It was the end of the eleven-part OSS, Mother’s Rosario.
A purple flash like a shooting star penetrated PoH’s chest. The black-clad personification of death flew high into the air and came crashing down heavily a good distance away.
Asuna fell to a knee again, having spent all her mental strength. Inside her head, she said once again, Thank you, Yuuki.
She did not hear a response this time. Perhaps it was only ever a phantom hand and phantom voice created from Asuna’s memories. But given that this was a world built out of memories, that meant it was no illusion.
Normally, the OSS Mother’s Rosario shouldn’t be usable. Even if Higa and Kikuoka implemented the sword-skill system from the original SAO, it was Asuna the undine from ALO who’d inherited Mother’s Rosario. Stacia-Asuna hadn’t been converted from that character and wouldn’t contain the data of that skill.
Yet, the OSS executed properly, visual effects and all. If that was the power of Asuna’s imagination bringing it to life, then the encouragement from Yuuki coming back from her memory was real, too. Memories never vanished.
PoH’s avatar was still lying prone on the ground. But it was impossible to imagine that he had taken an eleven-hit combo skill with GM equipment and survived. Unlike the other players, he was connecting with the STL, so even if he died, his body wouldn’t disintegrate. It would remain here for a time, like those of the humans and the darklanders from the Underworld.
She got to her feet, using her rapier for support, then turned to check on Klein. He still had the swords in his stomach, but the three players keeping him captured had taken their distance, and like the fourth knight who’d rushed to intervene, they watched her in disbelief.
Asuna wanted to go to Kirito as soon as possible, but first she headed for Klein to remove the swords and heal his wounds. But no sooner had she taken a step or two than she sensed a faint rumble through the earth.
She held her breath and turned around again.
PoH was on the ground, completely immobile. But the Mate-Chopper, still in his hand, emitted an eerie light with swirls of red and black. In fact, it seemed that the air of the entire battlefield was slowly rotating around the knife.
“Oh no…it’s absorbing the sacred power!!” shouted Sortiliena, who stood at the front of the human army.
Asuna gritted her teeth and started to move toward the malignant blade so she could destroy it once and for all. But before she could get there, the Grim Reaper in black rose to his feet, as though pulled upright by the floating weapon.
The front of the poncho was greatly damaged, exposing his figure and his tight leather suit. There was a huge hole in his chest where the final blow of the OSS had struck, through which the background behind him was visible.
The Underworlders exclaimed in fright when they saw PoH standing despite his entire heart having been blasted out of his chest. Even the Chinese and Koreans were unnerved by it, and they assumed this was just another VRMMO world.
Most likely, the Mate-Chopper was absorbing the tremendous amount of spatial resources in the air and converting them into HP for PoH. But even with that assumption in mind, Asuna couldn’t stop herself from trembling.
PoH was diving through The Soul Translator. He had to be feeling the exact same level of pain as he would in the real world. Asuna felt mind-obliterating pain from being pierced through the side with a spear. She couldn’t imagine what it would feel like to have an enormous hole blasted through the middle of her chest.
But the god of death just grinned with blood dripping from his lips—and bellowed in a voice loud enough to shake everything within hearing distance:
“My brethren! This is the true nature of our foe! Kill every last one of your feeble traitors…and every filthy Japanese, too!!”
He spoke in Korean, but somehow Asuna was able to accurately recognize the meaning of his every word.
PoH’s Mate-Chopper shot its dark-red aura from its raised position to the ends of the wasteland.
Ohhhh…
Ohhhhhhhhh!!
Half of the combined Chinese and Korean army raised their swords in similar fashion and roared with ferocious gusto. There was nothing Asuna could do now to stop them from attacking the more peaceful faction…or from attacking the few Japanese survivors and the remaining Underworld soldiers.
Suddenly something pushed her, and she fell to the ground. The damaged rapier came loose from her grip and tumbled onto the dry soil.
Far, far ahead, a black-haired young man reached his one arm toward her, struggling with every fiber of his being.
“……Kirito,” she whispered.
Asuna reached out to her beloved in return and awaited the end.
7
It was just a brief nap in the middle of the classroom, but when I woke up, it felt like the longest dream I’d ever had.
A dream that was fun and painful and sad. As I walked down the empty hallway, I tried to remember what had happened in it, but nothing was coming to me. Eventually, I gave up on it and changed into my regular shoes at the shoe lockers inside the school entrance. Outside of the gate, the dry, chilly autumn breeze rustled my shaggy bangs.
I shifted my book bag to my left shoulder, stuck my hands into the pockets of my school trousers, and began to walk, head downcast. Up ahead, students from the same school were chatting and laughing. I stuck the earbuds from my audio player in to shut out the sound of their hopes, dreams, love, and friendship; hunched my back; and headed home.
At the convenience store on the way home, I stopped to check out this week’s gaming magazines and bought the one that had the longest special preview of Sword Art Online, the game that was about to launch in a month. I also added some funds to the digital-currency account I used to play online games.
