But, she didn’t need to worry about that. She just followed what she felt, and that would be enough, since it was real to her.
“…Thank you!”
Lyfa said the words that gently rose from the depths of her heart, knowing that if she spoke more she would start crying.
Hearing that, Kirito laughed in embarrassment.
“Sorry, I exaggerated a bit. It’s a bad habit of mine.”
“No, it made me happy – then we will say farewell once we exit the cave.”
After hearing this, Kirito raised his eyebrows in surprise.
“I’ll be going with you though.”
“Wait, what?”
“Oh no, we’ve wasted a lot of time. Yui, please navigate while we run.”
“Understood!”
Seeing the Pixie that sat on his shoulder nod in agreement, he turned to Lyfa.
“Lend me your hand for a moment.”
“Oh, eh…”
Kirito reached out his left hand and grasped Lyfa’s right hand. This situation had happened before, but this was the first time they actually held hands; Lyfa’s heart suddenly began noticeably beating very fast. The next moment, Kirito bolted forward at breakneck speeds, abruptly breaking through the wall of the air and creating a wind tunnel. They had been running at a considerable pace earlier, but now they were going even faster. Their incredible speed made the rock texture appear to melt as they passed. With her right hand in Kirito’s, her body floated out behind in a horizontal line. Kirito scanned around while cornering in the twisting and turning cave. There was nothing the least bit romantic about it.
“Waahh!?”
Lyfa cried in a high-pitched voice as, looking ahead, she saw blinking yellow cursors getting closer. A group of orcs seemed to have made a nest in the cave.
“That — those monsters.”
Before she finished her sentence, Kirito ran right into the group of Orcs without showing any signs of slowing down.
“Wahhhh!”
Lyfa`s screams mixes together with the roar of the monsters. But one after another, the rain of heavy weapons missed. Kirito saw a gap in the monsters and rushed through with a furious dash. The orcs turned around, voiced their anger, and began to give chase, but Kirito had already broken through into the next passage. After that, they met Orcs and other monsters several more times, but Kirito simply dodged around and rushed past them all. At some point, a giant wave of monsters was following behind Kirito and Lyfa, their movement creating an earthshaking, avalanche-like tremor. On a side note, their action of «Aggravating» is considered very bad manners, as any unwary team that got in the way would most likely be unable to escape annihilation. Fortunately, a point of white light appeared before such a tragedy occurred.
“Oh, that’s probably the exit.”
After hearing Kirito say this, her vision suddenly went white, and, with a single step, the ground disappeared.
“Hieeeee!?”
Lyfa instinctively closed her eyes and screamed as her feet thrashed about, but she soon noticed that the roaring around her had disappeared.
Gingerly opening her eyes, Lyfa found herself floating through the vast, infinite sky. It appeared that Kirito had not slowed down at all, instead catapulting from the cave opening that was halfway up the mountain. Looking back, she saw the sheer grey cliffs that seemed to continue forever in all directions. Soon after their exit, gravity quickly returned, and their fall drew an arc through the sky.
Hurriedly spreading her wings and gliding, Lyfa exhaled.
“Fuu haa!!”
Breathing rapidly, Lyfa took a look behind them; in the distance was the cave exit, and huddling around it were the monsters that had chased them out. She turned back to Kirito.
“I think years were just shaved off my life!”
“Haha, it definitely saved us some time.”
“…For dungeons, it shouldn’t be.. while searching for the enemy, make sure you don’t gather monsters.. what you did was like another game..”
Lyfa calmed down as she complained, and she began to re-examine the area. The vast plains spread out below, the blue of water sparkled here and there, the water’s connection to a meandering river, and beyond that -
“Ah…”
Lyfa gasped involuntarily. At the far end of the sea of clouds floated a huge shadow. A gigantic trunk pierced the earth and heavens like a pillar supporting the sky, with branches and leaves growing on the same scale as celestial bodies.
“So, that… is the World Tree.”
