55th Floor, Granzam.
In the vast plaza surrounding the teleport gate, a large crowd of players had gathered. Their high levels were obvious at a glance. Their heavily enhanced weapons and equipment carried an invisible pressure, and every person speaking quietly among themselves wore a serious expression. It was easy to feel the difference between them and ordinary players.
The teleport gate was usually the busiest area in the plaza, yet even the mid-tier players nearby were doing their best to avoid getting too close.
Another ripple spread from the teleport gate, and two players stepped out. One was a man in plain, dusty-gray clothes. The other was a beautiful girl with striking blonde hair.
The mismatched pair drew attention from the others. Most of the frontliners glanced at the man's face, then immediately withdrew their rather impolite stares.
Those who recognized him naturally would not try to judge him. Those who did not still knew how to read the room.
Satoru paid none of it any mind as he threaded through the crowd, leading the girl to a less crowded spot on the other side, where they stopped to wait.
"Yo!"
What even he had not expected was for someone to actually greet him—and by slapping him hard on the shoulder from behind. When he turned around, the first thing he saw was that tasteless red headband. Beneath it was Klein's stubbled face, grinning like an idiot. He was still as overly familiar as ever.
"Even you… are joining?" Satoru could not help the corner of his mouth twitching.
"What's that supposed to mean?! Why are you acting like it's so unbelievable I'd be here?!" Klein planted his hands on his hips. "I'm a frontliner too! I told you when we first met, didn't I? You guys can go ahead and charge forward. I'll definitely catch up!"
"I heard it from Kirito, but it still doesn't feel real at all."
"That's because you've been away from the front lines for a while." With his usual bold tone, Agil walked over from the side with his arms folded, a two-handed axe strapped to his back. "I didn't expect we'd get another chance to fight side by side. I heard this raid would be rough, so I left a big business deal behind and came over."
"And Sheeta-san too. Seeing you here now really brings back memories." Agil smiled.
"I look forward to working with you." Sheeta replied with a flawless, polite smile.
"Right, right! Come to think of it, this is my first time fighting alongside you in person! To improve our teamwork for the coming battle, we should deepen our communication beforehand!" Klein rubbed his hands together and chuckled as he leaned forward, only for the black blade that inexplicably appeared in front of him to cut off his path.
"H-hey, that was dangerous! You almost stabbed my foot!"
"But I didn't," Satoru said flatly.
"Wah, so cruel! I never thought you and Kirito would turn out the same! You both act all introverted and troubled, but somehow you're always dragging around some top-tier girl! Traitors, all of you! Give me back the Yuyu who was willing to hunt Frenzy Boars with me back then!"
"I can play along. Are you willing to be the Frenzy Boar?" Satoru said as he pulled out the Blade of the Ancient Scroll.
"Damn! You're really doing this?!" Klein shouted while twisting away.
Agil watched the two of them use charge skills and whoosh off to the other side, then helplessly pressed a hand to his forehead.
"Young bachelors, I swear… Sheeta-san really has it rough."
"Not at all." She looked kindly at the two of them, who were now both holding curved swords and scuffling with each other. "Nero actually didn't want to come at first. He was feeling a little down, but he seems much better now."
"I see… Though I think everyone's worried this time." Agil assumed she meant unease over the raid and said, "Take a good look. Every frontliner in this plaza seems tense."
A few minutes later.
The playful chase-and-slash ended, and Klein was dragged back. By then, more and more players had gathered in front of the teleport gate.
Among them were Kirito and Asuna, who had arrived earlier as part of the Knights of the Blood. After them came the remaining elites of the Knights of the Blood, led by Heathcliff, who wore that blood-red long coat and carried a cross-shaped composite weapon made from a crimson shield and sword. The moment they appeared, even the faint whispers among the frontliners vanished.
Even putting Heathcliff's own strength aside, the Knights of the Blood members standing behind him had a unity like a rope twisted tight, giving off an oppressive feeling. Their matching uniforms, their weapons, their identical precision, and the seriousness gathered around them forced everyone to brace themselves.
After arriving, Heathcliff first looked around the gathered frontliners, seemingly counting their numbers. Then, with a single glance, he found Satoru, who had been waiting there from the start.
