[Gekkou Online Arc]: The Resurrection Saga

Dean nodded and wiped his eyes. "Chase. Are you sure you want to continue playing Gekkou Online?" He asked, sincerely. Like he understood if she didn't.

"At first I was iffy, but now that my life depends on it I'll have to keep playing." She gave a sigh. "And I owe it to Kane, he's saved my life countless times to where I can't even compare, I owe him my life."

"We all do." Dean agreed, and stood up. "Thanks Chase." He said, and offered a hand to stand her up.

"No problem, just know that you're not alone and never will be." She took his hand and lifted herself up.

Dean nodded and the two walked back to the others. Dean embraced Madison in a hug, lifting her into the air. "We should get home. We have some gaming to do."

The next morning when each of the heroes logged into Gekkou Online, the 5th floor was already unlocked. The Crimson Guard managed to clear the 3rd and 4th floors, all within one night. They were a force to be reckoned with.

Kane's body fizzed into the fifth floor's teleporter, he was still wearing the clothing he imported from Sword Art Online. He quietly waited at the teleporter for the others to arrive.

Akimoto fizzed into the teleporter, with his Mithrodian sword strapped to his back.

Kane held his index finger and his middle finger up to his forehead in a salute to Akimoto. "Yo." He said, the glimpse of a brown sword hilt was slung over his back, it was the Manipulator, his only remaining sword.

"We need to get you a replacement for the Illuminator. You don't look right without two swords." Akimoto laughed, scratching his head as he looked at Kane.

"A new uniform would be great too, people keep looking at me weird." He looked around the town they were in, it was slightly larger than the one on the first floor, most likely a checkpoint after clearing the previous floors. He opened up his map and checked the map noticing that this starter town was one of the three areas on this floor, alongside a forested area and a cavern area. Most definitely the largest floor so far.

Just then, Yang's body fizzed into the teleporter.

"Agreed. Maeko is working on getting her tailor stats raised so she can make us all new uniforms, they were pretty high when she transferred them from SAO, so it shouldn't be too long before she's finished." Akimoto said, and waved at Yang.

Kane nodded and walked further into the town. "Want to take a look around the town, or just head straight into the field?" He lifted his arms up and rested them against the back of his head as he walked, the other two followed him.

"We should look around town, we may not be living in the game full time, but we have three years here. Might as well get to know the surroundings." Akimoto said, as they walked. He opened his menu and typed out a message to Maeko.

The three walked for quite a while, eventually arriving in a the town's vast plaza, a very empty area that served as the town's center meeting spot, crowds of players blocked the hero's way, each of them turning their heads, pointing, and murmuring something about them to one another.

"Excuse me," Akimoto said politely, trying to get through a group of players.

The players parted only to see a man with spiky red hair walking towards Akimoto. He was wearing black spandex that covered his entire body up to his neck where a white scarf wrapped around his neck and hung down his sides. Crimson armor plated his chest and represented a gauntlet on his forearm, crimson armor also plated his legs up to his upper thigh area, a single sword was slung over his back.


Walking up to Akimoto, he stood eye level with him. "Are you an ally of the Midnight Swordsman?" He asked, word had gotten around quickly with people knowing Kane was alive.

"You could say that. Why do you ask?" Akimoto asked, his lip twitching after he spoke.

The man stuck his gauntleted hand out towards Akimoto. "My name is Shinku. I am the Commander of The Crimson Guard."

"Akimoto, Second in command of The Eternal Keepers. Finishers of the American SAO server." He shook his hand.

"Ah, yes, I've heard the story multiple times, you and your friends are legends it seems." He tilted his head to look past Akimoto, noticing Kane and Yang standing together. He could hear the crowd saying Kane's name, looking at him as if he was a walking ghost of legend.

"It's only you three?" Shinku asked. "I heard that the Midnight Swordsman and his AI companion were the only ones killed in battle." This made Kane grit his teeth in the background.

"We don't need anymore than this. Hell I completed the first floor boss with less help than them. Don't judge a book by it's cover." Akimoto snarled, gritting his teeth.

"Fear not, I am only here for a duel." Shinku opened his menu and sent a duel request to Kane.

