Hello everyone, it's been a while. How are you all? I hope you all well and still like this story very much.

I haven't been writing in a while, or doing anything much lately. I don't know how to say this, but I'm just not ready to going back to writing yet. Life is still a confused mess to me, and until I can be sure of where I'm going with it in the future, I will not be writing anything new. This, and all my other stories will be on hold for the time being, I will come back when I'm ready, and only then.

This chapter had been written long before I got lost in the road of life. Though I counted this as a uncompleted chapter, because I had planed to write a lot more, but hadn't been able to do it. So, it's a half-chapter.

Well, I still checking my email from time to time, so I had saw all the reviews, and other attention this story get. After a while, I thought I'll post this chapter up with the note, inside of just a note alone, to thank all of you for your love and your support to this story.

Thank you very much, I hope we will meet again one day.

P/s: Short and non-Beta chapter, do forgive me for grammar and spelling mistakes.

05/27/2015: Fixed grammar mistake. Still wonder if there is anymore of it.

Chapter 2: A new world.

"…una! Asuna, wake up!"

Asuna slowly opens her eyes at the voice that keep on calling her, the first thing she see is Kirito's worry face. Once he saw her awake though, he smiled.

"Asuna, thank god you awake! I was starting to get worry," Said Kirito.

"I'm glad Mama is up too," Said Yui cheerfully from her left, she turned her head and sure enough here her daughter was.

"Yui-chan, Kirito-kun," Smiled Asuna as Kirito helped her sit up. "What happened? I feel like a car just hit me."

"Don't you remember, Asuna?" Kirito asked, the smile slipped from his face.

"Remember what…" Memory of the past few minutes suddenly floated into her mind, "Oh, you mean that memory. Yes, I remember now, are we in this other world yet, Kirito-kun?"

"We are, Mama. Look at this," Said Yui before Kirito could answer, she brought up a small flower. "Papa took this from the bush over there. There is no system warning turn up. It likes everything had turned real in this world, it is nothing like the game at all."

"Is that so?" Asuna took the flower from Yui's hand, her touch felt real. She brought it up to her nose and was meet with a sweet smell. "It… really turned into a real flower?"

"Yeah, I even try it with the World tree, Asuna. The tree is no longer an immortal object, I can cut it easily. They truly are the real thing now," Said Kirito.

"This is just so… I can't believe it… It just…" Muttered Asuna, not sure what she wanted to say anymore.

"I know, incredible isn't it?" Kirito commented, then his eyes lower. "I'm sorry Asuna, it was my fault that you was drag into this."

"No, don't say it, Kirito-kun. This is not your fault, nor it is my fault, I chosen to be with you. If anything, this is whoever performs that summoned magic fault." Asuna give Kirito a quick hugs to steady his nerves, then she stood up, "Let get out of this cage. If this is a real world now, I want to know what else is in it."

"Alright! Thank Asuna," Kirito said as he stood up too.

"There no need to thank me, Kirito-kun;" Smiled Asuna. "By the way, where is Kayaba?"

"He is inside the tree, Mama. He said he wanted to check out the control room;" Answer Yui as she took Asuna's and Kirito's hands so that they walked in both side of her.

"There is a control room here?" Asked Asuna.

"I have no idea," Kirito shrugged. "But I guess there has to be a control room somewhere to help the GM take care of thing from inside the game, not that any of them was useful anyway."

"True, but it is in the past now. We should find Kayaba and find out what will happen from now on," Said Asuna, which Kirito nodded his head in agreement.

Together, the three of them walked inside, thank to Yui's help, they soon found Kayaba in a room that Asuna realized as the one she had stolen the admin's card from, though none of the brain was here anymore.

The room was a wide and empty ivory colored room, with a grand round table and four chairs in the middle as the only items around. In the middle of the table was an image half a meter high, of what Asuna guessed as the World Tree and the land surrounding it. This image was placed in two shells like prismatic glass, the smaller one covered the World Tree and the city under it, and the large one covered its lands limit. Kayaba was seated in one of the chair, a few screens floating in front of him.

"Ah, here you are. Good, I need your help with this, Kirito-kun." Kayaba said as they came closer to where he was.

