Translation of Sword Art Online’s volume 12, chapter 8.

Just a note, italics are for English words written in katakana. Full caps are English words written in English. (this only applies if there’s actually some significance in using those English words in the original)

Chapter 8

Central Cathedral

5th Month of Human World Calendar 380

1

What a great distance I have traveled—

A lofty ceiling, uniform marble pillars, and the floor, an exquisite stone mosaic that used a variety of rock types.

Even as he had his breath taken away upon beholding the splendor of the Axiom Church Central Cathedral’s interior for the first time, Eugeo couldn’t help but to think so.

Until slightly more than two years ago, he believed that his life was to continue hacking away in vain at an unfellable tree with his axe. To pass his days immersed in memories of his blonde childhood friend, lost long ago, without getting married or having children, before turning his sacred task over to the next woodcutter after years had passed, living deep within the forest like that, and having his Life expire someday without anyone noticing.

However, the black-haired youth who had suddenly appeared one day forcibly broke through the small world that confined Eugeo. He even managed to hack down that absolute barrier sealing the path towards the capital, the Gigas Cedar, with a method that generations of woodcutter could never have imagined, causing Eugeo to approach a crucial juncture. To continue living in the small village while holding onto his memories of Alice. Or to set out on a journey to recover Alice—

It would be a lie to say that he hadn’t faltered. Eugeo’s first thought was of his family the moment Gasupht, the village chief, said that he could choose his next sacred task on that village festival night.

Until then, Eugeo had always turned over all of the wages he had earned from chopping the Gigas Cedar to his family. Their occupation for generations had been growing wheat, but their fields were confined, especially in recent years where revenue was scarce due to the succession of poor harvests. His parents and elder brothers might not mention it outright, but they were likely partially counting on the stable income Eugeo earned each month.

The earnings as a woodcutter would naturally be gone with the felling of the Gigas Cedar. However, he could probably receive preferential treatment in gaining an area well-exposed to the sun in the newly cleared, cultivated land in the south if he chose to grow wheat like his father and the rest of his family as his sacred task. Upon spotting the faces of his family from the stage, mixed with anticipation and anxiety, at a corner of the cheerful villagers making merry, Eugeo was at a loss.

He was, but only for a brief moment. Eugeo forcibly tipped the scale balancing a reunion with the girl from his childhood and a life with his family, and he made a declaration. That he would leave the village and become a swordsman.

Even if he were to choose being a swordsman as his sacred task, he could still receive a salary from the village if he had stayed in Rulid and become one of the guards. However, leaving the village was, ultimately, to stand on his own two feet, away from his family’s side. The money Eugeo brought to his family and the new fields they could have received were all nullified. The reason he had left in such a hurry, on the day after the festival, was because he could not bear to see his parents and elder brothers’ faces, suppressing their disappointment and dissatisfaction.

There were chances where he could have chosen to start a new life with his family even after setting off with Kirito. Having participated in the swordsmanship tournament held in the town of Zakkaria, Eugeo won in the end, alongside Kirito, which had earned him the right to enter the guard corps, and he did so. Enduring the harsh training for half a year, they received letters of recommendation to take the examination for the North Centoria Imperial Sword Mastery Academy from their commanding officer in the guard corps, but an invitation from the commanding officer came with that. Their ranks would rise next year if they remained with the guard corps, with the level of skill the two had, and even becoming the commanding officer in the future was no fantasy. How comfortable would his family’s lifestyle have gotten if he had gained a stable income in Zakkaria and sent a portion of it back to their home by entrusting it to an itinerant wagon?

However, Eugeo politely declined the commanding officer’s invitation and got him to write the letter of recommendation as planned.

While en-route to the capital, his goal, and after enrolling in the Sword Mastery Academy as well, Eugeo continued making excuses in a corner of his mind the entire time. For example, if he was chosen as the academy’s representative swordsman, gaining victory in the Four Empire Unity Tournament, and thus, inducted as an honorable integrity knight, he could enable his parents and family to live in unimaginable extravagance. Or if he made a triumphal return to the village, clad in silver armor and straddling a flying dragon alongside Alice, his parents would have more pride in him than anyone else.

However, by drawing his sword against the elite swordsmen-in-training, Raios Antinous and Humbert Zizek, two evenings past, Eugeo had betrayed his family for the third time. At the very least, he had discarded the considerably likely future of being invested as a first class aristocrat if the circumstances had allowed it… no, that was an understatement; he had discarded even his status as a commoner and chosen instead the path of being a major criminal who had violated a taboo.

Back then, Eugeo was conscious of those circumstances somewhere in his mind, even when he was induced into motion by a tremendous rage. If he were to cut Raios and Humbert at this very moment, he would lose anything and everything. Eugeo drew his sword while aware even of that. He did it to help Tiezé and Ronye who appeared to be getting raped before his eyes; he did it to continue in the justice he believed in; but that wasn’t all to it. He had desired to release that bloodthirst rampaging within his heart; he had desired to erase Raios and Humbert without leaving a single trace behind; he had certainly desired to take action on those murky thoughts.

Really now, what a great distance I have traveled—

He had made a complete turn from one of the exclusive twelve elite swordsmen-in-training in the academy, to stepping upon the floor of the most sacred place in the world as a rebel, an enemy of the Axiom Church.

Fleeing from the pursuit of the bow-using integrity knight, Eugeo was informed of the existence of a book that recorded down all history of the Human World from a young girl who was supposed to be the previous highest minister of the Axiom Church in the mysterious Great Library Room he had entered, and proceeded to read it as though he was devouring it. Because he needed to know, no matter what. Whether there were any humans who had pointed a blade towards the church, fought with integrity knights, and escaped far away somewhere after accomplishing their wishes, in the long history.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t find a single episode of such a person. The influence of the church spread far and wide, covering the world, and all of the masses would prostrate themselves before the authority of the integrity knights; no matter how serious the quarrel was—it would be easily overcome, even if it was a dispute over imperial borders between fellow empires. There wasn’t even a single record of anyone who had drawn a sword in an attack against the church and fought against the integrity knights in the massive history book, no matter how hard he had examined it.

…In other words, I am the worst sinner over the three hundred and eighty years since the Human World was created by the goddess of creation, Stacia.

The moment Eugeo thought so while closing the back cover of the book, an icy chill assailed him. If Kirito hadn’t come back with such perfect timing and called out to him, he would have probably have continued to quail as he cowered there.

Eugeo had to convince himself countless times, even as he listened to a tale from the mysterious previous highest minister with his partner. He could no longer return to his previous way of life after choosing to abandon his family, slash another man, and fight against the church. He had no path aside from moving forward, no matter how much blood may stain his hands, no matter how many sins may besmirch his soul. For the sake of that one purpose that he had left.

To recover the «heart fragment» stolen by the current highest minister, turn Integrity Knight Alice Synthesis Thirty back into Alice Schuberg, and send her to the dearly-missed Rulid Village.

However, his wish to live together with the girl could no longer be granted. The one and only place he thought he could go now, with the many crimes he had committed, was beyond the mountain range at the edge, into the dreadful land of darkness. But that was fine too. There was nothing more to hope for, if Alice could live happily where she was born.

As Eugeo reflected upon his mute determination, he stared at Kirito’s back, moving ahead of him.

…If I said I will go to the land of darkness, would he come with me…?

Upon asking that question silently, Eugeo forced himself to stop imagining his partner’s reply. Thinking about how his path forward might, in the near future, part from his black-haired staunch friend, the only other person in this world standing in the same position right now, was unbelievably terrifying.



As Cardinal mentioned, the corridor that extended straight from the door was unexpectedly short.

He walked quickly, while sunk in thought for a mere instant; it didn’t take him long before reaching the spacious, rectangular room.

The central portion of the right wall had staircases, surprisingly wide and respectively rising up and descending down. The ceiling’s height extended over eight mel, thus, it seemed there were over twenty steps until reaching the landing at the halfway point of the staircase.

And set in the left wall were grand double doors, surrounded by sculptures of winged beasts.

Kirito walking in front quickly turned his right palm this way and hugged against the wall, so Eugeo followed suit and pressed his back against a stone pillar within reach. Holding his breath, he scanned through the gloomy, spacious room.

If the previous highest minister’s words prove right, the grand doors on the left ought to be the equipment vault they were looking for. Despite being such an important place, the spacious room was silent as the grave, lacking the presence of any others. Even the light from Solus that shone in from the large staircase to the right appeared stained in an icy gray hue.

“…There’s no one around, huh…”

Upon softly whispering towards Kirito’s back, his partner nodded, slightly disappointedly as well.

“It’s an equipment store, so I figured there would be a guard or two, but… I guess maybe it’s because the Axiom Church wouldn’t have anyone entering to steal in the first place…”

“But they know about our intrusion already, right? They’re rather calm despite that.”

“They really do have reason to be. They have no need to spend their time searching around for people like us. In other words, the next time we meet integrity knights, there will either be a considerably large number of them or considerably strong ones. C’mon, let’s make use of this time extension as much as we can.”

Ending his words with a hmph, in a snort, Kirito agilely ran out from the cover of the wall. Eugeo followed after that, crossing the deserted, spacious hall.

The doors to the equipment vault had embossed carvings of the two goddesses, Solus and Terarria, and no keyholes, but they possessed such intensity that it made him think that unbelievers might not be able to open them, no matter how hard they pulled or pushed. However, after Kirito put his ear against the door for a bit, then placed his hands upon the handles, putting some force into them, the doors opened so easily that it was practically a let-down. The hinges didn’t even let out a single creak.

A dense, cold air, like several hundred years worth of stillness, swirled out from the black gap of around fifty cen that opened up and made Eugeo shiver, but his partner slipped himself through without hesitation, so he hurriedly followed behind. When the solemn doors closed behind, their surroundings were engulfed in complete darkness.

“System call…”

The art ritual that instinctively left his mouth overlapped perfectly with Kirito’s voice, so he ended up smiling despite the situation. While continuing with ‘generate luminous element‘, Eugeo recalled the time he went with Kirito to the north cave to search for Selka. It was hard enough using the basics of the basics among the sacred arts back then and he couldn’t do much more than making a stick held in his hand light up faintly at its tip—

The pure white luminous element brought forth atop his right palm pushed aside the dense darkness, incidentally brushing away Eugeo’s nostalgic mood.

