Renri directed them spiritedly, his voice cutting through the icy air:
“All right. Vanguard, part your ranks and stop! Allow the carriage team and the support team to pass through!”
The vanguard instantly split in two, and eight carriages passed through their cavalry, followed by the support team mainly consisting of Ascetics. Upon reaching the very back, they halted. A strong gust of wind blew from the giant doorway far down the road, and Asuna’s hair billowed up.
This was the only moment of silence. The American players pursued them with a rumbling cacophony, rustling grains of sand from the statues.
Asuna leapt from the carriage, and spoke to the girls poking their heads out of the canopy and the woman standing beside them:
“This is the last battle. I’ll leave Kirito-kun to you guys.”
“Yes! Leave him to us, Asuna-sama!”
“We will definitely protect him!”
“— Even if we must put our lives on the line.”
As Tiese, Ronye and Sortiliena held their fists tightly in front of their chests, Asuna did the same and smiled faintly.
“Rest assured. I will absolutely not let the enemy reach this place.”
A part of that was a promise to herself. Asuna gently waved her right hand and spun around with resolve.
Renri was currently in front of the vanguard, deftly preparing the Guardians.
The road was about 20 meters wide. Although it was a little too broad to defend, completely blocking it by putting the troops into a rotation system was not impossible.
The important thing was to control the number of deaths as best they could while carving away at the 10,000 or so enemies, as the Ascetics continued their magic support from behind. Fortunately, there were no signs of any magic users among the crimson soldiers. Although the players likely had no way of picking up Underworld’s complex command system in such a short time, this situation was, honestly, a godsend.
If this situation were to change —
I will kill the entire enemy army myself.
Asuna inhaled deeply and concentrated that thought inside her body, together with her commitment.
Considering Stacia’s vast quantity of Life and the Priority of her equipment, she shouldn’t fall purely because of numerical damage. The problem was whether or not she could withstand that harsh pain. When pain was dealt to her heart, her virtual body would be injured, and even if she tried as hard as she could, she would still fall into a state in which she couldn’t even hold her sword.
Asuna closed her eyes, thinking of the injured Kirito. She imagined the enormity of the pain and sorrow he carried.
By the time she came to the very front of the forces, not a trace of fear was left in her heart.
The titanic confrontation, meant to be the last of its kind in this war, unfolded under the sun at high noon.
About twenty heavily armored American players charged onto the sando of the ruins, seeking the realistic blood and screams as promised by the advertisement website.
Yet what awaited them were not pitiful NPCs designed to provide unrated entertainment, but true heroes filled with the determination to save the world and rescue their beloved golden Integrity Knight. Although heavily damaged, their swords still glinted with the glow of irrepressible will, firmly enduring their enemies’ weapons, shattering their enemies’ armor.
A lone silhouette was looking down from high above, upon the crimson-armored players being decisively destroyed.
Tight, leather clothing that minimized reliance on metallic armor, like a rider suit11. The gleaming leather was covered with matte silver rivets.
The only weapon was a large dagger resembling a meat cleaver, hanging from the left waist. The face was obscured. The body was wrapped in a black leather raincoat-like poncho, with the hood drooping all the way to the mouth.
The lips, warped into a sneer, were the only visible feature.
It was Vassago Casals.
After diving into Underworld once more and barely avoiding Sinon’s sudden wide ranged laser attack, he had mixed in with the Americans to chase the Human Empire Army.
However, he did not join the early attack, instead smoothly climbing onto the wall of the west shrine, mounting a statue’s head from where he was able to watch the battlefront, and deciding to enjoy the show in a premium seat.
“Kekek, that bitch is just as relentless as before when she’s upset. She sure kills a lot.”
He murmured as his shoulders shook with indescribable excitement.
Exactly as she was in Vassago’s distant memory, the girl in pearly armor with chestnut hair flying in the wind — Asuna «The Flash» let the rapier in her right grip gleam brilliantly.
Back then, Vassago had been in the same position, watching Asuna’s battles while hiding from afar. He had adamantly vowed to himself: I will finish you before the world ends.
Together with the swordsman in black, who had fought even more fiercely by her side.
***
When he leapt from the dragon’s back, Bercouli was still nearly two hundred mel above the ground. If he had simply plummeted straight down like that, even he would not have been able to withstand the impact.
But as though he were stepping down an invisible staircase, the Knight Commander rushed down the sky in a helical motion.
With every step he took, he was actually generating a Wind Element underfoot and immediately detonating it, using this kickback to decrease his own momentum. Controlling Elements with both feet was a skill he had stolen decades ago from Senate Elder Chudelkin.
Gripping the hilt of his sword, the eldest knight of this world leapt, and leapt, into Emperor Vector’s blind spot. Vector stood at the summit of the pillar beneath him, which bore semblance to an artificial spire.
— Kill him in one strike.
It was Integrity Knight Bercouli’s first time reanimating such murderous intent as when he had killed the Dark General from the previous two generations – more than a hundred and fifty years ago. In these long years, never once had an enemy appeared who was sufficient at provoking his utterly raw killing intent.
