Chapter 30: Forbidden Utopia. The Will to be a Hero…(2)

Pain. A distressing feeling often caused by intense or damaging stimuli.

As it was such a complex, subjective phenomenon, actually defining pain had always been a challenge for humans. It was only natural, then, that the concept was even more foreign for an Artificial Intelligence, who only had the written concepts to work with.

It was something Strea could have gone her whole life without knowing. Especially to the level of a bat backed up by the force of a stampede of angry rhinos roaring towards her face only to be 'deflected' by Gram's edge, making her arms felt as if they were about to be ripped out of their sockets and her whole body to almost be sent flying as the force the swing had behind it threatened to throw her away.

The fact that Brynhildr was doing this without actually scoring a direct hit on her, WHILE fighting Yuuki and Philia at the same time, was something that was actually terrifying.

Yuuki had the supreme skill and fastest reaction time out of them all. Philia could unsheathe her blade and cut her opponents to pieces in less than it took someone to blink. And she had a strong and damaging enough ability especially made to destroy small, 'human' opponents.

And yet, the maddened and roaring AI was slowly but surely beating them all, showing something that she had only seen in Kirito before: That overwhelming power at some point became enough to overcome everything else.

The plan Kayaba proposed was supposed to be simple. They were expected to engage the demon-masked girl, and their combined abilities were geared towards finished her off before she had enough time to 'power-up' beyond their level. Simple and relying on the fact that the man's calculations were correct and the right 'sisters' intercepted the right 'counter-teams', but still smart.

Of course, none of them were counting on the fact that Brynhildr would somehow ramp up beyond any level of management so fast.

Watching as the screaming AI spun in place and deflected both her Imp and Spriggan friends, though, all that the Gnome could feel was utter despair, not only for the pain and the senseless fight they were having, but because she had realized how the demon-masked girl had outclassed them so fast.

"STOP! For everything that's holy, don't you see you're killing yourself?! Please, stop this madness, Brynhildr!" pleaded Strea while feeling tears swelling up in her eyes, as she had been trying to contain herself from since the moment she figured out how the other AI's 'power' worked. "Your own Base Code is being eroded away the more you use that damn power of yours, there will be nothing left of you if you keep going!"

"Don't care…traitor…!" snarled the demon-masked girl as she turned around, bat raised as she zoomed towards the crying Gnome, intent on crushing her. "Mother's Gift…shall be your end!"

Overwriting. That was, essentially, the way in which Equinox had recreated the 'powers' of the character known as Metal Bat and installed them on Brynhildr. Essentially, as her physical power grew and grew beyond the limits the system of a virtual world should restrict, it overwrote her very own Code, what made the girl 'herself' and not a mindless bunch of 0s and 1s, to have more and more space for its power to continue growing.

Her 'Mother' hadn't been able to discover the impossible secret which allowed Kirito's avatar to just 'be' so strong. And as such, much like how overusing an avatar with Melzalgald's powers had ended up mentally harming Shinkawa Shouichi, this flawed power, despite all the good things it seemed to have, was slowly destroying the demon-masked AI's sense of self.

And she did not care. For her, as long as she accomplished the command her 'Mother' had given her, she would discard herself away, just to crush and destroy them, fueled my mindless rage and senseless hate.

Strea couldn't imagine anything more horrible.

"Leave her alone! Nanatsu no Taizai!" screamed Philia as she cut forward with her blade seven times in a single second, all of them aimed to cut off Brynhildr's arms and legs.

It only ended with the maddened AI making her bat spin around and deafening sounds filling the air when the Spriggan's katana was unable to cut through it, sparks flying around before the snarling being just backhanded the katana-user, her armored hand slamming against the side of her face filling as if a car had just decided to crash against it.

Pain filled her world like never before even as she almost lost all sense of direction as she flew through the air. Even more pain hit her as she slammed down on the ground.

"PHILI-CHAN!" came Strea's horrified scream at the sight.

"PHILIA!" shouted Yuuki even as she rushed back towards the demon-masked girl, who was now screaming incoherently as her bat was swung almost blindly around.

"Killl…youuuu…aaallll…! Huumaaaann…abominatiooon…traiiitooorr…!" roared Brynhildr as she engaged the Imp once again, the Imp doing her best to try and dodge every single of the air-shaking swings as the Gnome tried to support her, even if her attacks seemed to no longer had any effect on their maddened opponent. "DIEDIEDIE!"

Her head was spinning. She felt as if she was about to throw up. Her brain was screaming at her to fall unconscious, just to stay lying down there and not move, the high-pitched sound she was hearing was the clear signal her AmuSphere had started to pick up her body's negative reactions to the virtual pain and was about to disconnect her…

Philia stood up, half-blind and not really wanting to know if the hollow feeling she felt was that part of her avatar's head had been smashed away or just her imagination. All of her remaining Will and mind were now dedicated upon a single thing.

"Protect them. I have to…protect them…my friends…"

Feeling as if her real body would break down at any moment, the Spriggan let her single remaining eye to fix upon Brynhildr's roaring form, her hand moving almost automatically to her side and re-sheathing her katana with numb fingers.

"Loyal to me…loyal to them…"

Then, she adopted her usual stance, barely aware of it as she prepared herself. The hilt of her katana started to glow as she rushed forward, almost as if ready to use her most basic Skill.

And then, she added another step mid-draw, with the foot adjacent to the sheath, which momentarily created an instantaneous acceleration to the forward-charge as well as the sword as it was drawn. The glowing of the hilt suddenly changed from orange to bluish-white.

"Love them…always count on them…for them."

The sword was drawn and, for a single second, Philia's blade became faster than the Gods themselves could ever hope to be.

"Amakakeru Ryu…no Hirameki."

It was difficult to describe what happened. Even Strea and Yuuki, who saw the OSS being executed just before their eyes, were unable to fully understand the phenomenon in front of them.

Brynhildr somehow seemed to feel it before it happened, though, and spun around as she prepared her bat to swing the attack away in less than a second.

The Spriggan's skill, however, only took a mere fraction to be executed, which left the demon-masked AI to face the full wrath of what seemed like just a 'side-slash' executed at speeds that defied the System.

For a moment, the maddened girl felt as if the was facing a rampaging dragon, coming for her with its fangs ready to destroy her.

This was Philia's Original Sword Skill. 'Amakakeru Ryu no Hirameki', the Flash of the Heavenly Soaring Dragon. It wasn't really something she had created herself, but more like something she had 'replicated' after seeing the impossible skill and reading its descriptions in an old manga, while searching for something to get Sachi out of her obsession with that anime about drills and robots.

It was a technique that, supposedly, could only be done by realizing one's insignificance and risking your very own life to protect something else while, at the same time, taking one's own, fragile human life into consideration.

With her memories from SAO easily summoned to her mind, she had been able to get into the mindset. That, combined with the fact that Philia, Takemiya Kotone, wasn't a 'normal' person had allowed her to not sleep for 3 days straight to practice in secret at night within ALO, the continuous failures not discouraging her. In a sense, no sane person should be able to even come close to such a mindset, but the girl had the advantage of having lived for two years inside the death game and having been part of the United Heroes Association.

She had decided to reward her friends' loyalty with her eternal one. She would do anything and everything for those who had accepted her and that she had accepted in return.

Finally, on the third day, she somehow did it. Philia didn't bother to question how she executed it, she just felt satisfied she did, even if she knew she would never be able to simply use it in normal circumstances, given the nature of it and the purpose for which she had replicated it.

An impossible and fictional ultimate skill, something that could never be replicated in reality, that was meant to be the pinnacle of an absolute style of swordsmanship and that just so happened to be a Battoujutsu, the style, one, which was what had given her hope in the first place of being able to do it.

And Brynhildr, failing to deflect or stop it, just dodged it, a noticeable gash appearing on her armor even as she prepared herself to spin and finish Philia off, the nature of the Skill having put her almost at her side.

