When the combat uniformed man leapt onto it, the mysterious winged creature beat its wings and left the ground, ascending to a height equal to Sinon’s.
The creature hovered at 30 meters’ distance from Sinon, and the man on top revealed a hint of a smile again.
For some reason, he raised his unarmed hands and extended them directly in front of himself. Sinon became alert, thinking that he was about to chant some sort of incantation. But nothing happened. The man merely encircled his arms together, as though around Sinon’s neck, then made a sudden motion as though he were crushing his arms together.
In that instant, Sinon finally remembered. A parched voice escaped from her mouth.
“…… Subtilizer……”
That was it. This man was the American player who had strangled her to death from behind during the finals of the Gun Gale Online PvP tournament — the «Fourth Bullet of Bullets», held two weeks ago.
But why would he be here?
Forgetting even the longbow she held in her hands, Sinon focused solely on her surprise, her eyes widening.
***
The middle of the pyramidal, self-sustaining artificial island Ocean Turtle was marked by an ultra-strong main shaft constructed from high-strength titanium alloy.
At the bottom of the hundred-meter tall cylindrical main shaft was the main machine, protected by a multilayered isolation wall — the pressurized water reactor. Above it was the occupied main control room, and STL Room 1.
Underworld, or rather, the focus of Project Alicization — the Light Cube Cluster, was directly above the main control room. The areas up to this point belonged to the lower shaft.
Above the Light Cube Cluster was a perfectly level, pressure-resistant partition that divided the main shaft into the upper and lower shafts. The area above the wall was deemed the upper shaft: first was a large number of cooling devices, and then came the sub control room where the Rath employees had retreated to, along with STL Room 2, which Kirigaya Kazuto and Yuuki Asuna were currently using.
On July 7, at 9:00 am, a humanoid robot began moving on its own along the cooling devices, down the stairs on the bow side of the ship’s upper shaft. It was the Rath-developed prototype machine «Ichiemom». As though they were watching it totter along, three armed JSDF members followed it.
— I’m so glad that I’m not claustrophobic, acrophobic, or nyctophobic.
Higa Takeru encouraged himself silently, but at the same time, he felt that having a phobia shouldn’t matter after all.
Because this duct, lit only by orange emergency lights, extended straight down for a full 40 meters. If his sweat-soaked hands slipped once, or his trembling feet missed a single step, he would plunge straight down onto the pressure-resistant partition that plugged this duct, and end up experiencing quite an unpleasant sensation.
If he’d known this already, he would have let the researcher, Yanai, go first. At least that way he wouldn’t need to keep staring down into the vertical well.
— By the way, he said he was gonna be my shield, but went “After you” when it was the real deal. What the heck?
Higa huffed somewhat indignantly and glanced a few meters above his head, where Yanai was grabbing onto the ladder.
However, upon seeing his already white face become even paler as he clung to the ladder for dear life, Higa didn’t have anything more to say. Yanai’s willingness to accept such a dangerous mission should already be praised, and the automatic handgun stuffed into the holster on his waist was more or less a relief.
When he turned back downwards, the earpiece in his left ear transmitted a steady voice.
“How is it, Higa-kun? Everything okay?”
The voice belonged to Koujiro Rinko, who was peeking into the access hole above their heads.
Higa replied hoarsely into the microphone beside his mouth.
“Ah… yeah, kind of. About five more minutes and we should be able to reach the pressure-resistant partition.”
“Got it. When you guys are ready, I’ll send the assault command to Ichiemom team. You guys should open the partition only after the enemy starts attacking Ichiemom when they spot it.”
“Roger. Wow, this really feels like Mission Impossible.”
“Oh pleeease, make this mission Possible. I can’t help but feel that how the situation changes in Underworld is all on Kirito-kun’s recovery… Sorry, Yanai-san, please watch over this kid.”
The last bit was directed towards Yanai. Once Higa heard Yanai whimper “Roger” in reply, he couldn’t help but chuckle bitterly.
— “This kid”, huh?
He shook his head and tightly gripped the iron ladder rung with his palms, which had somehow become sweaty.
Looking directly downwards, he found that the partition had, at some point, come into view.
***
Critter had been dully watching the gigantic, writhing cloud on his monitor, condensed from the Chinese and Korean players who had dived in, but a sudden alarm made him jump up.
“The heck…?!”
He scanned the console in a panic, and discovered that a red alarm was flashing on a side monitor to the right.
“Whoa… The pressure-resistant partition was unlocked! S-Someone go take a look at the duct!!”
Before he even finished shouting, the tall assault team member Hans grabbed his assault rifle and bolted outside.
“Fuck, there goes my good hand!”
Brigg muttered while tossing his full suit of playing cards onto the ground, then ran outside after Hans.
Had Rath, who were at a crushing disadvantage in terms of equipment and firepower, thrown the helve after the hatchet and begun a banzai charge? Or were they plotting something else…?
Critter left the console and walked towards the control room door. The power to the elevators had been cut, so he would have to use the stairs if anything were to happen. Hans and Brigg seemed to have come to the same conclusion; the loud stamping noises of their feet on metallic stairs traveled from above.
