Two Administrators, May 380 HE Part 2

Her voice stopped in a whisper, her eyes downcast. Cardinal's

tiny body swayed a little—or at least, I imagined it did.

"…I cursed my prime directive, that drive to correct the main

process that was etched into my soul. I realized I was an old

crone, just before my natural death. All the sparkle of life had

faded from me, like a wizened, weak tree, counting down the seconds until my life span was gone. Strangely enough, even my way

of speaking began to reflect that view. As I spent my days endlessly listening to the bustle of humanity through my familiars'

ears, I pondered why the gods from the outside world would

abandon it to its fate under Administrator's heel…Stacia, Solus,

and Terraria are false gods created to suit the Axiom Church's

ends, but within the list of system commands, I spotted on multiple occasions the name of the true god: Rath. I learned that Rath

was a collection of gods…and I learned of their soulless approximation of a god, Cardinal—and that its two directives had been

burned into Administrator and me. The more I learned of the underpinning ways of this world, the more mysteries appeared."

"W-w-wait a second," I pleaded, unable to keep up with her

story's momentum. "So…are you saying you were able to learn

that this is a simulation created by Rath, and that the original

Cardinal is a program with a main and a subprocess, using conjecture alone?"

"It is not so surprising. Between two hundred years of time

and the Cardinal System's built-in database, anyone would reach

the same conclusion."

"Database…? I see. So any non-Underworldian vocabulary

you've been using came from there."

"As well as the flavor of that corn soup you enjoyed. I expect

that your understanding of many of these terms is not the same

as mine…but at the very least, I believe my conjecture is accurate.

The Underworld is far too incomplete to be the creation of an allpowerful god, and given the way Administrator's hideous corruption and tyranny are allowed to continue…there was only one

possibility: that Rath, the true god, does not seek the happiness of

the Underworldians. On the contrary…this world exists so they

can observe how its people resist when they are slowly, slowly

drawn into a massive trap. You may not realize that in recent

years, the border regions of the human realms have been increasingly inflicted with plagues, roving beasts, poor crops, and other

causes of premature death. These effects are caused by a stress

parameter that even Administrator is incapable of altering."

"Stress…parameter? Actually, you mentioned something like

that before, too. Something about a stress-test stage."

"Aye. Strictly speaking, the stress level rises from day to day…

but the final phase of the test the database speaks of wouldn't be

anything like a mere plague."

"So…what's going to happen…?"

"The forces that cradle the egg of the human realm will finally

break. I'm sure you know what exists beyond that eggshell."

"The Dark Territory…?"

"Indeed. That land of darkness is a device created to inflict the

ultimate agony on the people of this world. As I mentioned earlier, the denizens of the darkness—goblins, orcs, and so on—are

like human beings, only their fluctlights have been given the

prime directive of slaughter and pillage. Their societies are

arranged by a power hierarchy where the spectrum of strength divides everything. Although primitive, their military is mighty.

They have barely half the population of humankind, yet each individual is easily more powerful than a human being. Even now

they wait outside the empire, looking forward to the day that they

invade the territory of the Iums, as they call you, and wreak untold suffering. That day is close at hand."

"A military…"

The thought put more than a shiver down my back. The goblin

captain I faced in the cave under the End Mountains two years

ago was a true and mighty fighter. The thought of thousands

upon thousands of them spilling into peaceful towns froze my innards. I shook my head rapidly in disbelief. My throat dry, I said,

"…Th-there are many guardsmen and knights in the human

lands…but they don't stand a chance. Especially not when the

sword techniques here are focused on presentation…"

Cardinal promptly nodded in agreement. "As I expected…I

suspect that in Rath's plans, the humans would have formed a

military equal to the Dark Territory's by now—one nurtured on

constant minor skirmishes with invading goblins, promoting

healthy authority level growth in its fighters, with practical

swordfighting and group strategy. But as you know, the situation

is far from that ideal. Swordsmen pursue only the visual look of

their styles without a single honest fight, and the nobles meant to

lead any theoretical armies are pampered and self-obsessed. And

all of this is a result of Administrator and her Integrity Knights."

"…What do you mean?"

"The Integrity Knights have the highest authority level and Divine Objects for weapons and armor. They are mighty indeed.

Just eight of them are enough to fully patrol the End Mountains

and drive off any invading bands of goblins. But that means that

centuries have passed without any ordinary citizens being faced

with the experience of battle. They lead lives of safe, comfortable

stagnation, knowing nothing of the impending calamity that

awaits them…"

"…Does Administrator know that the final phase of this stress

test is about to begin?"

"I suspect that she does. But she is confident that she and her

thirty knights alone will be enough to fight off the hordes of darkness. So confident, in fact, that she had the guardian dragons of

the four cardinal directions slain; they should have been valuable

allies in the fight, but she could not stand that they were not

under her command. I have no doubt that your partner would be

sad to hear that the legendary white dragon from his fond myths

was actually killed by Bercouli himself, once reforged as an Integrity Knight."

"…Probably shouldn't let him know, then," I muttered with a

sigh. I closed my eyes, envisioning the mountain of bones I saw in

that cave, then looked up again. "So what's the score? When the

forces of darkness invade, can Administrator and her Integrity

Knights actually fight them off?"

"They cannot," she said bluntly. "The Integrity Knights are

fierce warriors with many years of experience, but there are simply far too few of them. And Administrator's sacred arts are virtually godlike in their ability to disrupt the land, but as I said earlier, using them means putting herself within range of those foes.

And while individually, they may fall far short of Administrator,

there are as many users of system commands—what you might

call dark magic, in this case—as stars in the sky. She might burn a

hundred with lightning in one moment, and then be engulfed by a

thousand fireballs the next. I do not know if that would actually

kill her, but it is clear that she would eventually be forced to retreat to this tower."

"Um…wait a sec. Are you saying that…whether or not you and

I beat Administrator, the ultimate fate of this world will be the

same?" I asked, stunned. "That even if you regain the full powers

of the Cardinal System, you won't actually be able to fight off the

forces of darkness?"

She nodded gravely. "That is what I am saying. At this point, I

have no means of preventing the invasion from the Dark Territory."

"…So…as long as you fulfill your purpose of deleting the malfunctioning main process—meaning Administrator—then…whatever happens to the world after that is none of your concern? Is

that what you're saying…?" I rasped.

Cardinal pursed her lips, her eyes somewhat mournful as she

stared through her little round glasses at me.

"…That may be correct." Her voice was so faint that it nearly

blended into the minute sound of the lamp's flickering flame. "Indeed…if you look at it from the standpoint of the many souls that

could be lost, my goal could be taken as an abandonment of the

larger picture…But if you and I sit here and do nothing, then

eventually…whether in a year or two or longer, the forces of darkness will invade. They will trample and burn fields and towns,

and they will kill many people. It will be a hell that I haven't the

words to describe—the ultimate expression of tragedy and cruelty. However…even if I recover all my powers and had the proper

command to burn all those monsters into ash at once, I would not

use it. They did not ask to be made monsters. As I said, you will

not arrive at an answer even after a century of thinking. For you

see…if Administrator had never come about here, and humanity

had traced the path it was meant to follow, then at this time it

would be the forces of man forming an army to invade the Dark

Territory and commit unspeakable atrocities to their peoples, instead!"

Her soft voice got harder and harder until it cracked like a

whip by the end. "In either case, the end of the world will involve

great bloodshed. For that outcome was the design of the god

Rath. And I…I cannot accept such a god. I will not accept this outcome under any circumstances. So when I learned that the arrival

of the stress test was unavoidable, I landed on one simple conclusion. I would eliminate Administrator before that happened, restore my powers as the Cardinal System…and reduce the Human

Empire, the Dark Territory—the entire Underworld—to nothingness."

"Reduce it…to nothingness…?" I repeated. Belatedly, my eyes

bulged. "What does that mean…?"

"Just what it sounds like. I will delete all the fluctlights in that

cradle of souls, the Lightcube Cluster. All of them, from both the

human and dark side."

The determination on Cardinal's young face was so stark that I

was unable to speak for several moments. Over time, the concrete

facts of her final solution began to form a proper image in my

head.

"So you're saying…that if the horrible agonizing deaths of

many people is an inevitability, that it's better to put them all into

a painless death before it reaches that point…?"

