Sword Art Online Light Novel Volume 04

Fairy Dance (フェアリィ・ダンス) Part 2 is the 4th book in the Sword Art Online light novel series, published on April 10, 2010.

Summary
After thwarting the would-be ambush, Kirito and Leafa set out for Alne, towards the World Tree, only to be sidetracked by an event and ended up in the underworld, «Jötunheimr». With some help from an unlikely ally, they reached the city only to find that the way to the World Tree was locked. In the end, Kirito saved Asuna. Several months later, they, along with other Sword Art Online (SAO) players began attending a special school for SAO survivors, and playing ALfheim Online, but with a new feature added to the game, New Aincrad. Kirito vowed to complete all 100 floors as they all flew toward the castle.

Prologue
Looking high above you can see the land and the sky from the underworld «Jötunheimr»; introducing the undergrounds of the fairy world, a dark world of ice and snow, dominated by dreadful Evil-God-class monsters.

Chapter 5
After being seemingly eaten by the giant worm-class monster, Kirito and Leafa realized that they had fallen to the land of Jötunheimr, deep below Alfheim and the World Tree. After assessing their situation, Kirito and Leafa decided to find a way back to the surface world. They then noticed two evil-God-class monsters fighting each other, which confused them at first due to the fact that NPC monsters should not be able to fight among each other. As they watched the gigantic battle, they witnessed a «Humanoid-type» and a «Beast-type» evil-god-class monster fighting, with the former gaining the upper hand. Feeling pity, Leafa wanted to help the «Beast-type» monster, which looked like jellyfish with an elephant's head, from being bullied by the «Humanoid-type», to Kirito's surprise. After gaining the attention of the «Humanoid-type» monster, Kirito and Leafa led it a nearby frozen lake with Yui's direction. After approaching the frozen lake, the «Humanoid-type» monster broke the ice layer on top due to its massive size and weight and nearly drowned, but kept approaching Kirito and Leafa. With the «Beast-type» monster having recovered, it dived into the lake and finished off the «Humanoid-type» monster.

After the tiring event, Kirito and Leafa asked each other about their next course of action, when the «Beast-type» monster suddenly reappeared before them, but not out of hostility. Yui suggested that this "child" did not mean any harm to them. After realizing that it wanted to carry them on its shoulders, the «Beast-type» monster gently picked them up with its long nose and place them on its back. Upon approaching a large void, the «Beast-type» monster stopped moving. Surmising that the monster might be at the end of its journey, Kirito and Leafa decided to find the exit to the upper world, only to be suddenly interrupted by a group of Undine players hunting in the dungeon. After being forced aside so the group could kill the Evil-God-class monster, Leafa again felt pity for the creature as it had attempted to help them find a way out of Jötunheimr. Kirito then affirmed Leafa's feelings and decided to help the monster by attacking the hunting group. One by one, first targeting the mages in the back row, Kirito and Leafa managed to defeat 5 players before being overwhelmed by the hunting party, until suddenly the «Beast-type» monster let out a huge shout and it began to light up. Soon the water-based «Beast-type» monster sprouted wings and let out a high-class spell, Dispel Field. After overwhelming the hunting group, it returned to where Kirito and Leafa were and offered another ride, this time flying around Jötunheimr. Its flight path circled them around an inverted pyramid hanging from the ceiling of Jötunheimr, just below the World Tree roots. Kirito and Leafa then noticed a shining object; after seeing it, Leafa confirmed that it was the Legendary weapon know as «Holy Sword Excalibur». But since they figured that it would be impossible for the two of them to obtain it at the moment, they decided to keep its location a secret and come back for it another time. After leading them to spiral staircase, they bid farewell to their new friend «Tonkii» and proceeded up the staircase to Alne.

Chapter 6
After the long, tedious task of secretly memorizing the passcode to her cage, Asuna unlocked the door and attempted to escape from her imprisonment by Oberon. Upon exiting the golden cage and traveling down a path in the World Tree branches, she found herself in a secret laboratory where Sugou Nobuyuki and his subordinates performed their illegal experiments on the trapped minds of three hundred players, captured during the collapse of Sword Art Online.

Despite being careful and quiet as to avoid being noticed, she was caught right before she could escape through the system console in front of her. She struggled against her captors, but was soon brought back to the golden cage and placed under tighter security. She was, however, able to steal a silver key card from one of the subordinates. Since the passcode had been changed, she patiently rested until another opportunity arose.

Chapter 7
Back in the real world, Kazuto and Suguha spent the morning improving their relationship as siblings. Later, they both traveled to the medical institute to meet the sleeping Asuna; as Suguha watched her cousin Kazuto, she finally realized how she felt about him. After returning home, Suguha activated her AmuSphere and resumed her online life as the Sylph warrior Leafa.

Finding herself at an inn in Alfheim's capital city of «Alne», Leafa met with the Spriggan Kirito and they made their way to the World Tree. When they arrived in the central district, Yui told Kirito that she felt Asuna's presence, and in their excitement flew to try to meet with her. As the system would not allow them to pass a certain height, they were forced back. Asuna felt the voice of her daughter, however, and tossed them the silver key card she had stolen. After obtaining the key card, Kirito parted ways with Leafa and left with Yui for the gate that led into the World Tree.

Accepting the challenge of the guardians who protected the World Tree, Kirito fought his way towards the goal. With the odds against him, he was defeated and left in his End Frame, though was soon rescued and revived by Leafa. Ignoring Leafa’s warnings, Kirito was still persistent in continuing the impossible challenge and suddenly spoke Asuna’s name, leading to the discovery of each other's identities; the Spriggan Kirito as Kirigaya Kazuto and the Sylph warrior Leafa as Kirigaya Suguha.

