The issue with the Loki Familia was already resolved, now what he had to deal with was the attack on his own familia.
In a situation where the enemy was in the shadows while he was in the light and didn't know the enemy's intentions, Kuro decided to avoid direct confrontation for now and develop secretly.
Kuro swung the weapon in his hand while planning his future strategy in his mind.
What he was chasing was amazing adventure experiences with friends, and thrilling battles against strong fighters.
Revenge wasn't everything to him anymore—it would become part of his adventure story.
He wasn't Bell, and didn't want to become a hero who gave his own flesh for others to eat.
Because of that, toward those who tried to scheme and threaten him, he wouldn't show any mercy.
But not now, because he knew he was still weak at the moment.
Both in terms of strength and connections.
For the next few days, during the day, Kuro would put on his cloak and go to the dungeon through side roads to adventure, and at night, after practicing alone, he'd use magic until his magical power ran out and he passed out.
After hesitating many times, Kuro finally decided not to use Flames of Revenge to rapidly increase his attributes, because the risks and side effects were too severe.
He planned to use it as a hidden way to bet his life.
True, the black flames could make Kuro gather attributes very quickly by devouring enemies, but that would only turn him into a giant baby who had power but didn't understand fighting.
Especially for completing great achievements that required risking his life to get level increases.
After using the black flames many times, Kuro gathered valuable experience and had a deeper understanding of the black flames.
First, the black flames seemed to be the manifestation of negative emotions stored in his heart since he made his cross-dimensional journey... usually these emotions were suppressed in the deepest part of his heart.
As time went by, these emotions kept accumulating until they couldn't be controlled and exploded completely.
After using the black flames, it would consume his special power, just like using magic would consume magical power.
Kuro temporarily called it heart power.
Running out of magical power would make someone pass out, while overconsumption of heart power would make someone lose their sanity, getting controlled by instinct.
In the black flame state, his instinct was revenge or more precisely, wanting to make everyone feel his suffering.
This would make him antisocial, attacking everyone in his sight indiscriminately.
What was most worrying was that after losing sanity, people tended not to think about consequences.
Kuro didn't know yet what the consequences of running out of heart power were, but after losing control for who knows how long and attacking the Loki Familia, he'd been unconscious for a full week.
Kuro just wanted to become strong as fast as possible, not rush to die.
In the dungeon where accidents could happen anytime, calm judgment was far more useful than short bursts.
In the blink of an eye, three days passed quickly. During this time, Kuro tried calling many characters he knew.
However, aside from his magical power experiencing significant improvement, he didn't manage to summon anyone.
The only result was that Kuro could summon his own weapon the Black Sword. This proved Fels's hypothesis was correct.
He really deserved to be called a scholar who'd researched magic for eight hundred years.
Unfortunately, since Kuro always carried that weapon, this discovery seemed not very practical.
"Where exactly is the problem?"
He lay on the steps outside the church, closed his eyes, and thought deeply.
Suddenly, Eina's angry voice from earlier in the day echoed in Kuro's mind, and he immediately sat up.
"Asuna!"
"Kirito!"
"Right, I should try summoning characters who might have causal relationships first."
After getting an idea, he immediately acted on it.
Kuro immediately activated the 'Distant Call' magic.
He kept imagining Kirigaya Kazuto's figure in his heart.
Time passed silently, the dark corner of his consciousness kept exploring the unknown.
His magical power was almost exhausted, a slight dizzy feeling started appearing in his brain.
'Still can't succeed, huh.'
Just when Kuro was about to give up, his consciousness seemed to catch something.
...
ALfheim Online sword world, New Aincrad twenty-second floor.
Kirito, who was immersed in the warm firelight from the fireplace, lying comfortably in his lounge chair, suddenly felt something gently tapping at him.
He opened his eyes in confusion and saw Pina and Yui lying in his lap.
"What's wrong, Papa?"
Yui seemed to sense Kirito's gaze, rubbed her sleepy eyes, then stretched her body.
Looking around, Kirito noticed that Asuna and the others were still busy finishing schoolwork.
"Hmm, it's nothing. Yui, did anyone look for Papa while I was sleeping?"
