Asuna

Castle Galey was victorious minutes after Kirito stopped the poison from infiltrating the spirit tree, and Count Galeyon, decked in full armor, took out the Fallen commander. But the fight was far from over. With Gindo leading them, Asuna followed Kirito, Koharu, Kizmel, and Myia to the canyon beyond the castle. They were following Jaymes, who Kirito predicted left the castle in search of Qusack and Mito after concluding the small guild had something to do with the attack or darker forces were pulling the strings.

This plan, however, might be the most ridiculous one Kirito has ever hatched. Ridiculous in the manner that if it goes wrong, it could derail everything they've done since meeting Kizmel.

But first things first, getting to Qusack and Mito. "By the way, whatever happened with that dark elf escort that Qusack had around?"

"He died in battle when they got attacked by monsters in this canyon apparently," Kirito answered, repeating what Gindo must've explained earlier. "That's when an unfamiliar man showed up and saved them, according to him, but I'm betting that he rounded those monsters and set them on Qusack in the first place."

"Is this the same man who killed Myia's father and tried to kill you and the others?" Kizmel asked.

"Technically, I'm thinking of the boss of the people who killed Cylon. Jaymes, the girls, and I call him 'the man in the black poncho.' He usually doesn't fight for himself but plots in secret and sets people and groups against one another."

"Ah...He sounds like one of the demons of the ancient myths."

"D...demons?"

"Deep underground in the earth of old, there was a subterranean realm where wicked demons and devils were said to live. Occasionally, they would rise to the surface, disguising themselves as beautiful humans and elves and, by taking the places of nobles or military leaders, would then sow discord among the innocent."

"Yikes," Asuna responded with a tinge of disgust. "That sounds exactly like the black poncho man. I... I hope he's not a real demon." Of course, that line of thinking would be illogical if the poncho man was a player from the real world, but since Asuna had never seen his cursor, she didn't know if he was an NPC. That aside, humans can be demonic in their own right.

"Once we pull that poncho's hood off, we'll know," Kirito half-joked.

"When I was little," Myia started with a nod, "Mother read me a story that had a demon in it. I think that if he has pointy horns on his head, he is a demon." Innocent as it sounded, the man in the black poncho did lead the group that killed her father, so there's a high chance he ordered Cylon's death. The reasons why are still unknown to Asuna, but if he's still around with Qusack, Myia might get a chance to avenge her father.

"Whether demon or human, he's a dangerous for. I'm looking forward to your help, Myia, even though I know you're tired."

"Enough demon talk," Koharu spoke from in front of Asuna, running halfway between Gindo and the group. Her cheerful disposition had been utterly destroyed when she learned Jaymes left the castle, and it soured with each passing minute. He's safe, considering his health hadn't fallen nor had he incurred any debuffs, Kirito's entire plan rests on Jaymes' unknown actions.

That, and Mito's status. Asuna felt her throat clog up thinking about her friend in mortal peril again, but if she suffered the same fate as Qusack, then the worst-case scenario was a paralysis debuff. But now that Asuna thought about it, Kirito did not say, "The black poncho man paralyzed Qusack and Mito," but that the other members of Qusack were the victim.

Forcing words out of her throat, Asuna uttered her thoughts. "Kirito... What about Mito?"

"...Gindo said she wasn't with them when he left the cave...and if Gindo's right, she's been losing health as if she's in battle. If I had to guess, there are others as well. She was doing fairly well when Gindo told me this earlier, but I couldn't say for sure now."

"..." If Mito's fighting still, then there's a chance she's still alive. Her spirit wouldn't be overcome that easily. She had survived death that day against the Nephantes horde on the first floor, even though that meant betraying and abandoning Asuna. Yet Asuna couldn't help but put herself in Mito's position. If she had only a sliver of her health remaining, would she fight against impossible odds against a horde and climb a climb to reach Kirito? Would Kirito want that?

"Jaymes is going for her," Koharu remarked. Asuna couldn't tell if it was meant to comfort her or for Koharu herself, but the green-eyed girl looked back with confidence behind her words. "I am not saying he would do so, but if he had to choose between Qusack and Mito, he wouldn't abandon her. He cares for Mito way more than he'll admit."

"Huh?"

"All day, he's been checking his friends' list to see whether her name remained highlighted. So I bet the moment he realized that Mito was in danger, he left the fight at the castle to us. It's stupid he went alone, and I'm going to scold him good for it, but I know my partner. Whether it is to save or back her up, Jaymes will reach Mito. I feel sorry for whoever captured her."

