Priestess of Light, Eight PM, November 7th, 380 HE Part 2

"I think the only thing I can say is that…this is quite remarkable," offered a

relaxed, lazy voice.

Gabriel stood at the edge of his carriage's upper deck, gazing down upon the

enormous divide in the earth that had appeared out of nowhere.

After that, he turned to the floor hatch in the corner of the deck, where a

middle-aged man was sticking out his portly face. It was the leader of the

commerce guild, a fellow named Rengil. He drew his wide sleeves together

before his body and bowed deeply.

This was one of the few remaining leader units, but the man himself had very

little combat potential. Gabriel inquired as to the reason for his presence by

raising an eyebrow. Rengil held his hands up to his face and glanced left and

right. He would have seen that Vassago was not on the deck, but he made no

mention of it and bowed again.

"Your Majesty, when the moon rises soon…without the presence of an

immediate order, I would ask that you allow the troops a break for nourishment

and rest."

"Ah."

Gabriel turned back to the yawning fissure. He had sent scouts to either end

to see how far it continued to the east and west, but they had not yet returned

with reports. It had to be longer than a mile or two, then. And it was obvious at

a glance that this was not a hole that could be filled in for passage across.

And Vassago and his helpers, whom he'd sent to the south in anticipation of

the enemy's moves, had probably been wiped out by now. In Vassago's case, of

course, he would simply wake up again in the real world.

This was the precise situation in which to use his aerial units, of course, but

the dragons of the dark knighthood were only ten in number. It would take

forever to ferry across twenty thousand infantry. He asked the few remaining

dark mages if they could do anything with magic, but they said it was virtually

impossible to fashion a bridge that was both long enough to cross the massive

gap and strong enough for an army of this size. If a caster on the level of

Chancellor Dee Eye Ell used multiple orcs as sacrifices again, maybe that would

work, but she was reported dead without a body after the enemy knight's

attack.

For having been so motivated and ambitious, she certainly met an ignoble

end, Gabriel thought briefly, but it meant nothing more to him than the loss of

another AI unit, and she promptly vanished from his mind.

Ultimately, this massive crevice had to be something from outside of the

proper "game balance." The AI on the side of the Human Empire would not

commit destruction that the units of the Dark Territory could not repair in some

way, meaning that this had to be interference from the real world.

The Rath employees trapped in the Upper Shaft were logging in with a superaccount the same way that Gabriel was. And they probably had the same goal:

retrieve Alice and use the system console to eject her from the Underworld.

This certainly complicated matters, but at least knowing that much gave him

options for adjusting. In fact, one might even say things had gotten more

interesting.

Gabriel let the ends of his mouth curl into the slightest of smiles, but only for

a moment. He turned to Rengil again and said, "Very well. We will camp here

for today. Let the soldiers eat their fill. Tomorrow will be busy."

"Yes, Majesty. Your magnanimity does not go unnoticed."

The senior merchant bowed yet again and quickly made himself scarce.

"The same…world…as Kirito?" the girls repeated, their red and navy-blue

eyes, respectively, big and wide. "D-do you mean…the celestial realm? Where

the three goddesses of creation…and the gods who control the elements, and

all the angels live…?"

"I don't," Asuna said hastily, shaking her head. "It is a world that exists

outside of this place, but it is not a land of gods. I mean…look, do you think

Kirito is a god or an angel or anything like that?"

The girls looked at the wheelchair, blinking, then giggled. They quickly

regained their composure and bobbed their heads.

"I—I see…I don't think any god would sneak out of school regularly to go buy

food, I suppose…," said the red-haired girl, bringing a smile to Asuna's lips this

time. He was up to his old tricks in this world, too. She felt her eyes growing hot

again with the exasperation and joy of the discovery but kept it under control

and smiled for the girls.

Next, the brown-haired one murmured, "Then…what kind of place is this…

outside world, as you call it…?"

Asuna considered her answer carefully. "Well…I'm sorry, but I can't describe it

in one simple statement. I'd like to give you a full explanation in the presence of

the people who are in charge here. Can you guide me there?"

"Y-yes, of course. Come right this way," the girls said, looking serious, and

headed for the exit from the carriage bed. Before she chased after them, Asuna

stopped and glanced at Kirito. There were drying tear marks on his downcast

cheeks.

It's all right. It'll all be okay, Kirito. Just let me handle the rest of this, she told

him silently, squeezed his limp hand, and turned away. She made her way

through the rows of boxes, lifted the canvas canopy, and leaped down to the

ground.

The moment her white boots hit the soil, she saw a golden flash before her.

A sword.

But Asuna's reflexes worked before she recognized what it was. Her right

hand was already moving, pulling free her rapier at maximum speed.

A loud, high-pitched clang pierced the night forest.

She succeeded in deflecting the slash of her attacker, but the shock of it

numbed her right arm up to the elbow. How heavy was that other sword?

Through the light created by the shower of sparks that resulted, she saw the

next swing flashing toward her, giving her no time to breathe.

But if she simply blocked it, she would be battered backward, she knew, so

she thrust multiple times with the rapier against the oncoming blade.

Only on the third strike did it stop. Asuna caught the sword on her hilt and

pushed, buying her time to at least see who her attacker was.

The breath caught in her throat. It was an incredibly beautiful woman who

glared at Asuna with such fury that it brought a flush to her snow-white skin.

Her sapphire-blue eyes shone righteously.

Her long hair, the color of molten gold, shook with the pressure of the attack.

Her ostentatiously designed armor and the graceful longsword in her right hand

were both a deep, bold yellow.

The other girls, who'd been watching this unfold in shocked silence, finally

recovered and shrieked, "M-my lady, please stop!!"

"She is not our enemy, Miss Alice!!"

Alice?!

Asuna found herself shocked for a different reason.

So this stunningly beautiful woman with the sword as heavy as rock was none

other than the world's first bottom-up AI, the high-functioning intelligence

code-named A.L.I.C.E.? The goal of Project Alicization itself, and the core of this

entire incident, wanted by both Rath and the invaders?

But why would Alice be attacking her with such hostility? Asuna was

desperately seeking the answer as she pushed back against the golden blade

when Alice's cherry-blossom lips opened and emitted a voice that, while fierce,

was as beautiful as a violin in the hands of a master.

"Who are you?! Why are you trying to approach Kirito?!"

In that moment, everything on Asuna's mind, all the many swirling

circumstances, were pushed aside in a reaction that could be described only by

a single sound effect: ka-ching!

The words that erupted from Asuna's mouth were less of a bucket of water

on the enemy's open flame than a bottle of oil.

"Why…? Because Kirito is mine!"

"How dare you! Ruffian!!" Alice snarled, baring her pearly white fangs.

Their swords separated, the last friction causing more sparks. The woman in

gold floated backward, and as soon as her boots hit the ground, she zipped

forward again with a high slash. This time, Asuna was not put on the defensive;

she unleashed one of the combination attacks that would forever be a part of

her muscle memory.

A huge crescent moon and countless meteors collided in the darkened woods,

lighting their surroundings. Again, Asuna was stunned at the shock that ran

from her elbow to her shoulder. She had to admit that she was slightly inferior

when it came to skill; the only thing keeping her even with her opponent was

the fact that the "GM gear" that came with the Stacia account—a rapier named

Radiant Light—had a higher priority level than Alice's golden longsword.

Their swords locked at the hilt again, coming to a stop. Amid the silence that

followed, a man's voice leisurely cut in: "Well, well, this is quite a sight, I must

say. Two beautiful flowers in full bloom. Absolute beauty."

From what should have been empty space emerged two powerful arms.

Rough fingers pinched Alice's and Asuna's swords around the sides.

"…?!"

Her rapier went immobile, as though it were held with a vise. Then the arms

lifted the swords, combatants and all, and held them apart before setting them

back down on the ground.

Standing next to them now was a large man who looked to be in his forties.

His clothing was a robe that looked similar to a kimono, with only a minimum

amount of armor added to it. The steel-gray longsword in his waist sash and the

arms extending from his sleeves were covered with scars. He was every bit the

image of a mighty veteran warrior.

His appearance caused Alice to magically appear several years younger. "Why

are you stopping me, Uncle?!" She pouted. "I believe she is an enemy spy come

to…"

"She is no such thing. It was this young lady who kept me from charging to an

early grave, in fact. I'd guess the same goes for you?" he said, addressing the

two girls in the back, who were gaping at the proceedings in typical fashion.

They replied very hesitantly, speaking in turn. "Y-yes, Lord Commander. She

saved our lives."

"With one swing of her sword, she sent a great number of the enemy to Hell…

It was a godly act."

The man they called Commander glanced back in the direction of the great

fissure Asuna had created, and he laid a hand on Alice's shoulder. "I saw it

happen, too. A rainbow of light rained down from above and opened a gash in

the earth a hundred mels wide. The pugilists were shocked that they couldn't

jump across it, I bet. It's an undeniable fact that this young lady saved us from

being absolutely overrun by the enemy."

"...…"

Alice glared at Asuna with obvious suspicion, naked golden blade still dangling

from her right hand. "Then are you saying, Uncle…that this woman is neither an

enemy spy nor some heretical imposter mimicking the garb depicted in holy art,

but the actual Stacia, goddess of creation?"

Asuna bit her lip in silence. If this knight commander, who appeared to be the

overall commander of the human army, identified her as a goddess, it was going

to cause more trouble than she wanted.

Fortunately, the commander only smirked and shook his head. "I don't think

so. If this girl were a true goddess, she'd be scarier than the pontifex, wouldn't

she? She might strike down a violent surprise attacker to the depths of the

earth, wouldn't you think?"

Alice was unable to mount a response to that. She still glared at Asuna with

hostile sparks flying, but she fit the end of her longsword to the mouth of her

sheath and clinked it all the way into place.

