“B-But… they are right behind……”
Before his words finished—
“Gihii——!!”
A vulgar roar rang through the entire plaza.
“Wheree!! Where did you go, white iumss!!”
The ones who broke through the thick fog as they rushed into the plaza were goblins clad in coarse plate armor with long feathers on their heads, holding machetes similar to lumps of metal in their right hands. These seemed of a different tribe, having a slightly better physique when compared to those who appeared from the side streets earlier and were incinerated by Amayori’s flames.
Alice stared at the demi-humans as she placed her right hand on her cherished sword’s grip. Flying dragons could not fire their heat rays in succession. Alice had to face the enemy on her own until Amayori stockpiled the thermal elements within herself again.
One of the goblins noticed Alice who was clad in golden armor, and the colors of bloodthirstiness and lust welled up in his eyes shining golden as he cried out.
“Gihii!! A ium giirl! Kill heer! Kill her and eat heer!!”
Quietly taking on the demi-human who charged straight towards her while brandishing a machete with his abnormally long arm, Alice murmured deep in her chest.
—What a terrible power I was given. My very existence is practically a sin.
This body of an integrity knight.
“Gyaa——!!”
The heavy machete swung down as he leapt and was caught by Alice who carelessly extended her left hand. Though she felt an immense impact through her naked palm, it neither broke her bones nor tore her skin. Gripping the blunt blade with her five fingers, she crushed it as though it was nothing more than thin ice.
Even before the metallic fragments, broken and scattered far too easily, fell to the ground, the Fragrant Olive Sword was already drawn by her right hand and tore a horizontal line through the goblin’s torso.
The bright golden air from the sword swept in three goblins approaching from behind and blew away the cluster of dense vapor as well in no time at all. The four enemy soldiers’ golden eyeballs were peeled open, as though unaware of what had occurred, while their upper body left their lower body before they could let out a single word, collapsing haphazardly onto the ground.
Avoiding the blood that shot up a moment later, she muttered to herself within once more.
—Highest Minister Administrator. You were wrong, after all.
—You collected all this power into merely thirty integrity knights and made them puppets without a will of their own. You thought to grasp all of the power that should had been split between the masses of the Human World through that. However, this far too ill-distributed strength served only to delude and mislead both its owners and those around them. Like how you were swallowed by that overwhelming might and lost your humanity…
That mistake was now beyond redemption with the loss of the highest minister.
Thus, at the very least, she had to expend every last drop of this strength for the masses.
Not as an integrity knight of the Axiom Church, but as a single swordswoman; she had to think on her own and fight on her own will. Like how those two brave swordsmen did.
Her left eye was shut throughout that swing; Alice opened it with resolve.
At the same time, the defense line hastily built at the plaza’s north was smashed into small pieces from the other side.
The invaders’ main unit charged in as though to bury the wide main streets. The goblins numbered over fifty and were accompanied, though in lesser numbers, by orcs whose giant, plump frames were covered in thick iron armor, each with a trident in a hand.
Upon seeing them whose golden eyes gleamed, aflame, and roars filled with hate and desire, moans of despair leaked from Jink, the other guards, and Nygr Barbossa.
But Alice’s heart was at ease.
She relied not on the talent for battle she obtained as an integrity knight. Not even a knight could escape with light wounds if they were to surround by such numbers and stabbed by their spears.
What gave Alice strength was a new realization.
—I will fight for what I, myself, seek for from now on. I will fight to protect my little sister and my parents, along with the people of the Human World who Kirito and Eugeo hoped to protect.
Alice vividly felt the remaining doubts about herself and her sense of futility disappear into a white light deep in her heart. That light surged through her, finally accumulating at her right eye, covered by that black patch, and generating an intense heat.
“………!”
She clenched her teeth as she withstood a fierce pain that shot to her eye socket from the back of her head. But that pain somehow nostalgic, or heartrending. Alice gripped the bandage across her head with her left hand and took it off all at once.
Her right eyelid that had been closed since that day nearly half a year ago opened slowly. A red light expanded from the center of her dark vision and eventually turned into flicking flames. Visions of houses lit aflame overlapped and gradually closed in on each other—finally finishing as one.
