SAO: Magic Realm Online

SWORD ART ONLINE: MAGIC REALM ONLINE

This is an idea for a Sword Art Online fanfic called Magic Realm Online. It involves a new NerveGear game called Magic Realm Online, which revolves mainly around magic-based combat, although there are also conventional weapons. Its placement would be at the end of the light novel series. (Note: I haven't read the light novels.) Here's the outline and summary. WARNING: SPOILERS ARE PRESENT!!!

Magic Realm Online is a recently released NerveGear game, taking players into a world of magic. Magic spells and abilities are divided into ten elements; Grass, Fire, Water, Electric, Wind, Earth, Metal, Psychic, Dark, and Light, with each player having an element based on certain aspects of them. Unlike Sword Art Online, there is no final boss, although there are monsters to fight and players can also battle one another. Not long after being released, the game has become quite a hit and many are playing it. However, there's also more that is going on.

Kirigaya Kazuto has asked Asuna Yuuki to marry him, and after getting the approval of her father, they have become engaged. Not long after the announcement, they decide to have a night in bed. However, something sinister occurs in the world of NerveGear games as well.

In Magic Realm Online, all of a sudden, players find themselves unable to log out, almost as if the same crisis that befell Sword Art Online is happening again. Within the game, an announcement is made from someone named King Marius, who claims to be the ruler of Magicana, the world where Magic Realm Online takes place. King Marius reveals that he has made it so that no one is able to log out of the game on their own and that only he may let anyone out. In addition, he has also activated the "Final Death", meaning that once again, if anyone in the game dies or is disconnected, then they also die in the real world.

It's not long before news spreads about what is happening in Magic Realm Online, being dubbed the "Second Sword Art Online Crisis". While new players entering the game has been halted, another unusual problem arises. A number of people not logged into the game suddenly go missing, and others are suddenly found logged into the game themselves. There are also reports of people logged into the game being released, only to be in some sort of brainwashed state, and attack and abduct others, forcing them into the nearest NerveGear helmet. Most people abducted are taken to a warehouse where tons of NerveGear helmets are set up, forced into the game, and the brainwashed players log themselves back in as well.

However, at the Yuuki family mansion, while Asuna is away with Kirigaya, a group of hypnotized people, employees of the mansion, burst in and grab Asuna's parents and brother, who attempt to fight them off, only to be overpowered and taken somewhere unknown. At the same time, Suguha, Kirigaya's cousin, is also kidnapped by a group of hypnotized Magic Realm Online players. Upon finding this out, Kirigaya and Asuna know that something terrible must be behind this and decide to take NerveGear helmets and enter Magic Realm Online in order to save their loved ones.

Within Magic Realm Online, Kirigaya decides to once again take up the name of Kirito, and is given the Water element. Asuna is given the Fire element. As they go through the world of Magicana, they learn about King Marius, who appeared out of nowhere and changed the game to what it is now. They also find out that several of the players are family members of those who were trapped in the game, only for those players to be released in some sort of blank state and force them into the game as well. One girl, for instance, explains that her brother had come out of the game, only for him to attack her and take her to a warehouse where she saw a number of people in NerveGear helmets and was put into one herself.

During the adventure, Kirito and Asuna come across a few people who decide to join them, among those happen to be Sinon, who has the Wind element, and Nived Harem, a young man that was forced into the game by his younger brother, Alexi, after he came out of the game in a brainwashed state. Nived has the Psychic element. They also come across Suguha, who had managed to escape her captors after being brought into the game and has decided to go by Lyfa once again and has the Grass element. In addition, Yui appears as a guide for Kirito and Asuna, although she's abducted at one point. During the adventure, there are times when Asuna feels sick, although we don't know the reason why.

Much later, as Kirito, Asuna, and the others manage to reach King Marius's castle and make it inside, Asuna is suddenly teleported away from the others and appears in the throne room of the castle, where she sees King Marius, from behind, who has long blonde hair, a large crown on his head, and wears long, mauve robes. Upon Asuna demanding that he show himself to her, King Marius decides to do just that, turning himself around to reveal himself to be Sugou Nobuyuki!

While Kirito and the others are battling brainwashed players as they make their way through the castle, Asuna is shocked to discover that King Marius, the one responsible for everything bad that's been happening in Magic Realm Online, is also the one who tormented her and Kirito! Asuna asks Sugou just how was he able to do all of this, seeing as he was arrested after the events of Alfheim Online. Sugou explains that he was able to get off thanks to "Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!" and after Magic Realm Online began, he managed to get into the game himself and eventually hacked it to his favor, by preventing other players from logging out and enabling himself to control others in the game. He would then release some players in a brainwashed state in order to get other people and force them into the game as well. Most such people would then be taken to a warehouse where he stocked NerveGear units and would put them into the game.