He smiled silently, turned back to arrange for his members to deploy first, then walked straight toward them. The players along his path stepped aside quietly without him needing to say a word, their gazes filled only with respect.
"I am glad you came. Argo told me you had refused." Heathcliff stopped in front of Satoru. "Speaking only for myself, I thank you. Of course, I believe my comrades will also be grateful."
Satoru merely nodded coldly.
That slightly discourteous response did not displease Heathcliff. He simply looked again at Sheeta beside him.
Perhaps it was an illusion, but the smile on his face seemed to deepen a little.
"The same to you, Sheeta-san."
The girl only nodded as well.
After receiving two cold responses in a row, he still maintained his composure and turned away with an ease that seemed almost casual. The member from before nodded to him, indicating that everything was ready.
"It seems no one is absent. Thank you all for participating. I will not waste words. The situation has already been explained beforehand. What awaits us will be a harsh battle. But I believe that with everyone's strength, we will certainly overcome this crisis. Let us offer our courage and strength for the arrival of the day of liberation."
His voice was not especially powerful, and neither his wording nor his tone was particularly stirring or inspiring. As a pre-battle speech, it was far inferior to Diavel's from the past.
And yet, the response he received was a chorus of excited cries from the players.
All because Heathcliff raised the sword and shield in his hands. That Holy Sword, symbolizing an unbreakable defensive line—and probably the ironclad unity of the Knights of the Blood as well—gave weight to his words.
This was something Diavel did not have. This man knew how to manage, knew how to command, but more than that, he knew how to prove he was right through action. He did not need to explain his stance at length. It was enough for him to say he would clear it with them. Anyone who had witnessed his ability would not feel worried.
"That's the composure of a top-tier player for you," Klein could not help commenting.
"I look forward to your performance." Heathcliff turned back again and said this to Satoru.
After that, he took out an expensive item, a deep blue Corridor Crystal.
"Then, everyone, follow me. Corridor, open."
The crystal shattered in an instant, meaning more than a hundred thousand Col shattered along with it. A swaying blue vortex tore open in front of him.
He swept aside his crimson cloak and stepped into the vortex first. The members of the Knights of the Blood followed after him one by one in orderly fashion.
The mid-tier players nearby, who had been watching for some time, seemed to understand that this marked the start of the boss raid. Some began shouting encouragement to send them off.
"Let's go. Don't leave my side," Satoru said to Sheeta beside him.
"Mm."
Their fingers touched, and in the end, they held each other's hands tightly.
...
It was like transparent obsidian.
Unlike the rough-hewn crudeness of the lower floors, the gate was smooth as a mirror. Standing before it, one could see their own dark reflection cast back from the stone door. The air was cold and damp, and a faint mist like dry ice drifted across the floor.
Heathcliff stood at the very front, stroking the mirror-like door while staring at his own reflection.
Behind him was the fully prepared raid party, every member making their final adjustments to equipment and items.
Satoru looked at his menu, staring at the dense list of skills derived from various weapon systems. He quickly browsed down to the final row, silently glanced at his Unique Skill, then closed the menu.
At the same time, Heathcliff planted his crimson shield against the ground with a heavy thud, letting everyone understand his intention.
"We have no information on the boss this time, so there will be no detailed command. In principle, we of the Knights of the Blood will serve as the vanguard and block its attacks. After that, everyone should identify its attack patterns and attack carefully."
Everyone nodded.
"Then let us go."
Satoru looked at Sheeta. The girl's expression was as calm as usual, which reassured him. After that, he looked at Agil and Klein nearby. Both of them looked solemn. Then he looked at Kirito and Asuna standing behind Heathcliff. Those two also seemed to have already settled their feelings.
These were the people he knew here.
"Use whatever works. Don't die," he said. "If you're worried, come to my side. Though I'll protect Sheeta first."
Agil and Klein turned their heads.
"Huh? Were you talking to us?"
"Yeah."
"Ha, guess we've been underestimated." Agil struck a pose, flexing his biceps. "But unless I make a killing off the loot today, I'm not dying."
"Exactly. You're the one who needs to watch himself," Klein said, refusing to lose.
"Then be careful." Satoru drew his black blade.
"Battle start."
Heathcliff shouted.
