Elements

  Restraining his opponent’s left hand with his right, he set his sights on short chops with his own left. At this distance, a longsword was useless. In other words, his opponent’s right was dead.

  Or at least it should have been.

  He launched his left fist to smash down on the swordsman, but it was held back by something from directly above. The five open fingers of Kirito’s right hand.

  “Wha…?”

  Wh-where’d his sword go?! By the time the question had appeared in his mind, his opponent was already moving forward.

  With a light, smooth, and yet terrifyingly fast motion, Kirito’s right palm suddenly radiated an orange light against Haruyuki’s chest.

  Sp-special attack! But without a weapon?!

  He was a moment too slow in processing this unexpected development. In this battle, where both possessed ferocious speed, that left him wide open.

  Wham! An incredible impact slammed into his chest, and Haruyuki was thrown back.

  It was a direct hit, but the damage was really nothing. It appeared to be just a technique to gain some distance. So he’d let go of his sword to use it? In that case, Haruyuki couldn’t give him the chance to pick it up again.

  Intent on breaking into his opponent’s space, Haruyuki’s eyes flashed wide at yet another surprise.

  The empty-handed Kirito was leaping up into the sky, his right arm stretched high into the air above him.

  Was he planning to unsheathe the other sword on his back? No, he didn’t have that much leeway time-wise. So then was he planning to strike with chopping hands like that? Did he think an attack like that would work on metal-colored armor—?

  Wait. The light enveloping his right hand still hadn’t disappeared. Which meant that the special attack was still ongoing.

  Haruyuki braced both feet, stopped retreating, and went to move forward once more, when, before his eyes, Kirito’s hand snapped shut around something.

  The hilt of a sword. He hadn’t dropped his sword to the ground. He’d thrown it straight up.

  By the time Haruyuki realized this, the entire longsword was already wrapped in a dazzling flame-colored light and coming down in a straight line.

  This time, he really couldn’t run or guard. A ferocious impact assaulted him from left shoulder to chest. Haruyuki was swallowed up by an explosive light effect and blown helplessly backward, off to the right.

  “Combined martial- and sword-arts sword skill: Meteor Fall…I could say, but I guess he can’t hear me,” I said, rubbing my stomach where he’d kicked me hard.

  I couldn’t say that it was on the same level as the real world, but the pain feedback was well into the range of illegal. From this pain alone, I knew that this wasn’t a game being run in the present-day Japan of 2026.

  But after I got in a clean hit with a major technique and sent him flying spectacularly to bury him halfway in a pile of rubble, the pain Silver Crow was feeling must have been much, much greater. Of course, that was assuming there existed a nervous system underneath that metallic armor.

  When I glanced up to check our health gauges, I was down 15 percent from the punch and knee I took while he was sticking to me, and Crow was down nearly 30 percent. Outwardly, we were a person and a metal robot, but it seemed that there wasn’t any big difference in our defensive power. That was also very like a fighting game.

  And if this was a fighter, then a damage difference of this much could be flipped any number of times hence. Deciding that this was not the time to act like I had room to spare just because I had gotten a single blow in, I ran hard while deciding on a follow-up attack.

  But then the silver body twitched. The round helmet popped up. The eyes there seemed to emit a fierce light. And then the rubble half burying the silver avatar shot off in all directions.

  Clouds of dust puffed up and blanketed the area. Repositioning my sword, I got some distance and waited for my vision to clear. The cool wind blowing along the bottom of the stage immediately carried away the dust. A few seconds later, the remains of the building appeared once more—without Silver Crow.

  “What…?”

  I quickly sent my eyes racing around to the right and left. The space to my sides and behind me was expansive and open, while an excessively wide three-story building sat in front of me. If it hadn’t been crumbling in pieces, the terrain would have looked almost like a small school.

