The first part of the book is admittedly a little bit slower, but it does a good job reintroducing the “player-killer” plot which Kirito became embroiled in during the second volume as he fought in a deadly duel against the mysterious player Morte. It’s been a lot of fun to see their feelings grow over the course of this series, and this volume is the most tangible yet in this department as we see them really beginning to acknowledge that they care about one another as they proceed into the ending boss battle. This was a really cool way to flesh out their perceptions of one another as well as their own inner motivations, and I thought this was a highlight of the continual and charming building of their relationship in this volume. Interestingly, we get to see this scene from Kirito’s perspective immediately afterward from his perspective, and we see that he was inches away from losing control in fearing for Asuna’s safety. The result is that she inadvertently causes him to get into a confrontation with a few dangerous players himself, and this highlights her general fear for him as well as her admiration for his calm and resolute action in the face of danger.
One of the most fascinating sequences which used this switch in perspective to flesh out both of these characters well was one following Asuna as she witnesses Kirito heading into a dungeon mysteriously in the middle of the night. I liked seeing this duality, and it really painted an interesting picture of these two teenagers mutually struggling with their own fears with regard to their slowly growing relationship. This is where the split in point of view ends up paying off because we get to see an interesting juxtaposition here between Asuna’s insecurities versus the pedestal that we see Kirito put her on when the perspective switches to him later on in the volume. However, we do get some interesting character development on her part as her feelings of inadequacy towards Kirito are fleshed out through both her inner monologue as well as in a fun little confrontation with Argo. Unfortunately, Asuna stars in the slower and more directionless part of the book that sees the two talking primarily of treasure while doing a bit of dungeon-crawling, and I thought that there were a few superfluous scenes such as the ones highlighting her fears of ghosts which led to this volume getting off to a slower and initially less interesting start. One of the most interesting parts of this series has been its emphasis on fleshing out both Kirito and Asuna’s respective personalities in good measure, and this volume continues this process by splitting itself in half – the first from Asuna’s perspective, and the second returning to Kirito’s point of view. After two volumes which saw Kirito and Asuna embarking upon a long in-game quest, this volume recentres the story upon their core existential predicament of trying to beat the game as they progress onto the fifth floor together.
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