For her part, Asuna had some comments as well. She wanted to know who

this girl thought she was, talking about Kirito that way—but with a deep breath,

she was able to stifle that urge for now.

Asuna's duty was to guide Alice to the World's End Altar at the very southern

tip of the Underworld and physically eject the lightcube that held Alice's

fluctlight from the cluster. In other words, she had to convince this young

woman, whom she clearly did not get along with, to leave the side of her army.

This was absolutely not the time to bicker.

She stashed her own rapier away and turned to the commander. "Yes…as you

say, I am no god. I am as human as the rest of you. I just happen to have some

special knowledge about the situation you are in. I know this because I came

from a place outside of your world."

"Outside, huh…?" the commander repeated, grinning broadly. He rubbed his

fierce, stubbled chin.

Alice, however, sucked in a sharp breath and demanded, "The outside world?!

You came from the same place that Kirito did?!"

Asuna was taken aback. He'd explained it to her? At least in some measure?

Taking the ratio of the Fluctlight Acceleration currently active into account,

Kirito had already spent nearly three years in this simulation. She couldn't help

but wonder how much time he had spent together with this golden-haired

warrior.

Alice was clearly wondering something along the same lines and took a step

closer to Asuna before the commander blocked her path with a thick arm.

"It's probably best if the other knights and the head guards hear the rest of

her story. We can discuss this all over tea. The enemy isn't going to be doing

anything more tonight."

"I…suppose you're right," Alice said, though her brow was still knitted.

"Good. Then if that's settled…would you girls over there fetch us some hot

tea and fire whiskey for me? You can listen in as well."

The uniformed pair gave loud salutes. Asuna wanted to see Kirito one more

time before she left the wagons, but before she could do anything else, Alice

snapped, "Just so we are clear, you are not to enter that wagon without my

permission. It is my duty to secure Kirito's safety."

Asuna felt her scalp burn with anger but held it in.

"And I…will not stand by and listen to you speak about my Kirito as though he

means something to you…"

"Did you just say something?!"

"…Nothing at all."

They snorted and looked away from each other, then followed after the

commander.

Left behind, Tiese and Ronie exhaled together.

"Things just got really…intense somehow," Tiese murmured. She clapped her

hands together to reset the mood and said, in her usual bright manner, "We'd

better go boil the water! And the fire-whiskey jar should be in that carriage,

right? Let's go, Ronie!"

Before she trotted after her friend, Ronie muttered, to no one at all, "But…he

was my mentor first…"

5

Cup of tea in hand, Asuna stared into the campfire, which popped and

snapped merrily.

It looked so real. This one was fundamentally different from the fires she'd

seen so many times in SAO and ALO, which were graphical effects generated

within the game engine. The brilliance of the sparks that flew out with each

burst of the dried logs, the charred tang of the smoke, the radiating heat that

warmed the skin of her face and hands—the details stimulated her senses with

a reality that even real life failed to deliver.

And it wasn't just the campfire. It was the hard surface of the folding chair

they brought her. The smooth finish of the well-worn wooden cup. The calming

scent of the tea. The dry sound of the trees around them, rustling in the night

breeze.

Since logging in to the Underworld, she hadn't had the time to stop and savor

the world like this. Now that she was able to focus on the full sensory

experience, she was blown away by the quality of the STL's mnemonic visuals.

If Kirito had logged in to this place without knowing it was a virtual world, it

must have taken a great amount of time to figure that out. For one thing, there

was no such thing as an NPC in this place.

Asuna tore her eyes off the flickering fire and examined the people gathered

at the edge of the little clearing in the midst of the forest. She'd already been

given simple introductions to them.

The one just to her left, plopped on the ground with an old-fashioned jar of

liquor all to himself, was Commander Bercouli of the Integrity Knights. On his

other side was Alice, in her golden armor. Even Asuna had to admire the beauty

of that deep-gold hair, enhanced by the orange light of the campfire.

On Alice's left was a boy swordsman of about fifteen or sixteen who seemed

to have no real place here. He, too, was an Integrity Knight, which seemed to be

the highest class one could obtain in this world. His name was Renly.

Next, Asuna saw a thin knight who sat as quiet as a shadow. Her new armor

didn't seem to fit her yet, as she was constantly pulling and loosening its leather

straps. It was the kind of thing a VRMMO newbie did, but the moment Asuna

was told the woman's name was Sheyta, and she turned her narrow eyes to

meet Asuna's gaze, there was an incredible force in them.

On Sheyta's left, now directly across the campfire from Asuna, there were

about ten people crammed shoulder to shoulder—they were from the chief

man-at-arms class, she was told. They were firm, bold-looking men with

chiseled features, with only one woman among the group.

Finally, just on Asuna's right were the uniformed girls, who huddled to

themselves and looked quite out of place. The red-haired one was Tiese, and

the brown-haired one was Ronie, and they were apparently underclassmen at

the academy where Kirito had been until six months ago.

After glancing at each of these dozen-plus warriors in turn, Asuna was left

with one very heady conclusion: They were all real human beings.

Nothing about their appearances, actions, and general atmosphere suggested

in any way that they had been artificially crafted. It was so seamless that she

almost doubted her own secret knowledge: that, of this group, only Alice had

surpassed the bounds of the artificial fluctlights that forced them to follow the

rules they were given.

Now she could understand why Kirito had damaged his very soul to protect all

these people. She had to carry on that spirit for him.

Asuna took a deep breath and said, "It's good to meet you all. My name is

Asuna. I came from outside of this world."

Although she had left it only eight days ago, already her short life in the rural

village of Rulid filled Alice with a pang of nostalgia. During that time, she'd often

wheeled Kirito to a nearby pasture.

Within the bounds of the firm wooden fence, many fluffy sheep sat peacefully

grazing, their lambs running and frolicking between the adults. Alice thought

their life to be so happy. They had no reason to worry about anything beyond

the fence. They spent their days in peace and security, locked inside a protected

little world.

To think that she and the others were essentially the same way, inside this

world they inhabited…

The otherworld girl named Asuna delivered an earth-shattering shock to the

Integrity Knights and chief guards crowded around the campfire. Only Bercouli

maintained his usual air of aloofness, but surely he, too, had much to take away

from her story.

Asuna referred to their entire world, encompassing both the human lands and

the dark lands, by a sacred-tongue title of "the Underworld." And on the

outside—not a physical outside but a conceptual one—there was another place

called the "real world."

Naturally, the guardsmen questioned whether this was the place they knew

as the celestial world. The visitor answered that the real world was full of

human beings with emotions, desires, and a limited life span.

And that at this moment, in a very limited space within the real world, two

factions were battling for control over the Underworld. Asuna said that she was

an agent of one of those sides. Their goal was to protect the Underworld.

And the goal of the side opposing Asuna's was to pull one individual out of

the Underworld, then wipe the slate clean by erasing the entirety of their

world…

The leaders of the men-at-arms murmured uneasily when they heard this. It

was Bercouli who calmed them down.

"It's the same thing," the three-hundred-year-old hero said. "The human

realm is surrounded by the Dark Territory, and hardly anyone, including me,

ever gave much thought to the fact that we were all sitting back and waiting for

a huge invasion force to reach our doorstep. And now there's another world

beyond them? Big difference."

His logic was crude, but when delivered in the commander's firm, reassuring

voice, it was convincing. With the audience composed again, Bercouli asked

Asuna who it was that the opposing faction wanted to pull out.

The visitor's bright brown eyes drifted away from Bercouli and locked straight

onto Alice. Over the following seconds, Alice gradually understood the

importance of what was happening, and she pointed at her own face.

"M…me…?"

Renly, Tiese, Ronie, and even Sheyta looked shocked. But once again, it was

Bercouli who took this revelation in stride.

"Ah, yes…Hence the 'Priestess of Light' bit…"

Asuna did not seem to recognize the term, as she merely blinked at him. Then

she looked back at Alice and said, "There isn't much time left. To prevent the

destruction of the Underworld, I'll need Alice to come with me to the real

world. Once they know that Alice is no longer here, the enemy should give up

on interfering with this world…"

"You…you cannot be serious!!" shouted Alice. She stood up so forcefully that

she kicked the chair back and smacked her breastplate with her palm. "Run

away? Me?! Give up on this world and all its people, including my comrades in

the guardian army, just to go to this so-called 'real world' place?! Absolutely

not! I am an Integrity Knight! Protecting the realm is my one and only mission!!"

This time, it was Asuna who shot to her feet. Her hair, brown like the color of

platinum-oak nuts, shook as she retorted in a voice like silver bells, "Then it is

even more important that you do so! If the enemy—not your darklanders but

powerful foes from the real world—capture you, not only the people of this

world but its earth, sky, and everything else will be obliterated! They could

attack this place at any moment!"

"I think your intel's a bit out of date in that regard, Miss Asuna," interjected

Commander Bercouli, his voice calm and controlled. "It would seem that your

enemy is already here."

"What…?" she gasped.

He took a slug from his fire whiskey, just to tease her for a moment, before

continuing. "It all adds up now. The Priestess of Light…and the god of darkness,

Vecta, who seeks her. The Vecta who's leading the enemy army right now is

most definitely a person from your 'real world.'"

"God of…darkness," Asuna repeated, her face clearly pale even in the meager

light of the campfire. She murmured to herself, voice thick with the accent of

the sacred tongue, "Oh no…the super-account for the Dark Territory wasn't

password locked after all…"

"Um…m-may I ask something?" said Renly the boy knight, raising his hand to

fill the resulting silence. When all eyes were on him, his voice became quiet and

timid. "What exactly is the Priestess of Light, anyway? Why would these

plunderers from the…'real world'…want Miss Alice so badly?"

The answer to that came not from Asuna or Bercouli but from the previously

silent gray knight, Sheyta.

