Two months after Kirito cleared the game of Sword Art Online, most of the survivors managed to log out, but 300 of them are still trapped in their NerveGear. Asuna is one of them. Kirito visited her hospital room where he learned that she is to be wedded off to a man named Sugou Nobuyuki — a perverted predator after Asuna’s body. Kirito returned home feeling helpless until his friend Agil sent him a picture of Asuna taken from inside a game called Alfheim Online, at the top of a place called the World Tree.

Little does Kirito know that Asuna is being held captive by none other than Sugou himself, who has assumed the role of Fairy King Oberon in Alfheim Online. Sugou revealed to Asuna that he is using the 300 survivors who haven’t woken up yet in a dangerous mind-control experiment.

Kirito enters Alfheim Online and meets a player called Leafa, who promises to take him to the World Tree. What Kirito doesn’t know is that the true identity of Leafa is none other then his sister/cousin, Suguha. Will Sugu be able to guide her brother to the Word Tree? Let’s find out now!

The Girl Who Dreamed of Flying

Episode 18 begins with Sugu lying in her bed, remembering the reason why she started playing VRMMO games. At first, virtual reality was something awful that took her brother away, but then she wanted to know the world her brother loved so much with her own eyes. That’s when she discovered Alfheim Online, a place where she could fly for as long or as high as the system would allow.

After the opening sequence, we see Sugu leaving school after kendo practice when a boy appears from around the corner.

“Leafa-chan,” he calls.

“I told you not to call me that at school, Nagata-kun!”

“Sorry, Suguha-chan.”

Still not satisfied with his manner of address, Suguha reaches for her sword.

“Sorry, Kirigaya-san!”

Nagata, who is Recon in Alfheim Online, tells Sugu that Sigurd, the leader of their guild, is wanting them to go hunting together. Sugu declines and says she’s heading to Arun, the town at the base of the World Tree. Nagata asks if Sugu is going with that shady Spriggan and says it might not be best to be alone with him at night.

“Don’t get any wrong ideas,” shouts Sugu, as she jabs her holster into Nagata’s chest.

Sugu heads home and boots up her Amusphere. She enters Alfheim Online and, as planned, meets Kirito in the cafe. Kirito says he needs some new weapons, so they stop at a local shop to buy some. Kirito buys a sword…a large sword. In fact, some might consider it to be a raw heap of iron.

Within the town of Sylvein are several tall towers. These are designed to give Sylveins extra altitude when they begin long-distance journeys. Leafa and Kirito enter the base of one of these towers when Sigurd, the leader of Leafa’s guild, confronts them.

“You’re leaving the party, Leafa?” asks Sigurd, “Don’t you understand how that will inconvenience the other members?”

“You promised I could join only when I had time,” responds Leafa, “and that I could leave whenever I wanted.”

“But you’re already a well-known member of out party,” continues Sigurd, “If you leave without a reason, it will damage our reputation.”

“Your party members aren’t items,” interjects Kirito, “You can’t keep other players equipped all the time as if they were your armor or sword.”

“You’re just another Spriggan who likes to rummage through trash!” says Sigurd to Kirito, “You’re probably a renegade who was kicked out of his own territory.”

Sigurd draws his sword and threatens to kill Kirito. By the rules of Alfheim Online, Kirito can’t attack Sigurd because he is in his home territory. One of Sigurd’s companions warns him of how he will look to the surrounding bystanders if he attacks someone who can’t fight back. Sigurd sheathes his sword and warns Leafa not to betray him, or she will regret it. Leafa apologizes to Kirito for getting him involved in that little skirmish and pushes him up to the top of tower.

The Journey to Arun

From the top of the tower, Kirito and Leafa look out over the vastness of the sky and the land surrounding Sylvein. Recon appears behind them and asks why Leafa didn’t let him know she was leaving. He offers his help, but Leafa rejects it. Then, Kirito and Leafa head out for Arun.

Alright, so here is where I feel like this arc starts to take a nose-dive. Until this point, we have had some decent character development and world building, but for the next two and a half episodes, I feel like we get mostly pointless plot-packing. I haven’t read the Fairy Dance books, but I learned from a YouTuber called Mother’s Basement that Episode 20 is where the first book ends. Thus, these next few episodes are supposed to lead up to some sort of mid-arc finale. I don’t think these episodes are really necessary for the overall plot of the Fairy Dance arc. That said, I still want to cover at least the gist of what happens without being too brief or lengthy. So, here we go! (Wish me luck!)

As Kirito and Leafa fly out of Sylvein, Yui mentions that Recon seems to like Leafa, but that causes her to blush and fly faster.

Meanwhile, at the top of the World Tree, Sugou is stroking Asuna’s shoulder and complaining that she isn’t giving him what he wants.

“It’s just a fake body,” taunts Sugou, “It won’t hurt anything.”

“It doesn’t matter whether your body is real or virtual,” rebukes Asuna.

Sugou mentions that he met Kirito in Asuna’s hospital room.

“While you lay there, I’d told him I’d be marrying you next week,” says Sugou, “and the look on his face…it was splendid!”

