Awakening, July 7Th, 2026 Ad / November 7Th, 380 He Part 2

Higa descended the ladder as quickly as he could manage with intermittent

bursts of gunfire coming from the other side of the Main Shaft.

He reached the panel box that glowed dully in the orange light and opened

the lid with cramping fingers. Inside, he was briefly disappointed to see that it

was just a messy bunch of fiber-optic cables and had to rifle through them for a

while before he found the connection port for maintenance purposes.

It was showtime.

He took a deep breath to calm his thoughts, then pulled a cable and his laptop

from the backpack. He stuck one end of the cord into the connector and the

other into the PC, then started up the STL operations program, praying nothing

would go wrong.

A blank black window opened, containing nothing but a teasingly slow

blinking cursor. After a while, it scrolled to the right, displaying status messages.

STL #3 CONNECTING...…OK.

STL #4 CONNECTING...…OK.

So the signals coming back from the units in STL Room Two next to the subcontrol room were healthy. Next, he tried to establish a connection to Units

Five and Six in Roppongi through the Ocean Turtle's satellite signal.

"…Yes!"

It was successful. Now he could operate the four STLs housing Kazuto Kirigaya

and the three girls.

Unfortunately, because the enemy was hijacking the lines from the main

control room to the STL room and satellite antenna, he couldn't do anything

about the other two Soul Translators. If he could, he'd be able to boot the two

attackers currently using Unit One and Unit Two right out of the Underworld.

Higa caught himself before he thought too hard about that. He placed his

hand on the laptop's tiny keyboard.

Here we go! he told himself, right as he heard a high-pitched wail overhead.

"...D-don't move!!"

It was Yanai's voice. What was he talking about?

Higa looked up, annoyed, and saw the muzzle of the pistol, gleaming and

dark, just ten feet above him. Behind it, Yanai's little eyes were bloodshot and

desperate. "Get your hands off the keyboard! Or I'll shoot!"

"...Huh?"

Higa's mind was blank for less than half a second.

Then it all instantly snapped into place, and he had his conjecture.

It was him!

Yanai. He was the spy who'd leaked information about Project Alicization to

the Americans.

Sadly, he couldn't think of a counterplan. He asked a meaningless question

with a parched tongue. "Why, Yanai…?"

The engineer's lips quivered, his pale forehead greasy with beaded sweat, and

he wailed, "J-just so you know…you're wrong to treat me like a traitor."

"Treat" you like one? You are one!!

As if hearing that internal scream from Higa, Yanai added, "I've always been

dedicated to my goal. I'm carrying on the boss's last will…That's why I worked

my way in with Rath."

"The boss's…will? Who…are you talking about…?" Higa asked in a daze.

Yanai swept his hanging bangs out of the way with his free hand and gave him

a smile with a hint of madness. "Someone you know very, very well…I mean Mr.

Sugou."

"Wh...?"

Whaaaat?!

It was a bigger shock to Higa than seeing the gun pointed at him.

Nobuyuki Sugou. The man who'd been in Touto Technical University's

Shigemura Research Lab at the same time as Higa, Rinko Koujiro, and Akihiko

Kayaba. He'd always burned with rival ambition over Kayaba's extreme genius

but never surpassed the man's feats in the end. So for some reason, possibly

related, he'd abducted a few hundred SAO players for inhumane experiments

while they were still trapped.

With Kazuto Kirigaya's help, his misdeeds came to light, and he was arrested.

His first trial ended in a jail sentence, but he appealed, and the case was still in

dispute at the Tokyo High Court.

"…It's not like he's dead," Higa muttered, eliciting a high-pitched giggle from

Yanai.

"He might as well be. He'll get a minimum of ten years. That's death for any

researcher. It was a close call for me, too, but I blamed everything on one of his

other followers and managed to escape scot-free."

"You mean…you were involved in Sugou's human experimentation, too…?"

"Involved? Oh, I was the one collecting the data. Ahhh, that was a fun bit of

research…all that virtual tentacle groping…"

How did Lieutenant Kikuoka fail to vet this scumbag's background?! Higa

wondered, incensed, but he realized just as quickly that it would have been

impossible.

Rath was a group camouflaged as a tech start-up, an attempt to create a

purely domestic military industry that did not rest upon the bedrock of the

American defense-system monopoly. In other words, their existence would

pose a threat to the market share and profit of the existing conglomerate

manufacturers and defense companies.

That made it very difficult to put together their engineering department. They

were getting almost no engagement from the major companies, so the chance

to recruit Yanai, who was part of RCT's full-dive R&D department, was a huge

opportunity they couldn't pass up.

Higa could see that Yanai's eyes were still glazed over with fond reminiscence,

but that didn't last long. He aimed the pistol again, and the safety was clearly

off on the left side of the frame. Kikuoka's comprehensive planning in making

sure even the engineers got basic shooting training had backfired.

Fortunately, Yanai still had some things to get off his chest, so he wasn't

pulling the trigger yet.

"…So the boss's life might be over now, but the line he set up is still alive. So

it's up to me to pick up the slack and take over from where he left off."

"Um…what line is that?" Higa asked automatically.

Yanai made a show of weighing the question, then grinned and answered,

"The American National Security Agency."

"Th-the what?!" he shouted, but on the inside, it was just confirming Higa's

suspicions.

It was an open secret that the NSA was involved in wiretapping and signal

intercepting inside of Japan. There was no way they wouldn't take an interest in

Japan's lead in full-dive tech. So Yanai, Sugou's subordinate, had sent the NSA

information on Project Alicization, and they'd chartered a navy sub to come and

steal A.L.I.C.E. in return.

Yanai continued, "If the Americans below us manage to recover Alice

properly, I'll get a stupid-fat bonus, and they'll guarantee me a position over

there. That's the American dream that Mr. Sugou talked about."

And then the rest of the world will quake in fear at the Americans' highpowered unmanned weaponry, Higa thought. He had to stay cool, to find a way

to keep this conversation going so that he could seize any chance that

presented itself.

Please notice something's wrong, Rinko! he prayed. The laptop nearly slipped

out of his hand, and he hastily readjusted his grip on it.

"D-don't move!!" screamed Yanai, pointing the gun at the side of the duct and

pulling the trigger. There was a yellow flash of light as well as a powerful burst

of air displacement that shook Higa's eardrums.

Sparks burst against the metal wall—and a sharp shock bit Higa's right

shoulder.

"Huh?"

Yanai sounded surprised.

In the center of the two blue eyes that gazed into hers, Sinon saw what

vaguely looked like black whirlpools, black holes that rotated slowly, much like

the dream she'd had that morning.

She had to do something. She thought she'd done something, but it was a

dream, so of course she hadn't. A never-ending cycle of illusions.

Chilly fingers stroked her neck. She felt revulsion and fear, but even those

emotions were sucked out of her mind, replaced by nothing but gray futility.

I can't.

This wasn't just some virtual-world event, a thing that wasn't really

happening.

A red alarm light in some corner of her brain was flashing to alert her of that.

She tried to grab on to that, to focus, but the sticky black liquid had swallowed

her up to her waist now. There was nowhere to escape. She couldn't even

struggle against it.

The man's face loomed closer. His thin lips puckered, sucking in air. Her

emotions, her thoughts, her very soul was sucked away with that air.

Stop it. Don't steal them.

But even that wish was instantly stolen, leaving only dull paralysis.

"St…op..."

His lips approached hers…

Tzak!!

A sudden shock bolted Sinon's mind back into itself.

She opened her eyes wide and caught sight of a bright-silver spark leaping out

from the collar of her top.

…It's so hot!!

A feeling of heat, almost like electrical discharge, briefly overcame the man's

suction. With what little of her mind she'd just recovered, she jolted like a

bullet's detonator, wringing a sudden burst of strength from her body and

escaping from the man's arms.

With Solus's power of flight, she swept away to put distance between them.

"…Eugh…," she grunted, pulling the sparking object out from under her shirt.

It was a light-colored metal plate hanging on a fine chain. The circular disc was

less than an inch across, with a little puncture at one end for the chain to run

through.

"Why…is this…"

…here?

Sinon was stunned. It was the necklace she wore around her neck as Shino

Asada in the real world. It wasn't expensive. The chain was surgical stainless

steel, and the trinket was just silver-plated aluminum.

But it was an object that held great importance to Sinon.

At the end of last year, she'd been a victim of the Death Gun incident. One of

her classmates, a member of the criminal group, had tried to attack her with a

high-pressure syringe full of deadly succinylcholine—but Kazuto Kirigaya had

rushed to protect her and taken the syringe right to his chest.

What had saved him from the spread of the chemical was an electrode from

his heart monitor, which he'd forgotten to remove.

Sinon had found the electrode on her floor after the incident, peeled off the

tape, then fashioned the silver node into a pendant head. The fact that she

wore this homemade necklace all the time was a secret from Kirito and Asuna,

and when she'd dived in at the Roppongi office of Rath, she'd been fully

clothed, so the man there named Hiraki wouldn't have seen it.

In other words, it was impossible for this necklace to exist in the Underworld

as a physical object.

But…

Kirito had said that the virtual world created by the STL wasn't just a huge

computer-modeled simulation, back when he'd explained all of this at Dicey

Café. He'd said it was another reality created from memory and imagination.

