Asuna befriends a girl named Yuuki Konno, leader of the Sleeping Knights, who asks Asuna to join them in one last quest together. 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. 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' Asada 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.
The episodes are each 23 minutes in length and adapts Kawahara's light novels from the fifth through the seventh volumes as well as parts of the eighth volume. It is divided into the story arc 'Phantom Bullet' which adapts volume 5 and 6 and in the Side Stories 'Calibur' and 'Mother's Rosario' which are respectively adapted from volume 7 and 8 of the light novel. It was produced by A-1 Pictures, and directed by Tomohiko Itō. The second season of Sword Art Online, titled Sword Art Online II, is an anime series adapted from the light novel series of the same title written by Reki Kawahara and illustrated by Abec.
