The Black Blades

by The Real Ones

The madman did it. He really trapped us all in here like mice in a maze. And all for his own amusement. He wants everyone to clear the game? Then we're gonna do just that. And hopefully, we won't have to go it alone.

1. Prologue: The Castle in the Sky

The Black Blades

Prologue: The Castle in the Sky

Account: ************

Password: ************

Sight: OK

Touch: OK

Taste: OK

Hearing: OK

Smell: OK

The sight that greeted the boy when he opened his eyes took his breath away. A view of the open sky and the giant metal tower that stood before him, as well as a thorough inspection of his own avatar led him to acknowledge that the ads and marketing surrounding this game were true: even though this was a game and it wasn't his actual body standing on a floating island, it all felt so…real. Like he really was standing before a castle in the sky.

His inspection was cut short when he felt something bump against his back, causing him to stumble forward a bit. He looked up and saw a couple of people—players, like him—running to the massive castle gates with one of them looking back and saying "Sorry!" before running in and disappearing. Soon he heard the commotion of other players logging in, and he smiled, unable to contain his growing excitement. He dashed through the gates and into the castle, eager to start his adventure.

(x)

Floor 1: The Town of Beginnings

"Now where the hell is he?" a player muttered to himself while walking through the streets. While he was searching, he spotted an NPC blacksmith. He stopped his search and stared at the store for a bit. This'd be a nice present for him, he thought, and this way I can use that Col I got for beta testing the game.

"Ah, there you are!" He looked over to his left to see a player running towards him, then stop to put his hands on his knees to catch his breath. He got a better look at the player once he stood up straight—red messy hair and eyes, red shirt and beginner chest plate, one handed sword sheathed at his back.

"You're late, Sora," the player chastised the red-clad boy. "And here I was about to buy you a gift for playing your first VR game."

"Wait no please!" Sora pleaded.

The other player chuckled. "I'm kidding. Come on, let's get you a better sword than that rusted crap on your back."

"Seriously? Thanks, Aoki!" The two stepped in the store and browsed around for a bit before Sora found a sword he liked.

"Now that you're better equipped, let's head to the outskirts and I'll teach you how to fight," Aoki instructed once they purchased the sword and stepped out of the shop.

"Got it," Sora replied as they started making their way to the outskirts. On their way, Sora kept looking around at his surroundings in awe. "I still can't believe you convinced my mom and dad to let me play day one."

"Under the condition I stick with you. Like always," Aoki teased. "It's fun seeing you like this, you're normally so calm about everything."

"Yeah, thanks," Sora rolled his eyes with a smile. "It's just amazing that we can play games like this, you know?"

"I get it, don't worry. Ah, we're here," Aoki said as they approached the town's borders, leading to the plains that were ripe with new players and enemies.

(x)

A squeal rang out from the dying boar as it fell to its side, diagonally splitting in two before it shattered into a bunch of bluish fragments that floated into the air and disappeared. In its place was a white glowing item that Aoki picked up, throwing it up and catching it as a screen popped up that said "Ivory Tusk x1". He looked back to Sora, who was staring at him in awe.

"That was sick!" he said excitedly as he clapped his hands. Aoki smiled and bowed, exaggerating his motions to Sora's amusement.

"That, my friend," he responded, "is just a taste of what this game, and VR as a whole, has to offer. Now then, you wanna give it a shot?" Sora unsheathed his new sword and looked at it for a second before looking back up at his friend and nodding with a determined look on his face. "That's the spirit!" Aoki smiled as he sat down on a rock and rested his elbows on his knees, folding his hands together in front of his face while his sword rested on the grass next to him.

A snort caught Sora's attention, prompting him to turn in the direction it originated from while holding his sword in front of him. A new boar had appeared and set its sights on the new player. Sora tightened his grip on his sword and closed his eyes as the boar reared, getting ready to charge at him. He took a deep breath and started charging a sword skill, his blade glowing a bright yellow.

After what felt like an eternity, the boar dashed forward, baring its tusks in an effort to impale Sora; unfortunately for the beast, Sora dodged at the last second and, as the boar skidded to a halt past him, slashed upwards with a sword skill, bisecting the boar from the waist up. It didn't even squeal as its upper body fell to the floor, shattering upon impact and leaving another glowing white object in its place. As Sora knelt to pick it up, he heard Aoki cheering behind him. "Nice hit! And you charged a sword skill, just like I taught you!" he said as he came up behind his friend and slapped him on the back. "Keep that up and you'll be one of the top players, I'm sure!"