In that case, this necklace was something Sinon's own mind had created.

She pressed the silver pendant to her lips and let it hang down under her top

again.

Her mind was completely back in gear, and she turned it to concentrate on

the black winged creature hovering in the sky a distance away.

Subtilizer stood on the creature's back, staring at his own hand. Sinon could

see faint signs of smoke rising from his fingertips. He must have sensed her

gaze, because he looked up then, traces of displeasure wrinkling the sides of his

mouth.

Sinon stared the man in the face and said, "You are not God—or the devil.

You're just a man."

Subtilizer's power was overwhelming, yes. The incredible toughness of his

imagination must have been affecting Sinon's very mind—her fluctlight.

But I won't let him outdo me in imagination and focus. They were the tools of

the trade for a sniper, after all.

She gripped the Annihilation Ray, Solus's GM weapon, and focused her gaze.

The center of the shining white bow turned to a bluish-black color.

As the change in color spread, the bow's smooth curves shifted to straight

angles. The long, dark, shining tube was a steel gun barrel. Then a muzzle

appeared, then a grip, and a stock, and lastly, a huge scope attachment.

It was not a graceful, flowing longbow in Sinon's hands anymore.

This was a simple, ferocious, and stunningly beautiful .50-caliber antimateriel

rifle, the Ultima Ratio Hecate II.

Sinon pulled the bolt handle of her eternal partner, and upon hearing its nasty

slide, she grinned.

The bridge of Subtilizer's nose crinkled, and his lips twisted with anger.

It was only what you might call a "battle" for about seven minutes.

After that, there were three minutes of a defensive struggle, and then it

turned to one-sided slaughter.

"Protect them…! Do whatever it takes to save the Underworlders!!" shouted

Asuna, thrusting and swinging her rapier on the front line for all she was worth

and trying to ignore the throbbing pain in the center of her skull.

But she couldn't hear any kind of hearty group response anymore.

All around her, other Japanese players in their colorful converted armor found

themselves surrounded, one by one, by people from neighboring countries clad

in red and succumbed to their onslaught of swords and spears. Raging, shrieks,

and death screams filled the air.

Compared to this, at least the charging attacks of the American heavy lancers

were a coordinated effort that could be strategized against.

This new army, either because it was made of people from two countries, or

because they were driven by an abnormal rage, focused on nothing but

obliteration, losses be damned. They would leap at a target's legs, several

attackers all at once, and drag the victim to the ground and pile upon them.

There was no possible strategy that could overcome a vastly larger army that

fought like this.

The defensive circle made of two thousand was visibly eroding as the enemy

consumed them. For her part, Asuna swung and thrust her rapier at the neverending waves of adversaries, and in her mind, she repeated a plea she hadn't

thought since she'd first dived into the Underworld last night.

Someone help.

Within the desperate, losing battle, one group fought relatively better than

the rest: a team of warriors in green led by Sakuya, the lady of the sylphs in

ALfheim Online.

The sylphs were highly agile and skilled at speedy combination tactics. It was a

battle strategy devised to counteract the salamanders and their heavy charges

based on weight, and it worked fairly well here, too. The lightly armored

swordsmen spun and rotated in and out with dizzying speed, preventing their

foes from singling out a target or dragging down individual victims.

"We're going to break a hole through their line! Bellflower Team, Lily Team,

push the fighting to the right!!" ordered Sakuya, in the midst of swinging her

long, slender katana at the front line of combat.

They joined the salamanders who were fighting on the right wing, using their

charging power to break through the enemy line. If they could help the supply

team escape down the path toward the ruins again, and hold the fighting to the

narrow entrance of the grounds, they might be able to whittle down the vast

number of enemies the way they'd done against the Americans.

"Get ready! Prepare a synced sword skill!! Count off! Five, four, three…,"

Sakuya prompted—until a wail to their left distracted her.

"Don't give up, everyone! Buy them as much time as you can!!"

Sakuya swallowed her words and glanced over to her left. A formation of

Japanese players in yellow gear was collapsing just at that moment, swallowed

by a wave of crimson. Right at the front, wearing metal combat claws on both

hands and being pulled to the ground, was a small, familiar figure.

"Alicia!!" cried Sakuya. Instantly, she went from the cool, collected leader to a

normal college student. "Stop!! Nooooo!!"

She ran off to the left on her own, sending enemies who blocked her path

flying to the left and right, all in a rush to reach her dear friend.

Alicia Rue, leader of the cait siths, noticed Sakuya, swords through her chest

and stomach, approaching steadily. She let out a bloodcurdling cry: "No,

Sakuya! Go back! Lead your team!!"

And with that, the yellow hair and triangular ears of her friend vanished from

Sakuya's view.

"Aliciaaaaaa!!" she screamed, charging straight into the swarm of enemies

crushing the cait siths, all on her own. She unleashed sword skill after sword

skill, spraying a rain of hot blood and shreds of flesh as she went. She was

almost to the spot where her friend had fallen, almost…

Wham.

Something hit her body, and she looked down to see the head of a spear

jutting out of the right side of her stomach. The first taste of severe virtual pain

raced through her nerves and robbed her of strength.

She managed to still take four more steps, but then her avatar body fell out of

her control and toppled forward.

A storm of hatred engulfed Sakuya: Her sword was ripped from her hand, half

of her left arm was sliced off, and sharp metal pierced her body all over.

Of the two thousand—and rapidly dropping—Japanese players in the battle,

perhaps the one person most accurately assessing the state of the fight was the

third-generation leader of the Sleeping Knights guild, Si-Eun Ahn, better known

as Siune.

Her father was a South Korean resident of Japan, and her mother was

Japanese. So Siune could speak two languages, and the scraps of information

she gleaned from the angry shouts of some of the red soldiers gave her an idea

of what had gotten them so riled up.

The schism between online users in Japan and Korea started in the early

2000s, before Siune was born—from what she understood. There were

probably many reasons for this, and perhaps the development of the Internet

itself only exacerbated the discord that already existed.

The rivalry between countries inevitably affected the online games that Siune

and her friends played, too. As of 2026, in the international servers of

VRMMOs, it wasn't unusual at all for Japanese, Koreans, and Chinese to

squabble over hunting and harvesting areas. Most of the newer games simply

shut out connections from outside the country, as ALO did, and that only

increased the isolation and enmity between the neighboring nations.

Siune grew up in contact with both Korean and Japanese culture, and this

development hurt to see. When she went into VR hospice, the members of the

Sleeping Knights welcomed her and treated her the same as anyone else, even

with her background. She hoped that, somehow, she could help bridge the gap

that existed in the virtual world, for the betterment of everyone.

And yet…

Someone watching this battle from atop the ruins was cleverly manipulating

the Korean and Chinese VRMMO players, whipping them into a furious frenzy,

in an attempt to create the greatest outpouring of hatred and tragedy in the

history of VRMMOs.

I…I have to do something. I'm probably the only one on our side who can

actually speak Korean. Some things you just can't get across without

confronting them. Isn't that right, Yuuki?

It was something their dearly departed previous leader liked to say; she had

passed away three months ago. Siune turned to her four companions in the

vicinity and shouted, "Please, you guys, create a break point for me!!"

Up ahead, where Jun was swinging his two-handed greatsword like some

demon of battle, he shouted back, "Got it! Tecchi, Talken, Nori, let's sync up the

big skills! Countdown! Two, one…"

High-powered single-attack skills went off in unison, creating an earth-shaking

blast and knocking back dozens of enemies. In the ensuing moment of stillness,

Siune rushed up to a large Korean player who seemed to be in charge of the

area and caught his downward sword swing with her bare hand.

Her palm split, and blood gushed forth.

But this virtual pain was nothing next to the suffering of her bone marrow

transplant for leukemia and the salvage therapy that followed. She merely

grimaced the smallest bit, gazed right into the eyes of her attacker, and shouted

in Korean, "Listen to me! You are being lied to!! This server belongs to a

Japanese company! We are not hackers! We are connected legitimately!!"

Her voice boomed across the scene and managed to extend the silence of the

crowd around her. The man whose sword she was stopping looked a bit

intimidated but recovered and replied, "Liar! We saw you! You were

slaughtering players who looked just like us earlier!!"

"Those were Americans, who were brought here under false pretenses, just

like you! You're the ones who are being used as tools of sabotage!! Think it over

closely—is that anger and hatred really yours?!" shouted Siune. The Koreans

met her with confusion and silence.

The next voice to break the quiet came from the back of the crowd, harsh but

questioning. "Is that story true?!"

That Korean player, who came rushing forward, looked just like any of the

other soldiers in red. Siune tensed on instinct, but he lowered his sword and

raised his helmet visor as he approached, to show he had no ill will.

"I'm Moonphase. Who are you?" he asked. Siune was taken aback by the

question, but she could see from the look in his eyes that he was earnest.

She let go of the sword edge she was holding, clutched the hand bleeding

virtual blood to her chest, and said, "I am Siune."

"All right, Siune. The truth is, I've been feeling that something was wrong

about this," Moonphase said rapidly. Other Koreans around him objected

angrily, but the young man silenced them by emphatically returning his sword

to its sheath. He stepped forward.