"Because she broke the right-eye seal."

Alice was shocked enough that she momentarily forgot her anger and

unconsciously raised a hand to her eye. "You…you knew about that, Sheyta?!

But how…?!"

"There's a thought that makes my right eye hurt. When I think about how

much fun it would be…to cut clean through the hardest material in the world…

the indestructible Central Cathedral itself."

"..."

Knights and guards alike shared an awkward silence, which Bercouli broke

with a cough.

"Well, I wonder if any of the rest of you have had similar experiences before.

Feeling any kind of doubt about the pontifex's authority or the Axiom Church's

system of rule, causing red light to flicker inside your right eyeball, and a pain

that shoots right through your head. So intense, you can't maintain that

thought any longer. But if you keep going, the pain just gets stronger and

stronger, until the right side of your vision is pure red…and then…"

"Your right eye itself simply bursts into nothingness," Alice finished, recalling

in vivid detail that horrible experience. The rest of the campfire party wore

expressions of fear to varying degrees.

"Then…Miss Alice, are you saying…?" Renly said with apprehension.

Alice nodded slowly. "I fought against Prime Senator Chudelkin and

Administrator. And I had to lose my right eye for a period in order to have the

will to go through with it."

"Um…excuse me…," said the trainee girl Tiese from the supply team, who had

been listening the entire time, her voice even more timid than Renly's. "Eugeo

did it, too…When he drew his sword to protect Ronie and me, blood came from

his eye…"

Alice nodded, understanding. The young man, despite his humble origins, had

overcome many terrible battles, defeated even Bercouli, and unleashed a

brilliant Incarnation against Administrator. Surely he would've been able to

overcome the seal of the right eye.

In fact, during the battle on the top floor of the cathedral, Administrator had

looked at Alice and said something about the eye seal. Something like Code

Eight-Seven…

But before she could recall the full list of words, Bercouli grunted, rubbing his

chin. "Hmm…so this enemy that Miss Asuna is talking about is in search of

someone who broke through the right-eye seal on their own. Now let me ask

you: Do you real-worlders have the same seal on you?"

"…No," she said, shaking her brown hair, after a brief moment of indecision. "I

have never experienced such a thing. I believe that the only point of difference

between Underworlders and real-worlders is whether one is absolutely forced

to obey laws and orders or not."

"So you're saying that there's nothing different between Alice and you folks

now? But how does that make sense? Why would Vecta want the same thing as

him so much? You'd figure there are plenty of folks living in the real world."

"Well…," Asuna muttered, clearly not sure of how to proceed now. But at that

moment, the thorn sticking into Alice's memory at last came loose, and she

shouted, "That's it! Code Eight-Seven-One!"

Alice clasped her hands together and continued, "That's what the pontifex

called the seal of the right eye. She said that someone had installed Code Eight-

Seven-One for her. I didn't understand what the words meant, because they

weren't ancient sacred tongue…They were in your real-world language, weren't

they?!"

"Code…Eight-Seven-One…?" Asuna repeated, dumbfounded, her brows

knitted. "So the seal was…put in place…by someone from Rath…? But…that

would only make their mission harder…"

Asuna sat down in her chair and thought this revelation over—until suddenly,

profound shock colored her features. Her pale-pink lips trembled, and her voice

went hoarse. But Alice did not understand the meaning of what she said.

"...Oh no…There's a mole on Rath's staff! They have someone on our

side…!"

Asuna was in a state of shock.

Higa and his team of engineers had taken great pains to try to remove the one

flaw of the artificial fluctlights: their blind obedience. At present, the fluctlights

were not able to critically examine the orders they were given through logic or

morals. If they were loaded onto weapons as an AI system, they could be

hacked and given orders to indiscriminately attack civilians or friendlies and

would do so without needing confirmation. They could not, as Western

militaries defined it, refuse an unlawful order.

Rath had maintained this centuries-long simulation in the Underworld in

order to create a true artificial intelligence that could break through this

drawback. But what if the seal in the right eye, this "Code Eight-Seven-One"—

which seemed specifically designed to prevent the experiment's success—had

been secretly installed by someone affiliated with Rath?

That sabotage would likely have been ordered by the invading force that was

now taking over the Ocean Turtle. They'd wanted to delay the experiment and

keep it from succeeding until they were ready to attack the ship.

And the mole was still loose in the Ocean Turtle's Upper Shaft. If he wanted

to, he could wait until no one else was looking and sneak into the second STL

room, where Asuna and Kirito were lying helpless. She felt her skin crawl with

the thought.

Either Higa, Kikuoka, or Dr. Koujiro needed to be told as soon as possible. But

since she had logged in to a coordinate far removed from the system console,

Asuna had no way of calling them to talk.

She did have one method of getting out—reducing her current avatar's HP to

zero—but then she would not be able to log in with this super-account again.

With sys-admin privileges currently locked, there was no way for her to reset

the account data.

Given that the attackers were using the Vecta account, which had as much

power as Stacia, there was no way for her to counteract them with an ordinary

civilian-level avatar. She needed this character if she was going to protect Alice

and safely log her out.

What should I do? What's the priority? she asked herself, all of the above

taking just a split second to run through. She inhaled, exhaled, and made a

decision.

For now, she would prioritize the Underworld. This place was running at a

thousand times the speed of the regular world. She at least had some wiggle

room in terms of time before the mole in the real world did anything.

Until then, she would protect Alice from the Dark Territory army under the

enemy's control and eject her into the real world. If she failed and Alice fell into

enemy hands, they would shatter the rest of the lightcube cluster to ensure

only they could possess a true AI. They would destroy the Underworld that

Kirito had risked his life to protect.

The decision that Asuna Yuuki made at this time was absolutely the right one,

given the information she currently possessed. But neither she nor Takeru Higa

and Seijirou Kikuoka on the Ocean Turtle had realized one extremely important

fact.

After Gabriel Miller and Vassago Casals had logged in, the FLA ratio had been

gradually dropping. It was the work of Critter, the assault team's hacker, on

Captain Gabriel's orders.

Twenty hours from now, the Aegis escort ship Nagato was going to send in an

armed Maritime SDF team, so Rath would not have expected that the attackers

would make things harder for themselves by lowering the acceleration ratio and

leaving their mission with less time.

For one thing, the purpose of lowering the acceleration ratio was completely

outside of their expectations.

But at the present moment, there was one person who understood Gabriel's

intentions in doing this. She was collecting information independently through

the cell phone that Asuna had brought on board the ship—one of the world's

greatest top-down artificial intelligences, now flying through the network on

her own secret mission.

"Is something wrong with you?"

When Asuna noticed that Alice's voice didn't have its usual polite formality,

she realized that she was the one being addressed. She looked up and shook

her head. "No…I'm fine. I'm sorry to have interrupted your conversation."

"You haven't, actually. We're just waiting for your answer," Alice said in the

brusque manner she reserved just for Asuna. "Well? Do you have any ideas

about what the words Code Eight-Seven-One mean?"

"I do. And I'm about to explain it."

Asuna had to wonder at the way that her voice naturally grew snippy when

she was talking to Alice. She could barely recall ever fighting with anyone in her

life. Things were always fun and lively with Lisbeth, Silica, Leafa, and Sinon, and

she got along with everyone at school.

She traced back through her memory, trying to figure out who she'd argued

with last before Alice, and she nearly burst out laughing. It had to be Kirito.

After they'd met in the first labyrinth tower of Aincrad, they'd formed a duo

for some mysterious reason and started working on the game of death

together. In those days, Asuna had glared, yelled, and even smacked Kirito on

countless occasions. Only the mystery of human emotions could explain how

that relationship had turned into a romantic one.

So would the day come that she got along with Alice, too? It doesn't seem

very likely, she had to admit.

"…The one who enabled the right-eye seal known as Code Eight-Seven-One,

according to Alice, is a person from the real world…Someone aligned with the

enemy."

"Hmm…And is there any way to undo this code without blowing up your

eyeball?" Bercouli asked. The otherworld girl shook her head apologetically.

"I'm afraid I don't know…but I suspect that it's not something that can be

undone from inside the Underworld."

As she listened to Asuna's pristine voice, Alice wondered what it was about

her that made her so irritated.

It was true that her first impression of Asuna had been terrible. Of course she

wasn't going to feel good when the young woman approached Kirito without

notice of any kind. It was Alice who had protected and cared for him in his

wounded state for the past six months.

But Asuna came from the real world, like Kirito did. It was clear from her

actions that she had some kind of personal relationship with him there. In other

words, she had come all the way to this realm after him. Maybe she had the

right to see him. Once.

Was that the source of this irritation? She had believed that the obligation

and duty of keeping Kirito safe belonged to her alone, and now there was a new

person who laid claim to his past?

Or was it a sense of competition toward Asuna's tremendous skill with the

sword? It was the first time Alice had seen consecutive attacks of such speed.

Even in terms of speed alone, Vice Commander Fanatio wouldn't stand a

chance. The attacks were less consecutive than practically multiple thrusts

happening at the same time. If Alice's blade had been deflected in any way, the

other girl would have been quicker to hit first. She had never been shocked by a

swordswoman of her age like this before.

Or perhaps…

…it was because the very sight of Asuna's beauty caused the breath to leave

Alice's lungs. Her features were foreign in a way that personified and

exemplified graceful beauty like no one else. Her pale skin was spotless, and her

long hair, the color of acorns, looked wavy and soft, like bundles of the finest

silk. The admiration on the faces of the head guardsmen was surely not just her

imagination. If Asuna had introduced herself as the goddess Stacia, they would

have believed her without question.

Alice wanted to know.

She wanted to know about Asuna more than about even this strange new

world or their new enemy. She wanted to know about Asuna and Kirito.

Suddenly, she realized that her thoughts had been drifting, and she focused

her ears again. Asuna was still talking to the commander.

