Gabriel woke up after being exiled from the UW servers. He didn’t go unconscious from Berculi’s attack. Gabriel didn’t even expect a man-made consciousness was able to defeat him one on one. Gabriel took a few seconds to think about why he lost, and he scoffed at the possible options: a strong will, bond between souls, and the power of love.
Gabriel got off of the STL, and wondered for a moment why is Vassago still in a STL when he died in UW a while back. His hacker reported to him the current situation, how the 50,000 US players are half gone and the K organisation has brought in 2,000 players themselves. Gabriel dismissed the idea VRMMO addicts in Japan would ever risk their The Seed accounts in UW. Gabriel then told the hacker to shift his other account into UW as well, and the hacker commented so Gabriel’s doing this too. Gabriel found out Vassago had logged in using a The Seed account as well, and after looking at Vassago's ID name he laughed; Gabriel figured out who Vassago really is. Even as Gabriel moved back onto the STL he had a twisted smile on his face.
Vassago looked down on the battlefield, watching the US players being massacred. The Japanese had better accounts, and despite being lesser in number they made up for it by tactics. Vassago’s very excited, that apart from Asuna other familiar faces from SAO also showed up. While this isn’t a death game, it might be even better; there’s pain, and no morality coding for players in the system. It promised to be more fun than simply taking lives. Vassago couldn’t hold back his laughter at the thought of what’s to come.
Sinon finally reached where Alice was, and she didn’t make it before Berculi died. Sinon saw Alice holding Berculi’s body in grief, and the two dragons here lied down next to her as if sharing in her sadness. Sinon thought how it wasn’t fair, Berculi gave his life to do the impossible, killing off a Super Account and stop Vector, but the man behind the Dark God account was only temporarily banished. Sinon wanted to warn Alice the danger isn’t over yet, but can’t find the words to explain. Alice finally raised her head, and asked Sinon if she’s from RW too. Sinon was affected by how beautiful Alice was, just like Asuna did. Sinon introduced herself, and apologized for not being able to catch up and help. Alice shook her head, blaming her own foolishness that got her caught to begin with. Alice asked how are the battle going, and Sinon replied Asuna and others are still fighting. Alice wants to go back and help, while Sinon stopped her; Sinon asked Alice to continue on to the World End Altar.
Alice asked why, isn’t Vector dead? Sinon then explained how RW people can’t die in UW, so right now the enemy that controlled Vector is probably on the verge of returning with a new form. Alice exploded with rage; at how Vector doesn’t die after being killed, at how Berculi have probably gave his life up for nothing, at how it all seemed like a cruel trick for only one side to be risking their lives.
Sinon felt she had no right to say anything herself, after dying so many times in VR and coming right back. Despite that, Sinon asked Alice is Kirito’s pain only a trick, only a fake as well? Kirito’s from RW too, yet he has been hurt and his soul are damaged. Sinon confessed she loves Kirito too, and so does Asuna and many others. The reason why Kirito is hurt so badly was because of Alice, so is Alice going to say Kirito’s feelings and efforts to save her are fake as well? Sinon said it’s the same with Berculi, with all his wounds he bought time for Alice to escape. Alice shed tears, and after a while asked if she would be able to return to this world, to see her loved ones once again? Sinon doesn’t know for sure, but she does know if Alice is captured by the enemy then UW is gone for good. Sinon replied yes, as long as Alice is safe then UW will be fine. Alice finally agreed to go to the Altar, if that’s what Kirito and Berculi wanted. Alice then flew off on the two dragons left, while Sinon says she’ll stay here to fight Vector when he ‘revives’ (logs back in).Sinon swore to herself even if her RL self can’t match the RL people that attacked Ocean Turtle, here in UW she won’t lose to anyone in VR one on one. She promised to defeat whoever logs in.
Scene change, Gladiator leader Ishukaan’s fists are bloody and broken, and so are the rest of his Gladiators. They are about to fall, and they are at least satisfied they fought well enough to not bring shame onto their ancestors. The 20,000 dark knights here are finally reduced into 3,000. The Gladiators are reduced from 4,000 down to 300, and all of them are barely able to walk. That they survived this far was also due to Shuuta’s, Synthesis 12’s work.
Shuuta has herself been slaughtering foes left and right, though she’s getting tired as well. Killing normally brought her pleasure, but killing these knights was like cutting down shadows. Administrator once told Shuuta her blade was a curse of killing, and only after she reached the end of that road will she be freed from that curse. Shuuta’s battle with Ishukaan had lit up something inside her, and she thought she’d know what it was if they fought again on the battlefield. By now she realized though she loved him, and her sword shattered with this realization. Her own dragon’s teeth and claws are wrecked, and Shuuta thanked both the dragon and her sword for following her all this time. She walked back to where Ishukaan is, and he apologized for having her fight until she lost her sword. Shuuta replied that doesn’t matter anymore, she found the reason why she has killed for all this time. She then cupped Ishukaan’s face with her hands. Shuuta said she had found a existence that she doesn’t want to kill, someone she wants to protect; that was Ishukaan. She doesn’t need a sword anymore. Ishukaan’s remaining eye widened, and began to tear up. He said it’s a shame they wouldn’t get to raise a family together, their kids would be very powerful. Gladiators stronger than him, than any of his Gladiator ancestors. Shuuta shot back no, those kids would have become Knights instead. The two of them gazed into each other’s eyes for a moment, gave a small smile, and then kissed under the protective gaze of the remaining Gladiators.