“Uo…”

As Kirito let out an astonished voice at his side, a gulp simultaneously came from Eugeo’s throat.

What space. It was labeled a vault, so he imagined a place like the Sword Mastery Academy’s tool storehouse, but this was ridiculous. It had practically as much area as the large practice arena where Kirito and Uolo Levanteinn had held their match.

Radiance of each and every hue filled the space, reflected illumination from the luminous element that shot from Eugeo’s palm, with the surrounding smooth stone walls on all four sides.

Systematically lined along the floor were suits of armor, placed upon supports modelled after humans. In addition to having pitch-black ones, pure-white ones, and those in dazzling hues of coppery reds, silvery blues, and golden yellows, they also included each and every sort of armor, from light armor constructed from thin chains and leather to heavy armor, large metal plates joined together without any gaps. They numbered no less than five hundred.

And on the tall walls hung, yet again, practically every kind of weapon in existence, closely packed together.

Even among the swords alone, there were long ones, short ones, with a wide range of thick, thin, straight, and curved ones also. In addition, there was a great variety of combat equipment, from single-edged and double-edged axes, to lances and long spears, warhammers, whips, and maces, to bows stretched from the floor to nearly the ceiling, their numbers practically uncountable, and Eugeo could do naught but leave his mouth agape.

“…Sortiliena-senpai might get overwhelmed and faint if she came here, huh.”

Kirito finally broke the silence with a whisper several seconds later.

“Yeah… The same goes for Gorgolosso-senpai, he’d throw himself at that large sword and never let go of it if he saw it.”

Sighing as he murmured a reply, Eugeo then forcefully expelled the breath choked in his throat. Scanning through the vast equipment vault once more, he shook his head two or three times.

“How do I say this… is the church thinking about eventually starting its own army or something? The integrity knights alone should already be enough, though…”

“Hmm… to fight with the army of darkness…? No, that’s not it…”

Kirito’s expression suddenly stiffened and continued with a glance at Eugeo.

“It’s the reverse. It’s not to make an army… but to make it impossible to create one; that’s why the church has been gathering equipment here. The equipment here is probably all powerful, at sacred instrument class or somewhere around there. The highest minister, Administrator, didn’t need some organization aside from the Axiom Church from getting their hands on strong equipment and obtaining excess battle potential…”

“Eh…? What’s that supposed to mean? There can’t possibly be an organization that’ll turn on the Axiom Church, no matter what kind of strong equipment they hold, can there?”

“In other words, the one with the least faith in the church’s authority might just be the venerable highest minister herself.”

Eugeo could not immediately grasp the meaning of Kirito’s sarcastic words. However, his partner patted him on his back before he could ponder on them.

“Come on, time’s running out. Let’s hurry up and get our swords back.”

“Ah… y-yeah. But it’ll be a daunting task to look for them from all these…”

The Blue Rose Sword and the black sword were sheathed in their respective sheaths of discreet white and black leather, but many similar swords could be spotted on the walls.

“…Even if we try to use the umbra element searching art again, the sacred power in the area should have been used up by the luminous elements earlier…”

It was in that moment, when Eugeo let out a sigh while thinking ‘if that was the case, we should have just used a single light’, that Kirito unhesitatingly spoke.

“Oh, found them.”

Lifting his right hand, he pointed to the immediate left of the doors they had entered.

“Woah… to think they’re in a place like this.”

The white and black swords at the spot Kirito pointed towards were certainly the pair’s beloved swords, beyond any room for doubt. Eugeo gazed at his partner’s profile in mute amazement.

“Kirito, how did you do that without even using any sacred arts…?”

“I just figured that the newest swords brought in might be placed closest to the door.”

Despite how Kirito, who revealing his reasoning, would normally childishly show a proud smile at such times, he was now for some reason staring solemnly at his own black sword. But he then immediately exhaled, approached the wall, and gripped the black leather sheath after reaching for it with his right hand.

He froze for a fleeting instant, as if hesitating, but lifted it off the metal supports before long. Following that, he took the Blue Rose Sword at its side with his left hand and tossed it. Eugeo caught it in a panic and the familiar weight made itself known to his wrist.

Despite spending less than a few days away from his beloved sword, a powerful sense of nostalgia and relief that surprised even Eugeo himself flooded through him and he tightly grasped the sheath with both hands.

The Blue Rose Sword was always close to him and had helped him out countless times ever since the Gigas Cedar was felled back home. It was there when he had entered the swordsmanship tournament in the town of Zakkaria; it was there when he had challenged the entrance examinations for the Sword Mastery Academy; it was even there when he had disobeyed the Taboo Index and amputated Humbert’s arm.

If the Axiom Church had always been gathering all kinds of powerful equipment over the many years, them overlooking this Blue Rose Sword, laying dormant in the north cave, was truly good fortune—or perhaps fate. Evidence that following the path of taking Alice back was definitely not a mistake…

“Stop getting all overwhelmed already, hurry up and wear it.”

Abruptly regaining his senses at Kirito’s voice, mingled with laughter, he saw that his partner had already attached his beloved sword’s sheath onto the clasp of his sword belt. Eugeo followed suit while showing an embarrassed smile, ending with a pat on its pommel and looked around as he pondered on their next step. The elite-looking armor lined up on the ground had engraved nameplates hung on them, with names such as [Senrai Armor] or [Shinzan Kacchu]*, inciting quite an interest from him.

“…What should we do, Kirito? We’ll probably be able to find one that suits us with this many around, do you want to borrow some armor too?”

“Naah, we haven’t worn armor before, right? It’s best not to do what you’re not used to. Let’s just take those clothes over there.”

Looking towards the place his partner pointed and true enough, he saw clothes in a variety of colors arranged at a section within the ranks of the armor. Looking down at his own body, he found spots torn and frayed on the academy uniform he had worn from two days ago due to the fight and subsequent retreat from Knight Eldrie.

“True, they’ll likely become indistinguishable from rags sooner or later at the rate we’re going.”

The two luminous elements drifting overhead were gradually losing their radiance too. Casting away his lingering regrets over the armor, he ran over to the clothes section and haphazardly dug through the fabric that seemed to be of high quality, looking for a coat and trousers that matched his frame. Turning their backs to each other, they quickly changed.

Putting his hand through the sleeve of ultramarine clothes extremely similar to his academy uniform, Eugeo was shocked by the texture’s smoothness. When he turned back after changing, he saw Kirito had the same thought, stroking the black fabric with both hands.

“…These clothes definitely have their own little bit of stories to tell. It would be nice if they could stop the integrity knights’ attacks somewhat, though.”

“Now that’s hoping for too much.”

After laughing a little at his frivolous partner’s words, Eugeo’s expression tautened.

“Now then… shall we get going?”

“Yeah… I guess so.”

Trading short remarks, they returned to the entrance.

Things had gone so smoothly thus far that it could be considered disappointing, but it would hardly remain that way. Let’s proceed with our guards up—their deep, mutual nods silently included the recognition of that fact; Eugeo grasped the right handle of the doors and Kirito, the left.

Gently pulling them open together, the gap gingerly widened—

Do-ka-ka-ka! That noise came almost concurrently from the countless steel arrows that pierced through the surface of the thick doors.

“Uwah!”

“Owah!?”

The doors were hurled open with the weight of the impact; Eugeo and Kirito fell onto the ground, their rear-ends first.

A familiar knight in red armor stood on the grand staircase’s landing, far away on the opposite side of the rectangular room stretching out from the opening, starting to nock fresh arrows onto a long bow of nearly the same height. Furthermore, that was with four at the same time. There was no mistake that this was the same integrity knight riding the flying dragon in the rose garden.

The distance between us is roughly thirty mel, huh? Swords definitely can’t reach, but it’s likely the perfect range for an expert archer. And we probably won’t have the time to draw the swords at our waists from this unsightly fallen posture, let alone getting up and taking cover at the walls.

That was why I said we should wear the armor! It would have been even better if we had a shield!

Eugeo screamed thusly in his heart as the knight began drawing the longbow’s string almost simultaneously.

With things as they are, I have no choice but to give up on evading without getting hurt and use all I have to avoid a fatal wound—no, a severe wound that’ll render me immobile at the very least.

Eugeo opened his eyes wide and stared at the four nocked arrows. The dull silver-colored arrows were aimed not at their hearts, but their legs. It was as Cardinal mentioned, the order passed down to the knights was likely not to take them out, but to capture them. But in the current circumstances, getting captured was essentially the same as getting murdered.

The integrity knight drew the strained bowstring to its limit.

A moment of stillness arrived, where all motion seemed to cease—

Kirito’s tense voice pierced through that opening.

“Burst element!”

Eugeo could not instantly catch what his partner said as it was too fast. He understood its significance only after the phenomenon occurred.

A brilliant whiteness suddenly radiated across his vision.

An intense light, as if Solus had descended. It was a simple art that merely set free a luminous element, one of the «elements» that served as the foundation of elemental sacred arts, but Kirito hadn’t recited the art ritual for generating elements. Just where did—…

No, there was an element. There were luminous elements, drifting in midair, called out by both of them to illuminate the equipment vault tens of minutes ago, weren’t there? The neglected elements were on standby for any sequential art rituals. Kirito gave the order for the element floating over his head to be set free and produced that immense light.

—There was him throwing that glass fragment he had picked up during the fight with Eldrie too; I’m totally no match for him at fighting by making use of items lying around as always…

While thinking about such things, Eugeo gathered strength into his legs within the pure white light and jumped to the right with all his might.

He immediately heard the screeching noise of steel arrows digging into the stone floor, coming from where he had been until half a second ago. It would be best to take cover by the walls first, having averted a direct hit—or so he thought, when Kirito’s low shout reached his ears.

“Forward!”

Understanding his partner’s aim in an instant, Eugeo kicked off the ground once again. Not slanting off towards the right, but straight forward.

The luminous element’s explosion was from overhead, behind the pair, which meant Kirito and Eugeo did not face the light source directly, but the integrity knight’s eyes should have taken the light head-on. There was no doubt his eyesight would remain robbed for several more seconds.