"Will he kill them?" Kizmel inquired.

Koharu hesitated to answer that. Delivering a clear answer to Kizmel is more complex than if Asuna had posed that question. To Kizmel, Asuna, Koharu, and a small population of players, all life is equal on Aincrad. There were no differences between the lives of NPCs and players here in SAO. In that case, the answer to Asuna and Koharu is obvious. But most of the player base would disagree, and Jaymes might be in that camp. To them, player lives are held in higher regard, so there's a chance Jaymes would honor that thought.

But the following words shocked Asuna to her core. "He would. If his emotions got the better of him, if it looked like Mito suffered, he would kill them... But that's assuming he didn't find the cave and rescued Qusack from the poncho man."

Before Asuna could say another word, Gindo signaled the group with his short spear that the destination was close. She immediately dropped her fears and followed her companions along the left wall to avoid a giant scorpion. They stopped at the branching pathway, looking further ahead at the mouth of the cave where Qusack is held captive. It had been ten minutes since they left the castle, and all the Fallen had been killed, so there was no way the poncho knew anything about what had happened.

Gindo took a deep breath, equipped his armor and shield, and left for the cave to enact Kirito's ridiculous and risky plan. Gindo would use his short spear to signal whether the black poncho or his allies were present, but so far, Gindo kept the spear pointed downward. Once Gindo contacted the PKers, he'd exchange the keys for Qusack as promised. Assuming that went well, Asuna and the others would charge in as soon as Qusack was clear of the cave. If the promise were broken, they'd charge in once Gindo took damage.

Yet something just didn't sit right with Asuna about this plan.

Once Gindo came close to the mouth of the cave, Asuna murmured her concerns. "Hey, Kirito. I've been wondering...it's the fallen elves who want the hidden keys, and the man in the black poncho is helping them with that, right?"

"Hmm...I suppose so. He shouldn't have any particular interest in the warfare between the two groups of elves. Maybe in exchange for helping the Fallen, he and his buddies have been getting those daggers and paralyzing needles?"

"But the fallen elves who attacked at Myia's house in Stachion were after the iron keys that you and she carry. They're only related to Stachion's curse, so why would the Fallen want them? You don't think those iron keys are the two remaining sacred keys, do you?"

"No...that can't be the case," Kizmel responded. "The Ruby and Adamantine Keys are safely contained in the shrines on the seventh and eighth floors. No human would know the location of the shrines or what to do with the keys should they find them."

"Yeah...good point," Kirito muttered, despite him and Mito knowing the shrines' location as beta testers for the campaign quest months ago.

"Could there be another reason?" Koharu deferred to Asuna and Kirito. "I see no logic behind them allying with the Fallen. If they wanted to...do what they like to us, wouldn't allying with the forest elves accomplish that? But even if they did, it wouldn't accomplish that goal. That would go against Kayaba's wish for us, according to Jaymes."

That...is an interesting thought. It was evident that, regardless of the choice a player makes in alignment, the end of the "Elf War" quest series will not affect Aincrad in the slightest. But that logic pertained to a typical game - for Jaymes and Koharu to have that much confidence that Aincrad wouldn't fall to the earth if the forest elves succeed in a death game is one boy's faith in a fair game and one girl's faith in her partner. Yet Kirito never spoke against anyone joining the forest elves, so he must believe in the design too.

From below Asuna, Myia piped in. "Oh...look, everyone." Everyone's eyes went towards Gindo, who remained a distance from the cave. Asuna's sword hand tensed until three familiar faces popped out of the cave. Lazuli and ponytailed woman, shaved-headed Temuo, and long-haired Highston. They were weaponless, but they had their armor on them. They were safe and sound...without the four keys being exchanged.

Something wasn't right about this.

It would be one thing if the man in the black poncho or his cronies were around - and they still could be with the Hiding Skill - but with no exchange of keys for prisoners, it rubbed Asuna the wrong way, like it was too easy. It didn't make sense that the poncho wanted to have a few dark elf castle guards killed for fun, either. Yet she took relief that Qusack was alive and reunited.

As Gindo rejoiced in his reunion, he glanced back and waved at Asuna and the others. "I suppose there's no reason to hide anymore," she said, and they all straightened up and entered the branching path.

Gindo was first to greet them with tears in his eyes. "Thank you...thank you so much. Because of you, we're all alive and well."

"No...we didn't do anything..." Kirito said while scratching his head.

