Beater

CHAPTER 35| The Game Has Been Cleared

U/N
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I opened my eyes.

I never believed in an afterlife... so where am I?

Stood on a glass wasteland, watching the sun go down.

"U/N,"

It can't be.

His voice.

I turned around.

There he was. Stood right in front of me.

"Im sorry, I guess I ended up dying too." He finally spoke.

"Dummy," I smiled as I raced towards him and into his arms.

His arms slowly wrapped around me, bringing a hand to my face and he gently tucked my hair behind my ear. He cupped my cheek, slowly tilting it up towards him.

He gently placed his lips on mine, and for the fist time since starting the game, I felt whole.

"Where are we?" He grabbed a hold of my hand. "Do you know?"

I pointed down towards the game. We were out. It was falling apart, the entire world was breaking.

"A stunning view isn't it." We turned at voice.

Kayaba stood watching the scene. But my father... he was no where to be seen.

"Back at head quarters, the SAO mainframe is in a room and right now your father is deleting all the data from its drives. In about 10 minutes everything in the world would disappear forever." Kayaba spoke.

"What about the players-"

"You don't have to worry about them, the 6147 players that survived up to now were all logged out seconds ago."

"What about the 4000 people that died?"

"They'll never return. In any world, real or virtual once you're dead, you're gone."

A heavy silence fell over us.

"Why, what's the point? Why would you do this?" Kirito broke the silence. His hand squeezing mine tightly.

"That's a good question. It's been so long I've forgotten the reason... isn't that strange." Kayaba stared into the horizon, "even before we developed the system for the full dive environment, we dreamed of this. A castle in a world that wasn't governed by earthly laws and restrictions. We poured our lives into making that world a reality. We created this world and I got to see something that surpassed anything I could've imagined for it." He turned towards the world he created, looking solemnly at it as it crumbled.

"My steel castle, floating in the sky. I don't remember when I became obsessed with it. I wanted to leave the earth, to fly to that castle, I wanted that more than e anything else, for as long as I can remember. You know what Kirito... I want to believe it's still out there, that somwwhere in some world my castle is still standing."

"Yh maybe it is" Kirito muttered.

"Before I forget, well done for clearing the game Kirito, U/N." Kayaba turned towards us, nodding in praise.

"Well then, I should probably get going now,"
He turned and walked away, slowly disappearing like his a castle.

We sat on the edge of the abyss, watching as the sun danced over the clouds bathing the blue sky in a golden hue.

"Guess this is goodbye," Kirito whispered.

"No," I shook my head. "This isn't goodbye at all... we're going to be together when we disappear." I smiled, slowly scooping up his hands in mine.

"Hey, you never told me your real name." I laughed.

"Kazuto, Kazuto Kirigaya." He smiled. I repeated his name, etching it into my mind so I'd never forget it.

"My names Y/N L/N," he repeated my name as if a melody. Then he broke. Tears rolled down his face.

"I'm sorry," he whimpered, "I'm sorry, I promised I'd protect you but I- I couldn't." I took a hold of his hand.

"It's ok, I'm happy, I got to meet you Kazuto, this is the happiest I've been in my whole life." I tried hard to fight back my tears.

"Thank you for that." I smiled.

"And, I love you." He pulled my into his chest and I wrapped my arms around him tightly.

I felt at peace as the night light took over. I could go happily with the memory of us, knowing he loved me.

It's over now.

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SECOND TO LAST CHAPTER!!!

I can't believe it's almost over, dw tho will be coming out with another book soon ;) and i will be going over a rewriting a lot of this book bcus my writing style has changed and I want to make it into something that feels finished ygm anyways still can't believe it's almost over I feel like I've been writing this for AGES! (Probs bcus I have bcus I can't keep a regular chapter update for the life of me 🤧)

Follow to see what other books I come out with and feel free of any suggestions for books/fanfics you'd want to see,

Lots of love, kitty