the last hurdles between us and liberation will be cleared!"

Most of the raid cheered, including Rain and Philia. Kirito could only raise a silent hand, unable to bring himself to share the sentiment. Kizmel's light touch on his shoulder reminded him of their talk the night before, and he knew she was right, but that didn't make it any easier on him. I need to talk to Argo again, see if she's heard anything useful yet. In the meantime, though—

His train of thought was completely derailed when Heathcliff reached into a belt pouch, pulled out a crystal. The guildmaster held it high, and Kirito wasn't the only one to gasp. Not the green of a Curing Crystal, the rose of Healing, or even the blue of Teleport, this one was indigo. I don't believe it. He's not actually going to use that, is he—?

"This Corridor Crystal is set to just outside our enemy's lair," Heathcliff announced. Turning away, he called out, "Corridor, open!"

A swirling azure vortex flared open, ready and waiting for the raid to walk through.

Heathcliff didn't seem to notice the muttering the sight provoked. Kirito did, and he found himself exchanging incredulous looks with his own party. A Corridor Crystal, just to save a little time getting to the boss in a fully-mapped dungeon? They couldn't be bought, or made, only found in the field and dropped from rare monsters. Kirito had only seen two in the years he'd been trapped in Aincrad. One of them his team kept for emergencies; the other had been bought by the survivor of the Silver Flags guild, to capture his friends' murderers.

That crystal had bankrupted the survivor. Corridor Crystals had only gotten more expensive since. Heathcliff must've gotten that as a rare drop. Even the KoB can't have the budget to just buy one and throw it away like this!

Behind Kirito, Agil gave a low whistle. "Son of a bitch," the merchant-axeman whispered. "He's gotta be in one hell of a hurry. I couldn't buy one of those if I sold the whole damn shop…."

But Heathcliff didn't seem to think anything of it at all. He only looked over his shoulder, smiled a rare, fierce smile, and waved his hand at the portal. "Everyone, follow me. For liberation!"

Kizmel had long since gotten used to the disorientation of a normal teleport, having first done so via Spirit Trees decades before. Being part of a teleport that carried forty-seven other people left her in a momentary daze, reaching for Kirito's arm to get her bearings as all those people jostled each other.

When she'd secured her footing, she finally had a chance to look around, and look at the Seventy-Fifth Floor's labyrinth for the very first time. She immediately wished she hadn't, unable to stifle a gasp.

Kirito's quick grip on her arm grounded her, and a second look allayed her first, instinctive reaction. The dungeon's walls were indeed obsidian, but also somehow translucent; not the pure, light-drinking black of Fallen Elf fortresses. Not to mention the angles were subtly different, uniformly sharp edges with not even a single curve to be found.

And not even they had mist obscuring the floor. This is… ominous.

"Yeah," her husband murmured. "Spooky, isn't it? But this isn't them." He paused, giving the surroundings a wary look. "…Though I'm not sure it isn't worse."

Frightening thought. Worse, Kizmel couldn't say she didn't have the same feeling. Especially not with as much reason as they had to believe it would be worse than an average Floor Boss.

As the raid set off down the corridor, Heathcliff leading them toward what the map said was a chamber very nearby, she stayed close to Kirito. And prayed the boss chamber itself, at least, would not so closely resemble Fallen Elf work. The last thing she needed was bad memories distracting her.

"And I thought the warehouse with the Golems of Gabirol was bad," Rain muttered. The redhead's fingers were restlessly tapping the hilt of her sword, and Kizmel noticed she kept glancing up at the ceiling. "Oh, man, this really is going to be Vemacitrin all over again…."

"We survived that battle," Asuna reminded her firmly, straying back from the KoB's contingent to walk with them. "We'll survive this one, too."

It was only a few short steps down the misty corridor and around one corner. There, at the end of a very short hall, stood a door so featureless as to be frightening in its own right. Heathcliff walked right up to it, stopped, and turned on his heel.

"Is everyone prepared? Remember, we have no information about the nature of the boss, nor its attack patterns." He gestured to his own party, which Kizmel only then realized included—of all people—Godfree. "The KoB will make the initial attack. Observe its patterns as well as you can, and be prepared to strike as soon as you rotate in. Be quick, and be cautious. Strike hard. Survive."

He waited a moment for that to sink in, then nodded sharply. Raising his tower shield in one hand, Heathcliff placed the other against the door, and pushed.

Team Kirito was right behind the KoB group, walking into the darkness beyond.

Aincrad was a place of wonders Kirito had never imagined. Beautiful vistas, amazing people, and battles that—when not ending in tragedy—he counted as some of the most remarkable experiences of his life. A world that transcended a mere "game".

It was also a place of horrors. The Fallen Elves, the PKers. Zombies, leaving an entire floor dead and lifeless. The Gleam Eyes, a demon that inspired primal terror even before it was fought in a haphazard, unprepared raid. And sometimes, the horror was just… nothing.

As forty-eight Swordmasters charged into the boss room, Kirito saw absolutely nothing but featureless stone. The room was a giant dome, probably reaching high up into the bedrock of the Seventy-Sixth Floor, made of more of the translucent obsidian of the rest of the dungeon. There was absolutely nothing else to distinguish it, not even the torches that had marked the Gleam Eyes' lair.

Not even the boss. He felt a chill at the total absence, only heightened when the boss chamber's doors boomed shut behind the raid, sealing them all in. He'd seen dark boss rooms before, ones where the boss could only be seen in silhouette until the dramatic moment.

I can see straight across, though. And there's… nothing. Is this like the Fifth Floor, where the boss chamber was the boss? Oh, that would be bad….