But the footsteps suddenly halted, replaced by coarse shouts.
“Woah!!“
“Are you kidding?!“
Then came a burst of rifle fire.
***
Higa could already feel a clear ratatatat coming from outside the duct; gunfire from an automatic rifle.
At that moment, on the other side of the main shaft, poor Ichiemom’s muscle membranes and titanium skeleton had probably been riddled with innumerable holes. However, his battery and control system were installed on his back, so even if he were hit, he should still be able to move for a bit.
“All right! Open the hatch on the pressure-resistant partition now!”
As Professor Koujiro’s voice traveled into his earpiece, Higa threw his entire weight into twisting the valve of the pressure-resistant hatch dividing the duct. With a psshh, the hydraulic damper began to move, and the heavy metal cover lifted upwards.
The other side of the partition, located in the duct of the lower shaft, was also illuminated by dark orange emergency lights. The commotion coming from the battle raging in the stairwell on the other side of the main shaft suddenly became much clearer.
Higa swallowed, readjusted his backpack that contained his mini portable laptop, and passed through the access panel that was narrower than the duct itself. Then, he stepped onto another ladder, and continued down.
— In this sort of moment, people in action movies would be yelling dramatically.
“Go go go!!“
He muttered, and Rinko’s confused voice came through his earphone.
“Um, what did you say?”
“N-Nothing. …About ten meters to the cable maintenance port… Ah, I see it, there it is!”
The numerous thick fiber optic cables spread along the wall of the cable duct all terminated at a black fuse box. If he plugged in his laptop into the maintenance port inside, he could theoretically control Units #3 and #4 inside STL Room 2, and also Units #5 and #6 far away in t
he Roppongi branch, directly.
— Just wait, Kirigaya-kun. I’ll have you awake in no time!
Higa forgot his fear, and as he frantically descended the ladder, a voice came through his earphone again.
“Then I’ll go back to the sub control room to monitor Kirito-kun’s Fluctlight. Good luck, Higa-kun!!”
Being praised by Professor Koujiro — whom he once called Koujiro-senpai, in a way that seemed to transport him back their college days, made Higa look upwards in spite of himself.
But all he saw was Yanai, who was climbing down the ladder with a face full of desperation.
Higa sighed helplessly in his heart, then looked again towards the fuse box, which was drawing ever closer.
***
Having appeared atop the mountain still scarred by an intense battle, the man in combat uniform looked southwards and murmured in a monotonous voice:
“… Alice got away? No matter, I can catch up to her quickly…”
Then he looked to Sinon again, and smiled slightly.
“… As I remember, we should’ve fought before in a Gun Gale Online tournament. Your name is… «Sinon»? Who could have imagined that we’d meet again in such a place?”
Listening to the inhuman voice of that man, who was Dark God Vector and Subtilizer at the same time, Sinon desperately tried to stop her hands from shaking. But her fingers had stiffened, her palms were drenched in sweat, and she felt that if she made any sudden moves, even the Bow of Solus would drop to the ground.
Standing on the back of the disc-shaped, winged creature, Subtilizer smiled a temperature-less smile, and continued in fluent Japanese.
“What exactly is going on? I heard that there were no more STL units in Japan… Could you be an associate of Rath? Or rather, a mercenary who would even come to a place like this?”
With difficulty, Sinon urged her dry lips to move and demanded hoarsely:
“Subtilizer… I want to ask you, why are you here?”
“Because it is inevitable, of course.”
Subtilizer spread his arms wrapped in gray combat garb, seemingly unable to suppress the glee within him, and continued:
“This is fate. The power of the soul that has drawn you and me together.”
His tone was slowly changing. His very voice seemed to grow icier and icier.
“Yes… I want you. That is why we are meeting again. This will explain a great deal to me. Whether my target, whose soul I absorb through the STL, is limited to Artificial Fluctlights, or includes humans from the real world… I will also fully understand the sweetness of your soul, which I was unable to taste during that GGO tournament.”
As Sinon listened to these bizarre words, the words that this man had spoken to her during the fourth BoB finals echoed in her mind.
— Your soul will be so sweet.
— Your soul will be so sweet.22
Her body grew increasingly cold, she became taut, and even her breathing turned erratic.
“Come… to me, Sinon. Give your everything to me.”
An icy glow gleamed within Subtilizer’s blue eyes.
Zzt. The world distorted.
Air, sound, and even light were all being twisted and absorbed into Subtilizer’s eyes.
“Wha……… “
What was this?
Even thoughts like that seemed to be dragged away by a powerful magnetism.
— No. I have to resist. I have to fight it.
A corner of her spirit screamed, but for some reason it felt incomparably weak.
Finally, even Sinon’s blue-armored body was sucked towards Subtilizer’s open arms.
The powerless fingers of Sinon’s left hand desperately pulled back the bowstring, wavering silently in midair.
Seconds later, through her muffled, cloudy consciousness, Sinon felt her own body become wrapped in Subtilizer’s darkness.
