Sword Art Online Progressive 3

  “At first…I didn’t have a real reason,” I started to explain, no plan or certainty in mind. “But that’s not true anymore. Both I and Asuna love Kizmel. So I want to help her protect her people and her nation.”

  Another long silence filled the darkness of the chamber.

  Later—much, much later—I learned that the program that controlled the world of Sword Art Online was able to monitor the emotions and mental states of its players. In other words, if I’d lied to flatter Viscount Yofilis, the system would have seen that and possibly failed the quest.

  When she heard that, Asuna beamed and said, “It’s a good thing you answered honestly because you’ve always been a terrible liar.”

  Just before the timer hit four minutes, the golden quest marker disappeared without a sound. There was no little bleep to signal it had been completed; instead, the viscount spoke with a stronger tone than I’d heard yet.

  “I shall take your words for truth. Therefore, I will answer you with truth. Young swordsman, the tale about my illness that you heard from Kizmel…”

  The chair creaked as he rose. Faint footsteps circled around the desk and to my side. A scent of forest floated in the air, and a voice of merriment reached my ears.

  “…is a lie.”

  “…Huh?!”

  “Follow me.”

  The footsteps led away, and there was a thunking sound somewhere on the north wall. Midday sunlight pierced the darkness filling the room. Standing in the middle of the rectangle of pure white cut out of the wall was a slender silhouette, its long hair streaming in the wind.

  It must have been a secret door along the wall. But this was the fifth floor of the castle. We had to be a good fifty feet above the ground. There was no way to jump down.

  But the viscount’s figure was suddenly gone. I raced to the opening in shock and looked down to see window frames jutting just two inches from the wall, forming a staircase that descended down to the first-floor entrance. The viscount was leaping nimbly down the series of ledges.

  A chill shot up my back when I looked down, but there was less than a minute left. I could hear frantic clashing and the sound of sword skills coming from beyond the closed gate. The HP bars for Asuna and Kizmel had both lost over 20 percent since I left.

  “…I can do this,” I told myself, and stepped onto the ledge just below the opening. All I had to do was leap to each successive window ledge, five feet below the one above. That was a much smaller jump than the daredevil gondola jumping I’d attempted in Rovia.

  When I reached the ground about ten seconds after the viscount, I let out a huge heave of relief.

  Finally, I was able to take an accurate measure of Viscount Yofilis. His clothes were fittingly noble: a rococo-styled frock coat covered with moiré and buttons, a vest, pants that stopped below the knee and white tights. A white tie packed with frills sat on his chest, and his long black hair was tied behind him. At his waist was a fragile rapier, even thinner than the standard size.

  The viscount raised a white-gloved hand and brushed the left side of his face, where I couldn’t see. When he turned to face me and I saw his face in full, I forgot my panic about the situation for a moment and stared in shock.

  An old vertical scar ran across his beautiful features, which looked just a bit older than Kizmel’s. The scar ran from his hairline to his chin, clearly the result of a sharp blade.

  Yofilis fixed me with a stare from his remaining green-gray eye, a sardonic twist in his cheek, which was rather light skinned for a “Dark” Elf.

  “This scar is the greatest shame in a long life of regrets. I have hidden in the darkness for many years, hoping to spare my children from inheriting its disgrace…but it seems the time has come to expose it to humankind.”

  “Uh…s-sorry,” I stammered, looking away. The viscount chuckled.

  “No need to apologize. Perhaps I made a fool of myself by trying so hard to hide my shame. Let us go to where my soldiers and your friends are fighting.”

  His short boots clicked, and the viscount began striding quickly toward the closed gate. As he walked, he raised his hand and shouted, “Open!”

  The giant doors began to rumble open, just as the sub-window I’d left open in the lower right corner of my vision hit five minutes.

  Of the eighteen Forest Elf warriors on the pier (excluding the commander and his aide), only ten were left, but the defending Dark Elf spearmen had been halved from six to three. Asuna and Kizmel were fighting their hardest to make up the difference, but that rapier, a thrust-only weapon, had limited ability to hit multiple targets.

