Final Battle, May 380 HE Part 3

Eugeo…what are you going to do? I wondered, my eyes darting.

The flaxen-haired youth, my unquestionable best friend, Eugeo the

swordsman of the Aincrad style, looked back into my eyes for just a moment

and smiled. Then he turned to Cardinal and said, "With what strength you have

left, turn me—turn my body into a sword. Just like that puppet."

As though it were bringing her mind back to the surface, this statement

caused Cardinal's eyes to sharpen again, widening in surprise.

"Eugeo…are you…?"

"If we escape this place…then Administrator will turn half the people of the

world into those horrible monsters. We cannot let that happen. If there's any

way to prevent that tragedy, any last hope remaining, then it must be in that

sacred art…"

His smile had the serenity of understanding and acceptance. He wrapped her

left hand in both of his and whispered, "System Call…Remove Core Protection."

I'd never heard that command before.

Eugeo closed his eyes when he was finished. On his forehead appeared a

complex series of glowing purple lines, like some kind of electrical circuit board.

They stretched downward, across his cheeks and his throat, to his shoulders, his

forearms, his fingers.

The little pathways of light pushed a small amount of the way into Cardinal's

left hand where he held it, their ends flickering as though waiting for an input.

Remove Core Protection.

Based on the definition of the English in that command, I assumed that Eugeo

had just given Cardinal limitless privileges to manipulate his own fluctlight. I

didn't know how he knew that art, but at the very least, it was a trio of words

that spoke to his utter determination and acceptance.

The dying sage's eyes bulged—one fine, one burned—and her lips trembled.

Her uncertain thoughts traveled through skin contact.

"Are you sure…Eugeo? I don't know…if you can be turned…back."

Eugeo closed his eyes, his forehead and cheeks covered in glowing lines, and

bobbed his head. "It's all right. This is my role…This is the reason I'm here right

now. In fact, there's one thing I need to tell you here at the end. Cardinal…

Kirito, and Alice. Metal weapons cannot reach Administrator's body. It's why I

wasn't able to stick her with the dagger you gave me."

"…!"

Alice and I gasped and held that breath.

But Cardinal didn't seem surprised at all—or maybe she just didn't have the

strength to show that much emotion. Her only response was to blink.

Eugeo bobbed his head and prompted, "Please…do it. Before Administrator

notices."

"…No, Eugeo. Stop," I demanded, my throat dry and hoarse. "If you don't…

make it back…then…then your dream…"

If we actually won this fight and Eugeo didn't get turned back into a human,

then the hopes he'd been holding on to for the last eight years—his dream of

getting Alice back and taking her home to Rulid—would never come true.

Administrator and Cardinal were the only two people in the world capable of

this ultra-advanced ability to convert people's flesh into weapons. One of them

was the ultimate enemy, and the other was at death's door. If this gambit

actually succeeded, it could very well leave him with no means to return to

human form.

I wanted to continue arguing, but Eugeo turned his purple-lit face up to the

ceiling and interrupted, "It's okay, Kirito. This is what I was meant to do."

"…!"

My best friend's mind was made up, and there was nothing I could say to him.

And what could I say in such a situation?

One single defeat had me shaken to my core. I couldn't swing my sword or

even step forward closer to danger.

Instead, I looked pleadingly at Alice. Her blue eyes were full of pain and

respect in equal measure. In the next moment, her head hung low. She bowed

to the criminal whom she'd struck without hesitation just two days ago at the

academy's great hall.

I bit my lip hard enough to draw blood. In my arms, Cardinal struggled to keep

her eyes open. "Very well, Eugeo. Then I dedicate the very last art of my life…to

your decision."

Like a candle before it burned out, her voice regained a valiant bit of strength

inside my mind. Purple glimmers lit up the middle of her brown eyes.

The pathways of light that ran from Eugeo's hands to Cardinal's suddenly

flashed. That light raced through Eugeo's body, and when it reached the pattern

on his forehead, it emerged as a pillar of light that blazed all the way to the

ceiling.

"What—?!"

That was Administrator, who was still looking drunk with exultation on the far

side of the room. Instantly, her triumphant expression vanished. Fury crossed

her silver eyes, and she bellowed, "You half-dead little whelp! What are you

doing?!"

She pointed her rapier at me, Eugeo, and Cardinal. White sparks shot from

the body of the weapon.

"No, you don't!!" shouted Alice.

The Osmanthus Blade, which had to be near the end of its remaining life,

disintegrated loudly into a golden chain that flew through the air. At the same

time, an earsplitting blast from a giant bolt of lightning came toward us.

The tip of the chain brushed the white bolt. The enemy surge was directed

down the length of the chain toward Alice.

But by that point, the golden chain was stretching behind her as well, the far

end jammed into the floor. Locked into the ground wire and unable to escape

back into the air, the massive burst of energy flowed directly into the tower

itself, producing a roar and white smoke before it vanished.

Alice leveled her index finger at Administrator and declared, "Your lightning

will not affect me!!"

"Why, you little puppet knight…Don't you dare speak back to me!!" the

supreme ruler spat, snarling. Just as quickly, her sublime smile returned, and

she held the shining rapier on high. "What about this, then?!"

A multitude of red dots popped into being around the weapon, well over

thirty. If they were all heat elements, then their number was certainly over the

element-controlling limit of twenty for a human being.

The Osmanthus Blade's Perfect Control weakness against shifting flames had

been made clear in the battle against Chudelkin earlier. But the golden knight

did not give way; in fact, she took one loud, bold step forward, boot clacking

against the ground. The golden whip, sensing its master's determination,

disintegrated into shards and reformed in a grid pattern.

While the two women faced off, the purple light shining from Eugeo only

grew brighter and brighter, until he suddenly slumped powerlessly. Instead of

falling to the floor, however, he began to float into the air.

He went into a horizontal position, eyes closed, and all his clothes vanished as

though they'd evaporated. The beam of light rising from his forehead touched

the ceiling. As though answering his call, one of the pictures in the mural began

to twinkle—the little bird soaring through the ancient skies, its eye crystal

shining.

The roughly thirty crystals embedded in the ceiling, the memory fragments

taken from all the Integrity Knights, should have been active in owning the

Sword Golem. Only the bird's crystal was different, pulsing with light as it came

free from the ceiling and descended through the beam of light.

And that crystal, perhaps—no, almost certainly—was the memory fragment

belonging to Alice.

I suspected that when Alice was synthesized, she'd lost the memory of her

sister, Selka. But if that were the case, then Selka would've already been

abducted and turned into a sword here by the time I first met her in Rulid two

years ago.

So if it wasn't Selka…then who were the memories saved in that crystal

about?

The hexagonal prism crystal, pointed on both ends, descended silently,

offering no answers. The Blue Rose Sword rose from the floor, rotating, and

came to a stop with the tip pointed at Eugeo's heart.

Eugeo's muscled body, the translucent blade of the Blue Rose Sword, and the

crystal prism formed one straight line.

Meanwhile, the distant Administrator screamed and swung down her rapier.

"Then you can all burn!!"

Thirty heat elements floating around the rapier fused, forming a giant fireball

that shot forth.

"And I said…no you don't!!" cried Alice, her voice ringing loud and clear. She

pointed her right hand at the swirling flame.

The tiny blades forming a cross in midair swarmed together into a giant

shield. The knight leaned against it and pushed off the ground, rushing straight

toward the coming fireball.

A crash.

A short silence.

The resulting explosion was big enough to rattle the entirety of the enclosed

space. Fire whipped, light flashed, shock waves burst across the chamber, and

most of the carpet on the floor burned into nothing. Even the massive Sword

Golem, inactive across the room, buckled with the force, and Administrator

herself shielded her face with her arm.

But safe behind Alice's shield, the worst I felt was a wave of heat that caused

me to gasp. Neither Eugeo floating in the air nor Cardinal in my arms seemed to

have been affected by the blast.

Within a few seconds, the maelstrom of flame was gone, as quickly as it'd

come…and at its center, Alice fell to the ground with a thud. A second later the

Osmanthus Blade, back to its original form, slumped next to its master, point

stuck in the ground.

Alice's white-and-blue knight's uniform was charred and smoking here and

there. Large burn scars ran over her arms and legs; it was clear from a glance

that she was catastrophically wounded. She didn't get up—possibly

unconscious—but in the valuable few seconds she bought us, Cardinal managed

to finish her command.

Within the pillar of purple light, Eugeo's body lost its solidity and turned

invisible. The Blue Rose Sword, also becoming transparent, moved into the

center of his chest, fusing with him.

There was another flash.

I squinted against the brightness, and Eugeo unraveled into a million ribbons

of light.

Fiercely swirling, they condensed back into a new shape.

What was left floating there was not human in appearance.

It was one mammoth sword, stark white with the faintest hint of blue, and a

cross-shaped guard. The blade was as long and wide as Eugeo's actual body. Its

slight curve was beautiful, ending in a fiercely sharp point. A little furrow in the

raised ridge on the flat of the blade was perfectly sized for the floating crystal to

fit inside, and it did, with a little click.

Cardinal's arm fell limply to the floor. Her lips quivered, and the final part of

the command escaped like the slightest of breezes.

"Release…Recollection."

Keeeeennn! The double-edged, six-sided crystal, Alice's memory fragment,

shone and reverberated. Eugeo's sword rang on its own to answer that call and

floated even higher.

Now the white greatsword was moving on its own, using the same logic that

powered the Sword Golem. A sword forged from a human body, the fragment

of memories that owned the sword, and the energy that bound them together:

the power of love.

But there was one thing the Sword Golem had that Eugeo's sword didn't: the

Piety Module prism that Administrator had placed in the heart of the golem.

That was the tool that twisted the love powering the creature, driving it to

murder.

