Sword Art Online: Another Reality

Chapter 33: Closed Curtains.

Morte, who tried running away, was hit by a «Straight», which he narrowly avoided but still struck his shoulder.

That was enough to put him off balance. Swiftly, Kirito closed in on him, landing a heavy punch that sent him flying backward.

"Kuh. Hihihi."

Despite being in danger, with Kirito looming over him, Morte still had the leisure to chuckle.

Kirito brought down his sword, but Morte blocked it—or so the manipulative tester thought.

Kirito slid his sword from the locked clash, using the motion to hoist himself into the air, his leg primed for an attack.

«Crescent Lower»!

An overhead kick came down onto Morte's head.

"Kuack!"

But that wasn't all; Kirito followed up with a second strike, a kick to his chin:

«Crescent Upper»!

Finally, he delivered a straight punch to the stomach, sending Morte flying once again.

Kirito was effectively combining «Martial arts» along with one-handed sword to hit Morte with Chains of Combo like so.

However, as Kirito did, he noticed something strange.

'Huh?'

More than that, the player seemed to be laughing, as though enjoying the one-sided fight.

"Haah. Haah."

Plus... Kirito was getting exhausted?

His anger might have gotten to him more than he realized.

"Seriously, it seems like Kirito-san's seriousness isn't something I can't handle."

Morte said so, sitting up in the stream he had landed in.

"Oh crap, my HP is dropping five percent more, lol; perhaps I should be careful."

"But still, to get ticked off just because of a diss aimed at someone else... Makes me wonder how much she means to you."

"I can just imagine how pissed you'll be the day when 'that' happens—"

Morte hadn't finished his words, but the suggestion was clear.

Kirito instinctively knew what Morte was talking about. Enraged, he dashed toward the player in the raincoat.

"You b*stard—!"

However, Blackie should have known better than to do that.

The moment he dashed at Morte, an Anneal blade suddenly blocked his front.

The sword was dangerously close to his face, forcing him to block in a hurry. But—

"Too bad…"

"What?! A one-handed axe!?"

The other player, Morte, had switched from his secondary weapon to his primary one.

A one-handed axe and a shield.

And with that, Kirito was blown away.

-At the same time-

The situation at the forest elf camp had not been any better.

It was more chaotic than anything.

"Wait, I thought you guys were on our side?!"

"Yeah, screw that, orders have changed, our higher ups hate ya guts. Jump those forest elves!"

At this time, the ratio of players between both sides was balanced; prior to now, it had tipped against the forest elves.

Before, it was looking like this.

[Dark Elves: 47%]

[Forest Elves: 53%]

Now, it was like this…

[Dark Elves: 82%]

[Forest Elves: 18%]

The scales were now completely tipped against the forest elves.

It was now completely one-sided.

One-sided battle and one-sided massacre.

This was something SKL wouldn't have attempted prior to their Spider Queen's raid with Sharia.

Now, that reckless tactic was beginning to bear fruit.

SKL's «Tankers» had acquired a skill called «Shield Counter», which was incredibly unfair in most situations.

Accumulated damage against the «Tankers» would be returned double-fold against their attackers.

For forest elves, with their high DPS and attack power, these «Tankers» were their natural enemies.

"Hey! Human knight! I thought we were allies!"

A certain forest elf shouted before getting vaporised by a «Shield Counter».

"Human! You dare go against the laws of the—argh!"

Another said so before getting downed—getting jumped by ten SKL «Attackers» in total.

"Avoid those human tanks; go for the attack—"

"S-sir! No use. Before we get to them—the attackers, the tanks are already there, waiting!"

"Then attack the tanks!"

"Sir, we'll die!"

A certain forest elf commander shouted at the top of his lungs as his subordinates cried to him.

"Kukuku. Lord Sharia's «Shicksal's Pair-Turn-Based Two-Man Team» strategy. How brilliant."

Diabel clapped as he watched the ongoing massacre against the forest elves.

With ALS supporting, it was easy to jump the forest elves.

"That strategy we saw back then, was it for this?"

Asuna asked, standing near Diabel, and honestly, she felt pity for the forest elves now.

"And that skill, it's unfair!"

Certainly, it was.