"Do you have any means of proving what you've told us?"

"...Um…"

She held her breath.

The Underworld was a research-purpose VR world built by a Japanese

company with the backing of the government, and its attackers were Americans

trying to steal the new AI the experiment was meant to develop. That was what

her friend Lisbeth had tearfully explained at the World Tree dome in ALO, and

Siune had no intention of doubting her. But how to prove that to strangers was

another question.

There was no "physical" evidence in a virtual world, of course. The only thing

that might work would be a statement from someone, but nothing any

Japanese person could say would work. As Siune struggled to find the right

words, she could sense the suspicion and anger of the Korean players around

her rekindling. What could she do…? Where would the answer be...?

"The Underworlders, Siune!" cried Nori from over Siune's left shoulder.

"Show them the Underworlders who actually live here, and they'll see that they

speak Japanese and that this is a Japanese server!"

"Oh...!"

True, that was a possibility. Siune's guild hadn't exchanged more than a few

words with the Underworld soldiers at the center of their formation, but they'd

felt a kind of soul-shaking shock at the way they were clearly neither real-world

humans nor programmed NPCs. Even if they didn't speak the same language—

or maybe even because of that—the Koreans might sense that feeling, too. If

they could just interact, share a few words, and open their hearts…

She was about to translate what Nori said into Korean for Moonphase and the

others, but a baleful red light glimmered behind them.

"Oh…watch ou…," she tried to warn, but wasn't in time. A short but thick

blade dug deep into Moonphase's back and tossed him nearly ten yards

through the air.

"Aaagh…," he groaned, writhing in pain. Now a new man stood before Siune:

the one in the black poncho who'd been standing atop the palatial roof. In his

hand was a dagger that looked more like a kitchen knife. He pointed it at

Moonphase and shouted in Korean, "We don't need traitors in our midst!"

Then he spun around, pointing that dagger at the others. "Don't let these

dirty Japanese fool you!!"

His voice was heavy, powerful, cold, and also mocking. Lastly, he pointed the

knife at Siune, who stood rooted to the spot in disbelief. "If this is a Japanese

server, and you're legitimate users, why are you guys the only ones with highlevel gear? It's all shining like it's GM armor! You obviously just cheated and

gave yourselves top-tier equipment!!"

Cheers of agreement rose up around him.

Siune raised a desperate defense. "You're wrong! The reason our equipment

is different is because we converted our main characters over here!"

Immediately, the man in the poncho giggled. "Hah, what kind of an idiot

would move their main character to a test server?! That's a lie! It's all lies!!"

"It's true! Believe us!! We came here at the risk of losing our charact…"

Something whipped through the air.

When Siune looked at the dagger sticking deep into her own shoulder, the

pain registered less than the rush of despair. She couldn't understand the words

the man who threw the weapon was screaming at her.

A small group of Chinese players had taken advantage of the brief stalemate

to charge in from the right. The Korean leader called out to his group again and

kicked Siune over.

She toppled to the ground and heard the footsteps of her companions rushing

up to her, but she could not stand again.

Why?

Integrity Knight Renly Synthesis Twenty-Seven could feel the depth and

ferocity of the hatred hanging over the battle on his skin, and it left him

repeating that simple question.

Why must they hate and kill each other with such passion, when they're both

from the real world?

But perhaps, he realized, it wasn't right for him to ask that. The people of the

Underworld were split into those who lived in the human realm and those who

lived in the dark realm, with a simmering, bloody war that had continued

between the two for centuries. The amount of blood spilled in battle when the

Eastern Gate fell just a few days ago was surely equal to what had been shed in

this battle. Renly's own Double-Winged Blades, now hanging from his belt, had

ended the lives of many, many goblins.

In fact, that was why he believed that the real world, this place somehow

outside the Underworld, would be free of that kind of bloodshed and hatred.

Now it was clear that this was just a fantasy. Asuna and her friends from the

real world spoke the same words that the Underworlders did, but the language

of the new army of thousands and thousands was completely incomprehensible

to Renly. If even the words they spoke were different, there could be no

possibility of truce or peace negotiations.

Did it mean that warfare was simply humanity's basic nature?

Would the killing be endless here in this world, and outside in the real world,

and in whatever world might exist beyond that one?

I won't accept that it's true! he thought, clenching his fists and fighting back

tears.

Sheyta had stayed back in a situation that meant certain death so that she

could protect the pugilists guild, their supposed enemy. Through the clash of

sword and fist, she must have come to understand and sympathize with the

darklanders. There must be hope at the end of this bloodstained road.

So now was the time to fight—not to stand around and be protected by

others.

Renly headed for the front line of battle, where the real-worlders desperately

continued their defensive fight. A small voice behind him said, "I will go, too, Sir

Knight."

He turned around to see the red-haired girl from the supply team, Tiese. She

had a smallish sword in her hand and a look of mournful desperation on her

face.

"…No. You should stay and protect him…"

"Ronie will handle that duty. But the Eugeo I loved," Tiese said, maple-red

eyes shining, "lost his life to protect what he truly cared about. I want to carry

on his example."

"...Oh."

Renly bit his lip. Even he, an Integrity Knight, had no guarantee of surviving

the battle. Tiese wasn't even a graduated warrior; it was impossible to think

she'd make it through whole.

Then another voice joined the conversation. "I will go, too, Sir Knight."

This one, coming forward to stand by Tiese, was a tall chief guard with her

brown hair tied into a ponytail. Her clothes and armor were dirty and dented

from fierce combat, but her eyes were bright and full of purpose still.

"I, too, have yet to fulfill my promise to Kirito. I can't give up on the people

and the world that he gave so much of himself to protect."

"Miss Sortiliena…," Tiese said in a trembling voice, and the young woman

gave her a faint smile back.

They would fight not for pride or for honor, but to protect what needed to be

protected. Renly could feel that desire seeping into himself and resonating.

He brushed his right hand against the divine weapon at his waist and bowed

his head. "All right…In that case, I will protect you…as long as you make sure not

to leave my side."

"Okay!"

"Thank you, Sir Knight!" Tiese and Sortiliena said, drawing their swords.

Renly removed both his weapons from his waist and thought, Eldrie, Sheyta,

and Commander Bercouli. I may have finally found the place for me to use my

life, as you three did before me.

And then, accompanied by two swordswomen, Renly the Integrity Knight

rushed into the battlefield of screams and despair.

4

Rinko Koujiro rushed back to the sub-control room and lowered herself into

the mesh-backed chair where Takeru Higa had sat minutes before.

Out of the many windows open on the big monitor before her, she focused on

a small one near the bottom. It was the three-dimensional graph that

represented Kazuto Kirigaya's fluctlight status. In the center of the graph, with

its rainbow gradient spreading out from the center, was a yawning blackness

that indicated his damaged sense of self.

Takeru Higa was currently performing operations on the four STLs, trying to

repair Kazuto's fluctlight using the memories of the three girls who knew him

best. To do so, he had to infiltrate the Lower Shaft under enemy control, all

alone—well, maybe, as a lonely pair.

For the moment, the invaders were distracted fighting against Ichiemon,

whom they'd sent down the stairs as a decoy. But even that metal robot wasn't

going to last forever against assault rifle bullets. And once Ichiemon was

destroyed, the enemy was going to wonder, what were those Japanese trying to

do?

Hurry up, Higa! she prayed, right as the door slid open and a man in a

Hawaiian shirt and wooden sandals clacked inside.

"H-how is Kirito doing?!"

"Higa just started his operation. How about our decoy?" she asked.

Seijirou Kikuoka inhaled and exhaled, his shoulders bobbing, and prodded his

glasses back up the bridge of his nose. "I threw all the smoke grenades I had

over Ichiemon's shoulder. There's probably a bit more we can do once they get

the smoke out of the corridor, but it'll be dangerous not to lock the wall again

as soon as that's over. We don't have much time."

"Higa said he could get it done in five minutes at the most…," Rinko said,

going back to staring at the monitor.

Kazuto Kirigaya's fluctlight showed no change. She clenched her hands and

thought of the proverb she'd learned in America: A watched pot never boils. It

took force of will to pull her eyes away from the center of the monitor.

That part of the screen displayed what looked like a map of some fantasy

world—which was exactly what it was, but it also was not. It was the terrain of

the entire Underworld.

Outside the Human Empire's land, which she'd been shown not long after

she'd first arrived at the Ocean Turtle a few days earlier, far to the south of the

circular range of mountains, there were artificial markings, two squares in a

row, that looked like ruins. There was a bright dot there indicating the location

of Asuna Yuuki, along with a grouping of blue dots for the human army, and

another group of white dots for all the Japanese reinforcements who had

connected to the simulation, all bunched together.

And the vast swarm of red surrounding them represented the American

players who'd been worked up into a lather by the invaders—yet, the group

seemed too big. There were at least twenty, perhaps thirty of them for every

single Japanese player.

Wondering if they were in danger, and where the other two girls aside from

Asuna were, Rinko looked around the map until she found one dot, pale blue,

far to the south of the ruins. That was probably Shino Asada, then.

So where was Suguha Kirigaya? Rinko squinted, glancing around the map,

until she finally saw a light-green dot far, far to the north of the fighting. There

was a collection of red enemies near her, too, but Higa claimed that he was

helping them both dive on Asuna's location when they went in. So why…?