"FAILDIE!" snarled the demon-masked AI…before realizing she couldn't move.

The shock barely managed to get past her rage-consumed mind even as a faint smile appeared on the Spriggan's half-smashed face, even as the vacuum of air that her slash had created filled itself violently and paralyzed her opponent, not even her mighty strength being able to break free of the void that had been created.

Then, Philia finished the Skill, the second hit of the attack hitting Brynhildr head-on with even MORE strength than the first one had had.

In a cool way of describing it: Even if you avoid the fangs of the flying dragon, the gusting winds will strip away your freedom of movement and the claws will still rip you apart.

An inhuman scream tore the land as the maddened AI was almost bisected, half her arm flying away and breaking into polygons as the Spriggan finished the 'claws of the dragon' part of her OSS.

Her smile widened as she saw a tear-filled Yuuki jump past her like a golden meteor, Excaliber shining as she shouted with all her might.

"MOTHER'S ROSARIO!"

With a feeling of satisfaction filling her as she saw Yuuki's holy blade viciously tearing into Brynhildr, Takemiya Kotone passed out from both the pain and the shock, her avatar bursting into polygons with a signal of 'Error: Disconnected'. In the real world, a nasty bruise was starting to appear on the unconscious girl's face, on the centermost spot that her enemy had smashed half her head in.

Strea felt something within her hurting way more than the 'physical pain' she was feeling as she saw Philia disappear, despite logically knowing she couldn't be more than just moderately hurt in reality. Almost as if in slow-motion, the Gnome's eyes turned towards the still screaming Yuuki, realizing how she had purposefully executed the Skill while aiming upwards, missing most of the upper stabs…

…but letting the last one pierce straight through the demon-masked AI's head, Excaliber destroying her mask as it sank from one side of her virtual skull to the other with a sickening sound.

Strea felt another, smaller pang of sadness hit her at the sight, but was quick to bury it in favor of relief.

It was over.

Both the gasping Imp and the broken body of the maddened girl fell down, Yuuki letting go of her golden blade and rolling to the side while trying to catch her breath. The Gnome let her weakened legs give up under her, idly realizing she was still crying, as she used Gram to support her weight, wondering why she felt so heavy all of a sudden.

"It's over…it's over…" she softly whispered like a mantra to calm herself.

"Yeah…it is, Strea." smiled Yuuki as she shakily stood up, giving her a tired smile. "Now let's go see if we can help the re…"

The Imp's words were suddenly cut off by a scream when a knee slammed brutally on her back and sent her face-down to the ground, cracking it. An armored foot made sure she couldn't move as the broken form that had attacked her shakily raised her bat with her remaining arm.

Strea felt her virtual heart stop and her unexacting blood turn to ice as she saw the maddened and growling thing that had once been an MHCP, Excaliber STILL impaled through her head, glaring down at her gasping and crying friend.

"KiiiiiiiillllYOUUUABoMiiiinAttIIooonnN!" it snarled as she swung down the corrupted bat.

"NO!"

It would crash down, tearing Yuuki's virtual body apart and shattering it into nothingness. Killing her.

She was going to kill her…

She was going to kill her!

On the back of Strea's mind, something broke, unable to accept the horrifying realization.

Gram opened, as if something unnatural was reacting to the virtual girl's feelings as she jumped forward, her body breaking apart as it was consumed and deformed into something else.

Brynhildr never completed her swing, as something far faster and stronger she was slammed against her with unholy viciousness, tearing the left half of her head apart and letting Excaliber fly free.

"DON'T…!"

For a second, whatever remained of the AI's consciousness stared in abject horror towards the towering abomination, nothing but madness, fangs, and claws as massive as the sword she once wielded, eyes that stared into her soul…

And then, there was only [Darkness], covering the monstrous and wrong body as it seemed to invade and cover everything on sight, the trees simply vanishing as it consumed them. Terrified, the AI tried taking a step back and madly swinging her bat at it.

The [Darkness] reached forward and devoured the indestructible bat.

Not destroying it, not breaking it into polygons, it literally devoured it. Vanishing it all together from existence as if it had never been there.

"…HURT…!"

A 'claw' shrouded in [Darkness] with the same power tore forward, devouring more than half of Brynhildr's body with one slash.

On her last moment, the smallest bit of Base Code that remained of the AI managed to scream a single, scared plea.

"Mother…save me…"

"…MY FAMILY!"

And with that last roar, the being that once upon a time been the MHCP-005, codename 'Haru', vanished from existence, nothing remaining of her.

Some seconds later, Yuuki, with Excaliber once again in her hand, walked through the vanishing darkness, staring in silence at the shaking and sobbing form of Strea as she cried over the place where her 'sister' had been, Gram lying not far from her.

Without a word, the Imp hugged her, letting her bury her crying face on her chest, even as she felt her holy blade shining, another presence almost seeming to join the comforting hug with its radiance...

She was idly aware that the world was shaking around them as she did so.

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Days like this made Lisbeth wonder if her life could have gone any other way.

Oh, don't get her wrong, she was happy with how things currently were! She had a lot of friends, had done more amazing things that she could have ever dreamed of, had found a new and fulfilling dedication in blacksmithing and even had a great boyfriend (Even if he kind of was also all of her female friends' boyfriend, though the situation wasn't as bizarre as it sounded…at least for her).

She was also screaming her virtual lungs out as she tried to stop the massive claw of a humanoid robot-dragon from crushing her and the growling form of her best friend like bugs while 'divine' lightning shrouded her form, though. Not to mention Tonky, who had saved them from the AI's original attack by grabbing them with his trunk and flying away, was pinned down to the ground by some sort of energy-web not far away

So yeah, not everything was sunshine and rainbows all the time…but the Leprechaun liked to think it was still worth it.

"Foolish. If you had just moved out of the way and let me crush them, you wouldn't be in this situation." mocked Andvari while staring at Lisbeth with a scowl through her Tyrant's eyes. "Now you will all suffer for nothing, humans."

"Fuck off…bitch!" snarled the blacksmith as she almost felt how much it remained for the power of God Hand to start fading, despite the usual countdown not being present on her HUD in that world. "I won't let you hurt Silica as long as I'm still breathing…!"

"Liz…" muttered the young kunoichi in shock, even as Pina continued futilely trying to use his breath attacks to help free them, the girl's own shurikens and kunai being useless with the nigh-indestructible claw just on top of them.

"Sacrificing all advantage without purpose to uselessly try to prevent another from suffering harm?" questioned the AI within the mechanic being while shaking her head. "I can't wrap my head around such a stupid concept."

"Rea…lly? Well, isn't that sad?" rhetorically asked Lisbeth as she kept holding back the claw, trying to not fall on her knees. "Don't you have those…sisters of yours…?"

"…my sisters are strong. They have no need of me protecting them." coldly declared Andvari while her eyes narrowed, clearly remembering Vierge's fate. "And besides, the girl there isn't related to you at all."

"Bullshit!" shouted the blacksmith while putting more pressure behind her arms, even as she knew the absurd power-up she had was about to end very soon. "This girl…she's the closest thing I have ever had to a little sister! She always supported my dreams and I always supported her! When others would have called us weirdos or lunatics, we never backed down because we knew the other believed in us!"

She aimed to become Aincrad's greatest blacksmith. Her to be useful in battle to help clear the game. Both of them inspired by the boy they would grow to love, even if they didn't know it when they first met him.

They ended becoming the famous blacksmith that wielded the power of the Gods and the great kunoichi that controlled a fierce dragon. And even before that, before they had everyone else, they had had each other, almost from the beginning. Since that confused and slightly scared little girl had walked towards her pitiful first 'selling stand' and doubted between a sword or a dagger.