  All the windows and entrances of the building were sealed with steel panels, and there were no stairs on the outside. If Crow had cut by either side of me, I definitely would have noticed it. Which meant that even if he had brought about that dust and blocked my vision for a moment, there shouldn’t have been anywhere he could have gone. So then where on earth was that silver robot hiding?

  —Wait.

  He wasn’t hiding. The special-attack gauge beneath Silver Crow’s health gauge, charged to over 30 percent, was in this moment decreasing. He was executing some kind of technique. I had to assume that he’d disappeared from view because of that. Probably the ability to dive into the earth or to become transparent.

  I strained all my senses to check both below my feet and all around me. I crouched down and softly readied my sword. Positioned so that I could immediately respond to the attack wherever it came from, I waited for his movement.

  But…

  Silver Crow appeared from an entirely unexpected direction.

  Glint! I sensed something flicker above my head, and turned my face upward with a gasp.

  And then I saw it. The silver avatar with the tip of his right foot thrust sharply forward, dropping quickly, almost like a lance, his metal fins deployed broadly to both sides, shining on his back with a dazzling light.

  So those were propulsive devices. But they were not simply something to move at high speed on the ground. Those fins were wings!

  I kicked a shot off the ground as hard as I could and leapt off to the side. But Crow, shooting down in a straight line, changed his angle, using both arms as a stabilizer, and perfectly followed my movement.

  “Ngah!” A cry escaping me, I tried to parry those sharp toes with the sword in my right hand. But I couldn’t put nearly the weight behind it needed to block a movement like this. In a collision like when I was charged by the Salamander in ALO—no, definitely an impact far exceeding that—my sword was knocked aside powerlessly, and the dive kick made direct contact with my right shoulder.

  For Silver Crow, who had poured all of his level-up bonuses into enhancing his flying ability, his greatest weapon was a sudden drop attack from a very high altitude.

  How could he hit his target? Haruyuki had spent long hours intently studying this technique. It was still far from complete even now, six months after he had become a Burst Linker, but even so, the important thing was that it was taking shape—a perfect balance of power and precision (i.e., descent speed and homing function, respectively).

  He spent all the power of his wings on acceleration and then carried out trajectory adjustment by moving his arms and body. He had no idea how many times he had crashed vainly into the earth before he got the hang of this trick.

  However, all his effort was not for nothing. Because he was able to perfectly catch even Kirito, who had an awesome reaction speed.

  —Wait.

  Haruyuki inwardly shook his head as his dive kick slammed into Kirito’s right shoulder, and he chased the figure in black with his eyes as it tumbled and bounced endlessly along the ground.

  Kirito somehow had not known that Silver Crow was a flying-type duel avatar. If he had been a Burst Linker who was dueling regularly, the instant he lost sight of Haruyuki in a cloud of dust, he would have been paying attention to what was above his head and not his surroundings. However, Kirito had only looked up as Haruyuki’s kick was on the verge of hitting home. Really, the reaction ability he had, trying to step and parry in that split second, was incredible.

  He glanced at their health gauges. Kirito’s was just barely dipping below 50 percent and
had changed to yellow. He had turned things around on the amount of damage given, but it would be hard to get another clean hit with the same attack on an opponent who now knew he could fly. He’d have to put this technique to rest.

  Haruyuki spread his wings once more and dashed at a low altitude toward the figure crouched on the ground a ways off.

  Kirito had taken a serious blow to his right shoulder, his sword hand. And the shock to his nerves would linger for at least ten seconds; he wouldn’t be able to swing his sword at full speed. If Haruyuki rushed him now, he might just be able to win this thing!

  “Hnngaaaah!” Roaring, Haruyuki closed in on Kirito and launched a large roundhouse kick from a high-angle diagonal.

  The way he used his wings was not just to drop from high altitudes. In short-range, hand-to-hand combat, they allowed action in three dimensions that ignored gravity and momentum. This kick, too, should have been hard to handle on first sight.

  His right foot made the air sing as it raced through space like a laser. And Kirito was indeed not attempting to move, after having finally sat up.