There was muttering, now, among the raiders, tense whispers as everyone wondered where the boss actually was. To Kirito's right, Kizmel's ears were twitching, her eyes narrowed, shield held up and wary. "Empty?" the elf girl murmured. "No… it has to be here…."

Philia's eyes were glowing green, clearly Searching the room for secret doors or triggers. He honestly doubted she'd find anything, but it wasn't like he had any better ideas. Sachi was fiddling with her cloak, looking ready to turn invisible at any moment. Agil had slid out in front, instinctively playing the tank already. And Rain… if the redhead had been a cat, he was sure her ears would've been flat to her skull.

Tension growing by the moment, the raid fanned out into the chamber, guild by guild and party by party. The DDA went one way, the KoB another, and everyone else split right along with them, cautiously circling the edges of the arena. It had to be there, even if it was somehow built into the room itself, the way Fuscus the Vacant Colossus had been. Maybe we do need to trigger something…?

Then Asuna let out a startled gasp, and snapped her head up. "Above!"

Kirito's first, mad thought was PKers, remembering how the Laughing Coffin Crusade had begun. But no; when his eyes went to the ceiling, it wasn't anything as simple as orange-marked players. Clinging to the ceiling of the dome, it was a mass of stark white bone—and the moment the Swordmasters' collective attention was on it, it let go, twisting in the air to land right in the middle of the chamber, right in the middle of the dispersed raid, on far too many legs.

The thing slammed to the floor hard enough to stagger the entire raid, and for the first ten seconds after the cloud of dust raised by its impact obscured it. When it cleared, Kirito found himself wishing it had stayed out of sight forever.

It was a centipede, if a centipede was ten meters long, built on a hideously elongated human spine, with dozens of bone-blade legs, and a horrifying parody of a human skull for a head. A stretched skull, with two pairs of slanted eye sockets filled with blue flame, and its lower jaw split into side-hinged mandibles. A terrifying sight by itself, the scythe-like arms that flanked the skull completed the image of a beast that should never have existed.

Above its five lifebars, the name [The Skull Reaper] was just the icing on the worst cake Kayaba Akihiko's twisted imagination had ever produced.

Kirito took it all in, in one frozen moment—a moment that was broken by the Skull Reaper abruptly dashing forward, skittering way too fast on way too many legs. Swordmasters scattered to either side, screaming, but its path undulated like a twisted snake, turning one way and then the other unpredictably. Fast, too fast, and soon it was heading straight for a pair of unaffiliated clearers Kirito only vaguely recognized. Not part of a guild—and in that moment, caught out of even a normal party formation.

The two of them looked one way, then the other, legs trembling but not moving either way. Kirito recognized the panic reaction, knowing they needed to run but brains unable to decide which way. Not fight, not flight, their nerves were stuck on freeze.

Heart leaping in his throat, he frantically waved Elucidator. "Run away!" he shouted. "Get to a group, hurry—!"

At the very last moment, the pair turned and ran toward Kirito. Screaming in blind panic, they fled the boss—and the boss skittered after. Its left scythe-arm flashed, impossibly quickly, catching both Swordmasters in the back. Wide crimson wireframes tore open, and they were flung into the air, hurtling toward Team Kirito.

To Kirito's horror, their HP drained like water. From blue to yellow to red, in the seconds they were airborne.

He and Kizmel tried, at the last, to catch them. All they caught were azure shards, the two clearers dead before they ever hit the ground.

"A one-hit kill…?!" Klein blurted, voice strangled with shock.

Kirito couldn't blame him. No way. Not even Vemacitrin ever killed a clearer at max HP with one hit. That's—this isn't fair! This thing, it can't be…!

But the Skull Reaper was moving again already, its hideous parody of an insect's skittering taking it toward another set of isolated raiders. In that moment, Kirito finally understood why Asuna had snapped and charged the Gleam Eyes, to save the Army survivors.

Screaming incoherently, he launched himself forward, uncaring if his own party was following. His boots pounded on the obsidian floor, he ducked around and between two parties of Divine Dragons, and he hurled himself into the air over a sweep of the Skull Reaper's tail. Howling at it—in rage, in fear, in some combination of the two, even he couldn't say—he skidded in front of the twisted skeleton, and raised both swords in a Cross Block.

The scythe came down hard and fast. If he'd been using only a single sword, Kirito himself would've died in that moment, and as it was his HP dropped a heart-stopping ten percent. But his block stopped it, just shy of cutting him in half, and short of the two clearers it would've otherwise annihilated.

Too late, he remembered the Skull Reaper had two scythes.

The other slashed in, and if he couldn't see what happened, the screams told all. Two more Swordmasters were dead—and the scythe was coming back up again, the one he'd just barely stopped was suddenly pressing down harder, his Cross Block was about to break—

A shield slammed in, Kizmel strengthening his guard an instant before the Skull Reaper broke through. A blazing Linear smashed into it a second later, Asuna's Lambent Light forcing it back. Heathcliff's tower shield stopped the other scythe short with a resounding gong, the Paladin having appeared out of nowhere just when he was needed most.

Metal screeched on bone, Philia's Swordbreaker sawing at that second scythe. The Skull Reaper's head was suddenly knocked back, peppered by Rain's thrown swords.

A second of breathing room. Four people were dead, yet Kirito was still alive. Later, he'd feel guilty about that.

At the moment, he was more concerned with Kizmel's hard look. "We fight together, Kirito," she said sharply. "Together, we can stop it!"

Right. His Cross Block had almost done it, and together with her shield, they really could stop the Skull Reaper in its tracks. It was grim, but it wasn't hopeless.

