Their Battles, July 7Th, 2026 Ad / November 7Th, 380 He Part 3

Bercouli faltered, his center of gravity thrown off. He stepped on his own left

arm lying on the ground. It was the nasty, fleshy feedback he got from his foot

that snapped him back to attention before the pain did.

"Grgh…!"

He jumped again, putting more distance between them. The blood spilling

from the gaping wound on his left shoulder created a crimson arc on the lightcolored rock.

How can this be?

Just by pointing his sword, he could cause the mind itself to stop working?

Bercouli placed two fingers on his right hand against the wound on his

shoulder, still holding the Time-Splitting Sword, and thought rapidly. The

healing arts he activated without a command glowed blue and stopped the

bleeding. But there was not enough spatial sacred power on this desolate rock

to regenerate the arm that had been lopped off.

How do I counteract this?

Karagiri, the empty slice of his Perfect Weapon Control art, would not work

on Vecta again. He would just devour the Incarnate slash as it hung in the air.

The only skill remaining was Uragiri—his betrayal slice Memory Release

attack. There were two major issues with using that, however. One, the enemy

was not going to stand there and watch as he performed the lead-up motions.

And two, it was nearly impossible to narrow down which specific place to

strike…

Bercouli blinked to get the sweat from his forehead out of his eyes. In doing

so, he came to a sudden realization: I'm getting desperate. At some point, I lost

all my composure. My back's against the wall.

This is the place where I may die. The very tipping point between life and

death.

"…Heh!"

Bercouli Synthesis One, commander of the Integrity Knights, smiled with the

knowledge and certainty that he was was facing a true threat to his very

existence. His gaze moved from the steadily approaching emperor to the form

of the golden knight, Alice Synthesis Thirty, lying prone to the side of their

battle.

Little Miss…I suppose I wasn't able to give you the thing you truly sought after

—the love of a father. I don't remember my own parents at all.

But there's one thing I do know. A father is meant to die protecting his own

children.

"I suppose that's something…you'll never understand as long as you live,

monster!!" bellowed Bercouli.

And the oldest living knight charged, with no plan, no strategy, nothing but his

trusty sword in hand.

"Gah…uh…"

As she panted, blood spilled from her mouth, pooling on the ground at her

feet.

But Asuna stayed standing, using her rapier stuck point-first into the earth as

support.

She had managed to cut down the third and fourth waves of heavy lancers,

but she now bore over ten wounds in various places on her body. Her pearlwhite top and skirt were ripped and tattered, stained red by blood belonging to

both her and her victims.

The fact that her body could still move, despite the puncture wounds from

the lances, was impossible to believe. In fact, it was just the brutal fact of her

impossible hit point total that was keeping Asuna upright.

My body will give out when my mind does. And that means I will stay standing

forever.

She could barely feel anything anymore. The only sensation from her nerves

was burning heat that warped her vision.

When she caught sight of the fifth wave of spearmen through her dimming

vision, she pulled the rapier loose from the ground. She couldn't use nimble

footwork to evade anymore. She could only block the lances with her body and

hit back with sword skills.

The feather-light rapier was now as heavy as a leaden rod. She propped it up

with both hands, her front half bent, and waited for the enemy.

"Go!!"

Twenty lancers began to charge, the earth pounding with their footsteps.

Dmm, dmm, dmp-dmp-dmp-dmp…

The steps accelerated. And yet, a high-pitched vibration was coming from

somewhere.

Asuna found her gaze drawn upward.

There was a line stretching across the red sky. A very fine string of digital

code.

Enemy…reinforcements…?

"...Oh no..."

There was, at last, the smallest bit of resignation in her voice.

But…this line was not the same red color as the previous kind she'd seen. It

was a deep blue, like the color of sky just before the dawn.

She wasn't able to surmise what that might mean at this point. She just

watched, wide-eyed, waiting to see the result.

The line coalesced about ten yards up, flashed momentarily, and turned into

human form.

Vwom. The air buzzed, and the figure spun with blurred speed, then resumed

descending, roaring and rotating like a tornado.

The twenty lancers beneath the lowering figure were all stock-still, too,

watching it come down.

The dark-blue whirlwind descended lightly into their midst—and turned red.

It was blood. The tornado instantly severed the bodies of the soldiers,

splattering their pieces all around it. They collapsed outward from the circle,

and the spinning slowly stopped, returning the figure to human form.