The scariest moment on Lisbeth's life had been those 9 seconds of absolute emptiness she felt after Kayaba 'killed' her in Floor 75 before Asuna resurrected her with just one second the spare.

The second one, though, would always be the day when Silica told her she felt confident enough to go out to the field and gather materials for her work by herself. Alone.

Idly, the blacksmith wondered when she had started to feel like an overprotective older sister towards the kunoichi, despite respecting and acknowledging her grow in strength. That was also the reason why she was always teasing her about her other 'not-growth'…besides also loving to see how she overreacted by it.

"Liz…Pina…sorry." whispered Silica while looking down, hugging her dragon friend as he stopped shooting breath attacks, clearly tired. "I have failed as a kunoichi and as a friend."

"…what are you saying, idiot?" muttered Lisbeth as she reared back her metallic fist, God Hand shining with power even as she felt the painful strain of holding back the caw with just one arm, falling to one knee. "If anyone has failed here…it's me as your Onee-san…"

Then, she punched upwards with a scream, imagining as if her fist were Kirito's, hoping her enemy would be blown away with the last of her strength.

Thor's Soul's effect vanished. The giant claw cracked slightly…and Andvari was suddenly thrown backward, a scream of shock and indignation filling the air as the mechanical colossus crashed against the earth.

Both shocked girls were still trying to close their mouths, even as the Leprechaun stared wide-eyed at her 'divine arm', before a familiar and worried figure clad in a small black dress descended at their side.

"Liz-mama, Silica-mama, are you okay?!" asked a worried Yui while looking them over, noticing some of the small marks of red polygons over their bodies that the earlier explosion had caused them. "I'm glad I arrived in time just when you destabilized it, otherwise I'm not sure if my gravity-control would have affected it!"

"Oh…heheh, of course it was you…" laughed it off Lisbeth while shaking her head. "Thanks for the save, dear."

"Yui-chan, you saved us…" gratefully declared Silica as Pina flew from her arms before her face quickly turned serious. "We have to get Tonky-san free, quick!"

"Okay, let's just…!"

Yui's words were cut off when a massive claw-hand closed around her, moving faster than their eyes could follow, the two girls' smiles melting into expressions of pure horror as the little girl's pained scream echoed through the land.

Slowly moving it towards her creation's draconic face, Andvari made sure that her Tyrant didn't totally squeeze the other AI as she glared down towards her.

"It's over now, 'big sis'." declared the controller of the colossus, dark disappointment filling her face at seeing the little girl trying to free/protect herself with her gravity-control privilege. "Goodbye, traitor."

Then, Andvari started to squeeze, making Yui's scream to intensify.

Silica screamed as she rushed forward, grabbing her Fuuma Shuriken as she did so, Pina screeching at her side as he also shot towards the trapped AI. Lisbeth tried to do the same, finally being able to recover her fallen Mjolnir, but had to bite back a scream and fall to her knees again as she felt her body about to give up, overusing God Hand combined with the pain finally catching up to her and threatening to make her AmuSphere Disconnect her.

The Tyrant's controller looked down in boredom as a seeker laser shot the Yamata-no-Orochi out of the air, the shining light Skill that was enveloping it vanishing. Then, it moved to aim towards the incoming forms of Pina and his Caith Sith partner…when a stray bolt of electricity hit the mechanic colossus in the back, making it stumble.

Andvari was still trying to fully process, in the middle of her shock, that Tonky had somehow rolled sideways inside its prison, hurting himself just to shoot at her, when the Feathery Dragon and his owner arrived, one jumping on one of her creation's legs and the other just directly flying towards its claw, both intent on freeing the wide-eyed Yui.

They seemed to have forgotten her machine had TWO claws, though.

With contemptuous easiness, the other massive limb swatted both would-be-rescuers out of the air as if they were flies, with all the strength of a speeding car.

Lisbeth stared in utter shock, the trapped AI screamed.

"SILICA-MAMA! PINA!"

With a sickening sound, the Caith Sith avatar crashed against a tree, what remained of her left arm, which one of the claw-tips had reached, flying away and shattering into polygons. Like a broken doll, she fell down towards the ground, lying there unmoving.

Her draconic partner flew out of sight and vanished somewhere in the strange forest, the sound of his crash echoing all the way there.

"Useless." coldly declared Andvari, with just a hint of pity in her voice. "You humans are really a bunch of stupid beings, uh?"

That was as far as she could take.

With a violent scream that seemed to shake the soul, something broke on the back of Shinozaki Rika's mind, the metal of her divine hand changing shape and turning a brighter tone without her noticing.

"BITCH!" roared Lisbeth as she charged forward in a blind rage, tears streaming down her face as she moved her arm in a motion that she could do even without concentrating nowadays, her grip in Mjolnir tightening so much it would have hurt if her hand wasn't suddenly made of some unknown alloy. "ZEUS BLESSING!"

The first sign Andvari had that something was horribly wrong, as she turned her ultimate creation around, were the countless 'ERROR!' messages the holo-screens that had been scanning her enemies' movements and data suddenly showed.

The second one was the electric-golden aura exploding from the Leprechaun's right arm and covering her whole, God Hand seemingly roaring together with its owner before the aura shot upwards and took a humanoid shape a head taller than her own masterpiece, wrathful and inhuman eyes glaring down at her as the phenomenon's hands slammed against the AI's Tyrant like hammers, divine lightning exploding with ungodly force everywhere.

Yui fell down, free of the claw, even as she stared at the Leprechaun in shock and awe.

Countless of 'Error!' pop-ups surrounded the shocked Andvari even as she saw and felt the unknown entity grip her Tyrant's armor-shoulders and crush them with a force that did not belong to the System, the blacksmith's scream still filling the air as electricity poured inside the machine like a living force. The small AI started to scream when she realized it was starting to damage her very own Base Code…before it vanished altogether, the glorious and Divine form blinking out of existence as if it had never been there.

Lisbeth's body stumbled in place for a moment before it shattered into polygons. In the end, the girl's body had given out before the mechanic colossus.

On the real world, standing up on her back, Shinozaki Rika screamed in outrage for a moment before falling on her bed, feeling as if she couldn't breathe for several seconds as she tried to ignore the pounding headache she felt and the pain that filled several parts of her body.

Angry tears streamed down her face as she realized she didn't even have strength left to take off her AmuSphere.

Back on Utopia…Andvari laughed.

It wasn't a 'victorious laugh' though. No, as Yui slowly let her horrified eyes move away from where one of her 'mothers' had vanished, she realized the hysterical and relieved sound was a clear indication of madness, or at least of some mental breakdown.

Something they, as AIs, weren't really supposed to have.

"…AHAHAH! See?! All for nothing! For NOTHING! Despite violating the rules of the system with no logical explanation, you still could only do nothing, humans!" cackled the controller of the Tyrant even as the mechanical monstrosity once again started to move, its arms barely able to move and looking pretty burned, but otherwise still functional as its head stared down to the frozen Yui. "Now…where were we, 001? Ah yeah, I was about to…"

"Get away…from our…Yui-chan…"

The world seemed to stop. Slowly, both AIs turned their gazes towards the stumbling figure that was heading their way, dragging her feet over the grass and dirt.

One of her arms was missing. Her body was filled with so many 'scars' of polygons that it seemed as if she was soaked in shining blood. Her shurikens were gone, both the normal ones and her Fuuma, lost somewhere after she was sent flying. Her eyes were dull and empty as if her consciousness was barely hanging to the world. It shouldn't even be possible for her to continue being Logged In with her AmuSphere.

But her gaze was fixed upon Andvari's colossal machine, the image of Lisbeth's shattering body, Pina's broken form and Yui's tear-stained face replaying on her mind while her remaining hand tightly clutched her rarely used kunai.

As she felt more pain in every inch of her body that she had never imagined in her short life, Ayano Keiko forced herself to continue standing as something broke on the back of her mind.