The luminous element’s direct offensive ability was low when compared to thermal and cryogenic elements, and mostly used in healing arts instead, but if one were to make a weapon emanate light strongly, it possessed the promising abilities of blinding eyes and inspiring awe. Hence, it was wise to prepare an element of the opposing type, the umbra element, for the sake of neutralizing art rituals when the opponent generates a luminous element during battle; this was taught even in the academy’s lessons.

There was no way an integrity knight, standing at the apex of all swordsmen and art users, would not have heard of such common knowledge, which meant calling a new luminous element out and blinding him would not work for a second time. This was the first and last opportunity to narrow the distance from the enemy archer.

Speedy analysis of the situation and selection of actions were also an essential point of the Aincrad-style, or so Kirito told Eugeo countless times. It was a way of thinking utterly different from the High Norkia-style that emphasizes refinement and gallantry in movements. And the charm to calm one’s mind down for putting that point into practice, even in the midst of battle, was «stay cool».

A step behind his partner following the usage of the luminous element, Eugeo frantically chased after the footsteps in front. He drew the Blue Rose Sword from the left of his waist as he ran.

Having served its purpose, the luminous element vanished immediately after, and the world regained its color and form. The pair had already run into the spacious hall from the equipment vault. Affirming with both eyes wide open, that the integrity knight could be seen standing around twenty steps up the staircase ahead.

As predicted, it appeared that the knight’s vision was still impaired. His body tottered with his right hand on the face guard of that bronze-colored helmet.

It was a true stroke of luck that unlike Eldrie, the integrity knight in front of them did not wear a sword on his waist. He had an astonishing amount of self confidence, bringing nothing more than a single longbow when picking a fight indoors. He must have been convinced that he could shoot through the pair’s legs before they could approach.

Eugeo’s mind was calm, but still, he could not suppress that tiny flame of anger, languidly swaying in a corner of his consciousness.

—Integrity knight, you’re the same as Raios and Humbert. You are haughty, arrogant, and you believe yourself to always be in the right. You are convinced that you, justice incarnate, have absolutely no chance of losing.

—But that is your own vanity. Just wait, I will… prove that to you this instant!!

Pushed on by a rather foreign emotion, Eugeo charged onto the grand staircase. It was after traversing the first two steps, just as his right foot reached for the third.

The knight, standing on the landing slightly more than ten steps ahead, removed his right hand from the face guard, turned it around towards his back, and drew out steel arrows from a quiver. Every remaining one, all at the same time.

The packed bunch of arrows that his right hand nimbly brought back numbered at least thirty no matter how one looked at it. Without even granting enough time to question what he had in plan, the knight nocked the entire bunch of arrows onto the string of the longbow held horizontal with his left hand.

“Wha…”

Stopping with his foot on the third step of the grand staircase, Eugeo gulped. There ought to be no way that single slender bowstring would be able to fire thirty arrows together at once.

A metallic, creaking noise reached his ears. Something cold ran down his spine upon noticing that it was the steel arrows screaming as they endured a tremendous grip.

It appeared Kirito, who had stopped on the right, had deduced the knight’s intentions as well. It could be a bluff made in desperation, or—

An increasingly violent squealing swept out; the longbow was drawn back heavily.

“—Jump back to the left!”

Kirito shrieked.

Binn! The air reverberated, followed immediately with a snapping sound as the bowstring broke under the pressure.

But every single one of the thirty steel arrows were fired out into a radial pattern, cascading down onto the pair as a lethal, silver storm.

Eugeo kicked off the stairs with such force that he thought his right foot broken, pitching his body towards the left. He laid the Blue Rose Sword across the center of his body, protecting it.

The pair surely would have been riddled with holes if the knight had not had an issue with his eyesight.

One arrow struck the Blue Rose Sword and was repelled with a shrill noise. One weaved through the right cuff of Eugeo’s trousers, one made a shallow cut at his left flank, and one grazed his left cheek, shearing off several strands of hair.

Loudly crashing onto the ground, shoulder first, fear made Eugeo grit his teeth as he looked down along his own body. After confirming the lack of severe wounds, he turned his face towards Kirito who had jumped towards the right.

“Kirito! You alright?!”

His black-haired partner lightly nodded with an expression that went rigid as expected upon his hoarse shout.

“So… somehow. Looks like it went through the gap in between my toes.”

He saw an arrow stuck in through the tip of Kirito’s left shoe, piercing through the sole, when he took a look. While giving thanks to his partner’s reaction speed and good luck, Eugeo took a deep breath of air.

“…That was dangerous…”

He murmured as he urged his numbed body to stand.

When he looked up at the landing, the integrity knight had truly ceased motion this time round. The quiver on his back was empty and the longbow’s string, too, was broken and dangling loosely. This was truly what running out of options meant, with his bow broken and arrows spent*. But the opponent was an integrity knight, so it would be unacceptable to let down one’s guard, not to mention this was no situation for pity.

“…Let’s go.”

His partner gave a subdued call and Eugeo set his right foot onto the stairs once again.

But Kirito instructed Eugeo, with his left hand still gripping onto the arrow extracted from his shoe.

“Wait… that knight’s reciting an…”

“Eh.”

Eugeo pricked up his ears in a fluster. So long as they weren’t at a distance where they could slash the enemy with a single bound, it was imperative to generate the opposing element when he starts to recite a sacred art. He focused on the voice, warped in a metallic manner, uttered from under the integrity knight’s helmet. He chanted rather fast, but he caught it somehow, perhaps because he was made to study in that library room.

However, each and every phrase in that ritual was new to his ears. He couldn’t adopt a countermeasure without the phrase that included «generate», that determined the type of element.

“Crap, that’s…”

In that moment, Kirito’s voice came out in a gasp.

“This isn’t an elemental attack. It’s the «armament full control art».”

Before those strained words could end, the integrity knight shouted the final phrase lucidly.

“—Enhance armament!”

With a ‘po’ sound, orange flames were born at the bowstring’s two torn and dangling ends. The flames consumed the bowstring in the blink of an eye and then something occurred the moment they reached the two tips of the longbow.

A deep crimson blaze swirled up from the entire copper bow.

A fervor that seemed enough to scorch one’s skin extended to the bottom of the stairs and Eugeo instinctively shielded his face. The integrity knight standing at the landing draped the flames surging out from the bow around his whole body, looking as though he was set ablaze.

Eugeo was at a loss on what action to take, with the utterly unforeseen development. Should he conclude that the knight had no offensive ability even after using the full control art, since those arrows were already spent, and rush in? Or perhaps the knight spent all the arrows on the attack just a moment ago because they were no longer necessary in the full control state?

Wondering which his partner saw it as, he took a fleeting glance at the side and saw Kirito staring in wonder, with even a faint smile upon his lips just like a child, neither drawing back nor charging in.

“Now this is amazing… I wonder what the origin of that bow is.”

“This isn’t any time to admire it.”

He felt like knocking against Kirito’s shoulder out of habit, but he held it back and looked up at the knight once more. They could use the full control art they had recently learned as well, to deal with the opponent’s art ritual, but there was no doubt the other side would not permit that. It was certain they would be attacked before they could finish reciting the lengthy art ritual. If they were inclined to use it, they couldn’t possible complete it in time unless they had started chanting with the opponent.

With things this far developed, there was naught but to adapt to the opponent’s moves; Eugeo resolved himself for the worst, but it appeared the integrity knight intended for a respite for the time being as well, raising his helmet’s visor with his right hand while the blazing bow remained in his left.

His face wasn’t visible, sunk deep within the shadows cast by the flames, but Eugeo discerned an intense gleam in his eyes that actually reminded him of steel arrows. The voice that followed, too, carried a mechanical reverberation that made it seem unlike a human’s.

“—It has truly been two years since I basked in the flames of the «Conflagrant Flame Bow» in this manner. I see, it does appear that you possess enough ability to exchange blows with Knight Eldrie Synthesis Thirty-one, criminals. However, that makes it more unforgivable. To not engage in a fair and proper battle between knights, but to deceive Thirty-one through those repulsive darkness arts!”

“Dar… darkness arts, you say?”

Kirito spoke from the side, as though he was taken aback. Eugeo lost his breath for a moment too, then vehemently shook his head as he shouted.

“Th… that’s not it, we haven’t used darkness arts or anything like that! We were merely talking about Eldrie-san before he became an integrity knight and…”

“What, before he became an integrity knight!? We integrity knights do not have a past of our own! We have always been glorious integrity knights from the moment we were summoned from the Celestial World!!”

The steel-like, enraged words made the grand staircase tremble and snatched Eugeo’s breath away.

According to the girl, Cardinal, all of the integrity knights have had their memories sealed away before becoming one. In other words, this red knight before his eyes, too, simply believed thoroughly that «he was summoned from the Celestial World».

It seemed possible to stir integrity knights into unrest if their original memories, blocked by that object called a «piety module», were stimulated, but that was impossible when he weren’t even aware of the opponent’s name. In short, he couldn’t be immobilized with the same method used in Eldrie’s case.

The knight let out a thunderous voice with heightened severity in the midst of the endless sparks scattered by the longbow.

“I will not reduce the two to you to cinders as I was ordered to capture you alive, but prepare yourself to have an arm burnt away with the Conflagrant Flame Bow now released as you can see! Try all you wish, to see if those shoddy swords are capable of slipping through these flames of conviction and reaching me!!”

The knight placed his right hand approximately where the bow, raised high, would originally have held its string. Before even allowing the time to ponder what the gesture his fingertip adopted, like gripping onto something, meant—

Intense flames surged out in front of the bow and transformed into a single arrow in an instant. Eugeo’s back went rigid upon vividly sensing an absurd amount of power contained within that flame arrow brilliantly gleaming.

“Guess neither breaking the bowstring nor running out of arrows mattered.”

Kirito voiced with a dull groan at his side, so he gathered strength into his jaw that seemed like it was about to tremble and quickly answered.

“Any plans?”

“He can’t shoot multiple times in a row, that’s my hunch. I’ll stop his first attack somehow, so you go in for the kill.”

“Hunch, hey…”

—In other words, that meant everything was over if that flame arrow could be shot consecutively. However, even if it was a single shot, that was evidence enough to prove that it possessed enough might to kill in one attack. wasn’t it? Doubts over how Kirito would defend against an attack like that burgeoned, but Eugeo shrugged them off and nodded.

“—Got it.”

Kirito would probably stop it if he said he could. This was far more realistic when compared to the absurdity of him chopping down the Gigas Cedar when he said he would.