Beside her, Kirito whispered in an awed tone. Even from their spot, just a distance ahead of their exit from the mountains, the World Tree had an overwhelming presence despite being almost twenty kilometers away. It was hard to imagine what it would be like to stand at its base. The two of them remained silent as they stared at the World Tree, but before long, Kirito recovered and said:
“Ah, it can’t go on like this. Lyfa, where is the Conference of the Lords?”
“Ah, right. The World Tree is situated at the center of the world, in a large bowl created by the surrounding mountains. There are three large passes that lead to the World Tree: from Salamander territory is «Dragon Valley»; from Undine territory, «Rainbow Valley»; and from Cait Sith territory is «Butterfly Valley». The conference will be taking place at «Butterfly Valley», and near the inland exit.”
Lyfa looked around and pointed northwest.
“I think we should fly in that direction for some time.”
“Okay, how much time is remaining!?”
“…Twenty minutes.”
“If they want to attack the conference, the Salamanders will be coming from that direction.”
Kirito’s finger moved from the Southeast to the Northwest.
“If they arrive earlier than us, we’ll be in trouble. Let’s just hurry. Yui, do a search, and tell me if a large number of players come into range.”
“Yes!”
Yui nodded, and Lyfa and Kirito began accelerating.
“Anyway, are there no monsters in this area?”
Kirito asked while cutting through a cloud cluster.
“The Aarun Plateau is a field with no monsters. So the conference is being deliberately held close to this place.”
“In other words, if monsters attacked midway through the talk, it might be a bit of a problem. However, in this case, it would’ve been very fortunate.”
“What do you mean?”
Kirito just laughed with a mischievous smile.
“Like what happened earlier, I was going to lead a bunch of monsters directly through the Salamander force.”
“…You have time to think like that? The Salamander group is supposed to be bigger than the one that attacked us in the cave, if we can warn them in time, we will all run to the Cait Sith territory; if we gather a big group of monsters, who do you think will die?”
“…”
Kirito stroked his chin with a thoughtful look on his face. At that moment…
“There it is, player response!”
Yui suddenly cried out.
“The group in front has 68 players, these probably are the Salamander assault force. In addition, there are fourteen more people on the ground, I expect those are the Sylph and Cait Sith delegations. The two sides will meet in fifty seconds.”
Yui finished talking just as they cut through a large cloud. Lyfa looked down on a very broad, green plateau from extremely high in the air.
Somewhere at a lower altitude were innumerable, creeping shadows. Flying in five-man units, they were like a flock of sinister figures sneaking up on their target without a sound.
Her glance was then drawn toward their destination. She could see a small circular platform. There was a long white table with seven chairs on each side, an impromptu conference hall.
The people sitting in the chairs, still deep in conversation, were unaware of the looming threat.
“…We’re too late.”
Lyfa said from Kirito
’s side.
There was no time to warn the Lords before the Salamanders arrived — not enough time to escape. Thus, the others must be prepared to become a shield, even at the cost of their lives, to at least allow the Lords to escape.
Lyfa took her hand and held Kirito’s.
“Thank you, Kirito-kun, for bringing me here. You go to the World Tree, and though the time we traveled together was short, I was very happy.”
Lyfa said with a smile, but as she folded her wings to an acute angle for diving, Kirito caught her right hand. Lyfa turned to him, and on Kirito’s face floated his usual fearless smile.
“It is not in my nature to run away!”
Kirito let go of her hand, moved Yui off his shoulder into his breast pocket, and, beating his wings violently, suddenly accelerated. BANG! Lyfa closed her eyes from the force of the sonic boom, and, when she re-opened them, Kirito was diving toward the platform.
“What!! What are you doing!!?”
The moment of farewell and her sad words of parting made worthless, Lyfa argued back, but Kirito had already left her far behind. Stunned, she hurriedly chased him.
At their destination, the Cait Sith and Sylphids finally noticed the large group. One by one, they jumped off their chairs and drew their shining silver swords, but, compared to the Salamanders and their equipment, they seemed very fragile.