Alice looked at the black cloth held in her left hand with both eyes.
Kirito made the eye patch, discolored from being washed many times, by tearing it from his clothes. The cloth that protected her for months ever since her right eye shot away along with that seal might have finally reached the end of its Life here as it began to disappear from its edges as melting into the air. Alice came to a realization while staring at that fleeting, beautiful sight.
She thought she was looking after Kirito who had lost his right arm and heart through this half-year. However, she was actually the one protected instead.
“…Thank you, Kirito.”
Pressing the black cloth to her lips immediately before it utterly vanished, she whispered softly.
“…I am fine now. I will likely still be at a loss, worry, and lose heart in the future… but I will go on. For us both to achieve our goal.”
Her head flipped up just as the cloth disintegrated.
Her two eyes gazed at the distinct sight of nearly a hundred goblins and orcs letting out a multitude of roars as they flooded forward. The fleeing footsteps from the guards and Nygr Barbossa echoed from behind.
There was no fear in Alice’s heart as she faced the enemy army on her own.
Breathing the burnt stench deeply, she yelled.
“—I am a knight of the Human World, Alice!! None of the blood or slaughter you seek shall happen while I stand here!! Return to your land through the caves you came from this instant!!”
As though awed by her refined, distinct shout, the goblins running at the head slackened slightly. However, a large orc in the middle of the group, possibly the general, immediately brandished his two-handed axe with a brutal roar.
“Graaahh!! «Cut-Feet Moricca» here will have that one little white ium girl on her knees before long!!”
The voice gave strength to the goblins. Alice put a decent amount of distance between her and the enemy army charging in as a massive black wave—
“Amayori!”
A huge shadow rapidly dived from the skies the moment she called out that name. Though the thermal elements accumulated were not enough for firing the heat ray yet, the flying dragon intimidated the demi-humans with her body and thunderous call while savagely skimming past their heads. The anxiety of the astonished enemy army rose beyond earlier.
Not letting that chance escape, Alice raised the Fragrant Olive Sword held in her right up high and shouted.
“—Enhance armament!!”
It was half a year since she last chanted those words of the «armament full control art», not to mention how she shortened the main body of the art, but Alice’s beloved sword responded to her will. The golden blade divided into countless small edges with a clear metallic noise and soared into the night sky while reflecting the fires’ glow.
“Rage—flowers!”
The golden storm of flow
ers fell upon the enemy army with numerous zaas.
The first to be wrapped in a spray of blood was the orc general who called himself Moricca. His entire body was stabbed through by many petals, instantly robbing him of his Life, and he fell onto the ground with a tremor. The orcs around him, too, bent down onto the ground with screams one after another.
The Fragrant Olive Sword was a sacred tool among sacred tools with the world’s oldest tree rooted to the core of the Human World before the world began as its source. As its alternate name, «Eternal Immortality», implied, even when divided into hundreds of flower petals through its armament full control art, each held a priority on par with famous swords forged by artisans. Coarse cast iron armor could not possibly defend against them.
The invaders became restless at losing their main force, including their general, in an instant. The charge’s momentum weakened before long and came to a stop around ten mel from the plaza.
Alice sharply swung her right hand that held her sword’s grip at the goblins lined up at the front, lost at whether to obey their greed or fear. The hundreds of petals danced through the air with light zaas, forming dense vertical stripes between Alice and the enemy army.
Alice gave a subdued proclamation while gazing at the demi-humans through the fence gleaming golden.
“This is the wall separating the Human World and the Land of Darkness. Even if you dig through the caves, you will not defile this earth as long as we knights live. Choose—to advance and fall into a sea of blood, or to retreat and flee back to the Land of Darkness!!”
Not even five seconds passed before the goblin vanguards turned back with great force.
3
A vibrant ensemble of hammers whirled up into the clear, blue winter sky.
Alice lifted her hand to her brow and looked at circular Rulid Village towering beyond the wheat fields.
Today marked a quick one week since the army of darkness’s assault.
