—Tell me, Kirito... What should I do now?.. The victory over the High Priestess Administrator was not cheap: Eugeo died, Kirito fell into a coma. Six months have passed. Alice lives near the village of Rulid with Kirito, who just sits silently in a stroller and looks with empty eyes. Alice abandoned her duty as a knight of integrity and entrusted the protection of the human world to Bercouli, choosing a quiet life with the lost young man. Meanwhile, the final phase of the stress test, about which the Cardinal warned, is inexorably approaching the Underworld, and the human world begins to feel the ominous breath of Dark Territory. The terrible army of darkness is preparing to begin its campaign.