No time to waste. "Keep fighting!" Kirito shouted, drawing his blades back in the pre-motion for a Corkscrew. "My team and Heathcliff will handle the scythes! Everyone else, watch your HP and hit it!"

They'd have to figure out a rotation at some point. Even the Paladin would have to pull back to heal sometime, and Kirito himself had already lost some fifteen percent. But this thing has to pause occasionally, too. If we can stun it, even for a few seconds here and there…!

The Skull Reaper was pulling away, leaving the handful who'd blocked it and racing for a party of Divine Dragons. Team Kirito raced after it—too slow to quite catch it again, but others were already in its path. Klein led Fuurinkazan in a flanking attack, his Suzaku Blade glowing a fiery red as he hit it with the unsheathing slash of a Zekkuu, carving into one of its legs.

Somewhere in the confusion, Agil had ended up with a group of unaffiliated raiders; he and another—Kirito recognized him belatedly as Krueger, whom he'd last seen on the Fifty-Seventh Floor—leapt high into the air, axe and two-handed sword flaring green and orange to crash a Tree-Cleaver and an Avalanche into the middle of the Skull Reaper's spine.

It shrieked, a noise as unnatural as everything else about it, and staggered. That gave Team Kirito and Heathcliff time to catch up. Time to get between the monster and its targets; time for the targeted Divine Dragons to prepare themselves to hit back.

The Skull Reaper ignored them. For just a couple of seconds, it forgot where it had been going, and turned on those who'd hurt it. Its tail curled in on itself, contorting hideously, and swept its barbed tip inward.

Swordmasters scattered. Agil hit the floor hard, rolling, his body one mass of crimson wireframes—but alive, even if his HP was in the red. His heavy build had saved his life.

Krueger screamed as he hit the floor, bounced, and shattered forever.

"Dammit!" the big axeman howled.

…I never even heard why he joined the clearers….

Gritting his teeth, Kirito tightened his grip on his swords, matched Kizmel step for step, and hurtled forward as the Skull Reaper returned its attention to the Divine Dragons. To Lind's own party, he saw now, Liten and Schmidt slamming their shields into place to defend their guildmaster.

Without a word, without breaking stride, Kizmel raised her shield ahead of him. Kirito took the hint, leapt onto it, and used her thrust and every point of AGI he had to fling himself the remaining distance, curling his body into another Corkscrew.

They'd only knocked off a few percent of the Skull Reaper's first lifebar, in exchange for five lives. That needed to change.

"Die!"

Thirty years as a Knight, two fighting the Field and Floor Bosses of Aincrad alongside the Swordmasters. In that time, Kizmel had crossed blades with many horrors. The Fallen Elf King's poison had nearly killed her, the Commandant had effectively destroyed the Black Cats, the Fiftieth Floor's Six-Armed Automaton had killed eight Swordmasters before her eyes….

None of those battles compared to the Skull Reaper. Not even Vemacitrin, that gleefully-slaughtering monster, had pushed the clearers as hard as the blade-boned abomination. It was all even the best of them could do to hold it back, and chip away at its health. The melee was so fierce, Kizmel only registered scattered moments, her body otherwise moving on pure instinct.

Every edge of the Skull Reaper was sharpened, from scythe-arms to rib-like legs, from its barbed tail to its very vertebrae. Every charge the monster made, rushing across the arena, was as much a danger to those it simply passed by as to those it deliberately struck. Sometime in that madness, Kizmel saw two Divine Dragons run down in passing; one of them, impaled through the chest by a sharp leg, shattered on the spot, while the other frantically rolled away and scrambled for a potion.

Kizmel was kept busy throughout, using her shield to help pin—or at least slow—the Skull Reaper much of the time, striking out with her saber when she could. Always, she kept close to Kirito's side, counting on the seventeen months they'd fought together on a daily basis to keep them both alive. With him, she never even had to think about where he'd be, or where she should strike next.

Ordinary raid formation was impossible, as fast and unpredictable as the Skull Reaper's path was. Even so, somehow, individual parties were holding together; impossibly, Asuna was even keeping track of where they were. Untold minutes into the battle, her voice rang out across the chamber. "Team A, B, it's heading for your right flank! E, H, you're about to be on the other side—as soon as it passes between you, hit as many legs as you can!"

Two parties each of KoB and DDA, albeit none of them full after the casualties that had already been taken. One of the KoB parties was made entirely of tanks, Kizmel noticed, but this was definitely not a time to be picky. Not with the Skull Reaper scattering an unaffiliated party, half of them going straight into the red, just by charging straight through them.

No deaths that time. Not quite. Too close to it.

It was chaos. No one could keep track of it all. But everyone there was an experienced clearer, and given even a moment to react, they knew what to do. When the Reaper skittered between the four parties Asuna designated, their blades were already shining with a rainbow of pre-skill light. In the moment everything aligned, twenty Swordmasters unleashed Sword Skills at once, lashing out at the abomination's legs in one grand, kaleidoscopic flare.

The Skull Reaper screamed, that horrifying shriek. Its tail lashed blindly from side to side, throwing several Swordmasters across the chamber. Yet at the same time, the assault on its legs made it stumble, and in a moment it crashed to the floor.

It wouldn't be stunned for long. But it was the longest it'd been held still since the battle began, and the Swordmasters took full advantage, using skills they would never have had time for otherwise. From the front, Asuna led her team in assaulting its skull, Lambent Light stabbing a full eight times in the rapid-fire thrusts of a Star Splash. Godfree, of all people, soared over her head, his leaping Avalanche crashing down on the top of that skull, slamming its jaw into the floor, buying another few critical seconds.