Many of the houses built in the north of the village were burnt down, but with the village chief’s decision to put nearly every villager’s sacred task on hold to work on that, the progress of their reconstruction was rapid. Twenty-one of them had unfortunately escaped too late and lost their lives, and a joint funeral service was held for them at the church three days earlier.
After attending the service as she was requested to, Alice rode her flying dragon to the northern cave to confirm its status.
The long cave that should had been collapsed on Bercouli’s orders was dug out to such an extent that even the orcs’ giant frames could easily pass through and the area closest to the Dark Territory showed signs they camped over many nights.
The attackers did not hollow out the cave in a single night. They must have repeatedly collapsed the entrance after sending into a party of combat engineers from the Dark Territory. Thus, there would have already been a concealed group of goblins within, steadily working at it, when Integrity Knight Eldrie checked the entrance.
Care and wariness unbelievable from the goblins and orcs of old. This invasion could be surmised to be no mere reconnaissance, like those done many times before, by that alone.
Instead of collapsing the cave once again, Alice dammed the small river flowing from middle which previously served as a white dragon’s nest for a time and completely flooded the interior of the cave. Next unleashing the countless cryogenic elements she generated beforehand, she sealed the cave with ice rather than stone.
Now, no one could pass the cave without an art user on par with Alice generating thermal elements to melt the ice.
Taking her sight off Rulid Village and the white mountain range at the edge rising beyond it, Alice fastened the last bag of her belongings to Amayori’s left leg.
“Erm… big sister.”
Selka, who had been helping out with her preparations for departure with an adamant smile so far, opened her mouth while looking downwards.
“…Father actually wanted to see you off too. He was all absent-minded since today morning, you know? …I believe he must have been glad inside that you came back, big sister. I want you to believe in that at least.”
“I know, Selka.”
Alice hugged her little sister’s petite body and whispered in return.
“I left this village as a heinous criminal and returned as an integrity knight. But next time… when I am done with all my duties, I will be back as simply Alice Schuberg. That would be when I truly can say this. I am back, father.”
“…Okay. That day will come for sure, right?”
Selka murmured with a watery voice, raised her face, and then wiped it with the cuff of her apprentice clothes.
Turning about, she called out to the black-haired young man sitting on a wheelchair by the side with as cheery a voice as she could muster.
“You stay well too, Kirito. Hurry up and recover and help big sister out, you hear me?”
Holding his lowered head with both hands, the sister, young in terms of age, drew a charm of blessing before she took several steps back.
Alice approached Kirito, then gently took the two swords from his arms and stored them in the bag placed on the saddle on Amayori. Following that, she lifted Kirito, who had grown thin, easily and sat him down on the front part of the saddle.
She did ponder leaving Kirito in the village under Selka’s care. After all, if they were to proceed to the Great East Gate which would likely become the decisive battlegrounds against the forces of darkness, Alice would be occupied as a member of the Human World Defense Army and unable to attend to Kirito throughout the day like what she had been doing.
But still, she decided to bring him along.
Kirito definitely tried to take up his sword and head for the village on the night of the attack a week ago. The will to fight for another still remained within Kirito. Thus, the battlegrounds to protect the Human World could be where best to find the means to regain his former spirit.
Should the need arise, she would protect him even if it required her to strap him to her back with leather.
Alice gave her little sister whom she held dear one last firm embrace.
“…I will be going, then, Selka.”
“Yes. Take care… and be sure to come back, big sister.”
“I promise. …Please give my regards to Garitta-san too. …Stay well and focus on your studies.”
“I know. I’ll become a fine sister for sure… and one day, I’ll also…”
Selka trailed off there and showed a disheveled, tearful smile.
Gently stroking her little sister’s head before releasing her, Alice endured her reluctance to leave as she walked to her beloved dragon and rode immediately behind where Kirito sat on the saddle.
She nodded to her little sister on the ground and faced the blue skies.
The reins lightly rang out and the dragon began her ground run between the wheat fields with strength that showed no sign of the two humans and three swords weighing her down.
She would definitely return to this village one day.
Even if she were to fall on the battlefield, her spirit would still return; it surely would.
Alice shook off a drop of tear in her eyelashes and yelled out in a crisp voice.
SAO 15 - Alicization Invading Page 10