Song: The Pinnacle by Kansas

Main Image pieced together from these (X,X,X)
Dragon Battle Image
Kirito With Asuna Image
Background Texture 1
Background Texture 2

The song by Kansas that I borrowed has always kind of spoken to me. There have been times that I've felt like the old weary hero that the song is about, particularly this week. Let's just say things haven't been going well at my job the last few days. Anyway, I was listening to the song in question yesterday and suddenly had the image of this wallpaper came to mind. So I decided to try making that vision a reality.

I chose Kirito to use as the star of this wallpaper because the song pretty much fits him perfectly, especially given what's happened to him recently in the anime and light novel versions of SAO. The main image was the hardest part of this wallpaper to make. Not only did I have to splice together two versions of the same illustration to properly remove the original text, I also had to borrow the handle for Kirito's black sword from another image, and repaint the sparks of light coming from Eugeo's broken sword. Once I applied that photoshop filter though, it all became totally seamless.

Dedicated to Judai Winchester, just to let him know I'm still alive.