"…was afraid that the one who could break this Underworld seal…the

Priestess of Light, to use their words, might fall into enemy hands. They were

afraid, because the Priestess of Light has the possibility of becoming an

extraordinarily valuable thing in the real world."

"That's the part I don't get," Bercouli grumbled, sloshing his jar of fire

whiskey. "This Priestess of Light, little Alice, is the same as a real-worlder, right?

Like I asked earlier, why the fixation on the same thing? What are both the

enemy and your side trying to pull Alice out into the outer world to do,

exactly?"

"Well…"

Asuna hesitated, biting her lip. Her long eyelashes drooped, and her voice

went quiet.

"…I'm sorry. I cannot tell you now. I want Alice to see the real world with her

own eyes to make her decision. It is no world of the gods out there. It's not a

paradise. In fact, it's much uglier and dirtier than this world. The same is true

for the motives of the people who want Alice. If I explain them to you right now,

Alice would find the real world and the people who live there to be

unforgivable. But that's not all there is. There are many good people as well,

who want to protect this world and get along with the people here. Just like

Kirito, in fact."

Alice listened to her impassioned plea in silence. To her own surprise, she

nodded.

"…Very well. I won't ask you more at this time." She spread her hands and

shrugged. "In any case, I don't intend to do anything I don't want to do. And I

have not decided whether I am going to this 'real world,' either. I'm interested

in seeing the outer world, but only after we have broken the invading army of

Vecta that is breathing down our necks and have forged a peace with the Dark

Territory."

She figured Asuna would offer a harsh rebuttal, but the other girl was briefly

silent, too, before agreeing.

"…Yes, knowing that the Vecta leading the Dark Territory army is from my

world, it might be dangerous for Alice and me to leave this group on our own.

The enemy will be expecting that. I will fight with the rest of you. Please let me

handle Vecta."

There was a huge roar from the guardsmen at this. To them, Asuna might as

well be Stacia herself, regardless of what she said. If she could wield such highpowered arts that they split the earth beneath their feet, then the enemy army

might as well be ten times their current number, for all the good it would do

them.

The commander was considering this as well. He crossed his arms and said,

"Well, we can leave the circumstances of the real world alone for now. Back to

more pressing matters…Are you able to use that earth-splitting trick without

limits, Asuna?"

"…I'm afraid I might not be able to fulfill your hope," she replied, shaking her

head sadly. "That power places an enormous strain on the mind. I can

withstand any kind of pain, but if I'm reckless with it, I might be automatically

removed from this world in order to protect my mind. In that case, I won't be

able to come back. I would guess that I can only alter the landscape like that

one or two more times…"

Given how great their hopes were, the faces of the guards around the

campfire were now crestfallen. Alice sensed their disappointment and spoke a

bit louder than she needed to.

"Why would we rely on the help of outsiders to protect our own world?

You've done plenty to help already. Now it's time for us knights and soldiers to

show these otherworlders what we can do!" she said rousingly, but when she

saw the surprise on Asuna's face, Alice began to feel self-conscious.

After Alice was done, it was the youngest person present, Renly, who spoke

up next. "Th-that's right! Asuna just told you that she wasn't a god; she's a

human being, like us! So we should be able to fight as hard as she does!"

Alice didn't fail to notice that the young knight, hands against his divine

weapons, was looking not at Asuna but at the red-haired girl sitting nearby. The

discovery brought a mild note of mirth to her mind.

Next, even Sheyta the Silent offered her opinion. "I, too…would like to fight

that pugilist again."

The head guardsmen shot each other glances, and it did not take long for

them to regain their previous bravado.

"That's right. Let's do this. We're going to protect everyone," they shouted

with excitement and purpose, and pretty soon, all the guards stationed in the

surrounding meadows were joining in the chorus. Even the campfire seemed to

channel the mood, licking higher and burning the night sky red.

Was this the right thing to do?

Asuna sat in the tent she was given, pearl-white breastplate removed,

thinking hard.

In the real world, Higa and Kikuoka were hoping that Asuna would bring Alice

to the system console as soon as possible so she could be ejected into the subcontrol room.

But what would happen after that? From Kikuoka's perspective, once he had

Alice's fluctlight, he could just analyze its structure and transfer it to the

development of a drone-piloting AI. For these military-industrial men, there was

no further merit to the costly maintenance of the lightcube cluster and the

thousands of artificial fluctlights contained within it.

And if she saved Alice alone and the other Underworlders got deleted, what

would Kirito think when he awoke? And more importantly, would his fluctlight

ever be fully whole again…?

But no, she mustn't think that way. She'd seen him again at last, so she

needed to find a way to touch him, speak to him, and give him all the chances

he needed to heal. Even Higa had said that at some point, they just needed to

hope that a miracle within the Underworld would heal his spirit.

She wanted to sneak into his tent, embrace him, and speak to him. She would

do it the entire time she spent in the Underworld, if she could. There was no

way she wanted to leave him behind to head for this console far to the south.

At least let me spend one night with him…

With her mind made up, Asuna removed her metal armor, changed into a

light tunic and skirt, and waited near the entrance of the tent, listening intently.

Despite her repeated claims that she would be just fine, there was still one

guard keeping watch outside the small tent the knight commander had given to

her. The young man insisted on the honor of keeping watch over the goddess

Stacia, and he was diligently patrolling the exterior of the tent. No napping on

the job tonight.

His footsteps crunched over the grass underfoot, past the entrance. When he

was behind the tent, Asuna slipped quickly out. In three silent bounds, she

managed to sneak behind a large tree over thirty feet away.

She glanced back to see the young guard appear from around the rear of the

tent and contentedly continue his patrol, unaware that anything had happened.

Asuna gave him a silent apology and headed farther through the trees.

The human army's soldiers had gone to sleep quickly, fatigued by the massive

battle, and aside from a few lookouts, no one seemed to be awake. Those

lookouts kept their focus on the outside of the forest, so Asuna was able to

reach the supply team's tents without being discovered.

She closed her eyes and focused her mind. Through either the power of the

super-account or her own intuition, she sensed the presence of her beloved at

once. Asuna took only a few steps in that direction before she detected a

golden light flickering out of the corner of her right eye and froze.

Ugh. She turned, very slowly.

Back against the tent pole, arms crossed, was a person. She wore a dress of

the same material as Asuna's tunic, along with a wool shawl. Her long blond

hair stirred in the breeze. Her glaring eyes were a deep blue.

"…I figured you would come."

Alice took a step forward, her nostrils flaring.

She stared down the other young woman, who was about her height and

barely different in age, intent on unleashing the words she'd been prepared to

say.

I warned you to stay away from him. Go back to your own tent.

But the breath she sucked into her lungs refused to exit her throat. She could

read the emotions in this otherworlder's eyes far too easily to say those words

now. There was deep affection in them—and the anguish and determination

that arose from it.

Alice exhaled slowly until her breath was gone. She told herself, I'm not

compromising. This doesn't change the fact that I'm the one with the strongest

duty to protect Kirito. We fought together and suffered wounds together, and I

was watching when he lost his strength before me.

So whatever she chose to do, it was part of the effort to bring him back to

health.

"…Let's make a deal," she said. Asuna blinked, taken aback. "I'll let you see

him. And I'll tell you everything I know. And in return, I want you to tell me

everything you know about Kirito."

The brief moment of surprise on Asuna's face melted away, replaced by a

smile that almost looked cocky to Alice.

"You've got a deal. But it'll take a while. Might not even finish in one night."

Once again, Alice was reminded that she did not like this person. "How long

have you spent with him?"

Asuna turned her light-brown eyes to the night sky, and she began to count,

making gestures with her fingers. "Let's see…I fought alongside him as his

partner for two years. After that, a year and a half going out with him. And for

two weeks, we also lived together."

Does "going out with" mean they were lovers? No, probably not…but then

again, "living with him" sounds very serious…

Alice couldn't deny that she was shaken by these facts, but she shrugged it

off, determined to stand her ground, and said proudly, "I fought at his side for

an entire night. After that, I spent half a year under the same roof, attending to

his needs."

This time, it was Asuna who reeled a bit. Then her back straightened again,

and she hummed a sound of feigned interest. The two women rippled with

hostility, like fighters engaging in a duel. The crisp night air crackled with

electricity, such that an unlucky leaf that happened to fall between them at that

moment found itself disintegrating into dust in midair.

The battle of wills between Integrity Knight and goddess of creation was

interrupted by none other than the frail voice of a third girl.

"Excuse me…"

Startled, Alice looked in the direction of the voice, as did Asuna. Ronie the

supply team student, dressed in gray pajamas with her brown hair covered by a

loose nightcap, stood between the tents. She had her hands clasped in front of

her. "Um, I…I cleaned Kirito's room for about two months, and he taught me

some sword techniques, and he brought me honey pies from the Jumping Deer

several times! I might not have the length of time that you two do, but…I'd like

to trade information, too…"

Alice blinked several times, then looked back at Asuna. They both wore

exasperated smiles. "Fine. I guess you're one of us, then, Ronie," Asuna said,

and the smaller girl beamed with relief, coming forth from the shadow of the

tent. Alice had to admit that it had taken guts for her to do this.

But to her surprise, the cast was not done growing. Another voice emerged

from a different patch of shadows. "I don't suppose you'd let me join in your

exchange, as well?"

Her tone was boyish, but the voice itself was a cool mezzo-soprano.

Appearing under the moonlight without a sound was a rather tall woman. The

moment she saw the woman's crisp features, Asuna murmured, "I remember

you from before…"

It was definitely her—the lone female senior guard at the campfire meeting

earlier. The brown-haired woman with the long ponytail bobbed her head and

said, "Norlangarth Imperial Knight Sortiliena Serlut at your service. I was going

to wait until the battle was over…but as I, too, have some measure of

connection to Kirito, I was unable to withstand my curiosity."