Then she noticed that nearly hidden by the brightness of Suguha's dot, there

was another white one that was blinking.

"...?"

There couldn't be anyone from Rath using a Soul Translator other than them.

So who did that dot represent? She scrolled the mouse cursor and carefully

clicked the tiny dot, bringing up a new window, then squinted to read the small

English font.

"Let's see…limit, opposition quotient…detection threshold…report? What is

this…?"

She was about to inquire as to what she was looking at when Kikuoka

abruptly yelped, "Wh-whaaat?!"

He'd been looking at Kazuto Kirigaya's graph when she read the words, and

his outburst was so sudden that she nearly jumped. "Wh-what was that for?!"

she snapped.

Kikuoka didn't reply. He grabbed the mouse and expanded the window Rinko

had just opened. Then he leaned forward and muttered to himself. "My god…it

is! It's a new kind of limit-breaking fluctlight…! But why now, why this

moment?!"

He scratched his head furiously, thinking hard. Rinko stared at him in surprise.

"What…? Do you mean there's a second A.L.I.C.E.?"

"Yes, exactly…No, wait a minute…This looks like…"

He scrolled rapidly through the text in the window and grunted again.

"Technically…this is not at Alice's level. It looks like the artificial fluctlight

broke through the limits of its emotional circuits, rather than its logical circuits…

But it's absolutely a valuable sample. I only hope that one stays calm and safe…

Oh no! It's heading for the group of Americans just to the south!"

Kikuoka lifted his hands to his head in despair, so Rinko took the mouse back

and examined the details log of the period when the fluctlight in question

breached its theoretical limits.

"Hmm…yes, it looks like new nodes in the emotional field going off in chain

reaction…Hmm? Hey, Mr. Kikuoka?"

"Wh-what is it?" he asked, craning his neck to look at the monitor while he

writhed.

"What is this part here? The external order being inserted. It looks very odd to

me, almost antagonistic…Like it's trying to prevent the generation of new

circuits…," she said, following the fine text carefully. "Inserting simulated pain

signal…to right ocular region? So whenever an artificial fluctlight is actually on

the verge of surpassing its boundaries, this process is trying to kill that drive

with pain. Why did you put this kind of limitation on the Underworlders?"

"Um…what? We didn't do that. Of course we wouldn't—it's completely

contrary to the goals of the project…In fact, that would be outright sabotage."

"Yes…exactly. Also, this code is written differently than Higa's…Ahhh, there's

a bit of text commented out here at the start of it…'Code Eight-Seven-One'?

What is Eight-Seven-One?"

"Eight-Seven-One? I've never heard that number before…No, wait…Wait a

minute—I swear that popped up not long ago…"

Kikuoka leaped up and rushed a few steps, wooden sandals clacking, and

grabbed a filthy, faded lab coat from a nearby chair. He whipped it open sharply

and stared at the inside of the collar.

"What is it? What are you looking for?" Rinko asked. Kikuoka's eyes were

wide behind his black-framed glasses. He flipped the coat around and thrust the

tag toward her. Written upon it in black marker ink was the number 871.

"That coat belongs to the man who just left with Higa. I think his name was

Yanai…," she mumbled, hearing her own voice trail off.

Yanai. Ya-na-i.

In the Japanese syllabary, where nearly every character could also be

converted to one of the ten numerals, the three characters of ya, na, and i

were…

"…Eight…seven…one?!"

Rinko and Kikuoka stood up straight in shock.

Through the fading vision of his remaining eye, Iskahn, the chief of the

pugilists, watched the red army approaching.

The soldiers spoke to one another in their strange words and approached in a

circle until they were just twenty mels away. When they were convinced the

pugilists no longer meant to fight, they seemed satisfied.

Then they all shouted some fierce, unintelligible thing and stomped the earth

together.

Iskahn squeezed the hand of the knight woman next to him with his shattered

left hand. He could feel her giving pressure back, resulting in a pleasant kind of

pain to his numbed hand. He started to close his eyes, ready to greet his end…

"...What's that…?" Sheyta said. He lifted his head.

From across the chasm to the north of the battle, a huge force was

approaching, dust storms rising in their wake.

They had large, round bodies. Flat, protruding snouts. Hanging ears.

Orcs.

"…How come?" Iskahn mumbled in a daze. The orc army was supposed to be

waiting far to the north near the Eastern Gate, as Emperor Vecta had ordered.

Just because he had vanished didn't mean the orders no longer counted. As

evidence of that, the surviving dark knights were standing around with foolish

obedience just across the ravine, waiting for further orders.

Iskahn watched the orc army approach, baffled, until he noticed a small figure

sprinting right at the front.

It was not an orc. It had greenish-golden hair, light-green garments, and

blindingly white skin. That was a human—a young woman from the human

lands.

But it almost looked as though that one frail little swordswoman was leading

the entire force of orcs. The red soldiers surrounding the pugilists hesitated,

noticing the oncoming army.

Then the girl at the head of the orcs charged out onto the stone bridge

spanning the ravine. There was a bright flash; she had drawn a long silver blade

from over her back.

In Iskahn's left hand, Sheyta's fingers twitched, reacting to something about

this.

The human girl was about at the middle of the bridge when she raised the

long blade high overhead. She was still over two hundred mels away from the

red soldiers at that point.

But…

Suddenly, her arms blurred. Even Iskahn's sharp eyes couldn't make out the

slashing motion. There was simply a glint of silver light—and then something

much more terrible and wondrous.

A line of brilliant light ran across the blackened ground, and then suddenly,

dozens of red soldiers standing in its path were dismembered, collapsing to the

ground before they could even scream.

The sword in the girl's hands flipped back around, then jumped with chilling

speed. The beam of light again split the red forces, slicing clean through the

heavily outfitted soldiers, armor and all.

"...Incredible," Sheyta said in a barely audible whisper.

Sinon raised the Hecate II that had been Solus's bow moments ago without

hesitation.

Subtilizer was maybe only fifty feet away. It was too close to snipe with an

antimateriel rifle. At this distance, keeping a moving target within the highzoom scope would be exceedingly difficult.

So Sinon, trying to finish the fight before Subtilizer could go on the move,

pulled the trigger the instant that the finder lens of the scope went dark with its

target.

There was a flash. An explosion.

Sinon was hit with incredible recoil force as she hovered in the air. Her body

wanted to rotate on a diagonal, but she used all her will to contain it. If she was

going to take this much blowback for every shot, consecutive firing would be all

but impossible. But as long as this first shot landed, it wouldn't matter.

Once she was stable, Sinon caught Subtilizer in her view again.

Her eyes went wide with shock.

The man standing on the bizarre winged creature had his left arm raised and

his fingers bent like talons. There was darkness and light pulsating violently in

his palm, and in the center, shining brightly, was what could only be the bullet

Sinon had fired.

So he could suck that up, just as he'd tried to do to her soul?

The .50-caliber antimateriel rifle bullet could penetrate an inch of steel plate.

Sinon felt an inkling of fear creep into her heart. Right on cue with that, the

darkness exuding from Subtilizer's hand grew larger and more powerful.

"Don't give in," she muttered, not realizing that she was doing it. Then she

shouted, "Don't give in, Hecate!!"

Zblurk.

The light split the darkness.

A huge hole appeared in Subtilizer's hand, spraying blood and flesh into a

rearward vortex.

I can do this!!

Sinon inhaled deeply and pulled the Hecate II's bolt. The empty cartridge

glittered and twirled as it fell through empty sky.

Subtilizer stared at his tattered left hand in silence. The inky blackness was

filling the space the bullet had blasted there like liquid, but it was not the sort of

wound that could simply be healed like that.

He looked up and stared at Sinon, no longer smiling. His other hand moved to

his side, removing the crossbow there.

"…Hmph," Sinon snorted. There was no way that primitive thing could keep

up with her antimateriel rifle...

Nyurp.

The crossbow suddenly warped. Its sideways-extending limbs folded inward,

and it stretched to over twice its original length. The wooden frame took on a

metallic shine.

In the span of a second, Subtilizer went from holding a crossbow to bearing a

huge rifle nearly the size of the Hecate. She recognized it instantly.

A Barrett XM500.

It was a .50-caliber antimateriel rifle like the Hecate II but from a newer

generation.

The twisted smile returned to Subtilizer's lips.

"…All right, then," Sinon muttered, steadying the butt of the Hecate against

her shoulder.

"Whoa…a-are you okay?" Yanai stammered, as though he was actually

concerned. It was enough to make Higa temporarily forget his pain.

"Y-you shot me! What do you think?!"

"Uh, I wasn't trying to hit you; I really wasn't. I'm not ready to be a murderer.

What's the point of buying a nice condo on the west coast if I'm living my days

terrified of catching a homicide charge?"

When he realized that Yanai was serious, Higa felt the tension drain out, along

with his strength. He told himself to tighten up and gingerly checked on his

shoulder.

The bullet had deflected off the side of the duct and hit him just below the

collarbone. It wasn't pain he felt all along his right arm, but cold numbness. The

underarm of his shirt was already dark red with blood; it was definitely more

than just a scratch.