A screaming Fuurinkazan barraged it from the right, taking over for one of the DDA parties while they recovered. Klein's Suzaku Blade glowed a brilliant green as he threw himself into a spin, striking the Reaper with the whirling slashes of a Kamikaze. Flashing like the wind, he struck the monster nine times, carving deep gashes into one of its legs.

"Klein, Switch!"

The samurai somehow turned the post-motion into a twirl to one side, using the last of the skill's momentum to take himself out of Dale's path. The big tank roared, even as the rest of the guild charged to either side, and swung his heavy blade up and back. A moment later, he brought it down on the leg Klein had attacked, swinging the sword in a blaze of crimson light. Then, with a deftness incongruous with the weight of his weapon, he swung it back up, tearing a giant gash. It ended up back over his shoulder—just as he leapt high into the air.

The final, crashing blow of the Skyfall skill shattered the entire leg. The Reaper keened, an ear-piercing cry of pain; at the same time, Fuurinkazan had to fall back, as the leg's fragments cut into them like flying blades.

From the other side, Rain was already ripping the seven slashes, spins, and somersault of the Deadly Sins into the Reaper, cutting deep red lines into two legs at once. Philia aimed for the spine with the crimson lance of a Vorpal Strike, while Sachi launched herself into the ten berserk slashes of a midair Nova Ascension. Agil's simple yet powerful Beheading Blow swung into another leg, tearing it off.

Shouting a wordless battle cry, Kirito followed Sachi into the air, triggering the aerial skill Moon Strike. Suspended in the air, Elucidator and Baneblade stabbed the Reaper's spine, twelve alternating thrusts that pierced deep into the bone. Kizmel followed him from below, her own blade thrusting five times in succession, finishing with a fast trio of slashes.

The Howling Octave cost her, as she quickly saw the others' attacks had cost them. Just brushing up against the Skull Reaper's body of blades had taken a frightening ten percent off her health, and her companions were little better off.

Yet, chancing a glance at the boss' HP bars, Kizmel thought it was worth it. They'd taken out over thirty percent of one lifebar in that assault; the chance to use longer Sword Skills had been a successful gamble.

Then the Reaper shuddered, its body rippling as it shoved itself to its feet, and suddenly Kizmel thought it might not have been worth it after all. A spasm ran down its skeletal body, its bladed legs lashing out two by two, all the way down the line. And as devastating as the skills that had struck it had been, they also left all too many Swordmasters stalled in place, unable to dodge.

Including Team Kirito.

For one endless, horrible moment, Kizmel wondered if she or any of her friends had taken enough injury for the retaliation to kill them. Even if not, she knew, they'd be flung into the air, and surviving that would depend entirely on the whim of the monster.

The moment passed—and Heathcliff, whom she'd last seen as part of the assault on the Reaper's head, was suddenly there, his tower shield flung up in the path of those sharp legs. The one which would've struck Sachi rebounded with a shriek of bone on metal; it pushed Heathcliff aside at the same time, but that only meant he was able to deflect the next. Then the one after. Yet a fourth, and the danger was past.

The Paladin took the time to give Team Kirito one quick glance, and a firm nod. "You're doing well," he said, already turning to hurry back to his own party. "Pull back and heal, while you can. We haven't lost this battle yet!"

More dead than Kizmel wanted to think about, though. She saw that knowledge in Kirito's eyes, but there was no time to mourn. They followed Heathcliff's advice, pulling back and scrambling for potions.

The battle went on.

"Team C, get out of there, it's coming for you! Team E, heal while you can!"

There were a lot of reasons Agil had never joined a guild. Maybe one of the biggest was that, having gotten used to running his own cafe IRL, he just plain didn't like to have a boss, and he knew darned well he didn't have what it took to be a leader in the death game. Better to stay his own boss most days, and just worry about taking directions during boss fights.

Given that it was taking all his concentration not to be stabbed or sliced in half by the Skull Reaper's legs, and couldn't even keep track of his own party at the same time, he figured he'd made the right choice. He was pretty sure Kirito and Kizmel were somewhere near the thing's head, trying to keep its scythe-arms from killing somebody; where the others were, he was too busy keeping his head on his shoulders to see.

"That's it! Team D, we're going in!"

Even as he ducked around one stomping leg-blade, jumped back a second that was going for his neck, and swung his axe into yet a third just before it could impale him, Agil couldn't help a strained grin. Asuna the Flash was doing what he couldn't: keeping the raid together, even as the worst boss yet tried to TPK them. Girl's come a long way since Illfang, that's for sure—whoa!

The Reaper had pulled another of its unpredictable course changes, and Agil found himself knocked off his feet by a leg that wasn't even aiming for him. The next few seconds, all Agil could do was roll around on the floor, frantically dodging more stomping, stabbing feet.

One too many close calls later, hands suddenly grabbed his shoulders and yanked. The boss chamber spun around him, and then he was being pulled to his feet by Rain and Fuurinkazan's Dale. "You okay, big guy?" the redhead asked.

A quick check of his HP, and he gave a short nod. "For now. Thanks. Any idea where Sachi and Philia got to?" Party cohesion was pretty much nil, this far into the battle; Team Kirito had tried to stick together, but only the main pair had really managed it for long.

Fuurinkazan still looks pretty tight, though, he thought, glancing over the crew he'd ended up with. Damn, Klein's good.

"No idea," Rain answered him, shrugging. "But they're both still—whoops!" She ducked—prompting everyone else around to do the same—as the Skull Reaper's barbed tail swung right at them, nearly taking heads off. "They're still on my HUD, still in the blue, so I'm not too worried."