Disgusted at what Sugou's doing, Asuna asks him why he's doing all this, and he explains that he'll let everyone in the game go if she agrees to one condition, for her to be his queen. Asuna is appalled that Sugou is doing all of this to make her his and says that she refuses. However, Sugou has a curtain behind him open to reveal Asuna's family and Yui, all bound to gilded chairs! Angrier at him than she's ever been, Asuna is even more sickened that Sugou has gone as far as to kidnap her family in order to force her hand, but Sugou threatens to kill her family in front of her if she refuses his offer and to show her that he's serious, he starts blasting them with black lightning (kind of like Force Lightning), which reveals that his element is both Electric and Dark, which he hacked himself to be able to wield.

As Asuna watches her parents, brother, and Yui scream in pain, Sugou tells her that he'll only stop if she agrees to be his queen. As his attack on her family continues, he also promises that not only will her family be released, but so will Kirito and their friends, and everyone else that's in the game. All she has to do is say yes. Seeing how much pain her parents and brother are in, Asuna goes onto her knees in tears saying that she accepts, just for him to let them and Kirito go like he says he will and not hurt them anymore.

Sugou, pleased that Asuna has just said that she'll be his queen, stops his attack on her family and comes up to her, telling her that she'll get used to living in Magicana, as who needs the real world anymore. As he continues talking, Sugou senses something with Asuna (somehow) and after putting his hand on her stomach, he's shocked to discover that Asuna's pregnant, and with Kirito's child! Outraged that she's carrying Kirito's child, Sugou pushes Asuna to the ground and yells out that she is "soiled", "worthless", and pregnant with that "whelp's" seed. In his rage, Sugou starts doing some sort of levitating force choke on Asuna, lifting her up into the air, and proclaims that his promise to her is now void, seeing that she's now useless to him, and that instead, he'll make her watch as her family dies one by one, then when Kirito reaches them, he make him watch her die before ending Kirito's life as well!

Kirito and the others manage to make it into the throne room a couple seconds later, with Sugou furious with him. Before Kirito can react, Sugou sends a blast of dark lightning his way, which Kirito dodges, but then Sugou brings Asuna towards him and reveals on his left wrist to be an item called the Corsican Bracelet, and applies its effect to Asuna, meaning if that if anyone lands a blow on him, it will instead be Asuna who feels it, but that it doesn't work the other way around, telling everyone that any blow dealt to Asuna will still affect her. Having pretty much lost it, Sugou says that if Kirito and the others just stand there and do nothing, then he'll just hurt Asuna himself, and pulls out a dagger that he starts stabbing himself with repeatedly, but due to the Corsican Bracelet, Asuna feels each blow. During all of this, Sugou tells Kirito that not only will Asuna die, but so will her unborn child, and says that Kirito's spawn doesn't deserve to live. Shocked and amazed at the fact that Asuna is carrying his child, Kirito is even more determined to save her.

While Kirito and Sugou are having a (one-sided) battle, Nived starts freeing Asuna's family. Eventually, Kirito manages to create a sharp shard of ice and sends it right at Sugou's wrist, breaking the Corsican Bracelet and freeing Asuna from its effects. Sugou then throws Asuna to the ground and creates a wave of dark lightning that knocks Kirito and the others to the ground. He then pulls out a sword and yells out to Kirito to say goodbye to Asuna, beginning to send the blade in her direction. While this is going on, Asuna's brother, who has just been freed, grabs Nived's weapon and rushes towards Sugou with it with the intent of saving his sister from him. However, right when he reaches Sugou, Sugou turns around and impales him with the sword. Asuna screams as she sees her brother having just been mortally wounded by Sugou. Asuna's brother, barely alive, tells Sugou that he never liked the fact that he was engaged to his sister and knew he was trouble from the beginning. Sugou responds that he never liked him either and that he'll do the favor of ending his life, making dark electricity surge through the blade as he then turns it, ending Asuna's brother's life.