Yui pressed both hands to her temples, like she was sensing something. After a while, she looked at Kirito and shook her head.
"No, Papa."
"Maybe I was dreaming again."
Kirito was about to lie down and rest again when suddenly he heard a series of calls in his ears.
"Kirigaya Kazuto, Kirito, Kirito, Black-Clothed Swordsman, Harem King, Matsuoka..."
"Who's there?!"
Really hearing someone calling him, Kirito immediately stood up.
Pina and Yui who'd been lying in his lap were also thrown off by the sudden movement.
The two small creatures flapped their wings in confusion, not understanding what had happened.
"Kirito, what's wrong?"
"Kirito-nii, what's the matter?"
"Big brother, what are you doing now!"
Kirito's actions naturally drew the attention of others in the room... they all came over and asked curiously.
Gently moving his right index finger, Kirito activated the system. After carefully checking to make sure there were no call signals, he turned to Yui and asked again: "Yui, please help me search again. I really feel like someone was calling me."
"Okay, Papa."
Yui's consciousness entered the system, carefully checking Kirito's ID call records, and found that from today until now, there were no traces of any information or calls.
"Sorry, Papa, I can't find any call records."
Kirito gently patted Yui's head, smiled and said: "It's not your fault. Maybe Papa misheard."
When the calling voice became clearer and clearer, Kirito looked up at Asuna: "Asuna, I need to log out first. It seems like someone's calling me in the real world."
"Kirito!"
Seeing Kirito disconnect without hesitation, Asuna felt a little worried.
"Don't worry, Asuna. I'll check the situation too."
Kirigaya Suguha also immediately logged out to follow, only leaving Asuna and a few others there.
In Kirigaya Kazuto's room, Kirito who was in dive mode suddenly opened his eyes, taking off the NerveGear attached to his head.
He found that the voice in his ears hadn't disappeared it had actually become clearer.
"What is this really?"
Knock knock knock!!!
Kirito, who was lost in thought, suddenly heard knocking on the door.
Suppressing the confusion in his heart, Kirito opened the door. In front of him appeared his sister wearing light pajamas, standing at the door.
"Big brother, what's wrong?"
Seeing the worry in his sister's eyes, Kirito smiled and said gently: "Nothing serious—just Tanaka and the others having technical problems, so they called me earlier."
"Oh, I see. I thought something serious happened it's been a while since I've seen big brother this tense."
Suguha felt relieved.
After Kirito closed the door, the smile on Suguha's face slowly faded.
"Idiot."
Every time a crisis came, big brother always chose to face it alone.
After years together, how could she ignore the worry hidden in her brother's eyes?
"Who are you really?"
After making sure no one nearby could hear, Kirito sat in his chair and asked the air.
Unfortunately, there was no answer just the voice that kept echoing in his mind, calling his name.
Kirito frowned, thought for a moment, and finally asked in his heart to that unknown voice: "Who are you really?"
At the Hestia Familia headquarters in Orario, after calling for half a day, there was still no response.
Even though this attempt wasn't successful, the direction seemed right. Compared to before when there were no clues at all, at least this time he felt like his consciousness had caught something.
"Who are you really?"
Just when Kuro was about to stop the magic, suddenly a familiar voice rang in his head.
"Holy crap?!"
Kuro was shocked by the suddenly appearing voice, but quickly realized his guess might be right his whole body trembled with excitement.
Kirito was clearly silent after hearing Kuro's answer. After a while, he spoke again: "Who are you really? How can you send information to my brain? Is it through wireless or electromagnetic technology?"
"That, I, you, uhm, it's..."
Originally Kuro planned to greet Kirito properly, but as soon as he started talking, he couldn't even get out one complete sentence. Finally he suddenly disappeared, and his voice immediately stopped too.
Clearly Kirito found this ending unexpected.
Earlier, Kirito had already prepared mentally that he was caught up in some big trouble, because if the opponent could send messages directly to his brain through wireless technology, then that organization was clearly not simple.
The last one who could pull off such an amazing feat was still Kayaba Akihiko, who uploaded his consciousness to the internet.