Asuna is just happy to hear that Kirito is alive.

As Sugou exits the cage, he turns around to make sure Asuna isn’t watching, then he types in the key code. What he doesn’t realize is that Asuna is looking into a mirror, and the mirror isn’t programmed to reflect mosaics.

“8…11…3…2…9,” repeats Asuna. (Ok, that’s important to the plot.)

Now we go back to Kirito and Leafa fighting a horde of flying lizards in the forest. Leafa realizes their flight limit is about to expire, so they decide to rest for a bit. She points to a mountain range in the distance and says it goes past the altitude limit. They can’t go over it, so they will have to go through it.

Leafa and Kirito take turns logging out and back in. Kirito says he ate a sandwich that his family left out for him, but Leafa also left a sandwich out for her brother and doesn’t put 2 and 2 together.

As they prepare to take off again, Kirito senses something nearby. Yui says she doesn’t detect any players. Leafa explains they might have a tracer on them. A tracer is a kind of magic that takes the form of a small animal or insect and tells the caster the target’s position. If the caster’s magic skill is high enough, the target can be further away.

Kirito assumes it must just be his imagination (because that’s the smart thing to do), so they take off. Right afterwards, an army of about 10 players appears out of the bushes. And that’s where Episode 18 ends.

Battle on the Bridge

Episode 19 begins with Kirito and Leafa traveling through the caves of the mountain range. Kirito casts a night vision spell so they can see better. Leafa tries to give Kirito a tip on how to memorize spells, but Kirito complains that learning spells is too much like learning English.

Suddenly, Leafa gets a message from Recon that reads, “I was right. Be careful. S.” but she doesn’t know what that means. As it turns out, Kirito was right to be concerned about someone following them, because Yui detects 12 players approaching. Leafa shoves Kirito against the wall and uses an illusion spell to hide them both. Kirito senses a bat approaching. Leafa realizes that kind of tracer can see through their barrier. She jumps out of their hiding place and shoots it down, then she tells Kirito to run. Leafa explains that since the tracer was a fire type, that means the players following them are Salamders, and since they shot it down, they now know their location.

Leafa and Kirito run towards Lugru, a city surrounded by a lake deep within the caves. Again, even in an episode as pointless as this one, the majestic and grandiose appearance of the locations they visit make it all worth watching again. Leafa and Kirito run across a bridge towards the city’s entrance, the players behind them cast a spell that puts a stonewall in front of the gate. They have no choice now but to fight.

Leafa draws her sword, but Kirito asks if she can stay behind and heal him. That way, he can just focus on fighting harder.

The enemies arrive. Three shielded guards are sent on the advance. Kirito charges and slashes his sword at them, but does little damage. The middle guard, composed of three mages cast a healing spell that restores the health of the shielded guards. From the back, four mages–including the captain–cast an explosion spell that causes Kirito’s HP to fall into the yellow zone. Leafa casts a healing spell that restores most of his HP. Kirito slashes his sword at the shields again, but the mages cast a healing spell in the same manner. The rear guard casts a horde of fireballs at Kirito that send him flying back a few feet. Leafa heals him again, but realizes he won’t be able to keep fighting for much longer.

“That’s enough, Kirito-kun,” calls Leafa, “If we lose, we’ll just have to fly a few more hours! Let’s give up.”

“No way!” shouts Kirito, “While I’m alive, I won’t let any party members die. I will never let that happen!”

(He definitely still has PTSD from losing Sachi.)

Kirito screaming-charges at the guards and tries to break through their shields with his bare hands. Yui flies onto Leafa’s shoulder and tells her to use all of her mana to block the next magic attack. Leafa does so, and prevents him from losing HP. Next, Kirito casts an illusion spell that transforms him into a giant demon-Minotaur monster. The captain orders his team not to break formation, but Kirito chomps, stomps, and swats at all of the Salamanders. Kirito is about to finish off the last one, but Leafa tells him to stop. She draws her sword and orders the last Salamander to explain who sent them. Kirito decides to play good cop and offers the player all of the items and money he just won from his battle in exchange for the information they want. Turns out, it works.

Recon-naissance

The Salamander that Kirito and Leafa left alive explains that he and a group of 12 players were sent to hunt down the two who defeated Kagemune. (This happened in Episodes 16 & 17.) The purpose was to stop them from interfering with ‘the plan,’ but not even he knows what that is. What he does know is that when he logged in this morning, he saw a huge number of Salamanders heading north. Leafa thinks they might be heading for the World Tree, but the Salamander says that’s not true because they are still saving up the money they need for that.

After giving the player the money they promised, Kirito and Leafa enter the town of Lugru. Kirito reminds Leafa about the message she received from her friend, so Leafa checks in on Recon’s status. I’m not exactly sure, but it seems like Leafa is able to tell that Recon is offline, so she decides to log out and check up on him. In the real world, Sugu notices she’s gotten a gazillion calls from Nagata, and right on cue, she gets another one.

“You finally picked up!” says Nagata, “Big trouble! Sigurd is coming after us. And not just that, they sold out Sakuya-san, the Sylph leader!”