There stood a tall, thin profile, facing the opposite direction. Polished

Japanese-style armor gleamed in the light of the sun. One hand was on a

sheath, while the other was extended fully to the side, holding a tremendously

long sword—a katana—in the follow-through of a swing.

Asuna had seen this attack before, in a different world.

It was a sword skill.

The heavy rotating katana skill, Tsumuji-guruma, meaning spiral wheel.

The figure straightened up again, lifted the long katana to his right shoulder,

and inclined his head to the side. A stubbled face with a lopsided grin showed

itself below a fancifully designed bandana.

"Sorry about the wait, Asuna."

"K…Klein…?" she rasped, though she never actually heard her own voice.

Everything was drowned out by the resonance of a multitude of vibrations

filling the sky. It was the exact same sound that the American players had made

when they appeared, but to Asuna, it sounded like a heavenly host of angels

singing.

Thousands of lines of code came hurtling down out of the crimson sky like

rain, glowing a vivid blue.

Slash.

Mind fades.

Then awakens from the pain.

It was a pattern whose repetition he had lost count of by now.

Emperor Vecta refused to deliver a fatal blow, as though he was trying to

extend the battle, but Bercouli was keenly aware that the blood he was losing

from his countless wounds, his very life itself, was running perilously low.

But he had spent over two centuries hardening and focusing his willpower,

and he used it to do just one thing at the expense of all thought and fear.

He counted.

Measuring time: Bercouli had the ability to sense time perfectly, and he used

this measuring ability to do nothing but count the seconds in his mind. Even

when the emperor's sword was muddling his thoughts, Bercouli's unconscious

stayed dedicated to the task.

Four hundred eighty-seven.

Four hundred eighty-eight.

As he added up the seconds, Bercouli repeated simple, straightforward

attacks. Occasionally, he added a provocation or two.

"…Looks like…your skill with the blade isn't much to write home about…Your

Majesty."

Four hundred ninety-five.

"You keep hitting me, but you still can't bring me down. You're only second…

no, third-rate."

Four hundred ninety-eight.

"Come on! I can keep going!!" he shouted, striking directly at his opponent.

Five hundred.

His sword brushed the bluish-purple light surrounding the emperor. It sucked

up his Incarnation, causing his mind to grow faint.

The next thing he knew, he had a knee to the ground, and blood splattered

onto the rock surface from a fresh wound on his left cheek.

Five hundred eight.

Almost there. Just a bit longer.

Bercouli stood slowly and turned around to face the emperor.

Vecta's face had never displayed any kind of emotion to this point, but now

there was a faint whiff of disgust on it. Apparently, a drop of Bercouli's blood

had flown over and landed on his pale cheek.

The emperor rubbed the red stain off with a finger and muttered, "I grow

tired of this."

He stepped forward into a puddle of Bercouli's blood.

"Your soul is heavy. It is too thick. It clings to my tongue. And it is too simple.

You think of nothing but killing me," he said, his tone flat. He took another step

forward. "Begone."

Viscous light collected around his black sword as he raised it in silence.

Bercouli did not change his expression. He merely clenched his teeth the

slightest bit.

Almost there. Thirty more seconds.

"Heh-heh…Don't get all huffy. I can still…keep going for a bit." Bercouli took a

few wobbling steps in the wrong direction. He lifted his sword unsteadily.

"Where…are you? Where did you go? Ah, over there…?"

The commander swung, his eyes empty and dull. The tip of the sword struck a

spot well off the mark, and he stumbled.

"Huh…? Or was it this way…?"

Another swing that didn't even raise a breeze. But he kept moving, dragging

one foot behind him. It seemed as though the loss of blood had robbed him of

sight and was making his thoughts hazy and distant.

But this was, in fact, a master class in acting.

Beneath his half-closed lids, his gray-blue eyes focused on one thing only—

footprints.

After ten minutes of fruitless attacking, Bercouli's blood was firmly splattered

all around the rocky mountaintop, which was not very big to begin with. The

emperor's boots and the knight commander's leather sandals left two very

distinct sets of footprints when they tracked the blood.

In other words, they were creating a detailed record of how the two men

were moving. And as he put on an act of being delirious, Bercouli was actually

looking for the most darkened and dried of the emperor's footprints, from the

moment he cut Bercouli's arm off, ten minutes earlier.