Alice exhaled loudly. She shrugged and asked the tall soldier, "And what kind

of connection did you have with him, Chief Guard Serlut?"

"If it pleases you, Lady Knight, call me simply Liena," Sortiliena said. She

coughed to clear her throat and made an appreciative gesture. "At the North

Centoria Imperial Swordcraft Academy, Kirito spent a year as my page, assisting

me in various ways. I believe that, in return, I served as a mentor and taught

him some things about the sword."

"..."

The other three went silent, intimidated by this surprising entry.

Asuna shared a look with Alice, and they shook their heads in unison.

"In that case, I suppose you've got plenty you can tell us, too, Liena. Come.

Join us."

The four snuck along, all of them feeling awkward, and entered a small tent

off to the side with Alice at the lead. On the leather rug were two travel beds,

one of which was empty, the other containing a black-haired young man whose

eyes were closed. The handles of two swords stuck out of the end of his

blanket.

Alice didn't miss the note of nostalgic longing on Asuna's lips when she saw

him.

"…Is something wrong?" she asked.

The otherworld warrior gave her a momentary innocent smile, all hostility

briefly forgotten. "Dual-Bladed Kirito. That's what they called him over there."

"…Oh…"

Alice did recall, during the fight against Administrator, how Kirito had fought

skillfully with his own black sword in one hand and Eugeo's white sword in the

other. So that wasn't some spontaneous idea…

She sat down atop the blanket of the bed next to the sleeping youth and

beckoned the other three girls to sit around her.

"Let's start there, shall we?"

Night in the wasteland grew deeper, and the only light upon the earth was

from the purple moon. The soldiers of the Human Guardian Army and the dark

knights and pugilists of the Dark Territory's army on the other side of the

bottomless abyss fell into a deep sleep.

While the forces of both sides recharged for the coming battle, the light from

one tiny tent simply refused to go dark. At times, muffled laughter could be

heard from under the hemp canvas—but only by a single owl that perched on

the branch of a nearby tree.

Eventually, the lamp oil ran out, and four exhausted young women fell asleep,

nestled around the object of their interest.

A while later, in distant Centoria, the midnight bells rang peacefully. Naturally,

their sound did not penetrate to the distant Dark Territory.

At that very moment, every citizen of the Underworld experienced what could

be called a tiny chrono-vibration. It was the effect of the simulation's Fluctlight

Acceleration dropping to real-time speed, but hardly anyone who was awake

even noticed the shift.

It was midnight on the eighth day of the eleventh month of the year 380 in

the Underworld's Human Era.

It was midnight on July 7th, 2026, according to Japan Standard Time.

At this moment, the time of the two worlds was in perfect synchronization.

6

Have you ever sensed your own death?

The phantom voice in his ears caused Integrity Knight Bercouli Synthesis One

to awaken.

An eerily colored sunrise was trying to sneak into the dim tent. The air was as

cold as ice, and breathing in deep prickled his lungs. He sensed that the time

was 4:20 AM. Given the way his mind was melded with the Time-Splitting Sword,

which had once been a hand on a great clock, Bercouli had the ability to

accurately detect the time. In another ten minutes, he would need to have a

messenger blow the morning horn to wake the troops.

The aged swordsman stretched his thick arms behind his head and turned his

mind back to the statement that had broken his slumber.

Have you ever sensed your own death?

The owner of that sweet voice had been his only superior, the pontifex,

Administrator.

He no longer remembered exactly when the memory had occurred.

Somewhere around a hundred years ago or a hundred and fifty. After

undergoing treatment that eliminated unneeded memories to prevent the

collapse of his soul, Bercouli was no longer able to sense the chronology of his

memories the way he used to.

But he could remember the scene quite vividly. Seemingly bored by the

endless march of time she lived through—by her own desire, it should be

mentioned—Administrator chose to invite the next-oldest person in the world,

Bercouli, to her chamber for drinks.

The silver-haired ruler of all draped her body, naked save for a sheer scrap of

silk, on a long crimson chair and asked him that question as she swirled a

wineglass in her fingers. Bercouli was sitting cross-legged on the floor, eating a

piece of cheese as he pondered this riddle.

He was used to her whims by this point and so answered honestly, rather

than out of some desire to stay on her good side and save his own skin. He said,

Sensed my death? When I was still a lad, and I got smacked down by either the

previous dark general or the one before him, I thought that was going to be it

for me.

The pontifex giggled and lifted the crystal glass. But you brought his head to

me quite a while ago, didn't you? I believe I converted it into one of those jewels

on the floor. You haven't had any moments since then?

Well, I can't recall them if I did. Why do you ask? It seems a sensation that

would be foreign to you, my lady, he replied.

The girl who lived eternally adjusted her long legs and smiled again. Hee-hee,

you don't understand, Bercouli. Every day…every day I feel death. Every time I

awaken in the morning…No, even in my dreams. I feel it because I don't control

everything yet. There are still enemies who live. And there is always the

possibility that at some point in the future, there will be a new enemy.

My, my, my. It must be hard to be the pontifex.

A hundred and some years later, in a Dark Territory forest far from the human

realm, Bercouli grinned to himself.

I feel like I finally understand what you were talking about. Sensing the

approach of your own death is merely the flip side of seeking the possibilities of

death. In the end, you were searching for a destination you could accept, a

death that was fitting, a foe so powerful that no amount of struggle would bring

you to victory…

Just like me, now.

The same way that I can keenly sense impending death approaching by the

moment…

Without Administrator, Bercouli was now the oldest human being in the

world. He bounced up from the floor and covered his powerful frame with a

simple white kimono. He tightened the sash, slipped on his sandals, then stuck

his sword on his left side.

Then he stepped through the hanging flap into the chill of early morning and

headed for the messengers' tent to give the order to wake the troops.

At about that same moment, from the Dark Territory camp two kilors to the

north, ten dragons took flight by the first rays of light peeking over the horizon.

Under the arms of the dark knights riding these steeds were thick bundles of

stiff rope. One end of each rope was already fixed to a wooden stake driven

into the ground near the edge of the crevice.

The dragons crossed the hundred-mel ravine and landed on the south end,

their riders' ropes uncoiling the whole way. When the knights jumped down,

they wielded huge hammers rather than swords and began the awkward

process of driving new stakes into the ground.

Emperor Vecta's new orders were as follows.

The pugilists and dark knights should travel across ten ropes laid over the

crevice to get to the other side.

Enemy interference should be ignored. Crossing the ropes was the top

priority.

Those who fell should not be rescued.

Food and other supplies would not be ferried across.

In other words, it was a merciless suicide mission, in which numerous

casualties were expected, and there would be no supplies. Iskahn, leader of the

pugilists, and the young head of the dark knighthood, who'd taken over after

Shasta's death, both ground their teeth at the cruelty and unfairness of it.

But they did not have the option of disobeying the absolute power of their

emperor. All they could do was hope that they finished crossing the ropes

before the enemy noticed—and contrary to that hope, a Human Guardian Army

scout watching the Dark Territory army all night was sprinting down the hill one

kilor to the south.

As she ate a simple breakfast of two hard toasted pieces of bread surrounding

cheese, dried meat, and dried fruit, Asuna's mind sleepily worked through some

calculations.

…If time is accelerated a thousand times here, that means I get to have a

thousand meals in the time that people in the real world eat just one. I'm

assuming that means I won't get that much fatter…

She glanced up ahead at Alice and Sortiliena, who were equally sluggish in the

process of eating their sandwiches. Through the fabric of their dresses, it was

clear that the other two had lithe physiques with absolutely no extra meat on

them.

Did lifestyle diseases even exist in this world? Or was your physique based on

fixed parameters that were assigned at birth? Or perhaps a person's

appearance was like a mirror that reflected their mental state?

Next to her, Ronie was cutting a sandwich into little pieces for Kirito to eat.

Alice claimed that she had been feeding him enough to maintain his life level,

but apparently there was nothing she could do about how scrawny he looked. It

was as though he wished that he could simply vanish from the world.

"…Kirito's cheeks are looking less pale this morning," Ronie suddenly said, as

though she knew what Asuna was thinking. "And he's eating his food more

forcefully than usual."

"Perhaps spending the night with four beautiful women had a positive effect,"

said Alice, eliciting conflicted smiles from the others.

They had spent the night talking, sitting around Kirito as he slept. It was

nowhere near enough time for the four of them to exhaust their anecdotes

about Kirito, and they eventually gave in to the temptation of sleep.

The next thing she knew, Asuna was being awakened by a horn, and Ronie

had brought breakfast. As she ate, Asuna silently told her lover, You never

change, no matter where you are. You're kind to everyone, and you try to take

everything on, and you get hurt in the process. But this time, you've bitten off

more than you can chew. You can't take an entire world on your back. You need

to rely on me and everyone else. We all love you.

…But no one more than me.

She felt quiet, strong determination fill her chest. When Kirito woke up, she

would smile and tell him, It's all right. Everything went fine. I and everyone else

kept safe what you wanted to protect.

The other three seemed to feel Asuna's will, too. Alice, Ronie, and Sortiliena

looked to Asuna, their eyes sharp and alert, and nodded firmly.

It was moments later that the horn sounded, tensely alerting the camp to an

enemy attack.

Alice rushed back to her tent with a scrap of bread in her mouth, quickly

slapped her armor on, and grabbed the Osmanthus Blade before heading back

outside. She met up with Asuna, who was armed and ready, too, then told

Ronie and Tiese to take care of Kirito before setting her sights to the north.

About where the forest gave way, she found Bercouli with his sword drawn.

The commander had already gotten the report from the scout, and when he

saw Alice and Asuna running up, followed close behind by Renly and Sheyta, his

expression went hard.