"You'll pay for this meddling, Lyserith!!" shouted Administrator, flinching

away from the shine of the greatsword as though it was blinding her. "You can

mimic my great creation…That one flimsy sword cannot withstand the might of

my killing machine! I'll break it in two!!"

She swung her left hand, and the silent Sword Golem's eyes lit up again. It

emitted an unpleasant metallic whine and began to shuffle forward at high

speed.

Eugeo's sword rotated until the flat was entirely level, with the point trained

straight on the five-mel-tall giant. Its white length shone brighter and brighter,

casting off motes of light into the air around it.

Then the greatsword flew, ringing like a bell. It soared, a sharpened comet,

leaving a long white trail behind it.

"…Beautiful…," Cardinal thought audibly from my arms. "Human…love. And

the radiating light…of purpose…So…beautiful…"

"Yeah…it is," I whispered, feeling more tears coming to my eyes.

"Kirito…I leave this to you now…Protect this…world…and its…people…"

With her last bit of strength, Cardinal turned her head to look at me with eyes

crystal clear and smiled. Once she saw me nod my understanding, the little girl

who was the world's wisest sage closed her eyes, exhaled—and never drew

breath again.

As I fought against the sobs, I felt the weight in my arms grow lighter and

lighter. In a world blurred by tears, the white sword that bore Cardinal's last

wish flew straight and true on wings of light.

The golden giant spread its arms and ribs wide to welcome this oncomer. The

blades took position like gleaming jaws, surrounded by an aura of darkness.

In terms of sheer numerical priority, there was no way that a greatsword

based on Eugeo and his Blue Rose Sword alone could compete with a golem

converted from three hundred human beings. But Eugeo's sword sped up

regardless, charging into the waiting fangs of the beast.

Its tip was pointed right at the middle of the golem's spine—which was made

up of three swords in alignment—at the purple light spilling from the cracks

between the swords.

The Piety Module.

Gold and white collided for the briefest of moments. White and black light

tangled, swirled, burst.

The overlapping metal collisions sounded like some beastly roar, and the

golem's arms and ribs slid down to an intersecting point. But just before they

could close, the white sword plunged deep into the tiny gap in its backbone.

My ears caught the faintest crackling sound. The purple light seeping from the

spine burst into nothing.

From the point where the white greatsword struck, the thirty gigantic blades

held together with thick darkness began to sparkle and lighten. It almost felt

like Eugeo and Alice's love was repairing the sorrow of all those separated

lovers.

Greeeee! A discordant scream came from the creature, gradually resolving

into clean, clear harmony, a beautiful musical chord that rang long and loud

before dispersing.

Then the killing machine, the creature that had nearly pushed us to death, fell

apart into its individual swords and burst. Thirty different swords spun out

following thirty different arcs, sticking and clattering on various surfaces around

the room in a deafening clamor.

One of them stood directly behind me like a gravestone. It was from the left

arm of the golem, the one that had sliced into me, but the aura of evil around it

was gone now, and it was just smooth, cold metal again.

The glittering crystals on the ceiling that were controlling the golem blinked

unsteadily and lost their light until they were still again. I didn't know what had

happened to the "minds" inside of them, but at the very least, Administrator's

Perfect Control, which had abused their emotions for power, was broken—

never to return, I assumed.

The white greatsword that had destroyed the Sword Golem in a single swing

was still levitating flat in the air, beams of light shining off it.

Glistening in the center of the blade was Alice's memory fragment. Like a bolt

from the heavens, I suddenly understood what was contained within it.

Thirty-one Integrity Knights. But only thirty swords in the Sword Golem. The

fusion with Eugeo's sword made it clear that the only memory fragment that

hadn't been used for that purpose was Alice's.

So why couldn't Administrator forge a sword that would pair up with Alice's

memories?

It must've been because Alice's memories…her love…was too great. Young

Alice loved Eugeo, loved Selka, loved her parents, loved everyone who lived in

the village, loved Rulid itself, and even loved the time in which the people she

loved lived and would continue to live.

Even the almighty pontifex couldn't convert time and space into solid matter.

So she wasn't able to make a sword she could link to Alice. And it was why the

sword that Alice and Eugeo made was so beautiful and radiant.

"Yes…it really is beautiful," I whispered to Cardinal's soul, which was now

traveling to a place much farther than anywhere in the Underworld or the real

world, as I clutched her body.

She didn't speak back, but I felt her tiny body taking on a faint

phosphorescence in my arms. It was the exact same kind of purity of being that

I felt from the white sword's miracle light.

This, to me, was the proof that Cardinal, who was once a girl named Lyserith,

was not simply a program, as she claimed so many times, but a true human

being with real emotions and love.

The glow brought a gentle warmth that penetrated my freezing flesh, even as

her body began to lose its solidity. It was becoming transparent, until at last the

contours broke apart, and she vanished in a spray of light.

The waves lit every surface of the isolated chamber, purifying it all—until they

were ripped apart by a voice like a blade that resisted everything.

"That was a very vexing stunt to play right at your death, little one. You've put

a very nasty scar on my long-awaited memory of triumph."

Even after the destruction of her ultimate weapon, Administrator was as

haughty as she'd ever been, a cold smile on her lips. "But the best she could do

was destroy one measly prototype. I can make hundreds of them, thousands."

The way she boasted about this with her rapier in hand was so mechanical, so

utterly artificial, that it truly made me wonder, despite her having the same

origins as Cardinal, whether she had actually lost her ability to feel emotion. Her

shining white skin and dazzling silver hair exuded pulses of darkness like some

kind of miasma.

Deep inside me, the cold serpent of fear bared its fangs once again. On

instinct, I clutched my now empty arms together.

The seemingly invincible Sword Golem was destroyed, but at a tremendous

cost. We'd lost the sage who was the only person in the world capable of

counteracting Administrator's overwhelming power.

All I could do was stare up at the pontifex in silent horror—but Eugeo's sword

kept rising, and with a smooth ringing sound, it pointed directly at our last and

greatest foe.

"Oh?" Administrator's mirror eyes narrowed. "You still want to fight, little

boy? A little bit overconfident, just because you managed to stick in the gap and

destroy my puppet, don't you think?"

I couldn't even be sure whether her words were registering with Eugeo while

he was in sword form. But the pure-white blade steadfastly held its tip in her

direction. The shine that surrounded the weapon grew stronger, its vibrating

pitch growing higher and higher.

"…Stop it, Eugeo," I rasped, reaching out toward the shining sword. "Don't…

don't go alone."

Driven by a burning panic, I shuffled over the charred carpet on weakened

knees. I stretched as far as I could toward the sword and touched one of the

motes of light that came off it, but the mote burst and vanished.

Out of the handle of the greatsword, another set of wings made of light grew.

The wings flapped hard, pushing the white weapon directly at Administrator.

A wicked grin appeared on her pearly lips. Her mirrored rapier creaked as she

swung it down, and another blast of lightning, perhaps even bigger than the

ones that killed Cardinal, burst forward to meet the rushing sword of light.

The instant the lightning touched the tip of the sword, there was an even

greater shock wave than the one that had started upon the Sword Golem's

destruction. Even at my distance, it buffeted my weakened body.

I tensed against the shock and did my best to keep my eyes open, which is

how I saw that Administrator's bolt of lightning erupted into millions of tiny

tributaries.

Baaaam!! A peal of thunder accompanied the flying sparks, which in turn

created their own, much smaller explosions around the room. And even

through the tremendous deluge of energy that it shattered, the sword flew on.

The white surface of its blade was covered in fine cracks, and pieces began to

fall off. They were parts of Eugeo's body, pieces of his very life.

"Eugeo!!" I screamed, my voice lost in the storm.

"Boy…!!" The smile was gone from Administrator's lips.

The white greatsword reached the source of the lightning at last. Its point hit

the needle end of the rapier right on the nose.

An ultra-high-pitched resonance arose, shaking the isolated chamber. For a

few moments, Administrator's silver rapier—the source of her godly power—

and the white blade that was the fusion of Eugeo and the Blue Rose Sword

grappled for supremacy. It looked like total stillness, but I could feel on my skin

that this was only the precursor to the coming wave of destruction.

What happened next passed as though it were happening in slow motion.

Administrator's rapier shattered into tiny pieces.

The white greatsword split in two, spraying motes of light.

The front end of the blade shot off, spinning, and silently sliced

Administrator's right arm clean off at the shoulder.

The image burned itself into my retinas until sound and vibration finally

caught up.

Sacred resources burst forth from the shattered rapier and exploded in a

colorful array that engulfed the room.

"Eugeooooooo!!"

Again, my scream was swallowed by the storm that buzzed and squealed like

analog static. An oncoming shock wave smashed into my body as it hurtled

toward the southern windows. I just barely managed to take cover behind one

of the giant swords stuck into the ground that had been part of the golem just

minutes ago.

When I could at last stand again, I saw Administrator standing on the ground

on her own two feet, clutching her shoulder with her remaining hand…and two

large shards of metal at her feet.

Eugeo's broken sword still contained a faint trace of its glow. But even as I

watched, it was growing weaker, pulsing like a beating heart, until it

disappeared.

The pieces of the white sword began to lose their sense of being, gradually

reverting to human form.

The piece from the tip to the middle of the blade became the legs.

And the part including the guard and hilt became the torso and head.

Eugeo was clutching the crystal prism to his chest, his eyes shut. His flaxen

hair and milky skin were back to their full, solid texture.

Then, the cross sections where his body was split in two erupted with blood,

immediately flooding Administrator's bare feet.

"Ah...ah...…"

The sound that croaked from my throat came to my ears as though from a

very far distance.

The entire world lost color, lost smell, lost sound. Everything paled.