Perhaps interpreting the pair, returning to a stance with their respective sword at the ready, as resolving themselves for the worst, the integrity knight started to draw the invisible string with an air of composure.

The heat caressing Eugeo’s cheeks strengthened further. The flames emitted from the longbow, apparently named Conflagrant Flame Bow, had already reached the landing’s ceiling and were scorching the marble black.

Kirito moved without warning.

With neither a war cry, nor a strong kick off the ground, he charged forth like a leaf from a tree swept away by rapid currents. A split second late, Eugeo followed behind in agitation.

Only a faint, blue light shone through his partner’s loosely gripped fist as he ran up the steps, but Eugeo still noticed. He had probably generated them in secret while the knight delivered his speech, and he had no doubt that was the radiance emitted by cryogenic elements.

The knight finally drew the longbow to its limit when they approached the halfway point of the twenty-steps staircase.

An art ritual rapidly gushed out from Kirito’s mouth at the same time.

“Form element, shield shape! Discharge!”

The number of elements that lined up and shot forward from his left fist, sharply thrust out, was the maximum simultaneous limit for a single hand, five. The blue points of light successively transformed into large, round shields, starting with the foremost, and creating a thick obstruction between Kirito and the integrity knight.

A ferocious voice roared out from the knight’s mouth for the third time when he saw that.

“Don’t make me laugh!—Pierce through them!!”

The accumulated conflagration, that flame arrow—no, it would be more accurate to call it a spear by now, fired with a jolt, its howl bringing to mind a fire dragon’s breath.

The flame spear came into contact with the ice shield Kirito had created after an instant of flight.

The first shield dispersed in a transient moment, its fragments immediately turning into vapor as well.

The second and third, too, were penetrated before the noise of shattering reached his ears.

The fourth shield had its core, where the arrow struck, deeply bent inwards, but as expected, it wasn’t enough and dispersed. Looking through the final shield remaining, the flame spear that drew close to his eyes and nose colored his vision bright red.

But still, Eugeo did not slacken his pace and continued dashing up the stairs. He couldn’t leave his partner, right before his eyes, charging forward savagely alone.

Eugeo gritted his teeth and caught sight of the flame spear that collided with the fifth shield in front, finally losing some of its impetus, regardless of how little that reduction was. Sparks were violently thrown into the air when it was unable to break through the barrier originating from its counter elemental attribute.

“——!?”

Eugeo’s eyes flashed wide open in that moment. It appeared like the blazing spear beyond the semi-transparent ice wall changed its form for an instant. The form, with a beak wide open and wings spread out, was practically the same as a bird of prey…

But without giving Eugeo even the chance to blink, countless cracks surfaced on the final shield and it smashed into pieces.

A heatwave that denied him from even breathing then descended. The flame spear, no, flaming bird that had penetrated through every barrier made a savage assault as though to consume Kirito within its flames as well.

“Uooooh!!”

That was when a spirited yell finally surged out from Kirito’s mouth. He sharply thrust the black sword held in his right hand forward.

He’s not going to try slashing that giant bird, is he, Eugeo wondered. However.

The sword Kirito extended straight forward traced an inconceivable arc. It spun like a windmill, moving lightning-fast with those five shining fingers acting as the fulcrum.

But that speed was extraordinary. It was unknown how exactly those fingers moved, the blade rotated with more momentum than the eyes could follow, as if a semi-transparent black shield had made its appearance there.

The flaming bird’s head made contact with the sixth shield.

Dowaa!! That thunderous noise might have been the giant bird’s enraged howl—

The lethal blaze that had smashed through five ice walls was shredded into over a thousand scraps by the rotating blade, scattering it away in a radial manner. But a few among those enveloped Kirito’s body, causing small explosions one after another.

Watching his partner’s body whisked into the air as though it was repelled, Eugeo screamed.

“Kirito—!!”

Even while he was swallowed by the endless sparks, Kirito shouted back from the air.

“Don’t stop, Eugeo!!”

Shaking off his momentary indecision, Eugeo glared forward. Kirito would never stop and let a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity escape in this situation. He had accomplished what he said he would. So he would surely have to fulfil his side of the deal.

Passing his partner, as he fell down on the right, Eugeo leapt up the remaining steps.

Cutting through the remains of the blaze that drifted in the air in a single surge, the landing where the knight stood in the way was practically right before him.

It must have been beyond the integrity knight’s expectations as well, for that attack, that took all of his might from the armament full control art, to be repelled without inflicting any injury. His actual face still couldn’t be seen from this distance, but he sensed a hint of surprise from within the helmet. There was no longer enough time to draw the bow and fire another shot. As long as he wasn’t armed with a sword, by allowing him to close the distance—

-It’s your loss!

Eugeo brandished the Blue Rose Sword aloft while projecting that silent cry.

“Don’t underestimate me, rascal!!”

The knight bellowed as if he heard Eugeo’s thoughts.

The shade of surprise vanished in an instant and an overwhelming fighting spirit enveloped the copper-hued heavy armor. The left arm that held the burning longbow was raised high, overhead, and the terrible flames gathered in his fist once more.

“Doaah!!”

Alongside a scream that rippled the burnt air, the knight’s left fist thrust out in a straight line.

—What now!?

He had already launched into a lunge, but that thought flashed through the depths of his mind for an instant.

Normally thinking about it, both the range and power would be higher on this side, when comparing the sword and the fist. But the other side was standing in a favorable position. Would the comparatively slender Blue Rose Sword be able to push back the fist thrown from the integrity knight who was not only tall, but had the advantage of being three steps above as well? Should he avoid here and attack again after climbing up to the landing?

No—

Kirito, a knight of the Aincrad-style who was Eugeo’s teacher while being his close friend, had once mentioned this.

—In this world, what’s important is to put something into your sword.

—You have to be the one to find what to put into your sword.

It was the same for the one who mentored Eugeo, Gorgolosso-senpai, the one who mentored Kirito, Sortiliena-senpai, and even the haughty yet dishonorable nobles, Raios and Humbert; they possessed something that endowed their swords with power. But Eugeo personally felt he was still searching for one. His daily training piled up more than anyone else and he understood various secret moves, but he had yet to find something to imbue into his own sword. It might even be something he might never find for all of eternity, as one not born as a swordsman.

Still. At the very least, he could not succumb to this integrity knight’s vigor and draw his sword back this particular time. After all, the time for him to devote single-mindedly to sword practice was over. Eugeo had an unwavering objective now. To regain Alice, turned into an integrity knight with her memories stolen.

——Alice.

Yes, that was all that mattered. He could do nothing but watch as his childhood friend was taken away by a knight on that summer day eight years ago; this time, he would save her for sure. His proficiency in swordsmanship, his knowledge in sacred arts, polishing all of that was for that purpose.

—Please, lend me your strength. I am still inexperienced and might not be cut out to be the master of a renowned sword like yourself… But I can’t help but to go forward now!

While calling out within his heart, Eugeo firmly bent his entire body after taking a stance with the Blue Rose Sword held overhead.

A vivid blue light enveloped the faintly translucent blade. Aincrad-style secret move, «Vertical».

“O… oohh!”

Guided by a keen intent, the sword lunged forth. A tempestuous thrum, unique to secret moves, reverberated from the blade as it flashed through the air and clashed against the integrity knight’s conflagrant left fist.

The shock wave of the blue and red lights coalescing into one and dispersing outwards in a circle, tore up the red carpet laid over the stairs and the fabric hanging on the walls. The fist and sword remained unmoving in midair, still joined together.

Creak, creak; the armored gauntlet and sword blade grated against each other. Eugeo exerted all of his might in an attempt to complete the secret move, but the knight’s arm didn’t make the slightest movement, as though it were a rock. However, the opponent didn’t seem to have much surplus composure either. A low groan escaped from inside the helmet as he shifted his entire body weight into his fist.

It was a stalemate, but one that lasted for utter seconds. The flames released from the Conflagrant Flame Bow still held in the knight’s fist started licking at the Blue Rose Sword as well. The light of the secret move that covered the blade flickered as though it could not endure the heat. If «Vertical» was interrupted here, it was certain that the sword would be swept away in an instant and he would suffer from the scorching-hot attack head-on.

“Gu… uh, oo….!”

Eugeo mustered all of his physical and mental strength in a bid to swing the sword down. However, the flames continued to intensify and the blade began to turn red-hot.

He hadn’t paid attention to it until now, but the Blue Rose Sword possessed an elemental attribute of ice according to the «sword’s memories» he saw in the Great Library Room. As such, it would be weak against searing flames, its opposing element, and keeping this situation up for too long was quite capable of exhausting its Life to a dangerous degree.

But at the same time, it ought to be possible to negate the enemy’s flames with the sword’s element.

—You were tempered by the coldest blizzard in the mountain range at the edge since the creation of this world.

—Don’t you dare lose to a sheer flame like this!

Perhaps responding to Eugeo’s cry—

An abrupt chill came forth, stinging not only his right hand, holding the grip, but the left hand that supported the pommel as well. It surely was no hallucination. As proof, the miniature roses carved upon its guard were being covered in a pure white frost. The frost turned into thin tendrils, rapidly creeping up the blade, and dispersing the licking flames.

The phenomenon did not end there. The pure white ice tendrils stretched out onto even the knight’s adjacent fist, showering frost to dispel the flames wrapped around the copper-colored armor…

“Nuhh…”

Perhaps due to the impossible chilly sensation, a groan escaped from the knight. Not missing the instant his opponent’s posture faltered, regardless of how minor it was, Eugeo released the power he had stored up.

Gyaan! A ear-splitting noise swelled out, the sword swung down and repulsed the knight’s left fist.

However, the sword tip did not touch the enemy’s body, unfortunately. The knight aimed at Eugeo, fruitlessly slashing the sword straight down, and sent out his right fist without a moment’s delay. It wasn’t blazing, but suffering the rock-like impact of that strong fist would propel Eugeo away to the bottom of the staircase without any difficulty.

But.

“I… eeaaah!”

Alongside that tempestuous yell, Eugeo’s sword swung up from a sharp angle.

Slashing back with the Blue Rose Sword, heavier than a lump of steel of equivalent size, through physical strength alone, was impossible regardless of how strong one was. There was only one reason why it was made possible: it was a secret move from a swordsmanship style. Aincrad-style two-hits skill, «Vertical Arc».