His unconscious timer started right after that moment. In other words, it

would be the place where Emperor Vecta had been standing exactly ten

minutes ago. His bloody footprints would tell the tale of which direction he'd

moved after that.

Five hundred eighty-nine.

Five hundred ninety.

"Oh…I think…I found it…," Bercouli murmured weakly. He wobbled side to

side and raised the Time-Splitting Sword for a strike at empty space.

It was, quite literally, intended to be his final blow.

There was little life left in either the weapon or its master.

Bercouli intended to consume all that was left to perform the Time-Splitting

Sword's Memory Release art.

Uragiri, the art of the betrayal slice, was different from the future-slicing

Karagiri, in that the ability to hold the slash's power in the air went into the past

instead.

The Underworld's Main Visualizer kept a record of each human unit's

movements for the previous six hundred seconds—ten minutes exactly.

The Time-Splitting Sword's Uragiri interfered with that log, confusing the

system into thinking that the target's locational data from ten minutes ago was

actually the present location.

As a result, a sword that appeared to cut through empty space would hit the

body of the person who had once existed in that spot. It was unavoidable,

unblockable, and a true betrayal of any and all technique and skill.

It was why Bercouli had resisted using Uragiri for years and years. Even in his

battle against Eugeo, when he'd fallen to the Memory Release technique of the

Blue Rose Sword, Bercouli had not used the move that would have given him

victory. Even knowing that Prime Senator Chudelkin would have labeled this a

betrayal of the Axiom Church.

But against Emperor Vecta, who used equally inhuman powers, he was not

going to hesitate.

When Bercouli had struck down Vecta's dragon, he'd utilized the enemy's

direct, unchanging flight direction to accurately estimate the coordinates of the

enemy's position ten minutes earlier. But in the messy, chaotic battle up close,

gauging those precise coordinates became remarkably harder.

Of course, he could pick a moment, memorize that spot, and wait ten

minutes. But that method meant that if he was prevented from executing the

move in any way, he would have to start counting to six hundred all over again.

Just like this moment.

"You're up to something."

Emperor Vecta slid over, and the waves of his darkened Incarnation extended

from his sword toward Bercouli. He had to avoid their contact, and this required

him to nimbly step out of the way. That ten-minute moment had passed,

forever out of reach.

I failed to execute it, he lamented, rearranging his grip on the Time-Splitting

Sword after he'd just been about to let loose with Memory Release.

He was totally out of ideas now.

Now that the emperor knew he had one final plan up his sleeve, he would

ensure that Bercouli could never make use of any major technique. His

longsword continued to extend that Incarnate light toward Bercouli.

But the commander persistently evaded the attacks for all he was worth.

He struggled.

He would struggle and struggle and fall in a miserable state. It was long in the

past that he'd decided that would be how he eventually died.

Three times. Four times. Five times, Bercouli avoided the emperor's attacks.

But at last, the dark light brushed his body.

His mind went blank for a moment—and when he opened his eyes again, he

saw Vecta's sword thrust deep into his own stomach.

When the blade pulled loose, the last of his life spurted outward as dark-red

liquid.

As the commander slowly toppled backward, he caught sight of a dragon far

overhead, tearing across the sky in a steep dive.

Hoshigami.

Come on, I told you to stay back and wait. You've never once disobeyed an

order of mine before.

A jet of blue-white fire shot from the dragon's gaping maw. The blazing beam

with the power to burn a hundred infantry at once descended upon Emperor

Vecta, who easily took the brunt of it with his left hand.

The smooth black gauntlet deflected the blast without trouble. Flames

bounced off and flickered away as they dissipated.

The emperor then unleashed the dark light from his sword and caught

Hoshigami's forehead with it. He had used this trick to take control over the

dark knighthood's dragon—but Bercouli's mount did not stop.

It plunged straight down for the emperor, its very life shining forth, dazzling,

from its outstretched wings.

Vecta grimaced. He pulled back his sword, then thrust it toward Hoshigami's

jaw, which rushed in to crush him. The blackened light tendrils squirmed and

raged, sucking up the dragon's life as they sliced its massive body here and

there.

Hoshigami's sacrifice bought only seven seconds of time—but Bercouli did not

let it go to waste.