"Painless death…? No, that description is not accurate," Cardinal said, pausing briefly as if consulting an internal database.

"Unlike you humans from the upper world, whose records are

stored on a different medium than the lightcube, the souls of the

Underworldians can be obliterated with an instantaneous command. They will simply vanish without a clue, and without any

greater resistance than the flickering of a candle…which does not

change the fact that it is still an act of murder…"

There were traces of deep resignation and powerlessness in

her voice, as if this conclusion had been reached only after a very

long period of consideration. "Of course, in ideal terms, the best

outcome is for this world to continue free of Rath's meddling,

fashioning its own history. After a few more centuries, perhaps

even a peaceful accord between humanity and the Dark Territory

is possible. But…I suppose you would know best of all that total

independence from our god Rath is nothing but a pipe dream,

wouldn't you?"

I bit my lip to think, surprised by the sudden question. I didn't

know where in Japan the actual Lightcube Cluster that housed

the Underworld was installed. But naturally, the cluster and all of

its attendant machinery required a considerable amount of power

to run. In that sense, true independence was functionally impossible.

And Rath wasn't running the Underworld as a charity. If my

conjecture was accurate that Seijirou Kikuoka was part of the

SDF, and deeply connected to the foundation of Rath, then the

Defense Ministry must have a concrete goal in mind for it. Even if

Cardinal recovered all her power, opened an external channel,

and demanded independence for the Underworld, Rath would

never accept it.

In fact, thinking about it now, even if I made it to the top of

Central Cathedral, contacted Kikuoka, and begged him to preserve the current state of the Underworld, there was zero assurance that he would agree. To Rath, all these artificial fluctlights

were test subjects. In fact, this particular Underworld was just

one of a number of attempts.

Ultimately, if the artificial fluctlights wanted true freedom and

independence, there was only one way to gain it—to take the fight

to the people in the real world.

I had to stop myself from taking that line of thought any further—it was too frightening. I looked up at Cardinal and nodded,

my neck stiff. "…You're right. It's not possible. This world is too

dependent on the outside people and energy sources to ever be

independent."

"Aye…we are like fish in a bucket, waiting to be fried in a pot.

The best we can do is jump out now to certain death," Cardinal

said, resigned. But I did not immediately support her conclusion.

"But…I'm not totally sure. Maybe you're right that vanishing

instantaneously is a better answer than dying in agony. But I've

become too involved with the people of this world to accept that

as the only correct way."

The smiling faces of those who'd shown me kindness in Rulid

and Centoria flashed through my mind's eye. I had no desire to

see them slaughtered by the forces of the Dark Territory, of

course, but would helping Cardinal delete everyone's souls really

be the best choice?

I bit my lip, unable to accept this sudden, unwelcome thrust of

reality. Gently, Cardinal said, "Kirito, if I am able to regain my

full powers with your help, I can fulfill your wishes, up to a degree, before I eliminate the Underworld. If you single out the

names of those you wish to save, I will freeze their fluctlights and

save them, rather than wiping them clean. Then, after you escape

to the real world, you can save the lightcubes that contain the

souls in question. I doubt that ten would be impossible to set

aside. It may not be the best possible solution for you, but it is

better than you can expect."

"…!"

I sucked in a sharp breath, surprised by her answer. Was that

even possible?

If lightcubes didn't need power to maintain their stored information, and you could safely extract them from the cluster without harming the contents, then the fluctlights themselves

shouldn't ever degrade. It would take time, but if the Soul Translator tech became commonplace, I could theoretically thaw them

out and see them again in the future.

The problem was the step before that. Could I really sneak

multiple cubes out of the cluster at the very core of the Rath laboratory? According to Cardinal, they were two inches to a side. I

couldn't hide several in my pockets at once. Even if I could carry

them in a case, ten was about the limit of what I could extract.

So if I accepted her offer, that meant I had to choose the souls

I wanted to save.

This wasn't like organizing save data on a game console. In a

fundamental sense, the artificial fluctlights were just as human as

I was. I would choose just ten in this entire world to save from

certain death—and only because I got along with them. Did I have

the right? Was I qualified to do such a thing?

"I…I…"

But I couldn't bring myself to say the word can't . Cardinal

stared right through me, seeing all. The only thing I could produce was a pathetic complaint.

"Why did you single out me to be your coconspirator in fighting Administrator, anyway? Let me be clear: I have barely any

unique advantages at all in this world. There are tons of people

with better skill at sacred arts and swordfighting. In fact…even

Eugeo. I bet that if we really fought head-to-head, I couldn't beat

him anymore."

Once I was done with my feeble, passive defense, Cardinal

shook her head in exasperation. She filled the cups on the table

with cofil tea—or perhaps it was real coffee this time—and took a

sip.

"…It was only twenty years ago that I realized that the stress

test, the invasion from the Dark Territory, was inevitable. After

that, I redoubled my efforts to find someone to fight on my behalf…"

I kept my further complaints to myself, sensing that her long,

long story was finally reaching its conclusion.

"…But no matter how skilled in sacred arts and weapons the

allies I could find were, there was one other huge obstacle to approaching Administrator that needed to be removed, aside from

the Integrity Knights."

"…You mean there's more?"

"Indeed. I considered dozens of possible solutions as my

search dragged on, but none was particularly practical…As time

passed, and I realized we were in the prelude stages of the Dark

Territory invasion, more and more advance parties began threatening the End Mountains—enough that the eight Integrity

Knights tasked with protecting the area couldn't eliminate them

all. Just when I was starting to consider giving up on forcibly

restoring my authority and risking death in an attempt to convince Administrator instead…one of my familiars picked up on an

extraordinary, impossible rumor spreading around the northern

frontier lands."

"Impossible…?"

"It was the sort of event that had certainly never happened

after Quinella became the Administrator. In order to prevent

human settlement from spreading, she had set up massive impediments around the map…and one, a gigantic, resource-sucking tree with nearly limitless priority and durability, got chopped

down by two boys."

"…Sounds familiar…"

"I sent my northern Norlangarth agent, Charlotte, to find

those boys. She finally tracked them down just before they left the

village. I had Charlotte hide in the hair of one of them, the sloppier one, so that I could seek the answer of how they eliminated a

near-indestructible object…"

I wanted to respond to the "sloppy" comment, but then I remembered that Charlotte had been riding on my head for nearly

two years without my realizing. I scowled and motioned for Cardinal to continue.

"I learned the direct reason promptly. The boy with the light

brown hair possessed a sword, a Divine Object with few peers in

the entire world. It was a legendary weapon only granted to heroes accepted by the world's dragon guardians, before they were

slaughtered…But learning this only brought me fresh questions.

Why would these children have such a high object control authority? It was an excitement I had not felt in years. I listened closely

to their conversations, day and night. Nearly all of it was idiotic

and pointless—"

"Geez, sorry."

"Shut up and listen. Eventually, in an inn along the way to

Centoria, I finally understood the reason why. To my surprise,

these two had vanquished a large-scale scouting party from the

Dark Territory unaided, according to what they were saying. If

true, that meant they each received half the authority advancement points that would normally be distributed among dozens of

fighters. That explained how you were able to equip the weapon…

but again, it raised more questions. How was it possible that two

boys raised in a rural village without even a proper armed garrison managed to defeat the vastly more powerful goblin warriors

of the Dark Territory?"

"Just to be clear, that was ninety percent bluff," I interjected.

Cardinal made to scold me, then paused and seemed to accept it.

"Ah…yes, I suppose that would have been part of it. It took me

quite a while before my doubts about this finally thawed. The

black-haired boy—you, Kirito—seemed to be taking care with his

statements out of concern for his partner, Eugeo. But when I saw

you give extra food to a wild animal—a stray dog—I felt a shock

like a bolt of lightning. I realized you were totally unbound by the

Taboo Index…"

"…Did I do that…?"

"Several times. It would have caused great trouble if anyone

had seen you. After that moment, I paid keen attention to everything you did and said, through Charlotte's eyes. Especially after

you reached Centoria and passed through the gate of the North

Centoria Imperial Swordcraft Academy. After a year of observation, I came to my answer at last. I knew you were not a soul born

in this world and trapped in a lightcube…but a human being from

the outside, the world where the god of creation Rath exists…"

"Then I suppose I've let you down. I don't have any of the administrative privileges or means to contact Rath that you'd expect…In fact, I don't even know what's going on in the outside

world right now…," I said apologetically. Cardinal grinned and

raised her index finger.