"The man who poisoned us left the cave about five minutes ago," Highston said, answering the unspoken question. "I think he knew you guys were trialing Gin, and he ran off. So you see, it is thanks to you."

"Well, if he knew we were following, that's a problem in itself."

That's true, but there was no time to think about that now. "Two things: One, did it seem like the black poncho man got a message before he left? Two, where's Mito?"

"There was a point in time he sent a message, but that was way more than five minutes ago. Aside from that, he was totally quiet after he took Gin out, and he pricked us with these poison need things every now and then...then, a little while ago, he just stood up and left the cave. When the paralysis wore off and we stepped out, there was Gin."

"...Oh..."

"As for Miss Mito, she's alive but seems to be in some trouble. She disappeared from our side in all the confusion with the monsters."

"...I see..." Asuna still suspected that the enemy was close, but she remained silent. Every fiber in her being told her to search for Mito. To her left, she could see Koharu was just as anxious. The poncho could be headed for them if their friends were together now.

Gindo approached Kirito, blinking away those tears as best he can, and bowed to the black swordsman. "I owe you all so much for this. This experience has been a painful lesson... We weren't ready for the front line yet. We'll go back to the fifth floor, finish up the quests that are left, and build ourselves up from scratch again. I pray dearly that Miss Mito is safe as well, and that we offer our apologies to her despite the great help she's been to us today... Oh, right. You can have these back." He produced a leather bag from his inventory and handed it to Kirito. Asuna couldn't see inside the bag as Kirito could, but based on Gindo's words, she deduced that the bag's contents were the four keys they'd gathered.

"All accounted f... Um, hang on. Sorry, can I check just in case?"

"Sure, of course."

"Okay." Kirito then gestured Kizmel over and displayed the bag. "Can you check to see if these are the real keys or not?"

"I can do this, but as I said earlier-" Kizmel's interrupted by a sudden eruption of the sand to the left. It swirled in the and spiraled on course for Asuna's party and Qusack. But if Asuna saw things correctly, a faint dullness shone in the vortex's center.

"Defense," Kirito shouted, covering Asuna and Koharu while Kizmel guarded Myia. Asuna's eyes were fixed on the sandstorm, but she bet Gindo guarded his allies, too. She watched as the sand split into top and bottom halves, and a red light escaped from between. It hit Kirito's Sword of Eventide, but the swordsman could withstand the force of the attack. He was knocked back, collided with Asuna and Koharu, and the trio fell back about four meters.

He lost a good 20 percent of his health while the girls took half his damage. Kizmel somehow stood on her feet but was also displaced alongside Myia, who had fallen on her behind. Qusack was the safest among them, but Gindo's shield was cut near the top. As for the whirlwind, it ceased to exist, but in its place knelt their attacker.

Against all expectations, it was not the man in the black poncho.

The figure, clad in studded grey armor and a hood, appeared female. Her frame was thinner than Kizmel and Koharu's, yet it seemed to bear the latter girl's athleticism. In her hand was a katana, an impossible weapon to possess per the former beta testers, as katana-wielding enemies didn't appear until the tenth floor. Yet Kirito and Jaymes (who never reached the tenth floor) noted that that was also after another katana-wielding enemy changed everything they knew about the beta version of Sword Art Online: Illfang the Kobold Lord, who carried a nodachi in the final phase of the first-floor's labyrinth fight.

The figure stood up and lowered her hood, revealing ash-grey hair. Her bangs hid half her face, but she was beautiful beyond measure. Wondering who she was, Asuna looked for her name on her cursor...and paled.

It was blackish-red, meaning she was much, much higher in level than the strongest in the group, Myia. Right underneath was her name: Kysarah, Fallen Elf Adjutant. The woman with General N'tlzahh in the warehouse weeks ago was here.

Jaymes and Kirito's hypothesis was confirmed: the Fallen and the PK group worked together.

Kysarah's icy blue eyes searched the sand, then stabbed the ground with her katana. Pierced on the other end was the leather bag Gindo had just given Kirito. She flicked it in the air and caught it with her hand. Checking the bag's weight, Kysarah spoke for the first time, her voice oozing with a strange sweetness. "...Thirty of my brethren died so I could gain these..."

"You...you're General N'tlzahh's aide, Kysarah the Ransacker!" Kizmel shouted, her sword held forward. "Return that bag to the ground. It is not meant to be touched by the likes of you!"