With the full sensory knowledge that the trusty dragon he'd spent so many

years of his life with was breathing its last breath, the knight commander held

the Time-Splitting Sword high, shining blue with its Memory Release power.

Using the method of memorizing just the enemy's location ten minutes ago,

the chance to attack would arrive only once every ten minutes.

But if he etched that entire bloody footprint track into his memory, he could

continually follow the enemy's progress of exactly ten minutes behind.

Bercouli unleashed his very best swing at the footprint in blood that indicated

where Emperor Vecta had been just seven seconds after his prior failed target.

There was another feature of the Uragiri skill.

Because it interfered with the system itself, its power directly affected the life

total of the target. It was impossible to block or defend against with Incarnation

power.

So in this instant, even Emperor Vecta's ability to nullify and absorb all kinds

of Incarnate attacks did not come into play.

First, Vecta's vast sum of life as designated by the system changed to zero.

As a result of that, the emperor's body split entirely in half from left shoulder

to right hip.

Even as the two halves of his body slid apart, Emperor Vecta's expression

never changed. His pale-blue eyes just gazed into space, as empty as glass

marbles.

Just before his upper half made contact with the ground, pitch-black light

erupted from the location of his heart and jutted high upward, like a grave

marker.

When it subsided, there was nothing on the ground to indicate the existence

of the emperor at all.

A few seconds later, a delicate sound from Bercouli's right hand indicated the

final expiration of the Time-Splitting Sword, which crumbled into pieces.

…It's so warm.

I want to stay here just a bit longer.

Alice the Integrity Knight smiled, adrift in the weightlessness of sleep just

before proper awakening.

Wavering sunlight.

A large lap that supported her body.

Rough hands that gently caressed her hair.

...…Father.

How many years had it been since she'd rested on his lap? It had been so very

long since she had last known this feeling of security…of being protected,

without a care in the world, knowing that all was right and well.

But…I need to wake up now.

And so Alice lifted her eyelashes.

She saw the face of an older swordsman, his face smiling and downcast, eyes

closed.

There were countless old scars running along his thick neck and collarbones—

and atop them, many fresh new blade wounds.

"...…Uncle?"

Her mind was alert and working again.

That's right, I got caught by Emperor Vecta's dragon. How careless I was to let

that happen. I was just running like mad, without being cautious of what was

behind me.

But Uncle solved it. He saved me from the enemy leader. Everything's all right

as long as he's with us.

She grinned again and sat up, only to realize that the commander's wounds

were not limited to his face and chest. The breath caught in her throat.

His left arm was cut clean off his shoulder. The battle garb of the Eastern style

that he liked to wear was red with blood. And peeking out from where the front

first opened up, she could see a horrifically deep and gruesome wound.

"U…Uncle…!! Lord Bercouli!!" cried Alice, reaching out to him.

Her fingers brushed Commander Bercouli's cheek.

When she felt his skin, Alice learned that the oldest and greatest of Integrity

Knights was already gone.

…Now, now, don't cry, Little Miss.

You knew this moment was going to come sooner or later.

But the words that Integrity Knight Commander Bercouli Synthesis One said

to the golden-haired girl who clung sobbing to his corpse below did not reach

the ground.

…You'll be fine, Little Miss. You can handle it on your own.

I know you can do it. Because you're my only pupil…and my daughter.

The sight below grew more and more distant. Bercouli gave his beloved

golden knight girl one final smile and looked to the sky far to the north.

He sent a mental message to another knight who would be beneath that

distant sky. He had no idea if his thoughts reached her, but all that he felt in this

moment was a deep wonder and reflection that the end had finally come to his

seemingly endless life. He had found his moment to die.

…Well, it wasn't a bad way to go.

"That's right. You've got plenty of people who will shed tears for you. Be

appreciative of that," said a sudden voice. He spun around to see a girl floating

nearby, her naked form covered only by long, flowing silver hair.

"…Oh. You're still alive?" Bercouli remarked.

Administrator blinked her silver eyes and chuckled. "Of course I'm not. This is

the me that exists in your memory. The memories of Administrator you kept

stored in your soul."

"Hmph. I don't really get it. But…at least it's good to know that the you I

remember could smile like that." Bercouli grinned. He looked over and saw

Hoshigami there, stretching its long neck closer to nuzzle him.

