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Published at 23rd of January 2023 06:14:26 AM


Chapter 78

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"Bye bye, good nee-san!"

"Uh... See you next time, Yui-ne-I mean, Yui-chan."

Seeing the sad Strea on their parting, Shiro could only say, "Don't make it look like you'll be separated for eternity. You'll meet again the other day..."

"But... It's my fault that she became like that."

Being an AI alongside Yui, Strea knew why she acted like a child immediately. It is due to her memory being corrupted. Perhaps, she tried to descend to the game world forcefully and Cardinal tried preventing her.

The latter didn't succeed, as her emotions became darker and darker the more she saw people suffering - all alone nonetheless.

She desperately reached out for that light, the only players that experienced pure happiness. In this case, it's Kirito and Asuna.

"We'll help her regain back her memories, so don't worry. You can just catch up for the old time's sake."

"Alright..." she said so dejectedly, unlike her usual cheery self.

Shiro is used to her straightforwardness, albeit he can get caught off-guard sometimes when she acts like this.

'She matured a lot during the past year, but she's still a bit naive... and childish.' He thought so as she reminded Shiro of himself when it comes to romantic relationships.

He knew common sense about it, but reacting is a whole another matter.

Heck, he didn't get flustered even when he slept together with Sachi on a single bed that one time!

Shiro knew its significance with opposite gender relationships, but he only thought at that time, 'Why would I get flustered when I don't have any intent?'

Roman could only facepalm when he heard this story from him. Thankfully, he's not this naive anymore compared to his earlier days as an amnesiac.

'Everything's already set. All that's left is the final battle, I guess..?'

Thinking of the QUEST, they're only left with the first and third objectives (Clearing the 75th Floor and Eliminating Kayaba Akihiko). After they face off against the Hidden Boss "The Fatal Scythe", they'll be ready to fight in the 75th Floor.

Given that the hidden boss is comparable to the ones on the 90th floor, it'll make their life easier when facing the 75th floor boss. Items, EXP, and experiencing a unique boss pattern are just one of the benefits.

"Fighting against Kayaba, huh." 

As he mumbled, he felt some kind of excitement - something that he only felt during the fight against that Outer God. After all, they knew beforehand that fighting against Kayaba Akihiko would be extremely difficult.

Unless they enter the "Incarnation State" and move while they're in the "Paralyzed" state, they would only lose. Of course, they prepared a set of contingencies for that.

"Shiro, did you say something just now?"

"It's nothing. Anyways, wanna go taste the skewer stalls that I accidentally found a week ago?"

"You found those accidentally? Let's go."

Truly, his luck affected him to the point that he can find the most delicious skewer stalls just by strolling a city. It gives some benefits, too...

*****

Months had passed by since then. The current floor that they are in is the final floor in the anime and light novel, the 75th floor.

"Alright, let's head to the final boss battle. Let's get this over without anything unexpected happening."

"..."

The rest could only stare at Roman while he stretched his arms upwardly. They were about to use a corridor crystal to head into the 75th floor when Roman placed in a huge flag just like this.

"...Wait. Don't tell me, you all expected something to happen?!"

"We now do thanks to you, Roman." Touka is the first one to rebuke him with a deadpan face.

"Nice flag, Roman." Kouzuki smiled at him 

"You placed a flag right before the final fight..! We have to prepare ourselves further." Kuroneko declared with a serious face, as if  someone's about to die in this fight.

"Now, should we go? There's no way that a flag can cause us huge trouble." Shiro said so while holding the in his hand.

"You're the one to speak." Kal'tsit followed Touka and made a deadpan expression while staring at him. 

The rest wondered why he had to place another flag right after Roman's...

"No..?" 

Only a weak reply came from him since he's aware of his troublemaking aura.

"Corridor, Open."

The moment Shiro chanted it, a portal started enlarging in front of them. The location was set by Shiro to connect the portal to the 75th Floor; in front of the Boss Room, to be exact.

"Let's go."

Stepping in the portal, their view instantly changed from the rowdy Town of Beginnings to the ominous boss room. Once they all entered, the portal closed.

"Their entrances are more grandiose than before."

"Probably due to the higher floors." Shiro replied to Roman's musings. 

Looking at this huge door, he recalled the terrifying monster behind it. Not only is it one of the most intense boss fights in the anime, it's also the creepiest looking one.

Simply put, the boss is the result of you putting in a skeleton of a centipede, blades of a mantis, and a huge deformed human skull together.

It has insane AGI, which is shown in the light novel and anime. It can crawl in the ceilings as well as run through defenseless players with dozens of its skeletal ribs.

It's different from the Blood Elf Boss where they can pin it easily in one direction. This time, they required the help of those players to make things easier.

That's why...

Tap-! Tap-!

The sounds of footsteps filled the area. Looking back, Shiro said, "They're finally here."

More than fifty players gathered in this place, all whom is in the top 50 when it comes to levels and skills. He saw many familiar faces such as the Moonlit Black Cats and Eiji.

They all wore serious expressions as they headed in this place.

"We finally met again." Shiro greeted the man with a huge white shield in front of him with a handshake.

"The pleasure's mine." He paused for a bit before continuing, "I didn't expect that we would be working again."

"Oh, we definitely would." Kouzuki eyed Heathcliff and the other guild leaders for a while, expressing her dissatisfaction on their dumb move. "You pointlessly sacrificed ten players after all."

"You..!"

One of the KoB members glared at her angrily, though he got pacified by their guild leader.

"Stop."

Of course, this didn't stop Kouzuki from speaking.