Fear of the present situation and future developments was finally starting to

creep up from his stomach. Higa's breathing quickened. Above him, Yanai was

still smirking over his advantage.

"The truth is that I was planning to mess with your work first, destroy the

maintenance connector, then escape down to Main Control. I'm supposed to be

hitching a ride with them on their sub. Since no one from Rath has died, as long

as we get Alice all safely contained, that's a happy ending as far as I'm

concerned."

"No one…has died…?" Higa repeated, feeling the pain vanish again. "If we

don't take advantage of this chance to heal Kirigaya, his mind will never

recover! You'll be the one who killed his soul, Yanai! And you claim you're not

ready to be a murderer!"

"Oh. Ohhh…That guy…"

The expression was gone from Yanai's face. His stubbled cheeks twitched a

few times in the orange emergency lighting.

"Yeah…That kid can die for all I care."

"Wha...?"

"I mean, he killed her. He killed my sweet Admi."

"Ad…mi…?" Higa repeated, perplexed.

Yanai exploded with indignation. "The pontifex of the Axiom Church! Her

Holiness, Administrator! I had an agreement with her, you see. I was going to

give her all the help she needed for complete control over the Underworld. I

said that if the server ever got reinitialized, I'd make sure to save her on a

lightcube."

Higa could scarcely believe what he was hearing.

The Axiom Church was the name of the organization created by the residents

of the Underworld to rule over them. It enforced its control with unbelievably

strict laws and a massive military might that the common people could not

disobey.

The reason that Higa's team had known about their barrier-breaking fluctlight

"Alice" and yet not taken control of her was because, in the time-accelerated

Underworld, the Axiom Church had immediately arrested Alice and performed

memory-altering routines on her fluctlight.

It was too fast, in fact. And too precisely performed.

Almost as if they'd known ahead of time exactly what an artificial fluctlight

was.

And that, in fact, was true. The Axiom Church—or at least, the fluctlight

who'd been its supreme leader, Administrator—had known exactly how the

world worked.

"So you corrupted the Underworld…," Higa growled.

Yanai clicked his tongue. "Now, now, she was the one who made contact with

me first. I was on duty, and I heard a girl's voice coming through the speaker,

which was quite alarming…She managed to find the entire command list for the

Underworld on her own and opened a connection back to the console. And if

you want to assign blame, that's your fault for not eliminating the command to

summon the list."

He chuckled and then, for some reason, got a dreamy look in his eyes.

"At first, I thought the Underworld in its current state was bound to be wiped

sooner or later. If they were all going to get erased, then what was the harm?

So I snuck into the STL to go see Admi. And let me tell you…I've never seen such

a beautiful girl in my life. The girl Mr. Sugou had trapped in ALO was cute, but

everything about Admi, from her personality, to her voice, to her mannerisms—

all of it was my absolute ideal in a woman. So she made a promise to me. If I

helped her, she would make me her number-one slave. And one day we'd rule

the real world, too, and she'd make me a king…"

No…I take that back. He was the one who got corrupted.

The realization was a thrill of horror that put all of Higa's hair on end. Yanai

was a fool and a traitor, but he wasn't a dunce. What kind of a being must this

Administrator be to ensnare a man like Yanai and completely own him this

way?

Suddenly, Yanai's look of reminiscence vanished. "But…now she's dead. She

was killed…by that boy who ruined Mr. Sugou's experiment, too. I have to

avenge her. My poor Admi…"

His bloodshot eyes bulged, and he pointed his gun at Higa again. The

automatic pistol cocked the hammer after firing, so the pressure needed to pull

the trigger was much lighter than the first time. If he squeezed his finger in at

all, the gun was going to go off.

"That's right. I suppose it's true…I can't give her the true memorial she

deserves unless I kill at least one person or so…"

The pupils in the middle of Yanai's bulging eyes were tiny and jittering.

…Uh-oh. He's serious this time.

Higa closed his eyes.

I won't make it.

Leafa knew that Asuna, Klein, Lisbeth, and the others were all in danger in the

distance, and she bit her lip in frustration. But standing right before her were

about thirty or so soldiers wearing red armor.

She had enlisted the help of Lilpilin, who seemed to be a leader of the orcs,

and headed south to rescue Asuna and Kirito, but the first people they finally

found did not belong to the Human Guardian Army she was looking for.

It was a few hundred men and women, apparently pugilists—a group

belonging to the Dark Army with the orcs, according to Lilpilin—surrounded by

an army that had dived in from the real world. Leafa cast aside her brief shred

of hesitation and rushed to aid them.

"I'll attack the enemy force on my own. Lilpilin, you take your troops to the

pugilists and only defeat those enemies who try to attack them," she ordered.

Lilpilin protested furiously. "We would wather fight with you!" But she stayed

firm, shaking her head and grabbing his large orc hand to squeeze it.

"You can't. I don't want you to suffer any more losses than you already have.

I'll be fine…I don't care how many thousands of them there are—I won't let

them win."

She left him with a smile, then headed toward the red army alone.

Terraria's hit points had nearly infinite regenerative power, as she'd seen

already. And she knew that the people ahead from the real world had

expendable lives, like she did. Given that it didn't seem likely they'd reach

Kirito's group in time anyway, Leafa couldn't stand the thought of letting the

orcs die for no good reason.

She sliced up a few dozen enemies with a pair of ultra-long-range slashes and

kept running, plunging straight into her foes' midst.

For whatever reason, her sword skills were expanded to several times the

length of their ALO forms, and she unleashed them with abandon. With every

colorful swing of Terraria's GM weapon, Verdurous Anima, blood sprayed and

spattered.

The delay between sword skills had not disappeared, however, and in each

interval, sharp blades came swinging for her. She was unable to evade them all

and suffered many wounds, each one causing her to swoon with the burning

pain. And yet…

"Eeeiii!!" she screamed, stomping the ground hard. A green glow wafted from

beneath her feet, instantly healing all wounds. But while it healed her body, it

could not stop the lingering memory of the pain, and Leafa had to keep

swinging and fighting through it.

She would suffer a thousand wounds, if that was what it took to drive the

enemies here back to the real world. If there was any role she was meant to

play for having come down at unintended coordinates, it would have to be

saving every last Underworlder she came across. The people whom Kirito loved

and tried to protect.

"She's such a boss!!" shouted one of the enemies in English, thrusting his

sword at her, which she blocked with her left arm.

"Seyaaaa!!"

Her return blow instantly ended the other man.

Leafa craned her neck to bite the sword that was still stuck in her arm and

pulled it out, then spat it onto the ground with a fresh spill of blood.

The second shots were simultaneous.

The bullets from the two antimateriel rifles nearly touched as they passed,

warping the paths and sending them both blazing off into nothingness.

Sinon did not lose her balance in miserable fashion this time; she kicked back

against the air to control the recoil. She could see that Subtilizer kept his feet

planted on the winged creature, which was frantically flapping its wings to stay

stable.

This was an entirely new experience for Sinon, engaging in a shoot-out with

antimateriel rifles in completely open space, both side to side and up and down.

Obviously, it never happened in GGO, since the game didn't support player

flight. Shooting the Hecate without a bipod to stabilize it the usual way was very

different, and the kickback it had in midair was beyond anything she could have

expected.

Whoever won this fight would do so because they could limit the recoil and

get off the next shot first, Sinon thought as she expelled her empty. Subtilizer

would be thinking along the same lines. When she tried to swing around him to

the right, he went the other way, keeping them circling.

Eventually, they both launched into acrobatic maneuvers at the same

moment, without any kind of signal. She made sharp turns in midair, as hard as

she could without losing her balance, moving at random. As she kept the

muzzle trained on the enemy, she was keenly aware that she, too, was within

his sights.

Subtilizer's Barrett seemed to blur as it caught up to her movement and

intercepted her path.

Here he comes!!

She gritted her teeth and opened her eyes wide in concentration.

Flames shot from the end of the Barrett.

Sinon twisted her body to the left as she traveled at maximum speed. The

lethal bullet passed closely enough that it could have burned her chest. Her

blue armor cracked audibly.

Dodged it!

It was her first and last chance. When Subtilizer came to a stop to stabilize the

recoil, that was when she would shoot.

She lifted the Hecate, aiming it.

But a new bullet came flying straight at her.

Consecutive shots—how?!

Oh…oh no.

Unlike the Hecate, which had a bolt that needed to be slid for each shot, the

Barrett was a semiautomatic rifle.

The recognition of that fact happened at the same moment that Sinon's left

leg practically exploded off its base above the knee.

The ones who fought the hardest against desperate circumstances and ended

up standing on the battlefield at the very end were Asuna, who had the

protection of her super-account; Renly the Integrity Knight, a resident of the

Underworld; his dragon mount; Tiese the primary trainee, who fought bravely

despite Renly's protection; and Sortiliena the swordswoman.

Through eyesight faded by extreme exhaustion and pain, Asuna watched

Renly fight with a fervor that was positively demonic. Dozens of minutes ago,

he'd appeared on the front line of battle, hurling a cross-shaped boomerang

with a mind of its own that sliced the oncoming enemies in two with abandon.

