Wait until the last instant and — Cling!
Yellow sparks flew in all directions as her rapier slid across the side of the lance. The sharp tip grazed Asuna’s right cheek, and flew past.
“… Haaah!!”
With a shout, she jabbed her rapier into a slit in the enemy’s armor, and looking up, saw that it had pierced her hulking opponent’s throat. With a raw, vivid impact, blood spurted from the helmet’s visor.
The screams that rang out, however, were not just from the footsoldiers.
Several Guardians defending the left flank, unable to avoid the lances, were skewered.
“Grgh……….!!”
Gritting her teeth, Asuna left her position and ran to the left. With a single stab, «Linear», she pierced through the chest armor of a footsoldier pulling his lance from a dead Guardian’s body. Holding up her blood-soaked sword again, she cut off both hands of the next enemy with a double stab, «Parallel Sting».
She evaded the lance thrust by the third, jeering footsoldier with a vertical leap. Landing on the lance, she ran up, planted her feet on the enemy’s shoulders, ripped off his helmet with her left hand, and buried her rapier in his exposed nape.
The enemy fell without so much as a scream. Stepping onto his back, Asuna shouted:
“Bring the wounded to the back! Heal them with maximum priority!!”
Surveying her surroundings once again, it seemed that, with Knight Renri and the Guardians’ hard struggle, they had somehow repelled the heavy lancers, but six Guardians had suffered direct hits from the lances. Three of them were likely beyond help.
— If our opponents repeat this strategy, the vastly outnumbered Human Empire Army will no longer be able to hold its current position.
Her fears were realized with a new wave of earthshaking tremors. The next 20 heavy lancers charged in from the entrance of the sando.
Asuna tore her gaze from the incoming swarm of lances and glanced at her designated position in the middle of the front line.
There stood a young, almost childish-looking Guardian trying to control his sword, his knees quivering.
“AH………!!”
Yelling sharply, Asuna ran to the right.
She leapt between the young Guardian standing stock-still and a spear coming from the left. Her rapier wouldn’t make it in time to parry. She could only grip the lancehead with her left hand.
If this was a normal VRMMO world, then Asuna, who had overwhelming reaction speed and physical strength, would be able to successfully block it. But in Underworld, the countless parameters that were ignored in SAO and ALO, existed.
The smooth steel lance slid through her bloody fist —
A blunt impact shook her entire body. Unable to utter a sound, Asuna silently looked down at her side, where an enormous piece of metal had pierced through.
***
Minimal movement maximizing his sword’s efficiency.
To Knight Commander Bercouli, Emperor Vector’s swordsmanship was just that: completely different from any style he had ever seen before.
First, he almost never used his feet. When avoiding an attack, he would merely slide slightly along the ground. Also, even when he was attacking, it didn’t seem like any preparation was made beforehand. The sword he held loosely in his right hand would suddenly come flying from the nearest distance.
In short, predicting his movements was nigh impossible. The veteran Bercouli had not countered any of the Emperor’s five quick and powerful attacks.
But five times was enough.
Due to his vast combat experience, Bercouli, who had roughly grasped Vector’s techniques, began his first counter at the start of the other side’s sixth attack.
“Hsss!”
Releasing as little of his spirit as possible, he launched an overhead slash right before Vector did the same.
Along with a violent metallic clank, bluish-white sparks spurted in all directions.
The two swords crossed in midair. From here it was a contest of strength. The enemy’s sword sank down without even the slightest resistance. Seemingly unable to withstand the pressure, the tall-statured Vector bent his knees.
— This is the critical moment!!
Bercouli infused his beloved sword with refined Incarnation. The battle-worn steel sword’s blade gleamed silver. The Time Piercing Sword, slowly pressing down on Vector’s black longsword, touched the enemy’s shoulder, piercing his armor —
Immediately, Vector’s sword emitted an ominous glow.
An indigo phosphorescence squirmed out like a living organism, coiling around the Time Piercing Sword. At the same time, the explosive silver gleam on the Time Piercing Sword vanished, as if it had withered.
— What, is this?
No…
What, am I… trying to do… in the first place…?
With a sharp crackle, he felt a freezing chill in his left shoulder. Bercouli opened his eyes, jumped back, took a deep breath, and regained the consciousness that had slipped away from him for an instant.
— What the hell was that?
Someone like me, right in the middle of battle… was spacing out?!
Just as he demanded of himself, Bercouli realized that it was not that simple.
It was as though that the forced blankness was corroding his consciousness, rendering him unable to understand why he was here, or even, who he was.
“Bastard… You directly absorbed my Incarnation through my sword?”
Bercouli groaned huskily.
The response was a silent grin.
Clicking his tongue, he glanced at his left shoulder. It was a graze, yet the wound was deep.
“Hmph… this is all very interesting, isn’t it, Your Imperial Majesty? But being unable to cross swords is pretty troubling.”
Bercouli chuckled. In contrast, Vector erased his smile and murmured.
“… Indeed. Come to think of it, there’s something else I haven’t tried yet.”