The man’s left hand found her back, his right hand grazed across her face and brushed her hair away from her ear.
Subtilizer’s thin, thin lips approached her exposed left ear, and that voice like icy black water drilled directly into her brain.
“Sinon, have you ever thought of the meaning behind the name «Subtilizer»?”
“…………?”
Utterly powerless, Sinon shook her head from left to right.
“It very much resembles a name, «Satori», that an American would be fond of and change to their liking, doesn’t it? However, this is genuine English. It is spelled «Subtilizer». It refers to «one who refines», «one who carves», «one who selects»… and «one who steals».”
Light even more intense than before suddenly exploded from Subtilizer’s eyes, now directly in front of Sinon’s face.
“I will steal you. I will steal your soul…”
***
The place where Jo Wol-saeng landed was atop a rock covered with cracks and moss.
This wasn’t a natural rock, but a man-made object. He appeared to be on the rooftop of a gigantic temple-like structure. His surroundings were choked with Korean players who had just logged in, and they seemed to number in the thousands… probably the tens of thousands.
Since there hadn’t been a character selection program, everyone’s equipment was different, be it in the details or the weapons, but they were all colored a uniform crimson. Wol-saeng glanced at his own hands for a bit, which were now wrapped in gauntlets of the same color, then looked forward.
Although he couldn’t really discern his location since he was in the midst of a crowd, he could still see that a battle was raging on the plains in front of the temple.
But the Korean players around him didn’t move either, probably because the outcome of the battle was already decided. The group of people dressed in multicolored getups, who looked to be the Japanese players, seemed to have already completely annihilated the legion clad in the same red as Wol-saeng and the others. They had already reorganized their troops, but they didn’t seem to be celebrating in any way.
He knew it. Something was off. But he was unable to immediately articulate what.
At the very least, it didn’t look like a promotion event for a new game, like he had imagined before diving in. This area, with only a red sky and black ground, looked much too simplistic, and the complete absence of any user guidelines or warnings before he had dived in didn’t indicate the presence of an official event at all.
But even so, he was still unable to completely believe what he had read in the tweet. Besides, what meaning was there in invading a test server and killing test players? Even if they could wreak temporary suffering and humiliation upon them, they wouldn’t be able to stop, or even delay development of the game.
Nearly half the Koreans around Wol-saeng also looked bewildered about the situation. Voices saying “What do we do?” “Are those guys really Japanese?” were heard.
— But, just then.
“Comrades!”
A shout in Korean came from ahead, to the right.
Wol-saeng strained his back to see, but because he was blocked by too many players, he couldn’t see what the speaker looked like. However, he did catch a glimpse of a red logo, [Leader], hovering above someone in the crowd. The same voice rang out from the direction of that logo.
“Thank you very much for answering our call! — Regrettably, the closed beta testers who were testing inside this server have already all been killed by the Japanese aggressors, no, the Japanese invaders! But those guys are still preparing to head for other test points and repeat their crimes!”
In the next moment —
Wol-saeng felt palpable anger emanating from this group of several thousands.
What incensed the Korean players had probably been the word “invaders”.23 The confusion and suspicion that had been plaguing quite a few players immediately evaporated, replaced with a boiling hostility that covered the entire area.
“… BIGEOBHAN ILLBONIN!“
Someone bellowed, then bits and pieces of enraged yelling w
ere heard. After the hubbub subsided, that «Leader» declared again in a carrying voice:
“Those Japanese hacked our server, and created high-level equipment for themselves to their hearts’ content! And we, who have had our administrator privileges stolen, can only give you default equipment, comrades! However, your righteous and patriotic fervor will not lose to any sword or armor!”
At this, an even louder roar of assent exploded from the crowd.
“ULI NALALEUL JIKYEOLA!“
Then, from very far away to the right, a wave of furious roars that were not in Korean came thundering over.
“GANCHUU RANMEN!”
Wol-saeng couldn’t understand what it meant, but he recognized it as Chinese. It seemed that the number of Chinese players here as well was no less than that of the Korean players.
Even as the atmosphere intensified profoundly, Wol-saeng still felt very uneasy. But at the same time, he knew that no one could stop this fervor now.
Behind the human wall, the «Leader» raised his black gloved right hand high in the air.
“——— Go!!“
Receiving this command understood by both Koreans and Chinese, the red legion, burning with a blazing conflagration of rage, advanced forward like a gargantuan creature, trembling violently as it went.
***
“Hu… Human Empire Army! Supply team!
Advance at full speed—!”
Asuna shouted herself hoarse before the red army choking the palace rooftops left and right made their move.
The Human Empire Defense Army’s supply team currently had an encampment set up near the sando entrance of the ancient ruins. The temple stretched out on both sides of the sando. In other words, several tens of thousands of enemies were currently entrenched directly above the supply team.
“Dump your goods and run now, carriages and Arts Users!!”
Even though she gave that order, it was already too late. The new connector stepping into the battle, likely Chinese and Korean, had already crossed over the giant god statues’ heads and leapt directly into the center of the supply team.
Sword Art Online Volume 17 - Alicization Awakening Page 17