The Final Floor Strategy Meeting!

At the entrance to the Blood Pledge Knights headquarters...

Two Blood Pledge Knights members stood guard on either side of the gate, gripping spears and staring straight ahead like soldiers guarding a city gate. They looked imposing enough, yet unlike usual, they did not drive away unrelated people who came here. Instead, they turned a blind eye and allowed players to enter freely without the slightest obstruction...

They knew that the players arriving today had all been invited by their guild leader—Heathcliff—to attend the Floor 100 strategy meeting. Even the weakest among them was stronger than the guards stationed at the gate, far beyond anything they could compare to...

Yet they showed no inferiority. On the contrary, they held their heads high, their faces glowing with pride.

So what if they were merely gate guards?

The Blood Pledge Knights were the strongest guild in all of SAO. Those invited players had obediently come at their leader's summons, and even the crucial Floor 100 strategy meeting was being held at their headquarters. How could they not feel proud?... If they had known that the guild leader they were so proud of was the very culprit who had trapped them in this world for three years, would they still have been able to keep that pride?

Of course, they did not need to wait for Heathcliff's true identity to be exposed. They were destined not to keep those proud expressions forever, because of one person's arrival...

"Hey! Hey!"

One of the guards seemed to spot something. His eyes bulged slightly with disbelief as he slapped the companion beside him, then tremblingly pointed in a certain direction.

"Th-that... isn't that Lady Asuna?..."

The moment he heard the name Asuna, the other guard's expression collapsed. He abruptly looked in the direction his companion was