  No sooner had that thought crossed my mind than one of the Forest Elves broke through the horizontal blockade. I drew my sword and intercepted him, overpowering the elf with our hilts clashing. Once I’d pushed my way up next to Asuna, I shouted an apology.

  “Sorry, it took a little longer!”

  “We’re fine here! But the ships…”

  I looked far ahead to the naval battle and saw that the four Dark Elf ships were still afloat, but the crew of each one was down to three or four. Once that line of defense was broken, we would have at least fifty fresh foes descending upon the dock.

  “How’d it go with you, Kirito?!” she asked. For an instant, I wasn’t sure of what to say. Ultimately, I didn’t need to say anything.

  A voice like a bracing wind blowing across the lake rang out behind our backs.

  “I am knight of Lyusula and master of Castle Yofel, Leyshren Zed Yofilis!!”

  Kizmel gasped from the other side of Asuna, but she kept fighting without turning around. The slick ringing of a blade was undoubtedly the sound of Yofilis drawing his blade. He shouted again.

  “Warriors of Lyusula! I apologize for my long absence and beseech your strength! The future of our kingdom rests on this battle! For the sake of queen, friend, and family, stand strong and fight with me!”

  For just a moment, the clashing and roaring of battle died out, and silence fell upon the lake. It was broken by a roar of such incredible volume that it seemed to be rising from the very depths of the fourth floor.

  The soldiers on the dock, on the ships, and even floating in the water all raised their swords and fists as they bellowed. Ripples formed in the placid lake, melding together into larger waves that spread outward.

  A bracing sound effect hit my ears, and I instinctively looked up to my left to a number of new icons above our HP bar readouts.

  The upward arrow over the sword mark meant an increased attack buff. The arrow over a shield meant increased defense. The yellow explosion mark was an increased knock-back buff. The four-leaf clover was a bonus luck buff.

  If these bonuses had been granted to every Dark Elf in the battle, then Viscount Yofilis’s presence was worthy of worship, but we couldn’t afford to waste a second of the precious boosts.

  “Yeah!”

  I cheered and swiped the flat sword skill Horizontal before me. The enemy Forest Elf was knocked clear into the lake by the increased knock-back effect. Asuna and Kizmel overpowered their foes likewise, and we pushed forward.

  “Have no fear! The addition of one measly castle lord does not affect our advantage!” yelled the Forest Elf commander from the rear of his troop formation. He drew his large longsword and pointed it forward.

  The remaining six enemies before us lined up in a row and raised their swords high in the exact same motion. The steel blades took on a faint blue glow. They were going to unleash the same sword skill all at the same time—probably the Vertical slash skill. Even a basic sword skill could be deadly if they were all swung at the same time.

  Our only defense was countering with the same attack, but of the six of us, I had a longsword, Asuna had a rapier, Kizmel a saber, and then three spears for the guards. It would be nearly impossible to time up different weapon skills.

  Suddenly, a command issued from the rear.

  “Evade to the sides!”

  My body moved without thinking. Me, Asuna, and
one guard went to the right, while Kizmel and the other two guards went left, all standing at the very lip of the pier.

  The enemy warriors ahead stomped the stone dock. Their six swords plunged downward with blue lines. I raised my sword valiantly to defend, but even if I blocked it, the force would knock me into the water.

  But my fear did not come to pass.

  A giant spear of blinding white light shot past us at phenomenal speed. It split our ranks like a comet and plunged into the six swordsmen mid-swing.

  All six of them were thrown into the air with a powerful flash of light and a shock wave. They spun and flew, falling three each into the water on either side of the pier. When the light subsided, it left behind the figure of Viscount Yofilis, his body leaned far forward with rapier extended in pristine form, nearly forty feet from where he had been standing.

  “Was that…a sword skill?!” Asuna breathed. All I could do was nod quickly.