"I knew that from the start. If you had a higher system level

than Administrator, you would not have suffered such a wound to

defeat those goblins with a sword. Even I cannot surmise the reason you are in the Underworld in this state. Perhaps it is some

kind of accident…or a data test with your memory and abilities

limited. If the latter, it seems that you have paid a greater price

than necessary."

"…Yeah, no kidding. I can't believe I'd agree to something like

that," I muttered, recalling the pain in my shoulder where the

goblin captain sliced me.

"But even still, you were the greatest opportunity I could have

hoped for. Your existence itself would help me overcome that

other great obstacle to fighting Administrator."

"And what is that obstacle?"

"The Synthesis Ritual requires an extremely lengthy spoken

command and a vast amount of parameter adjustment. Including

the preparatory stages, the entire process takes three full days."

Once again, this sudden topic change threw me for a loop. But

Cardinal proceeded onward.

"Meaning that when it comes to ordinary combat, a sacred art

that accesses the lightcube directly is not really a factor. In other

words, there is no danger of having your soul taken over and

turned into an Integrity Knight in the midst of battle. However,

what if Administrator abandoned the idea of absorbing my chosen warrior and decided simply to destroy the soul altogether…?

Without requiring stringent parameter adjustment, the command

would become dramatically shorter. She might even finish the

spell while her guards were still fighting. We can defend against

direct life attacks with equipment and sacred arts. But if she attacks the fluctlight directly, there is no defense. This was a

quandary that troubled me for many, many years."

"…An attack against the soul…That's pretty chilling…"

"Just so. Even the most skilled combatant is helpless if their

memories are torn to pieces…Which means that you are the only

one who can withstand such an attack, Kirito. Your Divine Object

of the outside world, the device called the STL, transports your

soul into the Underworld, and Administrator cannot harm it—

there is no such command. Now do you see why I have awaited

you so badly? It is the reason I have waited and worked so hard to

install as many back doors as possible, to ensure that I could

spirit you here into my library, in case you won the Unification

Tournament or broke the Taboo Index and found yourself setting

foot onto the Axiom Church's territory…"

At last, at long last, Cardinal had brought her story up to the

present moment. She exhaled, her cheeks a bit reddened.

"…I see. So that's what this is about…"

Even at this late stage, I didn't know why I was here on a dive

into the Underworld. If anything, my journey to the center of the

world where I might find a way to contact Rath was as much to

learn the reason as anything else.

But after hearing the story from this girl who had lived such an

extremely long time, it was hard to argue against the idea that I

was guided here by a kind of fate. The outcome of our battle

against Administrator was uncertain, but there was a kind of divine voice telling me to do my utmost to help Cardinal and take

ten people at maximum out to the real world with me…

But even before weighty concepts like fate came into the picture, I simply couldn't look into the eyes of a girl who had waited

for two hundred years for this exact moment and tell her no. Over

and over, she insisted she was an emotionless program, but over

the course of her very long story, that seemed less and less true.

Cardinal was another human being with her own emotions, just

like me—even if she was bound by her great duty to correct the

state of the world.

"What do you say, Kirito? I cannot force you…If you decide

you cannot agree to my plan to wipe the world clean, I can send

you and Eugeo out of a back door of your choosing. If so, and you

find some way to defeat Administrator and achieve your goals,

you might be fighting me next…but I suppose that is simply fate

at work…"

And then, Cardinal gave me a dazzling, transparent smile, one

that suited her visual age better than any expression I'd seen yet.

I held my silence for a long, long time and then asked, "Cardinal…

you said that your soul was a copy of Quinella's, right…?"

"Aye. That is absolutely correct."

"Then…you must have the blood of pure nobles, too—the

genes that command you to pursue your own profit and desires.

Why didn't you give all of this up and just flee for your life? You

could go to some distant village, a place so far and insignificant

that even Administrator couldn't find you, fall in love, get married, have children…and then grow old and die happy. Wasn't

that your wish? Your blood should have ordered you to fulfill that

desire, for these two hundred years. Why have you been waiting

here, alone, resisting your command for all this time…?"

"You really are a fool." She grinned. "I told you. The Cardinal

subprocess's reason for existence is carved into my soul. I have

only one wish: to eliminate Administrator and restore normal

function to the world. To me, there is no way to have a properly

functioning world other than to wipe the slate clean. Therefore…

therefore, I…"

She faltered, and I stared through her glasses at her eyes.

Those burnt-brown irises were wavering, clearly holding in some

sweep of emotion. When her lips moved again, they emitted a

voice that was barely even audible.

"…No…that's wrong…I…I do have a desire…Something that I

just had to know…for these two hundred long years…"

She closed her eyes, lifted her face, and stared right at me. She

bit her lip in hesitation, folded her hands for several moments,

then abruptly leaped to her feet.

"Kirito, stand up with me."

"Huh…?"

I got out of my seat. Once I was upright, Cardinal gazed at me,

her back considerably arched. I wasn't that tall in the grand

scheme of things, but there was a big difference between me and

the girl, whose appearance was that of a ten-year-old.

Cardinal looked around, squinting, then put a foot on her

chair and lifted herself up. When she had confirmed that we were

at the same eye level, she nodded in satisfaction.

"Good. Come here, Kirito."

"…?"

I took a few steps until I was standing in front of Cardinal, still

confused.

"Closer."

"What?"

"Just do it!"

I inched forward, despite my misgivings. When she told me to

stop, our bangs were nearly brushing. A nervous sweat broke out

on my skin as she stared into my eyes, then away.

"Raise your arms."

"…Like this?"

"Now make a circle with them in front."

"...…"

Tentatively—and half expecting her to bash me with her staff

as soon as I actually did what she told me—I circled my arms

around Cardinal's back and touched my fingers together, making

sure to leave space between us.

After a few seconds of awkward silence, Cardinal made a cute

display of clicking her tongue. "Oh, come now, don't be coy."

Who, me or you?!

I felt her arms circle around my own back, and then a mild

pressure on the fabric of my shirt. My forehead knocked her large

hat off onto the table, and her curly brown hair brushed my

cheek. There was a mild weight and warmth on my shoulder and

chest.

"...…"

I withstood the incredible pressure of the silence for as long as

I could, then decided I would ask her what was happening. But

Cardinal broke it first, her barely audible voice the only sound in

the vast chamber.

"I see…So this," she said, exhaling deeply, "is what it means to

be human…"

I gasped.

After two hundred years of thinking about every possibility

and strategy, the final thing that Cardinal would want to know

could be nothing other than the warmth of another human being.

No human being can survive alone; we are social creatures. To

be human means to trade words with others, to join hands, to

touch another's soul. And yet this girl had been isolated in this

room with nothing but silent books for two hundred years.

At last, I felt I was beginning to understand the reality of the

life Cardinal had lived to this point. My arms closed, pulling on

her back to form a closer embrace.

"…You're warm…"

Something about the quality of her whisper was definitively

different from her voice before. I could sense a small but undeniably warm drop of liquid slowly moving down my cheek.

"…At last…It's all been worth it…I didn't spend those two hundred years…for nothing…"

I felt another drop run down my cheek and disappear.

"Just learning of this warmth alone…has made it all worth it. I

am satisfied…"

* * *

After a period of time (I couldn't be sure how long), I felt the sensation of moving air and found that my arms were empty again.

Cardinal was off her chair, picking up the toppled hat from the

table. She patted it a few times and put it back on her head. When

she turned back to me, pushing up her glasses, she was the businesslike sage once again.

"How long are you going to just stand there like a fool?"

"…Oh, come on…," I protested weakly, wondering if those

tears had been a trick of the mind. I rested against the side of the

table, folded my arms, and exhaled. Cardinal waited in silence

until she brought up the big question, rather simply.

"So did you come to a conclusion? Will you take part in my

plan or not?"

"…"

Sadly, I did not have the decisiveness to answer right on the

spot.

In logical terms, picking ten names and pulling them out to

the real world with Cardinal's help represented the best-case scenario. I could not have countered with a better idea.