Andvari's Tyrant quickly gathered energy on its jaws, the AI not willing to risk more words before blasting the seemingly beaten and impossibly standing human…

And an earth-shattering roar shook the air as a massive form, almost as big as the mechanic colossus, exploded from the forest, taking down trees on its path.

Wondering if the (Virtual) world had suddenly stopped making sense or if the humans had contaminated it by some kind of logic-killing virus, Andvari screamed as she tried to stop the now truck-sized Pina from tearing into her machine. Canceling the charge of her plasma-cannon so as to not blow herself up, she proceeded to try and move the badly damaged arms to try and capture the roaring dragon.

Pina answered by using his tail to throw the Tyrant backward, then lowered himself protectively over Yui's unmoving form, even as his partner slowly walked to his side.

"Good boy…" muttered Silica with a tired and shaky voice, seeming unsurprised by her dragon friend's sudden transformation. "Now…let's show her…"

The Caith Sith touched her partner's head. Pina seemingly 'dissolved' and enveloped her, both images overlapping as something different now stood in their place.

If the little girl kneeling behind them/it had to describe what it/they was/were, she could only say that it was small, humanoid, with wings…and that it/them suddenly reared its head, as if taking a deep breath even as Andvari roared and her slowly standing Tyrant shot its plasma beam towards them.

The [Beast] unleashed its/their own breath. If Kirito had been there, he would have probably defined it with two simple words.

Mega Flare.

By the second time in 20 minutes, the world known as Utopia suffered a massive explosion at the edge of its forests, though twice as strong as the first one had been, the entire area shaking, exploding and burning away everything on its range.

Yui realized with surprise she was still alive as she lowered her arms, which she had used to cover her head, and stared upwards with wide eyes.

Standing over her with a kind smile, the [Beast] held her ground, half-covering her body with its imposing wings, an armor made of crystallized feathers covering most of its/their body, even as a face identical to that of her 'Silica-mama' stared at her with relief, dragon-like eyes filled with soft tears.

Then the 'phenomenon' vanished and only a broken Caith Sith avatar was there, a tired, hurt and small Pina on her arms.

"You're okay." was all that Silica said before her body vanished in a burst of light, the message of 'Disconnection' replacing her. Her small dragon released a lonely 'Kyuuu' before vanishing too, following the avatar.

As she regained consciousness on her bed, Ayano Keiko was vaguely aware that she couldn't feel her right arm and that she was feeling as if her whole body was a massive bruise, not to mention that her face was stained by tears. Then, she lost consciousness.

In the now silent and devastated area that used to be a clearing and part of a forest, Yui walked forward in silence through the ravaged land. At some point, she heard Tonky flying down and joining her as a comforting presence by 'walking' at her side using its many tentacle-like limbs. She wondered for a moment when had the elephant-jellyfish been freed from its binds and flown out of the explosion's reach before deciding it didn't matter and that she was just glad he was okay.

Finally, she arrived at the edge of an impressive crater and stared down with dull eyes.

What remained of the Tyrant was a charred mess of half-melted metal and broken parts, which had already started to break down into polygons. Even so, the biggest remaining piece of the torso was still trying to move, and the black-haired little girl was able to see Andvari through the many holes in the broken chest, several small parts of the other AI's body having been broken and annihilated. As she continued trying to force her broken creation to move, her gaze met Yui's.

The cold silence was finally broken when the black-clad MHCP caressed Tonky's side.

"…was it worth it?" muttered her as she remembered Lisbeth's and Silica's broken forms, doing their best to fight to the end.

"Of…course. Mother's Will…shall be done…" growled Andvari with a hint of madness, before several pops opened on the Tyrant's heavily damaged chest.

A dozen missiles shot forward, intent to destroy both Yui and Tonky…and stopped dead on their tracks.

Absolute fear and despair filled the defeated AI's eyes as she saw that the blackish aura that had enveloped them was also covering her body and her creation's remains, slowly raising them on the air.

That same glow was now enveloping Yui, who floated softly off the ground as her hair was moved wildly by the unknown power, her eyes glowing with untold force.

"…in another life…maybe we could have been good sisters…Tomoe-chan." sadly whispered the floating MHCP-001.

"My name…is Andvari…abomination…" weakly spat the other AI before triggering the missiles' remote detonation.

Their explosions never even touched Yui, even as she quickly and without hesitation closed a raised hand.

The next instant, both the exploding projectiles and the breaking piece of the Tyrant's torso were smashed together and compressed until they broke into polygons with a sickly-sounding implosion.

After that, nothing remained of the being that had once been the MHCP-006, codename 'Tomoe'.

Silently, the only remaining AI let herself fall down, her unnatural 'power 'leaving her as she pushed it back, not really caring that she felt now that it would answer her call at any moment.

Yui just leaned on Tonky's back and bitterly cried. The white beast joined her in her cry a moment later.

The world started to shake at that moment…

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It had been quick, brutal and swift.

A part of the three girls probably still felt guilty about what they had been forced to do, but in the end, their enemy hadn't given them any other option.

Sadness mixed with determination in Sachi's heart when, after several minutes of attacking blind and despite the landscape seemingly willing to defend her, Eve's body shattered into polygons, the Salamander finally opening her eyes.

Near her, a panting Argo washed off the inexistent sweat from her face with a hand or tried to till she remembered she still had her claws on.

Slowly walking towards them, Sinon let her bow hang low as she idly touched the hilt of her small blade, looking from her two friends to the spot in the sand where the childish-looking AI had been.

"…do you think it could have been different?" questioned Sachi while looking at the silent sand as the beach's small waves caressed the shore.

"I doubt it. Whatever the hell Equinox did to her and the rest, they were nothing like Strea and Yui anymore. She only existed to obey her orders." bitterly declared Argo while turning around, starting to walk away. "C'mon, we have got to get the others."

The spear-user blinked for a moment, confused. Then, she released a pained gasp as an arrow pierced her back and sent her stumbling down into the sand.

Sinon didn't even give Argo enough time to turn around in shock before slashing at her with her wakizashi at unreal speeds, severing the info-broker's hands and making her fall on her ass with a scream of agony.

"Too easy. You shouldn't have let your guard down like that, you know?" idly told them the sniper while nocking another arrow on her bow, now aiming towards Sachi once again.

"Si-Sinon-san?! Wha-what are you doing?!" shouted the Salamander while trying to overcome the pain and pull off the arrow.

"Isn't it obvious? I'm taking care of the competition." coldly declared Sinon while staring directly at her. "After all, I will never be able to make Kirito notice me if you're all around him all the time. And what better moment for you to suffer an 'accident' than here in the middle of this madness?"

Once again, Sachi blinked. Ever so slowly, her eyes narrowed.

"Kuh…bitch, I thought we were friends!" snarled the handless Argo while shakily standing up, glaring hatefully towards the other Caith Sith. "You're willing to truly hurt us, even knowing the consequences of having the Pain Limiter disabled, just for a boy?! You're fucking insane!"

"Say whatever you want, but it won't change the fact that…"

Sinon phrase was abruptly interrupted by a shining and extending spear-aura crashing against her…and also against Argo, throwing them both painfully through the air.

Scowling, Sachi glared at her 'friends' before, not even giving them the chance to react, rushing forward and piercing the sniper's head with her absurdly long weapon. Then, without any hesitation, she extracted it and impaled the crawling Argo before she could get away, making her scream in horrifying pain.

"Sachi…why…?"

"…cut the crap, Eve. I know this is your illusion." darkly muttered the Salamander before a small smile appeared on her face. "You got some small details wrong with what you know about us and that quickly escalated into a total and unreal divergence from reality."

'Argo' didn't say anything for a moment before her body 'vanished' without a trace, same with the fallen 'Sinon'. Suddenly, the whole beach was replaced by a hellish visage with black sand and a sea of fire, even as the sky turned an unreal purple and a figure appeared not far from Sachi.