Kane accepted the request in less than a second, no expression was on his face as the 'Versus' gui appeared above the area. "Shinku vs. Kane" was displayed next to the timer, it started counting down from 60.

"Mind clearing out of the way, Akimoto?" Shinku asked with a smirk, each of the crowding players stepped back giving the two plenty of room.

"Only if I get to beat your ass later." Akimoto muttered and moved to the side next to yang.

"Thank you kindly." Shinku replied as he lifted his hand and opened his menu. "I know your talents, Midnight Swordsman, I won't hold back." He scrolled to his skills section and tapped his selection, a second sword appeared on his back, both of his swords were pure red.

Kane widened his eyes. "You're a dual wielder?" He asked, quite shocked. Shinku nodded his head as the timer struck 15 seconds. "Aren't you going to equip your second sword for your own dual wield? I know you have the skill to do so." He lifted both swords out of their holsters and held them at the ready. "Unfortunately, my other sword is destroyed, I'll just have to take you out the old fashioned way, with a single sword." Kane replied as he lifted the Manipulator out of it's holster, spinning it in his fingers and holding it up in the air, his other hand held in the air next to the blade.

"I see, you're a brave kid afterall." Shinku laughed. "Good luck." The timer hit 0 and Shinku sprang forward. Kane rushed forward and tilted his sword to the side, managing to block both of Shinku's blades with his own. Shinku swiped his foot to try and knock Kane's feet out from under him, with quick speed Kane jumped over Shinku's foot and threw his empty fist into Shinku's cheek, a new feature added in Gekkou Online where a player can get damaged from a punch within a duel.

Shinku stumbled back as Kane lunged his sword forward, Shinku slid to the side and slashed up with his right hand sword. Kane twisted his arm to the side and blocked the blade, twisting around from the force and looking to where Shinku was once standing. He was now gone. Kane held his sword horizontally in front of him as a sound echoed in his ear, he lifted his head and looked behind him to see Shinku in the air slashing his left hand sword down towards Kane's shoulder. Without enough time to do anything else, Kane lifted his arm and blocked the attack, Shinku's blade sliced it's way through Kane's forearm, getting stuck in it right before it cut his hand off. Kane let out a muffled growl as he pushed the sword back and grabbed onto it's blade, he pulled against it and used the momentum to push himself towards Shinku, grabbing onto his face and slamming him down into the ground.

The players watching the fight gave applause and were amazed at the fight, these two were fighting at remarkable speeds.

Kane lifted himself off of Shinku and backed up, allowing him to get to his feet, their health bars were both 3/4s of the way full, evenly matched now. "You're not too bad of a fighter." Kane stated with a huff. "Same to you, wouldn't expect any less from the Midnight Swordsman." Shinku smiled and lunged forward. "To top it off, you're not even dual wielding, an impressive feat to stand up against me!" He slashed his right hand sword up in the air, Kane lifted his sword to block the attack, a gust of wind exploded out of the Manipulator's blade causing Shinku's attack to miss and causing him to hop into the air with his sword raised. Kane slashed his sword forward to strike Shinku's side. Shinku spun mid-air and managed to dodge the attack, landing on the ground, he raised his swords and stabbed both blades into Kane's right shoulder, causing him to stumble and lose his balance. Kane opened his mouth in pain as he tilted his head to look at the digital blood spurting out from his wound.

Flipping over, Kane held onto the ground as he slid back, dust rose in the air from the slide. He straightened his body as he watched the dust cloud settle. Shinku's figure shot out from the dust, he thrust a sword towards Kane's face. Kane quickly shifted his head to the side dodging the blade with an immense speed, without blinking, he shot forward as Shinku flipped over him. Kicking off of Kane's back, Shinku slashed his left hand sword down to strike him, Kane twisted around in time, leaning his head as the blade barely passed his nose. Shinku thrust his other sword towards Kane's face as he was distracted, Kane lifted his sword up and blocked the tip of Shinku's sword with his own blade. Their health was dangerously low. The two retired from their previous positions and thrust their swords forward, the sides of their blades scraping each other's cheek as their health dropped into the red.

The duel ended, resulting in an unofficial tie.