I had seen many players die in SAO. They all had the same expression on their faces as they shattered into countless fragments and disappeared; it was always the same simple expression of pondering, one that asked, “am I really going to just die like this?”
It was most probably because, deep within our hearts, none of us wanted to accept the absolute rule of the game. We simply didn’t want to believe that death in the game meant an actual death.
We all held a hopeful speculation, that “maybe we’ll just return to the real world when our HP reaches zero and we disappear.” Of course, you had to personally die to find out what would actually happen. If you think about it like that, then death would be one of the ways to escape this game-.
“Hey, hey, say something. I’m really killing you here.”
Cradil pulled his sword out of my leg and stabbed my stomach this time. My HP decreased significantly and went into the red danger area. But it felt like this didn’t concern me, as if it was all happening in another faraway world. Even as I was being tortured by the sword, my mind was embarking down a dark path, as if a heavy and thick cloth was gradually covering it.
But then—a strong fear suddenly clenched my heart.
Asuna. If I disappeared and left her in this world, Asuna would fall into Cradil’s hands and endure the same pain as me. That possibility formed an unbearable pain which shocked me back into consciousness.
“Kaaaah!!”
I opened my eyes, grabbed the sword that was buried in my stomach, and started pulling it out with all the strength I had. I had only about ten percent of my HP left. Cradil then shouted in surprise:
“Huh…huh? What’s this, you’re scared of dying?”
“Yeah…I…can’t die yet…”
“Heh!! Hyahaha!! That’s more like it!!”
Cradil laughed like a freakish bird and put his weight behind the sword. I strained against it with one hand. The system performed a set of complicated calculations based on my and Cradil’s strength and determined the result.
The final result—the sword started coming down again, slowly but steadily. I was filled with fear and despair.
Was this the end?
Was I going to die? Leaving Asuna in this insane world?
I resisted the gradually closing sword and the despair that reached out from within me.
“Die-!! Diiieeeee-!!”
Cradil screamed in a shrill voice.
The killing intent that took the form of a dully shining sword came down centimeter by centimeter. Then finally, the sword tip reached my body—and slowly dug in…
At this moment, a gust of wind blew.
It was a gust of deep red and pure white wind.
“Huh…!?”
With this exclamation of surprise, the murderer and his sword were thrown high into the air. I stared speechlessly at the silhouette of the person who had appeared.
“…I’m not late… I’m not late…thank you, God…I’m not late…”
Her trembling voice sounded sweeter than the flapping wings of an angel. Her lips trembled violently as she collapsed onto her knees and looked at me.
“Alive…you’re alive, right, Kirito…?”
“…yeah…I’m still alive…”
My voice sounded so weak that it surprised me. Asuna nodded once and took out a pink crystal from her pouch, then put her left hand on my chest and shouted.
“Heal!”
The crystal broke and my HP bar filled up in an instant. After confirming my recovery, Asuna whispered to me:
“…wait here. I’ll take care of this quickly…”
Asuna then stood up, drew her rapier elegantly, and started walking.
Her target Cradil was still preparing to pick himself off the ground. When he saw the person that was walking towards him his eyes grew wide.
“A-Asuna-sama…h-how did you get here…? T-This, is, training, yes, there was an accident in the middle of training…”
Cradil bounced back up as if he had springs and attempted to form an excuse with his nervous voice. But before he could finish, Asuna’s right hand flashed and the tip of her sword tore Cradil’s mouth. She didn’t become a criminal since her opponent already had an orange cursor.
“Ahh!!”
Cradil covered his mouth with his hand, leaned backwards, and froze for a moment. Then, as he righted himself, his eyes were full of a familiar anger.
“You bitch…that went way too far… Heh, well it’s fine. I’ll just take care of you as well…”
But he stopped mid-sentence; Asuna had started attacking fiercely as soon as she fixed her grip on her sword. Her rapier drew countless lines of light as it slashed and stabbed towards Cradil at unbelievable speeds. Even I couldn’t see the trajectory of her sword, and I was several levels above her. I just watched as the angel swung her sword almost as if she was dancing.
It was beautiful. Asuna pushed her opponent back expressionlessly, her long chestnut hair flowing while sparks of anger enveloped her entire body; it was indescribably beautiful.
“Ah!! Kaaaa!!”
Cradil had already begun panicking, his sword swung about wildly without even landing a scratch on Asuna. As his HP decreased noticeably from the yellow zone to the red danger area, Cradil finally threw his sword aside and screamed with both of his arms held up in the air.
“O-Okay!! Okay!! I’m sorry!!”
He then went to his knees and begged.
“I-I’ll leave the guild! I won’t appear in front of you two ever again!! So-”
Asuna silently listened to his cries.
She raised her sword slowly and reversed her grip. Her thin arm tensed with nervousness, and then went up another couple of centimeters as it prepared to stab through Cradil. At that moment the murderer screamed even more loudly.
“Heeeek! I-I don’t want to die-!!”
The sword stopped as if it hit an invisible wall. Her thin body began to shake violently.
I could fully feel Asuna’s inner conflict, both her fear and her anger.
