Demon Swordsman: Remastered (Sword Art Online X Male Reader)

Chapter 10 - The Exiled

The creep of exhaustion was not a pleasant feeling, as if your body was fighting against your mind, a constant battle between the two with no clear winner because one did not want the other to overpower the other until one gave up. This process described the feeling U/n was experiencing slumped on the ground against a tree, exhaling with droopy eyes, threatening to fall close and cast him into a deep slumber. However, the thought of sleeping in the field kept him awake, more alert than usual, especially with how paranoid his nerves were becoming of late, like something was in the background, threatening to banish him, not attack him, simply banish him.

Yet, staring through his snowy white bangs, his darkened eyes found the illumination of the night sky far above Aincrad's lower floor. The stars were beautiful and mesmerizing, catching his attention through the silence of the night as his bated breathing broke through occasionally, trying to catch his breath after the most recent gruelling battle that he nearly lost. Each battle had been far more difficult than the previous, despite the low number of battles he needed to go through to finish the Quest Slaughterer of Monsters. Five Bosses. He needed to kill five Boss Monsters.

Now, U/n had officially finished that Quest with the most recent battle.

After the most recent battle, the mark on U/n's forehead had grown and pulsated with a dark purple glow, spreading with each pulse as it branched lower through his right eye and the size of the pattern on his forehead, growing double the size of previously. His forehead was nearly drowned in the dark pattern, even more than the wildly cracked patterns seeping through his snowy white head of hair, blending between the two contrasting colours. Yet U/n never noticed this change because he never paid attention to it, only feeling the strength of the Mark of Darkness growing stronger with each passing day as if his body was adapting to the power and his emotions swelling.

A loud, blaring noise drew U/n's attention. Turning his head to the right slightly and finding a window of rewards from the most recent fight against a humanoid creature twice his size wielding a giant great battle axe. He received a good amount of EXP, loot and Col, which would have initially shocked the exhaustion from his body, but after five total Boss Monsters, it didn't surprise him anymore. He didn't even feel impressed, only a numbing feeling like it was finally over.

Right after his battle with Vukkok, U/n was left with no sword strong enough to wield against the Boss Monsters, so he decided to do something extremely reckless. He had supplemented the lack of a sword with constant use of the Mark of Darkness, adapting and learning more of the power than he ever did since the day he unlocked the Mark of Darkness. The previous chilling coldness had subsided considerably, feeling like it was natural and not an unnatural feeling. It was natural now. Nothing was wrong with it. The chill was part of him now, and the pain that came from being attacked was only to be expected.

His previous hesitation and wariness about using the Mark of Darkness vanished entirely with each passing second the Skill was activated. He was a cautious person by nature, but now, that caution was nothing but a mere afterthought... no, it didn't exist anymore. He threw caution to the air. This was now about growing stronger and to gain more strength, the Mark of Darkness was the only way forward.

Wasn't that the motivational goal of every Player?

To grow stronger?

U/n wasn't doing anything unnatural. He thrived for strength, the desire to have enough strength to do something, to make a change in the world of Aincrad. He had more than enough strength now, with the level of control he obtained through constant use of the Mark of Darkness, but that didn't feel like enough. It was like he was constantly trying to fill a bottomless pit within him, which would never be satisfied until something happened, and he deduced it had to be strength. No other reason or feeling could replace it, especially in a world of pain and suffering like Aincrad.