The blade that swiftly carved out a trail that resembled the sacred letter, ‘V’, sliced through the integrity knight’s breastplate diagonally. A few deep crimson drops spattered from the gash sliced into the copper-colored armor. The sword tip caught the knight’s flesh—but it was only shallow.

As the knight freed his upper body, he braced his legs and leapt backwards. He would be granted the room to fire those flaming attacks once again if the distance were widened here. However, there was a brief, compulsory period of rigidness after the usage of any secret move.

Kirito had told him to constantly think about how to eliminate that gigantic pause caused from using a secret move. Of course, it wasn’t a problem if the slash hit, but there was the danger of suffering from a fatal counterattack in the case where it was warded off, dodged, or failed to stop the opponent’s movements like this time.

The rigidness caused by secret moves was unpreventable and nothing could be done about it even if one was expecting it. He could come up with methods to eliminate that delay, like switching with an ally or releasing a pre-generated wind element to create distance through wind pressure. But Kirito was blown away to the hall and there wasn’t enough time to recite an art ritual either. That brought the remaining methods to one.

Eugeo mustered all of his physical and mental strength to control the movement of the Blue Rose Sword while it was on the trajectory of Vertical Arc’s second stroke. He held the blade, that originally should have slashed up leftwards, as though it was supported by his left shoulder. The blue light covering the blade suddenly vanished due to the excessive strength injected, but that didn’t matter as the attack itself had already ended.

The Blue Rose Sword halted atop his shoulder just as the knight harshly kicked off the ground. The landing of the grand staircase was wide, and he probably had the plan of firing yet another blazing spear while Eugeo was petrified if he succeeded in retreating to the wall’s edge. There would be no way for Eugeo to defend if he permitted that.

The final method to break through the enforced rigidness.

That was to link a new secret move to a secret move. By performing the activation stance of the next skill atop the ending stance of the previous skill, the period of rigidness could be erased. It was the secret move among secret moves that even his teacher, Kirito, could accomplish only half of the time, «connecting skills»—

“……!!”

Letting out a sharp breath of air, Eugeo hoped for the skill’s activation with all his heart. Immediately after, the sword vividly shone once again. His body leapt forth as if he flicked there. The blade slashing down from the upper-left growled as it drew close to the integrity knight. One-hit secret move, «Slant».

At last, the knight’s two eyes opened wide within that helmet.

Neither the pain that assailed his right eye, nor those spinning bright-red sacred letters made an appearance as they had when he tried to slash Raios and Humbert. There wasn’t even any indecision or hesitation. The single notion of cutting an enemy deserving of it set Eugeo’s entire body into motion.

The Blue Rose Sword fiercely swung down straight at the knight’s right shoulder. Following the metallic noise from the spaulder splitting apart, the dull and heavy impact transmitted itself to Eugeo’s right hand. The resistance he felt from the tightly grasped sword was unmistakably from slicing human muscle and crushing human bones.

Inflicted with a deep gash reaching from his shoulder through to his chest, the integrity knight was thrown onto his back, onto the ground.

“Goahh!”

The confined voice whispered out from beneath the helmet and immediately after, a massive amount of blood spurted out from the helmet’s base, visibly redder than than the copper color of the armor.

This made it the second time he had cut a human, but Eugeo still felt his breath stop for a moment. A sort of squeezing sensation beset the pit of his stomach upon noticing the feedback that remained on his right hand, but he desperately forced it down.

As though in agreement with Eugeo’s feelings, the Blue Rose Sword emitted yet another intense wave of cold air, turning all of the blood that clung to the blade to frost and after shaking that off, it returned to its usual state. The knight’s right shoulder was frozen pure white when he looked, the dripping blood formed into a small icicle.

“Guh…”

The integrity knight let out a low groan as he raised his left hand that still held onto the bow, trying to move it towards the wound. Eugeo gathered power back into his right hand that held onto his sword upon seeing that. He would have to slash the fallen knight once more if the opponent began to recite sacred arts. As a high ranking user would be able to use all of the sacred energy in the surrounding air to restore Life, he would have to inflict a severe injury on his mouth, slice his arm off, or perhaps, there was no method to render him powerless aside from taking his life.

However, it seemed the knight gave up on healing upon noticing his left fist was utterly frozen and unable to let go of the bow that had already lost its flames. Subtle movements with the fingertips were necessary for elemental art rituals. Letting out a long sigh with what appeared to be a crooked smile, his arm fell onto the ground with a crack.

Eugeo was at a loss on what to do now. The chill produced by the Blue Rose Sword had driven away the enemy’s flames, but it brought forth the effect of stopping his blood flow as well, by freezing the wounds. The knight wouldn’t be able to fight any longer, but neither would he die. The frozen left hand would defrost eventually if left alone, and he might give chase after fully recovering through sacred arts.

The one who spoke first was the integrity knight, as Eugeo stood still while chewing on his teeth.

“…Youngsters…”

Eugeo straightened his posture at that voice, hoarse yet maintaining its dignity, but the narrative that followed was a little unexpected.

“What is the name of that secret move you first used…?”

“……”

He was puzzled for just a little, but Eugeo moved his dry lips and answered.

“…It’s from the Aincrad style of swordsmanship, a two-hits skill, «Vertical Arc».”

“Two… hits skill.”

Repeating his words, the knight stayed silent for a moment, but soon resumed his questions.

“You there… what was the skill you used…?”

The knight’s helmet made a slight motion, so Eugeo shifted his view towards the back for a sheer instant. When he did so, he saw Kirito, burnt in various spots, slowly climbing the stairs while pressing down on his left arm and dragging his right leg along.

“Kirito… how are your injuries!?”

When he answered in a panic, his partner gave a weak laugh.

“It’s fine, I prevented most of the severe burns. …Mister Knight, what I used was the Aincrad-style defensive skill, «Spinning Shield».”

“……”

Upon hearing that, the knight peered up at the ceiling as his helmet creaked, then sunk back into silence.

The voice that flowed out several seconds later was hushed, as if he was addressing himself, rather than Eugeo and Kirito.

“…I have always planned to search through the Human World from end to end… and whatever lies beyond that… but it appears swords and skills unknown to me do still exist within this world… —Your skills are suffused with the might from the accumulation of earnest training. It was my mistake… to accuse both of you of leading Knight Eldrie into depravity through deplorable arts…”

The integrity knight moved his head once more, shifting his vision towards Eugeo from within the face guard.

“…Won’t you… tell me your names?”

After exchanging a glance with Kirito, Eugeo curtly stated his name.

“…Swordsman Eugeo. No family name.”

“I’m Swordsman Kirito.”

After nodding as though he was deliberating over their names, the integrity knight let words emerge that were even more unexpected.

“…Several integrity knights are awaiting the both of you on the fiftieth floor of the cathedral, in the «Grand Cloister of Spiritual Light». Not to capture you alive, but to eliminate the Life of you both and to take your mortal lives… The next breath you take will likely be your last, the instant you choose to sortie with a frontal charge as you did earlier.”

“Hey… hey, mister, you sure it’s okay for you to say something like that?”

Kirito interjected in slight bewilderment. But the knight faintly revealed what resembled a smile again and muttered.

“As have I failed to accomplish Administrator-sama’s command… My emblems of being a knight, this armor and sacred instrument, shall be confiscated and I will be penalized by being frozen for an indefinite period of time… —Please cleave my Life before I suffer such disgrace… with your own hands.”

“……”

The knight added on, looking to the speechless Eugeo and Kirito.

“There is no need for hesitation… after all… your magnificent sword skills have already brought forth defeat…”

They heard his name next—one enough of a shock to stop Eugeo from breathing.

“Mine… Of this integrity knight, Deusolbert Synthesis Seven.”

This wasn’t to the degree of only mildly recalling it from somewhere.

That name was one deeply engraved upon Eugeo’s soul, not fading away for even an instant, over these eight tangible years. It encompassed a profound regret and despair, along with anger accompanying them.

“Deusol… bert? That time… you were…?”

Eugeo heard the voice choked out from his own throat, a hoarse one that seemed to belong to someone else.

The color of his armor was different and all the voices of the integrity knights took on a similar metallic echo with their helmet on, so he hadn’t actually noticed up until now, but still, in that case, the knight who lay collapsed before his eyes right now was the one who had once stood before Eugeo’s eyes and—

Some sort of impact pushed Eugeo from behind and he took several unsteady steps forward.

“Eugeo…?”

Kirito’s questioning voice barely made it to his ears. His upper body stooped over, he peered at the face within the helmet close up.

Perhaps some sort of art ritual had been applied to the helmet, as the knight’s face was actually shrouded in darkness even after the gap was shortened to several tens of cen. However, he could clearly perceive those two eyes that retained their strength even after that huge quantity of Life was sheared off. They seemed both young and weathered, with sharp corners.

Moving his parched lips, Eugeo whispered in a grating tone.

“You said to cleave… your Life…? It was a magnificent duel, you said…?”

His right hand convulsed uncontrollably while the Blue Rose Sword still in his hand began to radiate an intense chill once again. A white frost immediately wrapped around the integrity knight’s armor, right before the sword’s point.

Eugeo set loose the feverish mass that suddenly swelled out from the depths of his stomach, threatening to even tear his throat apart, in a single breath.

“Binding! Binding up a girl of merely eleven in chains… and hanging her off a flying dragon as you took her away… someone like you has absolutely no right to use such wordssss——!!”

Eugeo raised the Blue Rose Sword up high in a reverse grip.

He wanted to thrust through the mouth belonging to the knight that spewed those utterly unforgivable words all the way into the ground, dissipating what was left of his Life at the same time.

However, a severe and throbbing pain hindered his right hand from moving. It was not his right eye that hurt, but somewhere deep within his chest. It was a sort of pain that felt as though someone was frantically trying to pull Eugeo back.

With the sword still held aloft, Eugeo, his body trembling strongly, had his right arm—

Gently held back by Kirito’s left hand, reaching out from beside him.

“……Why, did you stop me, Kirito…”

Swaying in the maelstrom of his emotions, on the verge of losing all sense of reason, Eugeo questioned his partner, the person he trusted over any and everyone else in the world.

Kirito stared hard at Eugeo with eyes tinged with a pain he had personally endured, slowly shaking his head left and right.