By what I knew, she had never killed anyone in this game. Since when a player is killed in this world they also die in the real world, PKing in this network game is equivalent to actual murder.
—Yeah. Stop, Asuna. You shouldn’t do that.
As I screamed this to myself, I also thought of the complete opposite at the same time.
—No, don’t hesitate. That’s what he’s after.
My prediction became reality 0.1 seconds later.
“Ahahahaha!”
I wasn’t sure when Cradil had picked his sword back up, but he suddenly swung it upwards with a scream.
Asuna’s rapier made a clanging sound and flew out of her right hand.
“Ah…!?”
As Asuna exclaimed and lost her balance, a metallic shine flashed above her head.
“Sub-leader, you’re still faaaaaaaaaaaarr too naive!!”
With a shriek filled with madness, Cradil swung his sword down without hesitation, drawing a dark red line of light.
“Ahhhhhhh!!”
This time, I was the one who had screamed. I kicked off from the ground with my right foot, which had just recovered from the paralysis, and flew a couple of meters before pushing Asuna aside with my right hand while blocking Cradil’s sword with my left.
Thump.
With this unpleasant sound, my left arm was severed from the elbow down. The body part loss icon flashed below the HP bar. While bloody red lines of light flowed from the cut on my left arm, my right hand straightened its fingers and-.
I stabbed my hand into the gap between Cradil’s thick armor. It glowed yellow as it buried itself deep within Cradil’s stomach.
I had successfully countered with the point-blank range skill «Embracer», which immediately eliminated the last twenty percent of Cradil’s HP. His gaunt body shivered violently beside me, then completely lost all strength and sagged.
As his great sword fell onto the ground and clanged, he whi
spered into my ear:
“You…murderer…”
He sneered in a “kuku” sound.
Cradil’s entire body shattered into numerous glass fragments. I was pushed back by the chill force of the dissipating polygons and fell backwards.
For a while, my exhausted, frozen mind registered only the sound of wind blowing.
Then I heard irregular footsteps stepping on the gravel. When I turned my gaze, I could see a fragile looking figure walking towards me with a hollow expression.
Asuna walked shakily towards me with her head lowered, and then collapsed to her knees in front of me like a puppet with its strings cut. Although she reached out towards me with her right hand, she suddenly pulled it back before it could reach me.
“…I’m sorry…because of me…it’s all because of me…”
Asuna forced this out with a shaking voice and a grief-stricken expression. Tears rolled down from her large eyes and fell to the ground like sparkling gems. I barely managed to say something short with my dry throat:
“Asuna…”
“I’m sorry… I…won’t…meet Kirito…a…again.”
I exerted myself to right my body back up, which was finally regaining its normal senses. My body was still filled with an unpleasant feeling because of the devastating damage I took, but I hugged Asuna with both my right arm and my crippled left arm. Then, I covered her beautiful, cherry-colored lips with mine.
“…!”
Asuna went rigid and tried to push me away, but I held her small body tightly with all the strength I had. It was without a doubt something that went against the manner violation prevention code. Right now a system message should have appeared in front of Asuna, and if she pressed OK, I would be immediately teleported to the prison area of the Black Iron Castle.
But my arms showed no signs of loosening up. As I left Asuna’s lips, I passed her cheeks before burying my face in the curve of her neck. Then I whispered:
“My life belongs to you, Asuna. So I’ll use it for you. I’ll stay with you until the end.”
I pulled Asuna in closer with the left arm that had the body part loss status imposed on it for three minutes. Asuna took a trembling breath and then whispered in response:
“…I-I’ll protect you as well. I’ll protect you forever. So…”
She wasn’t able to continue talking. So I listened to Asuna’s sobbing with our arms held tightly around each other.
The warmth of our bodies began to melt my frozen heart bit by bit.
Chapter 16
Asuna told me that she had been monitoring the map while waiting for me in Grandum.
The moment Godfrey’s signal disappeared, she ran out of the city and had crossed the five kilometers that took us an hour to cover in just five minutes. When I pointed out that it was a figure which exceeded the dexterity stat limits, she answered with a slight smile:
“It’s the power of love.”
After we returned to the guild HQ, we told Heathcliff what happened and asked him if we could temporarily leave the guild. When Asuna explained her reason as “distrust of the guild,” Heathcliff thought in silence for a while, but gave us permission nevertheless. Then, he said one last thing with a mysterious smile on his face:
“But you’ll return to the battlefield soon enough.”
By the time we left the HQ, it was already evening. We held each others’ hands and walked together to the teleport gate plaza.
Neither of us said a word.
As we walked amongst the black shadows of the iron towers and the orange light that came from outside the floating castle, I wondered just where Cradil’s hate had come from.
There were quite a number of people who enjoyed committing crimes in this world. From thieves and robbers to the cold-blooded murderers of «Laughing Coffin» like Cradil; rumors claim that the number of criminal players already exceeded a thousand. People thought of them as natural occurrences like monsters now.
But when I thought about it, I still felt that they were a very strange group. It should be obvious to everyone that harming other players was an act that would undoubtedly hurt the chances of clearing the game. In other words, it meant that they didn’t want to leave this game.