  I had never seen that move before in Aincrad, even in the beta. But I had seen a video of the effect and name on the official site just before the game launched. It was the greatest thrust attack in the rapier category: Flashing Penetrator.

  We had barely any time to register the shock, however. The ultra-high-level attack had a considerable delay effect, leaving the viscount immobile as the enemy commander stared with rage.

  “Let’s go, Asuna!” I cried, leaping forward. I dashed past the kneeling viscount to intercept the white knight. Meanwhile, Asuna struck at his adjutant.

  This had to be the final battle of the event.

  “Out of my way, human!” the commander roared, swinging his longsword. I blocked it with my own, feeling the numbing shock of its force in my wrists.

  It was too fast and heavy. Even with all of my buffs, it would be very hard to knock this foe into the water. The cursor identified him as a Forest Elven inferior knight. He was not an elite mob that boasted far better stats than other monsters of the same level, but it was clear from the bright red cursor that he would be tough enough in a one-on-one fight.

  I couldn’t turn back now or what I said to the viscount would become a lie.

  “I cannot let you pass!” I replied, and swung for his right side, where the armor looked weakest. The white knight lithely pulled his sword back and effortlessly blocked the attack with his cross-shaped hilt.

  The series of slashes he delivered next had to be parried or sidestepped, while his stout defense was enough to block my responses. At my right side, Asuna was having similar trouble getting through to the highly armored Forest Elven heavy warrior.

  Despite this, Kizmel and Yofilis showed no sign of coming to our aid. Even in the naval battle, the soldiers on both sides had stopped fighting to watch the twin duels on the pier.

  Even as I struggled in the fierce battle, a little part of my mind began to piece together the answer to a fundamental question I had about the Elf War campaign.

  The Dark Elves claimed that when the six keys came together and the door to the Sanctuary opened, the floating castle Aincrad would come to ruin. Meanwhile, the Forest Elves believed that all the floors of Aincrad would return to the earth where they belonged. I didn’t think that either case was actually going to come true.

  So why had the production staff written this scenario and given the elves these background stories, made them believe these legends? In the beta test, the keys were just MacGuffins, simple props meant to be collected or stolen and nothing more. That was enough for the campaign story to function. So why had they included these obviously impossible and unrealistic concepts of “disaster” and “return” into the story for the retail release?

  In fact, had the real-life staff actually written this scenario…?

  Just as this bizarre and nonsensical question floated through my head, the enemy knight and I slashed at the same time, our hilts locked. I gritted and pushed back against the pressure, my blade creaking.

  “Boy…Why does a human fight for the sake of the Dark Elves?” came the question from the knight’s appropriately ornate helmet.

  Just a few minutes ago, Yofilis had asked me the exact same question. But my answer about affection for Kizmel meant nothing here. I had the feeling that this was being asked not of me personally, but of me as the representative for any and all players who chose this particular faction in the campaign quest.

  Completing this campaign quest was not a requirement to beating and escaping the world of SAO. Sure, considerable experience, col, and items were available for doing it, but those things were also given for doing stand-alone quests, and strictly in terms of efficiency, it would be much more profitable to hunt at particularly active monster spots than get bogged down in time-consuming, story-heavy questlines. That was probably the main reason why the DKB and ALS had decided to put off the campaign for now.

  But neither I nor Asuna had given any thought to casting the questline aside. We had our personal reason—our promise to Kizmel—but there was another motive, one a bit more nebulous.

  A small cracking sound cut through the spark-inducing intersection of our swords. As though prompted by that faint sound, I shouted, “Because…I think the war between the elves is wrong!”

  Even I didn’t know why I said that. If I truly felt that way, it would be a contradiction to take one side and battle the other. But on the other hand, I knew that it was truly what I believed.

  “Nonsense!” the knight barked in a voice like steel.

  Maybe he was programmed to react that way no matter what answer I gave. But it felt like there was true, cognizant anger in his face.