Its impact on the battle was so intense that it actually succeeded in pushing

back the furious charge of the players from Japan's neighbors over the course

of a few minutes. The burning breath of his gigantic dragon also frightened the

enemy. It was more than enough evidence for them to accept that they were

fighting a true dragon knight born and bred in the alternate land of the

Underworld.

But eventually, they began to notice that while Renly was throwing and

controlling the boomerang, he was essentially defenseless. After dozens of

chances, the latest throw of Renly's weapon sweeping back the front line of red

soldiers was accompanied by a hail of spears thrown from the rear. The strategy

that Asuna had secretly feared seeing from the Americans was finally coming

into play.

The spears came down from the red sky like black rain.

Renly's dragon swept in to protect its master with outstretched wings and

body. Scales and blood sprayed into the air as the beast toppled sideways.

A fresh wave of spears came just as quickly. Renly looked up at the pointed

heads as the missiles soared down, hissing. He immediately cradled Tiese, who

was right behind him, hiding her beneath his body.

Two spears hit his back, and he fell forward, covering her. The cross-shaped

boomerang lost its control and flashed, splitting in two and sticking into the dirt

in the distance.

By that point, the fighting elsewhere on the battlefield was essentially over.

The exhausted and fallen Japanese players were easy pickings for the red

soldiers, who swarmed them, each eager to be the first to strike. Blood, flesh,

brief screams, and whimpers emerged before the Japanese players quiet.

Many of them, too, suffered broken shields and armor and were bound and

tied on the ground, helpless. Their tears of frustration looked just as painful as

the tracks of red from their wounds.

The defensive line of two thousand converted players had been neutralized,

and the army of the Human Empire that had been at the center was exposed at

last. About four hundred of the human army's men-at-arms raised their swords

and formed a circle around the unarmed supply team and priests. Their faces

were filled with desperate determination, and they waited in silence for the

right moment to make their doomed charge at the encroaching red wave.

"...Stop it...," Asuna heard her own voice say.

It was the sound of her heart breaking, not for the pain of the wounds she'd

suffered, but out of despair and sadness.

"Please…don't do this…"

Her rapier fell to the ground. A little droplet that ran off her cheek splashed

against its ragged, tarnished length. A red silhouette standing before her raised

its doublehanded sword high overhead and screamed something furious.

But just at that moment, a voice like a clap of thunder paused the blade in its

downward swing, as well as other fights happening all around them.

"Stoppppp!!"

It was the man in the black poncho who'd been watching the fighting from a

distance. The ghost of PoH, leader of the murderous Laughing Coffin guild.

The players from the neighboring countries seemed to be taking their cues

from the poncho man, viewing him as their leader, so they reluctantly lowered

their weapons. The man who'd been about to cut Asuna in two clicked his

tongue, pulled his sword back, and gave her a rough kick instead.

She fell helplessly to her back and struggled with limp arms to get up. A tall

man was walking toward her, the ends of his black leather coat swaying. He said

something in a low but clearly audible voice to the red players around him, but

it was in Korean, so Asuna couldn't understand it.

All those closest to the man nodded and began to pass on the message to

their fellows through the crowd. Out of nowhere, the man standing next to

Asuna grabbed her by the hair and pulled her up. She shrieked, but he ignored

her and dragged her roughly along.

Similar things were happening elsewhere. Apparently, they were going to

bunch all the surviving Japanese players in one place.

The man in the black poncho strode right up to the men-at-arms of the

human army, who still stood with their swords at the ready. Then he turned and

waved, giving another direction to the man holding Asuna by the hair.

He kicked her in the back and sent her sprawling several yards forward into

the dirt. More Japanese players toppled to the ground nearby. The number of

survivors was already under two hundred.

Maximum HP value seemed to be linked to survival here, because many were

high-level players. A quick glance confirmed the presence of the ALO territorial

lords and the Sleeping Knights.

Everyone's armor was either shattered or ripped away, leaving them in

nothing but tattered clothes. Exposed skin was covered in wounds, and many

still had broken blades jutting from their flesh. All that she could see on their

faces was deep futility and defeat.

She didn't want to see any more. She wanted to lie facedown in the dirt with

her eyes closed as the final blow came.

Instead, however, Asuna watched through blurry tears, trying to burn into her

mind the image of all these players who had converted to take part in the

battle.

Another survey of the area led her to a female player on her knees some

distance away, her shoulders trembling. The girl's pink hair was smeared with

dirt and dust, and her dark-red outfit was torn here and there.

Asuna crawled over to the girl's back and put her arms around her friend's

body. Lisbeth froze up for a moment, then rested her head against Asuna's

chest. Her blood-and tear-stained cheeks twitched as she rasped, "They all…I

couldn't…I was…They…"

"No…no, Liz!" Asuna told her sternly through her own tears. "It's not your

fault. It's mine…If I had been thinking smarter, I would have seen this coming…"

"Asuna, I…I had no idea. I didn't know that fighting could be this scary…That

losing could be this awful…I just didn't know…"

Asuna couldn't come up with an answer. She squeezed Lisbeth harder,

cradling her friend. More tears flooded from her eyes and ran down her cheeks.

There was more quiet sobbing nearby, and Asuna saw that Agil was lying

motionless on the ground, with Silica curled up and weeping next to him.

Agil was so horribly disfigured that it was a wonder he had any hit points left

at all. He must have fought like a man possessed to protect Silica. Multiple

broken swords and spears stuck out of his body, and his limbs looked like they'd

all been crushed. His jaw was clenched, surely to fight back against

unimaginably excruciating pain.

Nearby, Klein sat cross-legged with his head bowed. His left arm had been cut

off from the shoulder. His trademark bandana was tied around the stump.

Essentially, all the survivors were in this sort of state.

The hooded man in the black poncho surveyed the crowd of two hundred

whose weapons, armor, and even will to fight had all been taken away. He had

a huge smile. Then he turned and started walking toward the men-at-arms of

the human army.

Asuna waited in horror for him to raise his hand and give the command to

slaughter them all.

But to her surprise, he addressed them in Japanese. "Throw down your

weapons and surrender. If you do, we will not kill you or our prisoners over

here."

The men-at-arms looked briefly startled, then deeply furious. Sortiliena the

captain strode forward to stand face-to-face with the man in the poncho. She

must have been fighting on the front line with Renly, because her sword was

chipped, and blood ran down her forehead.

But Sortiliena was still beautiful in her defiance. "Slander!! After all of this,

you think that our lives are so precious that we would—?"

"No! Listen to him!!" Asuna interrupted. She lifted her teary face, still cradling

Lisbeth, and pleaded, "Please…you have to survive! Do whatever it takes, no

matter how humiliating!! That's what…That's the only thing…It's our only…"

Hope.

The word caught in her chest.

Sortiliena and the other guards clamped their mouths shut, their faces

contorting and trembling with emotion…until their shoulders dropped at last.

When they let their swords fall clanking to the ground, the rows and rows of

players from the neighboring countries let out a victorious roar, which soon

turned to chants of those countries' names.

The hooded man in black beckoned a few players over and gave them an

order. They promptly obeyed and started running to the back of the circle,

dividing up the surrendered members of the human army.

Before she had time to wonder what they were doing, the black-poncho man

strode quickly over to stand right before Asuna. Even from this distance, she

couldn't see through the darkness under his hood. The only details were a

powerful lower jaw and black curls hanging around his neck.

That mouth of his formed a cruel smile, and he said, almost cheerfully, "Hey…

long time no see, Flash."

Ah! It is him!!

Her breath caught in her throat. The words came unbidden from her chest.

"You're…PoH…!"

"Ohhh, isn't that a nostalgic name? I'm so happy you remember it."

Klein had his hand on the ground and was leaning closer to them. Now he

looked up at the hooded man with fire in his eyes.

"You…it's you. You're still alive…you murderous bastard!!"

Klein tried to grab him with his one remaining arm, but the man easily kicked

him over with a boot.

Asuna gritted her teeth and growled, "Is this vengeance? Are you trying to get

back at the frontline group for destroying Laughing Coffin…?"

"..."

PoH stared down at her without a word. Then she noticed that his shoulders

were trembling. Within a few seconds, he was shaking with uncontrollable

mirth. Under the poncho, his body twisted and writhed with laughter.

When the spasms finally stopped, PoH thrust a finger at her and said, "Uh,

wait, wait…I'm forgetting how to say it in Japanese, since I've been in America

for so long. I've forgotten all my slang."

He twirled his finger around and then snapped in realization. "Ah, that's right!

Are you taking crazy pills? This is hilarious, man…"

He went down to one knee so he could stare Asuna in the face at eye level.

The faint gleam of his eyes in the light was the only thing she could see in that

hood.

"…I'll let you in on a little secret. Did you know that the one who told you

people where to find the Laughing Coffin hideout was me?"

"Wha…?"

Asuna, Klein, and even nearly dead Agil were shocked.

"What…? Why would you…?"

"I mean, partly I just wanted to see you apes killing one another…but the

biggest reason was this: I wanted to make all of you murderers, too. The great

and mighty frontline conquerors, everyone's heroes. It was hard as hell to set

that up…to time everything so that I warned Laughing Coffin ahead of time, but

only just enough so that they could fight back, rather than abandoning the

place and running."

So that's why we found evidence that our plan to ambush the hideout had

leaked ahead of time, Asuna realized in shock.

