Accel World, Vol. 17: Cradle of Stars

“Oh…The thing about that, okay…” Rubbing the gear on his head with a glove, Iron Pound groaned. “Like, we were planning to have seven people…How about it, Viri?”

“Quit with that nickname in a place like this,” Viridian Decurion replied in a low voice. “Otherwise, I’ll call you Anpan.”

“Whoa! Spare me…So? Is the first seat coming?”

Haruyuki unconsciously gasped.

Viridian Decurion, the second seat of the Six Armors, was the Legion’s number two. Haruyuki had just gone with it because they were both “two,” but just like Nega Nebulus’s Four Elements, the Six Armors were Great Wall’s executive group. In other words, in terms of rank, there definitely ought to have been one more person between Decurion and the Green King, the Six Armors’ first seat.

But Decurion made a show of shrugging and remarked, in a tone that didn’t imply much respect for someone higher up than he was, “I can’t deal with all his whims. I contacted him at any rate, but it’s been five minutes, and he still hasn’t shown. We can just forget about him.”

“Yeah? Tch! I figured today of all days I’d get to gaze upon the face of the first seat,” Pound grumbled.

“Huh?!” Haruyuki unconsciously cried out. “Pound, you’ve never met the first seat, either?”

The iron boxer turned his eyes on Haruyuki and nodded. “Nope, not once. Or like, the only ones in all of GW who’ve met him are Boss and Viri—I mean, Decurion. I’m the third seat, and I don’t even know his name.”

“Whaaaat?! Is that even possible?”

“Just the way it is. Totally crushed Decurion in one-on-one, even got the boss to a draw. If he’s that strong, then I can’t say anything in a meritocracy.”

“A…draw…,” Haruyuki repeated, stunned, as he looked up at Green Grandé. The Green King was imperturbable, but his powers were unfathomable, to the point where he had easily stopped Haruyuki charging with all his might when he had been transformed into the sixth Chrome Disaster.

Grandé possessed one of the Seven Arcs, the large shield Strife, and could use the iron wall special attack Parsec Wall—to get a draw with him one-on-one…Who on earth was this first seat of the Six Armors?

Freeing Haruyuki from his frozen state was the voice of Kuroyukihime, smooth as ever.

“I understand your situation. There is always one problem element in any executive board.” At this near grumble, faint smiles rose up on the faces of Fuko, Akira, and Utai. “There’s no point in waiting for someone who’s not coming. Now to get right to it, I’ll begin discussing measures against the Acceleration Research Society—”

Kuroyukihime cut off mid-sentence, so Haruyuki turned his gaze to the right.

The Black King had frozen with her face mask turned slightly downward. Fuko started to take a step toward her, but then tilted her head back at the sky, as if sensing something.

Sucked in, Haruyuki looked up as well.

The three skyscrapers-turned-temples rose up sharply against the dusky sky of the Twilight stage. And the top floor of Ravine Tower up at a height of 230 meters melted into the madder-red sky, obscuring it from his view.

Glint.

Abruptly, something small flashed near the top of the building. Glittering with the reflection of the evening sun, it was approaching rapidly. A naturally destructing object— No. A human silhouette. A duel avatar.

Haruyuki stared hard at the avatar plummeting head over heels from the top floor of the skyscraper temple.

The armor color looked pitch-black because of the reflected light. The build was fairly slim, but the long coat-type armor billowed out past the waist, almost like wings. From the masculine design of the face mask, it was probably an M-type. Haruyuki still couldn’t see the color of the eye lenses.

And then someone in Nega Nebulus let out a thin cry. “Ah…Ah!”

At basically the same time, Haruyuki realized there was something long and slender equipped on the back of the mysterious avatar.

Swords. Two long swords crossed in the shape of an X.

A jet-black double swordsman.

To be continued.