Alicization Turning

by Reki Kawahara

  In the center of his right-eye vision, now dyed a pale red, was a shining circle of sacred letters in the color of blood, rotating to the right. It said, SYSTEM ALERT: CODE 871, but he had no idea what it meant.

  But Eugeo could sense that this was some kind of seal. A magical seal placed deep in his eye that prevented him from moving, now and eight years ago, forcing him to comply with the law. This was why he had only been able to stand and watch as Alice was taken away.

  “Urgh…hrg…aaah…!”

  He desperately clung to his consciousness, trying to prevent it from leaving him altogether as he concentrated on the crimson seal. And on the other side of that vision, the sight of Raios and Humbert, preparing to pierce the bodies of those girls with their own.

  It was unforgiveable. Absolutely unforgiveable. He turned that hatred into the strength to move his arm. The blade slid along the sheath. As it did, the sacred letters grew larger and rotated faster.

  “N-nooooo! Eugeoooo!!” Tiese screamed.

  “Rrraaaahhhh!!” Eugeo roared.

  A silver light exploded in his right eye, and the eyeball burst from the inside with a squelching sensation.

  Even the loss of half his sight did not register to Eugeo as he yanked on the hilt of the sword. The blade was glowing bright blue, even before it came out all the way—the Aincrad-style secret technique Horizontal.

  Raios caught its lightning flash out of the corner of his eye and dipped down just in time. The sword caught his hair as it dropped, slicing the fibers free.

  But behind him, Humbert was too slow to react. He halted just before he entered Ronie, swayed left, and then gaped at what he saw.

  “Aah…”

  A brief shriek was cut short as he raised his left arm in reaction—and the Blue Rose Sword caught it directly on the elbow.

  There was no physical feedback. But the blade cut straight through Humbert’s left arm, the loose half spinning through the air until it landed on the fine carpet.

  No one moved or made a sound. Eugeo paused at the finish of his swing, feeling the pain in his nonexistent right eye.

  After an eternity, the raised stump of Humbert’s arm sprayed a gush of blood. Most of it landed on the shining sheets, dyeing them red, but some of the liquid landed on Eugeo’s left side, spotting his dark-blue uniform.

  “Ah…aaah…aaaaaah!!”

  The guttural shriek burst out of Humbert’s throat. His eyes bulged, staring at the blood spurting out of his severed elbow.

  “My…my arm…my arm! Blood…all the blood…! My life…my life is draining away!!”

  At last he had the presence of mind to squeeze the stump with his remaining hand, but that did not stop the blood. The liquid continued gushing onto the sheet, seeping over toward Raios next to him.

  “R-Raios! Sacred arts! No…the normal kind won’t work in time! Life…Share your life with me!!” he pleaded, reaching out with his bloodied hand. Raios ducked away from it and got off the bed. Tiese and Ronie were unable to process what had happened and lay on the sheets, expressions blank.

  “Raios, give me liiiife!” Humbert wailed, but Raios merely looked at him in surprise and cold impassivity.

  “Stop squealing, Humbert. You’re not going to lose your life over a single arm…or so the readings suggest. Tie up the wound with that rope to stop the bleeding.”

  “B-but…”

  “More importantly, did you see that, Humbert?”

  Humbert was trying to wind the two ropes holding the girls’ legs together around his arm now, expression desperate, but Raios turned away to look at Eugeo, who was kneeling at the end of his swing. The nobleman’s tongue flicked out and wet his lips.

  “That country bumpkin there cut off your arm. It’s tremendous, fantastic…I’ve never seen someone break taboos this way. I was hoping for an act of rudeness at best…and I got a violation of the Taboo Index itself!! Truly fabulous!!”

  Raios spun around, his open robe swaying, and walked to the wall on the other side of the bed. He pulled down a large longsword in a red leather scabbard. “Ordinarily, only lower nobles and residents of our holdings are the targets of judicial authority…but certainly that limitation doesn’t apply to a taboo-breaking criminal!”

  He looked even more excited now than he had when he was about to attack Tiese. Raios drew his sword. It gleamed like a mirror as he held it up with his right hand.