The commander gave the dragon's silvery neck a scratch, then leaped up onto

its back. He reached down to help the pontifex into the seat in front of him.

The only master he'd ever served over the course of his long, long life craned

her neck to look back at him. "Do you despise me? I trapped you in a prison of

infinite time and stole your memories many times."

Bercouli thought the question over. "It was indeed an obnoxiously long time,

but I have to admit that it was a fairly entertaining life. I would say that's true."

"…Oh."

He looked away from Administrator and gripped Hoshigami's reins.

The dragon spread translucent wings and flapped them serenely, heading to

the infinite expanse of the sky.

Beneath the sky far to the north, on either side of the tremendous mass of

rubble that was once the Eastern Gate, the ten thousand members of the Dark

Territory's backup force and the four thousand members of the Human

Guardian Army's main force glared at one another.

Emperor Vecta was no longer among the Dark Army, so it was not possible for

his troops to attack of their own discretion, but the human realm's side did not

know that and had to remain alert. They had been in a stalemate for quite a

while.

A knight stood alone at the ruins of the gate, with nothing but the sound of

the dry wind rustling past. It was Fanatio Synthesis Two, the Integrity Knight in

charge of the guardian army's main force. She had instructed the men-at-arms

and priests to rest in preparation of the next battle, but she herself was in no

mood to sleep in her tent. So she went on a stroll out to the ruins of the Eastern

Gate.

The dark of night was retreating already, and the light of Solus made the sky

red on the Dark Territory side—and blue on the human half of the mountains.

Commander Bercouli and the decoy force had gone south into the Dark

Territory from the gate over half a day ago at this point. It was clear that their

mission was not going to be completed quickly or easily, but it was difficult to

just stand around and wait.

The least she could do was put her hands together to pray to the three

goddesses that the distant group returned safely.

Suddenly, Fanatio's eyes flew open.

She felt as though she heard the voice of the man she loved in her ear.

I'm sorry, Fanatio. Looks like we won't be seeing each other again.

The rest is up to you. Help them be happy…

They were the same words Bercouli had said to Fanatio when he'd left this

place.

She lowered her gauntleted hands to brush her lower belly. It was three

months ago that new life had begun to grow in her. For over a century, Bercouli

had steadfastly refused to touch her. Perhaps his decision to break that

personal vow was the result of a premonition: his own death.

Sensing that Commander Bercouli's long life had come to an end under

distant skies, Fanatio slowly lowered her knees to the ground and covered her

face with her hands. The sobs came tearing out of her, uncontrollable.

It was years and years ago that she'd heard why Bercouli distanced himself

from any woman, whether her or another.

In the Human Empire, only a man and woman in an official marriage approved

by an Axiom Church bishop could produce a child. Integrity Knights had the rank

of bishop automatically, however, so no ceremonial marriage was needed. They

could simply swear an oath of love and lie together to have a child.

But any child of parents who had received the life-freezing ritual would grow

old and die before they did. And asking the pontifex to perform the same rite

on the child would be cruel.

Bercouli only reciprocated how Fanatio felt about him after the pontifex's

passing. He had made up his mind to watch over his child in the limited time

they would have together. In which case…

"…Have no fear, Lord Bercouli. I will raise our child to be strong, brave, and

proud—just like you," Fanatio announced, stifling another sob.

But for now…For now, allow me to grieve.

Fanatio flung herself to the ground and wept, clenching the dirt that Bercouli

had trodden upon in his departure.

5

"I got no personal beef with you…"

Klein's voice echoed off the ancient ruins. He turned his katana toward the

army outfitted in red.

"…But you've gotta pay for what you did to my friend. You'll get it back three

times as bad…no, a thousand!!"

He charged at the enemy group. It was such a ridiculous and reckless move

that Asuna actually forgot about her devastating pain due to exasperation. The

next moment, however, another line of code rained down and formed a human

figure next to Klein.

It was a large, burly man with chocolate-brown skin and a huge battle-ax.

"…Agil!!" she rasped.

The fighting merchant, who had assisted the SAO frontline group with both

battle prowess and supplies, cracked a huge smile when he saw Asuna and gave

her a thumbs-up. Then he turned and raced after Klein.

Already, the third and fourth people to arrive were on the scene.

One was a girl with short hair wearing a dark-red costume with a breastplate

and a silver mace at her side. The other was a much smaller girl in a deep-blue

tunic and skirt with her hair tied up at the sides.