That was an intermediate step I could remove by just getting a credit card, but after I brought it up with my mom, she said that I couldn’t have one until I was in college. I couldn’t complain about that, though; I was fortunate enough just to get an allowance each month. I wasn’t even her real son, after all.
I walked out the automatic doors of the store, imagining a blissful post-cash world where everything could happen electronically. Then I noticed that there was a group of five people squatting in a corner of the parking lot who hadn’t been there when I walked into the store—they must have shown up while I was distracted by the magazines. They laughed and yelled and scattered empty bags of junk food around them.
Their uniforms marked them as belonging to my middle school, but I ignored them and made to leave, of course. Before I could get away, one of them saw me and stared with interest.
He was so small that if not for the uniform, he might look like he belonged to an elementary school. We were in different classes, but I recognized him. In fact, he had even been my friend for a time.
He and I had both played in the closed beta test for Sword Art Online over summer vacation.
It was practically a miracle that out of a thousand lucky testers, two were chosen from the same year at the same middle school. Enough of a miracle that a totally antisocial loner like me heard the rumor and reached out to make contact.
Our interaction started just before vacation, and it lasted until the end of vacation—technically speaking, to the end of the beta. Once every three days or so, we formed a party together in that virtual world, and we got along well enough, but once the new school term started and I saw him at school for the first time in a month, I had a sudden flare-up of my odd personal tic: I began to wonder Who really is this person anyway? when I supposedly knew them well already.
It was a sensation that inside the flesh-and-blood person across from me was a total stranger. Once that happened, I couldn’t actually get any closer to them. At times, it even happened with my own family.
He seemed to want to keep being friends with me, both in the full release of SAO in October and around school in the real world. Eventually, he caught on to the way I was acting around him, thoug
h, and he drifted away. We hadn’t spoken once since then.
Why was he here now, loitering in a convenience store parking lot with students of a type we’d normally never be associated with? The reason became clear from the penetrating gaze he was giving me and from the words the boy with the bowl cut the color of flan next to him said to me.
“The fuck you lookin’ at, huh?”
Instantly, the other three glared at me, mouths puckered, uttering threatening comments like “Aaah?” and “Huuuh?”
It seemed clear that the more boisterous members of his class had singled him out, choosing him to be the weakest link of their group and an easy mark to run errands for them and lend them money. He was looking to me for help.
All I had to do was say, Hey, let’s walk home together. But I couldn’t do it. My mouth wouldn’t move to make the sounds.
Instead, the only thing I could squeeze through my throat, which felt as if it were sealed with glue, was “…Nothing.”
Then I abandoned the boy I’d called friend just a month ago, and I started walking on my way. He didn’t say anything, but out of the corner of my eye, I thought I saw his childish face screw up like he was about to burst into tears.
I quickly left the lot and headed down the road, away from the evening sun, my back hunched with shame. I walked and walked, saying nothing, staring at the asphalt below my feet. The sun set behind me with alarming speed, shrouding me and the town in purple darkness. The familiar route home began to feel like a totally unfamiliar place. No people or cars came down the road. The only sound was my footsteps.
Step, step, step………shuk, shuk, shuk.
“Huh…?”
I came to a halt. Somehow, I had walked off the asphalt and onto short grass. I wondered whether there had been any unpaved ground on the way home from school and looked up in confusion.
What I saw was not a residential street of Kawagoe City, Saitama Prefecture, but a small path leading through a deep, unfamiliar forest.
After looking at my surroundings, I examined myself. The black school uniform I’d been wearing was gone, replaced by a navy-blue tunic and leather armor. I was wearing fingerless gloves and short boots with metal rivets. Over my shoulder was no longer the bag I took to school, but a short and rather heavy sword.
“Where am I…?” I wondered, but no one was around to answer. I shrugged and began to walk down the forest path.
In less than a minute, my memory began to prickle. The shape of the ancient trees with the twisted branches. The sensation of the growth underfoot. This was the forest to the northwest of the Town of Beginnings on the first floor of Aincrad, the floating castle. That meant I would arrive at Horunka if I followed this path.
I needed to get to town so I could rent an inn room. I just wanted to get into bed. I wanted to sleep again and not have to think.
The only light on the forest floor as I walked and walked was the hazy moonlight. But suddenly, I heard a faint cry up ahead—or at least, I thought I did?
I paused, then resumed walking. The trees opened up ahead on the right, allowing the blue moonlight to illuminate a side path. Again, I heard a cry—and the creaking growl of a monster.
I picked up the pace as I approached the break in the trees, then peered around a thick trunk. There was a spacious hollow up ahead, almost like a rounded stage. Creepy silhouettes writhed in the unbroken moonlight of the clearing.
There were five or six plant-type monsters that looked like giant pitcher plants whipping their sharp tentacles around. A young man dressed in an outfit similar to mine was surrounded by them. He swung his sword around desperately, but no matter how many of the tentacles he sliced through, they simply grew back with no end.
I recognized his profile.
He had formed a party with me for the purpose of efficiently collecting the items these plant monsters dropped. His name was…was…Kopel. But why was he surrounded by so many of them?
Whatever the case, he was a companion of mine, so I had to save him.
