Sword Art Online

Chapter 24

When I regained consciousness, I found myself in an otherworldly place.

Here, the sunset made the entire sky seem as if it was burning.

I was standing on a thick crystal floor. The orange clouds rolled past slowly beneath the transparent tiles. When I raised my head, I could see a sky dyed by the sunset reach as far as the horizon. As it spread outwards, the endless skies faded from bright orange, to a bloody red, then to a shade of purple. I could also faintly hear the wind blowing.

It was a small, round disk of crystal which floated amongst the clouds in the empty skies; here I stood on its edge.

...What is this place? My body should have disappeared after shattering. Was I still in SAO... or did I arrive in the afterlife?

I examined my own body. The leather coat, long gloves, and all my other equipment were the same as before I had died, except that everything had become somewhat transparent. It wasn't just my equipment either, as even the exposed sections of my body shined with the sunset colors as if it was made of semi-transparent glass.

I raised my right hand and waved a finger about. A window appeared with the familiar sound effect. So, this place was still inside SAO.

But the window contained neither an avatar nor a menu list. The blank screen showed only the message [Executing the Final Phase, 54% completed]. As I stared at it, the number went up to 55%. I had originally thought that my mind would die alongside the destruction of my body, but what was going on here?

As I shrugged and closed the window, I suddenly heard a voice behind me.

“Kirito-kun...”

It was like a voice from heaven. Shock coursed through my body.

Please don't let this be my imagination— I begged as I slowly turned around.

She stood there with the burning sky behind her.

Her long hair was drifting softly in the wind. But even though her gentle, smiling face was within my arms' reach, I could not move the slightest.

It felt as if she would disappear if my gaze left her even for a second— so I simply kept staring at her in silence. She was also semi-transparent, and was the most beautiful thing in the world as she stood there, shining in the light of the setting sun.

I forcibly held back my tears and managed to form a smile. In an almost-whispered voice, I said:

“Sorry. I died as well...”

“...Idiot.”

Tears ran down her face as she said this with a smile. I spread my arms wide open and gently called out her name:

“Asuna...”

I held her tightly as she flew into my arms and cried. I swore that I wouldn't let go again. No matter what happened, I would never ever let go again.

After a long kiss, we finally managed to pull our faces apart to look at each other. There were so many things about the final battle that I wanted to talk to her about, that I wanted to apologize to her about. But I felt like there was no longer any need for words. Instead, I shifted my gaze towards the endless skies and opened my mouth:

“This... Just what is this place?”

Asuna silently turned her gaze downwards and pointed with her fingers. I looked in that direction.

Far below where we were— something floated in the skies. It was shaped like a cone with the tip cut off. It was made from numerous floors overlapping one another. As I focused my eyes, I could even see the small mountains, forests, lakes, and cities.

“Aincrad...”

Asuna nodded as I muttered this. There was no mistaking it. It was Aincrad. The huge floating castle drifted amongst the endless skies. We had spent two years fighting within that world of swords and battles, yet now it was below us.

I had seen the outside of Aincrad before I came to this world in some information about SAO. But this was the first time that I saw its outside with my own two eyes. I held my breath as an awe-inspiring feeling overcame me.

The steel castle— was being destroyed.

Even as we watched silently, a section of the lowest floor scattered into countless shards. As I focused my ears to listen, I could still hear the thunderous noise dispersing amongst the winds.

“Ah...”

Asuna exclaimed softly. A large portion of the lower floors broke off, and the countless buildings, trees, and rivers all fell off and disappeared into the sea of clouds. Our house was somewhere in that area. I felt a bittersweet sorrow pierce my chest each time a floor of the castle that held two years' worth of memories disappeared.

I sat down at the edge of the platform with Asuna in my arms.

I was feeling unusually calm. Even though I didn't know what had happened to us or what was going to happen now, I didn't feel the slightest bit of anxiety.

I had accomplished what I had to do, and for that I lost my virtual life and was now watching the end of this world with the girl I loved. This was enough— my heart was content.

Asuna must have felt the same way. Within my arms, she watched Aincrad collapse with her eyes half open. I softly stroked her hair.