In the midst of this existence without sensation, only the color of the blood

that continued to spill out had any vivacity to it. Something sparkling descended

right next to Eugeo, who was lying in a crimson sea.

It landed and stuck in the liquid, sending a ripple outward—a slender bluesilver longsword, the Blue Rose Sword. I thought it was unharmed, but only for

a moment; it promptly shattered, the pointed half of the sword breaking apart

into ice crystals.

Without its support, the handle half of the sword tipped over and landed next

to Eugeo's face. It sent up a splash of blood flecks that hit Eugeo's cheek, only

to roll back down his skin.

I managed a few wobbling steps before I fell to my knees. With glassy eyes, I

clutched my own sides, clinging to what warmth of Cardinal's body still resided

in my arms. But that faint heat did nothing to fill the growing void within me. It

was like my mind, my body, and even my soul were going hollow.

Let's end this already.

The thought rose from the emptiness like a bubble and popped.

We—no, I—had lost, in every sense of the word.

My one single reason for being in this place was to help free Eugeo's soul into

the real world. Instead, he'd sacrificed himself to protect me, and I was

powerless, on my hands and knees—the man who would simply log out to

reality when he died in the Underworld.

I just want to fade out, to vanish from the world. I don't want to see any more,

hear any more.

All I prayed for was my own obliteration.

But the Underworld was its own reality, and its master was not a program

designed to stop once you hit the bad ending.

As she stood in the sea of blood, Administrator's pale, featureless beauty took

on the slightest bit of color, which vanished just as quickly. Her gorgeous voice

brushed aside the silence of the room.

"I have not suffered such injury in two hundred years. Since my fight with

Lyserith."

It almost seemed like there was a note of praise, of admiration, in her voice.

"In terms of priority, Eugeo's converted sword shouldn't have been able to

match my Silvery Eternity. I'm surprised at the result. I suppose it was my

mistake not recognizing that his sword wasn't metallic in nature."

Drops of blood dripped from her right shoulder, creating more ripples in the

puddle at her feet. She caught one in her left palm, converted it to light

elements, and rubbed it on the wound. Instantly, the severed cross section

sealed over into smooth skin.

"Well," she said, turning her mirror eyes and their long lashes toward me now

that she was done with her emergency treatment, "I'll admit that I'm a bit

surprised that you were the one who lasted this long, little boy. I'm mildly

curious as to why you came here without administrator privileges…but I've also

grown tired of this. I will ask the one from the other side about how this came

to be later. For now, I'll let your blood and screams round out this

confrontation."

She began to stride gracefully forward, betraying no sign that she was

suffering from her severed arm. She stepped over Eugeo's split body and

proceeded toward me, leaving bloody footprints on the bare marble floor.

As she walked, she reached out sideways, and something white flew up from

the ground behind her. It was a slender right arm—the limb that Eugeo's sword

had cut off her.

I thought she was going to reattach it to her shoulder, but instead, she lifted it

up to her face, holding it by the wrist, and blew on it. Instantly, the arm was

wreathed in purple light, shuddering mechanically as it underwent matter

conversion.

What appeared was a silver longsword, simple in design but beautifully

elegant. Its finish wasn't the perfect unbroken mirror that the rapier's was, but

given the fact that it was using the arm of the most powerful person in the

world as its resource, I was certain that the power it contained was more than

enough to separate my head from my shoulders.

Death approached on quiet footsteps. I awaited it from my knees.

In just a few seconds, the administrator of this world arrived before me,

dazzlingly beautiful despite her missing arm, and gazed down at me.

I looked up and met the colorful reflection of her mirror eyes. There was just

a hint of mirth in them, and a gentle cast to her voice.

"Good-bye, little boy. Let's meet again someday on the other side."

She raised the sword, which caught the light of the moon.

A blade as sharp as a razor cut a blue arc through space toward my neck.

And then there was a silhouette occupying the space before me.

Long hair fanned through the air.

All I could do was watch as the wounded knight held her arms out wide.

I had seen this before.

Was I going

to repeat

the same

mistake…

…yet again?!

The thought flashed into my head, stopping time.

In a monochrome world without sound or color, a number of things happened

in quick succession.

A small hand brushed my right arm where it dangled lifelessly.

The cold fear and resignation that consumed my entire being melted just a bit

with the warmth of that palm.

The negative thoughts hadn't vanished. But the owner of the hand was telling

me that it was okay to admit that weakness.

"You don't have to always win every time. If you lose eventually, if you fall,

you just need to connect your heart, your will, to someone else.

"I am certain that is how all of those who shared time with you and moved on

felt. Even I.

"Which means you can stand again.

"To protect someone you love."

I was conscious of a mild heat emanating from my body, or perhaps my mind,

sending circuits of light into my frozen fluctlight.

From the center of my chest, through my right shoulder, down my arm, into

my fingers.

My tense fingertips were suddenly engulfed in a burning heat.

With speed I'd never experienced before, my right hand shot to the handle of

my black sword nearby and grabbed it.

Then time flowed once more.

Administrator's sword plunged down at the left shoulder of Alice, who stood

with arms outstretched to take the blow for me. The sharp blade ripped the

sleeve of the charred knight's uniform and was just about to sink into her pale

skin.

I swung my sword as I rose to my feet, and I caught the end of the silver

sword just in the nick of time, sending up a shower of sparks. The resulting

shock pushed Administrator away from Alice and me.

My free hand slipped around to steady Alice as she fell back against me, while

the force of the impact pushed me toward the wall—it took both feet holding

firm to prevent a collision. She rested her head against my right shoulder, then

turned to look up at me with her blue eyes.

"Oh…" Her cheeks, still ugly and burned from the fire attacks she'd suffered,

crinkled into a smile. "You can still move…after all," she whispered.

"…Yeah," I said, giving her as close to a smile as I could manage. "Now leave

the rest to me."

"I think…I will."

And with that, Alice fell unconscious and slumped to her knees.

I lowered her to the floor and set her back against the window. I sucked in a

deep breath and stood again.

Get some rest and leave this to me. Charlotte, Cardinal, and Eugeo have given

their lives for mine…so I'll make sure to pass it on to you.

The one thing that was most important was to get Alice out of this enclosed

space somehow. I had to fight this woman and at the very least tie if I couldn't

win. Even if that meant losing all my limbs, getting stabbed through the heart,

or getting my head chopped off.

I leveled my gaze, keenly aware of these possibilities, and stared at my foe.

Administrator's grin was as faint as ever as she gazed at the hand holding her

sword. There was a part of her soft palm that was rubbed red and raw, probably

from the earlier shock wave.

"…I'm starting to get truly cross," she said with glacial ferocity. Her mirror

eyes, too, were as icy as though frost had gathered on them. "What is wrong

with you people? Why do you struggle so hideously for no gain? The outcome

of the battle is clear already. What meaning can there be in the process of

reaching that foregone conclusion?"

"The process is what's important. The part where you either die crawling or

die with a sword in your hand. That's what makes us…human beings."

I closed my eyes and imagined my past self again. The self-image of Kirito the

Black Swordsman that I'd kept defining for myself for years. The part of me that

could never lose—the curse that said if I ever fell in battle, I'd lose everything I

ever had.

But now I needed to free myself from that fear and fixation.

When my eyelids rose, long bangs hung over my eyes. I brushed them away

with a gloved hand and swept my long black coat aside to brandish my

longsword.

A short distance away, Administrator raised an eyebrow, then put on a cruel

smile like the one she'd worn when she took Cardinal's life.

"That black outfit…You look just like a black knight from the Dark Territory.

Very well. If you simply must suffer, then I will ensure that your fate is very, very

long and torturous. The kind that will make you beg for death's merciful

release."

"That won't be enough to atone for my stupidity," I muttered, dropping my

stance and keeping my eyes on the tip of the silver sword in her left hand.

I'd seen plenty of Administrator's superlative power with sacred arts today,

but given that her rapier—apparently named Silvery Eternity—was broken, I

assumed she could no longer use that valuable resource as a power reserve to

execute her rapid-fire arts. It was why she'd had to convert her own severed

arm into this sword.

Sword-on-sword fighting was exactly what I wanted, but her skill was a total

unknown. I assumed that, like the Integrity Knights, she would gravitate toward

major single-attack skills, but if my fight against Alice on the eightieth floor had

taught me anything, it was that this wasn't the weakness it might sound like.

My weapon's priority value was probably the lower of the two, so if our

swords clashed enough, my already-damaged black sword would break. I had to

keep close and try to seize victory with a combination attack, something that

Administrator wouldn't know about.

With that in mind, I lowered my center of gravity farther, ready to charge. I

slid my right foot forward and pulled my left back, tensing them against the

hard floor.

For her part, Administrator coolly raised her sword high behind her head. As

I'd suspected, she was using a stance of the traditional High-Norkia style. The

attack that would be unleashed was certain to be so fast and heavy that I

couldn't shrug it off with a deflection. I had to avoid it entirely and get past her

defense.

"…!"

I sucked in a deep breath, tensing my stomach.

The instant I saw her sword waver, I leaped off the floor.

My enemy's sword glowed blue. Detecting that it was the sword skill known

to me as Vertical, I pushed harder off my left foot, veering my course right.

Vertical was as straight as the name suggested, which made it difficult to aim at

targets fleeing to the sides.

The blue trail of the silver sword approached at terrifying speed. I turned to

my left, trying desperately to make myself a small target and get past the blade.

The end of my coat flapped wide and was severed clean off.

I dodged it!

Next I pushed off my right leg, reversing the sideways drift of my progress,

and pulled back my sword…

But the shine in Administrator's sword did not vanish.

"…?!"

As I yelped in shock, her sword completely ignored all inertia and bounced

back with a speed that made no sense. There was no way I could avoid it.

Instead, I pushed my sword forward, trying to get it into the path of the swing.