Even in his battle with that Eugeo boy, who had barged into the Central Cathedral alone, Bercouli had fought sincerely, without even a single trace of true murderous intent. But, if he looked at it this way, even against the Dark Generals, his strongest enemies throughout the years, he had never harbored such negative emotions as rage and hatred.
In other words, this was Bercouli’s first time in his prolonged life channeling genuine fury into his blade.
Every fiber of his being was truly furious. Furthermore, it was not just because his opponent had captured Alice.
Coming from the outside world called the Real World, this outsider has forced the Dark Land people onto the battlefield when they could have achieved peace instead, and sent tens of thousands to their deaths in vain. To Bercouli, who had protected this world for over two hundred years, this was an absolutely unforgivable atrocity.
— Emperor Vector, I don’t know what reason you have.
But not everyone from the Real World is a demon like you. I understood that as soon as I saw that lil’ miss named Asuna.
That means, the only thing evil beyond help, is your nature.
If so, I shall bring forth your retribution.
I shall teach you the weight of Dark General Shasta, Integrity Knight Eldrie, and the lives of the countless humans who have perished on this battlefield.
Now learn… from this single strike!!
“Ze… AHH!”
Leaping ten mel into the air with his last step, the Knight Commander swung his sword down at Emperor Vector’s unprotected head in a slash charged with all of his willpower.
The air burned, glowing white. The blade radiated a light blinding beyond measure, causing even the world to lose its original color.
Without question, this was the strongest, most powerful strike among all sword techniques in the history of Underworld. Its
priority was placed even above system commands as it overwrote the Main Visualizer’s mnemonic data. In other words, for everything that was placed in the path of this ultimate strike, all status values meant nothing whatsoever.
Even for Super Account 04 — Emperor Vector’s practically unlimited Life value, he would disintegrate if he were hit by this strike.
If he were hit, that is.
Even when faced with the fatal meteorite about to plummet onto his head, Vector’s face was devoid of emotion.
The speed of that strike was so fast that one could only stare motionlessly at it. The attack came in a mere instant; no matter how fast one’s reaction was, they ought to be unable to deal with it in time.
But in that instant, Vector’s body, wrapped in black crystalline armor, silently slid out of the way.
In the only direction to avoid the attack path, sliding just far enough to evade the strike.
Bercouli’s blade could only reach the red mantle flowing in the wind. The instant it came into contact with the sword, the thick fur pelt disintegrated into countless grains of dust.
Zugaaaaang!! With a thunderous noise, a deep, straight wound was carved into the solid rock. The entire mammoth peak trembled, and pieces of rock tumbled down the edges.
— He evaded that?
Although dumbfounded, Bercouli did not hesitate to move for even an instant. Through long years of battle experience, he had long learned not to stop and think under unexpected circumstances.
He took a final step on air, slid to the Emperor’s flank, and landed. Immediately, he threw out a horizontal slash. Barely half a second had passed since the failure of his fully concentrated strike.
Yet Vector even evaded this second attack.
His body was like black smoke blown away in the wind, effortlessly sliding out of reach without any sort of preparation at all. The sword tip grazed his armor’s surface, and sparks flew into the air.
However.
This time, Bercouli was finally certain of his victory.
His full-power attack from before had missed, but its strength had not dissipated. His beloved sword’s Armament Full Control Art, «Time Piercing Sword, Empty Slash»— an ability to slash the future, had already been activated. It was an ultimate technique that would leave its power along the path of the slash, killing any who came into contact with the sharp blade; it had been a great torment to Eugeo during their fight back in the Cathedral.
The Emperor’s back was pulled towards the space where there remained an undetectable slash.
The first to go was his silky platinum hair, swirling in all directions.
The crown atop his head shattered with a piercing metallic crack.
Vector raised his hands high into the air, as though begging for mercy.
Bercouli strongly felt that, in the next instant, that body wrapped in black would be severed in two from top to bottom.
Slap.
A clear, dry crack.
The source was — the Emperor’s hands, clapped together above the back of his head.
— He stopped the «Empty Slash» with his bare hands? With his back turned?
Impossible. Although the secret technique of catching a sharp blade with both hands had been passed down the generations of Fist Fighters in the Dark Land, it was an ultimate technique only made possible by their steel fists. More importantly, even the Fist Fighter chief would definitely be unable to stop the power remaining in that space with his bare hands.
These thoughts only persisted for an instant, but afterwards, Bercouli finally stood still.
Therefore, he could only stare blankly at what happened next.
The mirage-like amorphous slash left in the air was absorbed into the Emperor’s hands.
At the same time, the Emperor’s blue eyes were dyed with a seemingly bottomless darkness.
At the deepest point of that darkness, countless lights flashed — those were, stars…?
No.
They were souls. Souls that this man had absorbed and trapped there. Dark General Shasta and his female aide were probably in there as well…
“… You bastard, you can devour other people’s Incarnation?”
At Bercouli’s murmuring, Vector slowly lowered his hands, which had completely absorbed the slash, and spoke calmly.
