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 ha
lting 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.
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