“An impressive sight.”

Suddenly I could hear a voice beside us. When Asuna and I turned to the right, we saw a man standing there.

It was Kayaba Akihiko.

He appeared not as the red paladin Heathcliff, but in his real form as the developer of SAO. He wore a white shirt with a necktie and white overalls on top. Only the two metallic eyes on his sharp face felt exactly the same. But those two eyes were filled with a gentle light as they looked upon the disappearing castle. His body was also semi-transparent like ours.

Even though I had fought to the death with this man just minutes prior, my calmness continued to persist after seeing him. Maybe we had left behind all of our anger and hate in Aincrad before we came to this place. I turned my gaze away from Kayaba and back onto the castle.

“What exactly is going on?”

“Perhaps you can call it... a metaphorical rendering.”

Kayaba's voice was also quite peaceful.

“Currently, the SAO mainframe that's stationed in the 5th basement floor of Argus headquarters is in the midst of erasing all data from its memory banks. In another ten minutes, this world will be completely erased.”

“What about the people who lived there... what happened to them?”

Asuna suddenly asked.

“There's no need to worry. Just a moment ago—”

Kayaba moved his right hand and took a glance at the window that appeared.

“All of the remaining 6,147 players have been successfully logged out.”

Then this meant Klein, Agil, and all the other people whom I had come to know during these two years had managed to return safely to the other side.

I firmly closed my eyes and allowed my tears to flow before asking:

“...What about those who died? Both of us are already dead, yet we continue to exist here. Doesn't that mean you can return the other four thousand dead to the original world as well?”

Kayaba's expression didn't change. He closed the window, put his hands into his pockets, and then said:

“Life can't be recovered so easily. Their consciousness will never return. The dead will disappear— this fact remains true in every world. I created this place only because I wanted to talk with you two— one last time.”

Was that something that somebody who had killed four thousand people should be saying? Although I thought that, I didn't feel any anger for some strange reason. Instead, another question popped into my mind. It was a fundamental question which all the players, no, everyone who knew about this incident would have asked.

“Why— did you do this...?”

I could feel Kayaba smile bitterly. After a long silence, he finally spoke:

“Why—? I had forgotten a long time ago. Just why did I do it? Ever since I found out that a FullDive system was being created— No, even before that, I had wanted to build that castle, a place that exceeded the limits set upon the real world.

Then, in those final moments... I saw even the rules of my world being surpassed as well...”

Kayaba first turned his peaceful eyes towards me, and then immediately shifted them away.

Kayaba's overalls and Asuna's hair fluttered as the wind grew stronger. Half of the castle had already been destroyed. Algade, a city full of my memories, was being scattered into the wind and absorbed by the clouds.

Kayaba continued to speak:

“Don't we all have many dreams since the time we were kids? I have already forgotten how old I was when the image of a steel castle floating in the skies began to enrapture me... it was a vision that didn't fade from my mind no matter how much time passed. As I grew older, the image became more and more realistic, more and more expansive. Leaving the real world and flying straight into this castle... that was my only dream for a long time. You know, Kirito-kun, I still believe— that in some other world, this castle really does exist—”

Suddenly, I felt as if I had been born in that world, where I dreamed of becoming a swordsman. The boy would one day meet a girl with hazelnut-brown eyes. The two would fall in love, finally get married, and live happily ever after in a small house in the middle of a forest—

“Yeah... That would be nice.”

I murmured. Asuna nodded in my arms as well.

Silence returned between us. I turned my gaze towards the distance again and saw that other parts of the castle had begun to collapse. I could see the endless sea of clouds and red skies being consumed by a white light far away. The erosion began in all directions and was slowly coming this way.

“Ah, I forgot to mention this. Kirito-kun, Asuna-kun... Congratulations on clearing the game.”

We looked up at Kayaba when he said this. He looked down upon us with a calm expression on his face.

“Well then— I should be going now.”

The wind blew and seemingly swept away his figure— by the time we noticed, he was no longer anywhere in sight. Only the red setting sun continued to shine through the crystal plate. We were alone once again.

I wonder where he went? Did he return to the real world?