But just because I couldn't think of one didn't mean it didn't

exist. I wanted to believe there was a better option. So I looked

Cardinal straight in the face and told her, "…All right. I'll take

part in your plan. But…"

I spoke slowly, carefully. "But I'm not going to stop thinking

about it. Even after we start fighting against the Integrity Knights

and Administrator, I'm going to keep searching for a way—for a

resolution that avoids the tragedy of the stress test and allows the

world to stay at peace."

"You are quite the optimist. But I knew that about you already."

"It's just…I don't want you to disappear. And if ten is all I get

to choose, you'll be one of them."

Her eyes widened briefly, then resumed their usual wry expression. Cardinal shook her head dramatically. "…And you are

stupid, to boot. If I escape from the simulation, then who will

wipe the world clean?"

"Like I said…I understand the concept, I'm just not going to

stop struggling to find a better answer along the way."

She looked annoyed, then turned away from me. Her voice

rode the little ripple of breeze from the whipping of her robe,

bearing with it the vast loneliness of two centuries that a moment's embrace couldn't heal.

"Someday…you, too, will know the bitterness of resignation…

Not from running out of strength and falling short…but being

forced to admit that you will likely do so…Now let us return. Your

partner will be finishing up that history book, I suspect. We ought

to include Eugeo in the concrete planning stages."

She rapped her staff on the stone floor and headed down the

way we came without a glance back at me.

2

As Cardinal predicted, Eugeo was just closing the cover of the

heavy tome resting on his knees when we came across him sitting

on the stairs. He looked dazed, still lost in that journey over centuries of history.

I strode up to him and said, "We're back. Sorry to have left you

alone for so long."

For some reason, Eugeo shivered briefly, blinked hard, then

looked toward me at last.

"Oh…Kirito. How long has it been…?"

"Huh? Uh…"

I looked around, but of course, there were no clocks in the

room or even windows. Cardinal cleared her throat and answered, "Roughly two hours. The sun has risen by now. What did

you think of the human world's long history?"

"Hmm…What can I say?" Eugeo replied, biting his lip and

casting around for the right words. "…Is everything written in this

book what actually happened? It just feels…like I'm reading a list

of very convenient fairy tales. I mean, most of the entries are just,

'Such and such a problem arose at this place, the Integrity

Knights resolved the matter, and after that point, such and such

an entry was added to the Taboo Index'…That's all it is."

"But that is what historical record is. And the Axiom Church's

style is to block each and every hole of the sieve until the water no

longer passes through," Cardinal spat. Eugeo looked shocked. I

couldn't blame him—I was sure he'd never heard someone openly

criticize the Church that way, especially someone who appeared

so young.

"Um…so, who are you…?"

"Oh, her name is Cardinal," I answered. "She's, uh…another,

former pontifex. She got kicked out by the current pontifex, Administrator."

Eugeo made a strange sort of gulping sound deep in his throat

and backed away.

"It's okay—you don't have to be afraid. She's going to help us

fight against the Integrity Knights."

"H-help…?"

"That's right. She's got a mission to stop Administrator and restore her own rule over the world. So we're, uh…working for the

same side," I said. It was extremely brief, and although I didn't lie

to him, I wasn't about to explain that Cardinal's first act after she

regained control would be to bring about the premature end of

the Underworld. I'd have to talk to Eugeo about it eventually, but

at this moment in time, I couldn't begin to guess how I'd broach

the topic.

My partner, who was essentially the personified concept of

honesty wearing clothes, stared at Cardinal without a shred of

doubt in his eyes and grinned weakly. "I see…That's very good

news, then. Well, if you were the old pontifex, doesn't that mean

you can tell us if the Integrity Knight Alice Synthesis Thirty is the

same person as Alice Zuberg from Rulid? And if so…is there a

way to turn her back to her old self…?"

Cardinal looked downcast as she replied, "I'm sorry…but my

sources of information from here are very limited. I only know

what my modest number of familiars see and hear directly. My

knowledge of the cathedral and the middle of Centoria is better,

but the farther toward the frontier you go…I am aware of the

birth of the Integrity Knight named Alice, but I have no means of

knowing the details at this point…"

Eugeo looked crestfallen at first, then sucked in a sharp breath

when he heard what came next.

"…However, I can teach you how to undo the Synthesis Ritual,

the sacred art that creates an Integrity Knight."

Cardinal looked first at Eugeo, then at me, and intoned, "Simply remove the Piety Module that has been inserted into their

souls."

"Pye…moju…?" Eugeo repeated, stumbling over the unfamiliar

English ("sacred tongue") words.

I helpfully added, " Module is a sacred arts word that means,

uh, part . Remember what we saw when we were fighting Eldrie

in the rose garden? When he started acting weird…"

"Yeah…that purple crystal rod started coming out of his forehead…"

"Precisely," Cardinal said, using her staff to draw a line in

midair and then bisecting it down the middle. "The Piety Module

is designed to interrupt the connections between memories.

Thus, it hides the future Integrity Knight's past and forces absolute fealty to the Axiom Church and pontifex. However, such a

forceful and complex spell is not stable by nature. If those crucial

base memories around the module are externally stimulated and

activated, it can start to undo the effects of the spell, as you saw

for yourselves."

"Meaning…to undo the sacred art, you have to force the knight

to confront their old memories?" I asked excitedly, but Cardinal

did not confirm.

"No, that would not be enough. There is another element that

must be present."

"Wh-what is it?" Eugeo asked, leaning forward.

"It is what existed in the place where the module is inserted—

in other words, the knight's most precious memories. Usually,

this is their most deeply beloved person. Do you remember what

you said to him to cause such a strong reaction?"

Eugeo already had it on the tip of his tongue before I could recall.

"Yes, it was his mother's name. That almost caused the crystal

to fall out of his head."

"That would be it, then…Eldrie's memories of his mother were

removed, and the module was inserted to take their place. Administrator does not need any of the Integrity Knight's past, but

memory is strongly tied to skill. If she removed all their memories, their ultimate strength as knights—sword skill, ultimate

techniques, sacred arts—would be lost. So she merely impedes

the flow of memories. I removed much of my own memory for the

sake of prolonging my life, and much of the knowledge and ability

I learned during that period was lost along with it…"

Cardinal then sighed and continued, "…To repeat, Administrator has taken the most precious memories of all the Integrity

Knights. Unless you can regain those, even removing the Piety

Module will not return the flow of memories to its prior state.

And in the worst case, it might even damage the memories themselves."

"A piece of memory…But…then…what if the piece of memory

that Administrator removes from the knights just gets destroyed?" I asked, hesitant to learn the answer.

Cardinal frowned as she thought it over, then said, "No…I do

not think she would do that. Administrator is a cautious woman

above all else—she would not discard something that could be

used. But I am absolutely certain she would store them in her

chamber at the top of Central Cathedral…"

The words top of the cathedral roused some part of my memory like a little jolt of electricity, but the sensation dissipated before I could pin it down. I tried to dispel the bad aftertaste by saying, "So we need those lost bits of memory to return the Integrity

Knights to normal, but in order to get them, we have to break

through the knights' guard and reach the top floor where Administrator is…"

"Do not presume that you can simply defeat the Integrity

Knights without killing them," she said, glaring at me. "All I can

do for you is give you equipment that is the equal of the knights'.

The rest comes down to how hard you fight against them."

"Wait…You're not coming with us?" I said. I'd been counting

on a helpful back-row mage with unlimited healing powers.

But Cardinal simply said, "If I leave the Great Library, Administrator will instantly detect my presence, and we will be forced to

fight both her and the combined power of all her knights. But if

you are confident that you can tackle ten Integrity Knights at

once, we might try it. Well?"

She smirked at her suggestion, and Eugeo and I shook our

heads in protest.

"On the other hand, Administrator still likely plans to take you

two alive and make you into knights. If you leave alone, she will

send a smaller number after you. Your only choice will be to defeat them in order and make your way up the cathedral."

"Hmm…"

True—when outnumbered, it was smarter to use ourselves as

bait to split up the enemy as much as possible. But even succeeding in that sense, we were facing the most powerful fighters in the

world. We'd had plenty of trouble against Eldrie alone. If we ever

faced two at once, I had a feeling we'd be done for.