Gyaiiing! A cloud of sparks burst with the tremendous impact. I'd successfully

blocked the attack, but the pressure was so intense that I felt my right wrist

creak. The momentum was strong enough that I had to jump backward to keep

from losing my balance. I could use footwork to dodge her upward swing and

throw in a counter— —but once again, her skill with the sword surpassed my

imagination.

After tracing a V shape back to an upright position, her sword again roared

downward. My weight was held forward, so I couldn't evade the third attack

and caught a shallow slice on my left breast. It was only a scratch, but worse

than the pain was the fear and shock that jolted through my body.

If the sword skill Administrator was using was the one I knew, then trying to

dodge or half-heartedly block it would only get me killed.

"Yaaaah!!" I roared to dispel my fear, activating a sword skill from a posture

that wasn't really meant for it. It was the single diagonal slash Slant.

This time my expectations were dead-on, and Administrator's sword

practically teleported upward to an overhead position before striking for a

fourth time, its deadliest blow yet.

My black sword met the silver one as it came straight down. The special light

effect that happened when two sword skills clashed lit up our faces.

The fourth of a four-attack combination couldn't be neutralized with a normal

single skill. Fortunately for me, Administrator didn't have her right arm now.

Her balance was off, and the slash slipped to the left as it descended.

Gyarinnng! When our swords separated, this time I leaped purposefully

outside of swing range.

I touched the cut on my chest and came away with a bit of red on my fingers.

It wasn't enough damage to need healing from sacred arts, but I was less

concerned with my own flesh than I was horrified about the vivid slice across

my leather coat, which was much higher quality than it looked—although it was

produced only through the sheer power of my imagination.

Since I was left speechless, Administrator took it upon herself to describe

what she had done.

"That was the One-Handed Sword's four-part sword skill Vertical Square…

wasn't it?"

There was a brief mental lag before my mind fully processed the meaning of

what I'd just heard.

She was correct about the name of the attack. But…

Sword skill.

She'd said the proper name.

Yes, sword skills did exist in the Underworld, just as they did in old SAO. But

here, they were "ultimate techniques," and their dramatic effects were seen

not as active system assistance but as simply the power unlocked from the

sword once the user had undergone enough training.

But those techniques these humans used were limited to single-attack skills

like Vertical, Cyclone, and Avalanche. It was how I'd won so many duels and

battles with my Aincrad-style continuous blade, and I assumed that it would be

my only chance at victory here in the final battle, too.

But if Administrator could utilize sword skills and execute combination skills

of four parts or more, then my advantage was gone.

I inched backward, consumed by confusion and panic—and then I caught

sight of Eugeo's maimed body. Blood was still seeping from where he'd been

cleaved in half. He had minutes at best before his life ran out.

That beset me with even more to worry about. I needed to think.

Eugeo had been turned into an Integrity Knight, which had temporarily

blocked his memory and caused him to fight me. So she must have done a pass

on his memories when she did the Synthesis Ritual. In other words, it was

possible that she'd scooped the name and movement of Vertical Square from

Eugeo's memories.

If that was correct, then Administrator could do One-Handed Sword skills only

up to mid-level expertise. I'd never shown my partner the highest skills, after

all.

So if I used an attack with over four parts, I still had a chance. The highest of

One-Handed Sword skills was actually ten swings in total. And this wasn't the

time to be holding back.

I opened my stance and shifted the way I held my sword, and Administrator

took note of this and giggled.

"Oh…you've still got that feisty look in your eyes? Very good. Then show me a

bit more fun, little boy."

Despite losing one arm, and the major damage to life value that entailed, the

pontifex never seemed anything less than confident and in control. I didn't rise

to the bait; I just sucked in a deep breath and held it.

The mental image of the sword skill burned into my body and memory came

flooding back, vivid and fresh. Already, my sword was beginning to glow with a

pale effect.

From the right, it swung around in a circle until it was directly overhead.

"Haaaah!!" I screamed, activating the highest-level One-Handed Sword skill,

Nova Ascension.

My body blazed through the air at an impossible speed, pushed by an invisible

force. The first blow of the skill was a quick high slice that could get the jump on

just about any other skill. No other longsword skills were faster.

Half a second until my slice caught Administrator's left shoulder.

My senses were so accelerated that passing through time was akin to moving

through a viscous jelly.

The tip of the silver longsword pointed right at me.

Silver steel shone in a cross shape.

Dak-ka-ka-ka-ka-ka!! Six light-speed thrusts riddled my body, first vertically,

then horizontally.

"Guh..."

Blood shot from my mouth.

My ten-move combo, its first attack interrupted, simply vanished into the air

as the ice-blue glow around my blade dispersed.

I couldn't even register what had happened, much less theorize how it had

happened. Bewildered by pain and shock, I stumbled backward, staring at

Administrator's sword as it pulled free from my stomach.

Six consecutive thrusts.

There was no such skill in the One-Handed Sword category.

Hot blood was gushing from small holes in my shoulders, chest, throat, and

stomach. The strength went out of my knees, and I thrust my sword into the

ground in an attempt to stay upright.

Administrator neatly stepped back to avoid the splashing blood and covered

her mouth with the blade of her sword, which suddenly appeared to be much

thinner.

"Ha-ha-ha-ha…Too bad, little boy." The beautiful pontifex's lips curled upward

in mocking fashion over the fierce edge of the sword. "That was the six-attack

rapier skill Crucifixion."

No way.

I had never shown Eugeo that move. More importantly, I could never use that

move. The most I'd done was see it used a few times all the way back in

Aincrad.

I felt the world warping around me. Unless it was actually me that was

warping. I was struggling to find an answer that described the impossible

situation I was facing.

Did she peer into my memories? Did she steal that move from my fluctlight…?

And if so, does that mean she perfectly executed a skill that I myself had nearly

forgotten…?

"That can't be…," I croaked, in a voice that didn't even sound like my own.

"That's impossible…"

My teeth creaked with the pressure of my grinding jaw. I yanked my sword

out of the ground, trying to forget an anger that I didn't understand and the

fear that refused to release me from its clutches. I tensed my legs, taking a

wide, firm stance despite my weakness.

My left hand went out front, and my right hand pulled in close. This was the

stance for Vorpal Strike, the single-attack skill that had defeated Chudelkin.

The distance between us was five yards. Well within my range.

"Raaaah!!" I bellowed from deep in my gut, trying desperately to draw on

more of the imagination power that had recently wilted. My sword glowed a

ferocious crimson color where it rested on my shoulder. It was the color of

blood—of naked intent to kill.

In response, Administrator stretched her legs front and back, sank down, and,

like I had, smoothly moved her rapier over to her right side. There she paused.

As if just to prove that my eyes hadn't been playing tricks on me seconds

earlier, her slender rapier changed shape again. It was wider and thicker now.

One sharp edge, long and smoothly curved. Why, it was just like a…

No. No more thoughts. Just rage.

"Ruoaaahh!!" I bellowed with animalistic fury and swung.

"Hsst!!" spat Administrator with a short but sharp hiss. The sword at her right

side shone bright silver.

It was faster than the straight-line Vorpal Strike and beautifully curved. Her

abrupt motion slashed across my chest.

A brief instant later, an impact like a giant's fist smashed me backward. I flew

high through the air, much of my remaining life spraying into the air as a red

mist.

With her left arm held in place at the end of her swing, Administrator spoke

so quietly that I barely heard her.

"Single-attack katana skill Zekkuu."

I didn't recognize that sword skill—but I had to guess that it meant Severed

Void.

It was more than shock. I felt like the world itself was crumbling around me as

I crashed to the floor. Blood splashed everywhere at the impact.

But it wasn't my blood. I'd fallen into the frighteningly large pool of blood that

flooded from the two halves of Eugeo's body. My body was frozen, leaving only

my eyes capable of movement. I strained them as far as they could go to see

Eugeo's top half lying right nearby.

My partner of two years was facing my direction, his skin pale and eyes

closed. Little bits of blood still seeped from the grisly wound. Whether his life

was already gone or on the verge of running out, it was clear that he wouldn't

be regaining consciousness like this.

Only one thing was clear: I had wasted the life that he'd given his to keep

alive.

I couldn't beat her.

Not in sacred arts, of course, but not in sword battle, either. She was far

superior to me in every way.

There was no way I could know how she'd learned such a wide variety of

sword skills. At the very least, it was clear she hadn't gotten them from Eugeo's

memories nor my own.

Sword skills weren't a part of the basic Seed package that the Underworld

was built upon. The only game that used them was ALfheim Online, which was

built into the old SAO server. But there was no way that the Rath engineers

who'd built the Underworld, much less Administrator herself, would have

stolen the sword-skill system from the ALO server.

Any further conjecture was pointless. Even if I discovered the truth somehow,

nothing about it would change the obvious reality of my situation.

Charlotte's sacrifice, Eugeo's determination, Alice's resolution…and Cardinal's

last will. And all I'd achieved with them was…

"Yes. That's the face I like to see."

A voice like a frozen blade caressed my neck. Administrator walked, barefoot

and languid, across the marble floor toward me.

"I suppose people from the other side must have richer expressions. I wish I

could save that despair of yours for all eternity."

She chuckled to herself. "And while I assumed fighting with swords would be

a terrible bore, I have to say, it's not bad. You get to feel yourself inflicting that

agony upon the opponent. Since we're doing this, I want you to try a little

harder, boy. I want to have more fun with you, slicing you to pieces, starting

with your fingers and toes."

…Do your…worst, I mouthed. Hurt me, torture me, kill me…

At least make sure that before I vanish from this world, I suffer ten times, a

hundred times, worse than Eugeo and Cardinal.

I lost the strength to speak. Even the hand still stuck to the handle of my black

sword was about to lose its grip…

Until just then, when I heard a whisper at my ear.