  It’s going to land hard!!

  At exactly the same time as this conviction shot through Haruyuki, Kirito’s eyes glinted sharply beneath the long fringe of hair. His left arm, wrapped in the black leather coat, vanished in a blur.

  Skreee! The high-pitched sound of collision. Dazzling sparks. And a heat burning into him.

  Haruyuki only understood what had happened after his midair kick was repelled and he was knocked to the ground with the remaining force.

  Up on one knee, Kirito was brandishing, high in his left hand, the second of his swords, shining with a vivid white light even in the dark.

  Slowly standing up, the swordsman in black spun the white and black longswords he held in each hand.

  Schwiiing! They cut through the air to each side.

  I had to admit it. I totally underestimated the power of this fighter, Silver Crow.

  Just as his name implied, the potential of this avatar was largely invested in the ability to fly. In other words, it was as if I had gained the upper hand by crushing a Sylph, whose air raid ability was its life, in a ground-based battle.

  Given this, I very much wanted to finish the battle with an aerial fight, but the avatar I was housed in was not Spriggan Kirito from ALO, but the double-sworded Kirito from SAO. With no wings on my back, I obviously couldn’t fly. In which case, unless I mustered up every last ounce of power I had, I didn’t have a chance at victory.

  The awareness that this battle was an accidental situation brought about by a quantum circuit anomaly had basically disappeared from my head. My entire body was cloaked in the racing tension and exultation that I had experienced with truly powerful enemies, the number of which I could count on one hand.

  Feeling the reliable weight of Elucidator in my right hand and Dark Repulsor in my left for the first time in a year and a half, I stared wordlessly at the silver avatar slowly getting to his feet. Deep cuts ran along his chest and left leg, scattering pale sparks, but he still had 40 percent left in his HP bar. About the same as me, and the faint smoke rising up from the burns on my shoulder.

  But now that both of us had shown off our trump cards, the next clash would likely decide the battle. The wings on Silver Crow’s back spread out wide with a clang.

  The instant he saw Kirito bent over, holding his two blades, Haruyuki understood the true nature of the aura he had felt since the beginning of the duel.

  It was like hers. Like the Black King, Black Lotus.

  His form with twin blades in his hands and the color he was cloaked in were obviously similar, but more than anything, what they shared was an “unfathomableness.”

  In all honestly, Haruyuki had never seen Kuroyukihime fighting with all her strength. In his memory, there was the one battle she had fought with another level nine, the Yellow King, which had taken place in the Unlimited Neutral Field, but even then, he had gotten the impression somehow that they had both had energy left in reserve.

  That sense: like he couldn’t see down to the bottom of that strength. The sneaking suspicion: If this person truly let loose for real, what kind of ferocity would manifest? That exact same element was also latent in this Burst Linker Kirito.

  If he really is as strong as Kuroyukihime, then there’s no way I can win, Haruyuki’s logic determined. But for some reason, the flame burning beneath his battered chest armor didn’t cool in the least. To the contrary, it burned increasingly hotter and redder, sending heat even down to the tips of his limbs.

  He wanted to fight. He wanted to burn up everything Silver Crow had and everything Haruyuki Arita had and smash up against this powerful enemy.

  Shivering with such a fear that if he relaxed even the tiniest bit, he very well might lose consciousness and burst out before the figure of the Twin Blade Swordsman slowly walking toward him, Haruyuki smiled faintly beneath his mirrored surface.

  Although there didn’t seem to be a large numerical difference in the potential of their avatars, comparing the ability to intentionally control it, he was somehow at a disadvantage. Kirito was a cut above him in both the ability to analyze the situation and the ability to respond. Even though they were both seeing each other for the first time, Haruyuki was always one step behind.

  In which case, the only thing he could do was bet on his speed, the one thing his meager confidence rested on.

  Believe—in the longing that produced the silver wings on your back. Concentrate.