While I pondered, Eugeo took on a serious look and said, "All

right. If we have to fight, we'll fight, and if we have to kill…then

we have no choice. I was prepared for that from the moment we

broke out of our cell. But…what if we have to face Alice? I can't

fight against her—I'm here to get her back."

"Hmm. You are correct. I am aware of your quest, Eugeo. Very

well, if you run across the Integrity Knight Alice, you may use

these," Cardinal said, removing two very small daggers from the

pocket of her black robe.

They were simply shaped, like crosses with the long end sharpened. The only decoration of any sort was a delicate chain running through a hole on the hilt of each. Cardinal gave us both one

of the deep-copper stilettos. I reached out to grab the fragile handle between my fingertips and was stunned at its weight. It was

less than eight inches long, but it felt as heavy as the official

swords at the Swordcraft Academy.

"What's this…? Some kind of one-hit-kill superweapon?" I

asked, dangling the dagger from the chain in front of my face to

examine it.

"That dagger is only what it looks like; it has nearly no attacking power," Cardinal answered. "But anyone who is pierced by

that blade will be instantly linked to me in the library via an unbreakable connection. In other words, any and all of my sacred

arts are guaranteed to land on them. Those daggers are a part of

me, you see. Eugeo, all you need to do is evade Alice's strikes and

hit her with that knife, anywhere on her body. It will cause hardly

any damage. I will instantly put Alice into a deep sleep, one that

will last until you can regain her memories and prepare to undo

the Synthesis."

"A deep…sleep…," Eugeo muttered, looking down at the darkred blade in his hand with suspicion. He seemed to be grappling

with the idea of harming Alice, even with a flimsy little paper

knife.

I slapped him on the back and said, "Let's trust her, Eugeo. If

we do have to fight against Alice and our only option is to knock

her out, we'll all get pretty badly hurt, including her. Compared to

that, a poke from this little thing is no worse than a greater

swampfly bite."

"…Except they don't bite people," Eugeo corrected, seemingly

back to his usual self. He turned to Cardinal and said, "All right.

If we can't argue Alice down, I'll have to use this."

He gripped the dagger tight and nodded deeply to reassure

himself. I let out a breath of relief and looked at my own crossshaped knife.

"…Cardinal, you said this was a part of you, right? What's that

supposed to mean?" I asked.

She shrugged. "Just because Administrator and I can generate

any kind of object does not mean we fashion them from nothing."

"Huh…?"

"There is a finite amount of resources in the world. You know

that from the way the Gigas Cedar prevented any fields from

growing in its shadow. Along the same lines, if I want to generate

an object of a certain priority level, I must sacrifice something of

equal substance. When I battled against Administrator all those

years ago, she summoned a sword, while I generated a staff—and

at that exact moment, quite a few very valuable treasures vanished from her chamber, heh-heh ."

She rapped the stone with the butt of her staff, looking rather

pleased with herself. "But as you can see, the library is a closed-

off space. I do not have any objects noteworthy enough to convert

into a high-priority weapon. These countless books are, of course,

very precious, but only due to their contents. I thought about

using this staff, but I will need it to fight Administrator, which

means that the only possible substitute to create these weapons is

my own body. It is extremely valuable—I have the highest authority level possible in this world."

"Your…"

"Body…?"

Eugeo and I stared at her tiny, fragile form from head to toe. I

could sense how rude I was being almost instantly and turned my

eyes away, but not before confirming that she had all her limbs. I

started to comment but stopped myself several times before I finally said, "…S-so, um…you cut off part of your body, converted it

into an object…and then regrew the part…?"

"Fool! How would that be any kind of sacrifice? It is this."

She turned her head to the side and quickly ran her fingers

through the short, bouncy curls of brown hair at the sides of her

neck.

"Ohhhh…your hair…"

"The price for each dagger is a lock of hair that I was growing

for two hundred years. If you had come sooner, I could have

showed them off before I cut them," she teased, but I caught the

hint of sadness in her eyes. Perhaps that part of Cardinal came

from the young girl who made up her bodily foundation.

A moment later, she was the wizened sage once again. "For

this reason, although they are small, the blades are sharp and

tough enough to pierce the Integrity Knights' armor. And because

they are still, in a sense, part of my body, they can link to me

through the void that surrounds the library. I fashioned these

weapons for direct use against Administrator. I will need you to

plant the blade into her body without falling prey to her fierce attacks. The other is a backup weapon, but as long as you're successful the first time, you won't need it."

"Wow…talk about laying on the pressure…"

I glanced at the knife dangling from my right hand again and

noticed that the shade of deep brown was the same as the hair

visible underneath Cardinal's hat.

Despite the many confusing sacred words in the explanation,

Eugeo seemed to accept the importance of the weapon. He stammered, "Umm…a-are you sure about this? You don't mind if I use

one of these precious blades for Alice…?"

"I am fine with it. And in either case…"

She paused and looked right through me with those all-seeing

eyes.

Yes, in either case, if I was going to bring ten souls back to the

real world safely, including Eugeo and Alice, I would need Cardinal's help to undo Alice's brainwashing. It would probably be better to save this explanation until after we got Alice back to normal. If it was at the side of someone he truly cared about, Eugeo

might actually agree to the escape plan. I had to make him agree.

I clenched the fine chain, realizing with no small frustration

that I was already taking Cardinal's world-obliteration plan for

granted. Perhaps the end of the Underworld really was inevitable

at this point. But even if that was the case, I needed Cardinal to

be one of those ten—even if I had to deceive her to do it.

I turned away to escape that omniscient gaze and opened my

collar wider to slip the chain of the knife around my neck. Once

Eugeo had done the same, I went back to something Cardinal had

said earlier that bothered me.

"By the way…you said that there needed to be some kind of

price to generate objects. So what did you use up to create all the

food and drink when we first got here?"

Cardinal shrugged easily and grinned. "Don't let it bother you.

Just two or three books of law that nobody will miss."

Eugeo the history buff made another strangled gulp, clutching

the chain around his neck with both hands.

"Hmm? What, did you want more? You growing boys…"

She lifted her staff and made to wave it, but Eugeo's head and

hands both waved frantically. "N-no, I'm full, I swear! I-I'd rather

hear more of your story!!"

"You don't have to be shy," Cardinal muttered with a grin that

was so cheeky, I could have sworn she was teasing him on purpose. She lowered the staff, cleared her throat, and continued,

"We've gotten a bit out of order. As I explained earlier, those two

knives are my secret weapon. Your top priority is to stab your targets with them: Alice for Eugeo and Administrator for Kirito. Do

anything you can to raise your chances of success—ambush, playing dead, anything. If there is any way that I believe you outrank

the Integrity Knights, it is your wiles…er, your practicality in a

pinch."

Before Eugeo could lodge a righteous protest at that last comment, I said, "Completely agreed. If possible, I'd love to be able to

utilize trickery all the way through…but sadly, they have the

home advantage. We need to be outfitted for all-out combat. Earlier, you said you could give us equipment that was equal to that

of the Integrity Knights, Cardinal. Does that mean you'll be giving

us piles of Divine Object weapons and armor?"

Even in these desperate times, the old Aincrad instincts

couldn't help but react to the scent of a legendary gear event. But

in contrast to my eagerness, Cardinal put on yet another exasper-

ated face and said, "Have you been listening to anything I say,

fool? To generate a high-level object—"

"Right, right…you need to sacrifice an object of equal value…

right…"

"Don't look like a child who just dropped his dessert on the

floor! It is making me question why I asked you for help in the

first place. For one thing, I believe you must realize that a weapon

does not perfectly obey your commands from the moment you

first touch it. No matter how powerful a blade I give you, it cannot hope to match the weapons the Integrity Knights have used as

extensions of their very bodies for decades."

I recalled the way Eldrie's whip had moved through the air

with a mind of its own, like some silver snake, and had to concede

the point. Even back in SAO , it was a kind of behavioral taboo to

immediately put your new rare gear to real use without practicing

with it first.

My disappointment was more than dropping a dessert on the

ground—it was like missing out on an entire holiday cake. Her reaction a mix of annoyance and pity, Cardinal continued, "And besides, why would I need to give you powerful weapons when you

already have excellent and familiar swords?"