As the grand doors opened, the entire group rushed into the Floor Boss room. It was an enormous space with almost no obstacles. The curved walls gradually rose upward before closing together at the domed ceiling. Once the thirty-two-person raid party had formed up in the center, the doors behind them slammed shut with a thunderous boom.
They would not open again until either everyone was dead or the boss had been defeated.
It was hard not to feel something.
How long had it been since he had taken part in a boss raid?
Not since the 36th Floor.
And coincidentally, the 36th Floor had used the same kind of design.
A battle to the death.
After so long, he had finally come back, only to find himself on another unreasonable battlefield like this.
Everyone maintained a tense silence for several seconds, each activating their Search skills. Yet the eerily silent room felt as if the boss had never existed at all.
"…"
"…"
The room was filled with dim, oppressive shadows, and an invisible pressure slowly bore down on them.
"Above us!"
Someone screamed, and almost everyone instinctively looked up.
At the top of the dome, something long and enormous clung to the ceiling, like a spider attached to a web of its own making.
But that was…
A centipede?
It was ten meters long, its body made up of countless segments. Its pale form looked less like an insect's shell and more like a human spine. Sharp walking legs extended from the edges of each gray-white cylindrical bone segment. The front end gradually thickened into a vicious head shaped like a human skull, with four sunken eye sockets burning with blue flames inside the twisted, streamlined bone.
Its lower jaw was lined with rows of sharp teeth, clamping together like scythes.
The Skull Reaper.
Five massive HP bars flashed into view.
"Don't stay where you are! Scatter!" Heathcliff's urgent command rang out.
Almost at the same time, the skeletal centipede on the ceiling loosened its countless writhing legs and dropped straight down.
Satoru grabbed Sheeta's hand.
"Charge skill."
He spoke calmly. The girl understood what he meant, and the two of them retreated together using Sword Skills. The other players scattered in time as well, except for the three players in the very center, who could not move away fast enough.
The instant the skeletal centipede slammed down in front of them, the violent tremor nearly knocked all three off balance. Then the centipede's huge bone scythe, as tall as a person, swept toward them.
All three were sent flying at the same time.
In midair, their HP bars dropped at terrifying speed, plunging straight into the red zone.
Before anyone could react, before they could even scream, their HP bars hit zero.
The three virtual bodies still hanging in the air burst apart into countless crystal fragments.
"Wh…!"
Satoru stared at the shards falling through the air, unable to hide his shock.
Instant death?
Even by level alone, members of the frontliners had fairly high maximum HP, not to mention equipment bonuses. Even ignoring personal skill entirely, simply standing there and taking one hit from the boss should not have killed them.
This was no longer the beginning of the game.
Every player standing here was an elite of the first echelon.
It was too absurd. Satoru's expression darkened, and he pulled Sheeta behind him without any regard for the girl's will.
The skeletal centipede, which had stolen three lives in an instant, raised its upper body high and let out a bloodthirsty roar that shook the room. Then it raced along the ground at terrifying speed toward the nearest group of players.
"Waaaaah!"
The players in that direction screamed in panic.
Clang!!
Sparks exploded like thunder.
Heathcliff arrived there with impossible speed, raising his crimson shield like an absolute defense.
But there was another bone scythe.
Boom!!
Amid an impact loud enough to stab at the eardrums, Kirito and Asuna desperately braced themselves against that massive killing weapon.
"We'll block the main attacks! Attack from the sides!"
The frightened players finally regained some composure. One after another, they roared, raised their weapons, and charged forward.
"Nero…"
"Don't come… forget it." Satoru let out a long breath and released Sakura Fang without hesitation. "Let's attack together. The faster we end this, the better. I'll take the lead, and you support me. Watch its attacks. Keep at least one charge skill ready. If the bone scythe moves strangely, retreat."
"Okay."
The two charged forward together. Satoru's black blade and Sakura Fang both struck home. His attacks were among the most effective of all, and the powerful damage even made the rear half of the centipede's body twist.
The next instant, a dazzling chain of high-speed straight-sword attacks stole even his spotlight.
Satoru stared blankly at the girl holding her sword, her blonde hair flying.
Ah…
I almost forgot.
She was the powerful woman who had defeated me.