  Outside the window, an especially loud blast of thunder sounded. Purple light caught the blade and glinted in Eugeo’s left eye. It was clear that Raios Antinous intended to render Eugeo’s judgment with that sword—to kill him. But Eugeo couldn’t move. Even after violating the Taboo Index, with his right eye blown out by that mysterious seal, he was too shocked to hold up his sword, or even move, after the stunning impact of his attack on Humbert.

  “Hah…heh-heh-heh! It’s too bad, Disciple Eugeo. I really was looking forward to facing you at next month’s testing match. Who could have seen that our parting would come in this manner?” Raios said, his voice lilting with mad joy. He stepped forward. Then again.

  Through his blurred left eye, Eugeo saw the sword rise high.

  He had to move; he had to avoid his almost certain death. But on the other hand, another voice told him it didn’t matter anymore. The dream of being an Integrity Knight and seeing Alice again was dead. His sword had tasted human blood, and he was a criminal. But at least he saved Tiese and Ronie. Neither Raios nor Humbert would try to hurt them anymore. So at least his terrible crime had achieved one meager good.

  “Heh, heh-heh…even I have never cut off a man’s head with my sword before. I doubt even Father or Uncle has done it. This will make me stronger…far stronger than even that cocky Levantein heir.”

  Again, Raios’s sword and face glowed, followed by another burst of thunder. On the floor, Humbert was cradling his lost arm, but he looked up, briefly forgetting his pain, while, trapped on the bed, Tiese was trying to say something.

  Eugeo smiled back at the primary trainee who had worked so hard at being his page for the past month, then hung his head.

  “Disciple Eugeo—no, Eugeo the Guilty!! I, Raios Antinous, third-rank noble son, hereby sentence thee to judicial authority!! Give up all of your life to the gods…and do penance for your sin!!” Raios announced. His blade roared.

  Gwiiing! A metallic crash. Eugeo waited, but no sword landed on his neck. He raised his head—and saw.

  Right in midair, Raios’s sword had met another…a pitch-black blade that held it in place. The sleeve around the arm hanging over his head was also black. The intruder’s hair, slick with rain—black.

  “Kiri…to…” Eugeo mumbled. He’d gone all the way to the primary trainees’ dorm to look for the girls, and yet he was here. His partner mouthed the word Sorry. Then he stared forward at his opponent.

  “Remove your sword, Raios. I won’t let you hurt Eugeo.”

  Raios sneered hatefully as he recognized his foe, but the smile eventually came back. “At last you arrive, Disciple Kirito. But sadly, you are too late! That bumpkin there is no longer even a citizen of the empire, much less a student here. He is guilty of breaking the Taboo Index! I, Raios Antinous, third-rank noble and first-seat elite disciple, have the authority to pass judgment on his crime! So stand back and watch as this criminal’s head falls from his shoulders…just as your flowers fell!!”

  In contrast to Raios’s long and haughty speech, Kirito’s response was far shorter and heavier.

  “I don’t care about your taboos and noble rights.”

  His eyes gleamed as they stared at Raios. He didn’t bother to wipe away the water dripping from his bangs. “Eugeo is my friend. And you are scum, lower than the goblins of the land of darkness.”

  Shock appeared first on Raios’s face, followed by hatred, then a savage joy. “My goodness…What a shock! So both of you hayseeds were agreeable enough to commit treasonous crimes together! Now I can eliminate the both of you. What a glorious day…Truly, Stacia smi
les upon me!!”

  He pulled back his sword and held it high again. This time, he clutched the handle with both hands and turned sideways, long robes rustling. When he crouched, the blade glowed a blackened red color: the High-Norkia secret technique, Mountain-Splitting Wave.

  Without realizing it, Eugeo tried to get to his feet as soon as he saw the stance.

  During his duel with Volo Levantein a few months ago, Kirito had bested that same attack with the four-part Aincrad skill Vertical Square. But Raios’s attack seemed to swirl with a wicked, twisted energy that he’d not seen before. It wouldn’t have the skill that Volo’s technique did, but Raios’s burgeoning noble pride was feeding it a terrible strength of its own.

  Sensing that even Kirito couldn’t handle this alone, Eugeo desperately tried to get up, but he could not will any power into his legs.

  Suddenly, he felt his partner’s hand push on his shoulder. “It’s all right,” Kirito murmured, moving Eugeo against the wall. Once back in place, he gripped his sword with both hands, like Raios did.

