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

Chapter 13 - Broken Friendship

(A/n): Those new guidelines, I wonder how that will affect me? Maybe I should think of posting to another site as well, just in case anything happens...?

Anyway, I kind of got a little carried away in this chapter. Enjoy. Over ten thousand words. I have more to say at the end, so I'd appreciate it if you read it. You don't have to, but it's in regard to my future on Wattpad.

Anxiety.

Kirito felt nothing but anxiety recently. That was a normal thing to experience within a game of death, especially each time stepping out on the field could be the last of every player, including Kirito. However, this was not the cause of his current anxiety because something else had caught his attention recently. It had blindsided him because of how impossible it sounded, but the more he dug, the harder it was to deny the reality of the situation. There was no chance of convincing himself otherwise. He had to seek out the truth himself to determine if everything he heard was true.

His best friend(?)—Kirito didn't know how to describe their friendship accurately. His friend was in trouble... causing trouble. Kirito wasn't sure how to properly describe it without conceding to the rumours he's been hearing. They weren't good. None of them were. They all involved his only friend before Sword Art Online started, Y/n L/n, known as U/n within the Death Game. Well, his name in-game wasn't specifically mentioned, but a detail that stuck out caught Kirito's attention since all the rumours always mentioned the player having 'snowy hair,' which instantly connected in his mind.

The tales Kirito had been hearing for quite some time was the rumour of more players dying recently, which did not sound odd since Laughing Coffin had made its appearance last New Year's Eve, prompting more Red Guilds to pop up, but the rumour itself spoke of a single player being connected to the rapidly growing deaths. The deaths themselves were mysterious and prompted investigations, leading to the discovery that Red Players specifically were being killed—the Avenger of Aincrad. It was that name that was given by the Clearers on the frontlines when they heard the rumours. A second thought was never given to the rumours because of that, not that they condoned murder in the first place, but a majority of the Clearers didn't mind or care like the rest of the population because it was murderers that were being killed. They had isolated themselves from the population of Aincrad who stayed green, knowing the truth of what would happen if a player attacked another player.

However, a description of the player was never given because nobody ever saw the act, only the eventual tick of the name within the Black Iron Palace on the first floor. The descriptions of their deaths, the literal true cause, all matched with one another, easily giving the Info Brokers the necessary information to connect each of the deaths to the one player, the Avenger of Aincrad. The cause, mysteriously enough, was listed as "Error," and the text was mangled. The method of death was unknown like a system glitch of some sort caused them, but the Cardinal System operation Sword Art Online would have fixed it if it had been dangerous, but the deaths kept coming, and no fix ever came.

A week turned into two, two turned into three, three turned into four weeks. It didn't seem likely to stop any time soon.

Between the start of these mysterious deaths and the current date of February 12th, a description of the player was finally reported. The entire population stirred, finally being able to attach a description of the player murdering Red Players across Aincrad. Most were uncertain, speculation until one of them truly stuck, and it was the one Kirito heard: Wandering within the blackness of hell, a player of darkness raises their sword against those that dwell within, a snowy head of hair as the only warning before it was too late.