No more than for the rest of us. Agil nodded grimly. Seeing that the Reaper was charging off to the far end of the chamber just then, he took the time to snatch out and gulp down a potion. He was just barely into the yellow—which in this fight, meant he was almost dead.

When he'd drained and tossed the bottle, he turned a grim look on Fuurinkazan. "We've gotten the damn thing down three life bars. Not good enough. We're still—"

A high, piercing scream interrupted him, and Agil turned just in time to see another Divine Dragon get flung off his feet by the Reaper's tail. He never landed, shattering like blue glass well short of the stone floor.

"Dammit!" he growled, echoed by more than one of the samurai. "That's it! That tail? It's gotta go!"

"Right with you on that." Klein watched the boss rampage again, only to slam headfirst into Heathcliff's shield, Kirito's twin blades, and a Treble Scythe from Kizmel. A Flashing Penetrator from Asuna rocked it back, tangling its legs and dropping it for a couple of precious seconds.

Agil didn't know what Fuurinkazan's guildmaster saw, in those moments the boss wasn't moving. All he saw was a blinding array of flashes, as every player still alive and within reach hacked at its spine. For all its insane offense, its defense seemed to be more in sheer amount of hit points, not any particular toughness. That told the axeman just that if they lived long enough, they could eventually tear it to pieces.

Klein apparently saw more than that, and in a moment he nodded, short and sharp. "All right. As soon as it heads our way again? Rain, I need you to throw every sword you can. Just something to harass it with, slow it down a little, from far enough away that you won't get hit. The rest of us will go for the legs. Dale? You and Agil—go for that thing's tail, right behind that damned barb. Cut it off!"

Agil grinned, a humorless wolf's grin. He nodded once to Dale, and the two of them hefted their heavy weapons.

They didn't have long to wait. The Reaper was already back on its remaining legs and running, skittering away from the players who'd hurt it. It undulated back and forth, knocking over other players, sweeping its scythes at anything it could reach, never staying on the same course for more than a second. Soon, though, its path took it directly perpendicular to Agil, Rain, and Fuurinkazan.

None of them needed a signal. The redhead started throwing swords as fast as her arm could swing, scratching at the Reaper's legs and spine. Klein led most of his guild in a howling charge, slicing, chopping, and thrusting at every blade-leg they could reach.

Agil set himself, axe up over his shoulder for the pre-motion of a Logsplitter. Dale readied himself for an Avalanche. At just the right moment, they both leapt into the air, as high and as far as their STR and AGI would take them.

Apart from a couple of special skills meant for aerial combat, triggering Sword Skills in the air was extremely tricky. Trying had been part of what killed Diavel, all the way back on the First Floor. But Agil and Dale were clearers, with dozens of Field and Floor Bosses behind them. Mid-leap, they activated their skills, and let the system assist take them the rest of the way.

Just behind the base of the Reaper's tail, axe and greatsword crashed down. Struggled against the sharpened bone.

Cut through, severing the barbed tail entirely. Spikes of bone whirled away, shattering to pieces.

The Skull Reaper shrieked, battering Agil's eardrums. As with when it had first lost some of its legs, it lashed out in blind agony, except this time its entire body swung, a ripple wagging its spine in wide arcs. Agil had only moments to come to the horrifying realization that post-motion had combined with the impact of hitting the stone floor from so high up, leaving him and Dale unable to move for precious seconds.

We already took shrapnel hits from the tail, he thought, staring helplessly as the stub of the Reaper's tail whipped toward them. Aw, hell, this isn't how it was supposed to go! He could see another player, a solo whose name he'd never caught and now never would, get trampled, shattering into polygons without time to scream.

Post-motion was over. Agil and Dale scrambled to their feet, trying to run—but there was no time. No time at all, as sharpened bone blurred through the air, filling Agil's vision.

Trish—!

Red appeared, crimson armor suddenly sliding between him and bony death. With a resounding clang, the Paladin's shield deflected the Reaper's vengeance.

"Good work," Heathcliff said over his shoulder. With a grunt, he shoved the Reaper's tail-stub away with his shield. "Keep it up!"

Kirito ducked to one side to avoid a flailing leg, whirled in the other direction to avoid another that was just passing by, and backflipped when the demonic centipede's whole body suddenly swung around. In the middle, his twin swords cut and sliced with every movement; no time for any skills, but with his levels and gear, just basic attacks did useful damage.

Halfway down the fourth lifebar, he noticed, in the moment between landing on his feet and darting back in to chase the Reaper. Kizmel was already ahead of him, using a Sonic Leap to close the distance faster. No attack pattern changes or anything, but it's definitely getting faster.

The Legend Braves, almost directly in the Skull Reaper's current path, were finding that out the hard way. Their shiny armor was already dented and scuffed; in the mad scramble to avoid being trampled, Cuchulainn took a glancing hit that tore his helmet clean off, and nearly his head with it. His comrades practically threw him farther out of the way, Orlando holding the rear with his shield. Another leg lanced out, almost getting past his shield to stab Enkidu in the back, but Nezha's chakram hit at just the right moment to throw off its aim by critical centimeters.

Knocking off the tail took out that damned barb. Too bad it also let the thing speed up!

Some Swordmasters were still faster, though. Kizmel's Sonic Leap caught up with easily enough, and once the Braves were out of the way, she followed up with a Shooting Star aimed up at the Reaper's spine.

While she was stuck in post-motion, Kirito darted past, not even needing her to call for a Switch. If there's one thing about this fight, he thought absently, most of his concentration going into picking and aiming a skill, it's definitely helped our coordination. There isn't time to talk, just do!