"Seems like the real-worlder on the enemy side's got quite the bold

methodology. Emperor Vecta's played a risky move."

What he said next made Alice bite her lip.

The enemy had run ten thick ropes from bank to bank of the crevice to use as

bridges, and they were forcing their way across the hundred-mel-wide gorge. If

they fell, they would die. It was an acrobatic act that required great stamina and

willpower. If Emperor Vecta was forcing his troops to do this, either he was

getting desperate, or their lives were worth less than scraps of paper to him.

But even if one in three of the enemy fell into that crevice, that would still

leave nearly seven thousand to deal with. The human army had only a thousand

—they didn't stand a chance in a regular fight.

Their original plan, to hide in the woods and use sacred arts to attack, was

pointless in the sunlight. They would just have to keep moving south and wait

for another chance to lay an ambush.

It was Commander Bercouli who cut through Alice's indecision.

"This is a war," the ancient hero muttered, his pale-blue eyes shining fiercely.

"Asuna's from elsewhere and has her own reasons—but there's no reason for

us to show mercy to the dark army. We've got to make use of this opportunity

while we've got it."

"Oppor…tunity?" Alice parroted.

Bercouli gave her a sharp look. "That's right…Renly."

The young Integrity Knight bolted to attention, surprised at the sudden

address. "Y-yes, sir!"

"What's the maximum range of your weapons, the Double-Winged Blades?"

"Normally, it's thirty mels, but under Perfect Weapon Control arts, it's

seventy…maybe a hundred."

"Good…then, the four of us are going to attack the enemy as they attempt to

cross. Alice, Sheyta, and I are going to focus on protection. Renly, you're going

to cut down the ropes they've laid across the gorge with your divine weapons."

Alice gasped. The enemy would be desperate to defend their means across,

but even if they piled up bodies at the stakes at the end of the ropes, those

thrown blades and their curving trajectories could easily fly over their heads

and slice through anything. It was a merciless counterstrategy.

But the fifteen-year-old boy knight was firm with resolve and smacked his fist

to his chest. "Understood, Commander!"

Next to him, Sheyta the Silent muttered, "It'll be fine. I'll protect him."

Even Asuna stepped forward, though his orders hadn't included her. "I'll go,

too. The more defense, the better."

Alice closed her eyes for a moment and thought, I used my large-scale art to

fry ten thousand nonhumans, and my Perfect Control art to slaughter two

thousand dark mages. I don't have the right to seek an honorable battle.

For now, all she could do was fight with everything she had.

"Let's hurry," she said to the four others and turned to the hill north of them.

The bloodred rays of the rising sun were already casting the curve of the

horizon into black profile.

Hurry.

Hurry, hurry!

Iskahn, leader of the pugilists guild, chanted an inward refrain as he clenched

his fists.

The pugilists and dark knights were crossing the ten crude ropes that spanned

the crevice, each group using five. They clung upside down with their arms and

legs around the ropes, but without any proper training, their movement was

awkward and slow. If they had lifelines for everyone and time to distribute

them, it would help, but the emperor did not give them that luxury.

On top of that, Iskahn's request to be first had been denied. Apparently, this

was punishment for his fanciful interpretation of last night's orders and for

using only a small portion of his troops. He could still hear the emperor's icy

voice in his ears: You will follow my orders and do nothing else.

While Iskahn worked his jaws with frustration, the quickest of his

subordinates was finally getting to the middle of the rope. The man's copper

skin was steaming in the chill of the early morning, and even at this distance, his

dripping sweat could be seen shining in the light. It was a mad idea.

Just then, a powerful gust of wind ripped through the huge crevice.

Whoooosh! It buffeted the ropes, rocking them back and forth.

"Oh…!" Iskahn murmured. A number of pugilists slipped from the ropes,

unable to keep their sweaty palms firm. Their howls echoed off the walls of the

gorge.

Those were not screams, the young leader told himself. They were howls of

rage that their deaths came not in the glory of battle but in the humiliating

failure of forced circus acts.

A single, momentary gust of wind had sent over ten pugilists and dark knights

plunging to their inky doom. But those just behind them bravely continued their

passage. And from this side, soldiers continued to file onto the ropes at

intervals of about three mels apart.

The cruel wind blew again intermittently and cost lives each time. Eventually,

Iskahn realized that his clenched fists were emitting a red light that looked very

much like flames.

A miserable dog's death.

Even lower than that. At least a dog had bones left to bury.

And the reason for their death was not the long-awaited invasion of the

human lands—that fervent hope of the five races of darkness—but merely the

capture of this Priestess of Light, because the emperor desired her. Iskahn had

no idea how he would apologize to his people back home.

Hurry. Be quick. Let everyone get across before anything else happens, the

young leader prayed. Through either divine providence or simple adjustment to

the ropes, the lead climbers picked up speed and at last made it to the other

side. Five seconds later, the next wave set foot on solid ground.

At this rate, it would easily take over an hour for ten thousand soldiers to

cross the ten ropes. It was practically impossible that they'd complete the

entire process before the enemy noticed their plan.

But at this moment, they had no choice but to pray for that very slim chance.

The sun rose into the eastern sky with terrifying speed, shining red upon the

black earth. In comparison, the crowd of soldiers on the far side who had

successfully shimmied across was growing agonizingly slowly. Despite the many

who fell along the way, the group went from fifty to a hundred, to two hundred,

then at last to over three hundred.

Just then, atop the hillside looming dark on the far side of the crevice

appeared five horseback riders. Even with his excellent eyesight, Iskahn could

not make out the riders atop the horses.

Just five…Scouts, then. We should still have more time before they marshal

their forces.

It took only a moment for this judgment—this hope—to fall to pieces.

The five riders began descending the hill, heading straight for the ravine. With

their whipping cloaks, shining armor, and powerful haze-like spirit, Iskahn could

no longer deny the obvious.

Integrity Knights! Five of them!!

"Enemy attack!! Defend!! Defend the ropes!!" bellowed Iskahn. He didn't

know whether his voice even reached the far side, but he had to do it. In

possible response, half of the three-hundred-strong soldiers there formed

protective circles around the stakes that held the ropes in place. The rest

arranged themselves in front of that, preparing to fight back their attackers.

The enemy knights practically flew down the thousand mels from the hilltop

to the edge of the cliff. They jumped off their mounts as one and raced for the

rope on the right end.

Running in the lead was a large, stout man in foreign-looking dress. To his

right was a woman in blazing golden armor. On the left was the woman named

Sheyta, whom Iskahn had fought the night before.

They surrounded a smaller knight, and what looked like another one was

farther behind, but he couldn't be sure of any details beyond that.

Dozens of pugilists rushed forward to envelop the five knights, beads of sweat

flying from their torsos.

"Raaaah!!" they roared, fists and feet raining down upon the knights.

There were glints and flashes of metal in quick succession. An enormous

geyser of blood erupted into the sky, like some gruesome waterfall rolling

backward. At its base, arms, legs, and heads flew helplessly from the bodies

they belonged to.

And then, from behind the three lead knights, a silver light rose up high,

leaving a bright trail behind it. Amid the red light of the dawn, it arced up and

over the heads of the pugilists—and toward the rightmost rope, which was still

surrounded by a host of fighters…

"Nooooooo!!"

Iskahn's ears were so sharp that even beneath his own scream, he caught the

faint snick of the cut.

The rope split in the middle, and the release of the tension holding it up left

the ends writhing loose in the air like serpents. Dozens of warriors helplessly

plunged into the depths of the ravine.

The image of them falling burned itself into Iskahn's eyes. Without realizing it,

he said aloud, "This…this is war? You call this a battle?"

For once, his second-in-command, Dampa, did not have a pithy retort.

Not only were his tribespeople forced to mimic a clown's acrobatics, they

were swallowed by the abyss without even having the opportunity to fight.

They had not undergone the long and brutal training of the pugilists for this.

What would he tell the elderly parents and young children who awaited their

return back home? How could he tell them that their loved ones had not stood

boldly before the enemy's blades and given their lives as the glorious warriors

they were, but fallen to the depths of the earth without a chance to use their

mighty fists?

He was helpless to do anything but watch and listen to the spectacle of the

overlapping screams of anger and mourning as warriors fell to their deaths.

I will claim your vengeance. Just forgive me. Forgive me.

But such was the cruelty of the situation that Iskahn could not say whom he

should defeat to fulfill that vengeance. The Integrity Knights were raising a

desperate stand against ten times their number. He could not ask them to wait,

pretty please, until all the pugilists had crossed the ropes safely and assumed

their battle formations. It was a sign of the knights' courage that they struck

with a tiny group of five, knowing that their window of opportunity was limited.

So who was it? Who bore the blame for the undignified deaths of those

valiant warriors?

Was it their chief, who could do nothing but stand stock-still like a fool, his

fists balled? Or…

Iskahn suddenly felt a sharp pain deep in his right eye. The breath caught in

his throat.

Red light pulsed repeatedly through his vision as a second rope was cut, its

ends flying through the air.

At the rear of his army's emplacement, Gabriel Miller watched, face propped

against his fist, as three of the ten ropes they'd affixed over the gorge were

snapped within moments of one another.

It seemed that the human army's artificial intelligences were slightly superior.

In fact, taking their adaptability into account, the difference seemed stark. With

how quickly they'd identified and countered the Dark Territory army's moves,

both last night and today, it was unlike any strategy game's CPU opponent he

had ever faced.

The result of the game was that Gabriel had already lost 70 percent of his

total units, but he was not yet panicking.

He just watched hundreds of his units die and waited—waited for the

moment to arrive.

Critter, who was still manning the desk in the main control room of the Ocean

Turtle, was as of that point done with the task of matching the Fluctlight

Acceleration rate to one, the same as real time. The task had taken as long as it

had in order to soften the shock of the shift and prevent the Rath employees

logged in to the Underworld from detecting that it was happening.

