Firaz coughed violently, blood spilling from his mouth.
He dropped to one knee, one hand still gripping the hilt of his sword as if letting go would erase what little strength he had left. His other hand pressed tightly against the stab wound in his abdomen, but it was useless. Blood continued to pour out between his fingers.
For a brief moment, he lifted his gaze.
Around him, the bodies of his fallen companions shattered one by one, breaking apart into polygonal fragments before dissolving into the air.
Don.
Furdun.
Kiki.
Luna.
Winy.
All of them had died resisting the assault of the killers from Laughing Coffin.
"So you're still alive," said one of the assassins clad in a black hood.
He stepped closer to Firaz's kneeling form and rested the edge of his sword against Firaz's neck.
Firaz slowly looked up at him. His eyes were bloodshot, tears mixing with rage.
"Then just kill me now!" he screamed, his voice echoing throughout Ravenswalt Forest.
The hooded man laughed softly.
"Don't blame me for your death, or your friends'," he said. "It's the law of nature. The weak are devoured by the strong."
Firaz glared at him, fury burning in his eyes.
"Why?" he growled. "What reason do you have for killing us?"
"We from Laughing Coffin don't need a reason to kill," the man replied casually.
"If you want one, you can think of it as us doing it for fun."
Something inside Firaz snapped.
Suppressing the boiling anger in his chest, he gathered what little strength he had left, forcing his body to rise and fight once more.
But before he could stand, the hooded man slammed his foot into Firaz's chest.
The impact sent Firaz crashing onto his back. His sword slipped from his grasp and clattered away. Blood burst from his mouth as his HP bar plummeted, dropping to barely ten percent.
Another hit like that, and his fate would be no different from the others.
"Still trying to fight?" the hooded man mocked.
Laughter erupted from the other players standing nearby. They did nothing. They simply watched as Firaz was toyed with.
The hooded man stepped forward and planted his foot firmly on Firaz's chest. He drew his sword and positioned its tip against Firaz's throat.
"Before you die," he said with a twisted grin,
"I want you to know who killed you. I am Prince of Hell. The one who will change this game's world."
With that, he thrust his blade forward.
Firaz screamed in agony.
Even though this was not the real world, the pain was real. Sword Art Online's system was directly linked to the player's nervous system, forcing every sense to function as if it were reality itself.
His body grew weaker.
His HP bar drained rapidly.
Until it reached zero.
Firaz slowly closed his eyes.
His life ended there, within the virtual world of Sword Art Online.
He became one of the many players who perished after surviving for an entire year inside the death game.