Because of that, the superior frontline team—in both level and equipment—

found themselves on the defensive and suffered a few casualties. It was Kirito's

fierce fighting, as a solo player who was accepted among the group, that turned

the tide of battle. It was when he cut down one of the principal members of the

gang that things turned for good…

"So you…wanted that to happen?" Asuna whispered. "You wanted Kirito…to

have to PK someone…?"

"Yes, absolutely, yes," PoH said in English excitedly. "I was in hiding, watching

the battle play out. In fact, I nearly lost my cover by busting out laughing when

Master Black snapped and killed those two idiots. My plan was to paralyze him

and you with poison and give you a nice long interview about that experience…

but I wasn't counting on a premature ending at the seventy-fifth floor."

A sudden surge of anger made Asuna temporarily forget her pain. "D-do you

have any idea…how much Kirito suffered and agonized over that?!"

"Oh, he did? That's nice to hear," PoH replied, but his voice was as cold as ice.

"But I dunno if I totally buy that. If you really regretted it…then wouldn't you

hate to even look at a VR game? You'd feel so guilty about the people you

killed. I know he's in here, too. I can feel him. I dunno why he's locked up in a

wagon…but I can ask him myself."

PoH gave the stunned Asuna a smirk and leaped back to his feet. Against the

background of the still-simmering cheers of victory, his freezing voice said, "It's

showwwwtime."

That was his catchphase in SAO when he was up to his tricks. PoH raised his

hand.

In the distance, the red soldiers violently pushed forward a wheelchair, with a

girl in a gray uniform trying to keep up.

Oh…

No.

Anything but that.

The silent pleas filled Asuna's breast. Klein tried to jump to his feet, but the

soldiers held him down at once.

PoH leaned over to stare down at the wheelchair being brought before him.

"...Hmm?" he grumbled, then tapped an emaciated leg hanging from the

seat with his toe. "What's this…? Hey, Blackie, wake up. You hear me, Black

Swordsman?"

Black Swordsman was an old nickname of Kirito's—but he did not react at all.

His body rested against the back of the chair, painfully and visibly thin through

his black shirt, and his face was downcast. His empty right sleeve swayed in the

breeze, and the hand that clutched the two swords in his lap was bony.

Ronie got knocked to the ground at Asuna's side. Her eyes were red and

swollen from crying. "During the battle," she whispered, "Kirito tried and tried

to get up…and eventually he got quiet, like he was out of strength…But…his

tears…his tears just kept coming…"

"Ronie…" Asuna reached out and hugged the sobbing girl.

Then Asuna lifted her face and snapped at PoH, "You can tell by now. He

fought and fought and fought, and now he's damaged. So don't mess with him

anymore! Just leave Kirito alone!!"

But the man in the black poncho ignored what Asuna had to say. He stared

right into Kirito's face at point-blank range.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Are you kidding me? He's all slack-jawed! Hey, wake up!

Stand up, dude! Good…morning?!" PoH said, placing his foot on the silver wheel

and mercilessly kicking the chair over.

The wheelchair toppled with a tremendous clatter, throwing its helpless cargo

onto the ground. Asuna and Klein made to get up, only to be stopped by enemy

swords. Agil growled, deep in his throat, and Lisbeth, Silica, and Ronie all

shrieked.

None of this had any effect on the aggressor, however. He walked over to

Kirito and roughly turned him over with his toe. "The hell…? You really are

busted, huh? So the great hero is a vegetable now?"

Kirito's left arm still clutched the two swords; PoH yanked the white scabbard

away from him. He pulled the sword out until it revealed a blade pitifully

broken in the middle.

PoH clicked his tongue in disappointment and made to discard the useless

weapon. But…

"A…aaah…"

A tiny croak escaped Kirito's throat, and he reached weakly toward the white

sword with his one arm.

"Oh?! You're moving?! What, you want this thing?" PoH said, teasingly

waggling the sword. Then he dropped it, and when Kirito tried to go for it in the

air, he grabbed the boy's arm and pulled him up.

"C'mon, say something!!" he said, smacking Kirito on the cheeks.

Asuna's vision started going red with rage. But before she could even get to

her feet, Klein was screaming bloody murder.

"You son of a bitch!! Don't you dare touch hiiiiiim!!"

He tried to lunge for the man with his one arm, but a large, thick sword split

his back and pinned him straight to the ground. Klein gagged and spit up a huge

glob of blood, but he kept pulling upward, trying to rip his own body apart to

keep moving.

"You…! You're the one…man…I'll…never…for..."

Whud!!

A second sword pierced Klein's back.

More tears flooded from Asuna's eyes. It was a wonder to her that she could

have any left.

It was not the pain of losing her leg that got to Sinon; it was the fear of not

being able to fly properly anymore.

To this point, she had learned to control the voluntary flight system by kicking

her legs against the air. Her first attempt at a sharp evasive turn turned into an

ugly tailspin instead.

"Ugh…"

She grunted and switched to the one bit of movement she knew she could

manage: retreat straight backward. The stream of blood shooting from her left

leg created a vivid red line in the air before her.

Sinon aimed at Subtilizer as she pushed backward at maximum possible speed

and fired a third bullet. But her enemy, who pursued with confidence, fired a

fourth bullet from his own rifle.

When the two bullets traveled the exact same path from opposite ends, they

met with a horribly discordant twang, creating a shower of sparks and knocking

each bullet off to the side to vanish into nothingness.

She pulled the bolt handle to expel both the empty cartridge and the growing

fear in her lungs and then fired a fourth shot. Again, two thunderbolts

overlapped. The collision of bullets in midair unleashed a massive amount of

kinetic energy and sent them both spiraling away.

A fifth shot. Sixth.

The results were exactly the same. Subtilizer was intentionally shooting on

Sinon's rhythm and hitting her shots in the air—that much was clear.

Obviously, in the real world, and even in GGO, this was impossible. But

imagination trumped all in this place. Because Subtilizer was intentionally doing

this, and Sinon was anticipating that outcome, the impossible phenomenon of

supersonic bullets striking one another became reality.

But despite this, there were only three actions Sinon could take: yank the

bolt, take aim, pull the trigger.

The seventh bullet deflected off to the left with a mournful scream.

Discharge. Aim.

Click.

Click, click. The striker did nothing beneath her finger.

A single magazine for the Hecate II was seven bullets. She had no backup.

But the Barrett XM500 could hold ten. He had two shots left.

Despite being over a hundred yards away from him in the air, Sinon could

clearly make out Subtilizer's cold smile.

He pointed the black gun. It spat fire.

This time, it was Sinon's right leg that blew off from the base.

Now she couldn't even fly straight. Sinon's body began to plummet.

Subtilizer stifled his recoil and put his eye to the scope to aim his final shot.

That blue marble eye, magnified by the other end of the lens, pierced Sinon

right through the heart.

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry, Asuna. I'm sorry, Yui. I'm sorry…Kirito.

No sooner had Sinon mouthed the words than the XM500's tenth bullet

emerged from its jaw. A spiral of red flames propelled it, tracing the route

Subtilizer envisioned, until it shattered Sinon's blue armor, evaporated her shirt,

and reached her skin— Bzzat!!

There was another burst of sparks.

Her eyes went from half-closed in anticipation of the shot to wide open. The

long, rapidly spinning bullet was grinding itself against a cheap little metal disc.

At the center of the spinning vortex of sparks, a piece of metal a fraction of an

inch thick seemed to be shining with an unyielding will of its own. The sight

caused tears to spring to Sinon's eyes.

I won't give up.

I'll never give up. I have to believe. In me. In the Hecate. And in the boy I'm

connected to through this medal.

There was a brighter flash, and both the silver disc and the rifle bullet

evaporated.

Sinon raised the Hecate II with purpose and put her finger against the trigger.

The weapon might have been turned into a gun through the power of her

imagination, but the system properties given to the weapon would still be

maintained: the power of Solus's bow, the Annihilation Ray, which

automatically absorbed resources from the space around it to charge up

attacks.

She could fire it. The magazine might be out of bullets, but the Hecate would

respond for her.

"Fiiiiire!!"

She pulled the trigger.

What the gun expelled was not an armor-piercing round encased in metal.

Instead, it was unlimited energy, compressed into a beam of white light that

shot out in a straight line, a rainbow halo radiating from the muzzle.

Subtilizer's smile vanished. He started to slide to the right to evade it, but the

white beam hit the body of the Barrett. An orange fireball erupted from the

gun, engulfing Subtilizer.

A boom. A blast.

Sinon felt a wave of heat on her skin as she fell like a rock, and a few seconds

later, she slammed into the rocky ground below.

She certainly couldn't fly anymore; now she could hardly crawl. The pain from

her blown-off legs was so intense it was difficult just to stay conscious. Still, she

forced her eyes to stay open so she could confirm the outcome of her

desperate attack.

The cloud of black smoke in the distant sky floated off with the wind.

And appearing from the center of it, still hovering, was Subtilizer.

But he was not unharmed. His right arm had been blown off in the rifle blast,

and the raw wound on his shoulder was faintly smoking. The right side of his

smooth face was charred, and blood trailed from his lip.

At last, there was true malice in his expression.

…All right. I'll face off against you as many times as it takes.