Yet after meeting Cradil, I don’t think this applied to him. He didn’t help or obstruct the clearing of the game; he had merely stopped thinking. Neither reminiscing the past nor looking forward to the future, he simply tried to fulfill his endless desires, which resulted in the growth of his vile intentions—
Then what about me? I couldn’t confidently say that I was seriously focused on clearing the game. It would be more accurate to claim that I habitually explored labyrinths only for experience points. If I fought only to strengthen myself, to feel the pleasure of superiority, then somewhere deep down within myself, did I also not want this world to end—?
Suddenly, it felt as if the iron plate beneath my feet had begun to sink. I stopped walking and tightened my grip on Asuna’s right hand, which I had been hanging onto.
“…?”
Asuna tilted her head and looked at me. I lowered my head and spoke as if I was talking to myself:
“…no matter what happens…I’ll make sure that you…return to that world…”
“…”
This time Asuna tightened her grip.
“When the time comes, we’ll go back together.”
She revealed a smile as she finished.
We had arrived at the teleport gate plaza without realizing it. Only a few players were walking about in the area, huddling against the cold wind that foretold the coming of winter.
I turned to look directly at Asuna.
I thought that the warmth which radiated from her strong will was the only light that guided me towards the right direction.
“Asuna…tonight…I want to be with you…”
I said this without thinking.
I didn’t want to be away from her. The close encounter had induced a terrifying fear of death that I had never felt before, one that couldn’t be shaken off even now.
I would definitely have nightmares if I slept alone tonight. I would dream of that person’s insanity, his sword digging into me, and the feeling of stabbing my right hand into him; I was sure of it.
Asuna stared at me with wide eyes, as if she understood the reason behind my request—
Then, with her cheeks blushing red, she nodded slightly.
Asuna’s house in Salemburg, which I was visiting for the second time, was still luxuriously decorated; yet this time it greeted me with a comfortable warmness. The objects that were distributed around the place displayed the owner’s outstanding taste. But despite this, Asuna said:
“U-Uwa— it’s so messy here. I didn’t come here much these days and…”
With a “hehe” laugh, she smiled sheepishly and quickly cleaned up the scattered items.
“I’ll make dinner quickly. Just read the paper or something and wait.”
“Ah, okay.”
I sank into the sofa after watching Asuna remove her battle gear, put on an apron, and disappear into the kitchen. Then I picked up the large newspaper that was on the table. Although we call it a newspaper, it’s merely a collection of rumors from those players who traded information. But since this world lacked forms of entertainment, the newspaper became a precious source of media with many subscribers. The paper only had four pages, and I only glanced casually at the first page before tossing it aside out of irritation. This was because the title page headline was the duel between Heathcliff and me.
[New skill Dual Blades user crushed by Holy Sword]
Beneath the headline was a picture of me sprawled out on the ground before Heathcliff, taken through the use of Record Crystals. One could say that I had only added another page to the undefeated legend of Heathcliff.
Well, maybe they would stop bothering me as much if their expectations of my skill drops… I helped myself find an easily acceptable excuse. Then, as I started to look thr
ough my inventory list, an enticing aroma wafted out of the kitchen.
The dinner entrée was a steak made out of a cow-like monster’s meat and served with Asuna’s special soy sauce. Although the ingredients’ rank wasn’t that high, the flavoring was simply perfect. Asuna watched me with a wide smile as I stuffed the meat into my mouth.
As we sat across from each other on the sofa and drank tea after finishing dinner, Asuna became quite talkative for some reason. She spoke endlessly about topics like which brand of weapons she liked and which floors had famous sightseeing locations.
At first I listened to her with surprise, but then Asuna suddenly fell silent, which caused me to get worried. She sat absolutely still and stared at her teacup as if she was trying to find something. Her expression was extremely serious, almost as if she was preparing for a fight.
“…hey, what’s wrong…”
But before I could finish speaking, Asuna clanked her teacup loudly onto the table, then shot up from her seat and announced:
“…okay!”
She walked over to the window sill, touched the wall to open the Room Control Menu, and suddenly turned off all the lights. Darkness covered the room immediately; my scan skill’s support ability automatically kicked in and replaced my normal sight with night-vision mode.
The room was dyed in a dim blue light, and Asuna was shining white from the lampposts’ light which came in from the windows. Although I was confused by her behavior, her beauty still caused me to hold my breath.
Her long hair that seemed dark blue, her slender, white arms and legs that stretched out from under her tunic, they all reflected the weak light and looked like they were glowing.
Asuna silently stood by the window sill for a while. I couldn’t see her expression very well because she had lowered her head. She also held her right hand against her chest and seemed to be hesitating about something.
Just as I was about to ask what was going on, Asuna began to move her left hand. Her thumb and forefinger moved through the air, and a menu window appeared with an accompanying sound effect.
In the blue-tinted darkness, Asuna’s fingers moved across the glowing purple menu window. It appeared that she was manipulating the left menu, which controlled the player’s equipment.
Sword Art Online - Volume 1 - Aincrad Page 15