"This isn't…like you. To just…give up."

It was a halting voice, one about to fade away forever—but one I would never

mistake for another.

My eyes rolled upward again. My mind was a blank.

Green eyes, so familiar and comforting they made me want to cry, looked

back at me through barely lifted lids.

"Eu…geo," I gasped. My partner gave me a faint smile.

When the Sword Golem had nearly sliced through my stomach, I couldn't

move from the pain and terror. But what I'd suffered was nothing next to

Eugeo. He was severed clean through—bones, organs, everything. The agony

should have been enough to utterly destroy his fluctlight. And yet…

"Kirito," Eugeo said, his voice stronger this time, "I remember…when they

took Alice away…how I couldn't move…But you…you were so brave at that

young age…standing up to the Integrity Knight like that…"

"…Eugeo…"

It was immediately clear to me that he was referring to when Alice had been

taken away from Rulid Village eight years ago. But I hadn't been there at the

time. At first, I thought he was confusing it with some other memory, but the

look in his green eyes was so crystal clear and lucid that it obliterated any

doubts I had that he was telling the truth.

"…So this time…I'm going…to give you that push. Go on, Kirito…I know you

can…stand again. You can stand…as many times…as it…"

His right hand twitched. Through the tears that flooded my eyes, I saw his

fingers scoop up a piece of blue-silver metal from the sea of blood—the handle

of the Blue Rose Sword.

Amid the pool of his own lifeblood, Eugeo squeezed the handle of the sword,

which had lost its blade, and closed his eyes. A warm orange glow abruptly

engulfed the area. The red sea beneath us shone and pulsed.

"What did you—?!" Administrator raged. But the invincible overlord covered

her face with her remaining hand and backed away, almost as though she was

afraid of the orange light.

The sea of blood grew brighter and brighter, until it was a blanket of tiny

lights that floated off the ground all at once. The levitating motes then

descended and began to swirl, funneling down into Eugeo's sword.

A new blade began forming out of the cracked base of the sword.

Matter conversion.

This was a miracle that should only have been possible for the two managers

of this world. My breath caught in my throat. A fearsome roil of emotions

surged in my chest, bursting out of me in the form of a fresh wave of tears.

Soon the Blue Rose Sword was its old length again. The fine carving of the

rose that was its namesake was now a deep-red color. The blade, guard, grip—

everything was turning a brilliant red.

With trembling arms, Eugeo held out the beautiful weapon—now more like

the "Red Rose Sword"—to me.

Despite having no sensation in it a moment ago, my left hand extended

toward the sword, as though pulled by it, and closed around both Eugeo's hand

and the weapon handle.

Energy instantly surged deep into my body.

I didn't believe it was sacred arts.

This was the power of Eugeo's will itself. Pure Incarnation power.

I felt the resonance of the soul from his fluctlight to mine, crossing the

boundary of worlds.

His hand went limp and left the sword to me, then fell to the floor. Through

his faintly grinning lips, from his mind to mine, came a few short words.

"Now stand, Kirito. My friend…My…hero…"

The pain of the wounds all over my body vanished.

The cold emptiness at the center of my breast evaporated in the midst of

blazing heat.

I stared at the side of Eugeo's face, his eyes now closed, and whispered,

"Yes…I will stand for you. As many times as it takes."

Just seconds ago my arms felt no sensation whatsoever. Now I held them

high, black sword in one hand and red sword in the other, and propped myself

up off the floor with the blades to get to my feet.

My body did not want to listen. My legs trembled, and my arms felt as heavy

as lead. Still, I managed to walk, step by agonizing step.

Administrator stopped averting her face as I approached, and she stared me

down with white-hot fury in her eyes.

"…Why?" she demanded, her voice deep and distorted with a metallic edge.

"Why do you foolishly resist your fate?"

"…That's why…," I replied hoarsely. "Resisting is the only reason I'm here right

now."

I didn't stop walking, despite the many times I nearly toppled over. I just kept

moving.

The swords I was holding were unbelievably heavy. But the weight of their

existence gave me strength and willed my legs to keep moving.

In the long, long past, in a different world than this one, I had engaged in

battles of life and death with two swords, just like this. This was the real me…

the real Dual-Bladed Kirito.

Again, the power of my memory, my vision, overwrote reality, and the black

coat that was sliced to pieces here and there became whole again. The bodily

damage I'd suffered wasn't gone, but whatever my remaining life value was

now didn't matter. As long as I could move and swing my swords, I could fight.

Administrator, eyes blazing with fury, took a step back. A second later, she

realized that she had retreated, and her white features took on all the wrath of

some demon god.

"…How dare you." Her lips didn't even move. The words just rippled her

mouth like heat haze. "This is my world. I will not stand for an uninvited

intruder acting this way. Kneel. Expose your neck. Acquiesce!!"

The air rumbled, and an aura of darkness rose from the pontifex's feet,

swirling in many layers. The silver sword shifted from a katana back to a

longsword, and she pointed it, shrouded in darkness, right at my face.

"…Wrong," I said, planning for this to be my final statement. I stopped just

before the range of her sword skills. "You are merely a plunderer. One who

does not love the world, nor the people who live in it…has no right to be called

a ruler!!"

I took a stance. The Red Rose Sword in my left hand went in front, and the

black sword in my right went to the rear. I pulled back my left leg. I lowered my

waist.

Administrator slowly brandished the silver sword, raising it overhead. Her

pearly lips uttered a phrase she was very familiar with, this time in the most

menacing way.

"To love is to rule. I love all. I rule all!!"

The silver sword grew larger, overflowing with thick darkness. Instantly, the

blade was the size of a two-handed sword, its black aura mixed with streaks of

brilliant red. Then the hefty weapon came hurtling furiously downward. That

was the High-Norkia technique Mountain-Splitting Wave—otherwise known as

the Two-Handed Sword skill Avalanche.

That attack was the symbol of the Underworld's nobility and had caused hell

for me and Eugeo on many occasions. I blocked it with the intersection of my

two swords: the Dual Blades defensive skill Cross Block.

"Gahhhh!" I bellowed, summoning all my strength to knock back the enemy's

weapon. The pontifex's eyes seemed to widen just a bit.

"Enough tricks!" she shouted, jumping back a step. She steadied her weapon,

which was back to being a normal longsword again, at shoulder height.

I pulled back my black sword to an equivalent position on my right. Matching

vibrations thrummed from both our swords, like combustion engines

overlapping and harmonizing. Black and silver swords shone crimson.

Administrator and I leaped at the same time, activating the same sword skill

simultaneously: Vorpal Strike.

Like two sides of a mirror, our swords pulled back like arrows, held for an

instant to glow twice as bright, then shot forward.

The tips of the two swords followed straight lines, brushing just the tiniest bit

before they passed each other.

With a heavy jolt, my right arm was cut clean off below the shoulder.

But likewise, my sword severed Administrator's left arm at the joint.

Two arms, each holding a sword, soared through the air, spraying red.

"Damn youuuu!!"

Administrator was now armless, and her eyes burned with rainbow fires. Her

long silver hair stood on end like a living creature, waving in the air in countless

locks. The ends of those bunches of hair turned to sharp needles that bore

down on me.

"Not yet!!" I roared, sending crimson light jetting down the length of the Red

Rose Sword still held tightly by my left hand.

The second blow of the Dual Blades Vorpal Strike, something that would've

been impossible in Aincrad, broke through the swarm of silver hair— —and

sank deep into Administrator's chest.

A sensation unbelievably heavy and solid rang in my palm. A feeling so vivid,

so harrowing, that I forgot all about the pain of being stabbed by the rapier, or

being sliced by the katana, or losing my arm to the longsword.

The edge of the blade sliced through Administrator's smooth skin, broke her

breastbone, and blasted her heart behind it—sensations that I was painfully

cognizant of.

I had destroyed a human life. It was an act I'd been terrified of since I came to

the understanding that the people of this world had true human fluctlights. I'd

felt that fear when I used my sword skill on Chudelkin, too.

But in this one instance, I didn't have an ounce of hesitation. Cardinal had left

the future in our hands, and faltering was not an option.

And for the sake of the proud overlord Administrator, too.

I had only a second to indulge in that kind of thinking.

The Red Rose Sword, buried deep within her breast, shone with a light far

more powerful than that of the sword skill itself. The blade, constructed from

the resource of Eugeo's own blood, twinkled as if it were a piece of a star.

And in the next instant, all the resources burst—causing a gigantic explosion.

Her eyes were bulging as far as they could go, a silent scream erupting from

her mouth. All over the most beautiful naked body in the world, fine lines of

light spread and burst forth.

An explosion of pure energy ballooned outward, swallowing everything in its

midst.

I got tossed up like cotton fluff and slammed into the southern window.

When I bounced off it and hit the floor, I could feel the blood gushing out of the

wound on my right shoulder.

It was a wonder that I still had that much blood to lose after all the cuts I'd

taken already. For a moment, I wondered whether my life really was going to

run out, but there was still work to be done. I had to live at least a bit longer.

I glanced at the sword in my hand. The blade was back to its previous half

length, and the rose decoration on the side was blue once more. I placed the

sword on the ground and squeezed my right shoulder hard.

Strangely enough, white light flooded from my palm and sank into the wound,

warm and soothing, without needing any command. The instant I felt the

bleeding had stopped, I let go. The spatial resources had to be nearly dried up,

and I didn't want to waste what was left.

I put my left hand, not glowing anymore, on the floor and pushed myself up.

Then I gasped.

Through the floating little bits of lights that I assumed were the aftermath of

the explosion, I saw the silver-haired girl—who should've been obliterated into

nothing—standing unsteadily on her own two feet.