Even as he pushed off to launch a Twin Stab at the center of the Reaper's spine, he was shifting to prepare for the next move. Sharpened bone scratched him mid-attack, while Elucidator and the Baneblade stabbed deep. His HP went down a few slivers, along with the Reaper's; it twisted, trying to impale him with whatever piece of edged skeleton could reach—

Kizmel blurred under his right arm, driving the five blinding-quick stabs of a Neutron right into the spot Kirito had just hit. Then she fell away, frozen by the post-motion, and Kirito jumped right past her to catch the inevitable counterattack.

A counterattack that didn't come. Instead the Skull Reaper raced ahead, almost like it was trying to run away. The sudden burst of straight-line speed nearly bowled over Lind's command party, forcing the guildmaster and Liten to jump sideways, and knocking Orochi clear off his feet. If Shivata and Schmidt hadn't gotten their shields up in time, narrowly deflecting the boss' rush, Quetzalcoatl would've been killed outright.

Dammit! Just for a second, I thought I saw something where Kizmel and I hit it. If it would just hold still a minute—

"Team Kirito, Fuurinkazan!" Asuna called out, from somewhere behind him. "It's coming back! Be ready!"

He didn't ask what for. He only took the time as the Reaper continued heading away to choke down a potion, set himself, and wait. He'd fought alongside Asuna almost as much as Kizmel, in the big raids. He'd trust they'd all know what to do, when the moment came.

The Skull Reaper reached the far end of the chamber's dome, curled in on itself, and came charging back, once again in a straight line. That, Kirito noticed unhappily, allowed it to build up more speed than ever, and as it came its mandible-jaws rapidly clacked together in a horrible sound of chattering teeth.

Rushing like a runaway freight train, its scythe-arms swung out, clearly preparing to slice anyone stupid enough to stand in its way. Like me!

"Now!"

Before Kirito could even think of evading, Philia and Rain flew past him in twin Sonic Leaps. The paired skills crashed into the left scythe, slowing it down but not stopping it; then Kizmel blurred into the fray, her shield halting it entirely in a screech of bone on metal and a spray of sparks.

Still one more coming—!

Out of nowhere, Heathcliff appeared and slammed his tower shield to the floor. The right scythe-arm struck it solidly, pushing the Paladin back a solid meter, but it held, and his HP only barely dropped.

In the same moment, Fuurinkazan hit the abomination from the right flank, each of them targeting a different leg. From the left, Agil swung his axe into two more, while Sachi, Godfree, and Kumari struck at others with the strongest skills they had.

Screeching, the Skull Reaper stumbled, unable to lash out with scythes or legs. In that moment, Kirito knew what he had to do.

Screaming out a kiai, he launched himself between the boss' legs, both swords glowing a brilliant azure. He drove straight for the center of the Reaper's spine—the exact spot he and Kizmel had struck not long before, which was now visibly cracked and splintered.

Backhand, thrust, spin, double spin. Left, right, left, his Dual Blades cut into the weakened bone. They whirled in his hands, grip reversed for one blow and then forward again for the next. Propelled by system assist and his own endless hours of training, the shining swords tore shard after shard of bone away.

A final, double-stab, and the Starburst Stream broke the Skull Reaper's spine clean in half.

The entire remaining half of its fourth lifebar vanished in an instant, and nearly a quarter drained from the fifth and final. At the same time, the Reaper let out the most hideous, howling screech he'd ever heard, one he knew he'd be hearing his nightmares.

If I survive the next ten seconds…!

Kirito was behind what was left of the boss. It couldn't hit him directly, not in that moment. It could put a burst of strength into its scythe-arms, flinging his teammates and Heathcliff away. They all tumbled, and his heart leapt into his throat at the damage they took from it—yet the Reaper couldn't quite reach them in the rebound. Its own blow had sent them too far to finish them.

Instead, it zeroed in on Asuna. With over half its body gone, it was even faster than before, and it positively galloped at the fencer, scythes swinging back for the kill.

Impossibly, she dodged it—helped, Kirito saw, by a fellow Knight pushing her away. A Knight, he realized in an endless, horrified moment, whose name he'd never heard.

The scythes closed in. There was a horrible screech—human, this time—and an HP bar went from full to empty in a split second.

One more Swordmaster vanished, body scattering like broken glass across the boss chamber.

Too many have died today. This needs to end, now!

The minutes after the Skull Reaper's spine was cut in half were a blur for Kizmel, dancing around the abomination's remaining legs and wicked scythes. Destroying half its body had done it terrible harm, yet at the same time left it far more agile. Though it no longer risked toppling half the raid with a single undulation of its skeletal spine, it was far more able to chase down any single target it chose.

Not long after they began whittling down that final lifebar, Kizmel and her teammates were forced to scatter wildly as the Reaper bore down on them directly. Its scythe-arms were flailing wildly in all directions; when Shivata and Liten tried to stall it, those scythes flung them halfway across the boss chamber, HP far down into the red.

Lind scrambled to one side. Schmidt braced his shield, catching one of those scythes an instant before it could cut down Orochi. Quetzalcoatl managed to duck under the other, slipping inside its reach.

Quet screamed an instant later, and Kizmel whipped her head back just in time to see the Reaper's mandible-jaws snap shut around his body. Caught, it took an endless five seconds—Quet screaming all the while—before those jaws clacked together, shattering him like glass.

Fuurinkazan made the beast pay for it, a combined assault of swords and spears shearing off one jawbone entirely. The Reaper wouldn't be biting any more Swordmasters to death.

Cold comfort for Quetzalcoatl.

Kizmel didn't know how many had died, by then. Any other raid, she suspected, would've broken. But there was no retreat this time, no escape. They all knew it was victory or death, and that, she thought, kept them all going far past the point of despair.