"What?" Eugeo reacted instantly. "You're going to get back my

Blue Rose Sword and Kirito's…black one?!"

"I see no other option. Those two swords are truly divine. One

is the weapon of one of the four dragon knights, and the other is

the essence of a demonic tree that absorbed vast resources for

centuries. Even Administrator and I would find it difficult to instantly produce weapons of that scale. And you both have had

plenty of practice with them."

"Oh…well, you could have mentioned that you can do that." I

sulked, leaning back against the nearest shelf. I'd mostly given up

on retrieving the swords that were confiscated when we got

thrown into the dungeon. Getting them back was the best possible news.

"But…you can't actually teleport them directly here, can you?"

"No. I see you're finally figuring this all out," Cardinal said.

She crossed her arms and looked troubled. "I suspect that your

swords are being held in the armory on the third floor. The nearest back door will dump you out just thirty mels from there, but

as you've now seen, any such door within the tower can be used

only once. The insects that Administrator sends to look for me

will swarm it at once, you see. So after you've left the door to get

your swords in the armory, you will have to climb the tower on

your own from there. Fortunately, the great stairs are right in

front of the armory."

"Hmm, starting from floor three…and what floor is Administrator's chamber on?"

"Central Cathedral grows by the years, so I would guess…that

it is close to a hundred floors by now…"

"A hund…"

My breath caught. True, the white tower was so tall that from

any angle in Centoria, the top was always hidden from view…but

I didn't think it would actually have more floors than some reallife skyscrapers. The thought of potentially having a fight on each

and every floor was a bit much, so I whined, "Um, couldn't you

start us at, like, the fiftieth floor instead…?"

"It's all in your perspective, Kirito," interjected Eugeo, who between the two of us was always the optimist by a factor of ten.

"The longer it takes us to get there, the more spread out our enemies will be."

"…Uh, well, maybe that's true, but…"

I let my back slide farther down the side of the shelf until I was

sitting on the ground. I mumbled, "Well…I did climb the outside

stairs of the old Tokyo Tower once…"

"Huh?"

"Er, sorry, nothing. Anyway, I guess that decides our plan.

First, we get the swords from the armory. Then we ascend the

tower, defeating any Integrity Knights we encounter along the

way. If we come across Alice, we put her to sleep with the knife

and send her to the library. Once we reach the hundredth floor,

we stab Administrator with the other knife and find Alice's memory fragment."

At last, I was feeling like we had a mission blueprint in place.

Then Cardinal said, "I'm afraid there is one more thing you must

do."

"Uh…wh-what's that?"

"Your swords are indeed powerful, but they will not be enough

to beat the Integrity Knights. They have a means of amplifying

the abilities of their weapons to many times their original value."

"Oh…you mean the Perfect Weapon Control thing…?" Eugeo

asked hoarsely.

Cardinal explained, "Divine weapons take on significant qualities of the objects used as their foundation. Eldrie's Frostscale

Whip was once a two-headed white serpent that ruled the largest

lake in the east, until Administrator took it alive and converted it

into a weapon. But even as a dormant whip, it has the speed of a

snake, the sharpness of its scales, and the accuracy of its aim.

Perfect Control is the state of unleashing the weapon's memories

and bringing about attacks that would normally be impossible."

"Great, so his whip turning into a snake wasn't some kind of illusion magic…" I groaned and rubbed the mark on my chest

where Eldrie's whip had hit me, hoping that the white serpent

didn't have some kind of slow-acting venom.

Cardinal continued, "All the Integrity Knights have Perfect

Control over the weapons Administrator gave them—including

mastery over the lengthy, speedy sacred arts commands to make

use of them. You won't have much time to practice the chants,

but at the very least, you must learn how to unlock Perfect Control of your swords, or our chances of victory are fleeting."

"But…my black sword wasn't even a living thing, it was just a

huge tree…Is there even any memory to be unlocked there?"

"There is. Even that dagger I gave you harbors the memory—

or nature—of my hair, so it can open a route to me when it lands,

utilizing the same process as Perfect Control. Your sword, forged

from the Gigas Cedar, and Eugeo's Blue Rose Sword, based on the

eternal frost of the cave, are no exception to this pattern."

"Y-you mean…it's just…ice?" Eugeo gaped. I couldn't blame

him; the only special property of ice that came to mind was that it

was really, really cold. I puzzled over that one a bit and then decided if one of the two gods in this world said so, then it had to be

true.

"Well…if you're going to teach us how to do it, then I'm assuming that this Perfect Control technique will work with our swords,

too. I'd be happy to get some killer ultimate attack. What's it

like?"

Once again, I was not expecting her response. "Don't be naive!

I will describe how to unlock the technique, but what sort of attack style you make with it is entirely up to you."

"Uh…what?! How come?!"

"The core of Perfect Weapon Control is the Memory Release

technique, but just chanting a sacred art alone is not enough. You

must use your mind to imagine the unleashed form of your trusty

weapon. In fact, it is this mental process of recall that is more

crucial to your success than the Perfect Control technique itself.

For it is the power of the imagination that forms the fundamental

basis of the world—the ability to incarnate what you envision…"

I started losing track of the meaning of Cardinal's rapid-fire

explanation partway through. In particular, I was uncertain

whether the word incarnate was meant to be from the sacred or

common tongue, but before I could ask her to elaborate, something prickled in the back of my memory.

It was…yeah, two and a half months ago. As I kneeled before

the loose petals of the tattered zephilia flowers in the garden of

Swordcraft Academy's primary dorm, someone—Cardinal's familiar, the little black spider Charlotte—whispered to me. She too

had mentioned that all sacred arts were nothing but a tool to refine and collect the power of imagination.

I'd followed her suggestion and used my mind to envision the

life energy of the four holy flowers in the nearby beds flowing into

the severed plants. I didn't say a single word aloud, yet green

light ran through the air, enveloped the buds…and brought the

zephilias back to life.

That must have been the "process of recall," as Cardinal called

it. In that sense, it would indeed seem to be impossible to express

everything that phenomenon represented within the form of a sacred art command.

Cardinal gave me a serene, knowing nod and then turned to

Eugeo, who still seemed to be struggling with this.

"Come with me. Let us take a break and then construct the

arts."

We passed through the hallway of historical records, descended a

number of staircases, and returned to the round room on the first

floor of the library where we first appeared. On the table in the

center sat the plates stacked with dumplings and sandwiches. Despite being at least two hours since they were served, the food was

still steaming. In addition to healing the wounds of anyone who

ate them, they apparently were also subjected to a spell that kept

them from cooling off.

The sight inevitably rekindled my hunger, but knowing now

that all this had originally been books from the library made it

difficult to act. Cardinal noticed us grappling with our inner conflict and said indifferently, "If you will not eat more, I'll get rid of

them. They'll only interfere with the mental process."

"W-wait, at least just put them somewhere that we can't see

them. We'll take some to go when we leave," I pleaded. The girl

shook her head, lifted her staff, and rapped the edge of the table.

The huge plate sank directly into the surface, food and all.

Following that, three chairs pushed their way up out of the

floor, which Cardinal motioned toward. I sat down in one and

stared at the now empty tabletop.

Since the dumplings weren't going to be summoned again, I

decided to focus my mind on the image of my absent sword—the

temporarily named Black One—but found that, given the few

times I'd actually used it, I could not imagine all the fine details.

Eugeo tried the same thing and had a similarly frustrating result. He wondered, "Cardinal…can we really do this? How am I

supposed to imagine my weapon's unleashed form when it's not

even here…?"

On the other side of the table, Cardinal said, to my surprise,

"Its absence is better for the process. If you can see the weapon

before your eyes, your imagination stops there. Your hands and

eyes are not necessary to touch the hidden memory in the sword,

guide it, and unleash it. You merely need the eye of the heart."

"The eye…of the heart," I repeated, recalling the moment when

the zephilias came back to life. As a matter of fact, I hadn't

touched either the holy flowers or the dying zephilias. I hadn't

even focused on them. I just believed and envisioned—the life

overflowing, gathering, moving.

Eugeo was nodding, as if he had found his own understanding.

The black-robed sage grinned faintly and commanded, "Now, you

must envision your swords resting on the tabletop. Do not stop

until I say so."