It was a wonder that her shape was still human at all. Her arms were gone, a

gaping hole sat in the middle of her chest, and there were cracks running all

over her skin, as if it were porcelain that was ready to break.

And what flowed from that multitude of wounds was not blood.

Something like silver and purple sparks was sputtering and shooting from her

body, filling the air. It was a sight that made it seem like the people she'd

turned to swords weren't the only ones whose bodies had been changed—hers

didn't seem to be biological, either.

Her melted-platinum hair had lost its shine and hung in a bedraggled state.

Through the shadows they cast, I saw her lips move, emitting a croak that I

could just barely hear.

"…Not just one…but both swords…not made of metal…hah…ha-ha…" She

laughed, shoulders bobbing like a broken puppet. "What a surprise…what an

unexpected…outcome…I've suffered a wound…that I cannot heal…even by

gathering up the remaining…resources here…"

I had been in the grips of a nightmare vision of Administrator healing herself

instantly and entirely, but now I was able to exhale at last.

The supreme ruler, on death's door now, slowly turned her collapsing body.

She tottered forward like a toy losing its battery charge, sparks shooting from

various parts of her body.

She was heading for the north end of the room. There was nothing I could see

there, but she must've been going for something. Whatever it was, I had to

finish her off before she reached it.

With desperate effort, I got to my feet and stared carefully at her backside,

which seemed smaller than before. I followed, dragging my foot, my gait even

more awkward than hers.

She was a good twenty yards in front of me and heading for a specific spot.

But without any resources here, she shouldn't have been able to escape this

isolated space. Cardinal had said it was not easy to patch such a thing back

together, even if separated for only a few minutes. And Administrator hadn't

denied it.

Many seconds later, she came to a stop in an empty spot. But when she

turned around, naked and wounded, there was a grin on her face. She looked at

me, trying to catch up to her.

"Heh-heh…At this point, I have no…choice. It is a bit…earlier than I planned…

but I suppose…I will be…going now."

"Wh…what are you…?"

…saying, I wanted to ask. But Administrator cut me off by stomping the floor

with her cracked right leg.

There was a strange circular symbol on the burned carpet beneath her feet. It

was extremely similar to the spot marking the location of the levitating platform

behind me, but something about this one was different.

This circle, about a foot and a half across, was the familiar purple color of the

user interface.

The floor vibrated subtly and rose up to reveal…a white marble pillar.

And a laptop computer sitting atop it.

"Wha…?"

I was so stunned that my legs gave out and I fell to my knees.

It wasn't exactly the same as a real-life laptop. The body looked like some

kind of partially translucent crystal, and the screen was see-through and faintly

purple. It was very, very similar to the virtual system console I saw once in

Aincrad.

That was it.

That was the connection mechanism to the outside world I'd been searching

for these past two years.

An almost violent urge overtook me, making me scrape the floor with my

hand in an effort to move forward. But my progress was devastatingly slow, and

my destination was definitively too far.

Without any arms to use, Administrator instead brandished a lock of her silver

hair like a living creature to strike at the keyboard. A small window opened on

the holo-screen, containing some kind of indicator that began a countdown.

Then a purple pillar of light appeared from the ground where she stood—and

Administrator's battered body rose into the air.

At last, she lifted her face and looked directly at me.

Her perfect beauty was in a dreadful state. The left side of her face was badly

cracked, and the place where her eye should be was filled with impenetrable

darkness. The lips that gleamed a shade of pearl looked more like paper now—

but the thin smile on them still carried an arctic frostiness to it.

Her intact right eye narrowed, and she cackled. "Hah…hah…So long, little boy.

Until…we meet again. In…your world…this time."

At last, I understood what it was she was intending to do.

She was trying to escape into the real world.

She wanted to escape the Underworld, with its absolute limit on existence in

the form of her life value, so that she could preserve her fluctlight—the exact

same way I had hoped to do with Eugeo's and Alice's souls.

"W-wait!!" I cried, crawling for all I was worth.

If I were her, I'd destroy the console just before the moment of escape. If she

did that, then all hope would be lost.

Administrator's naked form climbed, slowly but surely, up the ladder of light.

Her smiling lips mouthed a silent farewell.

Good-b—

But before they formed the final vowel, someone who had crawled to the

base of the console without either of us noticing screamed.

"Your Holiness…Pleaaaase! Take me with youuuuu…"

Prime Senator Chudelkin.

The clown whose torso my sword skill had penetrated, and who'd been

scrapped for good by Administrator, was right there all of a sudden, his

bloodless face twisted in desperation, reaching upward with fingers bent like

claws.

His small body burst into searing flames. Through some kind of sacred arts—

or perhaps Incarnation—Chudelkin turned his own body into a flaming clown

this time and began to spiral into the air.

Even Administrator looked shocked, and possibly even frightened. Just as she

was nearly up to the exit of the pillar of light, Chudelkin's flaming hands caught

the pontifex's feet.

His thin, elongated clown's body wrapped itself around and up her naked

form, clinging to her like a snake. The ferocious flames engulfed both of their

bodies.

Even her hair caught fire, the pointed ends of it melting away. Her lips

twisted, and she screamed in frustration.

"Unhand me! Let go of me…you fiendish ingrate!!"

But Chudelkin's round face only beamed with bliss, as though his master's

words had been a confession of her love for him.

"Aaaah…At last…at last I can be one with Your Holiness…"

His short arms clung fiercely to her body. The cracks in the woman's skin

turned red with the heat, and small pieces began to fall away.

"I would never…bother with…a hideous clown…like you…!" she screamed.

Silver sparks from the pontifex's body mixed with Chudelkin's flames,

illuminating the vast chamber.

Chudelkin's body had no form anymore; he was a mass of flame alone, with

only a blissful expression left in the middle to utter his final words.

"Ahhh…Your Holiness…my…Adminis…tra…tor…"

And then Administrator's body began to burn from the extremities.

The supreme ruler's face caught on fire, and the fear and rage there vanished.

Her silver eyes looked skyward. Even in the moment of her utter destruction,

she was unfathomably beautiful.

"...I...my own...world..."

I couldn't hear anything after that.

The wild conflagration rapidly contracted. The flames converted to a platinum

flash of light that further contracted and then expanded.

It wasn't quite an explosion. It was more like everything was returned to a

state of light that filled the space. There was no sound or vibration, simply the

conceptual phenomenon of the oldest living soul in the Underworld perishing,

an event that expanded past the walls of this enclosed, isolated space.

The silver light shone and shone for so long that I began to wonder whether

the world would ever return to its original state.

But eventually, the light did indeed begin to abate, and color returned to my

sight at last.

I blinked several times to clear the tears—surely because of the light that

burned my eyes—and I looked closely at the point that had been the heart of

the explosion.

I couldn't find a single piece of evidence that the woman and the clown had

ever been there. The pillar of light was gone, leaving behind only the marble

pedestal sticking up from the floor and the crystal console on top of it.

At last, both logic and intuition told me that Administrator, who had once

been a girl named Quinella, was utterly gone. Her life had reached zero, and the

lightcube that held her fluctlight was reinitialized. So too, I expected, would be

the lightcube of Cardinal, located adjacent to it.

"…So…it's over…," I mumbled from my knees, hardly realizing the words were

coming from my own mouth. "...Was this…the right thing to do…Cardinal…?"

There was no answer.

But it seemed as though a tiny breeze from the depths of my memory

brushed my cheek.

It was the scent of Cardinal when we'd made bodily contact on the floor of

the Great Library—old books, candle wax, and sugar candy, mixed into one.

I wiped my tears aside with my left arm and realized my sleeve had reverted

from the leather coat back to my black shirt. Then I turned to crawl toward

Eugeo, who was nearly at the center of the room.

My partner's brutally severed body continued dripping blood at long intervals,

drop by agonizing drop. He had minutes to live at best.

When at last I reached his side, my first idea was to stop the bleeding by

picking up his lower half and fitting it back against the spot where he'd been

sliced. Then I placed my palm against the cut and imagined that healing light.

The glow that appeared below my hand was so faint that I had to squint to

see it. Still, I pushed it against him anyway, hoping it would seal the cut.

But the red liquid that was Eugeo's life itself continued to seep from his

halves. The priority of my healing was definitively inadequate for the severity of

his wound, I knew. But I waved my hand around anyway and shouted, "Stop…

just stop! Why won't you work?!"

The power of imagination determined everything in the Underworld. If I just

wished hard enough, I could make any miracle happen. Right?

I prayed, begged, wished so hard that I could've wrung every last drop of

strength from my soul.

But still, another drop of Eugeo's blood dripped from his wound. And another.

The overwriting ability of one's imagination could affect only the locations

and appearances of objects. It couldn't alter values like priority level, durability,

and other numerical attributes. I was aware of this fact, but I didn't want to

acknowledge it. Not now.

"Eugeo…come back to me, Eugeo!!"

I stuck my wrist into my mouth, ready to bite it off. I knew it wouldn't be

enough, but in the moment, I needed to give all my available resources to him.

Even if it meant that both of us lost our lives in the end.

My canines sank into my skin, ready to tear flesh and blood loose, when I

heard a faint whisper call my name.

"...Kirito."

I looked up with a start.

Eugeo's eyelids were just barely lifted. He was smiling.

His face was paler than the moonlight itself, and his lips were totally

bloodless. It was obvious that his life was continuing to drain away. But his

green eyes were the same as when I first met him, gentle and warm and bright.

"Eugeo…!" I exclaimed. "Hang on—I'll heal you right now! I'm not letting you

die…It's not going to happen!"

I put my wrist in my mouth again. But then a hand, cold as ice yet as warm as

a patch of sunlight, closed over my wrist and squeezed gently.

"Eu…," I grunted, but Eugeo kept his grip. From his lips tumbled an English

phrase I'd taught him back at the academy, a little secret mantra just between

the two of us.