"Liz!! Silica!!"

At last, Asuna's eyes filled with tears. All the tension went out of her body,

leaving her just strong enough to stay standing. She stretched out her arms to

her companions, with whom she shared such a powerful bond.

"You…you came…"

"Of course we came!"

"What else would we do?!"

The two newcomers' faces crinkled into smiles, Lisbeth taking Asuna's right

hand and Silica squeezing her left. Their beaming expressions were soon tearful

as well.

"Look at what you've done to yourself…all covered in injuries like this…You're

pushing yourself too hard, Asuna."

"Let us handle the rest. Everyone showed up for you."

Just the presence of Lisbeth and Silica hugging her sides brought a warmth to

the pain Asuna felt all over, and she felt her aches melting away.

"Thank…thank you…"

Through her overflowing tears, the rain of code fell on the entrance to the

ruins. It led to hundreds of new warriors dressed in bright and varied colors.

"The red ones are the enemy!"

"Front line, charge! Push them back!"

"Rear line, pull back and check your spells!"

As soon as they landed, the new warriors traded calls in the language of the

Underworld—Japanese—and prepared swords, axes, and spears to meet the

oncoming enemy. It was clear from their impressive individual skill and orderly

group coordination that these were all experienced VRMMO players.

That's what it is.

At last, Asuna had enough functioning brainpower to put it all together.

When the American players had joined the battle, it meant that the

Underworld's Fluctlight Acceleration rate was set to one by the ship's attackers.

That meant that people from Japan could dive in with their AmuSpheres, too.

But the quality of the reinforcements' swords and armor made it clear that

they weren't using default soldier loadouts.

They had converted their characters.

It was the only explanation. They'd moved the characters they'd spent so

much time and effort into fashioning over to the Underworld.

Even though it wasn't clear at all if they could get them back to the normal

VRMMO world they came from. In fact, considering the way the Underworld

was designed, it was quite possible that every character would be permanently

deleted the moment they died!

"I'm…I'm sorry…I'm so sorry," she said tearfully to her friends—and to all the

fighters who came to help push back the enemy's front row.

"What do you mean, Asuna?" Lisbeth asked. Her voice was brimming with

absolute determination. "Everything that I've worked hard at in SAO and ALO

was meant to come into play right here—to protect what's important to me."

"Yeah…You're right...…Thank you...…"

Asuna let her head drop toward the ground.

There was still something left she didn't understand. Who had told Liz and the

rest about the Underworld's peril and recruited all these converted

reinforcements? It was hard to imagine that Kikuoka and Higa, trapped in the

sub-control room of the Ocean Turtle, would devise and carry out such a

strategy.

"…Liz, Silica. Who actually brought everyone here…?" Asuna asked.

The girls shared a quick glance, then broke into grins. "Shouldn't that be

obvious, Asuna?"

"It was Yui! Yui did her best to explain what was going on with the

Underworld and the people living in it!"

The instant she heard these words, Asuna felt something wrench the muscles

deep inside her. Tears flooded from her eyes.

Yui. The little top-down AI created in the old SAO—and Asuna and Kirito's

daughter. Of course…it could only have been her. She'd sensed the plan of the

attackers that Asuna and Kikuoka could never have foreseen, and she'd worked

to counteract it.

"...Thank you, Yui," she whispered with all of her being. When she stood up

again, her severed left arm was completely regenerated, and nearly all the

wounds and scars across her body were gone.

From over her shoulder came a timid, hesitant voice.

"Um…Lady Asuna? Who are those people…and those knights…?"

It was Integrity Knight Renly, who looked stunned by this development.

Behind him, the men-at-arms who'd just been saved were equally wide-eyed.

Asuna looked back and forth between Renly and the girls and gave him a

smile. "They're my very good friends and companions. They've come from the

real world to save us."

Renly blinked several times, then stared hard at Lisbeth and Silica. Eventually,

his youthful face broke into an expression of relief.

"Oh, I see…I'm so glad…I was under the impression that aside from Lady

Asuna, all the people from the outside world were fearsome warriors like the

ones in red…"

"Hey! Of course that's not true!!" Lisbeth scolded, scandalized, but she gave

him a warm smile and bopped him on the shoulder. "I'm Lisbeth. Nice to meet

you, Sir Knight."