She drew upon all the strength she had left to raise the Hecate again.

A few seconds later, Subtilizer's gaze left her. The winged creature spun

around, little trails of smoke rising from it, and flew straight to the south.

It was all Sinon could do just to hold the antimateriel rifle; she gently set it

down. The moment it touched the earth, it returned to its original form, a white

bow.

With her last bit of strength, Sinon raised her right hand to touch the broken

piece of chain still resting on her upper chest.

"Kirito..."

A single tear ran down her cheek.

Leafa no longer had the wherewithal even to pull out the many blades stuck

into her body.

All the pain of her body melted together, like her exposed nerves were being

poked and prodded by needles. Several of the wounds clearly should have been

fatal. The two swords penetrating her abdomen cut into her organs each time

she moved, and the one going through her back and out her chest was clearly

splitting her heart.

But Leafa did not stop.

"Aaaaaaah!!"

She screamed, blood flying everywhere, as she activated a sword skill for the

hundredth time—if not twice that by now.

The long katana Verdurous Anima took on a green glow and cut through the

air every which way. An arc of compressed light held its shape for a moment

before expending it silently outward, countless enemies collapsing to pieces in

its wake.

In the pause period after her massive attack, a number of enemies rushed in

on her. She leaped out of the way in the nick of time, avoiding the majority of

their attacks, but a long halberd did slice her left arm off.

Holding firm against the impulse to collapse from the shock, she screamed

"Zeyaaaa!!" and sliced all three of the foes with a sideways swipe.

Leafa scooped up the arm that had fallen to the ground, pressed it against the

stump of her shoulder, and stamped her foot on the earth. A green flash

brought grass and flowers up from the dirt that vanished as soon as they

arrived. Her hit points returned to their maximum value, and while the

gruesome wound remained, her left arm was attached again.

In this situation, the unlimited regenerative ability that the Terraria account

possessed was hardly what you would call a divine blessing. In fact, it was closer

to a curse. No matter how wounded she was, how much agony she felt, she

could not fall in battle. She was immortal but not invulnerable. It was

unimaginable agony.

There was just one simple belief that kept Leafa upright.

Big Brother would never let himself fall from wounds like this.

So I won't fall, either. There are only three thousand of them; I'll cut them all

down myself. Because I'm his…I'm Kirito the Black Swordsman's

"—Little sisterrrrr!!"

The tip of the sword in her left hand blazed with crimson light. The blade

thrust forward with a sound like heavy machinery, unleashing a massive spear

of light that split the battlefield for a distance of over a hundred yards.

Bwashaaa! The bodies of enemy soldiers flattened and disintegrated in its

vicinity.

"…Haah…huff..."

The breath she expelled soon turned to a gout of fresh blood. Leafa wiped her

mouth and straightened up unsteadily—only for a long spear to come hurtling

toward her, ramming straight through her left eye and out the back of her head.

She stumbled a few steps backward…but Leafa did not fall.

Instead, she grabbed the hilt of the spear with her left hand and yanked it

straight out. There was a very eerie sensation inside her head unrelated to

physical pain.

"Aaah…aaaaaah!!"

She stomped the ground again to recover her hit points. The left side of her

head realigned with a clicking noise, and she could see on that side again.

Somehow, now that she got a better look, the enemy was down to perhaps

just a hundred in number. Leafa grinned, extended a bloody hand forward,

raised her palm, and brought her fingers together.

The oncoming soldiers roared at her with one last desperate rush. She raised

her long katana with a ponderous motion.

"Iyeeaaaaah!!"

A flash.

Blood flew, and Leafa threw herself amid the severed enemy group without

fear.

Three minutes later, when the final enemy had fallen, the number of metal

implements piercing Leafa's body had risen to ten.

The strength went from her limbs, and she toppled backward, but the swords

and spears sticking through her back only propped her up before she could fall

all the way.

With the sound of her name being shrieked, and the oncoming footsteps of

Lilpilin and the orcs, Leafa let her eyelids close.

She mumbled, "Didn't I…give it everything I had…Big Brother...…?"

The muffled shout came through his in-ear speaker right as Yanai started to

pull the trigger of the gun.

"Get out of the way, Higa!!"

Huh?

Get out of the way of…the bullet? he thought stupidly, when he caught the

sound of something whistling through the air as it dropped from a considerable

height.

Glonk!!

The sound was not the pistol firing. Something tossed down from the

entrance to the cable duct far above them had landed right on Yanai's skull. The

man's eyes rolled upward. The hand holding on to the rung slipped.

"Wait…whoa…!"

Higa forgot the pain in his shoulder and used that arm to clutch the ladder,

pressing his body as tight to the side of the duct as he could.

The first thing to fall past was an enormous monkey wrench; he was baffled

as to where it had come from. Next, he saw a small pistol hurtle by, smelling of

gunpowder.

Lastly, Yanai's unconscious body wedged itself between Higa and the wall of

the duct and came to a stop.

"Ah…aaah!"

Higa hunched his shoulders and pressed his back harder against the wall.

Yanai's body gradually slid past, smearing pungent sweat on Higa's shirt.

"...Ah—," he uttered, right as the unconscious man squeezed through and

plunged down the duct, which continued vertically for more than a hundred

and fifty feet. There were several thumps as he struck the walls and ladder on

the way down to a final, heavy impact at the bottom.

"...Hmm."

Is he…dead? I don't know. Seemed like maybe he just broke two or three

bones…or five or six…

Higa's mental state was mostly dazed when a scream through the earpiece

brought him back.

"Higa…Hey, Higa!! Are you all right?! Answer me, please!!"

"...…I think I'm just a bit…shocked. I've…never heard you scream like that,

Miss Rinko…"

"Is…is this really the time for that?! Are you hurt?! Did he shoot you?!"

"Ummm, well…"

Higa took a look at his shoulder. The loss of blood was starting to get gnarly.

He could move his right arm, but there was no sensation in it, and it felt very

cold. He could tell that his thoughts weren't as sharp as usual, either.

But he inhaled deeply, tensed his gut, and pushed out as lively a voice as he

could manage. "Yeah, I'm totally fine! Just a scratch. I'll continue the operation.

You keep monitoring Kirito's status, please!!"

"…You're certain you're all right? I'm going to take your word on it! If you're

lying, you're in big trouble with me!!"

"Please…I'd appreciate your trust."

He craned his neck to look up at the hatch at least a hundred feet above and

carefully waved at Rinko's protruding head. With the distance and darkness, she

wouldn't be able to see how much blood he'd lost.

"Well…I'm going back to Subcon, then, but as soon as anything changes in the

graph, I'll be right back here! Do your best, Higa!!"

The silhouette was starting to leave when Higa surprised himself by saying,

"Uh…M-Miss Rinko."

"What? What is it?!"

"Oh…it's just, uh…"

Did you know that when we were students, it wasn't just Kayaba and that

Sugou asshole who were head over heels for you?

It was a question he wanted to ask but didn't, because he felt that saying it

out loud would dramatically decrease his chances of getting back alive. Instead,

he came up with a substitute on the fly.

"When all of this nonsense is over, would you be open to getting dinner

sometime?"

"Yeah, fine, I'll buy you whatever you want—hamburgers, beef bowl,

anything. Just get it done!!"

And Dr. Koujiro vanished from view.

What a cheap date.

In fact, as far as trying to avoid "lines the doomed guy says," that wasn't

much better.

Higa smirked to himself and looked back at the laptop. He set his numbed

fingers over the keyboard and carefully began typing commands.

Connecting STL #3…to #4. Connecting #5…#6…

The font suddenly blurred and went double, probably due to blood loss. Higa

shook his head.

All right, Kirito. It's time to wake up, buddy.

Through her veil of tears, Asuna stared at the figure of the man she loved, and

she prayed.

Please, Kirito. You can have my heart, my life, my everything…Just open your

eyes.

Kirito…

Kirito.

Big Brother.

...…Come on, now...Kirito...

5

Kirito.

It felt like someone was calling my name…and it pulled me out of a nap.

I lifted my eyelids and saw a multitude of ultrafine particles floating in orange

light.

Slowly but surely, my hazy vision began to sharpen.

Wavering white fabric—curtains.

Silver window frame. Old, faded glass.

Rustling leaves. Sky colored by sun beginning to set. Slowly trailing jet

streams.

I sat up, inhaling dusty air, and saw the back of someone in a high school

uniform standing before a dark-green chalkboard. An eraser slid across its

surface, smearing away white chalk words.

"…Um, Kirigaya?"

The mention of my name again drew my attention to the face of a different

girl, who was standing over me, looking both hesitant and annoyed.

"I want to move that desk."

Apparently, I'd fallen asleep in homeroom, and now I was intruding on

cleaning time.

"Oh…sorry," I mumbled, lifting the school bag that was hanging from the side

of the desk and getting to my feet.

My head felt heavy.

I was exhausted, like I'd just finished watching some unfathomably long

movie. I couldn't remember a single thing about the story, but the last

remnants of bitter, powerful emotions stuck in my mind like cobwebs that I

shook my head to disperse.

The girl was looking at me with suspicion now, but I turned away from her

and began walking toward the door at the back of the classroom, muttering as I

went.

"Oh…just a dream...…"