There he was, standing out in the middle of the snow-covered valley, waiting patiently for someone to challenge him. His sword was in its scabbard, and the bottom of his shield rested on the ground. Kirito didn't charge. He simply continued walking towards him, swords drawn. As he got closer, he could see Heathcliff's face more clearly. His expression was practically emotionless save for a small grin. The man drew his sword, resting the blade on his shoulder as he lifted his shield. "Hello, Kirito." He said nonchalantly, almost as if greeting a long-time friend. "So, you've finally come to fight me..." He continued, taking his stance. "I'd assume you wish to know?" Upon seeing Kirito's perplexed expression, Heathcliff continued, "To know why I trapped everyone in this game? To know why I've subjected you and so many others to this pain?"

Kirito readied himself, looking Heathcliff directly in the eye and waiting a moment before responding. "That... doesn't matter anymore." Kirito replied, "I'm not here for questions, or to fight you. I'm here to kill you." Heathcliff's expression shifted to one of annoyed resentment.

Heathcliff rushed him, keeping his shield raised. As expected, he was slow enough for Kirito to sidestep the thrust. Kirito swung his Elucidator. He knew he wasn't going to accomplish much with the swing, but he at least needed to gauge just how effective Heathcliff was with his shield. To his surprise, Heathcliff swiftly knocked the swing aside, forcing Kirito to backstep as he continued with another thrust.

Heathcliff returned to his stance and began strafing, waiting for Kirito to make the next move. Kirito stepped back once more, staying completely on guard even with the distance between them. Okay... I can't beat him like that... I'm going to have to push my speed advantage as far as I can... Keep him subdued...

Kirito charged, striking before Heathcliff even had time to fully brace himself, and began attacking in a flurry of slashes and thrusts from every angle he could. He made sure to keep Heathcliff's sword arm behind his shield, ensuring that he remained in a defensive spot. Heathcliff managed a few pokes past his shield, but Kirito dodged and parried them.

Kirito raised his arm and tried to thrust over his shield, aiming at Heathcliff's helmless head. Heathcliff knocked aside the strike, thrusting his blade and forcing Kirito to step back, though he quickly closed the distance. Instead of continuing slashing, Kirito shifted his weight and kicked the shield, slightly exposing Heathcliff's stomach. He thrust Dark Repulser, only to have the strike parried and remind him that even if he made it past the shield, his opponent wasn't defenseless. However unfazed, he continued his assault. He slightly lowered himself, slashing upward with Dark Repulser. Just as Kirito hoped for, Heathcliff moved his shield slightly to his right to block the attack. Quickly raising himself, Kirito thrust Elucidator past the top of the shield, aiming the strike directly at Heathcliff's exposed face.

Heathcliff leaped backwards. Kirito took the moment catch his breath, noticing that his opponent's health bar now rested at about eighty-five percent. As Heathcliff slightly lowered his shield, Kirito saw a long gash running along the side of the man's face; blood already dripping down his jaw and onto his armor. "I see... you've clearly been planning for this battle." The man said panting. "But... if you seriously thought this would be just like any other fight against a player, you're sadly mistaken."

To Kirito's surprise, Heathcliff dropped his shield into the snow and dirt, bursting into tiny blue fragments hardly a second later, much like if it were a slain mob. The man placed both hands on his sword as the weapon was engulfed in a brilliant azure light. Heathcliff said in a far more sinister tone than he used minutes ago, "You could've never prepared for this." The light faded, revealing a massive greatsword longer than the man was tall and with twice the width of either of Kirito's swords. Kirito felt his heartbeat quickening. Heathcliff was certainly right; changing weapons entirely mid-fight was one of the last things he was expecting; and to a weapon completely capable of countering his, no less.

"He'll be far more aggressive now..." Kirito thought to himself, "...but he'll still be slower than me. I'll just have to stay reactive and keep up the pressure."

Heathcliff quickly stepped forward and swung. The sheer length of his weapon would also pose a challenge. Kirito would have to be much more careful about choosing when to attack, as his opponent now had a much more significant advantage than before: reach.

Heathcliff swung again. Kirito dashed towards his opponent the moment the blade passed. Heathcliff swiftly stepped back as Kirito swung, though his Elucidator managed to scrape his chestplate. Heathcliff thrust his sword as Kirito stepped diagonally past it, countering with a thrust from Dark Repulser and aiming for a small un-armored portion of the man's bicep. However, his blade was simply deflected by Heathcliff's gauntlet.