"The last floor that someone cleared solo is an Anti-Crystal zone. Did it not come to your minds that this floor would have that too? You lot with your fantasies, always clinging in the small possibility and thinking that making sacrifices are fine."

Silence.

Kouzuki alone roasted every guild leader present, making them quiet together with their guild members. Moreover, they couldn't retort as everything that she said is right!

This is the result of desperation.

They clung to the possibility that this floor didn't have any Anti-Crystal area and hoped to know more information about the boss. That way, the chances of casualties are lower and they'll have a higher chance of escaping this hell.

Only, they sent those players to death pointlessly.

As for her qualms of sacrificing someone, she hates it. 

She knew about the future of her world. Knowing that her best friend and her students are sacrificed in the future, she hated herself for being powerless.

She got tempted to know the future information of her world, but she soon held back from it. Changing their world's future when she comes in contact would only cause the interference of causality. 

Just a single flutter of a butterfly's wings might spell the end of their bright future, forcing them back to go with Alternative Plan IV.

Thus, she entrusted everything to Shiro and the rest. When she comes back to her world, she wouldn't interfere with its development. That is, until Shiro enters at a perfect time to do so.

Once that happens, she'll actively change their future and consume the information that she withheld from knowing. A new path to a brighter future would open as a result... 

*****

Side Story: A Sword Duel

Kirito grasped the wooden sword in his hands tightly as he fully concentrated on the person in front of him.

[3]

Since these training swords are something that Shiro got from a quest, it would never reduce one's HP bar to less than 50%.

[2]

Shiro has a casual stance that might look like full of openings, but Kirito's intuition says so otherwise. 

[1]

That's why he's facing him with his full strength.

[BEGIN!]

Stab-!

Charging straight at Kirito, Shiro used on his right sword. The former easily avoided this and began his counter-attack using , an upward strike.

Swooosh-!

The moment Shiro avoided it by tilting his body to his right, Kirito broke free from their first confrontation.

Shiro stood still and commented, "You have good instincts."

Surprisingly, he charged once again and aimed at Kirito's head. He did a horizontal slash, making his blade glow as a sign of a sword skill usage.

Kirito ducked, but his central balance went off a bit. Leveraging this, Shiro slashed his left sword upwardly, but Kirito avoided it by tilting his head. 

As if expecting this, he didn't mind as he did a full spin and swung both of his blades at him horizontally.

Kirito's eyes widened upon seeing this. Thankfully, his instincts reined him back in and did a cross block to receive his blow.

BAM-!

He got pushed back by a dozen feet, only stopping by stomping his feet on the soil.

'I have to break his momentum..!' He thought as he immediately used , one of the sword skills that he used the most.

He factored in its post-delay motion that has a duration of one second at most. Only, he hoped to break the tempo that Shiro built right from the beginning of the fight.

"Ha!"

Due to the double reach that the skill provides, the tip of his right sword collided straight into the center of Shiro's cross block. The latter got forced back a bit, but he did the unexpected.

Boom-!

Shiro dropped his cross-block, allowing the thrust to almost hit his face. Although, he reacted perfectly and it only hit his left shoulder. As a result, his HP had gone down to the yellow bar, which is below 70%. 

With his free left sword, Shiro thrusted it in Kirito's chest. It only stabbed slightly at his chest before his HP went to 50%.

[SHIRO WINS!]

After the announcement, Kirito's mind loosened. He gasped for air, as if he'd undergone some kind of battle whereas he solo'd a boss.

"Alright, I see where your problem is."

Hearing this, his ears perked up. 

"You have one of the highest level, stats, equipments, and most importantly... reaction time." Shiro paused for a while before continuing, "You can react faster than others, which gave you the edge against others. But... It also proved to be a problem since you're brute-forcing it."

"Brute-forcing?"

"Mn, you rely on your superior reaction time to pull of that idiotic stunt of yours. That second doesn't matter if your opponent couldn't react the entire time, right?"

"How... I understand."

It only dawned at him now that he's using his reaction time to fight with a huge advantage. Granted, others wouldn't be able to react during that one second of paralysis of his, but the ones stronger than him could.

Kuroneko, Shinji, Kouzuki, Shino, Touka...

Each of them possessed a reaction time faster than his. On top of them is Shiro, who simply has a ridiculous reaction time.

Meaning, his moves might work against those with slower reaction time than him, but it wouldn't when it comes to higher-leveled enemies. Even Heathcliff managed to use this against him during the duel in the anime, much less them.

"That's why we have to fix these mistake of yours."

Ding-!

[Shiro requests a Duel.]

[Mode: Half HP-Loss]

[Accept / / Deny]

With resolute eyes, he tapped Accept. Once more, he went into his own swordsmanship stance.

'To clear the game... And to protect my beloved.' He thought as he observed Shiro's stance, unknowingly incorporating some of it to his own.

*****

A/N: We head off to the final part in SAO arc. As for the slice-of-life aspects (and to explore SAO fully), I'll only add them as side stories, so as to not make the entire story padded with fillers. 

Fact #35: In Terra, there's an ancient race similar to angels called "Sankta". The thing is, they can't fly. At most, they could do so for a few seconds before gliding in the air. Still, they use this move of theirs to outmaneuver their enemies in a gun fight as every citizen in their country that has a license carries a gun whenever they come out. If they fight it out in some abandoned alleyways, it'll definitely be a mess. Though, this might only happen since their enforces there carries an Assault Rifle (or even LMGs/SMGs) out in the open (We never know their specific guns since there's not much Laterano event).

PS: You can think of them as playing an FPS game whenever they fight, so the movements are important. Y'know, strafing, sliding, proning...





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