Kadokawa and Dengeki Bunko have revealed that Reki Kawahara, the novelist most famous for Sword Art Online, will release a new novel titled Demons’ Crest. The new title will have its characters drawn by Yukiko Horiguchi of K-On! fame.
The story of Demons’ Crest will take place in the near future with a full-dive VR technology where people can interact with the VR world with their entire bodies. In a similar vein to Reki Kawahara’s prior works Sword Art Online and Accel World, an in-universe VR MMORPG will form the core of the storyline.
Demons’ Crest will tell the tale of Yuma Ashihara, an 11 years-old sixth-grader who joins a test play for Actual Magic, the first MMORPG to employ the full-dive VR technology. Soon after defeating a dungeon boss with his classmates, a mysterious red light envelops Yuma’s avatar and causes the player to faint. After a forced logout, Yuma will wake up to see a Mixed Reality where world elements from Actual Magic appear in real life.
The Japanese press release added that Demons’ Crest will be Reki Kawahara’s first novel that he writes as a commercial product. The author gained much fame for his works on Sword Art Online and Accel World. Kawahara also has another novel series titled The Isolator, which had its first formal publication in 2014 in Japan. However, he first uploaded all aforementioned titles as personal projects and contest entries before Kadokawa and ASCII Media Works offered to publish his works.
Demons’ Crest will be available in Japan on November 10, 2022. Reki Kawahara will reveal more details about the new novel through a live stream on his official channel on Niconico on Monday, September 12, 2022, at 19:00 JST (6 AM ET).