“That mister has already lost his spirit to fight. You mustn’t turn your sword onto an opponent like that…”

“But… but this person… this person was the one who took Alice away… this person…”

Offering rebuttals like a spoiled child, a part of Eugeo’s mind had already understood what Kirito was trying to say.

The integrity knights, too, were primarily nothing more than existences mobilized by orders from the Axiom Church—orders from the highest minister. The one who abducted Alice was the church itself, a result of this world’s distorted law and order.

But on the other hand, the urge to abandon the righteous standpoint and mince the collapsed knight into remnants did not disappear. The feelings of rage, powerlessness, and guilt that had piled up since that summer day were not of a degree capable of vanishing simply by finding out about the contrivances behind the world after all this time.

Toppled wicker basket at his feet. Bread and cheese defiled by sand. Ice melted by sunlight.

Chains with a dull gleam constricting Alice’s blue one-piece dress. And his two feet, immobile as though roots grew from them.

…Kirito—Kirito.

You would probably have tried to hack away at the integrity knight and help Alice back then. You would have done it even knowing that you would be arrested and sent for a trial.

But I couldn’t. Despite how Alice was my only friend, a girl more important than anyone else, I couldn’t do anything but watch. Watch as this knight, now collapsed here before my eyes, bound Alice and took her away.

A storm of emotions, filled with such fragmentary thoughts, swept through the entirety of his mind. The right arm restrained by Kirito trembled, the sword was brandished ever higher.

However, the words Kirito spoke while focusing strength into his left hand surprised Eugeo enough to make him freeze for a moment

“…I’m sure this mister doesn’t remember it. The time he took your Alice away from Rulid Village… Not that he forgot it, but that his memory was erased.”

“Eh…?”

Eugeo looked downwards at the helmet of the collapsed knight in astonishment.

The integrity knight hadn’t stirred the slightest bit, even with the Blue Rose Sword pointed at him, now moved for the first time upon receiving stares from the pair. Forcibly opening his left fist, where the frost had finally thawed, he let go off the long bow while scattering ice fragments, and released the latch at the side of the helmet with his fingertips.

The helmet, constructed to appear menacing, opened as though to split apart, front and back, and now peeled off the knight’s head, falling with a thud. What appeared was the face of a male who was the very image of perseverance, around the age of forty.

His hair, cut short, and thick eyebrows were an ashen-red similar to rusted iron. His high nose bridge and pursed lips were straight like a cut from a knife while the sharpness of his eyes brought to mind the steel of arrowheads.

However, his deep gray eyes alone revealed the unrest within his heart, slightly wavering. The thin lips moved and the voice that streamed out was completely different from how it had been until now, a low tone with depth.

“…It is… as that black-haired youngster has mentioned. You say I captured a young girl and took her away on a flying dragon? I have no recollection of carrying out such a deed.”

“No… no recollection…? It was only eight years ago…”

Muttering in a daze, strength leeched from Eugeo’s right arm without his notice. Touching his chin as though sunk in thought with the left hand that he now detached from Eugeo, Kirito spoke once more.

“Like I said, they were erased… your memories of the whole deed, from beginning to end. Mister… no, Knight Deusolbert, you were the integrity knight who protected the remote northern region, north of Norlangarth, am I correct?”

“…Indeed. The Northern Norlangarth Seventh Remote Region was… the region I oversaw. Yes… that was, until eight years ago…”

The knight’s eyebrows strongly rose together, as if they were trying to dredge something up from the deepest depths of his memories.

“And I… was bestowed with this armor along with the duty of guarding the Central Cathedral… due to a great achievement…”

“Do you recall what that achievement was?”

The knight could not give an immediate answer to Kirito’s question. His lips pressed tightly together, his sight wandering about. What broke the short silence were words from Kirito once again.

“I’ll answer that for you. Your achievement was searching out Integrity Knight Alice Synthesis Thirty. At a small village at the end of the northern region, somewhere no one knew about from the central capital. Even though the highest minister, Administrator, credited the achievement of bringing Alice to this tower to you, she also had to erase all memories regarding this incident from you… The reason for that was mentioned by you yourself earlier.”

Without anyone noticing, Kirito continued talking, in a quick tone that was quicker than both Eugeo and the integrity knight, as though he was speaking to himself.

“Integrity knights have no history, they were summoned from the Celestial World, after all; that’s what you said. That must have definitely been what the highest minister taught you immediately after you woke up as a knight. That’s why you have no memories from before you became an integrity knight; that’s how she persuaded you. But to persist with that story, it would be a problem not only if integrity knights had memories from their human lives remaining, but also if they had memories concerning the birth of a new knight aside from themselves. It would be chaos if a major criminal that you brought in yourself suddenly appeared as a fellow knight the next day, after all… there lies the highest minister’s weakness…”

Thinking through various facets at a monstrous speed, Kirito began pacing left and right while looking downwards.

With all of his will draining from him while he looked at his partner’s state, Eugeo took a long breath while taking another look at the male lying at his feet. When he did, Integrity Knight Deusolbert, too, appeared to be sunk in his thoughts with a blank expression.

It wasn’t like his rage and hatred had vanished, but if his memories regarding Alice had truly been erased without a trace, then he had no choice but to accept it—perhaps.

That all the knights were nothing more than pawns manipulated by that one who served as the highest minister of the Axiom Church, Administrator. That the hateful enemy who stole Alice from him, stole her memories from her, and nurtured her into an integrity knight was all a single person, Administrator.

Perhaps noticing Eugeo’s gaze looking down upon himself, Deusolbert’s eyes ceased wandering. The emotions likely swirling within his chest were unreadable, but the voice that flowed from his lips was in a complete stammer, a voice that made one want to question whether he truly was the same person as that formidable opponent who had stood before the pair, sheer minutes ago.

“That shouldn’t… be possible… How could we integrity knights be denizens of the Human World like the rest of you before we were appointed as knights……?”

“……”

Substituting Eugeo who was at a loss for words, Kirito answered again.

“The blood that flows from that wound of yours is red, just like ours, isn’t it? And Knight Eldrie becoming strange that time wasn’t because of some dodgy art cast on him either. It was because we tried to call back the memories stolen from him. …You ought to be the same as Eldrie also. I don’t know whether you achieved victory at the Four Empire Unity Tournament or held disdain for the Taboo Index, but you had your important memories stolen by Administrator with the loyalty towards the church planted in their place and was turned into an integrity knight. You mentioned that you would be penalized by getting frozen, but Administrator-sama would probably be altering your memories during that time and erasing your memories of this conversation too. I’d even bet on it.”

The way Kirito expressed it was blunt, but his voice was mingled with melancholy.

Perhaps the knight felt that as well, as he shut his eyelids and kept silent for a while, but he slowly then shook his head once more.

“I am unable to believe it. How could Her Eminence, the highest minister… cast such an art upon……”

“But that’s reality. There ought to be something left within you as well. An important memory from before you became a knight, one that cannot be expunged by any art ritual…”

When Kirito approached it from that angle, Deusolbert suddenly raised his left hand up and stared at his burly fingers as he softly murmured in a sigh.

“Ever since I have descended into the Human World… I have always seen this same dream, time after time… A petite hand shaking me awake… and a silver ring worn on one of those fingers… Yet when I awake… there is never anyone…”

Deusolbert’s eyebrows squeezed together and he firmly pressed his left hand down upon his forehead. Kirito stared fixedly at that scene, but soon muttered softly.

“You probably can’t remember any more than that. Your memories of the one whose hand and ring that belonged to was stolen by Administrator…”

Keeping silent for a moment, he returned the lowered black sword in his right hand back into its sheath attached to the left of his waist with a clink.

“…You decide what to do from now on. Whether to return to Administrator’s side to receive your punishment, or to heal your injuries and chase after us… or maybe…”

Cutting short there, Kirito took several steps towards the staircase that stretched upwards from the right side of the landing. Coming to a halt there, he twisted over his shoulder and looked Eugeo in the eye.

—Wasn’t that enough?

His black eyes spoke thusly. Eugeo turned his gaze towards the integrity knight, collapsed on the ground with his eyes shut, once again. He slowly raised the Blue Rose Sword in his right hand—and aligned its tip with the sheath on the left of his waist, gently dropping it in.

“…Let’s go.”

Taking his place beside Kirito, he curtly spoke and they began walking towards the ascending stairs together.

It was unknown which decision Integrity Knight Deusolbert Synthesis Seven would pick, but at the very least, it seemed it wouldn’t be the one to chase after the pair.



2

The sound of the pair’s soles striding up the marble stairs reverberated alone for a brief period of time.

Without that, their surroundings would be engulfed in a silence, piercing enough to hurt one’s ears. There should be a great number of ascetics and their apprentices living in the giant tower of the Axiom Church, according to the extent of Eugeo’s knowledge, but he could sense nothing close to any human presence, no matter how hard he strained his ears or focused his eyes.

Additionally, the sight that greeted him at each new floor he climbed up—a rectangular hall with corridors stretching left and right, doors lined up in identical intervals along them—was practically indistinguishable, giving him the impression that an illusory art had been placed on them unseen, making them ascend and descend the same staircase over and over again.

He wanted to try entering one of the corridors and opening a nearby door to ascertain that was not the case, but Kirito silently kept up his constant pace in front, so he told himself not to get distracted. If Deusolbert’s words proved true, even stronger enemies would be awaiting them on the fiftieth floor of the cathedral, somewhere a little higher on this staircase.

Gently touching the grip of his beloved sword swaying at the left of his waist, at the moment Eugeo tried to shake away his idle thoughts, Kirito’s feet came to an abrupt stop immediately before reaching the landing.

Turning around with a serious expression, he spoke with a tense tone, going,

“Hey, Eugeo. ……Which floor are we on now…?”

“Hey… hey now.”

After an instinctive, slight stumble, Eugeo breathed a sigh, shook his head, and dropped his shoulders, all at the same time.

“It’s the twenty-ninth floor next. I thought it might be the case, but to think you really weren’t counting.”

“Don’t you think it would only be proper to have floor indicators on the staircase, normally?”

“That might be true, but you still should have noticed it after all this time!”

Tuning out Eugeo’s gesture as though it didn’t concern him, Kirito leaned his back onto the landing’s wall with a thump.

