No one's POV
It's been two weeks since Zora and Philia started dating and during that time Zora send a Marriage invitation to Philia. Philia was completely and utterly surprised, but smiled and hit the accept button. And currently, Zora and Philia are both sitting on a ledge and the two of them are going through their inventory.
Philia: Do you think that's everything?
Zora: It should be. What do you think Rio?
The necklace on Philia's neck started glowing and Rio's voice could be heard.
Rio: Yup, that's everything...Papa,Mama. With this the two of you should have no problem defeating the next boss.
Zora: Alright! Thank you...
Suddenly, Zora got a message from Heathcliff.
Zora: Heathcliff? What does he want?
Zora then opened the message and Heathcliff was asking him to met him on KOB HQ.
Rio: What's wrong, Papa?
Zora: The leader of the KOB wants to meet us.
Philia: What for?
Zora: I don't know, there's only one way to find out. Shall we go?
Philia then smiled and grabbed his hand.
Philia: We shall...
(Timeskip)
After receiving Heathcliff's message, Zora and Philia both teleported to floor 55 and as they did, they both ran into Kirito and Asuna.
Kirito: Zora! Philia!
Asuna: How have you guys been?
Zora: We've been alright.
Philia: It's good to see you two again.
Kirito and Asuna then saw that the two of them are holding hands and they saw that they had a ring on their left Ring Fingers and they automatically knew what's going on. Asuna smiled happily.
Asuna: Oh... does that mean you two are?
Zora and Philia then had a blush on their face and Zora looked away feeling embarrassed while Philia smiled happiliy and nodded her head.
Kirito: Well, congratulation you two.
Zora: Thank you! Last time we talked to you, the two of you were going on a temporarily leave. I take it you got the message from Heathcliff too?
Asuna: Yeah, we did. Do you think the boss room was found?
Zora: Only one way to find out.
The 4 of them then headed into the base and into the room with Heathcliff and other high ranking members. Heathcliff then explained the reason why he had call them here and after a brief explanation everyone was completely and utterly shocked.
Zora: The recon team was wiped out?
Heathcliff: They were scouting for the upcoming boss fight. It was a party of 20 members taken from 5 different guilds, 10 of them reached the center of the room, then the boss appeared, and that's when the entrance closed, cutting them off from the rest of the party.
Kirito: They walked in into an Anti-Crystal zone...
Heathcliff: Precisely, and it couldn't been more than 5 minute or so when the door finally opened. The room was empty, there wasn't any trace left behind of the 10 soldiers or the boss.
Zora: That's crazy...
Kirito: Your kidding...?
Heathcliff: Now more than ever clearing the game should be everyone's number one priority. We're going to launch an attack with the largest group we can assemble.
Kirito: You can count on us to fight with you. But, this needs to be clear, Asuna's safety is my highest priority. If things start to get hectic in there. I'm going to protect her instead of the party, that's not negotiable.
Zora: The same could be said for Philia. If anything her safety is my priority over anything else.
Heathcliff: A person with someone to protect is a strong ally to have. I'm expecting a good fight.
(Timeskip)
After the briefing, everyone was getting ready to take on the boss, Zora went to go back to the briefing room to call Kirito and Asuna and as he was getting ready to walk in, he heard Kirito and Asuna talking.
Asuna: I...I want to always be beside you. I want to date you for real, have real marriage, and grow old together!
Kirito: For now, all we can do is fight, right?
From behind the corner, Zora had his back up against the wall.
Zora(mind): Fight, huh? Mom... Dad... Big Sis... What am I supposed to do...?
Philia: Zora?
Zora: What is it...?
Philia: Is something wrong...?
Zora: No, I'm fine...
Philia: Come on, lets go!
Zora: Right!
(Timeskip)
After finishing getting ready, Zora, Philia, Kirito and Asuna all went to the 75th floor to join the raid team and as they're walking, multiple people started to talk about Zora, and Zora just ignored them and he felt something hold his hand and he looked down and saw it was Philia and he looked over to her and smiled and she did the same and they heard someone calling them from behind and it was Klien and Agil.
Kirito: No way? You guys are coming too?
Agil: That's the best you got, no way. Hey man I shut my shop down to come out here and help get these done. Brother your looking at a player whose about as feeling tropic as they come.
Zora: Then see is how your so feeling tropic, you don't mind if take you off the drop list.
Agil: Hey now lets not be to hasty man...
Everyone then started laughing and everyone then heard the teleport gate being used and they saw it was Heathcliff and other high ranking KOB members. And he walked up to the front and pulled out a teleport crystal.
Heathcliff: Corridor: open.
The portal to the boss room then opened and Heathcliff looked back towards everyone.
Heathcliff: Well, here we go.
Everyone then teleported to the area before the boss and they all started to get all of their items in check.
Heathcliff: Everyone ready. The Knights of the Blood Oath will be out in front, distracting the boss and blocking its attack. In the mean time, the rest of you need to stay sharp and try to figure out its attack pattern. I won't lie, this battle will be hard. But I had faith that we can and will prevail. For our day of liberation!
Everyone started to cheer and Zora was just looking at Heathcliff and narrowed his eyes and suddenly, Philia grabbed Zora's hand and he looked at her.
Philia: Everything gonna be fine. I won't let anything happen to you. Promise, make sure you protect me too, okay?
Zora then smiled at Philia and hold her hand as well.
Zora: Yeah, you know I will.
Heathcliff opened up the door, everyone started to draw they're weapon abd Zora drew his Prosperity and Light Repulsor. And Kirito looks towards him.
Kirito: Don't die!
Zora: Not gonna happen. I got a promise to keep.