But at the same time, it could work against the tankers if they failed to block their opponents' attacks fully.

As long as they succeeded, however, they were nearly unstoppable.

"The human knights are helping us?"

Kizmel asked, staring straight at Diabel, who humbly shook his head.

"Sharia-sama ordered us to support you."

"He said support, not cause full-blown war!"

"We have the ALS to thank for that."

Diabel replied calmly, maintaining the decorum befitting a knight, much to Asuna's exasperation.

And just then—

"Guys! I've gotten it!"

Argo ran up to them with a scroll in her hand. That was what they were here for.

"Ugh. Mission completed, but I don't feel any better about this."

Asuna said with a deflated sigh, and even Kizmel gave a small sigh.

Well, if it can end in the forest elves' defeat, she's happy with it.

After all, she finally got to get revenge against the person that killed her little sister and her little sister's husband.

Just like that, the campaign quest came to its finale with the Dark Elves being the one in the favoured position.

Apparently, the Forest Elves were the bad guys here, and it seems like another force was even controlling them.

—Fallen Elves.

However, Kirito, Asuna, and Kizmel are finally going to settle things with them—the fallen elves.

-Sharia's office. Zumfut-

"All of this feels like a bizarre adventure put together, don't you think, Argo, Diabel, Lind? What's your opinion?"

Sharia sat at his desk, looking at Argo leaning casually against it while Diabel and Lind stood at attention on the other side.

"Since the information from the beta was lacking, we could only come to such conclusions earlier."

Argo said as she opened her system menu.

"Apparently, it's a two-way quest, and if we had picked wrong, the third floor might have been in trouble."

"By then, Lord Sharia would personally step in, so there's no problem even if it came to that."

Argo said, and Diabel replied smoothly. 

And yes, if that were the case, then Sharia would step up against the Fallen Elves.

Prior to now, Sharia had also received a message from Kirito.

The black swordsman had won against the future PK player.

Letting him go for now was for the best.

"How are the preparations for the floor raid going?"

"Yes. With the defeat of the Fallen Elf Commander, we now have access to [Nerius]. It seems Kizmel, the royal guard of the dark elves, has returned to the upper floors."

As Argo spoke, Sharia rested his head on his desk, closing his eyes.

The lilac-haired dark elf, huh?

Funny enough, that NPC reminded him of a certain swordsman from the real world—or should it be called the other world?

The other Virtual World, New ALO.

"That purple-haired girl, and her attribute, the Absolute…"

Sharia's cryptic words earned curious glances from Diabel, Argo, and Lind. 

But they knew better than to question him.

For Sharia, it may have been an afterthought at this point.

However, it was something he would become fully capable of in the future.

Shicksal wasn't going to end in SAO. Never.

It was going to extend into the real world as an organisation so massive due to their influence in dealing with SAO and virtual reality.

Even governments would have to seek SKL in the future concerning important matters because of this.

That's how much of a mega influence Shicksal was going to be.

And always standing atop this organisation, forever, is none other than this teenager. Sharia.

But that's a story for the future.

"Well then, the Fourth Floor beckons us. We shall keep progressing till the day we see the end of this world."

Perhaps he was growing into his role.

Sharia crossed his legs, resting his head on his left hand as he raised a finger gun upwards.

Towards the upper floors.

Someday and forever. His existence will be etched deeply into this world.

"Our wish hasn't changed. We'll continue to follow you, even to the ends of the world."

"My wish hasn't changed either, Shar-kun. I want to see how far you'll go; I'll support you all the way."

"Heh."

Sharia smiled as the lights dimmed, the curtains closing on this chapter and the closing of this Volume.

-Authors note-

With this, this Volume ends. And this is just first volume. Now, quick question, and depending on the answers I'll proceed as I see fit.

Should I move ahead to time skip. I mean like major time skip. A whole lotta floors skipped, I'll decided which floor when writing, cause, I can't obv write about every floors, I'm not SAO original author.

Of course, I'll go over some things that has happened, and I definitely won't rush ahead to anime cannon, so how about it?

I'm asking this cause new year break would hit hard, so I'll know how to plan this. On that note, I've already planned what happens after SAO Arc.

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