MALONES
I told you how we were stuck in this video game where you couldn't log out unless you beat all 100 floors, or died.
On floor 75, we fought this boss that decimated 14 of our best players in one fight. We won, but it was obvious that our chances of making it through another 25 floors was going to be... difficult.
The head of the Knights of the Blood Oath (Asuna's and reluctantly my guild) turned out to be the guy who trapped us all in the game and I figured it out while we were all in that room trying to recover from the boss fight. He offered me a reward for figuring it out: I could fight him right then and there and, if I won, the game would be over and we could all wake up. I had to do it, you know? So many people had died already in the two years we'd been trapped and I was being given the chance to save those who remained. To save Asuna.
He'd paralyzed everyone else in that room so it was truly just the two of us and I fought him with every skill I could muster. He was better, though. Faster. He was going to kill me. But then, without any warning, Asuna fought off the paralysis and jumped in front of me, taking the killing blow. And then she was gone. A million crystals dissolving into nothingness. She died right there in my arms.
She died because of me, because I wasn't strong enough to protect her, because I didn't see her coming, because I didn't listen to her when she asked me not to take the challenge.
I killed him, in the end. With her sword. And his sword through me. I died to save her, but she was already dead. And I can't look at Eve without seeing Asuna's face as she broke apart.