No— He wouldn't have. He would have erased his own mind and left to find the real Aincrad in some other world.

Only the top part of the castle remained now. The 76th floor that we never had a chance to see started to collapse. The veil of light that was erasing this world gradually approached us. As the wavering aura touched the clouds and the skies, they disappeared and returned to nothingness.

I could see the red palace and its magnificent spires on the highest floor of Aincrad. If the game had proceeded as planned, we would have fought there against the final boss, Heathcliff.

Even as the foundation of the top floor disappeared, the ownerless palace continued to float in the air as if resisting its fate. The red palace that was left in the middle of the orange sky seemed like the heart of the floating castle.

Eventually, the destruction engulfed the red palace as well. It broke apart, starting from the bottom and travelling upwards, and scattered into innumerable fragments before disappearing amongst the clouds. The highest tower disappeared at almost the same time as when the veil of light consumed its surroundings. The enormous castle of Aincrad had been completely destroyed, and all that remained in this world were a few clouds and this small platform where Asuna and I sat.

We probably didn't have much time remaining. We were using only the short period of time that Kayaba had given us.

With the destruction of this world, the NerveGear would carry out its final function and erase all that remained of us.

I placed my hands on Asuna's cheeks and slowly pressed my lips over hers. This was our final kiss. I sought to use up every last second and engrave her very being onto my soul.

“I suppose this is goodbye...”

Asuna shook her head.

“No, it isn't. We'll be disappearing together. So, we'll be together, forever.”

She whispered in a clear voice before turning around in my arms to stare straight at me. Then she tilted her head a little and smiled.

“Hey, can you tell me your name Kirito-kun? Your real name?”

I didn't understand at first, but then I realized that she meant my name in the other world which I had left behind two years ago.

It felt as if the days where I had lived with another name and another life were tales from some distant world. I spoke my name as it drifted up from the bottom of my memory, feeling somehow emotional.

“Kirigaya... Kirigaya Kazuto. I should have turned sixteen last month.”

At that moment, I felt time started ticking for the other me. The mind of Kazuto, which had been deeply buried within the swordsman Kirito, drifted up slowly. I felt the hard armor that I had surrounded myself with in this world fall off piece by piece.

“Kirigaya...Kazuto-kun....”

Asuna voiced my name, concentrating on every syllable, then laughed with a slightly perplexed expression.

“So you're younger than me. I'm... Yuuki... Asuna. Seventeen this year.”

Yuuki... Asuna. Yuuki Asuna. I repeated these five syllables in my mind over and over again.

Suddenly, I became aware of the tears rolling down my cheeks.

My emotions began to shift at last in the middle of this perpetual sunset. A painful feeling coursed through my whole being, as if my heart was tearing apart. For the first time since my arrival in this world, tears flowed freely down my cheeks. I felt a lump in my throat, clenched both my hands, and began to cry loudly like a little kid.

“I'm sorry... sorry.... I promised...to send... you back... to the other side... but I...”

I wasn't able to continue. In the end, I couldn't save the person who was most precious to me. Because of my own weakness, her once bright and sunny path had come to a close. My regrets took the form of my tears and poured down endlessly from my eyes.

“It's alright... It's alright...”

Asuna was crying too. Her sparkling tears rolled down endlessly like small jewels before evaporating.

“I was really happy. The time I met Kazuto-kun, and lived together, was the most enjoyable time in my entire life. Thank you... I love you...”

The end of the world was right in front of us. The steel castle and the endless sea of clouds had all been erased by the bright light, leaving only the two of us behind.

Asuna and I hugged each other tightly, waiting for the final moment.

It felt as if our emotions were being purified by the light. All that remained inside of me was my love for Asuna. I continued to call out her name even as everything was being unraveled and scattered.

Light filled my vision. Everything was being covered by the pure white veil and disappeared after becoming tiny particles of light. Asuna's smile mixed in with the overflowing light that engulfed this world.

—I love you... I love you—

Her voice rang out like the sweet chiming of a bell as the last of my consciousness disappeared.

The final line that separated us disappeared and we became one.

Our souls seeped into each other, combined, and then scattered.

Finally, we disappeared.