The story of the second season follows Kazuto Kirito Kirigaya as he plays the new virtual reality game called Gun Gale Online (GGO), where he allies himself with a girl named Shino Sinon Asado and enters a tournament to investigate a player known only as Death Gun, who has the ability to kill a person in the real world by killing their virtual avatar. Kirito and his friends return to ALfheim Online (ALO) to retrieve the Holy Sword Excaliber from Thrym, the King of the Frost Giants, in order to restore the city of Jötunheimr back to its former glory. Asuna befriends a girl named Yuuki Konno, leader of the Sleeping Knights, who asks Asuna to join them in one last quest together. However, Asuna later discovers that Yuuki is suffering from a terminal illness and does not have very long to live.