“Nonetheless, we’re still that far, huh… I thought we had gone pretty high up too… I’m getting hungry…”

“…Well, you aren’t alone on that one.”

Close to five hours had already passed since they were treated to that luxurious breakfast in Cardinal’s Great Library Room. Solus was approaching the center of the sky from what could be seen through the long and thin window, and with how they had climbed twenty-five floors, which would be a thousand steps, in addition to going through a single, intense battle, it was certainly unavoidable that their bodies were demanding replenishments.

Nodding at Kirito’s words, Eugeo followed up by holding his right hand out without reserve.

“So, hand over one of those in your trouser pockets.”

“Eh… no, these are, well, for emergency use, so… —Your eyes are unexpectedly sharp, huh.”

“There’s no way I wouldn’t have noticed with how stuffed those are, right?”

Kirito thrust his hand into his right pocket with what seemed like resignation on his face, before taking two steaming manjuu out and tossing one of them over. Upon catching it, there was a savory aroma that provoked his stomach despite the sizable time that had passed since they had left the library room.

“It got burnt a little with that old man’s blazing attack.”

“Ha-Hah… so that’s why. Thanks for the food.”

The manjuu was created by Cardinal via a high ranking sacred art, so that meant it had originally been pages from a precious, old book, but Eugeo closed his eyes to that fact and bit into it. He momentarily savored the crunchy grill marks on its skin and the juicy minced meat filling in a trance.

The modest lunch was finished in a few tens of seconds; Eugeo licked his fingers and breathed a short sigh. There was still a suspicious lump in Kirito’s left pocket, but he decided to leave that alone while calling out to his partner who had also finished eating.

“That was good. —So, what’s the plan from now on? We’ll reach the fiftieth floor in question if we climb for another thirty minutes, but… are we going to charge in from the front?”

“Nn…”

Kirito mussed up his hair as he groaned.

“That’s right… —We found out just how scary an integrity knight can be earlier, but judging from what I saw in the battle between you and that old man, rather than those guys not being used to consecutive skills, they really don’t have any experience with them, I guess. I want to believe that we have a chance of winning if we bring it into a one-on-one melee. But with several of them there, not to mention how they’re fully prepared and awaiting us, that would be hard to set up.”

“Then… let’s give up on going in from the front and search for another route?”

“I wonder about that. Even Cardinal declared that this grand staircase was the only route and even if we found a secret passage, there’s still the danger of getting caught in a pincer attack before long… I hope to defeat the knights on the fiftieth floor without running away elsewhere, somehow. So that would bring us to having to use our trump card, but we have the time to prepare that draggy, long art ritual, thanks to the warning that old man gave us.”

“I see… The «armament full control art»…”

When Eugeo muttered it, Kirito nodded with a complex expression.

“I’m worried about using it in an actual fight without practice, but wasting our swords’ Life on a trial shot at a place like this would just be… We’ll use the full control art together, before we dash onto the fiftieth floor and try to render as many knights powerless as possible…”

“Aah, there’s something I have to say about that, Kirito.”

With just a little awkwardness, Eugeo cut into Kirito’s words.

“That is… It doesn’t feel like my full control art will be a high impact direct attack like the integrity knight’s skill earlier.”

“Eh… r-really?”

“You see, the one who wrote the art ritual for me was Cardinal… I was the one who thought up the type of skill, but still…”

Kirito tilted his head as he spoke to Eugeo, his murmurs full of excuses.

“Well, try reciting the art ritual for now. Without the opening line.”

“Y-Yeah.”

He rapidly chanted the art ritual as he was told to, with the «system call» omitted. Kirito, who listened with his eyes shut, went against expectations and smirked after Eugeo reached the final line, “Enhance armament“.

“So that’s it. True, it can’t quite be called offensive, but it’s useful enough, depending on how it’s used. And it doesn’t seem to go too badly with my full control art.”

“Oh? What’s your skill, Kirito?”

“That’s something for you to look forward to.”

Eugeo lightly scowled at Kirito, tossing out that glib line. However, his partner combed his forelocks upwards with a composed face, leaning his back against the wall once more.

“Well, I can’t call it a real strategy, but let’s go with it. First, we chant the armament full control art just before we charge onto the fiftieth floor, leaving it in standby before activation. Then upon dashing in and confirming their positions, you first hit them with your skill, then I will with mine. If everything goes well and the enemies are gathered in the same place, we might even render all of them helpless.”

“Might, huh.”

He agreed doubtfully, but to be honest, Eugeo didn’t have a plan of his own. He couldn’t help but admit his partner had a better aptitude for creating a plan with all factors accounted for and he was frankly thankful for being able to chant the art ritual before the battle, with his lackluster confidence in reciting it quickly.

“…Then, let’s go with that. First, I will…”

As he spoke, Eugeo casually turned his vision towards the left, at the stairs continuing to the cathedral’s twenty-ninth floor.

And he opened his eyes wide in amazement.

Two petite heads were peeping out from the shadows surrounding the railings, their four eyes staring intensely in their direction.

The instant their eyes met with Eugeo’s, the two heads tucked in with a flash. But as he continued to gaze on, speechlessly, the heads appeared once again, their still-innocent pair of eyes blinking steadily.

Realizing something had happened, Kirito followed Eugeo’s sight and after also leaving his mouth agape, he hesitantly asked.

“Who are… you two?”

With that, the two heads met each other, nodded in sync, and nervously revealed themselves entirely.

“Ki… kids…?”

Eugeo muttered, unthinkingly.

The ones who stood on the floor above were two girls clad in exactly the same ink-black clothes.

Their ages appeared around ten. He felt a tinge of nostalgia, for the plain black clothes were greatly similar to the religious habit belonging to Selka, Alice’s little sister, who studied at the church in Rulid.

However, unlike Selka, the girls wore short-swords with an overall length of around thirty cen on their green belts. A moment of wariness welled up, but he immediately noticed not only their blade, but their grips as well, were made from a reddish wood. The hue was unusual, but it was likely similar to the wooden swords granted to children aiming to become swordsmen.

The girl on the right had her pale light brown hair in two braids. Her droopy-looking eyebrows along with the corners of her eye gave an impression of meekness. Contrasting with that, the girl on the left had her straw colored hair cropped short, her two eyes accented upwards in resolve.

As Eugeo and Kirito stared on in silence, the one who took a step forward was the spirited, strong-minded girl on the left as expected. Taking in a deep breath of air, she suddenly began her self-introduction.

“Erm… I’m-I’m Fizel*, a sister apprentice of the Axiom Church. And this girl here is also a sister apprentice…”

“Li… Linel.”

The pair’s childish voices ended on a quavering note, perhaps due to their uneasiness. Eugeo showed a smile meant to reassure them and immediately realized he might be seen as hostile, considering they were sisters of the church, even if they were still apprentices.

However, the words spoken by the girl who called herself Fizel were more straight to the point than Eugeo would have expected.

“So… are the intruders from the Dark Territory supposed to be the two of you?”

“Hah…?”

Kirito’s and his face instinctively met. His partner, too, was unable to come to a decision on how to handle this situation. His lips flapped endlessly with his eyebrows knitted, and then he swiftly moved and slunk behind Eugeo’s back.

“I’m bad with kids. I’ll leave this to you.”

Told that from behind, he wished to whisper “That’s unfair!” back, but hiding behind Kirito wasn’t quite possible now. Looking at the two girls on the floor above, he gave a stifled reply.

“Er… erm, well… we ought to be humans from the Human World, but… the part about us being intruders is, well, not exactly wrong, I guess…”

This time, the children huddled their foreheads together upon hearing that and began to exchange words in hushed voices. They were soft, but still audible due to how the surroundings were far too silent.

“What’s with that, they just look completely like humans on the outside, Nel. They don’t have any horns or tails.”

The one who said that, unsatisfied, was Fizel, the girl who seemed strong-minded. The girl named Linel argued back falteringly.

“I-I only said what was written in the books. You’re the one at fault for thinking they would really have them, Zel.”

“Hmm, still, they might just be hiding them. Maybe we can tell if we get closer?”

“Eeh, but they just look like normal humans. But… maybe it’s possible that they have fangs…”

The charming conversation reminded Eugeo of the twin daughters of the Wolde farm where he had once freeloaded, and his lips truly went slack this time round.

If Kirito and himself were kids of that age and found out there were intruders from the land of darkness nearby, there was a high possibility they would have gone and sneaked a peep like this. As a result, they would probably have received a harsh scolding from their fathers and the village chief.

Eugeo instantly became worried, having thought of that. Wouldn’t the two girls be punished later for coming into contact with rebels against the church? He figured he wasn’t in any situation to hold that concern, but still felt that he had to speak.

“Hey… won’t they get mad at the two of you for talking to us?”

Upon hearing that, Fizel and Linel promptly closed their mouths and then after, put on smug smiles. Fizel answered, looking just a little jubilant. The politeness in her speech went missing unnoticed.

“All of the brothers and sisters and their apprentices were ordered to lock the door to their own rooms and not leave since this morning. So that means that even if we went to take a look at the intruders, there’s no worry of anyone finding out.”

“Ha-Hah…”

Somehow, it seemed exactly like a reasoning Kirito would come up with. He could even practically picture that in his mind, how they would get found out in the end and be scolded.

The two girls went into some discussion once again, but Linel was the one who spoke out this time.

“Ermm… are you two of you really not monsters from the Dark Territory?”

“Y-Yeah.”

“Then, I’m sorry, but could you allow us to take a closer look at the two of you…? At, erm, your foreheads and teeth.”

“Eeh?”

Losing his calm at the unforeseen request, Eugeo glanced behind, but not only did Kirito not send any aid his way, he even feigned ignorance with his head looking elsewhere. Eugeo reluctantly nodded to the girls.

“…Well, if that’s all, I don’t have a problem with it…”

Being unable to refuse in this situation was partly due to his nature, but there was also his desire to prove that he was a regular human despite being a rebel going against the church and depending on the circumstances, it might even be possible to gain information on the cathedral’s interior from the pair.

Fizel’s and Linel’s faces sparkled and they trotted down the stairs, their gait entwined with curiosity and caution. Their feet stopped upon reaching the landing, their blue and grey eyes pointedly fixed on him.

