Prologue

War—endless war—engulfed the world in relentless turmoil and unrest. Countless shadows clashed against each other upon a land as black as night beneath a blood-red sun.

In the haze, it seemed as though voices could be heard—yet muffled, as if separated by an impossibly thick wall, only dull, urgent murmurs reaching through, unintelligible.

A man clad in pure black armor stood proudly in the sky. He paid no heed to the brutal carnage raging below, his cold, piercing gaze fixed straight ahead.

There, someone else met his eyes.

“Even if you have come this far, thinking you can claim this place so easily is nothing but naïveté,” the man declared, his voice icy, heavy with disdain.

“Stop pretending, will you?” a voice echoed from all directions. “With the secret arts of our Lord of the Malevolent Heavens, even you—a being once exalted—have been reduced to this, haven’t you?”

Gradually, eight indistinct shadows appeared, encircling the man. Each one gripped a transparent chain, their ends embedded deep within the man’s body, binding him in place.

“How outrageously arrogant! Do you truly believe these will hold me?” The man laughed coldly. Suddenly, black flames erupted from his body. With a grasping motion, a crescent-shaped scythe materialized in his right hand.

The moment the scythe appeared, his aura grew even more savage, so fierce it seemed the very fabric of space trembled. The chains shivered violently, and under the searing black flames, began to snap apart, inch by inch, until all were reduced to fragments.

“Must you truly burn your own essence?” asked one of the distant shadows, its wavering voice unsettling to hear.

“Even so, I will leave behind the last spark for my people. And you—you are doomed to fail!” Without another word, the man vanished from the air, reappearing instantly at the shadow’s side.

The shadow tried to react, but was abruptly frozen in place, its form distorting and wavering violently—not by choice, but as if forcibly restrained.

“I underestimated you. To think you have attained such mastery over this realm. But do you really believe you can kill me in your current state?” Though the shadow’s form flickered, its voice remained calm and unflinching.

“We shall see.” The man raised his scythe high. Black flames surged toward the blade, shrouding it until it seemed capable of cleaving through all existence. The scythe swept down, gouging a deep rift in space itself.

“With such power, you’re sure to perish as well. Hmph. You truly have no qualms about expending yourself so recklessly.” The bisected shadow’s voice stuttered out, fading in and out.

The man’s lips curled slightly at these words. He no longer looked at what lay before him, but turned his gaze to the ground below, where the brutal battle raged on. In a low voice, he murmured, “I shall return!”

And from the land beneath, as if the heavens themselves answered, a thunderous voice echoed in reply, “You shall return! You shall return!”

He smiled, while the shadow before him fell into utter silence.

His figure suddenly shattered into countless motes of light, vanishing from the sky, the scythe dissolving just as strangely.

Li Ren jerked upright in bed. It was still deep in the night. Rubbing his eyes, he found his heart pounding with a feverish excitement, a lingering joy from the scene he’d just experienced. The abrupt awakening left him oddly exhilarated, and he doubted he’d be able to sleep again. So, he got up, fetched a can of juice from the refrigerator, and gulped down half of it in one go, sighing contentedly.

Now he felt much better.

He had no idea what was happening to him lately. Every night, he dreamed the same dream, yet everything in the dream felt so unreal, like watching a movie—utterly absurd.

Still, there was some progression. At first, he could neither see nor hear anything in the dream. By now, he could clearly hear the dialogue. He wondered if, in a few more days, he might be able to see everyone’s faces.

Li Ren mused on this, finding a bit of amusement in it. Since he was dreaming anyway, he figured he might as well look forward to something.

The man in the dream certainly looked cool. That suit of armor—if he hadn’t seen it with his own eyes, he’d never have imagined such a dazzling thing, even in a dream.

“With that scythe in his hand, if he had a cloak, wouldn’t he look just like the Grim Reaper?” Li Ren thought. “And that place—really did look like somewhere the Grim Reaper would hang out.” He laughed aloud, increasingly convinced by his own theory.

If the Grim Reaper really dressed that stylishly instead of wearing that terrifying hooded cloak, he wouldn’t mind trying it out himself.

Fortunately, tomorrow would be the official launch of Sword Art Online, the massively hyped and universally acclaimed virtual reality game. Gazing at the ultra-deluxe gaming pod in his room, Li Ren felt a surge of anticipation.

“Maybe I’ll get to wear gear like that man’s in the game,” he thought. “Although, it’s a shame—I probably won’t have those dreams anymore. The deluxe pod connects you straight into the game world, even while you sleep. There’ll be no more dreaming at all.”

With a faint sense of regret, he shook his head, finished the sweet juice, and, bathed in the silver moonlight outside the window, lay back down in bed, drifting once more into sleep.