“Shin’i?12 … I see, mind and will.”
That voice was bone-chilling; it seemed devoid of any feeling of a living human. And the source of the voice, those thin lips, warped into a shape that resembled a smile.
“Your mind, is like old, vintage wine. Thick and rich… With a heavy, long-lasting aftertaste. Although it is not to my liking… it would do well as an appetizer before the main course.”
The Emperor’s pale hands gripped the hilt of the longsword on his waist.
The thin blade he slowly drew out of the sheath was covered in a violet phosphorescence. Tilting the tip downwards like a weak person, Emperor Vector smiled again.
“Now, let me drink some more of it.”
***
The giant’s rough sword eventually grazed Asuna’s left arm.
Pain assailed her, like white-hot iron wire digging into her flesh.
— This is nothing!
She thought intensely, as the small pink wound on her wrist silently vanished in the next moment.
And then, with a wispy flash of her right arm, her blade stabbed the man in front of her four times in graceful succession, from his right shoulder to his left ribs. The man’s face distorted as he shouted obscenities, then he keeled over onto the ground.
She had already lost count of how many she had struck down.
At the same time, she was unaware of how much time had passed since the beginning of this battle in the ruins.
She was only certain of the fact that the number of crimson footsoldiers, flooding like an avalanche through the entrance to this road, was still nearly endless.
— Hmph, a drawn out battle like this isn’t much. In Old Aincrad, boss battles that took three to four hours were commonplace.
Asuna boasted in her heart, leapt over the disappearing corpses of her allies, and parried away a new enemy’s brandished axe with her rapier.
The enemy’s balance was shattered by this blow; Asuna struck accurately at his heart as she glanced left and right.
Asuna’s location of battle was dead center of the road; to her right, Integrity Knight Renri was alternatively projecting the two throwing blades in his hands with chilling strength and accuracy, as the bodies ahead of him piled high. He seemed fine for now.
The problem was to her left. Lead by Sortiliena, the captain-class Guardians were stationed there, and yet it was clear that the frontline was being gradually pushed back.
“Left flank, rotate between vanguards faster! Please prioritize Healing Arts on that side as well!”
“Asuna-sama, I can still fight!”
The one who responded was Sortiliena on the very front line, activating a wide-ranged two-handed Sword Skill, «Cyclone». Her long sword rotated rapidly with a light green glow and blew back three enemy soldiers, but Liena knelt down immediately after. Judging by the conversation during last night’s Memory Exposing Competition, swordsmen of the noble class were more accustomed to one-on-one, gentlemanly duels, and long skirmishes with no end in sight were completely unfamiliar.
Although Liena’s sword skills were actually quite fluent and fierce, even to Asuna, who just arrived in this world yesterday, they were simply too proper.
She used virtually no feints or tripping techniques before her critical skills, and consequently the enemies’ flailing weapons would inflict scratches on her when she became rigid before or after her skills activated. Her armor was already riddled with scars, and trails of blood seeped through her purple Guardian uniform.
“Retreat and heal, Liena-san! Trust your partners!”
At Asuna’s directive, Liena bit her lip and nodded, then retreated, saying “I’ll be right back!” The gap she left
in the front line was immediately replaced by the Guardian Commander, but his face was weary.
Other than the exhaustion of the left flank, there was something else that worried Asuna.
The crimson soldiers they were currently battling were not mere humanoid monsters driven by algorithms, but veteran players from America, the birthplace of MMORPGs. They, who had been familiar with player combat since long ago, would eventually realize that their current, simple assaults were ineffective, and begin carrying out more strategic maneuvers.
What would she do in their situation? Asuna whirled her rapier nonstop as she thought.
Typically, she would launch a long range attack from the rear. But there were no wizard-class players among the enemies, and even if there were, they would be unable to familiarize themselves with Underworld’s complex Arts language in such a short time.
Other than magic, there was archery. Fortunately for the Human Empire Army, the other side could not prepare archer accounts. Their last resort was to simply lob the weapons in their hands, but this would give them great pause, because if they threw their weapons away, they would be unable to participate in the battle afterwards.
It seemed that their opponents were out of options to attack them.
Then, just like she envisioned beforehand, they only needed to cut down all ten thousand or so of these enemies.
Almost exactly as Asuna renewed her determination —
The entrance to the road was suddenly obscured by darkness.
The morning sun was blocked out by gigantic shields raised into a neat row and lances standing like flag poles.
— Heavy lancers!
“Pre… Prepare to defend against the assault!! Be careful to avoid the enemy’s lance tips!! Just get close to the enemy and you can knock them down!”
Right as Asuna shouted, with a CLATTER of metal on metal, the giant lances were pointed forward in an orderly fashion.
“““Assaaaaaaaaaault!!”””
A full row of 20 heavy lancers let out a ferocious bellow, and began charging.
The Guardians were made restless by the pressure from the red tsunami. I’m begging you all, please calm down, Asuna prayed silently as she gazed at the lancers rushing towards them. The lances, gleaming a vicious black, were fast approaching in a straight line.