After that, he casually extended the sword in his right hand straight ahead, but it was completely out of range. There was no way the blade would reach —
From the tip of the blade suspended in mid-air, a repulsive dark blue light reached out.
… Don’t tell me, from a distance too?!
Just as that thought flashed through Bercouli’s mind, the light touched his chest.
His consciousness faded away like an extinguished candle.
The longsword slowly approached the Knight Commander, sliding straight under his left arm — yet he merely stood there, blankly watching it all.
The sword was casually swung upward.
With a wet, sticky noise, Bercouli’s thick arm was severed from his body.
***
“Ku… u… ughh!!”
Asuna somehow managed to suppress her scream, which was about to leak out, into a low moan. Excruciating pain — or rather, it was more like being exposed to a white-hot blowtorch, continuously scorching her abdomen, crushing her senses beyond her limits.
— This bit of pain is nothing!
It’s just a scratch, it doesn’t matter if it hurts!!
The gleaming black lance that stabbed through her upper left abdomen must have protruded nearly a meter from her back.
Asuna twisted her head around to look behind her. The lance tip only ended up grazing the cheek of the young Guardian standing there. It took all of her willpower to squeeze out a smile to the young boy, who looked palely back at her.
— Compared to the precious life of this child… What do these virtual injuries matter?!
“Ungh… Ah!!”
With a shout, she infused strength into her left hand, gripping the lance that pierced her body.
With a deafening crack, the metal rod nearly five centimeters in diameter snapped in two in her fist. She then reached behind herself, grabbed the protruding lancehead, and wrenched it out.
Sparks danced before her eyes, and a shocking pain like lightning ran from her fingertips to
her toes. Yet Asuna’s hand did not cease, pulling out the lance with an almost violent movement and flinging it to the ground.
A frightening amount of blood gushed from both her mouth and the gaping wound in her abdomen, but her body remained unswervingly upright. Asuna wiped away the blood at the corner of her mouth, and looked up at the enemy with fire in her eyes.
The hulking owner of the lance blinked rapidly inside his helmet, his eyes revealing confusion.
“Oh, gosh.”
After this exclamation, uttered twice, came rapid English.
“… The hell, man… This type of game isn’t fun at all. I’m logging out.”
After hearing that, Asuna accurately pierced the man’s heart with the rapier in her right hand. His enormous frame keeled over, and was engulfed by a disappearing effect.
The agony from her wound had not caused Asuna to cry, yet in this moment her eyes filled with tears.
The pain and hatred enveloping this battlefield now should not have been necessary from the start.
The American players and the Guardians of the Human Empire Army never had a reason to murder each other in cold blood. If the circumstances under which they met had been different, both sides should have become good friends — just like she had.
Virtual worlds… VRMMOs did not exist just for this.
“H… He… Help… Gh!”
A scream in Japanese interrupted Asuna’s thoughts. Turning her eyes, she saw a great lance stabbing toward a Guardian lying immobile on the ground.
“U… AAAAAAAHH!!”
Asuna’s emotions became a roar as she sprang forward.
The rapier in her right hand slashed ahead nonstop and the white glow flowing from its edge enveloped her entire body; her feet left the ground as she flew forward like a blinding comet. The highest level rushing attack for the rapier, «Flashing Penetrator».
The lancer just about to kill the Guardian was flung high into the air, and the enemy behind him suffered the same fate. A third one as well.
After securely pinning the body of a fourth man under the foot of a gigantic statue, her sword skill ended and she turned around, exhaling.
The second assault wave of the heavy lancers had caused more than five deaths in the Human Empire Army. Simultaneously, at the entrance to the road, the third wave of twenty men had already readied their ferocious lances.
Asuna pulled her rapier from a corpse and cried loudly.
“All units, hold this position at all costs! Renri-san, please come to the middle!”
Asuna squeezed out a short smile, comforting the young Knight whose face became rigid upon seeing her bloodsoaked form, and uttered a last sentence.
“— I will rush into the enemy formation alone. I’ll leave any enemies that slip through me to you all.”
“A… Asuna-sama?!”
Asuna raised her left fist towards the panting Renri and the Guardians.
Then, she broke into a run.
***
Bercouli’s center of gravity suddenly wobbled, and it was then he realized that what he was stepping on was his own left arm, rolling on the ground.
What awakened his consciousness was not pain, but that chilling feeling.
“Guh…!”
He leapt backward again, widening the distance between himself and Vector.
The blood pouring from his left shoulder dyed a crimson arc onto the white stone.
— What the hell… is this?
He just pointed his sword at me, and my consciousness was forcibly halted…?
Bercouli lifted two fingers from his right hand’s grip on the Time Piercing Sword to heal his wound, racking his brains as fast as he could. The nonverbal Healing Art quickly stopped the flow of blood with a glimmer of blue light. However, there was not enough Sacred Spacial Energy on these desolate rocky mountains to regenerate his fallen arm.
— How should I fight this enemy?
His Armament Full Control Art «Time Piercing Sword, Empty Slash» was utterly ineffective. The Incarnation left in the air by the slash would be completely absorbed by his opponent.
