The Black Swordsman

Chapter 32: A Familiar Face

Lisbeth and I made our way up the staircase to the fifth floor in complete silence. After what had just transpired with Suguha, neither of us were in the mood to talk. On top of that, there was no telling what was going on in Lisbeth's head after seeing how I mercilessly cut down Kenshi while he was without a weapon. The anger...and hatred that I showed...it had been a while since I've let that side of me show. Just hearing that cocky piece of shit talk that way about Suguha...and then bringing Asuna into it...I just couldn't take it, anymore.

"Is there anything that you want to talk about?" brought up Lisbeth, breaking the silence.

I stopped for a second to respond to her.

"I'm...sorry you had to see me like that...and if I scared you," I mumbled.

"It's alright...that guy was a real piece of shit...it's just that...I've never seen you like that, before...I just wanted to make sure you were doing okay. You must be dealing with a lot between worrying about Asuna, losing each of us one at a time and fighting all of these bosses without very much break in between. At the very least, we were able to use all of the potions that Kenshi dropped on just the two of us so that we're both at maximum health, again."

"I'm fine...I just want all of this to be over, that's all," I answered. "Honestly, after I'm done with this, I might never pick up another video game in my life. We need to be careful, though. Kenshi probably dropped so many potions because of how difficult this last member of the royal guard is going to be. Plus, there's only two of us, now."

"We're so close, though," convinced Lisbeth. "We can't stop, now. Even if it's just me, I'll do everything I can to make sure you make it to Asuna, Kirito. We've come too far to give up, now."

"Yeah."

Lisbeth and I made our way up the remainder of the stairs, once again, in silence.

When we reached the next floor of the castle and I was able to catch my first glimpse of it, I stopped dead in my tracks, horrified. Lisbeth, accidentally, ran into me because of how sudden my stop was.

"H-hey, why'd you stop so suddenly?" she asked.

The hallway...it looked just like...the boss chamber...the same boss chamber...on the 75th floor of Aincrad. The entire room was almost like an exact copy of the layout of the very boss chamber that I would never forget. All of the memories that I had of the location...Asuna and I taking on a huge spider-like beast...me learning Heathcliff was actually Akihiko Kayaba...me, foolishly fighting him one on one...Asuna...Asuna...dying. I gritted my teeth at the recollection.

Sugou must have did this bullshit just to get to me, I thought to myself. Is that all this is...some kind of sick and twisted joke.

I turned to Lisbeth and realized the reason she was so confused was due to the fact that she never participated in the floor boss fights because she was a blacksmith. To her, this was just an ordinary room...but to me...it was my worst nightmare come to life.

"Kirito, what's the matter...is something—"

Loud footsteps approaching interrupted Lisbeth before she could ask me what was wrong. In front of us both, on the other side of the hall, a tall figure in red and white armor made his way towards us. His steel grey hair was tied back in a pony tail. The brute of a man was equipped with a one-handed sword and shield with a white cross on it. I recognized this weapon set from SAO...it was called Liberator...and it was only used by a single player in SAO...the most powerful player in the game...Heathcliff, leader of the Knights of the Blood Oath...no, more appropriately...

"K-Kayaba," I muttered to myself, awestruck. "T-that's not possible."

Lisbeth turned to me in confusion and then focused again on the man standing in front of us, who was much closer. Her eyes went wide when she realized, who the man was.