Eugeo leaned over, combing up the hair on his forehead with his left hand as he bared his teeth for them to see. The children stared at Eugeo for close to ten seconds without blinking a single time, before they finally nodded, apparently satisfied.

“He’s human.”

“He is, isn’t he?”

Such a pronounced disappointment appeared on the pair’s faces that he couldn’t help but to break into a wry smile. Looking at Eugeo doing that, Linel inclined her head to the side.

“But if the two of you aren’t monsters from the Dark Territory, why would the Central Cathedral believe that the two of you are intruders?”

“E-Erm…”

Even while thinking it would be a turn for the worst one way or another, he figured there wasn’t any need to hide after all that had already come to pass and answered honestly.

“…A long time ago, a female friend of mine was taken away by an integrity knight. So, I came here to take her back.”

This, in particular, must have been hard for an ascetic apprentice, who would normally believe firmly in the Axiom Church’s sense of justice, to accept. He expected expressions of disgust and dismay to show up on those young faces, but contrary to that, the girls simply nodded curtly. The girl with straw-colored hair, Fizel, spoke with a slightly disgruntled face.

“So that’s it. That was a pretty normal reason.”

“N-Normal?”

“There were a few cases of people arranging protests against the church when their family or lovers were taken away, recorded in the past. The two of you are probably the first to actually get in here like this, though.”

Following on, Linel picked up the flow from the side.

“Not to mention how they said you cut the spirit-iron chains and escaped once you were imprisoned, and that part about managing to defeat two integrity knights too, which made us wait here, thinking there were definitely monsters of darkness… maybe even a genuine darkness knight launching an attack. But to think you were just normal humans…”

The kids exchanged looks and went, “Is this enough?” and “It is, right?”, as they lightly nodded to each other.

Linel, who looked at Eugeo once more, tilted her small head as her pigtails swayed.

“Then, last of all, could you tell us your names?”

There’s more that I wanted to ask, though, thought Eugeo as he replied.

“I’m Eugeo. The one behind me is Kirito.”

“Hmph… you don’t have a family name?”

“Ah, yeah. I’m a child of the pioneers, you see. …Could it be the same for the two of you too?”

“No, we have one.”

Cutting off there, Linel grinned widely. A bright, cherubic one—a smile like her cheeks were stuffed with delicious sweets.

“My name is Linel Synthesis Twenty-eight.”

Eugeo couldn’t immediately deduce the meaning that name possessed.

At once, a cool chill could be felt at his abdomen and Eugeo turned his vision downwards.

Eugeo wasn’t sure when it had been drawn from the belt, but the short-sword gripped in Linel’s right hand had its tip sunk about five cen into his body.

It appeared to be only a wooden sword when worn in her belt, but it seemed what he truly thought was the blade, was actually a wooden scabbard. The real blade drawn out from there was not wooden. It was a murky-green, unfamiliar metal. Its surface caught the sunlight shining in from the window and gleamed as though it was wet.

“Eu…!”

Was that short utterance Kirito’s voice? Turning his rigid neck behind him, he saw his partner frozen, with his right foot a step forward. Fizel, who was beside Linel only a moment before, was now standing diagonally behind Kirito, with that same green sword thrust into that black coat. The shape of her mouth that made up that smile was the same spirited one as earlier, just as jubilant.

“—And, I’m Fizel Synthesis Twenty-nine.”

The short-swords were drawn out from Eugeo’s and Kirito’s bodies at the same time. Fizel and Linel gave the swords a flick faster than the eye could perceive and shook off the red blood cleanly, then neatly stored them in their respective scabbards.

The chill creeping in from the injury in his abdomen spread throughout his body in an instant. The places that freezing coldness assailed went numb one after another.

“You… two… integri… ty…”

Right after he had somehow forced out those words, his tongue went numb and he was completely petrified.

His knees gave way without warning and Eugeo dropped to the floor like a sack. His chest and left cheek crashed heavily onto the marble, but pain, as well as his entire sense of touch, was absent.

Immediately after, Kirito tumbled over with a thud.

Poison—

Eugeo realized, though it was already too late, and tried to think of a countermeasure.

He had generally studied about forms of poison in nature and and their antidotes from the Sword Mastery Academy lectures. However, all of those were only measures for cases when one was affected by poison from plants, snakes, or insects, not in preparation for getting attacked by venom in the midst of battle like this.

That was only natural. Battles were competitions of valor and grace where the academy, no, the Human World was concerned, so an act like adding venom to weapons would have been strictly prohibited. He heard that even the young noble, who had released a venomous insect and tried to hinder Eugeo and Kirito from taking part in the Zakkaria Swordsmanship Tournament, didn’t go so far as to coat his sword with poison in the match with Kirito.

As such, the knowledge Eugeo possessed was on the level of knowing what type of herb to apply when stung by some specific venomous insect. Even if he were to discover what variant of venom the girls used, there was no vegetation around, let alone medicinal plants. The final method was to try curing himself via sacred arts, but the usage of art rituals was impossible with his hands and mouth paralyzed.

In other words, if this venom did not merely rob his body of its freedom, but was one that constantly reduced his Life as well, both of their lives would be extinguished before they got halfway up the Central Cathedral.

“You don’t have to be so scared, Eugeo-san.”

Integrity Knight Linel Synthesis Twenty-eight’s voice suddenly trickled down from overhead. Perhaps due to the venom’s influence, he heard the sweet voice somewhat distorted, as though he was underwater.

“It’s just a paralyzing venom. In the first place, the only difference is whether you die here or on the fiftieth floor.”

The click-clacking of her footsteps sounded and a small, light-brown shoe jumped into Eugeo’s vision as he remained immobile with his left cheek stuck to the ground. Linel lifted her right foot, and then unreservedly placed its end atop Eugeo’s head, moving it here and there as though she was searching for something.

“…Hmm, so there really weren’t any horns.”

Moving her foot onto his back, she endlessly trampled over both of its sides.

“No wings either, huh. Zel, what about your side?”

“This one’s just a human too!”

Likely having examined Kirito the same way outside of his sight, Fizel responded unhappily.

“Ah-ah, and I was hoping to finally see a monster from the Dark Territory too.”

“Well, it’s alright. If we drag these two to the fiftieth floor and cut their heads off in front of those lame people waiting there, we should be able to get sacred instruments and flying dragons too. Then we can fly over to the Dark Territory and look at the real ones all we want.”

“Yep. Right, Nel, let’s see who’s the first one to get a darkness knight’s head!”

Even after all of that, Fizel’s and Linel’s voices were the very likeness of innocence and Eugeo thought that to be the most unnerving part of it all. How could children like these little girls become integrity knights—no, before that, why were these children in the cathedral?

Eugeo could not see when Linel, who was in front of him, drew her sword. Fizel’s agility, having easily defeated Kirito who was a distance away, was even more horrifying.

However, combat skill was not something that would improve without long years of practice and the experience of actual life-and-death battles. The reason why Eugeo could freely handle the Blue Rose Sword, a sacred instrument, would have been due to his experience in patiently swinging an axe at the Gigas Cedar, but Kirito said driving away the goblin group at the northern cave also played a major part.

But no matter how he looked at them, Fizel and Linel were around ten years old and they seemed to have never actually experienced a fight against the Dark Territory monsters too, according to their words.

In that case, through what means did they master their physical movements and sword handling, which were faster than the eye could follow?

However, Eugeo did not let out a single sound about the swirling doubts within his heart.

It seemed the venom had circulated through his entire body, with the sensation of the floor’s coldness or the presence of his own body disappearing before he knew it. Linel’s small hand grabbed Eugeo’s right ankle and he noticed he was being dragged along as his vision reeled around.

Desperately shifting his eyeballs that could hardly move that much towards the left, he spotted Kirito being dragged along like baggage as well. The paralysis likely reached his face the same as Eugeo, as his partner’s expression was blank.

The two young integrity knights dragged Eugeo and Kirito along, the Blue Rose Sword and black sword still within their belts, and began going up the stairs without a care. Their heads were violently lifted and dropped each and every step climbed, but as expected, there was no sense of pain.

He had to find a plan to escape this crisis, but perhaps because the paralyzing venom had assailed even his spirit, Eugeo could sense nothing but a parched emptiness enveloping himself.

He had resolved himself to fight the Axiom Church, but even he didn’t think they would have carried out such dreadful manipulation on such children of tender years, molding them into integrity knights. And the humans living in this Human World believed that it was the symbol of absolute goodness and harmony. And had for hundreds of years.

“You think it’s weird, don’t you?”

Linel’s voice suddenly reached his ears, faint laughter accompanying it.

“‘Why did children like these became integrity knights?’, right? You’re going to get killed soon enough, so I’ll tell you.”

“Nel, isn’t there no point in saying that if we’re killing them? You’re eccentric as always.”

“Don’t you think going all the way up to the fiftieth floor is boring?—Eugeo-san, we were born and raised here, in this cathedral. We were made by the brothers and sisters in the tower under orders from Administrator-sama, you know. For her «resurrection» sacred art experiments that can recover Life that had been completely lost.”

The words coming out from her mouth were unbelievably horrifying, but Linel’s voice remained cheerful until the very end.

“It seems children outside receive their sacred task when they’re ten, but we were given them at five. Our job was to murder each other. We were given a sword like a toy, far smaller than even this venomous sword, and made to pair up and stab each other.”

“You sucked at stabbing, didn’t you, Nel. I couldn’t stand how much it hurt each time.”

Linel responded, unsatisfied, at Fizel’s voice that seemed to have joined in.

“That was because of your weird movements, Zel. —I think you two would know after defeating two integrity knights, but humans don’t die so easily, do they, Eugeo-san, Kirito-san? It’s the same even for kids at merely five years old. Even as we panicked with the need to kill each other quickly, we blindly slashed and stabbed until finally reducing each other’s Lives to zero, but Administrator-sama would just resurrect us with sacred arts…”

“And resurrection totally didn’t work out at the start too, right? The kids who died normally were still lucky; there were some that exploded into pieces or some that turned into weird lumps of meat or some that became different people when revived, weren’t there?”

“Even if it was supposed to be our sacred task, we didn’t want to be pointlessly hurt and revived either. We tried out various ways and noticed that getting killed in one hit as cleanly as possible hurt the least and had high chances of resurrection. But that single hit’s the hard part, you know. It had to be really fast and smoot