I’m going to unleash my inner Cinema Sins and point out that since Sugu’s character is a Sylph, she would already know who the Sylph leader is, so there is no reason for Nagata to say this unless he is aware of the audience listening in on this conversation.

Sugu tells him to go back and explain from the beginning. Nagata reminds her that when they were fighting those Salamanders in the forest (back in Episode 16), Sigurd said he would act as a decoy, but normally he would make someone else do it. Seeing that was a bit out of his character, Nagata spent the whole day invisible and followed Sigurd to a back alley, where he also put on an invisibility cloak. Turns out, he was right to be suspicious, because he followed Sigurd deep into the sewers where he saw him meeting up with Salamanders. Eventually, Recon’s clumsiness led him to getting noticed, tranquilized, and captured.

Nagata continues to warn Sugu that the Salamanders are planning to attack a council where Sakuya will form an alliance with the Cat Sith (another tribe in Alfheim Online, not feline villains from Star Wars).

Leafa logs back in and tells Kirito she has to put the journey to the World Tree on hold. Kirito offers his assistance, so Leafa explains the situatuion to him on their way out of Lugru.

Kirito vs Eugene

Kirito and Leafa make their way out of the caves. They see the base of the World Tree, but their journey there will have to be put on hold. Leafa points to a mountain in the distance and says that’s where the council will be held. Kirito and Leafa fly as fast as they can to that mountain. (FYI: This is the beginning of Episode 20.)

Kirito and Leafa arrive at a place called Butterfly Valley, an area in Neutral Territory where this council is supposed to take place. Yui detects a group of 68 players ahead. They look down and see a swarm of red dots flying just above the trees. This is the army of Salamandars. Yui also detects 14 players up ahead. She points to a group of players sitting at a table at the top of a tall rock tower. This is the council.

The army of Salamanders manage to get there first. Their leader raises his arm, but before he can order an attack, Kirito descends in a puff of smoke. He tells everyone to put away their swords and asks to speak to their commander. The commander comes forward and asks what a Spriggan is doing here.

“My name is Kirito,” says Kirito, “I’m an ambassador for the Spriggan-Undine alliace. (Actually, he is not.) I can assume you desire a full-scale war with all four races, correct?”

Sakuya and the leader of the Cat Sith turn to Leafa, but she makes it clear she doesn’t know what he’s talking about.

Kirito continues his delegations, but the commander notices his horrible gear and calls his bluff about being an ambassador. The commander says if Kirito can withstand his assault for 30 seconds, he will believe him. Both players draw their swords and begin dueling. The two race leaders tell Leafa that the Salamandar’s Commander, named Eugene, has an insanely powerful sword, but of course, all this is said just to make the hero look cooler when he defeats him.

Eugene uses his sword to blind Kirito and move in for his first attack. Kirito tries to block, but his sword passes through Eugene’s. The Cat Sith leader explains that’s the work of the sword’s special Ethereal Shift effect. He gets sent flying and crashes into a cliff. Kirito returns and clashes his sword with Eugene’s. After a few more sword clashings, Kirito gets dealt a blow to the shoulder.

“That hurts,” says Kirito, “Hey, it’s been thirty seconds by now.”

“Sorry, but I’ve decided to kill you,” says Eugene.

They keep clashing swords. Eventually, Kirito casts a spell that creates a black puff of smoke that blinds Eugene and the council members. He takes this moment to grab Leafa’s sword. Kirito returns to the duel dual-wielding both swords. Kirito keeps slashing his swords at Eugene until he goes down in a fiery inferno.

Afterwards, Sakuya heals Eugene back to full health. Impressed by Kirito’s strength, the Salamander Commander decides to make peace with the council and departs with his army.

Sakuya turns to Leafa and Kirito and demands to know what that was all about. Leafa explains the whole thing, making sure to mention Sigurd’s betrayal. Sakuya summons a magic mirror and uses it to communicate with Sigurd, through which she formally banishes him from the Sylph territory.

After the call, Kirito admits he was bluffing about being an ambassador, wins the hearts of Leafa, Sakuya, and the Cat Sith leader, and donates all the money he won to the council. All in a day’s work. They also talk about the possibility of clearing the World Tree together. So, I guess this episode isn’t entirely pointless, it’s just not as memorable as the episodes from the Aincrad arc.

Meanwhile, at the top of the World Tree, Asuna uses the code she learned from Sugou to escape her birdcage and prepares to escape from Alfheim Online all together.

To Be Continued…

Thoughts

Whenever I think back to the Aincrad arc, I can always remember what happens in each episode, but for some reason, whenever I think back to the Fairy Dance arc, I can remember the events that happen, but not how each episode is broken down. Writing these reviews has helped me to conceptualize the order of events and how each episode is divided. I think this just goes to show how much more impactful the Aincrad arc is compared to the Alfheim arc.

These three episodes had a lot of really cool action scenes, but the story line and it’s relation to the overall plot is hard to understand. I feel like this arc is more about introducing us to a variety of characters and places instead of building on top of the themes and story beats from the previous arc.

Anyway, hopefully we can find the story again as we continue to review the Fairy Dance arc of Sword Art Online!