Flying over the grassland, the Salamander vanguard held their lances up like birds-of-prey ready to dive on defenseless rabbits. The troops behind fanned out to the left and right, half surrounding the platform. Moments before the killing, the world was shrouded in silence.
One Salamander raised his hand, and just as he was about to let it drop…
A huge cloud of dust rose from center of the platform between the two groups. Then an instant later KA-BOOM! A loud explosion seemed to cause even the atmosphere to tremble, and Kirito landed like a black meteor without slowing down.
All the players on the ground stood frozen in place. As the dust gradually thinned out, Kirito slowly stood up, in general contempt of the Salamander Army. He leaned back, took a deep breath, and yelled:
“Both sides, put your weapons away!!”
“Woo ah!”
Lyfa, still diving, instinctively dropped her head. What an incredibly loud sound, although it’s not as loud as that earlier explosion. It caused even Lyfa, who was still about ten meters in the air, to shake. For the Salamanders, whether it was from physical pressure or just shock, they were trembling a bit as they moved back little by little.
It was not the voice that surprised everyone; it was the fearless courage within it. What exactly is that guy doing? No one could guess.
Lyfa looked at the scene as a cold sweat went down her back. Behind Kirito, Lyfa landed near the green clothed group who should be Sylph. Looking around, Lyfa immediately saw a familiar figure.
“Sakuya!”
Hearing someone call her name, that Sylph looked around with a dazed expression and opened her eyes wide when she saw Lyfa.
“Lyfa!? Why are you here!? No, what is going on here…?”
Lyfa opened her mouth while thinking, this was the first time she has ever seen Sakuya so confused, and said:
“It’s hard to explain, but right now, our fate is in that person’s hands!”
“What is going on?”
The Sylph lord looked at the small back of the figure dressed in black. While sympathetic to her thoughts, Lyfa studied the current Sylph Lord, Sakuya.
The woman had a beautiful slender straight posture, with waist-length green hair so dark it was nearly black. She had pale white skin, slightly slit eyes, a high nose, and thin lips. if you were to describe her beauty, it would be the beauty of a finely honed blade.
Wearing long Japanese style clothes that hugged her body, from her obi hung a katana nearly two inches longer than Lyfa’s. Delicate white feet in high crimson clogs peeked out from beneath the hem of her clothes. Looking at that unforgettable figure, it was no wonder she won the election for Lord with an impressive 80% of the votes.
Of course, the votes didn’t just come from her beauty alone. Because of the pressures of being the lord, she could rarely participate in hunting, so her numerical stats can not be called terribly high. However, her sword skills were such that she was usually in the final round during tournament duels, and her just personality also maintained her overwhelming popularity.
Moving her eyes, Lyfa’s gaze came to rest on a petite female player beside Sakuya.
The wavy, blond hair surrounding the big triangular ears on both sides of her head marked her as a Cait Sith. She wore armor that resembled a one-piece swimsuit, boldly exposing delicately-tanned skin. From both sides of her waist hung claw-type weapons with three huge protruding nails. A colorful stripe near her hips emphasized her tail, which was twitching and trembling in tension.
Looking at her profile, you could see long eyelashes that covered big eyes and a slightly round small nose. Her avatar in ALO was unusual, but it could be described as a charming little girl. Although it is the first time Lyfa had seen her, it was probably safe to say she was the Cait Sith Lord, Alicia Rue. Like Sakuya, she maintained her position as Lord through overwhelming popularity.
Behind the two lords who stood together, six Cait Siths and six Sylphids stood by the long white table, all showing bewildered expressions. She didn’t know any of the Cait Siths, but all the Sylphs were members of the council group of strong players. Taking a closer look at this group of people, Lyfa confirmed that Sigurd was not present.
As Lyfa turned to look at the Salamander forces on the southern part of the plateau, Kirito again shouted:
“I have something to say to the commander!”