"Uh…th-thank you. And likewise. My name is Renly."

Asuna had been watching this unfold with a warm glow inside of her, but now

there was something of a certainty within her: She would never forget this

scene for the rest of her life.

Two people born in different worlds had met, exchanged words, and begun a

personal relationship. It was a story that ought to last for a very, very long time,

and she couldn't let it end in sadness.

She took a deep breath and asked Lisbeth firmly, "How many people

converted in total, Liz?"

"Oh…right. I think it's just over two thousand. We tried our best…but

obviously not everyone was going to join us in this…" Lisbeth bit her lip.

Asuna gave her friend a pat on the back. "It's more than enough. But…we

don't want a battle of attrition, just in case there's a chance of reconverting.

Focus on healing and don't spread the line too wide. Liz and Silica, you should

take about two hundred to the rear to create a support battalion."

Focusing her mind on the battle ahead, Asuna gave quick orders to Renly and

the guards behind him: "While I'm sure it's not your first choice, I'd like you to

join the priests and use your healing arts. The real-world warriors are not used

to sacred arts, so it would be good of you to help teach them the ways."

"Y-yes, Lady Asuna! You heard her, guards! We're going to support these

reinforcement knights!" Renly cried out. Despite their deep fatigue after

multiple battles, the men-at-arms answered fiercely.

"…And what are you going to do, Asuna?" Silica asked. Asuna gave her a wink.

"I'm going to fight at the front, of course."

This time, Asuna knew she wasn't going to give in.

She raced to the front line and shared firm looks of understanding with those

familiar faces from ALO who had come to help—Sylphic Lady Sakuya, Lady Alicia

of the cait siths, General Eugene of the salamanders.

In fact, they weren't all ALO converts. The ones assisting the swordsmen with

extremely accurate crossbows were probably players from Gun Gale Online, like

Sinon.

And there, in a tight-knit group and mowing down enemies like a storm, was

the most powerful and experienced VRMMO guild of all, the Sleeping Knights.

When Siune the mage spotted her, she smiled, and Asuna waved back, feeling

the tears coming again.

They had all come to help, knowing that it could mean the loss of the avatars

that were another part of themselves. As the only one protected by a superaccount, she had to take the most risk and ensure that they suffered the fewest

losses possible.

Asuna raced along the battlefield, giving orders to the new arrivals, instructing

them to shrink the expanding line of combat, and rebuilding the semicircle of

defense around the entrance to the temple ruins.

The two thousand converted warriors might have great stats and equipment,

but there were over ten thousand American players still. In a war of attrition,

the number of dead—those whose data was lost forever—would only rise.

There was one other worry she could not ignore.

The sensation of real pain, an unavoidable part of doing battle in the

Underworld.

Unlike most of the Americans, who were already dead and logged out by the

time they would actually feel much pain, the Japanese players were going to

undergo a cycle of injury, retreat, and healing. Asuna had already experienced

for herself how that kind of constant agony could break one's will over time.

Please, everyone, hang in there. Just hold out until we can finish off these ten

thousand.

Then the attackers of the Ocean Turtle would truly be out of manpower to

send into the Underworld. All that would remain would be catching up to

Emperor Vecta, whom Commander Bercouli and Sinon were holding down, and

taking back Alice.

Her rapier flashing at the front line of battle, Asuna cried out, "It's all right…

We can win! We can win this working together!!"

It was a bit late for the Japanese VRMMO player by the name of Takashi

Hirono to be wondering what he was doing in this position.

He'd been awakened at five in the morning by a call from a friend. The reason

that he'd logged in to ALO and converted his character out of nowhere wasn't

because he had seen a cute girl desperately pleading her case or that he had

found it to be a moving one.

If anything, the biggest reason was "just because."

He was also a little bit curious to see what a VRMMO built on a government

budget would look like. There was a sense of abandon, too, because his first

major test in high school was terrible, so they were going to take away his

AmuSphere soon; he just knew it. And lastly, he had just a tiny premonition that

there might actually be something to this place that he hadn't found in any

other VRMMO he'd played.

Takashi converted the character he'd been working on for two years and

logged in to a server he'd never heard of before. The first thing he saw was a

huge man in red armor screaming in native English and swinging a halberd

toward him.