But once again, my feet would not move. For all the success I had in trying to get them to act, they might as well have been rooted to the ground.
A tentacle swept Kopel’s feet out from behind, and he toppled onto the grass. The monsters’ sinister grins revealed rows of human teeth, and they opened and closed their jaws loudly as they descended upon him.
Kopel looked to me with despair in his eyes and reached out a hand.
But just as quickly, he was overrun by the swarm of monsters, and a moment later, I heard the faint burst of his avatar and saw a blue light peek through.
“Ahhhh…,” I groaned, letting my face fall, the same way I had when I had abandoned my friend outside the convenience store.
In time, I slowly stood back up, looking at nothing but the grass around my feet. I turned and walked down the narrow path again. My footsteps were the only sound in the moonlit forest.
Shuk, shuk, shuk………tok, tok, tok.
I came to a stop. Somehow, the short grass underfoot had changed to bluish stone blocks. I looked up and saw that I was no longer in a forest on the first floor of Aincrad but in some unfamiliar dim hallway. Probably somewhere in a labyrinth…but from the appearance, I couldn’t tell what floor. All I could do was keep walking.
Barely even cognizant that my equipment and sword had changed, I walked silently down the corridor. And walked and walked, as though chasing my own shadow cast by the lanterns set into the walls. The labyrinths of Aincrad were about a thousand feet across at the largest, so there couldn’t have been a hallway this straight and long. But I never stopped or turned back. I just kept walking.
Eventually, I heard a faint voice coming from up ahead. It wasn’t a scream; it was a shout of happiness. Multiple cheers followed in its wake.
The voices seemed familiar, nostalgic. My pace picked up a little as I rushed for the source of the cheering.
In time, I reached an opening in the left wall, through which warm-yellow light shone. I kept my legs moving all the way to the entrance, though they felt heavy and tired now, for some reason.
I peered around the side and saw a surprisingly spacious room. Along the far wall, four players stood with their backs to me.
Even without seeing their faces, I instantly knew who they were.
The one with the wild hair and the odd hat who used a spear was Sasamaru.
The tall mace-user with the shield was Tetsuo.
The smaller dagger-user with the beanie was Ducker.
And lastly, the short-haired girl with the short spear…Sachi.
They were members of the guild I belonged to. Keita, our leader, was off negotiating to buy us a guild home, so we were spending time in the labyrinth to earn some money for furniture and such.
Thank goodness…They’re all right, I thought for some strange reason. I tried to call out to them, but once again, my mouth would not move. My feet were stuck to the ground and couldn’t come loose.
As I watched, helpless, the four of them leaned over. They were peering at something—a large treasure chest placed next to the wall. As soon as my mind registered that fact, I felt a chill run down my back.
Ducker the thief excitedly examined the chest, looking for traps to disarm.
No. Stop. Don’t, I screamed, over and over, but the words never left my mind. I couldn’t move my legs to rush into the room to stop them.
Ducker threw the lid of the chest open.
Instantly, there was an ear-piercing alarm, and hidden doors on both sidewalls of the room opened up. Bloodthirsty monsters poured into the room in ghastly numbers.
“Ah…ah……!”
At last, a sound came from my throat: a faint, cracked shriek.
That was all I could do. Not a finger would move. I could only watch as my friends and companions were surrounded by monsters.
Sasamaru was the first to die. Ducker was next, and after him, Tetsuo burst into blue particles, leaving only Sachi. She spun around and looked at
me.
Her lips formed a hint of a sad smile and opened and closed.
The next moment, monster weapons and claws rained down on her without mercy, and her fragile body was enveloped in blue light.
“………!!”
I screamed in total silence as Sachi, too, was reduced to a plethora of glass shards that soon vanished.
Dozens of monsters simply melted into the air, and the room was full of darkness. My body was able to move again, and I fell to my knees.
I’m sick of this. I don’t want to keep walking. I don’t want to see anything else.
I curled up on the cold floor, covered my ears, and squeezed my eyes shut. But the memories just kept flooding back, like frigid water pooling up around me, enveloping me.
Two years of battle in a floating castle of iron and stone.
Endless sky in a land of fairies.
Crimson bullets flying left and right in an evening wasteland.
I don’t want to remember. I don’t want to know what comes next.
But despite my prayers, the current of memories pushed me onward.
Suddenly cut off from the real world.
Waking up in an empty space in a deep forest.
Guided by the sound of an ax chopping wood, until I arrived at the root of a massive tree and met him.
A battle with goblins. The giant tree toppling down.
A long, long journey to the center of the world. Two years training at an academy.
With every step, he was beside me, smiling peacefully.
With him, I knew I could do anything.
We raced up a chalk-white tower together and defeated powerful opponents.
And then we reached the top
and crossed swords with the ruler of the world,
and at the end of a long, agonizing battle,
he lost
his life…
“Aaaaaaaaaaaah!!” I screamed, holding my head in my hands.
It was me. My powerlessness, my foolishness, my weakness: It killed him. Blood was spilled that did not need to be spilled. Life was lost that was not meant to end.
Alicization Lasting Page 3