Volume 16

  The whip divided endlessly within the brilliance. Turning into hundreds of streaks of light, they struck at the snakes dyed in darkness.

  The light had transformed into glittering snakes before anyone noticed. Swarming out in a radial formation from Eldrie’s left hand, they opened up their gleaming jaws of sharp fangs and bit at the snakes of death.

  Zobuu! The snakes torn into infinitesimal pieces with that noise returned to umbra elements and scattered.

  The swarm assailing the guards as well as the swarm pursing the flying dragons in the sky above turned around as though recognizing that the glowing snakes must be prioritized first.

  It took no time for the snakes to coil about the countless worms. Their hexes traced across the snakes’ bodies and flooded towards their source.

  Eldrie had made use of the only aspect to the enemy’s art that could be interfered with here, their «automatic homing attribute», and focused all of their capacity upon himself.

  ——Alice-sama.

  He smiled and lowered his eyelids.

  While the darkness swallowed the knight whole in the next instant.

  Integrity Knight Eldrie Synthesis’s numerical Life which was slightly more than five thousand—

  Turned to negative fifty thousand immediately.

  Eldrie’s figure crumbled and scattered from the chest down as though he was blown apart.

  * * *

  “Eldrie———!!!”

  Alice screamed.

  Her one and only disciple who had accompanied her through those short yet memorable days slipped from his flying dragon’s back, having lost over half of his flesh.

  Getting Amayori to roll about thrice, Alice dove into the vestiges of the dissipating worms and grasp Eldrie’s right hand with her extended left hand. Her breath choked up at how light he was when she pulled him close, but still, she bore it with her teeth clenched and had her dragon climb.

  Takiguri followed right by their side, perhaps out of concern for his owner. Alice shouted once more atop the dragons keeping in pace.

  “Eldrie!! Open… open your eyes!! I will not allow it, you must not leave me behind in a place like this!!”

  Eldrie’s bluish-white eyelids quivered slightly, with everything below his chest lost.

  Beneath his barely raised eyelashes, his eyes, tinged violet and still faintly filled with light, looked upon Alice.

  “…Master… your safety puts me……”

  “Yes… yes, of course I am safe, thanks to you!! Had I not said before that I need you?!!”

  Her vision suddenly turned distorted. Drops of water fell upon Eldrie’s cheeks, one after another. Unaware they were her own tears, Alice hugged her disciple close.

  A near inaudible voice rippled at her ears.

  “Alice-sama… there are many, many more people… who need you. I… am but a nobody… To even think… I could have you for…”

  “I will give you anything you wish for!! So come back to me!! Are you not my disciple?!!”

  “I have received enough.”

  Alice sensed the insubstantial weight in her arms fading rapidly, leaving her, with that satisfied whisper.

  “Eldrie!! Eldrie—!!”

  One final murmur gently overlapped her weeping cries.

  “Don’t… cry…… Mo… ther……”

  And the soul belonging to Integrity Knight Eldrie Synthesis Thirty-one, also known as Eldrie Woolsburg, left the Underworld forever.

  Alice’s precious disciple turned into light, as though those few seconds she managed to converse with him was a miracle, and dispersed into the night air while Alice watched on with damp eyes.

  Eldrie vanished before long, leaving not even a fragment of armor behind. The Frost Scale Whip he had gripped in his left hand quietly fell onto Amayori’s back. Perhaps recognizing the death of his master, Takiguri who flew at their side let out an anguished howl.

  Alice took in a deep breath of the faint fragrance of roses drifting about before pulling her face upwards.

  —This is war.

  That was why it would be absurd to bear a grudge, no matter what sort of offensive the enemy executed, no matter what casualties were produced as a result. In fact, Alice herself had robbed a horde of enemy troops of their lives mere tens of minutes ago with an enormous art that could be only termed merciless.

  Thus.

  This anger. This sorrow. Even if they became strength, even if they brought about a slaughter surpassing them—

  “…Surely, you must be prepared!!”

  Drawing the Fragrant Olive Sword with a distinct noise, Alice shouted.

  “Amayori! Takiguri! Advance at full speed!!”

  The flying dragons shackled by binding arts would never follow combat orders from anyone aside from their designated owner normally.

  However, the two dragon siblings roared out ferocious howls together and flapped their wings as they began their onslaught. The Dark Territory, the ashen earth continuing infinitely beyond the gorge, drew close before long.

  Incited by a blazing wrath, Alice’s blue eyes swiftly determined the distribution among the enemy’s main forces.

  Roughly five hundred mel to the left from the gorge’s exit was the Order of the Dark Knights clad in uniform golden armors numbering approximately five thousand.

  On the left was the Pugilists’ Guild, brawny figures strapped in leather belts, numbering five thousand as well. These were the enemy’s main force.

  Deployed in their rear were the orc and goblin infantry, likely reserve troops, and an extensive transport unit. The enemy’s supreme commander, Dark God Vector, should be among them.

  And in the very front, crowded between the dark knights and pugilists was a group clothed in black.