"Stay cool…Kirito."

"…!"

I took a ragged, quivering breath. I had told Eugeo that it was a parting

phrase. I hadn't taught it to him so that I could hear him say it here and now.

Absolutely not.

I shook my head over and over, but Eugeo kept whispering: "It's…all right. It's

meant…to be this way…Kirito."

"What are you talking about? Of course it's not all right!" I yelped. Eugeo just

kept smiling. He almost seemed satisfied.

"…I…fulfilled…my role…to play…This is where…our paths…split apart…"

"That's not true! I don't believe in fate!! I don't accept that answer!!" I

screamed, sobbing like a child. Eugeo wisely shook his head. Even that tiny

gesture should have required intense concentration, but he showed no signs of

suffering.

"…If this…hadn't happened…then we would've had to fight each other…both

for the sake of Alice. I would fight…to take back Alice's memories…and you

would fight to protect the soul of Alice the Integrity Knight…"

I held my breath.

It was the very thing I'd been terrified of, deep down, but chosen not to think

about. That when all the fighting was over and it came time to insert Alice

Zuberg's memory fragment into Alice the knight's fluctlight, the question would

be posed: Was I going to agree to that?

Even now, when the moment came, I had no answer.

Instead, I tearfully hurled it back at Eugeo.

"Then…fight me!! Restore your full strength and fight me!! You're already

stronger than I am!! So you need to get back on your feet and fight me…for

Alice…!"

But Eugeo's serene smile never wavered. "My sword…is already…broken.

Plus…it was…my weakness…that led me to open my heart…to Administrator…

and to try to fight you. I have…to pay…for that sin…"

"It's not a sin! You're guilty of nothing!!" I sobbed, grabbing his wrist this

time. "You've fought valiantly the whole way! If it wasn't for you, we'd never

have beaten Chudelkin or the Sword Golem or Administrator! You have nothing

to blame yourself for, Eugeo!!"

"...You…think so…? I…hope so…," he mumbled, eyes full of large tears that

ran down his cheeks. "Kirito…I've always…been jealous of you. You were

stronger…and more beloved…than anyone…A part of me was afraid…that even

Alice…would prefer…W-well, anyway…I finally…understand. Love isn't

something…you seek…It's something you…give. Alice…taught me…that…"

He stopped talking and lifted his left hand. His palm, ragged and torn from all

the fighting, held a tiny crystal: a translucent, double-ended hexagonal prism.

Alice's memory fragment.

The clear prism glowed as it brushed my hand.

The world filled with light.

I no longer felt the hardness of the floor or the pain of my severed arm. A

gentle flow carried my soul somewhere distant. Even the terrible sadness

engulfing my heart simply melted away in that warm light.

And then…

Something bright and green was waving far overhead.

Sunlight through leaves.

Fresh shoots were spurting out of the tree branches, soaking in the longawaited spring sun and swaying in the breeze. The smooth black branches

rustled as unfamiliar little birds flitted and chased one another around.

"Your hands are idle, Kirito."

The sound of my name yanked my attention down from the branches.

The blond hair of the girl sitting next to me glimmered in the light falling

through the leaves. I blinked a few times and shrugged. "Well, you were staring

openmouthed at that family of cottonrabbits, Alice."

"I did not have my mouth open!" protested Alice Zuberg, the girl in the blueand-white apron dress. She lifted what she was holding up to the sunlight.

It was a finely crafted leather sheath for a short sword. The surface had been

polished to a shine with an oil rag, and a decorative dragon had been stitched

on with white thread. It was a somewhat familiar, rounded dragon, with the tail

only half-done, a needle dangling from the end of the unfinished loose thread.

"Look, mine's going to be finished very soon. How's yours coming along?"

I looked down at my knees. Resting there was a short sword carved from a

branch of platinum oak, the second-toughest wood in the forest. Old Man

Garitta, who knew more than anyone about the forest, had shown me how to

carve the iron-tough material, and it had taken me two months to get it to this

state. The blade was already finished; I just had to put the finishing touches on

the handle.

"I'm further along. Almost done with it," I told her.

Alice grinned and said, "Then let's hurry and finish up the last bit."

"Mmm."

I looked up to the sunlight coming through the branches again. Solus was past

the middle of the sky now. We'd been working in our secret spot here all

morning, so it seemed like we should probably head back to the village soon.

"Hey…we should get going back. Or we'll get busted," I said, shaking my head.

Alice pouted like a little child. "We're still fine. Let's stay a bit longer…just a

bit?"

"Well, fine. But only for a little while, got it?"

We called it a deal and spent the next several minutes absorbed in our work.

"All done!"

"Finished!"

Our voices overlapped, right at the same moment that the grasses rustled and

parted behind us. I spun around, hiding what I was holding behind my back.

Standing there and looking bewildered was a boy with soft flaxen hair cut

short to keep it under control—Eugeo.

His pure-green eyes blinked, and he said suspiciously, "I didn't see either of

you all morning. You've been here the whole time? What are you doing here?"

Alice and I hunched our shoulders and shared a look.

"Well, I guess he figured it out."

"See? I told you. Now it's all for nothing."

"It's not ruined. Here, just hand it over."

Alice grabbed the newly finished wooden sword from me and slipped it into

her leather sheath neatly—and behind her back.

Then she hopped forward toward Eugeo, gave him a smile as radiant as the

sun, and shouted, "It's three days early…but happy birthday, Eugeo!!"

The boy stared wide-eyed at what she offered him: a short sword of platinum

oak, in a sheath with white dragon stitching on it.

"Uh…it's…for me…? This incredible thing…?"

All I could do was chuckle now that Alice had stolen the best part of the

surprise away from me. "You said the wooden sword your dad bought you is

broken, right? So we decided…Look, I know it's not like the real one that your

brother has, but this wooden sword's better than any you'll find at the general

store!"

Eugeo reached out uncertainly and took the short sword in both hands, then

arched his back in surprise when he felt its weight. His face broke into a smile

just as big as Alice's.

"You're right…this is heavier than my brother's sword! This is amazing…I…I'll

take such good care of it. Thanks, you two. This is great…I've never gotten such

a wonderful birthday gift before…"

"H-hey…don't cry, man!" I shouted when I saw the shine in the corners of his

eyes. He rubbed at his face, claiming that he wasn't crying.

Then Eugeo looked right at me. He smiled again.

All of a sudden, his smile blurred and blotted.

There was an abrupt pain in my chest. A feeling of unstoppable nostalgia,

homesickness, and loss. The tears flowed without stopping, soaking my cheeks.

Alice and Eugeo were crying, too, standing side by side.

We all spoke together.

"The three of us lived the same era together."

"Our paths separate here…but our memories remain eternal."

"I will continue to live…within you. So, look…"

The vision of sun and shade vanished, and I was back on the top floor of

Central Cathedral.

"So, look…don't cry, Kirito."

Eugeo's arms went limp. His right hand hit the floor, and his left landed on his

chest. The prism's glimmering had nearly died out.

The scene that had just played out on the screen of my mind was my own

memory. I only remembered a single scene, but the truth of it, that Alice and

Eugeo and I had been childhood friends who grew up together and were

connected by an unshakable bond of friendship, filled my body with a warmth

that eased the pain of loss just a bit.

"Yeah…the memories are in here," I sobbed, pressing my fingers into my

chest. "They'll be here forever."

"That's right…And it means we'll be friends forever. Where…Kirito, where are

you? I can't see you…," Eugeo called, his fading eyes wandering, though the

smile never left his face.

I leaned over and clutched Eugeo's head with my one hand. My tears dripped

down onto his forehead. "I'm here. I'm right here."

"Oh…" Eugeo was gazing somewhere far into the distance now. His smile

looked very satisfied. "I can see it…glittering in the darkness…like stars…The

starry sky…that I looked up at…every night…from the foot of…the Gigas Cedar…

Just like…the shine…of your…sword…"

His voice was growing clearer, more transparent by the moment. It caressed

my very soul.

"In fact…I think your black sword…should be called…the Night-Sky Blade.

What do you…say…?"

"Yeah…it's a great name. Thank you, Eugeo."

I clung to my friend's body, which was getting lighter by the second. Our

minds were in contact, his final words rippling into the air like a droplet into

water.

"Envelop...this…little world…as gently…as the night...sky..."

The clear liquid trapped in his eyelashes transformed into light and

disappeared.

With what little weight he had left, Eugeo leaned back into my arms and

slowly closed his eyes.

6

Eugeo was standing in a dark, unfamiliar hallway.

But he wasn't alone.

Holding his left hand was Alice, wearing her blue dress, beaming back at him.

He squeezed her hand a bit harder and told his childhood friend, "I guess…this

was for the best."

Alice nodded vigorously, shaking the ribbon that held her golden hair in place.

"Yes. We can leave the rest to those two. I'm sure they'll guide the world in the

right direction."

"Yeah. So…shall we go?"

"Okay."

Somehow, he was back to his youthful form again. He and the girl his age and

height walked hand in hand down the hallway in the direction of the distant

light.

And in that instant…

The durability value of the human unit designated NND7-6361 dropped to

zero.

Upon receiving that signal, the program that controlled the Lightcube Cluster

issued a single order to the cube that held the corresponding fluctlight. The

interface faithfully executed its order, reinitializing the praseodymium crystal

structure.

Over ten billion cubits of photons glowed at once and dispersed.

A soul named Eugeo, who hadn't lived even twenty years of subjective time,

was freed forever from the little cube.

And at the same time, another lightcube located far away from his own was

similarly processed.

That lightcube, produced through improper system operation using memories

extracted from the soul named Alice Zuberg, was also freed from its crystal

prison.