After learning the truth, Suguha was heartbroken. She logged out of the game and isolated herself in her room. When Kazuto tried to confront her, she finally told him everything about how she felt towards him. She then closed the door between them and sat by herself. After contemplating on why he distanced himself from his adoptive family and how his time in Aincrad inspired him to reconcile with them, Kazuto told Suguha that he would be waiting for her in ALO.

Suguha returned to Alfheim, and while considering whether to meet her cousin, she met her old companion Recon, the game persona of her classmate Nagata. He helped Suguha make up her mind and she left to meet Kirito. Upon their meeting, Leafa asked Kirito for another duel, which ended in a tie as both dropped their weapons at the last moment. In the end, Kirito apologized to Leafa for the pain he had caused her.

Chapter 8
With the assistance of Leafa and Recon, Kirito re-challenged the guardians; during the difficult battle, Recon performed a self-destruct spell to open a hole for Kirito, a technique that ultimately failed. They were later joined by the Sylph Lord Sakuya and a group of Sylph players with ancient class weapons, as well as the Cait Sith Lord Alicia Rue and the Dragon Knights of the Cait Sith race. With their help, Kirito was able to make it to the top of the dome. Still followed by the guardian knights, Kirito quickly used the silver key card he obtained from Asuna. While holding onto Yui, they both teleported into the gate. After they landed, Yui returned to her state as a young girl, and Kirito followed her directions to the golden cage, where they finally reunited with Asuna.

Oberon interrupted the couple’s meeting, and used his power to immobilize Kirito and Asuna. Yui, however, was able to escape. After Oberon pinned Kirito to the ground with his sword and altered his pain receptors, he began molesting Asuna. When the situation was looking hopeless, Kirito received unexpected help from the voice of Kayaba Akihiko. After removing his sword that had restrained him, he accessed the system and logged in under Heathcliff's ID, gaining the power of a system administrator, lowering the Pain Absorber to the minimum and sealing Oberon from using his own administrator credentials. Wielding his black sword, Kirito challenged Oberon to a duel, which he easily won, slowly hacking Oberon into pieces until he disappeared. Afterward, Kirito finally freed Asuna from the game, and then spoke with a digital image of the former Kayaba. Kirito was then given the «World Seed» program before he left.

Kazuto met Suguha in his room when he returned to the real world and gave her his sincere gratitude. He quickly left on his bike into the snowy night and was on his way to meet Asuna. Upon arriving at the hospital, he was ambushed by Sugou in the parking lot. Using the experience he had acquired from the game, he disarmed Sugou of his knife and considered taking his life, but relented and instead chose to restrain him. After entering the medical institute, Kazuto told the receptionists about Sugou. Afterwards, Kazuto took one of the guest pass cards and reunited with Asuna, meeting her for the first time in the real world.

Chapter 9
Kazuto and Asuna were back together, and were having lunch outside of their school. Both attended the special school made for the student players who had been trapped in «SAO». However, the player killing «Red Players» were being treated in counselling and were under observation. Kazuto and Asuna talked about Asuna's father, Sugou's criminal sentence, the future of VRMMO games, and also about Kayaba Akihiko, whose death became known to the public in March of 2025. Kazuto had met with the female graduate student who had helped Akihiko: Koujiro Rinko, and learned about Akihiko's aim of scanning his brain and storing his memories and thoughts as digital codes on the network.

Watching the couple from afar, Shinozaki Rika (Lisbeth) and Ayano Keiko (Silica), were sitting near the windows on the west side of the cafeteria. Once Kazuto had told Rika about the «ALO incident» and what had happened to Asuna, she and Keiko formed an alliance with a «One Month Truce» to allow Kazuto and Asuna to spend time together, which Rika regretted agreeing to.

Along with Asuna and Suguha, Kazuto attended a party at the «Dicey Cafe», which had been reserved for the offline meeting of the «Aincrad Capture Commemorative Party»; planned by Kazuto, Rika and Andrew (Agil). Watching the occupied table of Asuna, Rika, Silica, Sasha, Yulier, Suguha and the other female players, Kazuto met up with Ryoutarou (Klein), and Thinker, who was now married to Yulier.

With the help of Akihiko's female assistant Rinko, as well as Yui and Andrew, Kazuto had uploaded the «World Seed» program, called «The Seed», to public servers, allowing anyone with a sufficient server to download the free package and design a new VR game world to match their preferences. In addition, «The Seed» program could also be used for education, communication, tourism, and so on.

Afterward, there was a second party in Alfheim; the game «ALfheim Online» was now back, operating under a new company. Deciding that the role of the «SAO» Kirito was finished, Kirito started a fresh new version of the «Spriggan» Kirito by resetting his stats. To Leafa's surprise, when her cousin led her to the meeting place of all their friends, there was a new addition to the game: the rebirth of the floating castle «Aincrad».

Adaptation Notes

 * The Jötunheimr part originally did not exist in the web version of the novel and was added to the light novel when it got published, but was then omitted from all other multimedia adaptions of the arc.
 * There were slight changes to Kazuto and Suguha's argument and Kazuto's inner monologue after the argument, as he did not know of actually being Suguha's cousin in the web version of the novel.

Error

 * On page 8, although there are clearly nine races on the map, the description below says there are eight races.
 * The illustrations of Leafa depict her as having golden hair, while a line in chapter 8 references it as being green.

Navigation
Volumen 4 Sword Art Online (Ранобе, Том 4)