"Trading blows with this is the last thing I want to do..." Kirito thought to himself as he danced between Heathcliff's brisk attacks, "But he's smart enough to keep his head - his weak point - out of reach. It will take all my strength to thrust through his chestplate, and the windup a blow like that would take would leave me way too open. My only chance would be to block with one sword while attacking with the other, but his sword carries way too much momentum for me to block it effectively. I'll just have to get hits in when I can and wait for him to get reckless."

Kirito knew though that that would be much easier said than done. He could feel himself already tiring. He couldn't dodge forever.

Heathcliff raised his sword above his head, continuing with a downward slash. "Now!" Kirito yelled internally as he sidestepped the attack and immediately countered with a downward slash from both of his blades in unison, aiming at the small area just above his elbow. Elucidator scratched the pauldron, but Dark Repulser met flesh. Kirito saw his opponent's health bar take a small hit. It wasn't much, but it was progress.

However, Kirito wasn't expecting his opponent to immediately continue attacking. Kirito leaped backwards, his opponent's blade even managing to scrape across his chest. His armor completely absorbed the glancing blow. Kirito felt his back slam into the snow-kissed ground. He had to completely fall back to avoid the blow. Heathcliff leaped after him, blade raised high above his head. Kirito barely managed to roll away, simultaneously bringing himself back to his feet and backing away as Heathcliff's blade plunged into the dirt.

Thankfully, Heathcliff momentarily ceased his onslaught. Both of them were panting heavily. Kirito felt a slight bit of reassurance seeing himself still at full health. If he could manage to keep this up, he stood a surefire chance at winning.

Heathcliff's breathing eased. "Heh, you're doing a lot better than I thought you would." How could he have already caught his breath after a series of attacks like that? "However... that's just all the more reason to not show any mercy!" He swiftly regained his stance and continued attacking. He kept his blade noticeably lower and made the slash more horizontal, forcing Kirito to jump backwards rather than sidestep. Heathcliff quickly changed his grip and thrust. Kirito took his chance; using Dark Repulser to parry, he lunged forward, aiming Elucidator directly at his opponent's throat.

To Kirito's disbelief, Heathcliff had taken his left hand off of the grip of his sword faster than Kirito could blink, deflecting the thrust with his gauntlet and using the momentum to punch Kirito squarely in the jaw. He felt his feet leave the ground a moment before thudding back into the snow. It took Kirito a moment to realize he had been launched through the air by a simple punch. Laboring to lift his head, he saw Heathcliff standing a good ten feet away, smirking and regaining his stance. Kirito glanced up at his healthbar, which had been reduced by a solid one-sixth, at least. As he brought himself back to his feet, it became clear why. The slightest movement of his jaw made almost the entire right side of his face feel like it had been slammed by a cinder block. So this is what I'm really up against...

Heathliff thrust his blade again. This time following a similar tactic, Kirito parried with Dark Repulser and used Elucidator to thrust. This time, he could already see Heathcliff's hand shifting to block the blow, however, instead of following through towards his opponent's neck, he lowered the blade at the last moment, aiming for his armpit. The blade met flesh. Instead of backing off, Kirito continued his assault. Heathcliff seemed to be panicking, frantically raising his arm to deflect the blow.

It would be a risky move, but at the close distance Kirito was from his opponent, Heathcliff would at least have difficulty swinging his greatsword effectively. With nearly all the strength he could muster, Kirito thrust forward both of his blades, both aiming at the neck, though one slightly more delayed than the other. Sparks flew as one of the blows was knocked aside, but the other, to Kirito's astonishment, Heathcliff managed to weave past.

Heathcliff swung downward as he simultaneously leaped away from his opponent. "Damn it!" Kirito internally shouted, barely managing to dodge as the blade whisked past the tips of his fingers. He immediately began scrambling back up to his feet after landing on his side in the snow.

Heathcliff followed his attack with an upward slash. Having still not completely recovered, Kirito jumped backwards with what little force he could manage. His opponent's blade met flesh. Kirito saw his own blood splatter in his peripheral vision as he staggered back to his feet. Heathcliff ceased his attack, a sadistic grin now present on his face.

While he felt an unholy, sharp pain just above his left elbow, Kirito didn't notice the numbness of the rest of his left arm until he saw what rested in the snow between him and his opponent. His left arm had been completely severed.

