Escaping his nightmares, Kirito regains consciousness at last. With the Night-Sky Blade in his right hand and the broken Blue Rose Sword in his left, he faces off against Vassago, armed with the Mate-Chopper, now enormous in size.

The maximum-acceleration phase has begun. Alice successfully logs out of the Underworld, but Kirito doesn’t make it in time. In the real world, Higa and Kikuoka rush to shut down the STL, in order to disable the maximum-acceleration phase, but…

Rinko informs Kazuto that Alice is missing. He’s about to rush to the Rath Roppongi branch when the doorbell rings. In a panic, Kazuto throws open the door, only to find a deliveryman there with a huge cardboard box.