Kysarah was not fazed in the slightest by Kizmel. She glared coldly at the Lyusulan and stated, "Knight of Lyusula, I am afraid I do not know your name. And I will not be returning the keys. They are necessary for the sake of our great desire."

"Then I will force you to return them...by my sword!" Kizmel charged Kysarah' her attack slicing through the air with power. It wasn't the production of a sword skill, but it could have been mistaken for one. The knight's saber collided with the Fallen's katana, a piercing ring vibrating through the air.

But Asuna quickly noticed something else: Kizmel's blade had cracked on impact. Kizmel saw as well and leaped back, switching to defense with the near-broken saber. Kysarah, however, did not chase her fellow elf; instead, she stuck the bag in a pouch at her waist while gazing from Kizmel to the humans, then, with light speed, traveled from her position to Qusack.

"Aaah! Aaaaaaaah!" Kysarah chose Temuo to be her hostage. He tried escaping her grip on his collar, but his flailing body went stiff as the tip of the thin blade landed on the side of his throat.

"…I can kill you all right now, but I do not have a taste for murdering children, and my branch is about to run out of life."

That's right. Kysarah was an elf, so she had one of those branches that protected the Fallen from the desert's weakness debuff. She's sure that if someone could get the branch, they could weaken the mighty woman, yet there's a significant deterrent to that plan that not even the risk-taking Kirito dared to move. Temuo's life is literally on the line, and based on how Kizmel's saber nearly broke with ease and the near-black color of Kysarah's cursor, everyone's brain is joined in one thought - Kysarah could kill them in one blow.

"Among you, there are two other keys, not sacred but made of iron, that fit together as one," Her realization immediate, Asuna held in her gasp. Beside her, Koharu's green eyes widened, but Kirito's jolting shoulders got Kysarah's attention. Her cold glare fixed on him. "You will give them to me, too. For every ten seconds that I do not have them, I will kill one of your acquaintances."

As confused and frightened cries echoed in the air...something told Asuna that this wasn't an event in a script. This wasn't like when the count and the gardener kidnapped them. This wasn't a cutscene being played out in real time. No, this was different. This was the result of the PKers' meddling in the quest. Kysarah was an NPC and wasn't counting to ten verbally like people do. No, she meant "ten seconds" in the most literal sense. If Kirito didn't transfer her the keys in ten real seconds, Temou would be killed.

"All right, I'll give you the keys," Kirito said at the count of nine. However, it was past the count of ten that he finished the sentence, which relieved Asuna of a great worry. He materialized the key in his inventory and threw it at Kysarah's feet. Myia, in possession of the other, threw hers to about a quarter of a meter from the first. Kysarah discarded Temuo to his guildmates and reached down for the first iron key.

At that moment, Asuna remembered that the two keys resonated and repelled each other. If brought close together, they'd forcibly push apart as they did in the library earlier. Something told her that the boy standing before her realized that fact, too, and if she knew him and the missing boy well enough, Kirito would take advantage of the situation, even if it put him in mortal peril. He wouldn't kill her with his attacks, but he'd do something reckless - like taking the branch.

As she thought, once Kysarah picked up the first key, Kirito leaned forward slightly. At the same time, whether instinctively or by choice, Asuna grabbed his ankle...and Koharu reached for the end of his coat. Surprised that Koharu acted as well, each girl conveyed a silent message to the black swordsman, warning him not to move.

They watched as Kysarah picked up the second key, and the resonating ringing rose in intensity as the woman brought the keys together. Silver light shot out of her palm before she squeezed her hand into a fist. It's like she knew the keys could have repulsed the other, yet she's forcing them not to do so by will alone.

Her clenching hand remained shut as light escaped her palm, and the air around her was pushed away. Through the light and the recessed hair, Asuna could see more details of her face, including an eyepatch over her right eye.

Moments later, the light show faded, and sparks were heard. Kysarah got back on her feet and showcased a single iron key. Bouhroum was right in saying that the keys were meant to be aligned, but even he didn't know how.

"I had heard that there was a strange charm placed upon them…" she murmured while placing the key with the others. Fixing her hair, she fixed her eyes on Asuna, Koharu, and Kirito. "Now my business here is done. Human warriors… Do not involve yourself in elf matters any further. Let them be the only ones to bring trouble into this." Sheathing her katana, Kysarah spread her arms out, calling the power of the wind to sweep up sand. The whirlwind swallowed her hungrily.

After turning away from the whipping wind, Asuna saw that Kysarah the Ransacker and adjutant to General N'tlzahh was gone.