Sword Art Online: Season 1

Inside an unknown VR environment, Kirito spends his days as a child with his friends Eugeo and Alice. The three get lost in a cave in the outskirts of the Human Territory, ending up at the boundary of the Dark Territory. Alice trips and falls with her hand accidentally touching the Dark Territory. For this violation, she is sentenced to execution by the Integrity Knights. Kirito attempts to stop Alice from being taken away, while Eugeo stands motionless. Soon after, Kirito awakens in the real wo

Kirito awakens back in Underworld, but he does not remember how he got there. He encounters Eugeo, but they have no memories of each other. After helping Eugeo with his daily task of chopping the Demon Tree, Kirito is taken to Eugeo's village, where he discovers that he can activate his sword skills from back in SAO. After finding shelter at the local church, Kirito decides that he must learn more about his circumstances before looking for a way to return to the real world.

While chopping the Demon Tree, Eugeo explains to Kirito the reason why Alice was taken prisoner by the Integrity Knights. He also reveals the sword he retrieved from the End Mountains, and they attempt to cut the tree with it, but they discover that their skill levels are not yet high enough to use it. Later at night, Kirito has a conversation with Selka, Alice's younger sister, and reveals to her what he heard about Alice from Eugeo. The next day, Selka disappears and both Kirito and Eugeo real

Kirito helps Eugeo regain his composure and they fight the goblins together. While facing the goblin leader, Eugeo is gravely wounded and both he and Kirito remember their past together. An enraged Kirito kills the goblin leader and convinces the others to retreat. After the battle, Kirito frees Selka and she uses her magic to transfer a part of Kirito's energy to Eugeo in order to save his life. During the transfer, Kirito has a vision of an unknown woman who tells him that she is waiting for h

After being poisoned by Johnny Black, Kirito is taken to a hospital. After treating him, the doctors inform Asuna and Kirito's family that he is stable, but unconscious, and it is unknown when, or if, he will ever wake up. Kikuoka then approaches them, offering to transfer Kirito to a better facility, but when Asuna and Suguha pay a visit to him there, they are prevented from seeing him. With help from Yui and the rest of her friends, Asuna tracks down Kirito all the way to the port, and discove

Kikuoka explains to Asuna and Rinko that Kirito's brain was severely damaged from the attack and they are using the STL technology to restore it. He also reveals that the main focus of the Underworld experiment is to create a new, more advanced form of artificial intelligence. Despite the experiment having proven successful, they note that by establishing the Church of Axiom inside Underworld, the AIs have managed to completely eliminate all kind of transgressions, including murder, from their c

Two years later, Kirito and Eugeo are now trainees at the North Centoria Imperial Sword Mastery Academy. The duo reflects on how they won in a swordsmanship tournament at the northern town of Zakkaria, then afterwards gained the requirement to enroll themselves into the academy. Their plan is to graduate from the academy as top students and become Integrity Knights, allowing them access to Central Cathedral. Kirito spars with his mentor, Elite Swordswoman Sortiliena Serlut. Sortiliena laments th

Before the duel, Sortiliena warns Kirito that the secret of the Levinteinn family's power is imbuing their sword with the blood of their enemies, thus Volo's request for a match with real swords. During the duel, Kirito manages to increase the power of his sword and scratches Volo's shirt before the match is interrupted by one of the instructors and declared a draw. Later at night, Kirito discovers that the zephyr flowers he was growing were destroyed by two classmates with a grudge against him.

Eugeo and Kirito are now elite students of the academy. Humbert Zizek, Second seat among the elite students, challenges Eugeo to a duel which ends in a draw. Some days later, Kirito and Eugeo have a picnic with their pages, Ronye Arabel and Tiese Shtolienen. Ronye and Tiese reveal that a fellow student, Humbert's page Frenica Szeski, is being abused by Humbert. Kirito and Eugeo confront Humbert and his classmate, Raios Antinous, who do not deny the accusations, but claim that they did not violat

Eugeo and Kirito realize that their pages are missing and Kirito leaves to look for them. Soon after, Frenica approaches Eugeo and informs him that the pages intend to confront Humbert for her sake, to stop his abuse of her. Eugeo storms Raios and Humbert's room, where he finds Ronye and Tiese gagged and tied up on a bed. Knowing that the taboo code prevents Eugeo from interfering, Raios and Humbert prepare to rape the girls in front of him, until Eugeo decides to violate the code and cuts off H

Eugeo is certain that the knight in front of them is Alice, but she does not recognize him or Kirito and takes them into custody. Kirito and Eugeo break out from the prison using their high object control authority and proceed to the Central Cathedral, but Alice, having predicted their move, sends another Integrity Knight to intercept them. In the real world, Asuna is introduced to the first prototype of an AI robot that is being developed at the Ocean Turtle.

