Sword Art Online - Alternative Reality

Demon's Sighting CHP.2

"Well, if you guys need anything else, just shoot me a message and I'll drop by."

Waving off the battle-ax merchant Agil, Kirito and I stood alone in the central teleport plaza of the 1st floor. After meeting up with him in his shop on the 50th floor, we discovered that while the rope was a common item bought in an NPC shop, the sword was player-made. Grimlock, and while it wasn't a name that any of us recognized, it gave us the lead we needed to try and find the red player, assuming he was alive.

As a result, we came down to the Town of Beginnings and looked over the Monument of Swordsman in the BlackIron Palace. We confirmed the death of Kains and that Grimlock was still alive. It was a sensitive topic, but we would need to talk to Yolko again to see just how the two were connected. It was close to 9 PM now, and although the skewers I got from the 50th floor improved Kirito's mood, I could tell just how hungry he was-

If only this issue could be resolved by food...

In reality, Kirito had a grim expression the entire time, to the point that even Agil was taken aback. He was trying to hide his thoughts and appear aloof as usual, but the razor-sharp tinge in his eyes showed just how concerned he was about this. A PK occurring in a safe zone should have been impossible under the circumstances, so of course, it was important to figure out the method so we could come up with countermeasures. But that wasn't why he was so worried.

"The Army really is pushing this whole curfew thing, huh?"

Glancing over to where Kirito was staring off to, we saw a group of players in the Army uniform 'escorting' a group of players back to an inn. Supposedly they had done this to ensure that no player was hogging all of the limited-time quests and to better keep track of who was still in the city so that they could recruit them in the future. They had even tried approaching us when we first arrived but stopped when they saw our guild colors. While the Army approach to ensuring 'order' in Aincrad had for all intents and purposes, worked, their increasing use of radical methods such as these may result in more issues than solutions. Supposedly they were even planning on implementing a tax system, something that Kirito and Agil had bantered about a great deal before we reached the palace.

"I wonder if he's the one behind all of this..."

"Hmm...Oko said that it was a push from the hard-liners in the army, and while cactus head had taken a step back in leadership, it looks like he's gonna start pushing for an even bigger organization so they can start heading up the floors again..."

While it was horribly rude to refer to him as 'cactus head', the description did fit the first leader of the ALS turned Army incredibly well. Neither of us had seen him since the 25th floor, and he rarely made a public appearance according to our acquaintances in the army, but it seemed he was still doing his best to make up for his folly all that time ago.

"Let's just hope they don't do anything too reckless...anyway, we have to head back to the guild base now and get organized for tomorrow. We're ahead of schedule, so there won't be any issues with us dedicating our time to this investigation, but we still need to let everyone else know."

"Yeah..."

Both our gazes turned towards one particular spot in the sky, the spot where the creator of SAO had made his announcement. In the past, I had always been tormented by the events of that day, but now, it was hard to look back on them as an absolute evil. So many horrible things had happened, are happening, and will continue to happen. Yet, the swordsman at my side was proof that his floating castle wasn't just a prison where we were meant to die and waste away.

As if reaching the same conclusion, we looked at each other and smiled. We held hands and went through the teleport gate up the 55th floor and made our way towards the guild base. When it was time for us to meet with the other sub-leaders to spread the news though, we had received news that left me stunned and Kirito flabbergasted. It appeared that Kirito had his first-ever official visit from another guild.