"What is it that you need my help? Aren't you the one with complete control over this place?" Asked Kirito as he took a seat next to the man. Asuna sit down in his other side, leaving the last chair for Yui. Once they seated, a keyboard image appears in the table in front of them, only then did Asuna realized that there was one in front of Kayaba too.

"That is true in a way, but the code of this place is not me, Kirito-kun. The seconds you used the World Seed, you become the center of this place, its heart you could say. I am like the brain that control thing, but without the heart to beats, I would be dead too." Kayaba answered calmly to Kirito.

"But the heart didn't control anything in a body," Said Asuna. She wondered where Kayaba was going with this.

"True, but that is in a real body, not in a world. Maybe I should have use the word King inside, as it is Kirito-kun's role now." Said Kayaba.

"Wait, what are you talking about?" Asked Kirito in surprised.

"I just found out too, it looks like you are the new King Oberon of this world now, Kirito-kun." Answered Kayaba. With a click of his finger, an image of Kirito in black and white clothes appeared in front of their seat, the word «Fairy King Oberon» under it. Other images of Asuna in White and red clothes also appeared next to it, but with the word «Fairy Queen Titania» inside.

"W-what? But how?" Asked Kirito.

"Since you are the code, it mean you are the most important person to this world, so the World Seed gave you the role of King Oberon, who is its ruler here. Asuna-kun still has her role as Queen Titania, while I become Yggdrasil." Said Kayaba.

"Well, that makes sense. What do you mean you are Yggdrasil though?" Asuna asked.

"Since I basic still hold power over this place, the World Seed decided to make me the World Tree soul, or spirit, whichever you perfect. It is called Yggdrasil and is the third in power by the way. I can still control everything, but I'll need your permission in most of it."

"So, you are like an admin then?" Asked Asuna.

"Or an advisor of the king, likes in some movies," added Kirito.

"Yes, you can call me that. Now with that out of the way, I think we should get on with fixing thing up." Said Kayaba.

"Right, you did say something about that. What is it anyway?" Questioned Kirito.

"And how are we going to 'fixing thing up' as you call it?" Asuna asked.

"By using our mind and word of course, Asuna-kun. As for your question Kirito-kun, I want you to help create a barrier around the World Tree, to stop any outsider until we can find out more about this new world," Said Kayaba.

"You're right, we don't know what waiting us out there, so stop them from coming in is the most logical thing we need to do first. How are we going to create this barrier though?" Questioned Kirito. At that Kayaba pointed his hand at the image in the middle of the table, numbers started to appeared as he speak.

"The World Tree is in the center of this map, the land around reaches out to 25km in a circle with its "center" is this room. The city Arun's limit is 7km, leave us with 18km of forest and land. I've send out a thousand World Tree guardian, to guard the border, and another thousand to guard the city wall incase of an attack." With other click, blue dots that showed the World Tree guardians around in two circle appear.

"Now I need you to active Plan B-01, which will creates the barriers as you see here." Kayaba pointed to the two shells around the imagine. "You need to use your sword as a key though."

"Key for what? And isn't this the real world now? How can I still use system command anyway?" Kirito asked.

"System command only exit in this room until further notice. Even though this is the real world now, its still under the World Tree's control, meaning we can do anything we want with it, as long as it is in Yggdrasil's border." Said Kayaba, then he opened up other window that showed an image of interwoven twigs formed a pillar around a sword. The word «Plan B-01» written under it.

"The sword in this barrier will work as the source, so long as it is safe, the barrier will not break. All you need to do are plugged your sword into the ground anywhere in this room, then say the command to activate Plan B-01. The system will do the rest." Kayaba said.

"That's it?" Kirito raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah. Like I said, I've planned everything, you just need to activate it. Ask your daughter, she can still tell if I lie or not." Smiled Kayaba.

"It's okay, Papa. He's telling the truth." Yui, who had been silent until now, finally spoken. They looked at her smiling face, before smiled themselves.

"Alright, let get this over with. The sooner we have that barrier up, the better." With that said, Kirito stood up and took the sword that had been resting next to his chair, to a corner. Then having second thought, he dragged it to the middle of the wall that face the door.

