"We're all going to die… it's just a matter of sooner or later."
She told me that the first time we met, her eyes steady, unflinching. A girl who dared to face the cruel truth of this world...more calmly than I ever could.
But… I won't let those words become fate.
I will follow her footsteps in this battle. If she survives… if everyone here survives…
She will become… a swordswoman who surpasses all others, sharper than the wind that dances along the edge of a blade. A player who will make the whole world turn and look, a name that will echo through every floor of Aincrad.
Not just an ordinary swordswoman. She will continue down a path that a beta tester like me...still seen as filthy, selfish, could never walk.
One day… she'll become a guiding light for lost warriors, for souls drowned in despair.
And if that day truly comes… I want to see it. No… I want it to happen. I long to witness that light flare into brilliance, even from afar, like a nameless face among the crowd.
Kirito glanced toward Asuna. In that fleeting moment, his gaze softened, holding something never yet spoken.
Then he turned forward again, where the roar of steel clashed unrelentingly.
The battlefield was moving into place. Formations were gradually surrounding the enemy, footsteps marching in rhythm to the commands of a new leader. But..
Just beyond the edge of the encirclement, several players were knocked back as a Sentinel swung its iron mace with brute force.
They staggered, falling clumsily into the danger zone...just as the boss paused.
It crouched low, its massive sword sweeping back behind its shoulders. A familiar motion, so terrifying it made the heart seize.
"No…!"
Kirito screamed in his mind… too late.
The boss was preparing its sweep attack!
In the blink of an eye, a blinding arc of blood-red light tore across the air, a trajectory carved by a sword wide enough to carry death in its wake.
All the players who had just taken their places in the formation were flung aside like marionettes with cut strings, their bodies tossed in all directions, rolling across the cold marble floor.
The groans, the crashes of bodies, the clatter of dropped weapons… all rang out like a death knell.
And then… the sound of electricity spread through the air. A pale blue glow cloaked each fallen player.
Paralysis.
A status no one wanted to face. These were players who had fought to this very point, together they'd driven the boss's health bar to half.
And yet…
Just one careless moment, and they now lay strewn across the battlefield like corpses, unable to move, their trembling eyes fixed on the boss, now like an executioner without mercy.
It crouched, tensed, then launched straight into the air. No roar. No signal. Just silence and that silence was far more terrifying.
It was about to unleash its full-body shock skill, the final blow to crush all remaining resistance.
A slam into the ground would create a wide-area shockwave. And even a mere touch at the wave's edge would paralyze every player caught in it.
No one could move in time. No one stood in the right place to stop it. No one… except...
"DAMN IT…!!!"
Kirito shouted, his voice no longer cold, but ripped straight from his chest.
He poured every ounce of strength into his legs, pushing off the stone floor with a burst of wind, cutting through fear, through doubt.
Alone, he charged straight toward the boss, now suspended in the air, where death hovered like an arrow drawn taut.
"Damn it, I won't make it!"
Kirito grit his teeth, his legs moving on instinct...but he knew, painfully so, that this speed wasn't enough. Worse, the boss's skill had already begun to activate, its power enough to shatter all efforts, even with victory just one step away.
The ground trembled faintly, a warning of what was to come.
And then from the opposite side, something tore through the air like a shadow streaking through night.
Ren.
Kirito caught only a glimpse of the light glinting off the edge of the boy's sword, tangled in his wild hair.
At their current speed, they would crash into each other in less than two breaths. But Kirito didn't panic. In that instant, they understood one another.
Kirito stopped for a beat, then turned sharply, planting his feet deep into the ground, arms swinging his sword horizontally with all his might.
"GO...NOW…!!"
Ren stepped onto the flat of the blade just as it swept through the air like a giant arc. His whole body was launched backward, an arrow stretched to its final limit.
Kirito was thrown in the opposite direction, crashing hard into the floor...but his eyes never left the sky.
There, in midair…
…time seemed to slow.
The wind whipped against his face, Ren's ears went numb, and everything around him, shouting voices, the clash of weapons, even the sound of his own heartbeat, blurred like a charcoal sketch smudged by water.
In front of him, the boss was raising its Nodachi high, the long blade gleaming blood-red as it prepared to unleash a deadly blow that would send a paralyzing shockwave across the battlefield.
