-434- The only way to survive

"────"

On the crimson battlefield, all sounds disappeared, leaving only silence.

Heathcliff stood amidst the scattered polygonal fragments, his hands raised in front of him in what seemed to be a reflexive attempt to block. He stared at Rozen, who had exploded before him, with a lingering look of shock on his face.

"Clang!"

At this moment, Heathcliff's cross-shaped sword finally fell to the ground, producing a clear ringing sound.

Only then did Heathcliff regain his senses, falling into silence. His HP, however, continued to decline due to Rozen's final blow. It eventually reached the bottom.

Evidently, Rozen's last strike had already been enough to deplete Heathcliff's remaining HP.

However, judging from the rate of decrease, Rozen immediately realized that his own HP would run out first. That's why he launched the attack recklessly, intending to use "Vorpal Strike" to finish Heathcliff directly.

Unfortunately, he still couldn't make it in time.

Just like in their first duel, Rozen's final decisive blow failed to land on Heathcliff due to the constraints of time.

This outcome...

"It's quite ironic..."

Heathcliff muttered self-deprecatingly, then closed his eyes, allowing his body to freeze into a blue hue.

"Bang!"

With a shattering sound, Heathcliff, like Rozen before him, turned into polygonal fragments and burst into pieces.

Inside the Ruby Palace at the pinnacle of Aincrad's Floating Castle, all signs of activity had finally ceased.

"──── 'You Are Dead' ────"

When this window appeared in Rozen's vision in the midst of total darkness, he knew that, in the end, he hadn't caught up.

It's not Rozen's first time and he had seen this window before.

During the closed beta test, whenever Rozen died, he would be plunged into darkness and see this window.

Back then, after a short time, he would automatically reappear in the 1st-floor Black Iron Palace, resurrected. Although he might lose some experience points and possibly some items or equipment, players could still be reborn in this world.

However, now that right had been taken away. In the world known as SAO, a true death game, every player lost that privilege.

When this window appeared, a few seconds later, their real-world brains would be fried into a crisp.

"It's quite ironic..."

In this situation, Rozen found himself having the same sentiment as Heathcliff.

"The first duel, I didn't make it in time for the duel timer."

"This time, the outcome of the deathmatch, I couldn't catch up with the HP gauge."

"Could it be that my final blow was destined to not land on Kayaba Akihiko?"

Rozen smiled bitterly.

In reality, Rozen had a high chance of winning this duel.

With the skill "Mind's Eye," he could see through all of the opponent's attacks and compensate for his own weaknesses.

Even against players with unique skills, he should have a good chance of winning. The evidence was that he usually had a higher chance of winning in duels against Kirito.

Even though Heathcliff might be stronger than Kirito, it wasn't by an overwhelming margin.

Now, with the enhanced precision and power of "Mind's Eye," Rozen's chances of winning against Heathcliff should be at least eighty percent.

But this time, it was the remaining twenty percent that materialized.

There were various reasons for this.

For example, Rozen's "Mind's Eye" deciphered Heathcliff's movements, but Rozen misjudged Heathcliff's tactics, thinking he was going to extend his hand to use the "Martial Arts." However, the result was that he grabbed Rozen's weapon barehanded.

Furthermore, in the situation where his weapon was caught, Rozen knew that Heathcliff was preparing to attack him.

He should have pulled away, but Heathcliff took the initiative to pull Rozen over, causing him to lose his balance.

Even with "Mind's Eye" foreseeing Heathcliff's attack, he still couldn't avoid the blow that pierced his body, sealing his fate.

For example, if Heathcliff's sword had not pierced through Rozen's body throughly, after Rozen had sent him flying with a punch, he could have pulled the sword out and stopped the continuous HP drain.

In that case, Heathcliff's HP would have undoubtedly run out, and Rozen could have endured and ultimately claimed victory.

Multiple reasons combined to prevent Rozen from delivering the final blow to Heathcliff.

This can't be attributed to Rozen's carelessness but rather the unpredictability of battle, where outcomes can change at any moment, and there's no such thing as an invulnerable victory. Rozen just had a stroke of bad luck, twice.

Is he unwilling to accept it? Surely, but now is not the time to dwell on that.

"Let's focus on how to escape this impending death,"

Rozen's brain raced in the dwindling seconds.

Although he had lost, it didn't mean he had to resign himself to death.

True, if he continued like this, his real-world body would undoubtedly perish, with his brain reduced to cinders.

But conversely...

"As long as it doesn't get fried, I won't die."

Was there a way?

Yes, there was – the "Miracle."

The ring worn by Rozen in the real world was the only way for him to escape this situation. Its effect was to open the door between worlds and not only encompassed otherworldly realms but also souls, the human body, and even the mind.

Of course, the virtual gaming world was also within its reach.

In other words, Rozen could use the power of the "Miracle" to open a door to the SAO world, allowing his trapped spirit in SAO to escape back to reality.

Even though Rozen's spirit was already separated from his real-world body, and any actions taken here wouldn't affect his real body, the "Miracle" was an exception.

As Roman had said before, "Perhaps the 'Miracle' is a symbiotic existence with your soul, which is why it cannot be removed, lost, or destroyed."

Because the "Miracle" was symbiotic with Rozen's soul, he could still use its power through consciousness while in this world.

If Rozen wished, he could leave this world and return to reality at any time.

The problem was that only Rozen could do this, and Kirito had to continue staying in this world.

Furthermore, Rozen had his own reasons for being in SAO, which is why he hadn't used the power of the "Miracle" to leave.

Also, Kayaba Akihiko had mentioned that if the external power supply was cut for more than ten minutes, the network was disconnected for more than two hours, an attempt was made to destroy the main unit of the NerveGear, or the locking mechanism was removed, the destruction program would activate, destroying the user's brain.

In this situation, even if Rozen used the power of the "Miracle" to return to reality, he would still die because the brain would be destroyed once the connection was severed.

However, if Rozen didn't use the power of the "Miracle" to return to reality but instead let his real-world body pass through the door to another world, then what?

At that moment, without Rozen's consent, the game helmet would naturally detach, posing no harm to him. This was the only way to save himself. However...

"Asuna... Yui... and Kirito..." Rozen struggled with this decision.