"There should be fine right?" Kirito asked Kayaba. At the man nod, he plugged the sword into the ground in front of the wall and said. "«System command. Plan B-01, active!»"

Right after his word, a green light appeared around the sword, surprised Kirito and made him let go of it. Then twigs started to grow from the ground and wrap around the sword until it looked much like the image they saw before, then the light die out after that. The world «Plan B-01 complete» appeared for five seconds to let them know that the barriers were now up.

"Guess that done with then. So what next?" Kirito asked after he sat back in his seat.

"Well, next would be trying to find more information about this world I guess. Though I don't want to risk any of us going out there in case of dangerous situations, the guardian is not an option either since they are not real people. So for the time being, I suggest we stay in here until a connect from the outsider come first, then depending on their action that we will react. Of course you are free to come up with other idea." Said Kayaba.

"That… is surprising," Kirito commented. "I thought you would suggest we go explore this new world right away. That's what you've always wanted, isn't it?"

"True, a real magic world has always been my dream. But why rushing to it anyway? It's not like I have anywhere else to go." Kayaba shrugged. "So better safe than sorry, I still can explore this world later, once we be sure that there is no danger for us."

"That's make sense." Asuna said. "But still, what do we do next? Just sitting around here and chatting?"

"We could go over a few other things, like say, what do you want to do with the monsters and NPC alike?" Asked Kayaba.

"Did they become real too?" Kirito asked quickly, he hadn't thought of what the NPC would be like in this new world, will they became real human? Or will they still stayed NPC?

"Can they even become real human?" Asuna asked.

"For the time being, no, they are not human yet." Said Kayaba.

"Yet? You mean they can become human?" Said Kirito.

"Yes, they can. With a lot of update, of course." Kayaba answered. "Let me explain. Current, all the NPC and monster have disappeared from the city and its land, their existence became data that was stored in this room. If you want, I can create a program that will give them intellect, emotions, much like Yui over here. It will take a while, but in the end of it, we will be able to make them into real human, or real fairies in this case."

"You can really do it?" Asuna asked.

"Then let do it. Do you need help with any of it? I don't know much but I can help with whatever you need." Said Kirito.

"Wait just a minute, Kirito-kun." Kayaba cut in. "Are you sure you want to bring them back?"

"Why wasn't I be?" Kirito asked in confused.

"Think about it. Do you want to bring all the NPC to real life in a world you know nothing about? Once you brought them back, they will become your responsibility. You will have to look after them, making sure that they will be able to live on in this new world. Not to mention if we bring back the NPC, we will also bring back the monster. While I can have the guardian take care of the monster, and place a command inside the NPC so that they will always loyalty to us to prevent riots, there are still food and other things that come with life. Can you really take care of them all?"

Kirito opened his mouth, then closed it, he found nothing to say to Kayaba. The man's points were solid, he couldn't just brought all those people to life and leave them to fend for themselves. That was heartless and will only cause trouble later on. But still, Kirito had never truly saw the NPC as mere data. Two years lived in SAO had only strengthened this, he couldn't just stop now. It didn't felt right. Somehow, there had to be a way to solved this.

Asuna looks at her lover sadly, easily guessed what he was thinking. She still remembered the time that Kirito had augmented with her on the boss fight plan for the NPC, and the time she lived with him in floor 22, those times had taught Asuna just how much Kirito values the NPC. In a way, she had come to saw them as less like data and more like human too, still no where near as much as Kirito though. This must be hard for him. She only wished she could help him, but Asuna know that if it was up to her, she will merely choose to not bring those NPC back. The responsibility was just too big for them, no matter how nice it would be.

In the end, it was Kayaba who had spoken up again. He never thought that Kirito would found this choice difficult, they were mere NPC after all. If this was already hard for him, Kayaba wondered how Kirito will reach to the secret of Aincrad that he had hide. He had hoped to brought it out in this meeting, that why he had brought the NPC up in the first place, but it seem like today was not the right time after all. That secret will have to remain a secret for a little more then.