  “Since ancient times, the people of Kales’Oh have shed unending blood in our battle against the Dark Elves! All for the sake of releasing the lives trapped in this empty, meaningless prison! And our sacred duty will not be stopped by the likes of a foolish child such as you!”

  A shock wave seemed to rip through the knight’s tall body, and my Anneal Blade was suddenly knocked backward by the enemy’s sword.

  “Nwuaaaah!” the white knight bellowed. In my right ear, I heard Asuna call my name. The four buff icons that the viscount granted us were now blinking.

  “Gah…”

  I gritted my teeth and tried to hold my ground. The enemy’s longsword took on a clear silver glow high in the air. It was a sword skill: the three-part combo Sharp Nail.

  It was too late to cancel out the attack with one of my own, and I wasn’t in position to evade with a side step. All I could do was defend with my sword. But a normal block would result in my sword being knocked aside on the first blow, leaving me open for the second and third.

  I had only one remaining option.

  With my feet firmly planted, I held the Anneal Blade above my head. With my left hand, I supported the tip of the sword as it lay horizontal. This was a weapon defense technique called a “two-handed block,” but its maximum defensive value came with its own risk.

  The first Sharp Nail hit landed toward the end of the Anneal Blade, sending up a shower of sparks. The clash pierced my ears, but the vibration in my hands gave me the same creaking, cracking sensation that I’d felt earlier.

  A two-handed block used the free hand to support the sword, which meant that any attack being defended naturally landed on the flat of the sword rather than the blade edge. That caused over twice the amount of damage to the weapon’s durability than the normal way. On top of that, there was a small chance of the weapon being broken, regardless of its durability number.

  Stay strong! I willed my beloved sword as I caught the knight’s second swing. Once again, I got that nasty sensation in my palm.

  The +8 points on my Anneal Blade went four to Sharpness, four to Durability. That meant its toughness against stress was now much higher than its initial value. I’d kept up on routine maintenance, of course, and I’d visited NPC blacksmiths for upkeep in both Rovia and Yofel Castle recently.

  But it was true that I had put that sword through hell since earning it in my very first quest on th
e first floor. There was no data that suggested the length of use had any effect on the durability stat, but it certainly felt like the white knight’s sword skills were terribly damaging to my weapon.

  The idea popped into my head to catch the third blow with my arm, pull back, and leave the rest to Kizmel, as a means of saving my weapon. But instead, I summoned up all of my willpower and kept it held aloft.

  Just before the naval battle began, this elven commander had announced that the Dark Elves were working with the humans to build ships and bring down the Forest Elf castle, but the plan had failed and the ships fell into the Forest Elves’ hands.

  That had to be a mistake. If the commander wasn’t just lying to his subordinates, that would mean he was working on incorrect intelligence. But who fed it to him? The higher-ups among the elves or the Fallen.

  In the case of the former, the Forest Elves and the Fallen Elves were working together, as we’d been thinking thus far. But in the latter case, that meant that both Dark and Forest Elves were being misled by the Fallen.

  I had to see this through in order to find out the truth.

  “Haaah!”

  The third and final blow of the Sharp Nail attack descended. For the third time, I caught the blow on the flat of the Anneal Blade.

  Kchiiing! A small chunk of the blade cracked loose, but the sword held. The message log in the bottom left of my view announced that my One-Handed Sword skill proficiency had reached 150.

  An image of the sword skill details list flashed into my mind, so familiar from staring at it endlessly back since the start of the beta. I knew there were two moves that became available at skill level 150.

  “Aaaah!”

  The white knight fell into his postattack delay, and I took a heavy step forward.

  My right arm moved of its own accord, holding my sword perfectly level. The four-part sword skill Horizontal Square.

  The blade took on a deep, pure sky-blue glow. The sword, drawn back and to the right, turned into a streak of light that bit deep into the enemy’s breastplate. The knight stumbled backward, overwhelmed by the bright flash and shock of impact.