Sugou then goes One-Winged Angel, sprouting devilish wings and grabs Asuna, telling Kirito that if he or anyone else follows him, not only will Asuna die, but also anyone else he comes across, then flies through a large window. Nived tells Kirito that they can't let Sugou win since everyone's still trapped in the game. Meanwhile, Sugou takes Asuna to the top of a massive spire at the edge of Magicana and reveals to her that he wish he could have hypnotized her and the others to make things easier, but the brainwashing doesn't work on anyone strong-willed such as her and Kirito, so he had to play things dirtier and reveals that the reason he kidnapped her family and Lyfa was because he knew that she and Kirito would enter the game to save their family members. He reveals that he really was going to keep his promise of letting her family and Kirito go if she agreed to be his, but that her being pregnant ruined all that and now she's of no worth to him. Sugou tells Asuna that she'll die anyway, but that he'll spare Kirito and her family as he won't be letting anyone out of Magic Realm Online ever, and that Kirito will suffer with the fact that who he loves and his unborn child will be dead.

Suddenly, a barrage of psychic-guided arrows, courtesy of Nived and Lyfa, fly straight into Sugou, who can't dodge them due to their homing nature. At this point, Kirito and the others reach the spire and he gets Asuna away from Sugou, with both of them ready to take him on, who proclaims that if they fight together, then they'll die together! With that, a climatic final battle occurs, with Kirito and Asuna at the front and Nived and Lyfa also assisting. Eventually, Sugou is felled and is covered in dark electricity.

After he falls to the ground, a void appears under Sugou and starts sucking him in. He says that if he's going down, he's taking Asuna with him, and extends his right arm, which becomes shadow-like, into Asuna's stomach, causing her to be covered in the same dark electricity and for her to start screaming! Sugou says that while he's finished, Kirito will be forever trapped in Magicana and that he'll have to live with the misery of losing both Asuna and their unborn child. However, Asuna's father, now having personally seen Sugou for the monster he is, and carrying the weapon that Asuna's brother had, says "You took my son. I won't let you take my daughter, too!" With that, he sends the blade through Sugou's arm, cutting it off from his body, with the arm dissipating and freeing Asuna. As he starts to get sucked into the void, Sugou makes one final threat; if he ever finds a way out of Magic Realm Online, he will not only kill Kirito and Asuna, but also every member of both their families! He vows that if given the chance, he'll make sure that the Kazuto and Yuuki families will be wiped out! With that, Sugou is sucked into the void, which disappears.

With Sugou gone, everything that he did to Magic Realm Online becomes undone, with everyone that's still alive in the game now able to leave. Asuna's father comes up to Kirito and Asuna and tells them he was such a fool for having set up Asuna with Sugou and wishes he could take it all back, even moreso due to his son being dead because of Sugou's actions. However, he sees that Kirito, or Kirigaya as he addresses him, loves Asuna and as long as he's good to her that's all that matters. He also knows that Asuna is pregnant with Kirigaya's child, and while he is a little disappointed with them for that, he knows that it can't be helped. Now that everyone's freed from the game, Kirito and the others exit.

After the Magic Realm Online crisis is over, the game is shut down indefinitely in order to make improvements with it, and also to prevent anyone else from doing what Sugou did. People that were kidnapped and taken to the warehouse owned by Sugou are shown to be released while the NerveGear units there are seized by police. Speaking of Sugou, it turns out that he's still alive, but is now stuck within the game's code and is unable to actually register in the game, meaning he doesn't appear in it, but is still in the game, unable to get out. In the real world, he has been taken to a mental institution, where he is in a vegetative state with no way of removing the NerveGear helmet from him without killing him for the time being.

Not long after the ordeal has ended, Kirito, going back to being called Kirigaya, attends Asuna's brother's funeral along with Asuna's parents. As a couple months pass, Kirigaya and Asuna start planning their wedding, which they moved up a bit due to Asuna' pregnancy. One night, Asuna is walking through her family's mansion when she finds her parents dead on the floor. Shocked, she continues down the hall where she comes across Suguha, also dead, and also Nived's and Sinon's bodies. She eventually reaches a room where she finds someone standing over Kirigaya's dead body, and that someone is Sugou, who pulls out a sword and swings it at Asuna, who screams loudly!

Suddenly, Asuna wakes up, as it turns out what she experienced was a nightmare. Kirigaya comes to her and she goes into his arms crying, telling him of her nightmare and that she's afraid of what Sugou last said to them, that he would kill them and their families if he ever got out of Magic Realm Online. Kirigaya tells Asuna that Sugou is locked up, so even if they did manage to get him out of the game, he's being watched at all times and that they have no plans to release him. Kirigaya tells Asuna that she's safe and that their wedding is tomorrow, so she has nothing to worry about.

The next day, Kirigaya and Asuna's wedding commences, with Asuna being 3 to 4 months pregnant. After they say their vows and become husband and wife, the two of them look towards the future, with Kirigaya putting his hand on Asuna's stomach, knowing what the future has in store for them.