In parallel, he used the satellite connection to drop a URL into a major online

gaming community in America. The link led to a teaser site that Critter had

whipped up in short order. It used edgy fonts and blood-splatter effects to

announce: A LIMITED-TIME BETA TEST FOR A NEW VRMMO IN PRODUCTION.

THE BIRTH OF THE WORLD'S FIRST TRUE PVP SLAUGHTER EXPERIENCE.

FULLY HUMAN AVATARS. NO SOFTWARE BOARD RATINGS. NO ETHICS CODE.

The gamers reacted to this bold pitch with equal parts skepticism and

excitement. If nothing else, this indie studio had balls.

As of July 2026, VRMMO regulations were evolving in America within the

general expansion of anti-terrorism measures, so even indie developers who

made games with the free Seed package had to submit to an industry ratings

board and implement certain ethical measures, or they would suffer major

problems with operating their game.

In particular, depictions of brutal violence suffered a major crackdown. If you

really wanted severed limbs to be a major part of the appeal, you had to

employ the method of games like Insectsite and make the avatars nonhuman in

some way. In fact, America's restrictions were even more severe than what

existed in Japan, where the first VRMMO was created, a state of affairs that left

the American gaming community frustrated…Until this mysterious beta test

advertisement, that is.

This was Gabriel's big strategy, which he enacted at the cost of significant

valuable time.

He was going to give American VRMMO players the keys to the Dark

Territory's dark knight accounts and allow them to dive into the Underworld to

serve as his soldiers.

Neither Seijirou Kikuoka, the man in charge of Rath, nor Takeru Higa, who'd

designed the Underworld, had ever considered that such a drastic move might

be possible.

But the Underworld, on a lower server level, was no more than another

VRMMO game that met Seed specifications. If it was presented as a virtual

world using 3-D polygon models rather than its original mnemonic visuals—and

the time-acceleration aspect were not active—you could use the AmuSphere to

log in, touch and interact with the world's objects, and even kill other

characters.

And it didn't matter whether those characters were real-world people or

Underworld people.

7

Gabriel and Critter's secret plan completely took Rath by surprise. Even if the

staff had realized it was happening, they would have had no way of shutting off

the satellite connection, since the main control room had been taken over.

But when Critter uploaded the link in question to the Internet, the packet

containing the URL was caught and observed by just one person.

It was Yui, the top-down artificial intelligence. Yui had been monitoring the

situation on the Ocean Turtle from Asuna Yuuki's phone when she detected

Critter's message, accessed the teaser site, and accurately assessed and

identified Gabriel's plan.

She tried to warn Rath about the situation, but the sub-control room was

physically isolated, and with the phone left in Asuna's ship bunk, no one was

going to hear its alarm going off, even at maximum volume.

Yui was left with no other option but to focus her senses on distant Japan

across the Pacific. She called a number of other phones at the same time.

In the real world, Shino Asada was a junior in high school, but in the virtual

world, she was a deadly sniper. As soon as she heard the notification from her

cell phone, she bolted upright in bed.

The clock at her bedside said it was three in the morning. Despite the

unexpected wake-up at such an odd hour, her sleepiness was instantly gone:

The ringtone that awoke her was the one she'd set for calls from Kazuto

Kirigaya.

Can it be? A call from Kirito, who's not only unconscious but missing?

When she pressed the device to her ear, however, she heard the stressed

voice of a young girl.

"Sinon, this is Yui!"

"Wha…? Y-Yui?!"

She knew about Yui the AI, Kirito and Asuna's "daughter," of course. When

she'd talked with Asuna and the other girls about Kirito's whereabouts just a

week ago, she'd marveled at Yui's capacity for information processing and

emotional expression.

But Shino never expected to receive a phone call directly from the AI and was

at a loss for words. Instead, the sweet but faintly electronic voice continued on

its own.

"I will explain later. Make preparations to leave the house immediately and

take a taxi. I will send the destination and quickest route through your phone.

The cost of your fare will be added directly to your electronic cash account."

There was a prompt ringing sound, notifying Shino that her device had

received an online deposit. That detail finally banished any thought from her

mind that this was a dream or prank of some kind.

"A…taxi? To where…?" She stood up as commanded, pulling her legs out of

her pajamas, alarm still blaring in her head. What Yui said next was like a bucket

of ice water dumped onto her mind.

"Please hurry. Papa and Mama are in danger!!"

"D-danger?! Big Brother and Asuna?!"

Suguha Kirigaya fastened her jeans button with one hand as she spoke—a

high school kendo team member in real life and a sylph magic warrior in the

virtual world, as well as Kazuto Kirigaya's younger sister.

"Don't shout too loud, Leafa, or Miss Midori will wake up," Yui instructed

calmly from the cell phone. Suguha clammed up.

"Y…you're right. Now that I think of it…this is the first time I've ever snuck out

of the house at this hour…"

"Unfortunately, there isn't enough time to explain everything to her and ask

for permission to leave. I think that recording a message on the home server

about leaving early for a morning training session for your club should be

enough."

"A-all right. Wow, you're really clever, Yui," Suguha marveled as she finished

dressing. She snuck down the stairs and put her hand on the front door. While it

was a fairly old Japanese home, it did have a modern security system active at

night, the alarm of which Yui had apparently deactivated.

Since Kazuto had gone missing, their mother had returned home early every

day. Suguha felt guilty about leaving without saying anything, so she said a

silent message as she passed through the doorway.

I'm sorry, Mom. Don't worry—I'll find a way to save him.

As soon as she made her way through the residential block to the main road,

there was a taxi parked on the sidewalk. Yui must have ordered one online. The

driver gave her a suspicious look when he saw how young she was, so she gave

him an excuse about a sick relative in the hospital and checked her phone for

the address.

"Um…take me to Minato Ward of Tokyo."

She felt as though it would be better if she didn't tell him her destination

would actually be in Roppongi.

The half-eaten energy bar dropping from Takeru Higa's mouth to his knees

was enough to jolt his eyes open. He blinked a few times and checked his

smartwatch. It was just before four in the morning by Japan Standard Time. A

visual sweep of the room gave him a glimpse of his fellow staffers packed into

the sub-control room, looking exhausted.

Dr. Rinko Koujiro was sitting in one of the console chairs, her head nodding in

sleep. Even Lieutenant Colonel Kikuoka, though awake, did not have the usual

sharp, alert look in his eyes behind his black-framed glasses as he stared at the

main monitor.

The only others were four engineers as still as corpses on the mattresses lined

up along the wall. There was no eliminating the possibility of an information

leaker among the SDF security members, so Kikuoka had them guarding the

pressure-resistant barrier a floor below the sub-control room.

It had already—or finally, depending on perspective—been fourteen hours

since their unknown attackers had infiltrated the craft. It would be ten more

hours until the Nagato defense ship assigned to guard the Ocean Turtle rushed

in to neutralize the threat. Given the circumstances, it was a devastating length

of time. Especially for the Underworld, where time was drastically accelerated

to stretch it out.

Ten hours had passed since Asuna Yuuki had logged in with Super-Account 01.

Since the FLA ratio was normally set to its limit of times one thousand, that

meant ten thousand hours had passed inside the simulation—over an entire

year of subjective time. Yet there was still no report from within the

Underworld of success or failure in the mission to capture Alice.

"Was the World's End Altar really that far from the human settlements…?"

Higa muttered to himself, envisioning the full map of the Underworld, which

was designed to look very much like Rath's logo.

Just then, the receiver on the console made a series of connected, shrill

beeps, nearly causing him to jump out of his seat. "K-Kiku, phone call," he said

to the man seated next to him, assuming it was regarding something on the

lower floor.

The Hawaiian-shirt-wearing commander bolted upright with the same kind of

surprise and lunged for the receiver, losing a wooden sandal from his toes'

grasp.

"Sub Control! Kikuoka!" he said, hoarse but still commanding. After a few

moments, the speaker emitted the voice of not Lieutenant Nakanishi

downstairs but a young man, audibly bewildered and overwhelmed.

"Um…you're in the STL Development Lab at Rath headquarters…right? My

name is Hiraki from the Rath Roppongi office…"

"Huh? R…Roppongi?" Kikuoka repeated, his voice squawking at this

unexpected communication. Higa was just as startled.

Why would the Roppongi office be contacting them at this moment? The

employees there didn't know that Rath itself was just a mock venture capital

firm secretly funded by the national defense budget or that its real

headquarters was not in Japan at all but floating in the sea to the south in the

form of the Ocean Turtle or even that the title of their research was Project

Alicization.

And of course, they didn't know that Rath was currently under attack by an

unknown enemy force. The Roppongi office was just a lab for STL research and

development.

That's right…STL…

Suddenly, there was a brief glimpse of some kind of epiphany in Higa's mind,

but before he could seize and identify it, Kikuoka distracted him by clearing his

throat loudly.

"Ah, y-yes. This is Kikuoka, STL Development."

"Oh! Hello, sir! I met you once before. I'm Chief Hiraki of the Roppongi

development team!"

Enough of the workplace formalities! Just get to the point!! Higa wanted to

scream. Kikuoka had the same expression on his face, but he did a very good

job of assuming his business persona verbally.

"Ah, yes, I see, Chief Hiraki. Are you really working overtime this late?"

"Actually, I was out drinking after work and missed the last train. Roppongi's a

terrible place for an office, I tell you! Oh, and please keep that comment off the

record, heh-heh."

You're talking to the boss, you idiot! The head honcho! Just get to the damn

point!! screamed Higa. Thankfully, his psychic message seemed to sink in, as

Hiraki tightened up and got down to business.

"Well, uh, the reason I'm calling is…I guess you could call it a problem…

Whatever it is, it's strange. We've just had a cold call from some outside people

with no appointment…"

"Outside? A partner?"

