“Then don’t die on me, Kirito.”
She didn’t flinch. Instead, she sidestepped and drove her rapier through its throat. The monster burst into light.
When Diavel vanished, the other players turned. Some stared at Kirito with suspicion. Others with gratitude. But one—a burly axe-wielder named Agil—clapped his shoulder. “You saved us, kid.”
“And here I thought you were just stylish.”
The moment Kazuto Kirigaya spoke the words—”Link Start”—the world dissolved into a pillar of light. When his vision cleared, he stood in the Town of Beginnings, a sprawling medieval city bathed in digital gold. The sky was a perfect gradient of blue, the cobblestones cool beneath his virtual boots. Around him, ten thousand other players materialized, laughing, cheering, high-fiving strangers.
Asuna and Kirito looked at each other.
“Then don’t die on me, Kirito.”
She didn’t flinch. Instead, she sidestepped and drove her rapier through its throat. The monster burst into light.
When Diavel vanished, the other players turned. Some stared at Kirito with suspicion. Others with gratitude. But one—a burly axe-wielder named Agil—clapped his shoulder. “You saved us, kid.”
“And here I thought you were just stylish.”
The moment Kazuto Kirigaya spoke the words—”Link Start”—the world dissolved into a pillar of light. When his vision cleared, he stood in the Town of Beginnings, a sprawling medieval city bathed in digital gold. The sky was a perfect gradient of blue, the cobblestones cool beneath his virtual boots. Around him, ten thousand other players materialized, laughing, cheering, high-fiving strangers.
Asuna and Kirito looked at each other.