He jumped back, his scream catching in his throat, but the point of the

halberd hit his left leg armor, broke the plate, and dug a bit into his shin. He

hadn't felt this kind of pain since the time he fell off his bike in elementary

school and broke a bone.

You didn't say anything about this!! he wailed silently, doing his desperate

best to dodge further halberd attacks, and used his ultra-rare longsword to

defeat the large man somehow. He was about to throw up at the sight of real

blood streaming from the wound on his leg when someone dragged him back to

the rear, where the support battalion was located.

I hate this! I'm logging out! he screamed as his wound was attended to by a

girl around his age wearing a light-blue frock, likely identifying her as a priestess

class. Something about her struck him as very mysterious.

"I will heal you right away. Bear the pain just a bit longer, Sir Knight," she said

weakly. She put her hands on the massive wound—by Takashi's standards, at

least—and chanted a healing spell. At first, he thought she was an NPC.

But the diligence in her grayish-brown eyes, her winsome features neither

Eastern nor Western in appearance, and the warmth of the light that she

summoned to heal his wounds—all of them told Takashi that this was not an

NPC, or a Japanese person role-playing, but a real human who lived in this

virtual world.

Was that really possible? She spoke Japanese but wasn't ethnically Japanese,

and she wasn't an NPC. So what did that make her?

Somehow, it wasn't the searing pain of the halberd hitting his leg, but feeling

this girl heal that wound, that convinced Takashi he wasn't just taking part in

some promotional event but was in the middle of something momentous and

historic.

"There. You should be fine now, Sir Knight," said the girl in the robes, with just

a bit of pride in her voice. When she removed her hands, the two-inch-long cut

was completely sealed, with only the faintest light-brown scar in its place. He no

longer felt any pain.

"Th…thank you…," he managed to stammer. He felt frustrated that he

couldn't say something that fit the image of something a "Sir Knight" would say.

His face grew hot, and his tongue was heavy in his mouth. The next thing he

knew, to his great surprise, his arms were reaching out to grab the girl's slender

body and pull her toward himself.

If this were a normal VRMMO world, Takashi's actions would be recognized as

improper conduct toward an NPC, and he would be given a warning by the

system.

But the priestess girl just seized up awkwardly in Takashi's arms and sucked in

a startled breath. A few seconds later, Takashi felt her arms hesitantly circle his

back and give him some small measure of pressure in return.

"It will be all right, Sir Knight from afar," she whispered into his ear. "Even as

an apprentice sister, I am completing my duty, as meager as it is. You are

fighting with many times more bravery than I can. Please remember…that you

are swinging your sword to protect this world and its many people."

Then she brushed Takashi's back gently with her right hand.

It was the first time in Takashi's life that he'd ever hugged a girl, in either the

real world or the virtual world. But he had the feeling that even if he got a

girlfriend in the real world, he would never have a feeling that eclipsed what he

felt right here and now.

The dreamlike moment passed, and they pulled apart. Takashi summoned his

courage to ask, "Um…C-can you tell me your name?"

The apprentice priestess's white cheeks flushed just the slightest bit. "Yes…

my name is Frenica. Frenica Cesky."

"Frenica…"

It had a strange sound to it, but it was perfectly suited to the girl across from

him. Takashi introduced himself with uncharacteristic vigor—not his avatar's

name of Verios, but the birth name he didn't particularly like.

"…My name is Takashi…Takashi Hirono. Ummm…when this war is over, do

you think that I could see you again?"

Frenica's brows rose just a bit, but then her eyes narrowed warmly, and she

nodded. "But of course, Sir Takashi. When the war is over and peace returns to

the world, I would like that. I will pray to the three goddesses for your good

fortune in battle."

She took Takashi's hand in both of hers and rose to her feet. As he watched

Frenica spin around, blue robes swirling, and rush off to treat her next patient,

Takashi felt a powerful compulsion—to fight bravely until the end, so that he

might stand tall and proud when he saw her again. This world was not just

some game. It was another plane of reality, as weighty and worthy as the real

world Takashi had been born into.

Even if his hit points—his very life—should be depleted, kicking him out of

this world, he would be forward-facing until the end and continue swinging his

sword. No matter how much they wounded and hurt him. If he couldn't do that,

he would never see Frenica again.

Takashi got to his feet, shouted to pump himself up, and began running for

the front line of battle—not to complete a quest, but to fulfill his duty.