"Don't sell yourself short," Sora replied half-jokingly.

"Oh, don't worry," Aoki laughed, "I wasn't. Now, let's go sell these and get something to eat here."

"Why don't we just log out and get something?"

"Because I wanna get you used to how this game works. That, and I don't really feel like logging out."

"…you know what, fair enough."

"Alright! Race ya to the tavern!"

(x)

Aoki set his glass down with a satisfied sigh as he said, "Ahh! Drinking without getting drunk feels SO good!"

"Are you even old enough to drink yet?" Sora questioned as he took a tentative sip from the glass of juice in his hands.

"Hey, I'm turning 20 soon! That's good enough for me!" Aoki and Sora both thanked the waitress who brought their food to them, who merely smiled and bowed her head before returning to the kitchen.

"Alright, now to do it properly." They both took a chicken leg from their respective plates and held their glasses up. "To new beginnings!" the pair said jokingly as they clinked their glasses and took hearty swigs.

Sora put his glass down and wiped the juice away from his mouth. "What time is it anyway?" he asked Aoki, who was too busy eating and drinking to answer him. "I'll just check it myself then," Sora sighed. He opened his menu with a downward wave of two fingers, like Aoki had taught him, and immediately stood up when he saw the time, shocking Aoki. "7 PM?!"

Aoki's eyes widened as he stood up as well. "Shit, I have an assignment due tomorrow!" Aoki opened his menu as well and went to the Settings tab to log out…only to be met with a blank option where the Log Out button normally is. "Wait, what?"
"Hey, did you ever teach me to log out, or am I bugging right now?" Sora asked as he looked for the Log Out button as well.

"It should be in the Settings tab, but it's not showing up for me." Aoki began walking over to Sora to show him where the Log Out button should be. Suddenly, people started disappearing in the tavern one by one, eliciting a response of fear from those who hadn't vanished in a flash of light. Aoki looked around concerned until all the people in the tavern disappeared, save for—

"Aoki?" Hearing Sora call his name in a scared tone prompted Aoki to turn to his friend, who was staring at his hands as they slowly disappeared. He looked back up at Aoki, his eyes wide with fear. "What's going o—" his inquiry was cut off as he disappeared in a flash of light.

"Sora!" Aoki shouted as he reached out to his friend, only to see his vision brighten as his own hand disappeared.

(x)

Aoki looked around, confused. He had reappeared in…the Town of Beginning's plaza? He looked around and saw more people appearing, all of whom seemed just as confused as he was. He racked his brain, trying to figure out why he and every other player were suddenly at the plaza. His eyes widened as he came to a sudden realization. "SORA!" he shouted, startling a few players around him. "WHERE ARE YOU?" he kept shouting, uncaring of the reactions of those around him.

"Aoki!" He heard Sora's voice accompanied by running footsteps as his companion came up to him, understandably confused and worried. "What's going on? First we can't log out, then everyone vanishes, now we're all here, and I dunno what's happening whycan'twegetouttahere–"

"Calm down!" Aoki placed his hands on Sora's shoulders and looked him dead in the eye, with Sora staring back wide-eyed. "I dunno what's going on, but freaking out won't solve anything. Okay? Take some deep breaths." Following this, Sora took a few deep breaths and nodded to show he had calmed down at least somewhat. "Good. Now let's—"

"WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?!" Someone shouted, startling the two young players. They looked around for the source of the shout and saw a finger pointing up at the sky. Following the direction of the outstretched finger, both players (and everyone else in the area) saw a singular hexagonal shape with the word "DANGER" on it. Soon, the message multiplied, covering the whole sky like a dome and washing everything and everyone in an atmosphere that was somehow more eerie than before. Everyone began panicking, understandably worried about what was to come.

The panicked shouts soon turned to screams, however, as the sky started…bleeding? From the lines connecting each hexagonal "DANGER", a red liquid that looked suspiciously like blood had begun dripping. However, it didn't hit the floor, instead collecting in the middle of the sky above everyone and formed a large figure wearing a red cloak with the hood drawn, obscuring its face.

"Attention, players." All went quiet as the hooded figure spoke. "Welcome to Sword Art Online. My name is Akihiko Kayaba. And as of this moment, I am in control of this world." Whispers broke out amongst the crowd after the figure spoke.

"Is that him?"

"What's going on?"

"I'm scared!"