His absolute last resort was his Release Recollection Art «Unseen Slash». But if he wanted to use that technique, he would have to fulfill two very harsh conditions. First, the opponent could not interrupt his lengthy attacking movements. The second was to be extremely accurate, with the difficulty of the latter surpassing that of the former…
Bercouli flicked away the sweat beading on his forehead with a flourish.
Then, he realized.
— I’m being desperate.
Somehow, I have nothing more to spare.
In other words, now, this is where I die. The next moment will be my death.
“… Heh.”
After correctly realizing his impasse, instead of frowning, Integrity Knight Bercouli Synthesis One grinned.
His eyes slowly moved away from Emperor Vector, who was approaching him ceaselessly, and fell onto the golden knight lying horizontally in a corner slightly away from him — Alice Synthesis Thirty.
— Lil’ Miss.
I still couldn’t give you what you wanted, Lil’ Miss. I couldn’t give you fatherly love. Because, I can’t remember, anything about my own parents either.
But, there’s one thing that I do know.
These so-called parents die protecting their children.
“A bastard like you… would never understand, you monster!!”
Bercouli bellowed and sprang forward.
Without any plan whatsoever, merely injecting everything he had into his beloved sword, the eldest Knight sprinted forward.
***
“Ga… Hah…”
A great mouthful of blood gushed out with her rough breath, and splashed at her feet.
Asuna remained upright, even if she was only propped up by the rapier in her right hand.
After repelling the third and fourth assault waves of heavy lancers, she had been wounded more than ten times all over her body. Her pearly white blouse and skirt were torn to shreds, stained red by the blood of herself and her enemies.
Having taken a direct hit from a lance, which opened a hole in her body, it was astonishing that she could still move. In fact, Asuna’s unfairly enormous HP didn’t allow her strength to drain.
— This body will fall only when my heart fall.
If so, I can stand forever.
Her entire body had lost nearly all sensation. Only burning heat ran through her nerves, distorting her vision.
The enemy’s fifth wave of troops appeared in Asuna’s dim vision, and she pulled her rapier out of the ground.
She was no longer able to perform perfect evasions. She could only stop the enemy’s lance with her body, and counterattack with sword skills.
Asuna’s feather-light rapier felt as heavy as a leaden rod in her grip, but she strained to raise it with both hands, hold it in front of her, and wait for the enemy’s arrival.
“— Go!!”
The ground shook, and 20 lancers began charging ahead.
Boom, boom, boom boom boom boom…
In the slowly accelerating footsteps, a sharp vibration mixed in out of nowhere.
Asuna’s eyes were attracted upward.
From the scarlet sky, a single line streaked down. It was a thin sequence of digital code.
— Enemy… reinforcements…?
“…… Ahh……”
Although just a sliver, the sigh she emitted was mixed with despair.
But —
The color of that line was not the familiar crimson, but a deep blue akin to the night sky before dawn.
Asuna could no longer foresee what the color meant, and could only widen her eyes, awaiting the result.
The line halted around ten meters above the ground; the code began to consolidate and, after a flash of light, became a human silhouette.
Voom.
The air howled suddenly, and the silhouette began to spin so fast that it blurred. Uttering a vigorous r
oar like a tornado, it began falling again.
Directly under that silhouette, those 20 heavy lancers had stopped unknowingly and looked dumbly up at the sky.
The azure tornado landed directly in their midst.
Then, suddenly, crimson exploded outwards.
Blood. The soldiers twisted within the tornado were immediately ripped apart, and blood was thrown by the wind in a wide radius.
Finally, in the middle of the radially spread fallen lancers, the tornado began to slow, and eventually regained the shape of a person.
The newcomer’s back was turned to her, with a somewhat slender, tall body. Vibrant, Japanese-style armor shined in the backlight. His left hand gripped a sheath hanging from his waist, and his right hand clenched a terrifyingly long sword, no, a katana, which slashed out horizontally.
Asuna had seen that attack before, in another world.
A Sword Skill.
A heavy, ranged katana attack — «Tsumujiguruma»13.
The silhouette slowly stood, rested the longsword on its shoulder, and gradually looked back towards her.
Under a striking bandanna, a stubbled face grinned at her.
“Hey, made you wait, Asuna.”
“K… lein…?”
Asuna could not hear her own hoarse voice until the end.
Suddenly, an ensemble of rumbling resounded throughout the world. Although the sound effects were indistinguishable from when the Americans had appeared, to Asuna, this must be angelic song.
Then, thousands of bright blue strings of code began raining unceasingly from the crimson sky.
***
Cut.
Consciousness blurred.
Pain from his wound jolted him wide awake.
Bercouli had lost count of how many times he had gone through this process.
As though he were intentionally dragging out the fight, Emperor Vector never once inflicted any sort of fatal injury. But Bercouli clearly knew that the blood flowing from his numerous wounds, that is, his total amount of Life, was fast approaching its limit.
But through his immovable willpower honed over two centuries and several decades, he cast away all delusions and expelled all fear, performing but one single action inside his head.