  Them. They were the dark arts users who launched that large-scale hex earlier. Their numbers were approximately two thousand. Those who noticed the approaching flying dragons scrambled to escape without concern for their peers.

  “You will not escape!!”

  Alice ordered the dragons with a booming shout.

  “Aim for their rear… now, fire!!”

  The dragon siblings immediately bent their necks and opened their jaws widely. Their white fangs shone crimson against the flames filling their mouths.

  Zubaa; the two heat rays that swiftly tore through the air side-by-side drove into the retreating dark arts users’ path.

  Explosions shook the earth. Flames erupted. The engulfed silhouettes were flung about like tree leaves.

  With their path of retreat sealed by flames, the arts users lost all order and gathered together.

  Alice raised the Fragrant Olive Sword up high. Its blade released a bright golden light more dazzling than the sun.

  “—Enhance armament!”

  The sword separated into hundreds of fragments with a crisp, metallic sound. Every single one reflected Alice’s will, gaining sharpness beyond any prior.

  * * *

  Ridiculous.

  Impossible!!

  The leader of the dark arts users, D.I.L., screamed in her head while looking up towards the dragon knight rushing in from the gorge like an arrow.

  The Death Curse Worms art chanted by two thousand arts users with the sacrifice of three thousand orc lives had assailed the enemy army with more power than expected. They should have more than enough priority to devour not just every last one of those integrity knights but the ground troops as well.

  And yet, for some reason, the art that should have fed on all of their Life focused on a mere single knight and dissipated after carrying out that horrible waste of an overkill.

  The Death Curse Worms were drawn towards life forms with higher Life. In other words, instantly creating an artificial being on par with some legendary magical beast, surpassing humans and even flying dragons, could and would be required to intentionally lure them away, but it would be impossible to create that with a short art. This conclusion went against logic. There was no rhyme or reason to it.
br />   —How could there be a power that I, the leader of the Dark Arts Users’ Guild, the heart of the entire world’s intelligence, not know about?!!

  D. grinded her teeth as she screamed soundlessly.

  Still, it was reality that the enemy army was restarting their charge with only one sacrifice, surging towards the mere two thousand dark arts users left with the momentum of raging waves.

  “Retreat!! All arts users, retreat!!”

  D. screeched with a strained voice.

  However, two rays of flames crossed above in the next moment and drove in merely some tens mel behind.

  The flames roared as they erupted, swallowing up tens of her screeching subordinates. The heat waves surged on towards the second floor of the carriage where D. stood and singed the black hair she was so proud of.

  “Eek…”

  Screaming, D. practically rolled down the carriage. Riding on it would be like painting a target on herself.

  Blending with her subordinates, D. tried to flee before a glaring golden light shone into her vision.

  In her sight, naturally drawn upwards, she saw the sword of an integrity knight astride a flying dragon split into countless specks of light.

  She vividly sensed each of those specks possessing a horrifying level of priority. It was clear whatever element she generated from the sparse darkness energy drifting about would be unable to defend against them.

  —Damn, damn it, how can I let that kill me!!

  —In a place like this?!! I’m the one who will rule over this world!!

  Raising the corners of her eyes with the face of an enraged deity, D. swung her two hands with her fingers bent like talons and thrust them into the back of two arts users running in front.

  Her sharp claws ripped through their soft skin, digging into their flesh. The shafts she gripped onto were no other than the arts users’ spines.

  “Gyaa… D-D.-sama…!?”

  “Wha…!? P-Please stop…”

  Paying no attention to her subordinates’ begging shrieks, the highest ranked dark arts user let out sinister laughter as she recited the starting phrase for an art.

  The words that followed were a true curse.

  Transfiguration. An accursed, secret art to transform a living being’s flesh, powered by their Life.

  Squelch.

  Blood and flesh scattered as the two young, healthy bodies dissolved into indefinite shapes. Each of them covered D., crouching on the ground, without leaving a single gap and hardened up, becoming an elastic defensive film that had once lived.

  That was a moment before a tempest of golden death blanketed the entire land.

  * * *

  Alice hardened her heart and shut away the many screams reaching her ears.

  She would not permit that art to be ever used again. She would eliminate those arts users and the invocation for it from this land.

  Each time she swiped the grip gleaming with light in her right hand, the sharp petals followed suit and mowed down the enemy she looked down upon. The dark arts users wearing no metallic armor had their bodies pierced through without resistance and fell.

  Alice maintained the recollection release state until she was sure she had annihilated over ninety percent of the arts users unit estimated at two thousand. Her sword’s Life had considerably fallen, but she had no regrets over that.

  Though around two hundred arts users had fled without even taking a look at the heaps of their comrades’ corpses, Alice restored the Fragrant Olive Sword to its original state instead of giving pursuit.

  She had seen around ten knights take off on their flying dragons from the rear of where the Order of the Dark Knights was based at the left of her sight.

  Though she thought they would engage her straight away, the enemy dragon knights simply took up formation in the air without attempt to shorten the gap between them. She immediately knew why. Bercouli and the rest had chased after her from behind.

  “Lil’ miss, don’t go overboard!”

  Alice somehow responded to the knight commander who spoke the moment he overtook her, perhaps out of concern over Eldrie’s death.