300 Gladiators, 1 Synthesis Knight, and one dragon then waited wordlessly here as the black legion began to surround them.
Asuna’s side is pushed to the limit as well, but things are to their advantage. Asuna thanked Klein for coming to help. He embarrassedly replied this doesn’t even begin to cover the debt he owes Kirito; speaking of which, just where is he? Asuna said she’ll bring him to Kirito after this battle – maybe Kirito will wake right up just to snark at one of Klein’s comments. Klein snarked that’s harsh of Asuna, but from how forced his smile are she knew Klein had already found out about Kirito’s state. Asuna thought she’s right though, once this is all over with so many of his friends around Kirito’s bound to wake up. The US players are reduced to around the numbers of Japanese players, and the fight will soon be over. Then they can head off to try and rescue Alice.
Then, Asuna saw the dark figure on the statue. She thought she might have seen him somewhere before, asked if Klein recognized him. Klein took a moment trying to think about where he had saw the guy, he looked familiar… then realized he’s one of the Laughing Coffin members. The terror that was never captured back in Aincrad, PoH, had appeared in front of them all after two years. Even Asuna was frightened, hoping with all her might she was just seeing a ghost, a illusion. She prayed it would disappear any time now. The silhouette in front of them though, as if to mock them, raised his right hand and waved it across him.
First a few, then thirty, until more silhouettes had shown up out of nowhere on top of the statues and temple roofs. With each appearing shade Asuna’s heart despaired even more. The other temple’s rooftop had shades began to appear as well. She gave up trying to count them after they hit the mark of 30,000. Asuna thought this can’t possibly be real, the US players had just took a huge blow to their numbers, they can’t possibly get this many back already. Mocking whispers came from the rooftops, and Klein realized the bad news: These players aren’t from US or Japan… they’re Korean and Chinese.
Gabriel’s hacker had went with Vassago/PoH’s plan despite thinking it would not work. Ways to get Chinese and Korean players in are set up, and to his surprise there’s actually a lot of support from there. As a American, the hacker had thought these Asian countries are all the same, as apparent by how their faces are similar. The difference, he thought, between Japan, Korea and China is only about as large as between neighbouring countries within the EU. The advertising website isn’t even as well-made as the US adverts to recruit people there, just a simple one with the notice “the first grassroot VRMMO server made by the combined efforts of Koreans and Chinese are hacked by the Japanese”. There are also lines suggesting the Japanese have hacked in super powerful characters to slaughter their countrymen, with the pain absorb and moral coding functions not yet completed. The hacker thought this can’t possibly get any attention, yet players are arriving en masse. It’s like the relationship between Japan and the other two countries are not good at all.
We now get a bit of PoH’s back story. Born in San Francisco, his Korean mother and himself was brought into Japan after a wealthy Japanese business fell in love with her. His material needs were met, but emotionally he was neglected (Flere821 note: the narrative is really lacking in detail here… stereotypical 2-dimensional villain backstory. Even Gabriel had a better backstory >.<). PoH hated the Japanese, and only felt release when he’s in VR and playing on US servers. PoH got into SAO by accident, he bought the game on a whim, and then decided he can’t log off to get away from them then he’ll just kill them off. The first PK was accidental, but then PoH began to try and convince people to kill others (Flere821 note: as suspected, PoH was the one that gave the scamming trick back in 2nd floor (Rondo of the Illusory Sword) to try and force a situation where taking the life of another player was encouraged, to introduce the concept of PKing). PoH wasn’t doing it to simply kill the Japanese, but to introduce a situation where Japanese are killing each other.
PoH raised his hand, and called out in Korean for the players to don’t just kill the invaders, make them suffer first before killing them off. To the newly logged in players, the US players looked like beta-testers on their side being slaughtered by the Japanese. Over 50,000 players roared and then descended upon the Japanese side like a flood.
Scene change. A account began to land where Sinon was. While she can just nuke the account as soon as it logged in using her GM ability, if the US side can spawn unlimited high level accounts it would be a waste of a powerful attack. She’s aiming for dragging on the fight as long as possible, though if the account that logged in wasn’t a generic one then she can always nuke it later.
Before Alice left she gathered what remained of the Time-Piercing Blade and turned it into two necklaces. Alice said she’s going to give one of them to a fellow female knight, and Sinon asked if the knight was Alice’s love rival. Alice smiled in response and said Sinon’s one of her love rivals, not the other knight. After hearing that, Sinon resolved to not log off until Kirito wake up so she can ask just what he has been doing in UW.
Her enemy has descended and began to take up a physical form. Sinon tried not to give in the urge to nuke the guy right now, despite her senses telling her to do so urgently. The guy has finally materialized, equipped with a crossbow and a long sword, wearing grey clothes like it was army uniform of some sort. A mutant dragon of some sort spawned with him, with multiple black eyeballs. Standing on top of the dragon, the enemy rose up into the air until he was level with Sinon. Sinon finally remembered who this person was, the GGO player who blew her up over a month ago in the tournament. Sinon was so surprised by how he’s here she didn’t even raise her own bow up in preparation to attack.