"Kirito-kun, Asuna-kun, forget what I've said for now." Said Kayaba. "Hear me out first before you protest. As for this time, we have no knowledge of the running of this world and its peoples. On other hand, the NPC's data will still remain in the system until we need them. So, let put this problem behind for a while, until we know more about this world. Then, and only then, we will discussion this matter again. Is that clear?"

Kayaba's voice has taken in a much serious tone at the end, much like one he used when he was the commander of the Knight of Blood in Aincrad. At once, both Kirito and Asuna realized that even though he gave them equal power in control here, in the end, Kayaba still the one who truly in control of everything. Kayaba was an adult, he had done many bad things before, but he was still much older and more experienced in life than them. Their survive would be depending much on his guide, and even thought none of them like this, they knew that they need to accept it.

At the very least, they were no longer as helpless as they were when they first started SAO. With a nod for each other, Kirito and Asuna both turned to look at Kayaba and nodded in agreed. They will leave this matter for now. But one day, when they know more of this world and trusted Kayaba more, it sure will be brought up again.

A tense silence filled the air after that, none of them sure of what to do next. Kayaba clicks a few buttons on the keyboard, and three cup of tea formed itself in front of them, with a cup of milk for Yui.

"Let resting for a bit before we decide on what to do next." Said Kayaba calmly as he took his cup and sipped from it. "Don't worry, those drinks are real. Everything made in this room are real now, it only happen in this room though, so don't try it outside, it'll be useless."

"Is there even a limit to this room?" Mumbled Kirito into his cup. Created barriers, could created life, drink and who know what more, it was like the power of a god. Honestly, this room was starting to freak him out a little.

"I haven't checked it yet, but I don't think this room have any limit." Hearing Kirito's word, Kayaba answer. "Think of it like the game SAO and you are its creator. This room is the system Cardinal. It treats everything as a game, and so anything that had been installed in its program can be made real in this room, as well as outside it. We are the only one who have access to this system now, hence everything we want to create, it will make them real for us. Even if later you decided to make the monster real, their drop rate will still be control by this room, or more especially Cardinal."

"Hn… Sound like Cardinal is a real person already." Commented Kirito.

"Don't go there Kirito-kun, don't go there yet." Said Kayaba in a warning tone.

"You're right. Sorry, let not go over there yet." Kirito said quickly. Then he sipped his tea again, this time the silence lasted for a good five minutes before it was broken by Yui.

"Look mama, what is that?" Asked Yui in a curious voice. They looked to where her hand was pointed to in the map, red dots had appeared in the first barrier, between two blue dots that seem to be moved toward it.

"The red dots symbol outsider that was in our land, I guess some of them had finally came to find out more about us." Kayaba said all this while his hands flied through his keyboard, tapping and clicking before other screen appeared. "This screen will show us the view of one of the guardian, you can see and hear what happen in the barrier through it ." Other click of his hand and three other screen appeared. "And now we can all see."

The screen showed first a view of the trees that the guardian passed though, meaning it was in a forest, before it came to a large grass field. The guardian stopped next the forest's border, they guessed the barrier was right in front of it and the place where the World Seed had appeared was original a grass field. That would explained the sudden end of the forest. What took everyone's attention though was the group of people that stood in front of the guardian, all of them seem quite shocked at seeing it, but they quickly calmed down. They didn't lower their guard but their expression softened with curiosity.

"Interesting," Mumbled Kayaba, then he smiled. "Let welcome our guests, shall we?"

"So, what should we do now, Head Master?" This question was voiced by Professor Colbert in his and Old Osmond's way to the later man's office. They had just visited the infirmary, where they was told that Louise had collapsed from exhaustion and would wake up once she rested well enough.

After her summon magic this morning, chaos had spread through the academy. Some of the first year students were injured because they stood too near Louise when the explosion happened, thankfully it was nothing serious. They all had been taken to the infirmary right away, along with Louise herself. It still took the better half of an hour to calmed and organized the students and servant alike. All classes had been canceled for the day, other professors had been gave errands to run, and the two of them had just finished their visit to all the injured students.

"What indeed, I can only think of one thing in this situation." Answered the headmaster. "And I'm sure you know it too, Professor."