As the door fully opened, Heathcliff yelled back at the Raid Team.
Heathcliff: Forward to battle!
The entire Raid team ran into the boss room and once they all reached the middle, the door then vanished and everyone looked around and saw the boss was no where to be found and as everyone was looking, both Zora and Asuna heard something and they both looked at each other and their eyes widened in realization and they both looked up.
Zora and Asuna: Up there!
Everyone then looked up completely shocked to see a skeleton like centipede with 2 scythes in its arm.
Zora: Skull...
Kirito: Reaper...?
The Skull Reaper Hp bars then appeared and it had 5 of them.
Heathcliff: Stay way from it!
The skull Reaper then jumped down from the top of the room and Zora and Kirito looked over and saw two player right under it.
Zora: This way!
Kirito: Hurry run!
As the two players tried to run away, the Skull Reaper landed and slashed the both of them, killing them instantly and everyone looked completely shocked and horrified.
Klien: That was one hit?
Agil: Man we are so dead...
Kirito: That's insane...
Zora: This is not good...
The Skull Reaper then wemt to attack other player, but Heathcliff rushed in and blocked it with his shield, but the Skull Reaper then slashed another player that was around him, killing him.
Agil: We can't even get in close to hit the damm thing!
The Skull Reaper then went to rush another player, but Zora rushed over to them.
Zora: Watch out!
Zora then went to cross guard with his swords, but the Skull Reaper attack was to powerful, it brought Zora to his knees and nearly cut him in half.
Zora(mind): It's too strong...
Suddenly, Philia, Kirito, Asuna, and Heathcliff came rushing in and pushed back the Skull Reaper and Philia helped up Zora.
Philia: If we block it together, we can do this...
Asuna: Come on, we can do this!
Kirito: The 5 of us together...
Zora: Right!
Zora, Philia, Kirito, Asuna, Heathcliff all rushed the Skull Reaper and started blocking and redirecting its scythes.
Zora: The 5 of us will deal with the scythes!
Kirito: Everyone else, flank it in and attack!
As the 5 of them, continued to keep it busy from the front, everyone else attacked it from the sides, but the Skull Reaper continued to kill players and Zora saw its HP bars and how they weren't making any progress at all.
Philia: Ready, Zora?!
Kirito: Its now or never!
Asuna: Lets do this!
Zora: Lets go, everyone!
Everyone: Yeah!
As the battle continued, everyone continued to do damage to the Skull Reaper and Zora, Philia, Kirito, and Asuna all rushed the Skull Reaper and it wentto attack them, but all 4 of them blocked its attack and used Sword Skill to push it back.
(Timeskip)
As the battle between the Raid Group continued to rage on, everyone continued to deal damaged to it while defending against its attack and after over 3 hours, they finally got it down to last bit of HP.
Heathcliff: Everyone, attack!
Everyone rushed the Skull Reaper and surrounded it and all started to use their strongest Sword Skill and started to hit it from every direction and after a long battle, they finally managed to kill the Skull Reaper and it burst into pixels, as the congratulation screen appeared in front of everyone.
As everyone sits all around the boss room completely exhausted, Zora and Philia were leaning on to each other next to Kirito and Asuna as they were all sitting next to each other.
Klien: How many did we lose?
Zora then pulled down his menu and saw 14 people had died during the boss fight.
Zora: 14 of us died...
Philia: 14...?
Kirito: No way!
Asuna: This can't be...
Everyone then looked completelu shocked.
Agil: O MY GOD!
Klien: And we still got 25 floors to go.
Agil: 25 more floors. How the hell are we going to make it that far?
As everyone continued to talk, Zora then looked over at Heathcliff, who was still standing and Zora saw that his HP was still in the green and he thought back when Heathcliff and Kirito had their duel and how somehow managed to block his attack that was inch's away from him so quickly and as Zora started to connect the dots, his eyes widened and looked down.
Zora: Than that means...
Zora then slowly started to pick up his Prosperity Sword and he quietly stood to his feet and the others noticed him.
Philia: Zora..?
Asuna: What's wrong?
Zora didn't say anything and just quickly rushed at Heathcliff and used the Sword Skill "Rage Spike" and went to attack Heathcliff, and Heathcliff saw this and couldn't react on time to bring his shield to block Zora's attack, but Zora's sword couldn't damage him and the notification appeared saying "Immorta Object" and Heathcliff looked at Zora completely and utterly shocked.
Zora: I knew it...
Philia: Zora!
Asuna: What are you-
Asuna and Philia then saw the notification above Heathcliff and was completely shocked.
Philia: Huh?
Asuna: An immortal object. Commander Heathcliff what's going on?
Zora: I think I got the answer to that. The reason why the commanders HP never hits yellow, is because he is protected by the system. You know ever since day one something always bug me about this whole thing. I was always wondering, where is he hiding while he watches us and controls everything in this world? Well, the answers pretty simple, its basic psychology. In fact, its so simple every kids knows it. There's nothing more boring than watching someone else play an RPG. Isn't that right, Akihiko Kayaba?
Everyone then looked completely shocked at Heathcliff and he just smirked at Zora.
Heathcliff: Impressive. Absolutely Impressive as always Mr Night Sky Swordsman. I am indeed, Akihiko Kayaba.
A/N: ALRIGHT JUST ONE MORE CHAPTER BEFORE THE END OF SAO ARC. AND AFTER SAO ARC FINISH I'M GOING TO TAKE A BREAK FROM IT. BUT I WILL CONTINUE DON'T WORRY. BUT AS ALWAYS I HOPE YOU ENJOY THE STORY.