How does Sword Art Online Progressive: Scherzo of Deep Night end? From player killers to potential civil wars and some redemption, Sword Art Online Progressive 2’s story is packed with tension and titbits to enjoy. However, as swords swing about the screen and as in-game guild tensions kick off, let’s be honest, it can be tricky to keep track of Kirito and Asuna’s latest outing.
The anime movie Sword Art Online Progressive: Scherzo of Deep Night follows Asuna and Kirito’s struggle to keep the peace. After stumbling across a secret meeting between an underground group of ‘player killers’, our heroes discover that a plot to cause a civil war between Sword Art Online’s (SAO) top guilds has been put into place. To save their friends and SAO’s New Year’s celebration, Kirito and Asuna decide to face the boss on floor five and grab its loot – a precious guild flag – before any conflict can ensue.
From double-crossing, murderous conspiracies, and special attacks, there is a lot to keep track of in the new Sword Art Online Progressive movie. With that in mind, The Digital Fix is here to help piece everything together and clear up any confusion you may have. Here is the Sword Art Online Progressive: Scherzo of Deep Night ending explained in full, and all the details about the new movie that you may have missed.
What happens at the end of Sword Art Online Progressive: Scherzo of Deep Night?
Sword Art Online Progressive: Scherzo of Deep Night ends with Kirito, Asuna and their friends ultimately defeating the boss on floor five. The anime characters manage to kill off the big bad, once they realise that in order to defeat the giant golem boss, they need to hit its weak spot – a moving crest that can appear on any of its massive limbs.
Mito, who previously told Asuna that her raid days were over, makes a surprise appearance to save the day. Using the chain on her scythe, she manages to smack the moving crests, lowering the boss’s HP and rescuing Asuna from being crushed to death.
Mito has fully redeemed herself after leaving Asuna to die in the first animated movie, Sword Art Online Progressive: Aria of a Starless Night. So yeah, not only did the gang clear a level, but friendships were solidified once again!
Thanks to the raid’s success, Mito receives the guild flag in her inventory, which she then gives over to Kirito just before the members of the Aincrad Liberation Squad (ALS) Guild come storming in. Kirito tells them that they can have the flag under one of two conditions.
The first condition is that he will keep hold of it until another Guild flag drops so that both the ALS and the Dragon Knights Brigade (DKB) guild will be equal. The second condition is that they can have the guild flag immediately if they agree to combine it with DKB – creating one mega guild of the top players.
These conditions will make sure that no one guild will be heavily overpowered and will prevent any bloodshed overpower struggles in the future. ALS decide that they will never see eye to eye with DKB, so Kirito is left looking after the guild flag for now. This basically means that the ‘player killers’ plans were foiled, and despite some infiltrated murders trying to convince ALS to steal the guild flag from Kirito, the evildoers are left out in the cold.
Asuna and Kirito decided to then celebrate the end of 2022 at the New Year’s celebration with the rest of the SAO players. However, their peaceful moment is cut short after they are threatened by a player killer who belonged to the mysterious group they encountered earlier in the adventure movie, back in the catacombs.
The deadly group are understandably annoyed that their hard work on infiltrating the guilds and setting up a potential guild civil war fell threw and are after Kirito’s boss battle loot. Thanks to one of their infiltrated members in the ALS, they know that the guild flag is still in Kirito’s inventory, and plan to set their plans back on track by retrieving it…through any means necessary.
The aggressor informs Asuna and Kirito that they are no longer in a safe zone and that his dagger pressed against Asuna’s back is dipped in level-five poison. The hooded baddie then tells our heroes to follow him if they want to live. Asuna calls the mysterious man’s bluff, realising that they are still in a safe zone and that the threat is a ploy to get them into a more vulnerable position.
Since Mito gave her a pendant, which gives her a poison-resistant buff, Asuna takes her chance and escapes from the anime villain. However, before she and Kirito can catch him and question their assailant, he vanishes.
So there you have it. Sword Art Online Progressive: Scherzo of Deep Night ends with a mystery. A new group of murderers are still looking to cause chaos among the guilds; they are after the guild flag and are being led by a potential new big bad. There is plenty to look forward to, to say the least!
Is Laughing Coffin in Sword Art Online Progressive: Scherzo of Deep Night?
While it is never fully confirmed, we are pretty sure that Laughing Coffin appeared in Sword Art Online Progressive: Scherzo of Deep Night. If you are a fan of the original Sword Art Online anime series, a group of player killers may sound pretty familiar.
Laughing Coffin is the famous murder guild in the Sword Art Online World, and it is pretty safe to say that they are likely the crew causing all this chaos in Sword Art Online Progressive 2. In Sword Art Online canon, the murder guild only made themselves known on New Year’s Eve in 2023. However, even before 2024 kicked off, the group was working as an underground organisation before committing SAO’s first reported Player inflicted murders.
With this timeframe in mind, Laughing Coffin is active during the latest Progressive movie, and in a year’s time from the events of Sword Art Online Progressive: Scherzo of Deep Night, the guild will be going public. Seems to line up if you ask me!
If our suspicions are correct, that would mean that the mysterious leader of the player killer group is, most likely, Vassago Casals (aka PoH). PoH is the leader of Laughing Coffin in Sword Art Online and was part of a Korean crime syndicate. He is also one of the few people who logged into the game after it became known as a death game, in order to assassinate a target.
Will there be a Sword Art Online Progressive 3 movie?
There is little to no doubt that a third Sword Art Online Progressive movie will be heading our way after the events of Sword Art Online Progressive: Scherzo of Deep Night. However, no official announcement for Sword Art Online Progressive 3 has been revealed yet.
Still, it is only a matter of time before we get word on a new fantasy movie. Obviously, there is the fact that everyone still needs to escape the game world which means we will be heading back to Sword Art Online. In Sword Art Online Progressive: Scherzo of Deep Night, only floor five has been cleared out of the needed 100 – so, yeah, Asuna and Kirito have a long way to go.
Then, there is also the fact that in the last film, we were introduced to the realisation that there is a group of player killers looking to spread chaos. During a secret meeting that Asuna heard while in the catacombs, the two-player killers kept referring to their boss. So, does this mean that we will meet PoH? Will Laughing Coffin be the antagonist in the next chapter? Either way, we need answers, so expect to see a follow-up at some point!
As mentioned above, there has been no announcement for a Sword Art Online Progressive movie 3. However, given the fact that Sword Art Online Progressive: Scherzo of Deep Night topped the box office charts in Japan during its first weekend, it seems likely that another flick will be greenlit soon. We will keep you posted as more details head our way.
For more information on the new movie, you can read our Sword Art Online Progressive 2 review. Or, if you are after more power couples like Asuna and Kirito, here is our list of the best romance anime of all time.