"No, someone completely unrelated to the company…In fact, it just looks like

two teenage girls…"

"Huh?!" Kikuoka, Higa, and even Dr. Koujiro, who had awoken from her light

slumber, gaped. "T…teenage…girls?"

"Yes. I tried to send them away, of course. We have a very confidential

arrangement here, after all. But the things that they're saying, I just can't

dismiss out of hand…"

Higa was getting sick of Hiraki's reticence and stood up, placing both hands on

the console. Kikuoka exhibited more patience as he gently asked, "What exactly

did they say?"

"Well, sir, they told me to contact Seijirou Kikuoka at Rath headquarters right

away and confirm the FLA ratio of the Underworld immediately…"

"Wh-whaaaat?!" the entire room screamed in unison.

How did some random teenage girls know those terms? You would never in a

million years stumble across that series of words unless you knew the entire

workings of Project Alicization.

Higa shared an openmouthed look with Kikuoka, then turned to the console

in an automatic daze and began typing commands on the keyboard. The current

acceleration rate appeared on the dark monitor: X1.00.

"Wha—? We're in real time?! Since when?!" Higa gasped. Kikuoka tore his

eyes away and shouted into the phone receiver, "N-names! Did the girls name

themselves?!"

"Er, they did. But it seemed like a joke…They clearly aren't their real names.

They said that if I told you they were named Sinon and Leafa, you would

understand. But they looked perfectly Japanese to me…"

Thonk.

Kikuoka's other wooden sandal fell to the floor.

When Yui confirmed through the phone that the lock on the building

containing Rath's Roppongi office had opened and allowed Shino Asada and

Suguha Kirigaya to rush inside, the artificial intelligence exhibited signs of relief.

Specifically, that meant that she exhaled and dedicated the majority of her

processing ability to a parallel task she was dealing with.

Yui expected that great trouble would interfere with the potential success of

their mission. It was something that she on her own could never hope to

achieve. But at the same time, she knew that failing would mean exposing her

beloved Kirito and Asuna to great danger.

She pulled her attention away from Shino's cell phone and focused her large

eyes on four fairies sitting before her.

They were in the living room of Kirito and Asuna's in-game home on the

twenty-second floor of New Aincrad in the VRMMORPG known as ALfheim

Online.

Yui flitted about in the form of a tiny navigation pixie. Sitting across from her

on the sofa was Silica the cait sith, with her triangular ears, little fangs, and long

tail.

Next to her was Lisbeth the leprechaun, her puffed-out hair a metallic pink

color.

Leaning against the table farther away was the salamander Klein, a flashy

bandana spiking his red hair upward. Standing by him with arms folded was Agil

the imposing gnome.

All of them were experienced VRMMO players who had survived the

incredible gauntlet that was Sword Art Online, the original game of death, and

they were lifelong friends of Kirito and Asuna. They had logged in to ALO in the

middle of the night upon Yui's summons and had just gotten a briefing on the

situation.

Klein scratched his forehead through the bandana. With the gravest tone he

could muster in his normally aloof voice, he said, "Man…he's really gotten

himself wrapped up in a crazy one this time…A virtual world created by the

military, with a true AI named Alice? We're way beyond the bounds of video

games at this point."

"So this AI isn't like an NPC in a game but is pretty much…the same as us

human beings?" Lisbeth asked.

Yui bobbed her head. "Yes, that's right. It's fundamentally different from

traditional AIs like me. This is a true soul. Within Rath, they call that an artificial

fluctlight instead."

"And they want to take that AI and put it on fighter jets…," murmured Silica,

who looked away from Yui to the little dragon pet curled up on her knees, Pina.

"Rath seems to hope to use that technology for demonstrations both

domestically and internationally," Yui explained, "but the attackers in control of

the Ocean Turtle right now have a much more direct application in mind, I

suspect."

Klein spread his arms. "So who the hell are these guys sieging the ship?"

"There is a very high possibility that American military or intelligence is

involved."

"M…military?! The United States?!" Lisbeth gasped, pulling her head back.

Yui nodded. "If Alice falls into the American military's hands, she'll be placed

on combat drones as an AI pilot in the not-too-distant future, I am certain. And

Papa and Mama would do anything to keep that from happening. Because…

because…"

The little pixie stopped, alarmed. She was getting an unexpected reaction

from her own emotional modeling program. Large droplets of water began to

spill down her cheeks.

Tears.

I'm crying. But why…?

But even this question was shoved aside by the unfamiliar sensation pushing

her onward. Yui clasped her little hands before her chest and continued,

"Because Alice is the evidence of the existence of all the VRMMO worlds,

beginning with SAO, and the many people who lived in them. She is the fruit of

all the time, material, and mental resources that were expended there. I am

certain that the purpose of the Seed package in the first place was none other

than the birth of Alice."

The four people listened to her in silence. Yui went on, the tears still

streaming from her eyes. "Through all those countless linked worlds, the

laughter, tears, sadness, and love of all those many people…the feedback of all

those souls glimmering with life brought about the birth of a new humanity in

the Underworld. Papa, Mama, Leafa, Klein, Lisbeth, Silica, Agil, Sinon…It was

from the cradle woven of your hearts and so many, many more people in one

great tapestry that Alice was born!"

She stopped there, but not one of them rushed to fill the ensuing silence.

Yui had no means of knowing the thoughts and emotions happening in the

minds of the humans congregated around her. It was she most of all who

understood that, being a top-down AI and an amalgamation of information, she

had no true emotions and could not understand them in the realest sense.

Even this powerful urge to help Kirito, Asuna, and those people she loved was

nothing more than a part of the source code that someone had compiled so she

could function as a mental health counseling program. Even before this

conversation began, Yui had been afraid that the things she said might not

register a real difference in the hearts of the human beings across from her.

So when clear liquid sprang from Lisbeth's eyes and ran down her cheeks, Yui

was taken aback.

"Yes…you're right. It's connected. It's all connected. Time, people, hearts…It's

all one big river."

Silica leaped to her feet, eyes watery, and enveloped Yui in her arms. "It's all

right, Yui. We're going to go rescue Kirito and Asuna. We're going to see to it

that they make it out of this safely…so don't cry."

"You bet. Don't be so distant with us, Yuippe. You know we'd never abandon

Kirito like that," said Klein, voice hoarse, pulling his bandana lower, over his

eyes.

Agil bobbed his head deeply and pronounced, "I owe him a whole hell of a lot.

This is a chance for me to make up just a little bit of that."

"…Everyone…," Yui squeaked, wrapped in Silica's arms. It was all that she

could utter; the mysterious tears from an unknown source kept coming and

coming and refused to stop.

But we don't have time. There are so many things I still need to explain. My

priority should be to calmly and effectively relay information. I wonder if my

emotion-mimicking circuits have broken down.

But in the thrall of a single bit of code that dominated her priority system, Yui

could do nothing but sob and hiccup, repeating the same words over and over.

"…Thank…you…Thank you…everyone…"

Minutes later, her tears stopped at last, and Yui told the four the current

situation as she understood it and her expectations for what would happen in

the near future.

The situation: The attackers on board the Ocean Turtle with Kirito and Asuna

had uploaded a fake game teaser site in an attempt to recruit players to their

cause. The expectation: Players drawn to the site would soon appear in the

Underworld in great numbers.

There was a deep furrow on Klein's brow. He growled, "So that's thirty

thousand VRMMO players diving from America, at minimum, possibly up to a

hundred thousand…and to them, the human army soldiers with Kirito and

Asuna are nothing more than PvP targets?"

"Why don't we post on those American VRMMO sites, too, then?" suggested

Lisbeth. "We could tell them about the experiment and the ongoing attack and

ask them not to take part in this fake beta test…"

But Yui just shook her head. "At the root of all of this is a struggle for military

secrets between Japan and America. If we let them sense even a bit of that, it

will only have the opposite effect of what we want."

"So saying that they're real people and you shouldn't kill them…is only going

to make matters worse…," Silica murmured, looking downcast.

Klein broke the heavy silence that followed. "Heh! Then we'll just do the same

thing! We've got at least as many shut-in game addicts as the US does. If we

whip up our own beta test page and spread it around, and the Rath folks set up

as many accounts as we need, I bet we could get thirty or forty thousand, no

problem!"

"Actually, there is one big problem," Agil warned, crossing his massive arms.

"What's that?"

"The time difference. It's four thirty in the morning in Japan, the least active

part of the day. While in America, it's twelve thirty in the middle of the day in

LA and three thirty PM in New York. They're going to have way more active

players right now."

"Hrrng…," Klein groaned. It was true.

Yui was already concerned about that very thing. She said, "Agil is correct.

After the difference in VRMMO population itself, we're also lagging in time

zone, and they have a big head start in promotion. I don't think we will be able

to recruit anywhere near ten thousand people from Japan. If we use accounts

of the same level as the enemy side, our chances of fighting them back are

exceedingly slim."

"But there aren't any more god accounts like the one Asuna used, right? And

there's no time to build up from nothing the way that Kirito did," Lisbeth

murmured, concerned, "so I guess we'll just have to make do with the strongest

accounts we have available…"

Yui stared at her. "Actually…there are accounts. They are much more

powerful in level and gear than the defaults that the enemy side will be

utilizing."

"Huh…? Wh-where?"

"You already have them. They are the very accounts you're logged in with at

this moment," Yui said, revealing the true core of what was being asked of them

—and received four dumbfounded looks in return.

She knew that she was suggesting a tremendous price—the sacrifice of their

alter egos, the personas they spent half their lives enriching—but she also knew

with all of her being that these people, especially, would rise to the occasion.

"You must convert! You and many other VRMMO players must take the

characters you've built up through all of the many Seed worlds that exist—and

convert them to the Underworld!"