In the distant intersection, the black rectangular body transformed into a human silhouette and began to cross the road. His arms held a red avatar, which had apparently lost consciousness.
Beyond the intersection was the next shadow. If Vise escaped into that, Haruyuki wouldn’t be able to follow him farther.
More. More. More speed.
A sense of hyper acceleration came over him, and the world changed color. The stretched-out time became a viscous wall, blocking the way forward.
More. More…
If you wish for it so badly…
Once more, that voice—he thought it had gone off somewhere, but again, he heard the voice of Archangel Metatron.
I shall lend you my power this once. Now call it out loud. My name.
In the top left of his field of view, a row of text in the system color flashed: YOU GOT AN ENHANCED ARMAMENT: METATRON WINGS.
In his accelerated consciousness, Haruyuki shouted, “Equip! Metatron Wiiiiiiings!!”
A pure-white light poured down from the heavens and hit his back. Another pair of wings formed above the metallic ones that were already there. Whiter than anything, thin like blades, but concealing a fearsome power: angel wings.
A dizzying propulsive force slammed into the entire body of Silver Crow, already accelerating with Incarnate. The tips of the fingers of his outstretched hands pierced the wall of time standing in his way.
“F…lyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!”
Four wings shining, Haruyuki became a beam of light and flew.
To be continued.
AFTERWORD
Thank you for reading Accel World 14: Archangel of Savage Light.
I, Kawahara, promised in the afterword of the previous book, Volume 13, that I’d be able to finish the Metatron attack arc in four volumes, that I definitely wouldn’t make it five. Those of you who have already finished reading the book by the time you read this afterword are aware that, while there is indeed an attack on the Legend-class Enemy Archangel Metatron, just two pages before the words you are reading now came the dreaded “To be continued”…
Whether or not, in the end, it can be said that the Metatron attack arc is complete, I would like to leave that decision to future historians— No, I’m sorry. It isn’t finished, is it? No matter how you look at it. This double-header with Seiryu and Metatron was not just an intense mission for Haruyuki and the others but for me as well…V-volume 15 will definitely…probably…
Now, then. All of that is to say that this was the first all-avatar edition in the history of AW (although strictly speaking, they did burst out for just a moment halfway through). The first part was at 12:20 PM real-world time, while in the last pages, it was probably around 12:20:57 PM, so this single book doesn’t even take a whole minute in the real world. Even I myself do wonder a little about this, but it might be a record for shortest time among all the Dengeki novels! It makes me a little happy to think about that— No, I’m sorry. I’ve learned my lesson. I’ll work hard to deliver the next volume as soon as I can, so I do hope you’ll join me just a little longer for the Metatron attack arc, now the ISS kit arc!
Changing the subject, I was invited to Sakura-Con, an anime convention held in Seattle, Washington, in the United States, so I crossed the Pacific Ocean for the first time in my life from the end of March to the beginning of April. I have far too many impressions to write them all down here in this limited space, but I was happily surprised at the fact that on the other side of the ocean, an incredible number of people in the US passionately love Japanese anime and manga. Unfortunately, the majority of light novels are not translated and published (including Accel and SAO), but I really do think how nice it would be if they were able to someday enjoy the original novels. I’d like to take this opportunity to extend my deepest gratitude to the organizers of Sakura-Con; everyone from Aniplex of America, who kindly attended; and Hirai from the Dengeki Editorial Division, who came with me from Japan.
To conclude, then, I sincerely apologize to illustrator HIMA and to my editor Miki, both of whom I inconvenienced at a more malicious level than ever in Accel history with the difficult journey due to the many, many characters appearing in this volume (a party of nine is simply too large…). And to all of you who have been kind enough to come along with me this far, the greatest gratitude in the history of Accel! Next time for sure, I will end it!
Reki Kawahara
On a certain day in April 2013
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