  This action stunned Eugeo, even through his quickly fading wits. Like the Zakkarite style, Aincrad style was almost entirely one-handed—and none of the secret arts were two-handed. Besides, both Kirito’s sword and the Blue Rose Sword didn’t have the handle length for two…

  “……!!”

  Suddenly, understanding struck, and Eugeo gasped.

  The handle of Kirito’s black sword grew, emitting little tinging noises. In fact, it wasn’t just the handle—the blade itself was expanding in both width and length. Not as big as Raios’s massive sword but a good five or six cens longer than Eugeo’s.

  Kirito held his enlarged black sword above the waist on his right side. It buzzed, vibrating the air, and glowed a jade-green color. That wasn’t Aincrad style. It was the Serlut style’s Ring Vortex—a move he’d seen at the testing matches last year.

  “Kah! Ka-ha-ha…So in your desperation, you turn to mimicking the work of others?! My greatest technique will shatter your measly attempt!!”

  “Come on, Raios! You’ve earned enough debt; now it’s time to pay up!!”

  Both swords roared with power, lighting the small bedroom in red and green.

  Humbert, huddling on the floor in the back; Tiese and Ronie, now sitting up on the bed and clutching each other; and Eugeo, kneeling along the wall—all silently watched the two swordsmen.

  It was a fight between elite disciples—a showdown they would have seen at next month’s testing match, if not for today’s events. The next bolt of lightning was the signal to start.

  “Kyeaaaaa!!” Raios screamed, and brought his sword down.

  “Seyaa!!” Kirito belted, slicing upward on a diagonal.

  Red and green trails of light clashed in midair, rumbling the floorboards and blowing all the glass windows outward. As he stared at the intersection of the black and silver blades, Eugeo understood why Kirito hadn’t used the Aincrad style.

  The speedy but light single-handed attacks would not be enough to stop a double-handed High-Norkia technique. It would require leaping away at the moment of impact to disperse the shock, then chaining together more swings after that, but that wasn’t possible without the space of the training hall. Maybe in the common room next door, but Kirito had no choice but to fight here to protect Eugeo. That was why he chose to use the Serlut two-handed Ring Vortex.

  “K-Kirito!!” Eugeo gasped, his throat parched, right as Kirito fell to his left knee. The black sword was being pushed backward, creaking with the pressure. Raios’s eyebrows and the corners of his mouth had risen as high as they could, and he screeched with triumph.

  “How’s that…? How do you like that?! You miserable, inferior peasants!! Why would you ever think you could get the better of Raios Antinous?! You might be able to bring dead flowers to life with some occult arts, but your parlor tricks will not affect my sword!!”

  The glow infusing Raios’s blade shifted from red to filthy black, spreading from the weapon up his arms and around his body, his robes and golden hair rippling. Kirito’s position was pushed back near to his original stance, the green color on his sword flickering weakly.

  “Kiri—” Eugeo started to say, then stopped.

  Ring Vortex, overpowered by Mountain-Splitting Wave—he’d seen this exact sight before.

  Yes, from this March, at the final match of the previous elite disciples’ testing tournament. Volo’s powerful sword had pushed Sortiliena down to one knee, just like Kirito was now…and then…

  “Hraaahh!!”

  Kirito roared again. The brilliant jade color flashed through his black sword once more, brightening the room. It was a combination of two single-use attacks. That was how Liena had defeated Volo in the end.

  Normally, all secret techniques came to a halt if their form was broken. The only extension to their power came if the sword was pushed back along the same trajectory it initially followed. Liena saw it happen during Kirito and Volo’s duel, then mastered it in just half a month—a dual use of the Serlut style’s Ring Vortex.

  Kirito had been Liena’s page, but since she graduated right after the final testing match, he couldn’t have had time to learn this right from her. He had made her technique his own, just from seeing it performed.

  This was the proper way of a disciple and page.

  This was the true nature of the sword.

  Tears welled in Eugeo’s left eye. They were tears of admiration for this incredible feat and tears of longing that he could have learned more in his short time. Through his blurred eye, he saw Kirito’s second Ring Vortex snap Raios’s sword in half…

  And then it severed the first seat’s hands, well above the wrist.