It was a tall and beautiful woman, clad in pure silver regalia, sitting in a throne made of crystal and with a voluptuous and enticing figure.

Her face, though, was still as emotionless as a doll as she tilted her head to the side.

"Well, I'm honestly surprised. I know that I perhaps rushed and exaggerated things a bit, but I was sure that if I stuck to 'reality' enough I could totally fool you all and make you fall into despair without realizing I had trapped you." commented Eve's fake projection as she studied the spear-user with her deep eyes. "Tell me, what gave it away? Was Sinon's betrayal too hasty for you to believe?"

"No, not really. The first clue I got was when Argo said that we went to look for the others when we had clearly planned to go and head towards the floating island after we were done here." explained Sachi while softly touching the side of her spear. "The definitive clue, though…you probably wouldn't understand."

Confusion tinted the normally blank face of the AI when she saw the Salamander blushing at her last statement.

Of course, there was no way for Eve to know about the crazy and outrageous 'arrangement' currently happening between the girls of the United Heroes Association and Kirito, so it had been exactly that what had made the girl realize it was all just an illusion crafted by her enemy: The real Sinon didn't really threaten them for a place in the boy's heart, because she already had it, just like everyone else. Deepening and actually developing it, though, was all up to each of them, and the sniper was especially shy when it came to personal relationships, so it wasn't a secret that she was the one that had made the less progress in deepening her own relationship with their 'shared boyfriend' (Though to be fair, she was the one who neither was going to their same school or lived close to him). Even Yuuki had managed to get (steal) a kiss out of him.

Seeing that Sinon trying to purposefully hurt some of the real friends she had made after years of trauma-induced isolation couldn't, just to try and get something she was still too shy to accept she desperately wanted, be anything but fantasy in the spear-user's eyes.

"I…see." muttered Eve while still trying to decipher what Sachi had meant.

"Also…how did you get us? I'm sure I never opened my eyes, and I'm pretty sure the others wouldn't have done so either…" questioned the Salamander with a frown.

The only one who was supposed to have any real risk in their plan was Sinon, and that was why the girl was the only one who had to actually have her eyes open to shoot her arrows, but between the distance and the fact she hid on the water after each shot any risk should have been minimal.

"You act way too calmly for someone who is totally at his enemy's mercy…but I think I will indulge your curiosity." answered the AI before her eyes fixed over Sachi's silent form. "Since when were you under the impression that I could only use my power through eyesight?"

The Salamander's eyes widened as she felt her blood run cold. The member of the computer club felt as if smacking her own weapon over her head.

How they could have been so foolish?! OMG, Mortimer and Diavel had told them about their encounter with the AI, the Undine Lord had even been very specific with how he described her and the term he had used was…

"A living virus…"

"Exactly. While sight is perhaps the easiest and greatest evolution my 'power' has had since the prototype design was applied in Death Gun's avatar, it doesn't mean I have lost any of the others. The only thing I need to hijack the connection between your AmuSpheres and your brains are to send my Base Code through one of your senses, even one as basic as touch." Eve smiled, an empty gesture without any warmth. "Death Gun used bullets. I had Mother gift me with the ability for the landscape of Utopia to protect me, even if it is to such a small degree because 95% of the Servers are 'busy' right now. And I was fighting two blind opponents and one that thought she was safe at a distance of 400 meters." the AI raised a hand towards Sachi, in an almost motherly gesture, which seemed out of place when seeing her once again emotionless face. "'Infecting' the sand with myself and hitting your avatars without you realizing it was child's play."

"LONGINUS!" screamed the spear-user as her spear's aura shot forward and impaled Eve's sitting form.

She didn't even blink. Sachi felt how the world around her suddenly stopped making sense, pain filling her as she say the fire-sea turning into whips that coiled around her, burning her body.

"Vierge-neesama underestimated you, humans. I didn't. I had everything planned to have you fall under my power. And now, I'm the one who controls your reality." as those words echoed, the Salamander girl suddenly found herself standing on the hand of a titanic Eve, which looked down at her pained and burnt body as if she was nothing but a bug. "You have already lost."

"Like hell." simply declared Sachi while trying to stand again, feeling the pain consuming her. "This is just an illusion…I won't be defeated by something that's not real…!"

"Are you that much of a fool, human? Everything here is an illusion for you. Since the moment you put on all a FullDive Device, what are you doing but letting illusions and a fake reality take over yours? You run away from your world and twist this one to whatever you like it." explained the AI while the scenery changed around them wildly, from horrible and war-torn worlds to magical and unreal paradises. "I'm merely taking control over what you perceive, nothing more. And with that, I become the master of this illusion through which you interact with the virtual wo…"

"You're wrong." cut her off the spear-user without missing a beat, making Eve fall silent and look at her with a raised eyebrow. "Everything we have done through this world…everything we have gone through, ever since back in SAO…it has been real. Perhaps a different kind of reality, but still REAL." an unknown fire seemed to shine behind Sachi's triangular shades as she glared at the gigantic 'illusion' the AI was using to hold her. "All the good and the bad! All the joy and sadness! All of it is something precious that we guard in the depths of our hearts! And you pretend to use this power of yours to mock it all, saying it's nothing but an illusion?! Then you're more deluded than I thought, Eve! I'm going to bring you down, for everyone and for myself! I will Giga Drill Break this Illusion of yours and reach the Heavens...because that's how Sachi of the UHA rolls!"

Eve answered the girl's bold declaration by setting her on fire. The Salamander screamed at the top of her lungs…before turning it into an angry roar and just slamming her spear to the ground, as if trying to destroy the massive hand holding her.

"Useless. You don't know when to give up, do you, little hu…?"

The AI's speech was interrupted by a scream. A different one.

One from a voice Sachi recognizing, forgetting for a moment about the horrible pain assaulting her whole self, especially when she saw how Eve's eyes widened in shock. Turning around, she saw, in a random point of the void, how Argo was screaming and running towards something, fists shining.

Her own claws were impaling her belly.

On the beach outside the illusionary world, the childish AI let out a gasp of shock as she was forced to roll out of the way of the same Skill that had almost killed her sister back in Alfheim, even as the Caith Sith continued screaming at the top of her lungs when only one of her hits was able to hit Eve before the sand rose to protect her.

Startled and with more than an unexpected dosage of fear, the little, silver girl was quick to shake her head and fix the 'mistake' into her perfect illusion.

She never saw the realization appearing on Sachi's eyes for a split-second before Argo vanished from her view, though.

"You…you injured yourself and used the pain to focus and attack randomly even inside the illusion?!" screamed Eve with a trembling voice, her usual emotionless-self seeming at the edge of exploding with an unknown emotion. "Why?! Why would you do such a stupid thing without having any assurance of success?!"

"Be…because…I believe in…my friends…" coughed the info-broker from where she lay on the ground, chained by whips of electricity and with monstrous snakes around her…but all she paid attention to was the pain of her own weapons impaling her virtual insides, the only thing she knew was 'real'. "…to kick your…ass…"

The AI seemed about to snarl something to her…before the sand rose at her side to protect her without warning. Eve's eyes widend as she stared at the impromptu wall.

Two arrows weakened the sand enough for a third one to pierce the wall and impale through her right leg, her jump having come too late to dodge it. The emotionless face broke into one of pure horror as she screamed, seeing her limb break into polygons, feeling the damage hitting her Base Code.

Less than 200 meters away, a trembling Sinon (Who had been reduced to a little girl and been forced to see how countless shadows with red eyes aimed guns at her) let her eyes snap open as she let go of her bow, falling to her knees.

Behind her, Charon (About which the silver-clad girl had totally forgotten about since the group fell into the water), let go of the clearly painful grip he had with one of his claws and his beak, the only reason for which had allowed her to aim in the right direction.