"Aoki…" Sora looked towards his friend to gauge his reaction as the rest of the crowd muttered to themselves. Aoki's eyes reflected his confusion.

"Something's not right," was all he had to say. "Why's the game master here?"

"I'm sure most of you had already noticed a feature missing from your main menus: the logout button," the figure, now revealed to be the game master himself, continued. Sora breathed a sigh of relief; maybe that was a bug and he's gonna fix it. "Let me assure you, this is not a defect in the game." Wait, what?

"I repeat: this is not a defect. This is how Sword Art Online was designed to be."

"He's kidding, right?" Someone shouted. Panicked whispers broke out, and Aoki snuck a glance towards Sora, who had gone pale. In an effort to comfort him, Aoki put his hand on his friend's shoulder, startling Sora and prompting him to look at him. Aoki nodded reassuringly, which Sora returned.

"You cannot log yourselves out of SAO," Kayaba continued without acknowledging the steadily rising panic. "And no one from the outside will be able to shut down or remove the NerveGear from your head. If anyone attempts to do so, a transmitter inside the NerveGear will discharge a microwave signal into your skull, destroying your brain and ending your life."

"Are you serious?!"

"This can't be real!"

"I got a deadline to meet tomorrow, this isn't funny…"

"Hey, Aoki…" Sora tugged at his friend's sleeve.

"What?" Aoki looked down to Sora.

"Is he serious? Can we really die like that?"

"As much as I don't want to say it, he's right. The transmitters are basically microwaves."

"Can't someone, like, unplug the NerveGear?" Aoki shook his head in response.

"No can do. It's got an internal battery."

"Oh…" Sora looked away, downcast.

"Despite my warning," Kayaba continued, "the families and friends of some of the players have attempted to remove the NerveGear; an unfortunate decision to say the least. As a result, The game now has 213 less players than when it began. They've been deleted from both Aincrad and the real world."

"213?!"

"No way…"

"I don't believe it!"

"That's crazy!" Sora shouted. Aoki's eyes were wide with shock.

"As you can see, international media outlets have around-the-clock coverage in everything, including the deaths." As if to prove a point, the demented game master pulled up an article with a wave of his hand. Death Count Rises in Online-Game Incident, it read. "At this point, it's safe to assume the likelihood of a NerveGear being removed is minimal at best. I hope this brings you a little comfort as you try to clear the game.

"It's also important to remember the following: there is no longer any way to revive someone within the game. If your HP drops to zero, your avatar will be deleted from the system. Forever. And the NerveGear will simultaneously destroy your brain.

"There's only one way for a player to escape: you must clear the game. Right now, you're gathered on floor 1, the lowest level of Aincrad. If you can get through the dungeon and defeat the floor boss, you may advance to the next floor. Defeat the boss on floor 100 and you will clear the game." The crowd broke out into whispers once again.

"Clear?"

"What's he talking about?"

"Why should we believe any of the crap you're saying?!" Someone shouted at the game master.

"That's impossible…"

"Not even the beta testers made it that high!"

"Last, but not least," Kayaba continued, "I've placed a little present in the item storage of every player. Please, have a look." Near simultaneously, every player present opened their item storage, finding an item simply titled Mirror. Upon selecting the item and holding it in their hands, several blinding flashes of light once again illuminated the plaza.

When Sora finally blinked away the (hopefully) last of the sunspots out of his vision, he heard various shouts and screams and looked around to see the cause; everyone around him looked…different somehow, some more than others. Panicking, he looked into the fountain next to him and inspected himself: his hair was short and messy with eye-length bangs that were swept to the side save for a few strands, and his build was slightly scrawny and of average height. He breathed a sigh of relief; he was still largely the same as when he first logged in, with the only exceptions being his now-black hair and red eyes. His eyes widened when he noted those differences. Now he looks exactly the same as he does IRL. Which means… "Aoki!" he shouted, turning to his companion–and froze when he turned to face him.

Aoki's appearance had changed drastically: his now-silver hair was parted in the middle and was brushed back and up, giving it a somewhat messy look while some of his bangs hung just above his blue eyes with the rest being swept to the sides; his build was toned while his height was above average. "What's up?" Aoki inquired, before his eyes widened at Sora's new changes. "Hold on. Why's your hair–?"

"Forget my hair! You look like…yourself now!"

"WHAT?!" Aoki rushed to the fountain and inspected his reflection. "No no no, this can't be real," he muttered to himself as he examined his face.

"Why is this happening?" Sora asked Aoki desperately.