Where the amalgamation of photons that made up those two souls

disappeared to was a question no one could answer.

7

I knelt in that exact spot where I'd been, until Eugeo's body and Alice's

memory fragment resting on his chest vanished into motes of light, the same

way Cardinal's body had.

How long was I there? The next thing I knew, the swirling tempest that

represented isolated space outside of the windows was gone, and the full starry

sky was back. Over the End Mountains on the far eastern horizon, the faintest

bit of violet heralded the coming dawn.

I lifted myself up, mind barely functioning, and approached Alice the knight

where she lay.

Alice's wounds were terrible to behold. Fortunately, most of the damage was

from her burns and not from blood loss. Her life had stopped its steady

decrease. I propped her up with my left hand, and although she didn't wake up,

her eyebrows did twitch, and a faint breath exhaled from her lips.

With Alice on my good arm, I slowly, slowly headed for the north end of the

room.

At this point, the crystalline system console there, sparkling artificially, was

the only object in the room that was undamaged in any way.

I laid Alice down on the floor and hit one of the see-through glowing keys. The

monitor lit up, displaying a complex management screen. The user interface

was almost entirely in "sacred script"—English—but a few presses of the screen

led me to what I sought.

CALL EXTERNALOBSERVER

I stared at the tab for a while. "Observers"—the ones who created, operated,

and watched over this world.

These people, the staffers at the tech start-up named Rath, had lied to me

only once—but it was the biggest lie imaginable.

In June 2026 in the real world, which felt like an eternity ago, I'd participated

in a long-term continuous test of their next-generation full-dive machine, The

Soul Translator, or STL.

The test period was three days. Through the Fluctlight Acceleration (FLA)

feature, the subjective time I spent in the VR world would be 3.3 times as long

as real time, or ten days in total. At the end of the test, they had blocked my

memories of the event to protect company secrets, or so they'd explained to

me.

But that was a lie. I hadn't dived into a test environment; they had sent me

into the same Underworld I was in now. And it wasn't ten days I spent here. I

estimated it was over three hundred times that amount…for a span of ten

years.

Yes, during that three-day test, I experienced an entire second childhood,

from infancy to the age of eleven, in a tiny village at the northern end of the

world. I spent every day playing in the mud with my best friends, the flaxenhaired boy and the golden-haired girl, and at the end of each day, we trudged

home along the riverbanks to the village, side by side.

Two years ago, when I'd just woken up in this place, I saw a vision of that

sunset at the bank of the river in the woods. When fighting against Eugeo, I had

a sensation of kids swordfighting. And just now, at the moment of Eugeo's

death, I saw the scene about the platinum-oak sword. These things weren't

illusions.

They were fragments of the memories that had been deleted, things I had

really experienced. I grew up with Eugeo and Alice in the village of Rulid, and I

had forgotten all about it until today.

Eugeo and Alice, too, couldn't access their memories of living with me. They

both got synthesized by the supreme ruler, but perhaps that memory issue was

responsible for both of them recovering their own free will from the process,

unlike the other Integrity Knights.

It didn't matter to me anymore why Rath would have inserted an outside

element like me into their civilization simulation. But there was one thing I

couldn't forgive.

I'd been there eight years ago.

I'd been there when Deusolbert had taken young Alice away.

Eugeo had blamed himself for that for years. He'd never stopped regretting

that he couldn't save her. And half of that regret should've been mine to

shoulder. But I'd forgotten the past…and I'd never understood the depth of

Eugeo's suffering until the moment he gave up his life…

"Nn…guh…khf…!"

Bizarre sounds escaped from my throat. I clenched my jaw shut as hard as I

could, my molars creaking and groaning with the pressure.

My stiff left hand rose, the fingers trembling, and pressed the button to call

an observer. A dialogue box in Japanese appeared with a warning sound.

Performing this operation will fix Fluctlight Acceleration rate at 1.0. Are you

sure?

I hit the OKAY button without thinking twice.

Instantly, the air around me felt viscous. Sound, light, all sensation extended

into the distance, then followed behind me. It was as though my actions and

even my thoughts were in super-slow motion for one brief, disorienting

moment—and then the sensation was gone.

In the center of the screen was a black window. In the middle of that was a

volume meter, just below the blinking words SOUNDONLY.

The meter twitched, producing a rainbow-gradient bar. Then it shot upward,

just as a rustling static noise reached my ears.

This was sound from the real world, I sensed.

The world on the "other side," where things were no doubt peaceful and

totally unconnected to the madness happening in the Underworld. The real

world, where this blood and pain and even death were merely events of

interest, at best.

A great storm of numerous emotions that I'd been keeping under control

came bursting up from inside me, rocking me where I stood. I leaned toward

the monitor and, in as loud a voice as I could manage, called the man who had

brought me to this place.

"Kikuoka…Can you hear me, Kikuoka?!"

If my hand could reach Seijirou Kikuoka or any of the other managers right

now, I might actually attempt to strangle them to death. Such was the helpless

rage I felt as I slammed my left fist against the marble table and screamed,

"Kikuokaaaa!!!"

Then a noise came from the screen.

It wasn't a human voice. It was a crisp series of percussions, tatatak,

tatatatak.

The first thing that popped into my head was a memory from years ago—the

sound of automatic submachine-gun fire in the VRMMO called Gun Gale Online.

But the other side of the screen was just a laboratory for Rath, a small tech

start-up. Why would I be hearing that from there?

But then I did hear a human voice. More than one…carrying on a tense,

shouted conversation.

"…can't, they've got position in the A6 corridor! I'm pulling back!!"

"Fight them off at A7, then! Give me time to lock the system!!"

There was more rattling. Here and there were sporadic explosions.

What is this…? A movie? Were the staffers streaming a movie in the lab, and

was I just picking up the audio from the speakers?

But then an unfamiliar voice said a very familiar name.

"Lieutenant Colonel Kikuoka, it's too late! We're abandoning Maincon and

shutting the pressure-resistant barrier!!"

A sharp, rich voice replied, "Sorry, hold out for two more minutes! We can't

lose this place now!!"

Seijirou Kikuoka. The man who'd brought me to this world.

I'd never heard him under such duress before. What the hell was happening

on the other side of the screen?

Are they under attack? Rath? But why…?

Kikuoka spoke again. "Is the locking process still going, Higa?!"

The voice that answered him was another one I remembered. That was

Takeru Higa, the Rath engineer who'd performed the test dive on me.

"Another eighty…no, seventy seconds to go…Ah…aaaaaah!!"

All of a sudden, Higa's voice turned into a shriek. Something had startled him.

"Kiku!! It's a call from inside! I mean, inside the Underworld!! This is…Ohhh!

It's him! It's Kirigaya!!"

"Wh…what?!"

Footsteps approached. Someone grabbed the mic.

"Kirito, are you there?! Are you in there?!"

That was definitely Seijirou Kikuoka. Holding back my confusion, I shouted,

"Yeah! Listen, Kikuoka…you monster…What you've done is—!"

"I'll listen to every last name you can call me later! Right now, you need to

listen to me!!"

He was in such a pressing panic that I actually stopped in my tracks.

"Listen very carefully, Kirito…You must find a girl named Alice! When you do…"

"Find her…? She's right here!" I shouted back, and now it was Kikuoka's turn

to be stunned into silence. Then he rushed back into his explanation, faster than

before.

"M-my God…that's a miracle! G-good…Then once this transmission ends, I'm

going to return the FLA rate to a thousand. You take Alice and head for the

World's End Altar! The internal console you're using now connects directly to

Main Control, but that's about to fall!"

"To fall…? What's going on there…?"

"I'm sorry—I don't have time to explain! Listen, to get to the altar, you have to

leave the Eastern Gate and head far to the south…"

Then the very first voice I heard came in again, very close by.

"Lieutenant Colonel, I closed the A7 barrier, but that only bought us minutes

at...No, wait, oh no! They've started severing the main power line!!"

"Oh man, that's bad! That's real bad!!" shrieked not Kikuoka but Higa. "Kiku,

there'll be a surge if they cut the main power now! The Lightcube Cluster's

protected…but the surge will hit Kirigaya's STL in Subcon…It'll fry his fluctlight!!"

"No…that can't be! There are numerous safety limiters on the STL…"

"But they were all deactivated! He's recuperating, remember?!"

What in the world were they talking about?

What was this about my fluctlight if the power went out?

A split-second silence fell, until Kikuoka broke it.

"I'll handle the locking here! Higa, you take Dr. Koujiro and Asuna and

evacuate to the Upper Shaft. Keep Kirito safe!!"

"B-but what about Alice?!"

"I'll raise the FLA rate to its max limit! We can think about the rest later! Right

now his protection is paramount…"

I hardly listened to any of the rest of their shouted exchange. One of the

names Kikuoka had mentioned struck my mind, rocking it like a storm.

Asu…na?

Asuna's there? At Rath…? But why?

I leaned closer to the console to ask Kikuoka. But before I could say anything,

the original voice let out a pitiful scream.

"I can't…They're cutting the power!! The screw propellers are going to stop—

all units brace for impact!!"

And then…I saw something strange.

White pillars of light, silently falling from far above and piercing the ceiling of

the cathedral.

All I could do was look upward at all the beams of light intersecting on me.

There was no pain, no impact, no sensation of any kind.

But I understood on instinct that I had suffered too much damage to recover

from. The light wasn't piercing my flesh; it was piercing my soul itself, it

seemed.

Something very important, something that made me me, was ripped into

pieces and vanished.

Time, space, even memory melted into an empty void.

I simply was…

Even that word lost its meaning.

And just before the ability to think itself was lost, I heard a distant voice.

"Kirito…Kirito!!"

It was a voice so nostalgic I wanted to cry, a sound that was maddeningly

precious.

It was…

Whose voice is that…?