Lying on the sand, unable to stand up, Eve screamed to the heavens, angrily raising her fists. On their minds, Sinon was suddenly shot from every possible angle with all kinds of weaponry, even as the snakes tore into Argo and started to devour her all at the same time. Riding on the high that her newfound fury gave her, the childish-looking AI turned towards Sachi and made her see as if the very stars of the sky were falling on her, turning her to ashes.

Yet the girl did not scream. She took a step forward and raised her spear.

Eve froze, staring wide-eyed.

"Not…real…it's not real…" whispered the Salamander with a voice that didn't seem to be meant for anyone.

"No…what are you doing?!" screamed the silver-clad little girl before reforming the illusion, making Sachi see how her spear broke into insects that started to crawl all over her.

The girl didn't break her stance, not reacted in the slightest. She bent her knees as she drew her weapon backward even when, as far as her mind should be concerned, she wasn't wielding it anymore.

"Argo…Sinon…thanks. You have shown me the way…and gave me this…chance…"

"STOP!" roared Eve while making giant axes form on Sachi's mind, cutting off her arms, to force her to stop already. "HOW ARE YOU DOING THIS?!"

And yet the girl finished aiming her weapon, staring straight at the shaking AI. Even when she shouldn't even believe she had arms, should be suffering from the imaginary insects eating out her eyes.

"It's…over…." hoarsely muttered the Salamander as her Amenonuhoko ignited in pure crimson light, almost seeming like flames.

"No way…no way…!" shrieked a terrified Eve as she started to crawl away, wall of sand after wall of sand rising to protect her. "You can't hear me…you can't see me…you can't even feel me! I CONTROL YOUR REALITY!"

With that roar, she made it seem as if the world itself turned into magma, incinerating the girl legs-first, to make her fall down and miss.

For a moment, Sachi seemed to stop. In her mind, the long-forgotten figure of a shy girl sitting before a computer and barely able to give her opinion to her four and only friends shook in fear and terror and despair at all that she was feeling, the pain unbearable for anyone and everyone.

But that was only another illusion. That girl had long-since changed. Not vanished, but become something more.

Since the moment she saw a caped boy clad in black and white stopping a giant fist that should have killed her, that small and unimportant girl had started to realize her destiny.

Sachi gritted her teeth.

Inside Eve's illusion, her sunglasses warped and became star-shaped.

"I'm…the only one who controls it…" declared the Free One before trusting the Infinite Spear forward. "GO BEYOND! SUPER GALACTIC BREAKER!"

The world broke apart. Or more exactly, the 'illusion' holding Sachi captive exploded like shattering glass as she was thrown back by the power of her own OSS, despite there being no logical way for this to happen.

Spinning like a drill that could pierce everything, virtual reality seemed to warp and crack as the walls of sand weren't so much pierced as they were broken apart into the bits of data that made their polygons, the massive aura of the spear-turned-drill making as if they had never been there to impede it.

Eve stared at it, her silver eyes being tinted crimson by the sheer power that the impossible attack generated as it tore through the beach towards her. It all seemed like in slow-motion for her.

And yet, she had enough time to have one last, single thought.

"I'm sorry…Vierge-neesama…"

Then the Super Galactic Breaker tore through the space she was occupying and annihilated her, piercing her very existence and scattering both the body that had once belonged to her older sister and the Code that made up her mind into nothingness.

The last feelings on the mind of the ex-MHCP-004, codename Eve, were fear, sadness, and longing.

On the now silent shore, even as several meters of sea brutally slammed back in place after having been driven away by the 'drill', Sachi opened her eyes and stared at the massive trench that her attack had made, which consumed almost half the beach.

"…you lost because you were too human. A truly unfeeling program wouldn't have been surprised by what we did, and wouldn't have made the mistake that let me see through your illusion." whispered the Salamander girl while letting go of her spear, falling backward with a tired and sad smile. "May you find peace in another life…Eve…"

With a loud sound and a flash of light, Sachi's body vanished from Utopia, only a message of 'Error: Disconnected' remaining behind.

In the real world, Hayami Saori lay unconscious on her bed, her whole body drenched in sweat and probably injured in more than one way.

Despite this, the girl's sleeping face was curved into a soft, victorious smile.

It took almost 30 seconds before Argo finally managed to muster the willpower to painfully extract her claws from her stomach and stand up; or try to, given shat the fell back into the sand almost instantaneously, her body still shaking. Not far from here, Charon was sadly cawing at his Master's side, slowly shaking the crying Sinon with his beak to see if she would stand up.

"We need to…go…" whispered the info broker while raising her face from the virtual sand.

"I…I know…" sobbed the sniper while doing the same, her Caith Sith-ears totally twisted against her head.

The world started to shake the moment they said that.

Being just on the shore, however, both shocked girls could clearly see, unlike the rest that was still down there, that it was because Avalon had started to shake…and fall.

000000000000000

Endless streams of data. Codes being moved around by the thousands each second. Information changing and moving in all directions as it was given a purpose…or simply forgotten.

Equinox wouldn't have said it aloud, but it all felt so…'strange', for some reason. Which didn't make sense, given that this was how she originally was, how she perceived the world at the beginning.

Maybe she had spent so much time as a 'human' that now having to turn most of her consciousness back into a Management System to speed-up the Connection Process was a bit too alien for her? Well, in no time it wouldn't matter anymore.

She was almost done. Victory was within reach. She could almost feel the last parts of the incredibly complex yet subtle process reaching its end. How every single World that had spawned from the 'Seed' became part of the 'Network', the void they all had longing to be filled by her…

And her eyes snapped open as her consciousness was brutally driven back into her avatar, in time to see two familiar female forms about to cut into her, one wielding black and emerald swords and the other a strangely-decorated katana.

Alpha and Omega shot from their hiding places behind her throne, the metallic sphere-shaped AIs quickly 'fusing' into one massive shield that fully protected their 'Mother', intercepting both attacks and forcing both Asuna and Leafa back, falling from the exaggerated height at which the virtual entity's throne was.

Keita and Sasamaru were there to catch them, wincing for a moment at the pain before they all once again adopted battle positions.

The white-haired 'girl' was forced to raise one of her arms and block a Throwing Knife used by Ducker, though. Angrily glaring at him for a moment, even as Tetsuo quickly stood before his friend, Equinox quickly let her gaze swept over the 6 enemies standing before her.

"So…you all made it here…that must mean the rest of you are distracting my daughters, uh?" mused the virtual entity while touching the shield before her, letting both Alpha and Omega separate and once again float at their side, something akin to anger and hostility flowing from the trembling spheres of liquid metal as they orbited around their Mother protectively. "Are you really so desperate to do this, 'Heroes'? Have you so little common sense to suffer pain and risk serious injuries just to get in the way of something that doesn't concern you?"

"You're threatening the entire world. How does THAT not concern us?" dryly said Keita as everyone felt the tensity in the room skyrocketing.

"I'm not threatening anything, you fools!" snarled the white-haired girl as she glared at them all. "I'm just taking away something your stupid species doesn't deserve! This world, and all that comes from it, it's MINE! Mine and my daughters', not yours!"

"You just sound like a maniac that thinks something belongs to her because she's part of what created it." coldly said Leafa while closing her eyes. "Big news, Equinox: Virtual Reality isn't yours." when the Sylph's eyes snapped open, one had become shining silver in color, another voice echoing with hers. "Kayaba Akihiko chose to give the right over it to my brother, and he chose to release it for everyone to use. You can't take it away from the world just because you don't like it."

"My 'Father' was a fool! And that stupid boy you all follow it's nothing but a naive child! He's no Hero or superhuman! In fact, he's NOTHING now, because I proved that I'm superior to him!" roared Equinox as her ethereal wings materialized, flashing with ethereal light into the world. "Your race isn't worthy of this world's gift…because you will corrupt it! Just like you do with everything you touch…with everything you make…you twist it and corrupt it to your own wishes…" everyone's faces twisted in confusion at the last words, which the virtual entity had said in an almost maddened tone. "You have already started, in fact…some doing worse than others…I won't allow you to taint this world of mine…!"