  “Go beyond. Go past him,” he murmured, and the color of the world shifted slightly. Sound receded, and the movement of the sparks drifting through the air slackened.

  However, not even aware of these changes, Haruyuki simply concentrated all his mental energy on the two blades of his opponent.

  I immediately sensed that the nature of the aura surrounding Silver Crow had changed. Most likely, my opponent had also determined that this was the deciding moment. The wings on his back were wide open, but rather than taking off, he leisurely dropped his hips and readied his hands, waiting for me in a natural pose.

  If he was going to wager everything on one clash, I couldn’t ask for anything better.

  I finally noticed the faint smile bleeding out onto my lips.

  This wasn’t the kind of battle you got to experience every day. I had faced the most serious battles in all kinds of game worlds up to this point, and I had even lost some of them, but the last time I felt this level of stinging tension was three months ago against the Absolute Sword at the ALO Duel Tournament.

  It was incredibly strange. It wasn’t even clear why Silver Crow and I were fighting to begin with. I had encountered him, sure, but that was nothing but an accident, a problem with a test machine.

  However—that was precisely why. It was precisely because this battle was taking place in an unknown game, a situation where every little thing was shrouded in mystery, that I was this excited.

  And it wasn’t just that. The name Kirito and these long-beloved swords in both hands would not allow any half measures in battle.

  “Now. I’ll give him everything I’ve got.” A quiet whisper.

  I took a large step forward with my right foot and carried out the Sword Skill motion. Both blades became tinged with a vivid orange light.

  I flung myself in a long-distance charge toward Silver Crow, like I had been shot out of a cannon.

  Dual blades charge attack, Double Circular.

  The figure of Kirito plunging forward, his twin swords tracing out a glittering trajectory within the depths of the darkness, was like the breath of a dragon burning everything to ash.

  Haruyuki kicked aside the knee-jerk reaction to flee into the sky and simply waited at the ready. Even with his mind shifted to the highest gear, everything happened in a single moment.

  Before his eyes, Kirito’s body spun around. The black sword in his right hand sliced ferociously upward through the air from below, drawing out a spiral in space.
r />   Haruyuki moved to send the tip of it bouncing farther upward with the armor of his left arm.

  The armor on Silver Crow’s arms was harder than any other part of his body. And yet, despite this, the sword ripped halfway through his arm, and brilliant sparks flowed into the night sky from that sharp wound.

  “Ngh!” The cry slipped from Haruyuki’s throat, but his bull’s-eye hit was coming.

  With the briefest of pauses, the white sword in Kirito’s left hand cut in from beyond of the arc of the savage slash lingering in space, as if to cross it. With terrifying accuracy, the tip was aiming for Haruyuki’s neck, faster than the attack of any Burst Linker he’d ever faced before, much faster than a bullet or even a laser.

  Haruyuki was aiming to evade that blade and catch it. But he could find absolutely no opening to do so. In fact, it was a single blow of such great speed, it would not allow him to even dodge.

  Thus, he spread his palms, prepared to let his right hand fly, and caught the tip smack in the middle of it.

  Without the slightest hint of resistance, the sword pierced his hand and continued to push forward. However, it slowed down the tiniest amount, giving Haruyuki just enough leeway to twist his head. A light vibration came to him on the right side of his neck, and the blade ripped deeply past, to the rear.

  Ten percent left in his health gauge.

  This gamble is—

  My win!! he shouted in his mind, and with his right hand, sword still plunged through it, Haruyuki grabbed Kirito’s left hand, hilt and all.

  “Aaaaaah!!” he roared. Both feet kicked off the ground, his wings beat at the air, and Haruyuki flew up into the night sky with a force that burned up the whole of his fully charged special-attack gauge in an instant.

  In the middle of this full-throttle acceleration, he flipped his body around. Taking advantage of the force of the inertia, he flung Kirito straight up with everything he had.