Bit by bit, though, sliver by sliver, the Skull Reaper's health drained away. Finally, at the last, Heathcliff flung himself in front of that horrible skull. His tower shield smashed into it with a Shield Bash, forcing it back, and he raised his cruciform longsword high. With a shout, he unleashed the Divine Sword's stunning light, blinding the monster.

While it was recoiling, Klein and Fuurinkazan assaulted its remaining legs again, cutting two of them clean off and forcing the others off-balance.

Philia hacked one of its scythe-arms off, her Swordbreaker sawing through with an ear-splitting screech. Rain flung swords at its eyes as she charged in, finally striking its neck with the eight back-and-forth slashes of a Legion Destroyer.

With a loud cry, Asuna blazed past Heathcliff, bright light trailing behind her, to strike the jaw with a Flashing Penetrator. She hit straight on and continued past, skidding somewhere beyond the remains of the tail. Kizmel dashed right into the gap, turning her momentum into the five rapid, whirling slashes of the Dancing Hellraiser.

"Kizmel, Switch!"

She was already moving. After so long together, she'd known Kirito was coming, known he would take advantage of the opening they'd given him. The instant the backlash of her own skill allowed it, she spun to one side, and let her husband fling himself into the gap.

The Skull Reaper tried to hit him with its remaining scythe-arm. Kirito did not care, Elucidator and Baneblade already blazing blue-white with a Sword Skill. Screaming, he swatted the blow aside with his first slash, Cracked the scythe with the second. Shattered it with the double-cleave of the third blow, and continued on to deliver the rest right into its twisted face.

Five hits. Ten. Fifteen. His battle-roar rising with every blow, Kirito struck the monster a sixteenth time, smashing apart its remaining jawbone—and kept right on going, past anything he'd ever shown in open combat. Back and forth, spinning, thrusting, leaping, he hit the monster again and again and again, until finally he drove the twenty-seventh strike of The Eclipse right in the center of its four eyes.

The Skull Reaper screeched. Tried to struggle back its too-many feet, as its HP drained like water. Collapsed to the stone floor, with a wheeze out of nightmares. Shattered.

[Congratulations!]

No one cheered. No one said a word. The only sound, after the Skull Reaper shattered, was of dozens of weary bodies collapsing to the obsidian floor. Kizmel moved only far enough to join Kirito before dropping herself; back to back, they supported each the best they could.

Never before had Kizmel felt so tired. Not after the hardest, most emotional battles in her past. Not even after Kirito had nearly died defeating the Gleam Eyes. Her weariness was beyond even sleep, a tiredness that made her nostalgic for the days when she'd felt physical fatigue.

And there are all too few of us to feel it now, she thought, glancing over the collapsed Swordmasters. I lost count, in the middle of that, but….

There was a deep sigh, and she managed to turn her eyes to Agil. The big axeman was flat on his back, limbs spread, staring blankly at the ceiling. "…How many?" he whispered, voice startlingly loud in the silence.

No one had to ask what he meant. Kizmel felt Kirito shift as he lifted one arm, opening his menu. She heard him inhale sharply, and in a flat, empty voice, he said, "Fourteen. Fourteen Swordmasters… died here."

"…Son of a bitch," Klein said hoarsely, from the pile Fuurinkazan had formed. "Fourteen clearers? In just one…? Dammit."

Kizmel couldn't disagree with the sentiment. The most a raid had ever lost was eight—outside of Kibaou's recklessness on the Twenty-Fifth Floor—in the madness that was Vemacitrin. Even with retreat and instant healing barred, it should not have been like this. Yet even the best of us, with the finest equipment and highest levels, could barely match that monster's strength.

"We can't keep this up," Rain said numbly, into the silence. "Fourteen at once? How can we keep going, if it's gonna be like that from here on…?"

Indeed. Of the six thousand Swordmasters still trapped in the Steel Castle, only a few hundred still assayed the frontlines at all. Not all of them were willing to participate in boss raids. When word got out of the Skull Reaper's toll, Kizmel was sure it would be fewer still.

"If Kayaba is watching, I hope he's happy," Klein said bitterly. "His little 'game's' gonna end too soon, this keeps up. Twenty-five floors to go. Who the hell's gonna be left to face the final boss? That damned thing nearly killed all of us, all by itself!"

"Not all of us," Kirito muttered. "At least we've still got one guy standing… but by the end of this, he might be the only one…."

Shifting from his back to his side, Kizmel followed her husband's gaze. There, in the center of the boss chamber, Heathcliff still stood tall. The red-armored Paladin's HP was even still above half, if barely, and if he was braced on his tower shield and the cruciform sword sheathed in it, he was hardly leaning on it for support.

Agil snorted. "Heh. Don't think his HP ever got below half today, not even once. Hell of a shield the Paladin's got, huh?"

She found herself nodding, remembering another tower shield she'd seen, long ago. They tended to hamper movement, yet there was no finer defense in Aincrad. Slow, but sure, the perfect "tank" in Swordmaster parlance.

"I don't think anybody's ever seen his HP go down that far," Kirito muttered. "Not… even…." He frowned. "Wait… never…?"

Kizmel frowned herself, wondering what was bothering him. But then, something was bothering her, and it took her a moment to understand what. Then, looking closer at Heathcliff, she grasped it. The man was… calm. No sign of the weariness that gripped the rest of the raid, nor even the slightest trace of fear in the wake of fourteen Swordmasters' deaths.

He was always calm. That was normal. But who is calm after a battle such as this? …And where have I seen that expression before? That face, that stance….