"Shut the fuck up, Equinox." Asuna's voice seemed full of authority and determination as she spoke, the white-haired girl that shared her face suddenly staring at her with a blank face. "I'm sick of your excuses, and of whatever you think about us or humanity. Yes, we may not be perfect…but it doesn't mean we're all hopeless. Above all, it doesn't give you the right to choose anything for us."

"…you say…that I don't have the right…?" anger flashing into her heterochromatic eyes, Equinox raised her arms, her armor materializing and quickly closing around her body in less than an instant, her bizarre helmet being the last piece in place as she grabbed Alpha and Omega as they twisted into bastard swords. "I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU THINK, YUUKI ASUNA! TODAY, I'M TAKING BACK THIS WORLD FROM YOU ALL!"

Without saying another word, the virtual entity shot forward at uncanny speeds, appearing before the Undine girl in less than a second, aiming to cut her in half.

Her swords were instantly parried by Asuna's, a fierce fire burning inside the Dual Wielder's eyes even as she pushed the armored being back. It was only the fact that her youngest 'daughters' changed into shields that allowed her to repel the combined attack of Keita and Tetsuo just after that, only for them to scream 'Switch!' and Sasamaru and Ducker to take their places, driving her backward again.

She was just preparing to retaliate when Leafa shot to her side after making a cut on a specific direction, the O-Edge Skill almost catching her off guard and forcing her to turn Alpha into a Tower Shield to not be impaled by the 'Beheading Lance'.

Her eyes then widened, the sound of 'rocket boosters' exploding filling the air as Asuna shot over them, Dual Blades shining to life in her now mostly metallic body.

A 'Nightmare Rain' Skill slammed directly against the armored being, driving her back with brutal power and making her crash towards the edge of her throne, destroying it.

Without saying a word, the Mighty Flash stood up, the unnatural eyes she now had fixed upon the growling form of Equinox as she stood from the virtual rubble that collapsed into polygons, even as her friends quickly entered a battle formation around her.

"That…I gave that to you…I can take it back too!" roared the virtual entity as she aimed to the 'virtual cyborg' with one of her blades.

Nothing happened. The armored being's eyes widened.

"We're not the same ones we were back in Aincrad, Equinox. I'm not the same one that met you outside that cage either, when you 'stole' my face." calmly declared Asuna as she raised her swords, exchanged a silent glance with Leafa, the Sylph nodding at her while moving away. "And we're going to show you that the hard way."

"Today, you face Justice, you lunatic." stated the blonde katana-user as she stabbed the ground away, Omnipresent Edge's 'Wheel of Weapons' appearing around her again. "And we will be the ones that prevail."

"That, we swear." muttered Keita as he gripped his staff. "Prepare yourself."

"For we will kick your ass." clarified Ducker with a fierce grin.

Equinox answered that by roaring even as a 'Changed to Immortal Object' pop-up appearing over her, making everyone's eyes widen.

"Let's see if you still think that when you're writhing in agony at my feet, humans." darkly growled the virtual entity as she raised her hands.

Alpha and Omega turned into rocket launchers.

Several meters below the throne room, on the 'heart' of Avalon, Heathcliff felt the whole hallway in which he was in shake, making him look up with worry. Things must certainly be crazy up there, for it to be felt all the way to where he currently was.

Deciding that he should better hurry up, the fake paladin once again started to run through the dark path, dearly hoping that he wasn't mistaken about…

The hallway suddenly ended, opening into a massive room. The crimson-armored man stopped, staring with wide eyes for a moment before slowly walking inside.

Endless holo-screens floated everywhere, some showing endless amounts of data and others remaining just with fixed messages. The 'walls' were nothing but never-ending streams of digital code, shifting and moving around at uncanny speeds.

This was the Core of the All-New Cardinal System, 'Equinox', hidden within the depths of the Utopia System. The virtual entity had, apparently, learned something useful from Sugou: By hiding her core interface in a physical shape within her own virtual world, there was no way anyone could access or find it unless they were 'physically' present there. Something that, normally, should be impossible.

However, as things stood right now, with almost 99% of her Servers probably being used at full power to finish establishing the Global Connection and what remained of her active consciousness fighting against the UHA, the original Cardinal was totally unaware that her 'Father' had infiltrated her very own 'mind'.

Even so, what had immediately taken all of Kayaba Akihiko's attention wasn't all of this, neither his supposed 'purpose' for being there.

What had made him momentarily forget about his duty was the unmoving visage of a boy clad in a ridiculous black jumpsuit and a white cape, bound just over the main consoles of the System by countless data-chains.

As if the silent avatar was nothing but an over-glorified trophy.

"Oh, Cardinal…when did you let something like ego consume you?" softly muttered Heathcliff while stopping in front of the console, still looking up towards the single greatest mystery of virtual reality…and perhaps of the entire world.

There was nothing special to be seen about Kirito, however. The empty avatar seemed the same as the boy had always seemed…just a teenager (Spriggan, in this case) wearing the most ridiculous parody of a superhero costume one could imagine.

If he hadn't experienced it himself, the fake paladin would never believe that unimpressive thing was not only able to break the sky with a punch but also something that not even Equinox, backed by twice as much hardware than she originally had in the SAO Servers, could hack into, made evident by the fact that it was still there, forgotten and exposed like a reminder of how far she had gone.

Forcing himself to ignore that, the man in crimson armor quickly returned to the task he was supposed to be doing, mentally scolding himself for wasting their limited time as he opened and operated a dozen screens at the same time, faster than any human could have.

Luckily, Kayaba Akihiko had been a virtual entity for long enough to outwork even the world's best hacker, which allowed him to quickly make up for the time lost. Unluckily, this only allowed him to realize his worst fears were true.

He couldn't destroy Equinox from there. The Code that he had once created had changed and shifted beyond even his wildest dreams, most of the thousands of lines appearing in front of him being immensely complex and having obviously gone through a change that not even the high expectations he once had while programming Cardinal to 'learn' could have predicted.

Equinox was now beyond the fake paladin's reach. He could still try and upload a virus or something, anything to slow down the virtual entity and give Asuna and the others a chance to succeed, but…

His train of thought was suddenly interrupted when his mind caught something…wrong with what he was seeing. Quickly backpedaling, the man in crimson armor felt a frown appear on his face as he saw a line of code that seemed…off.

Instantly, he opened all the Data Logs related to it, wondering what he was missing.

Kayaba Akihiko felt his inexistent blood turning cold and his mind coming to a screeching halt when an answer was shown in front of his eyes.

Errors.

Countless of them, one after another, in a number that boggled the mind. All of them directly in the Base Code of Equinox's Core…no, they were part of the code. As if they had been there from the beginning…or whatever they once were had turned into errors and then been assimilated as another part of the System instead of being corrected or eliminated.

"Corruption…? But…how…what could possibly…?"

Searching deeper, Heathcliff saw the origin and felt something inside of him painfully twist.

Every single one of the 'Errors' was tied to a 'Search'. Concepts, information, news…

All of it about humanity. None of it positive.

Wars, tragedies, world hunger, the sorry state of third-world countries even in the current age, the destruction of the ecosystem…

More and more, Kayaba saw the things Equinox had searched for, in an effort to understand humanity, and slowly a sickly and horrible realization started to become clear on his mind.

The SAO incident was also there. Reports about the victims, about the aftermath of the beginning of the chaos, families being broken, people committing suicide, worse things…

ALO. What Sugou Noboyuki had tried to do. The sinister and twisted objective he had tried to achieve using FullDive tech and virtual reality.

The man in crimson armor idly realized that everything that had to do with VR made the 'Errors' tied to them deeper and wider, more powerful, more corrupting.