He couldn't let it happen. He couldn't.
Ren tensed every muscle in his body, twisting midair like a gymnast, focusing all his weight and force into the tip of his sword, and dove like a meteor falling from the sky.
In that moment, his eyes met the soulless gaze of the boss, a soul burning with the will to live, colliding with a merciless killing machine.
"DIE!!"
CRASH!!
His blade screamed through the air, tearing through everything in its path, piercing straight into the left eye socket of the boss like a divine spear.
The sound of shattering rang out. Fragments of metal and red pixelated blood scattered everywhere. A violent explosion erupted from the impact point, ripping through space itself in an instant.
The monster let out a scream like it was being burned alive.
It writhed, the Nodachi falling from its hand and crashing onto the floor like a broken pillar.
Its massive body staggered, hunching over, then dropped to one knee, completely paralyzed in those precious few seconds.
Ren was still flying, thrown backward by the force of his own full-powered thrust. The sword slipped from his hand, leaving behind searing gashes in his palm.
Wind howled past his ears, his vision spinning wildly, with nothing left to grasp onto.
He was falling.
The marble ground below grew closer, just a few breaths away...
Ren closed his eyes, not out of fear, but to brace for the inevitable impact, the pain that was sure to follow…
And then...THUD!
Not the ground. It was... something softer?
A dull sound followed, and then a quiet groan.
–322
A damage number floated in the air, slicing into his HP bar, definitely not a light hit.
"You okay?" A familiar voice came from beneath him, laced with a sharp inhale from a painful catch. Ren opened his eyes.
It was Nautilus. He was awkwardly pushing Ren off his body, face twisted in a dazed grimace, but still managing a wry smile.
"I'm fine. Just... hurts a little," Ren muttered with a strained laugh, his head still spinning. His vision cleared from foggy to sharp.
Not just Nautilus. Yuna was also nearby, holding her forehead like she'd just slammed it into someone's shoulder.
Beside her was Mito, one knee on the ground, her face contorted with pain, but one hand still gripping Ren's shoulder tightly, as if she had just helped break his fall.
He had crashed into them like a bowling ball into three pins.
It had taken all three of them to catch his fall from that height. If not, the damage he would've taken surely wouldn't have been just one crimson number.
Seizing the moment Ren had created, Kirito dashed forward like a gust of wind cutting across the battlefield.
"Let's go! We can beat it! Just one moment… just one chance… Don't let the opportunity Ren created go to waste!" he shouted, his voice like a command that reignited the last flicker of flame in everyone's hearts.
"But... you haven't recovered yet…" Asuna mumbled, her legs hesitating for just a second. But then her eyes met Kirito's, steady, unwavering, with no room left for retreat.
And with that, she charged forward, her legs choosing their path as if already decided long ago.
The two of them, like twin arrows, sliced through the air toward the boss, still stunned from the blow to its eye.
Their footsteps echoed on the marble floor, each beat like a drum to the final song of this battle.
As they closed in, they activated their skills in unison.
Two blades flashed, one blue, one red, racing parallel arcs down the boss's body, slicing through its cracked armor and revealing glowing red pixels within.
The boss's HP began to drop... red pixel blocks dissolving like dust in the wind…
But then it suddenly stopped.
Right before the health bar shattered completely, it stalled, leaving behind only a faint sliver of red flickering weakly.
"No… it's not done yet?!"
The monster raised its head, its crimson eyes flickering with vicious light. It let out a soundless roar, twisting into a merciless stance to retrieve its weapon.
The massive Nodachi swept sideways, then crashed downward like a reaper's blade slicing through the earth.
Kirito and Asuna were too close. Too little distance, no momentum to dodge. They could only raise their swords together in a desperate block.
A metallic crash rang out, followed by a gut-wrenching sound of something breaking.
"Asuna!!!"
Asuna's thin blade shattered like glass, fragments of light scattering in the air like broken petals.
Both of them were thrown back like leaves caught in a raging storm.
Asuna tumbled far across the ground, her body rolling uncontrollably. Kirito slammed into a stone pillar, blood bursting from the corner of his mouth in bright red droplets.