"…All right."

"I'll give it a try."

We straightened up in our seats and focused on the empty

table. Before, I'd tapped out after five seconds, but this time I

kept staring; no need to rush. I started by emptying my mind.

The Black One. Thinking about it now, I realized that it was

rather cruel of me to have referred to it by such a lazy temporary

name all this time.

It took the craftsman Sadore an entire year to whittle the top

branch of the Gigas Cedar down to the shape of a sword. He finished on March 7th. This was May 24th, so I hadn't had it for

even three months yet. Excluding polishing and practice, the only

times I'd pulled it from its sheath were in the battle against firstseat disciple Volo Levantein, and the true combat against this

year's top student, Raios Antinous. That was it.

And in both cases, the black sword had helped me with stunning displays of power that seemed to come from nothing but its

very own will—even though it was I who had cut down the Gigas

Cedar from which it was made. Our history together was short,

but when I gripped its handle and executed a sword skill with it,

the sense of oneness and elation easily rivaled that of any other

sword I'd used.

Perhaps the reason I hesitated to give this sword a proper

name was due to its contrast with Eugeo's divine Blue Rose

Sword.

White and black. Flower and tree. Two swords that were similar, but opposites in many ways.

Though I had no evidence for it, I'd been possessed by a certain foreboding ever since I'd left the village of Rulid two years

ago. A vision of Blue Rose and black swords fated to cross one

day.

My logical side told me it wasn't true. There was absolutely no

reason that Eugeo and I, as the owners of the swords, would ever

fight. But I got an intuitive sense that the same might not hold

true for the swords themselves. For one thing, it was the Blue

Rose Sword that actually cut down the Gigas Cedar…

Rather than emptying my mind, I was filling it with memories

and reflections—but still I envisioned the black blade lying on the

table. A simple, rounded pommel. The black leather wrapped

around the grip. The bold curve of the guard. The blade, on the

thick side, black and a little translucent, like crystal, and totally

unlike any wood I'd ever seen. It collected the light inside and

glinted along the edge and point, which were as fine and sharp as

a razor…

The illusion of the sword, which had wavered uneasily in spots

at first, began to grow firmer and more stable as my intruding

thoughts gradually faded. Eventually it had a toughness, a weight,

even a temperature. It exuded a powerful sense of presence on

the table.

As I gazed into the shining flat of the blade, I heard a voice

from somewhere say, "Deeper. You must dive deeper, until you

can touch the memory hidden in the sword, its true essence."

The black of the sword expanded without a sound. It covered

the table, the floor, the bookshelves and lamps, and then the

world. Only the sword and I existed in this infinite, lightless

space. It rose up and came to a halt in the air, handle down and

point up. My form rippled and melted, and I felt my mind getting

sucked into the sword.

The next thing I knew, I was a cedar tree rooted in cold

ground.

It was a deep forest, and yet there wasn't a single tree growing

around me. I stood alone in a rounded clearing. I tried to call out

to the moss and narrow vines crawling along the ground at my

feet, but there was no answer.

…Solitude.

I was racked with desolate loneliness. With each breeze, I

stretched my branches desperately, hoping to rustle against the

others, but I came up short every time.

Maybe I could reach them if I stretched farther. So I sucked in

ground energy through my roots and light energy through my

leaves. My trunk thickened, and my branches extended. My

needlelike leaves stretched, grasping toward the shining green

leaves of the closest oak.

Alas! Just before I could finally make contact, the oak leaves

turned brown, wilted, and fell all at once. The moisture drained

out of the branches and even the trunk; it weakened and died,

then toppled over from the base. And it wasn't just the oak. All

the trees at the rim of the rounded clearing were dying and crumbling. Soon their remains, too, were covered by the carpet of

moss.

I lamented my solitude in the now larger clearing, then sucked

strength from the ground and sun again. My trunk swelled, creaking, and my branches expanded. This time I reached for the next

closest tree, a laurel.

Once again, its leaves wilted before I could touch them, the

dead trunk rotted, and it toppled. So did the tree next to it. And

the one after. More and more trees fell, and the empty space grew

larger.

Because I was sucking up power to stretch my branches, the

other trees were dying. But even understanding this, I did not

stop trying to touch them. How many times did I repeat the same

thing? Eventually, I was dozens of times the size of the other

trees, and the clearing itself was dozens of times its original span.

The same could be said of my loneliness.

No matter how hard I reached, the day would never come

when my pointed needles made contact with the leaves of another

tree. But by the time I realized this, it was too late to turn back.

My leaves and branches gobbled up incredible amounts of sun,

regardless of my wishes, and the vast lattice of my roots devoured

the power of the earth. The cold empty space grew by the day as

the trees fell over dead, one after another after another…

"That is enough," said a sudden voice, freeing me from the

cedar.

I blinked once, and instantly I was back in the Great Library,

surrounded by an endless array of bookshelves lit by orange

lamplight, resting on polished stone floor. Before me was a round

table, upon which sat two swords. My Black One and Eugeo's

Blue Rose Sword. They both looked totally real, but this could not

be true. Both of them were gone, confiscated when we were

thrown into the cells.

As I sat gazing emptily at the white and black swords, a small

hand reached out from the other side of the table and grabbed the

handle of the black sword first. It wavered, then vanished in silence. Next, she brushed the Blue Rose Sword. Again, it blinked

away as though sucked up into her palm.

"...Aye. I've received the memories of the swords that you

have brought forth," Cardinal said with satisfaction. I looked into

the eyes of the black-robed girl across the table—and only then

did I realize I had fallen into a kind of trance. Next to me, Eugeo's

green eyes wandered dully, then he suddenly jolted and blinked.

"…Huh…? I was just…on the highest peak…of the End Mountains," he murmured.

I couldn't help but smirk. "You were all the way up there,

man?"

"Yeah. It was incredibly cold and extremely lonely…"

"Do not relax yet," scolded Cardinal. I sat upright, realizing

we'd been getting into chitchat mode. The little sage had her eyes

closed. Her brows drew together slightly in concentration, and

then she nodded.

"Aha…I believe that simplifying the command is preferable to

tweaking the technique itself. I shall start with your sword, Kirito."

She tapped the table with her left hand, silently producing a

sheet of blank parchment. She then brushed the sheet with her

other hand, sliding from top to bottom.

That simple action produced at least ten lines of command

text. She spun the sheet around and slid it over to me, then repeated the process for Eugeo. The two of us shared a look and

then glanced down to examine our sheets.

The text, written in blue-black ink, was entirely in the sacred

script (meaning the alphabet), with no commands in the common

tongue (Japanese). In orthodox sacred arts format, the list was

numbered down the left, with each entry's command to the right.

Starting from System Call at the top and ending with Enhance

Armament on line ten, there were at least twenty-five command

words in the list.

That was shorter than the Perfect Control that Eldrie used on

his Frostscale Whip, to be sure, but it was still a major task to

memorize it all.

"Ummm…I don't suppose I could keep this as a cheat sheet…"

"Of course not. Not even a fresh-faced new student at the

academy would be allowed to peek at the text when demonstrating their practical skill," Cardinal chided. "For one thing, if you

removed any object connected to this library and it fell into

enemy hands, that might lead to the unraveling of my spatial isolation."

"B-but…those knives…"

"Those are linked to me personally—that's different. Now get

to memorizing and stop whining. Eugeo's already working on

his."

My head whipped around, and to my shock, goody-two-shoes

Eugeo was already gazing intently at the list, his lips moving

soundlessly. I gave up and looked back at my own list, just as Cardinal added a cruel condition to the exercise.

"You have thirty minutes to memorize this list."

"Aw, come on…," I protested. "What is this, an exam? At least

give us more time to—"

" Fool! " she thundered. "Listen to me: Your swords were confiscated when you were locked up at eleven o'clock the previous

morning. Your ownership of the items will reset after twenty-four

hours, which means you will no longer be able to utilize this Perfect Weapon Control at all!"

"Oh…r-right. And what time is it now…?"

"Well after seven o'clock. Even allowed a full two hours to re-

cover the weapons, you have very little time left."

"...Um, okay," I admitted, giving the command list my undivided attention this time.