  “Yes… I am fine, esteemed Uncle. Please escort the ground units. I will fulfil my role as the decoy.”

  “Right… but don’t go too far!”

  Bercouli shouted and turned his eyes towards the enemy dragon knights. Commanding Takiguri by her side to stay hovering, Alice had Amayori slowly climb and advance.

  She could somehow sense the attention focused on her from the dark knights, the pugilists, the orcs and goblins—and some being with an enormous presence in a place where she could not quite locate. She could hear soft roars from the guards and supply companies behind who had finally left the gorge and turned towards the south, fleeing at full speed.

  Alice shouted loud enough to erase the noise they made as they move.

  Her voice, amplified by incarnation, resounded vividly throughout all directions.

  “—My name is Alice!! I am Integrity Knight Alice Synthesis Thirty!! The one who serves the will of the three goddesses protecting the Human Empire, the «Radiant Medium»!!”

  It was a proclamation without any foundation at all, a mere bluff.

  Still, the entire enemy army stirred in the next moment. The strong desire to capture Alice reached out towards her from the land like tentacles. It appeared the enemy actually did desire this radiant medium as much as or perhaps even more than they wanted to trample the Human Empire.

  Did it truly refer to her, or was she only assuming the name?

  Alice felt that irrelevant. She only needed half of the enemies to chase after herself. It would have been fine as long as drawing the enemy away from the land and earning the rest some time allowed her to inherit the wishes of Eldrie, Dakira, and the many lost guards.

  “Resolve yourself to be crushed by my holy might if you dare stand before me!!”

  * * *

  “Ohh…”

  The emperor of the land of darkness, Dark God Vector, and also the hunter of souls, Gabriel Miller, stood from his throne before letting a deep utterance escape.

  “Ohh.”

  Gabriel had felt nothing at all from how that attack expending three thousand orc units had apparently failed or even how the majority of the arts user units were annihilated. However, shudders were certainly going through his frigid soul at this one moment.

  A quiet voice came from his pale lips that formed a smile.

  “Alice… —Alicia…”

  Gabriel’s two eyes captured in detail the young female knight clad in golden, gleaming armor atop a dragon in the distant night sky.

  Straight, flowing golden locks. Fair, pale skin. Perfectly clear blue eyes like the skies in the heart of winter.

  That figure matched exactly with the exquisite grown-up appearance of the girl he first laid hands on, Alicia Klingerman, in Gabriel’s consciousness. It was a fact in Gabriel’s mind, that Alicia’s soul that he had failed to capture back then had appeared once more in this virtual world.

  —This time, for sure.

  This time, he would capture it with these hands. He would obtain the light cube that girl’s fluct light was saved on and savor it to his heart’s content.

  Focusing his gaze, like a blue flame, upon the knight as she pulled on the dragon’s reins and flew off into the southern night skies, Gabriel spoke softly and feverishly into the command skull.

  “All units, prepare for movement. Turn south with the Pugilists’ Guild leading, followed respectively by files comprised from the Order of the Dark Knights, the demi-humans, and the supply units. Capture that knight, the radiant medium, unhurt. I shall grant rule over the entire Human Empire to the commander of whichever unit captures her.”

  Chapter 19

  The Radiant Medium

  Seventh Day of the Eleventh Month of the Human Empire Calendar, 380

  20:00

  1

  The Dark Army had just begun to move, kicking up a huge dust clo
ud behind. The dust cloud began to color the sky of the Dark Territory, already dotted with blinking, blood-red stars, a deep shade of gray.

  Peering into the simple telescope generated with Crystal Elements, Knight Commander Bercouli looked up and mumbled softly:

  “This is astonishing… Seems like that so-called Dark God Vector has his heart set on you, lil’ miss. The entire army is coming after you.”

  “We should be… happy, I suppose. At least this is much better than being ignored.”

  Alice muttered as she swallowed her nervousness along with some lukewarm Siral Water.

  In the unexplored — only to those of the Human Empire, of course — Dark Territory wilderness, on a small hill about five kilol south from the valley, the Defense Army decoy division was having their first short break.

  The Guards were very excited.

  Since an Integrity Knight had sacrificed himself to nullify a large-scale art that had plunged everyone into the abyss of despair, they were all determined once again, believing that they should treasure their given chance.

  Meanwhile, however, Alice was still unable to accept the reality of Eldrie’s death.

  Although it had not been long since they first met in the Central Cathedral, much had happened. Recommending that Alice try some wine or snacks when he discovered them; telling her bad jokes from time to time; there had not been a quiet day with Eldrie.

  She had often puzzled over whether this young man was here to learn swordsmanship and arts, or just to be troublesome. But now, she understood. She understood how much Eldrie had been filling her heart with levity.

  … These things just seemed so normal that I took his presence for granted. Why am I just realizing how precious he was when he’s not here anymore?

  As she gazed towards the Mountain Range at the Edge that spanned the northwestern sky, she gently touched the coiled whip strapped to the back of her waist. She could now well understand why Kirito would not want to relinquish Eugeo’s sword.