Sakura Fang was hurled out with brutal force. With a turn of his hand, a slim black-purple rapier appeared in his left hand.
Give it everything.
...
After a full hour, when the seemingly endless battle finally ended and the skeletal centipede's enormous body scattered in all directions, almost no one had the strength left to cheer.
Some sat down on the floor as if collapsing, while others lay limp on the ground, gasping for breath.
Satoru finally relaxed his taut nerves. Cantusa and Sakura Fang were in his hands, while Queen of the Night and Himester's Plunder had been knocked away and lay not far off.
He did not immediately retrieve his companions. Instead, he helped Sheeta sit down and rest. Although the girl looked as if she could still keep fighting, seeing her covered in sweat made him wish she would hurry up and say she was tired, just like the others.
In this battle, his damage output had accounted for almost thirty percent of the entire raid party's total.
With the power of Infinite Sword fully unleashed, Sword Skills from multiple weapon systems fired from his hands one after another like bullets. There was almost no downtime between attacks. More than a hundred Sword Skills flowed into a flawless, endless rotation in his hands.
If this were only PvP, it would not have been quite so terrifying.
But against a boss that became a blank sheet once its patterns were understood, all he had to do was mechanically pour everything into it.
Against people, it could serve as layer upon layer of traps.
Against a boss, it became a weapon built for pure assault.
He only had to look at the way the others were staring at him to know.
They looked as if they were seeing a monster they could not understand at all.
Let this end quickly so we can go back and keep living peaceful days together.
That had been the only reason he had shown his arrogance for the first time.
"How many… did we lose in total?"
In the silence woven from all kinds of complicated feelings, someone spoke hoarsely.
They opened the map and counted the green lights still shining.
"Fourteen."
"…"
An even deeper silence followed.
Every one of them had been an outstanding player who had survived all kinds of battles. Even without crystals, as long as they fought with survival as their top priority, they should not have died so quickly.
"And this is only… the 75th Floor."
Even Agil had lost his usual energy.
A tremendous pressure hung over their heads.
They had only cleared three-quarters of the game. There were still twenty-five floors above them. The frontliners now numbered only two or three hundred. If they suffered losses like this on every floor, how many would be left to face the final stage?
There were still several thousand survivors.
But could those mid- and lower-tier players… truly fill the gaps?
Could they fill the gaps left by people who had spent one or two years growing stronger, only to be sacrificed in an instant?
Satoru took out a cigarette and lit it silently.
There was no need to think about it.
He looked at the paladin standing in the center of the room, that composed, almost leisurely figure. It was impossible to imagine that he had just spent an entire hour holding off a boss capable of instantly killing three players.
He would absolutely be one of those who stood until the end.
That calm profile.
That gaze that made Satoru feel sorrow.
It irritated him.
"He's despicable, and I'm powerless?"
Satoru muttered self-deprecatingly under his breath.
"Sheeta, let's go ba…"
Just as he was about to lower his head, the corner of his eye caught Kirito suddenly standing up and drawing his sword.
The battle was already over.
Why was he taking an angry stance to charge?
At whom?
Satoru instinctively followed the line of his movement.
His pupils abruptly contracted, and his face went pale in a way it had not even when facing the terrifying Skull Reaper.
"Wait!"
He reached out weakly, but only managed to force that one word out of his chest with all his strength.
Ding.
Too familiar.
Familiar to everyone.
The system notification tone.
Everyone looked toward the source of the sound in shock.
Kirito's eyes widened as he stared at the purple message panel floating in front of him.
Immortal Object.
Heathcliff smiled knowingly. There was a hint of surprise in it, but also the quiet delight of seeing something he had long been waiting for.
Kirito slowly backed away, directly feeling the chilling emotion coming from Heathcliff.
Then he felt another terrifying stare, one almost murderous in its intensity.
Satoru stood where he was, face pale, his expression twisted like a demon as he stared—not at Heathcliff, but at Kirito.
"Kirito…!"
His voice was filled with violent anger, as if Kirito had just destroyed something he had been desperately trying to protect.
"As expected… you already noticed long ago, Yurne... No, Suzuki-kun." Heathcliff looked at his loss of composure, then at the silent Sheeta, and laughed softly.