He glanced at his health bar as the limb disintegrated into light blue polygons, leaving Dark Repulser resting in the snow. A solid one-third of his health had been chipped off. Blood lightly trickled from the wound; his health bar falling at an almost perplexing small rate considering the would. "At least," he thought, remembering the auxiliary effect of his armor , "I won't have to worry much about the bleeding damage." In fact, the effect seemed to practically nullify the damage. The dripping of the blood was already decreasing in tempo, and what little damage his health bar had received amounted to at most five percent. Unfortunately, while at least the bleeding had stopped, the pain had hardly subsided one bit.

Fighting against an opponent this powerful with only one arm was already challenging enough, but now, he could hardly think clearly because of the abhorrent pain. Not only that, but the fight had already dragged on for several minutes. The longer the fight lasted, the closer he would be to losing; he was already feeling fatigue. "If I can just..." he began thinking to himself, "...land a single, solid attack on his neck, that might be enough to secure victory."

A single blow. It would be a massive, all-or-nothing gamble. He took his stance, adjusting so his wounded arm would be out of the way. Heathcliff charged, initiating with another horizontal slash. Kirito back pedaled, keeping just out of reach from his opponent's sword as he unleashed a lengthy flurry of slashes.

At last, his moment came. Kirito noticed it the moment the blow's windup had initiated. Heathcliff leveled his blade and thrust. Kirito lunged towards his opponent, every move made with the intent to kill. He raised Elucidator, slightly redirecting the incoming strike and turning himself so the blade would glance off of his chest plate.

Kirito delayed the attack just slightly as Heathcliff frantically tried to deflect it using his gauntlet. His delay succeeded in leaving Heathcliff open. With all the strength he had left, Kirito thrust his blade forward one final time.

The unmistakable sound of a blade sinking into flesh was heard. Kirito looked up to see Elucidator completely piercing the man's neck, with the tip of the blade sticking out from the back of his skull. His opponent's health bar had shrunken down to zero. Deep crimson blood trickled from his mouth and his wound, running down the edge of the sword.

Kirito retracted his blade as Heathcliff dropped his sword. The man stepped back, clutching at his throat and falling to his knees, breaths and words replaced by grotesque gargles. His eyes widened, the primordial horror of death taking hold as he fell back. Heathcliff took his final breath, preceding a moment of eerie silence. The man's body dissolved as the massage, 'Congratulations, you have killed the final boss of Sword Art Online!', appeared in faded grey text in front of him.

Kirito dropped to his knees, panting. A smaller message appeared on his HUD, just below his health bar. 'Final boss has been slain! Logout function re-enabled!'. He assumed the same message had been received by everyone else in Aincrad. He shifted through the menus, finally coming to view the player count. He breathed a deep sigh of relief and satisfaction as the player count began to fall drastically. Within the first couple of seconds, nearly one thousand had logged out. "Finally..."

Now that the boss had been slain, the boss arena was now open. Kirito heard the sound of boots crunching through the snow behind him, increasing in volume and pace, becoming frantic as what he could only guess meant she noticed the blood around him alongside his severed left arm. Out of the corner of his eye, Kirito saw Asuna's white boots flecked with snowflakes. She lowered herself to her knees, placing her hand on his cheek and tilting his head as she leaned in, kissing him slowly and intimately.

"Where's Yuuki?" Kirito asked softly as the two of them released.

"She already logged out. She said she was most eager to see her sister again."

"Yeah, that sounds like her." He said, grinning as he sifted through his inventory and drank a healing potion. He let out a small sigh as the pain subsided and his left arm returned, armor and all.

Kirito turned towards Asuna and embraced her, smiling as he thought of all of the things the two of them would finally be able to do. Share their true first kiss, enjoy their lives without a near-constant threat of combat, become married...

The two of them released as a glimmer of sunlight peeked through the otherwise overcast sky, shining on the two of them. The moment truly felt like a scene in a painting. The two of them opened up their menus, scrolling down to the 'System' tab. After two long years, the moment they had yearned for so greatly was at last upon them.

With their hands clasped together and gazes fixed intently on each other, they reached toward their respective menus and tapped 'Logout'.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

I hope you all have enjoyed! I won't be marking this story as complete just yet, because as unlikely as it may be, I will consider writing an epilogue chapter of sorts based on the feedback I get. But until then, this is the end, I suppose. It's been a long two years, and I would never have completed this without all of the feedback I got. For what may be the final time, I thank all of you, from the very bottom of my heart.