Eugeo and Kirito face off against an Integrity Knight named Eldrie after they run away from prison. Kirito and Eldrie start fighting but soon it is revealed that Eldrie has a Divine Weapon. Eugeo remembers who Eldrie really is; when Eugeo starts listing off different things the Knight has done, Eldrie starts screaming, saying that he has no such recollection of those memories. He then falls to the ground, and an unknown purple crystal emerges from his forehead. When Eugeo tells Eldrie his mother

A flashback occurs to when the Administrator is losing her own memory space, and so gets a child to link their memory. But this was a fatal mistake of the Administrator, because this means the child gets the same authority and power. This comes to the attention of the child (which is now to be revealed as the cardinal of the great library) and so, she attacks the Administrator. She flees to the one out of two places the Administrator doesn't have authority over, the great library. She spends the

Back to the Cathedral, Kirito and Eugeo retrieve their swords, just before being attacked by Deusolbert, one of the Integrity Knights. After defeating the knight with Kirito's help, Eugeo recognizes him as the same knight who took Alice into custody eight years ago, and they discover that his memories prior to this event were erased by the administrator as well. Recognizing their prowess, Deusolbert reveals that multiple Integrity Knights are waiting for them at the Cathedral's 50th floor with o

The two girls introduce themselves as Linel and Fizel, two novices studying at the cathedral, but just as they approach Kirito and Eugeo, they stab them with poisoned daggers, revealing themselves as Integrity Knights. To prove their value to the other Knights, Linel and Fizel carry the immobilized Kirito and Eugeo all the way to the 50th floor, where Fanatio, vice-commander of the Integrity Knights, awaits them. Upon arriving there, Kirito, revealing that he saw through their scheme and had tak

With Eugeo's help, Kirito defeats Fanatio, leaving her critically wounded. To save her, Kirito uses one of the special daggers Cardinal entrusted to them, despite Cardinal's instruction to save the weapons for Alice and the Administrator. With Fanatio under Cardinal's care, the two take an elevator to the 80th floor, where Alice awaits them. Kirito confronts Alice to give Eugeo a chance to use the dagger on her, but amidst the battle, a hole is opened in the exterior wall and both Kirito and Ali

With Kirito and Alice dangling along the wall of the church, Alice reluctantly agrees to work with Kirito to climb up to floor 95 where they can re-enter. Kirito attempts to tell Alice about her true past and the truth about Administrator. After climbing up for a while, they encounter minions from Dark Territory who have been posing as statues along the higher levels. Kirito and Alice fight together to defeat them. Meanwhile, Eugeo proceeds up the church until he reaches a great bath on floor 90

Leafa is making enemies leaving her area and group to team up with Kirito. On their way to neutral Territory, they speak more of the rules and areas of the ALO.

As Kirito explains the truth of the Underworld to Alice, and the truth behind Administrator and the Integrity Knights, Alice is convinced that Kirito is telling the truth. With Alice now strongly suspicious of the Axiom Church, she vows to reject its authority, only to be stopped by the seal in her right eye. Alice struggles to finish her sentence, but by force of will manages to yell out the remainder of her sentence, causing her right eye to explode before she passes out. Meanwhile, Eugeo wake

Alice wakes up to find herself carried up to floor 95. Kirito initiates a tracking spell to locate Eugeo's sword, finding it in a frozen bath hall on floor 90, but Eugeo is nowhere to be seen. To Alice's horror, she finds Bercouli in a petrified state and begins to cry. Bercouli momentarily wakes up and praises Alice for her ability to break the seal in her eye and pushes her to move forward with Kirito. Both Alice and Kirito proceed towards floor 100, crossing into a forbidden room meant for th

With Alice watching, Kirito and Eugeo begin fighting with one another. During the fight Kirito tries to snap Eugeo out of his synthesized personality. Eventually during the fight, due to the synthesis ritual having been rushed and no memories removed, Eugeo manages to regain control of his mind. He freezes both Alice and Kirito with the Blue Rose Sword and heads up to kill Administrator. Eugeo, pretending to still be under the influence of the piety module, allows Administrator to put him in a d

Kirito, Alice, and Eugeo find themselves overwhelmed by the Genie until Kirito attacks Chudelkin directly. Chudelkin is swiftly defeated by Kirito after a sudden spike in his power through the incarnate arts, which temporarily changed his garments to those of his Aincrad days. This allows Administrator to understand Kirito is not from Underworld, but outside the virtual reality. After some conversation, Administrator summons a creature made of swords, which she calls Sword Golem. Kirito, Alice,

With the appearance of Cardinal, Administrator severs the outside link to the world and places floor 100 of the Axiom church into a dark void. Administrator explains that the source of all the divine swords that make up the Golem are from converted human units in the human empire, and the source of its life is the Piety module. Her plan to combat the Dark Territory is to create more Sword Golems from roughly half of the human empire's population. Cardinal proposes to make a deal with Administrat

Kirito, Asuna, and Yui are finally together again, but the locks placed on Asuna are unbreakable. Before they have a chance to come up with a plan, the fairy king makes his grand entrance.

A few months have passed since the fall of Administrator, and Alice, fearful for Kirito, who is in a catatonic state due to the energy surge in the Ocean Turtle sustained during the facility attack, takes him back to Rulid Village by riding Amayori, her dragon companion. However, because she is still deemed a criminal, she is not allowed to live within the village and decides to build a log cabin outside of Rulid, to settle in with Kirito. She looks after him every day, and is regularly visited