This fearless attitude seemed to overwhelm the Salamander soldiers, their Lance group opened up a path. From that path in the air came a large soldier.
Bristling flame-like hair framed a face reminiscent of a dark-skinned bird of prey. His strong body was covered in the ultra-rare Blood Armor, and he carried a huge sword far stronger than Kirito’s.
Seeing his eyes flash crimson for a moment, Lyfa felt a cold sweat run down her back. Though she wasn’t facing him directly, this was the first time Lyfa had felt such an intimidating aura from an opponent.
With a Gasha sound he landed in front of Kirito, without any expression he looked down at Kirito with contempt. Eventually, the Salamander opened his mouth and, with a deep, penetrating voice, asked:
“…What is a Spriggan doing in such a place? Not that it will stop us from killing you, but I will listen to your story in deference to the courage you are displaying.”
Kirito, without any hesitation, said loudly:
“My name is Kirito, and I am the representative of the Spriggan-Undine Union. Am I to understand that by attacking this place, you wish to start a full-scale war with all four of our races?”
Uwaa…
Lyfa was speechless. The idea was just too illogical. This time real cold sweat streamed down her back from the outrageous story he was telling. At this point, Sakuya and Alicia Rue turned to Lyfa in surprise, only to see her desperate wink.
But the Salamander commander also seemed to be truly surprised.
“Spriggan-Undine Union…?”
His expression soon returned to normal.
“You say that you are the ambassador, but where is your escort?”
“Ah, yes. I came here to conduct trade negotiations with Sylph and Cait Sith. However, if you attack us at the conference, it will be a different matter. In essence you would be forcing all four races into an alliance against the Salamanders.”
Suddenly, the world again fell into silence, only to be broken by the Salamander leader’s remarks.
“Hmm, even if you are who you say you are, how can I believe someone who came alone and with such bad equipment!?”
The Salamander put his hand to his back and loudly unsheathed a huge, double-edged sword. It had a dark-red gloss and two intertwined dragons
were etched on its surface.
“If you can withstand my attacks for thirty seconds, I’ll trust you as an ambassador!”
“You’re so generous, aren’t you?”
Kirito drew his own double-edged sword as he spoke. Unlike the Salamander, his sword is a dull reddish-black with no decoration.
Kirito’s wings started vibrating and he floated into the air, hovering at the same height as the Salamander. Lyfa thought it felt as though the fighting spirit was being compressed between the two, and it would start bursting out in white sparks.
…Thirty seconds…
Lyfa gulped with a deep sound.
Given Kirito’s abilities and strength, this should be quite generous. But from the murderous intent that practically oozed from the Salamander commander, Lyfa could tell he wasn’t an ordinary case either.
In the tense atmosphere, Sakuya, who was standing next to Lyfa, whispered:
“This is bad…”
“What…?”
“That Salamander, the two-handed sword he’s holding, I’ve seen it before on a website reviewing legendary weapons. It’s the «Demonic Sword Gram», which would make that man «General Eugene». Did you know that?”
“…Only the name…”
Lyfa held her breath and nodded her head, and Sakuya continued:
“He is the brother of Salamander Lord «Mortimer», possibly in the real world as well. His has the pure strength to match his brother’s wisdom. He is said to be the Salamander`s strongest warrior.. which means he’s…”
“…The strongest player!?”
“That’s right… This has turned out to be quite terrible.”
“…Kirito-kun…”
Lyfa clasped her hands tightly to her chest.
The two people hovering in the air faced each other across the intervening distance, seeming to measure their opponent. Low-altitude clouds covered the sun, and pillars of light shone through the gaps. One of those beams reflected brilliantly off of the Salamander’s sword, and, at that moment.
Eugene launched his attack without any predictable movements.
Phew! With a ring, Eugene moved at super-high-speed, causing the air to vibrate. His sword drew a crimson arc in the air as it was swung toward the diminutive Spriggan.