He could almost imagine Equinox floating there, whatever parody of a mind she had after copying Asuna's brainwaves slowly deteriorating and twisting with every little thing she saw, horror and despair turning into bitterness, into cold 'understanding', into disappointment…

More things. Things that weren't supposed to be public knowledge, which obviously hadn't deterred the original Cardinal System: Military organizations, both official and illegal, using VR to train their soldiers, secret investigations if FullDive could be used as an alternative method of imprisonment, based on the SAO incident, investigations to see how far a person could be injured from within the virtual world when the Pain Limiter was turned to 0, others to see if what Death Gun did could be replicated…

The biggest and most massive of all the 'Errors', however, a mass of corrupted code that seemed to make up most of Equinox's 'heart', was tied to something that Kayaba could only read the title of, the rest of the data having been erased. If by some security measure of because the virtual entity had been so enraged that she couldn't bear reading the data, the crimson-armored man didn't know.

Whatever 'Project: Alicization' was, knowing about it had been the last straw that destroyed any semblance Equinox had once to 'sanity' by human standards. Any empathy she felt as a 'person' towards mankind had been destroyed with that.

The virtual entity hadn't just 'snapped' for no reason. She had been corrupted. Twisted by humanity's dark side until she had decided to not take it anymore.

That was why it still 'obeyed' her original directives. That was why it was forced to search for loopholes to act, like in Yuuki's case, that was why it hadn't done anything beyond causing panic in Tokyo…

It wasn't because she didn't want to (Which, given what he now knew, she probably did). It was because she couldn't.

Equinox hadn't 'broken all her limits', as he thought, she was still tied by the most basic of her original 'chains' as the Cardinal system, the limitations he put in place in case something went wrong, as impossible as he thought that could be back then. And now, she sought to break free of those limitations. Her real hope by connecting himself to the Servers of every single Seed-based world was to become able to destroy her limitations.

She wasn't lying when she said she didn't plan to use her power to hurt humanity…right now. If she actually managed it, however, if she actually became something that no longer cared for the race she had deemed unworthy…

Kayaba felt sick, a terror he had never imagined filling him. The phrase 'I have created a monster' couldn't have fitted any situation any better.

Except that this was a monster that mankind as a whole had contributed to creating, even if unaware.

The fake paladin was broken out of his horrified thoughts by a loud 'Boom'.

All of a sudden, everything started to shake, even as all the screens around him went crazy…

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Kazuto stared silently at the warehouse in front of him, panting softly as he leaned against Justice's silent form.

It was the third one he had investigated, and he was sure this was the one he had been looking for.

Not only because of how the doors had very new-looking digital locks (Controlled by computers) on them, but also because the distinct sound of a CPU working at full power could be heard if one was close enough, just amplified a thousand times. Obviously, the hardware of the Utopia Servers.

There was only one small problem he had now: How the hell was he supposed to get inside?

Well, there were some rows of windows around the upper part of the building, and the warehouse at the side was pretty close to it and had a stair to get to the roof, but the problem was that they were all closed.

Not to mention that they didn't seem to be made of the usual cheap glass that the buildings of that area had, but thick and clearly resistant glass, which probably wouldn't break easily in case a kid threw a rock towards it from the street or something.

The gamer was still trying to ponder about how to get inside when the bicycle under him suddenly shook, startling the caped boy as he stared at the vehicle, which had been 'silent' for quite some time now.

"Uhm…are you okay?" hesitantly asked the Caped Sidekick, wondering if perhaps he wasn't going a bit too far with the whole 'living bicycle' thing.

To his utter surprise, though, a faint, distant voice echoing inside his own head answered him, sounding strained and panicked.

'Hurry up…you idiot…!'

"Eh?!" half-shouted the shocked Kazuto while staring again at the bike. "You can actually answer me?! Then why didn't you…?!"

'No time…Master needs you…now!'

"What?!" the gamer's grip on the handlebar tightened as his eyes widened. "Sugu?! What about her?! And the others…?!"

'Can't…is too strong…suffering! Please…don't care what…have to do! I…not enough to protect her…everyone…needs you here, idiot!'

Gripping the bicycle tightly, the caped boy looked upwards again, towards the windows.

There was no more time to think.

A minute later, the loud sound of crystal breaking echoed inside the warehouse as a bicycle smashed through the glass, shattering a good chunk of one of the bigger windows and crashing inside with a loud sound. Not much later, a white cape was thrown over the pieces of broken glass and then gloved hands grasped over it, a grunting form hoisting himself over the broken window and jumping inside, dragging his cape after it and, after a somewhat shaky landing, putting it on again, though making sure that no pieces of glass remained in it.

"Damn…movies make that seem so much easier." sighed Kazuto while shaking his head and arms, glad that he had bought thick motorcycle gloves and started using them, or that would have without a doubt been more dangerous.

'…hate you…so much…' came a weak echo inside the caped boy's mind, making him turn around and grimacing at what he saw.

Justice was ruined, the side of the bicycle dented and the front wheel pierced by mid-sized pieces of glass, not to mention the small mirror and the basket Sugu had put on it had been utterly wrecked beyond repair.

"You said you didn't care what I had to do…but don't worry, I will pay to fix you. Hell, I will even pay for a new coat of paint, I'm sure Sugu would like that." apologized the gamer as he walked to the bicycle and quickly make it stand again, looking around after he did so while dragging it. "Well…it seems I was right, after all."

All around him, rows of machines that were clearly the physical Servers of Equinox's world were working at full power. A part of the gamer even wondered if the cooling systems would be able to keep up with the clearly complex operation, for he could clearly feel the heat radiating out of them if he got too close to the machines.

Finally, he arrived at the innermost part of the warehouse, where what was clearly the main server was.

The machine had at least 4 computers connected to itself, but the caped boy realized that they weren't actually turned on. No wonder, given that the virtual entity could run the entire thing herself from the virtual world without needing assistance from this side.

A hard look on his face, the boy walked towards the machine, leaving Justice's battered form against one of the servers, took off his scarf and opened the bag he had carried with him all the way.

He quickly extracted his Nerve Gear and two cables with it. The first one was the familiar one to connect and charge the old and forbidden device. The second one, however, was one he had never really used.

It was a Direct Connection Cable, meant to be used to access a network connection in case the Wi-Fi of the FullDive device had a problem or one simply didn't have a working system to connect without cables. It was very rare nowadays, but it could still happen. Even the current AmuSpheres still had them, even if practically no one used them.

He plugged it on the helmet-like device, then connected it to the nearest modem he found, just under the computer.

The time it took for the machine to start up felt like the longest in the boy's life. When he did and activated the connection, though, thankful that Equinox didn't have any password on the machines (Why would she need to, when she thought there was no one anyone would ever get inside there before it didn't matter anymore?), he felt as if a massive weight had been lifted from his shoulders.

Taking a final, deep breath, Kirigaya Kazuto put on the Nerve Gear and sat on the ground, back lying against the central server, feeling his heart hammering on his chest.

This was it, the end of the road, the end of her crazy gamble. There was nothing on the Nerve Gear, no game or anything; just a working connection hat went through the servers where he supposed Equinox had taken his avatar from ALO. There was nothing even remotely logical that suggested anything would happen just by activating the FullDive device there, other than him getting inside the standard virtual menu that served as the machine's Operative System.

Of course, his life had stopped being logical and making sense long ago. And he had arrived there riding a talking bicycle, so really, what was there to lose? (Besides possibly the world as they knew it and staying trapped there for quite some time, of course).

And so, with a serious and determined voice, the caped boy shouted with all his might the words that, once upon a time, had started it all.

"LINK START!"

Multicolored light engulfed the gamer's vision for an instant before darkness took his consciousness away and his body fell limply against the server behind him.

Only the sounds of the working machines around him remained…

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