Colbert could only nodded his head as they passed through a window and letting him saw once more what was outside it. Indeed there was only one thing to do now.

"This is a very peculiar situation and I would suggest that you select one or two other students or faculty to take with you." Osmond said suddenly as they walked through the main hall.

"Head Master, the faculty are stretched to their limit, as well as the older students. What remain now are the first and second years, you can't possible suggest that I bring them? Their magic are poorly trained and this trip might be dangerous." Protested Colbert.

"I understand your concerns Professor." Said Osmond. "But as you said before, we are at our limit, and we can't putting this trip out much longer. So all I can say is: Believe in your students, they all have talent of their own."

"Very well, I will choose a few of my best students with me. Now if there is nothing more, then excuse me, I must be going. I will see you later, headmaster." Colbert said to Old Osmond.

"I wish you a safe trip, professor." Waved Osmond before he turned around and continue walking to his office, leave Colbert behind to wondered on who he will brought with him to this trip.

"Professor Colbert!"

Colbert was brought out of his thought by the loud voice calling for him from a red-haired student, he easily realized she as Kirche, a fire mage. And the girl next to her was Tabitha, a skilled mage in both wind and water magic. Just the perfect pair for this trip.

"Miss Zerbst, Miss Tabitha, can I help you?" Colbert asked when the two came to a stop in front of him.

"Nothing much professor, we just want to now what happen to Louise. Is she okay? Has she wake up yet?" Asked Kirche.

"We're worry," Tabitha added.

"Rest assured, you two. Miss Valliere is alright, she hasn't wake up yet, but I am sure she will be fine in a few days." Answered Colbert to the two girls.

"That's good to hear. Thank you for telling us, professor." Said Kirche.

"It's nothing, Miss Zerbst. Now if you two have nothing more to ask, I have a request." Seeing the two girls were both paying attention to him now, Colbert took no more time to said his question. "I will be going to investigation the large tree that showed up after Miss Valliere's spell. The headmaster had gave me permission to bring a few students with me, would you two like to be that student? I understand if you two don't want though, this may be dangerous."

"I will go," Mumbled Tabitha without a second hesitated.

"I will too. If this is about Valliere then I certain have to go." Agreed Kirche.

"Good. Get ready and meet me in the gate in haft an hour, we will be leaving then." Colbert said before he left to get ready himself.

Half an hour later, Colbert and his two students were ready to leave the Academy. They traveled by horses through a small forest without any trouble, but once they passed through it, they could saw clearly the difference in the land around them. The grass field, that should have been grown widely for miles, had been cut through in the middle by a forest of dark, large trees, the like of which had never been seen before. After a closer look, they realized that more than a few trees were only have half, or lest, of their body, the side facing the Academy had been cut clearly out from top to bottom. It was as though someone had cut a part of a forest somewhere and planned it in this field, without caring whether or not the trees was damaged as long as the cut stay in its circular art.

"...Not normal…" Mumbled Tabitha. Her eyes took in the study for any sight of danger, or anything that explain this strange forest.

"Yeah, I know right. Those trees looks like they've been cut in half by a huge sword. Maybe a wind spell? Do you know any spell that can do this, Profession?" Kirche asked.

"I think there are, but who would have enough control to use those spells so flawlessly?" Answered Colbert, then he added to himself 'Not to mention, where is the rest of this forest that had been cut out? What kind of spell that can change the surrounding of a forest?'

Just as Colbert was about to move forward to take a closer look, he stopped in his track and took a step back, for the sound of branches being broken suddenly reached his ears. Tabitha and Kirche, realized it a second later, also stepped back, slightly behind Colbert, and take on a defense position. Wands ready for any danger that may come their way.

Finally, after what seem like a century, but really just a few seconds, the sound had reached the forest's border and out came a large armor of white steel, easy shadowed over them, with equally white sword and a pair of strange wings in its back. The armor continue to float, no, flys up to them.

Colbert move alongside his students, as one, they all took a few more steps back, though before either of them could utter a word, the armor spoken in a deep and clear voice.

"Greeting, strangers of this world. May I ask who you are?"

-TBC-