Virtual Hell (Sword Art Online X Male Reader Remake)

Level 22 - The End of Sword Art Online

The battlefield was a dying world, a skeleton of what had once been. The floating ruins of Aincrad barely clung together, the fractured platforms suspended in an endless void, adrift in nothingness. Chunks of stone and steel hovered in the air, remnants of what had once been floors, walls, and pathways—now nothing more than debris floating in an abyss.

And at the centre of it all, standing like a conqueror before his subjects, was Alexandria.

His presence alone was suffocating.

His long, pristine white hair, so unnaturally perfect, drifted as though caught in an unseen current. His sharp and piercing red eyes glowed with something more than intelligence—they held understanding, and experience as if they had witnessed more than a mortal mind could ever hope to comprehend. But what caught my attention the most was something I couldn't explain.

Threads.

No—strings.

Blood-red tendrils coiled and twisted around his body, moving as though they had minds of their own. They pulsed, shifting between solid and intangible, stretching and retracting like veins that didn't belong to any living being.

I didn't know what they were.

And that made them terrifying.

"You two are amusing."

His voice was smooth, but beneath it was an arrogance that burned like embers in a dying fire. He took a step forward, slow, casual like he had no reason to be cautious.

"The way you struggle, the way you act as though any of this matters... it's adorable."

He raised his hand, and the Red Strings reacted instantly.

They moved with him, curling through the air like living entities, shifting, bending—before suddenly snapping into place.

They formed a blade.

No. Two blades.

With a mere flick of his wrist, the Red Strings solidified, twisting into jagged swords, their edges flickering like they were made of unstable data.

And then—

He vanished.

Faster than anything I had ever seen.

A blur of red and white, an unnatural shift in space—before I could even register what happened, Alexandria was already right in front of me, his twin blades crashing down.

I barely had time to react.

Instinct alone made me block, my sword meeting his with a force that sent a shockwave across the battlefield. The impact rattled my bones, my arms burning under the sheer pressure. Before I could even blink, he had already shifted, his next attack coming from the side—

A sharp, blindingly fast slash.

I threw myself backwards, dodging by a hair's width. But Alexandria didn't stop.

He was relentless.

Every time I moved, he was already there. Every time I tried to counter, he was three steps ahead. It wasn't just speed—it was like he was bending the very concept of time and space, attacking from impossible angles, warping distance itself.

Yuuki lunged in from behind, her blade glowing with purple light, aimed straight for his back—

The Red Strings reacted first.

Without even turning, Alexandria's strings expanded, shifting into an impenetrable barrier, blocking her attack effortlessly.

Before she could recover, the threads twisted, launching toward her like living spears. She barely managed to parry, but the force threw her backwards, forcing her onto another platform.