"Right now, you're probably wondering," the game master's voice captured everyone's attention once more, "'Why? Why would Akihiko Kayaba, developer of Sword Art Online and the NerveGear, do this?' Ultimately, my goal is a simple one–the reason I created Sword Art Online... was to control the fate of a world of my design. As you can see," he gestured with one hand above the shocked audience, "I have achieved my goal. This marks the end of the tutorial and the official launch of Sword Art Online. Players, I wish you the best of luck." With those final words, Kayaba disappeared and the sky returned to its appropriate twilight color.

Silence. Then, someone screamed, and everyone started panicking even more than before, with some players either crying, screaming or even just standing still in shock. Sora looked around, terrified at the idea of his virtual death equating to his actual body's death. He started hyperventilating, holding his head in his hands. He wanted to cry and scream too. He was snapped out of his emotions when Aoki grabbed one of his hands and started pulling him away from the crowd, effortlessly navigating his way through the panicked crowd, his expression hidden the whole time.

Before he knew it, they were both at an alley, far away from all the other players. There was a tense silence between the two of them, Aoki's eyes still being hidden behind his bangs. "Aoki?" Sora was surprised at how small his own voice sounded. "Was he…telling the truth? Are we really…stuck here?" No response. "What're we gonna do? Do we even have what it takes to fight?" Sora looked down at his trembling hands, still put off by Aoki's reticence. That feeling of hopelessness began to sink in, made worse by the unease brought about by the silence of his normally confident best friend and brother-figure. "…Aoki? Hey, c'mon, say something."

"…There's another town not too far from here." Sora looked up when he heard Aoki's voice, surprised and a bit scared to hear him speak in such a low tone. "If we hurry, we can get to all the best grinding spots on the way." Aoki opened his map and pointed to several spots around a route leading outside of town. Sora stared at the map, wanting to analyze where Aoki was pointing.

"So what're we gonna do from there?" he couldn't help but inquire.

"…Isn't it obvious?" Aoki looked up at Sora, his eyes sharpened with determination. "We fight. He wants to treat this death trap like a game? Then we'll play. And we'll win. And I promise, Sora," Aoki put his hand on his friend's shoulder and gave a smile that was both comforting and full of confidence, "I'll keep you safe. No matter what. We're gonna be the ones to clear this game and save everyone.

"So whaddya say?" He pulled away, that smile still on his lips. "Ready to fight, partner?" Aoki held his fist out, his left hand grasping the hilt of his greatsword tightly.

Sora stared at Aoki in silence, seeing his hand trembling slightly as he extended it for a fist bump. Even in a situation this dire, he was still keeping his cool for his sake. Sora smiled. Of course Aoki wouldn't panic at a time like this. When has he ever? He returned Aoki's gesture, fist bumping him while saying, "I'm with you. To hell and back." Aoki's smile widened.

"That's what I like to hear. Now let's go. The sooner we get there, the better." The pair dashed off, exiting the town gates and heading to the grassy field ripe with monsters and players alike; it looks like other players had the same idea as them and had already started on their quests to beat this game and get back to their real lives.

On the route they were traveling on, a couple of boars had stepped in their path and were getting ready to charge at the duo. They drew their respective weapons and charged sword skills, shouting as they rushed at the now-charging boars.

(x)

Author's notes:

Solar: If you're here from my page, welcome! This is the new story that we're writing (in the same vein as The Tri-Blade Alliance), as a way to get back into writing in our spare time. Man, it's been a minute, huh?

Arctic: And to those who came from my page, welcome! I know we haven't updated in a minute, and I have an explanation for that. To put it simply…life got in the way and I slowly lost interest in both the story and SAO as a whole.

Solar (part 2): Same goes here, but I've been slowly getting back into SAO because of SAO Progressive, and I felt inspired to try my hand at writing a new story, as equals with Arctic this time (a lot of behind the scenes bullshit happened when we were younger and more inexperienced, but we've put that behind us).

Arctic (part 2): God, I wanna punch younger me. Anyway, some updates on life: we both got jobs, and I managed to graduate from college! We're in the process of moving so we prolly won't have a consistent schedule yet, but I can promise that we will continue this story and hopefully write more for it than we did for The Tri-Blade Alliance.

Final part (both): We stopped writing fanfictions for a while (partly burnout, partly life, entirely us) but we haven't lost our dreams to become writers. We hope to reignite more of that with writing this story, and we sincerely hope you stick with us for this ride!