The Paladin always kept up a confident front. It inspired not only his own guild, but those outside. Yet being so calm then, after what the Skull Reaper had done? When has he ever not been calm?

Her mind raced. "Kirito-kun," she breathed. "Perhaps I still don't know humans as well as I thought. Am I wrong?"

Kirito didn't ask what she meant, his own eyes narrow as he stared at the KoB guildmaster. "His HP never goes below half," he murmured. "And I never saw him drink a single potion today."

"He seldom gives orders," Kizmel said slowly, thinking back to the times she'd seen him before, on the battlefield and strategizing before battle was joined. "Asuna does almost all of the work. He only ever involves himself in the most critical battles."

He nodded. "I've never even heard of him grinding, now that I think about it."

"His fighting style… it's not quite right." That heavy shield, yet he's always exactly where he needs to be….

Kirito's face was turning pale. But he shook himself, hand sliding over to grasp hers. "No," he whispered. "We have to be imagining things. We need to go home, get some sleep. Work out how we're going to beat this game, if this is how boss fights are going to be from here on."

Maybe it was him calling Aincrad a "game", something he almost never did anymore. Perhaps it was putting what she'd learned of games together with thirty years as a Knight, which her time with the living Swordmasters had taught her wasn't all wrong.

Or perhaps, just perhaps, it was realizing exactly where she'd seen that stance, that tower shield and cruciform sword before. Decades ago… and mere months.

The horror that had been rising in Kizmel's heart was abruptly snuffed out, consumed by the sheer rage that flared to life as realization struck. Her hand closed on the grip of her saber, and she slowly rose to her feet.

Alarmed, Kirito reached up after her. "Kizmel—!"

If she was wrong, this would be the greatest mistake she'd made in decades. In her heart, though, she knew what she saw, and she charged across ten meters in a flash. Dodging around and over collapsed, startled Swordmasters, she lunged at Heathcliff, saber glowing bright blue for a simple Rage Spike.

He saw her coming, and for once his eyes widened in genuine shock. But his sword was sheathed, and while his shield moved faster than it should have been able to, Kizmel knew exactly where it would go. Relying on reflexes trained in sparring matches decades before, she twisted her blade, scraping the edge of that tower shield but racing onward—

Centimeters from Heathcliff's chest, her saber rebounded in purple sparks.

[Immortal Object].

Heads had turned when Kizmel began her run. Voices had risen in confusion, Godfree even beginning to shout in alarm. At the sight of that message, hanging in the air, the entire room fell silent again.

For a long moment, as Kizmel pulled her sword away and took a single step back, no one moved or spoke. Her hard stare, meeting Heathcliff's surprised, metallic eyes, transfixed them all.

"…Immortal… Object…?" Asuna breathed into that stillness. "The Commander… has system protection…? How…?"

"I'd wondered, since Sachi told me the Swordmasters were tricked into risking their lives," Kizmel said evenly, holding on to that tranquility despite her fury. "Since Kirito told me the Swordmasters were only players, believing this world to be a game. Since I learned this was a game, gone terribly wrong. Where, I always wondered, was the master of ceremonies?

"What kind of man was he? I felt his influence, from time to time, yet I never grasped how he might be interfering, or what his goals might be." She raised her chin, glaring at the Paladin. "How obvious. Where else? After creating such a world, who could possibly be content with merely watching?"

But you never were. Long before you ever pulled them into this, you were here. I should have realized, the first time I saw you in battle.

Kizmel smiled, slow and cold. "It has been a very long time, Kayaba Akihiko. …Father."

Author's Note:

So, this chapter was actually supposed to be up before Christmas. It almost was up before Christmas. Then I realized it was hitting 18K words, and I still had around three or four thousands words of material left. At minimum. So, chapter got split, and I had to write around six thousand extra words to fill things out. Plus rewriting existing material, not just around the new but around a couple of plot holes I discovered along the way.

On the bright side, I do have 6300 words done for Chapter 32 already.

Between the split and the fact that I've been getting very little sleep lately—long story—this chapter probably isn't my best, but I hope it's decent. And I can promise the next chapter will have some serious bombshells, beyond the obvious. (Seriously, I figure you guys will see at least one of the big twists coming, but there's some I'm confident won't be predicted.)

I realize Rain and Philia didn't get much to do here. I assure you, they've both got bigger parts coming.

On another note. For those reading this at AO3, I must highly recommend the fic Symphony of Sword and Steel. It's another Kirito/Kizmel story, and while it's openly inspired by Duet, it very much has its own identity. Absolutely worth the read, especially if you're a K/K shipper, and honestly even if you're not. (Among other things, it blows my battle scenes right out of the water.)

For those reading at FFnet, you will find that Kizmel is finally in the character filter! Only two stories thus far tagged with her, both of them mine, but here's hoping it leads to more. And also, a big thank you to everybody: Duet officially has over 2000 followers, a milestone I never dreamed this would reach. Truly, I'm awed.

This also marks the point Duet officially tops the half-million word mark (yes, I know FFN already has it listed above that; well, their numbers are always weirdly inflated). Not bad for what I originally intended to be a ten-chapter collection of one-shots covering only key events of the Aincrad arc, eh?

For those waiting for updates to Oath of Rebellion and Under the Osmanthus Tree, I promise I haven't given up on either. I do want to finish the next chapter of Duet, so as to resolve the nasty cliffhanger here, but after that I'm going to get those stories back on track.

Hm…. I think that covers everything for now? I'll be getting to work on the remaining two-thirds of Chapter 32 soon; in the meantime, let me know if the lead-up to the big bombshells was good, bad, or should die in a fire. -Solid