Fortunately for me, the sacred arts of the Underworld, unlike

magic spells in ALfheim Online , used familiar English terminology. The format was similar to programming language, so my

memorization was aided by understanding the words, not just the

sounds.

The command list Cardinal wrote out was split into three

major processes: (1) Accessing the object's deep data (the sword's

memory) stored in the memory module; (2) selecting and molding the necessary portions alone; and (3) applying them to the

current form of the sword to expand attack power. The methodology was similar to the "image buffer overwriting" experiment I

tried out on the zephilia flowers back at the dorm, but none of the

terms used were from the academy's textbooks, meaning that

only Cardinal would be able to come up with this combination,

due to her knowledge of the entire command list.

Even as I committed the ten commands to memory, a small

part of my mind wandered.

The Rath scientists who had created the Underworld called the

data format that recorded all the objects in this world mnemonic

visuals . Over two years (of my personal subjective time) ago, at

Agil's bar in Okachimachi in the real world, I had explained the

broad concept to Asuna and Sinon. Through observation and experimentation, I had learned some things during my time here

since.

The Underworld, unlike traditional VRMMOs, was not made

of polygonal models. A processor called the Main Visualizer read

and buffered the sum experiences of all those who connected to—

or lived in—the world, from rocks and trees to dogs and cats,

tools, buildings, and so on. When needed, it would extract the

necessary information to display to the diver. The reason I was

able to grow the zephilia flowers that shouldn't have grown in the

northern empire was that I'd temporarily overwritten the average

buffer data ("It doesn't grow here") with the mental image that

said it could grow.

Furthermore: All objects in this world were saved as memories.

So wouldn't the reverse be true as well? Could memories be

turned into objects? I had seen something before that I couldn't

explain in any other way.

Two years and two months ago, when I first awoke in the forest south of Rulid, I wandered until I reached the banks of the

Rul River. When I did, I was faced with an incredibly vivid image:

that of a flaxen-haired boy and a blond girl walking against the

backdrop of the setting sun—and a boy with short black hair, too.

The image had vanished in a matter of seconds, but it was no

trick of the eyes. Even now, if I closed my lids, I could see the

burning red sunset, the light glinting off the girl's waving hair,

and the sounds of the kids treading through the grass. I had

called the trio of children from my own memory. Obviously, one

boy was Eugeo. The girl had to be Alice. And the black-haired

boy…

"That's thirty minutes. How do you feel?" Cardinal said, cutting off the line of thought running through the back of my mind.

I flipped over the sheet of parchment and envisioned the command from the start. For not giving it my undivided concentration, I was relieved to find that I could recall every last word. "I've

got it probably perfect."

"That was somewhat of an oxymoron. How about you, Eugeo?"

"Uh…um, I think I've got it probably per…probably fine."

"Very good," Cardinal said, stifling a smirk. "Just so you know,

while Perfect Control is a powerful technique, it must not be used

at every single opportunity. Its use consumes a considerable

amount of the sword's life. On the other hand, it doesn't do to

save it up if you are about to fall. Gauge the moment; use it

wisely. Afterward, you must return it to its sheath and allow the

life to recover."

"That sounds…tough…," I grumbled, then I flipped the parchment over again. I ran my eyes over the full command one more

time for good measure and noticed something. "Huh? Wait a

sec…The last phrase of this command is Enhance Armament ,

right?"

"Is there something wrong with that?"

"N-no, that's not what I mean. When we fought Eldrie, the

Perfect Weapon Control technique he used had something else

after that. It was, like, um…R…Rele…," I mumbled.

Eugeo stepped in to finish. "Release Recollection, I think. It

was after he said that that his whip turned into a real snake. Boy,

that really startled me."

"Yeah, exactly. Don't we need something like that, too, Cardinal?"

"Hrm," the black-robed sage grumbled, looking annoyed. "Listen, there are two stages to Perfect Weapon Control: Enhancing

and Release. Enhancing recalls specific portions of the weapon's

memory to unlock more attack power. And Release, as the name

would suggest, unlocks and recalls all of the weapon's memory to

unleash its wildest power."

"Wildest power, huh…I guess that explains it. With Eldrie's

whip, he strengthened it to increase its range and split it into

multiple parts, and then he released it so that it turned into a

snake and attacked of its own will…"

Cardinal blinked in affirmation and said, "Precisely so. But I

must be clear up front that this is still beyond your means."

"Wh-why?" asked Eugeo, clearly surprised.

The sage intoned, "It is the weapon's wildest power, as I said.

The strength created by Release Recollection is beyond the ability

of a new wielder to control, especially for a divine-level weapon.

It will harm you as much as the enemy—perhaps even be fatal to

you."

"P-point taken," said my partner, ever the obedient schoolboy.

I had no choice but to accept her terms, too. But Cardinal could

sense I was unconvinced, so she added, "The time will come when

you can make use of Release…perhaps. The sword will teach you

everything. But that assumes you can get it back first."

"Yeah, yeah," I muttered.

Cardinal rolled her eyes and tapped the base of her staff

against the floor. The two parchments rolled themselves up on

their own and even seemed to shrink—only to be replaced by

long, narrow baked goods.

"You must be hungry after all that thinking. Eat up."

"Huh…? Are these magic treats that'll help us remember the

commands or something…?"

"Of course not."

"Oh. Right."

Eugeo and I shared a look, then we picked up the sweets. At

first, I thought they were the simple flour pastries with sugar

sprinkled on top like the kind you could buy from the market in

Centoria, but in fact, they were a much more real-world kind of

delicacy: flaky piecrust coated with white chocolate. The combination of crispy texture and rich sweetness was so reminiscent of

the real world that it nearly brought tears to my eyes.

We raced to see who would finish first, and once I was done, I

looked up with a sigh of satisfaction into Cardinal's gentle, understanding eyes.

The young sage nodded slowly and said, "Now…it is time for

good-byes."

There was such a weight to that brief statement, I couldn't

help but deny it. "But once we complete our goals, you'll be able

to come out safely, right? Good-bye seems a little dramatic…"

"That is correct. Assuming all goes well, of course…"

"…"

True, if we lost to the Integrity Knights at any point on our

mission to reach the top of the cathedral, Cardinal would be

forced to undergo another long, long wait. In fact, the stress test

would probably arrive before she found another assistant, plunging the world into blood and flame.

But despite the looming, tragic catastrophe waiting in the

wings, Cardinal's smile was pure and gentle. I felt an odd sensation clutch at my chest, and I bit my lip. She nodded almost imperceptibly and spun around.

"Come. It is time. Follow me…and I will send you through the

door closest to the third-floor armory."

The walk from the first-floor library hall back to the entrance

room with its countless back doors was disappointingly short.

Under his breath, Eugeo silently mouthed the commands for

his Perfect Weapon Control technique, while my eyes never left

the small figure of Cardinal leading the way.

I wanted to talk more. I wanted to know more about what she

had thought and felt during those two hundred years in solitude.

The sensation that I needed to know these things clawed its way

up to my throat, but her pace was so quick and resolute that it

brooked no discussion.

Once we were in the familiar chamber with countless hallways

leading off the three other walls, Cardinal beckoned us toward

one on the right side. Only after walking down the thirty-foot

hallway to the simple door waiting at the end did she finally stop

and turn back to us.

The smile on her pink lips was as gentle as ever. There was

even a hint of a certain satisfaction there.

In a crisp, clear tone, she said, "Eugeo…and Kirito. The fate of

the world now rests on you two. Whether it is plunged into hellfire…or sinks into oblivion. Or," she added, staring right at me, "if

you find a third way. I have told you all that I can tell and given

you all that I can give. As for the rest, simply follow in your beliefs."

"…Thank you, Cardinal," Eugeo said, his voice brimming with

determination. "I know I'll reach the top of Central Cathedral…

and bring Alice back."

I felt like I should say something, too, but no words came. Instead, I simply bowed my head in respect.

Cardinal nodded resolutely, her smile now gone, and she

grabbed the knob.

"Now…go!"

She turned it and, in the next moment, flung the door wide

open. Eugeo and I pushed against the sudden rush of cold, dry air

and leaped through.

After five or six steps, I heard a small noise behind me and

looked over my shoulder to see nothing but cold, smooth marble

wall. There wasn't a single trace of the door to the Great Library.