  When Raios toppled onto the carpet, landing on his behind, he stared dumbfounded at his nearby broken sword half and the hilt piece, still clutched in his two loose hands. Eventually, his eyes traveled back to his own arms. They extended from his red sleeves, severed clean before the elbow. Jets of blood erupted from the sheer cross-sections, spilling more red on his chest and belly to match the color of his robe.

  “A…aah…aaaaaaaaahhh!!” Raios screamed, his eyes bulging as far as they could go. “My…my arms!! My arrrrms!! The blood…the blood!!”

  Just minutes ago, Raios had coldly told Humbert to stop whining and staunch the bleeding himself—apparently he was not made of sterner stuff himself. His eyes swiveled here and there until he at last spotted Humbert huddled a short distance away, and he tottered over on his knees.

  “Humbeeeert!! Blood!! Stop my bleeding!! Take off your rope and tie my arms!!”

  While Humbert typically acted like he was Raios’s servant at these moments, he was unable to acquiesce in this instance. He cradled his own left arm, tied around several times with that special red rope, and shook his head in rapid motions. “N-no! If I t-take this off, my life will drop!!”

  “What?! Humbert! You dare defy my orders…”

  He stopped abruptly.

  The two ropes used to tie up Tiese and Ronie were both tied around Humbert’s stump. To stop the bleeding in Raios’s arms, he’d need both. But without any treatment to stop his bleeding, removing the ropes from Humbert’s arm would make the blood flow again, decreasing his life. And that—the intentional or unjustified lessening of another’s life—was a grave breach of the Taboo Index.

  “But…my blood…Humbert, you…Taboo…But…my life…” Raios babbled in a panicked falsetto. He looked back and forth frantically from his own gushing blood to the ropes tied around Humbert’s wound.

  As the heir to a third-rank noble family, Raios Antinous was placed in a hard spot, forced to choose between his own life and the Taboo Index. An amalgamation of his own swollen self-importance, he naturally valued his own life above anything else. But at the same time, he could not disobey the absolute authority of the Taboo Index. That would make him no better than Eugeo, whom he’d attempted to execute.

  “Aaaah! Taboo…Life…Blood…Tabooooo…!” he wail
ed.

  Kirito approached him, then stopped two mels short and reached out for Tiese and Ronie on the bed. He touched their shoulders to reassure them, nodded, then started to untie the rope that bound Ronie’s top. Eugeo assumed he would use it to stop Raios’s bleeding, but the knot was very tight. All the while, the first seat’s howling and thrashing grew more frantic.

  “Bluh…Tab…Lie…Ta…Live…Tab…” he grunted, back arched, barely forming words anymore. Kirito untied the rope at last and took a step toward the flailing man.

  “Life, tagboo, live, daboo, dab, da, da, da-da-da-da—”

  Raios’s voice was turning abnormal. It sounded less human than animal, perhaps, or like the repetition of some broken tool.

  “Da-da-da, dah, dah, dih, dil, dil-dil-dil, dildildildildi”

  The sound cut off.

  Raios Antinous toppled straight backward. The blood was still flowing from his severed arms, meaning that he still had some essence of life left, but Eugeo sensed that Raios was no longer alive.

  Likewise, Kirito, Tiese, and Ronie—who had been untying the other girl’s ropes—were all frozen in shock. It was Humbert who first approached Raios to examine his strained rictus of a face.

  “Aiiiie!” he screamed in terror. “R-R-Raios is…d-d-dead! K…k…killed…killed!! M-murder…Mo…mo…monster!!”

  He crawled away from Kirito, then got to his feet, knees quaking, and rushed out into the common room. After that he exited to the hallway, as his footsteps and shrieks faded toward the stairs.

  Eugeo had no idea what would happen next or what they should do. So many things had happened in such short succession that even his exploded eyeball seemed trivial. For now, he returned the Blue Rose Sword to its sheath and somehow managed to stand.

  He met Kirito’s eyes, nodded without a word, then plodded toward Tiese on the bed.

  Then his feet stopped. Eugeo was a criminal now, guilty of cutting off Humbert’s arm in violation of the Taboo Index. To that sixteen-year-old girl, he might be just as bad as Raios…perhaps even more detestable.

  He slumped his head, unable to look up at her, and started to back away.