2

The stairs had felt interminably long when we were descending them, but rushing upward, I sensed the exit was near after just a few minutes. The moldiness of the air trailed away, and the damp stone walls and steps changed to fine, smooth marble.

Eventually the way ahead got lighter, and when the exit came into view, we leaped upward, skipping steps and completely forgetting any sense of caution. Once we were on the surface again, we greedily sucked in lungfuls of fresh air.

“…Ahhh…”

When I felt my respiratory system functioning properly again, I looked around at last. It was dark yet, but the faint amount of starlight was still enough to see by.

The Axiom Church was located on a large square plot of land directly in the middle of Centoria. From what I could see when we were hauled in on the dragon yesterday morning, the main gate was on the east side (probably to face a rising Solus), with a wide approach that led to the church building proper.

That building was the massive, white Central Cathedral. It, too, had a square base, its sheer walls polished to a mirrorlike reflection, and the top was so distant that it was always lost in the clouds and invisible from the ground.

I believed that someone or something at the top of the cathedral managed this world and that someone would maintain a system console that I could use to contact Rath on the outside. If I could just get there, I could return to the real world after two years and two months of being trapped in here…

I turned back to the entrance to the underground stairs, savoring the idea of my potential victory. The doorless, rectangular hole opened rather abruptly in the side of the pure-white building. I looked left, then right, then upward along the smooth, polished marble, but due to the thick fog, I couldn’t see a corner in any direction.

Of course, even without the fog, I couldn’t have seen the top—that white marble surface was the outside wall of the very cathedral that was my destination.

Following the same train of thought, Eugeo took a few steps forward, raised his hand, and stroked the wall. His fingers rubbed back and forth, ascertaining the absolute solidity and coldness of its surface.

“…I know it shouldn’t be a surprise at this point, but…it’s hard to believe. We’re touching the Central Cathedral itself. Even the greatest nobles—even the four emperors—can only look at this tower from beyond the walls.”

“Too bad we’re here as escaped fugitives, rather than Integrity Knights like we planned,” I deadpanned. Eugeo weakly smiled back for a moment.

“But at this point, it seems like we made the right choice,” he said. “What if we became Integrity Knights and turned out like Alice…?”

“With our memories being controlled, you mean? Good point…but if all the knights are like that, I wonder who they think they are,” I mused. Eugeo removed his hand from the stone and looked at me.

I put my hand on my hip and explained, “I mean, assuming the knights’ memories are being hidden from them…they should at least know things like who their parents are and where they were born, right? I mean, that’s the most fundamental root of human experience. I think it would be really hard to fake that kind of knowledge.”

“I see…The knights can fly everywhere on those dragons, after all. If you sealed their real memories and gave them fake ones, they could easily go to those locations and realize the lie…”

Suddenly, Eugeo sucked in a deep breath and stared at me. I looked back, surprised at this reaction. After several seconds of staring at each other, I finally recognized the reason for his behavior.

“Oh…you think we might find a way to return my memories in the tower?”

“Er…I—I just…”

He scrunched up his face and looked down at the ground, so I moved toward him and ruffled his flaxen hair. “You’re such a worrywart. I told you—whether my memory comes back or not, I’m going along on your journey to the end.”

Eugeo raised his reddened faced and protested, “Don’t treat me like a child.” But he didn’t try to brush away my hand. “I’m…I’m not doubting your word. You’ve said that over and over. But…when I started thinking about how our journey might be coming to an end, it just…”

His voice was tense and thick with emotion, and I started to feel something rising within my own chest. I looked up, hand still on Eugeo’s head.

The tremendous monolith standing over us was truly worthy of being called the center of the world. Even if there somehow weren’t any obstacles on the way up, the trip would not be easy—but that was all that was left. No matter how many thousands of stairs were between us, once we’d finished climbing them, our journey would be over. And it had taken at least a year less than we had planned.

But this wouldn’t be an eternal farewell. I’d log out to the real world, but I would be back. I had to see Eugeo, Liena, Ronie, Tiese, and everyone else again.

“Once it’s over, let’s make sure we secure a happy ending. You’ll get Alice’s memories back and take her home to Rulid. But…wouldn’t you need to choose a new calling then? You should probably start thinking about that now, because you won’t get another chance,” I teased.

Eugeo looked up at last, his familiar annoyed expression present. “You’re getting way ahead of yourself. But at the very least, I’ve had enough of cutting down trees.”

“Ha-ha, I bet you have.”

I took my hand off his head and slapped his shoulder, just as the Bells of Time-Tolling far overhead rang the time, beautiful and grand. That was the four o’clock melody. Only one more hour until daybreak…

“…Looks like we ought to get moving.”

“Yeah, let’s go.”

We knuckled fists in solidarity, the force, timing, and speed of which were perfectly matched. No more words were needed. We set about examining our surroundings again.

For now, all we knew was that we were on the back side of the cathedral, on the west. The eastern side was hidden from view on the other side of the building, of course.

Our present objective was to get inside the cathedral, which would be easy if there were an entrance to the ground floor, but the west face was totally sheer and slippery, with no windows anywhere near low enough to climb up to. The only opening was the staircase exit we had just come out of, and while there just might be other passages back down there, we’d sworn to Stacia that we would never make that trip again.

So the next option was to follow the wall around, either to the north or the south. The problem was that less than twenty feet in either direction, there were metal fences flush against the building wall. They were low enough to climb over with some difficulty, but I’d seen during the flight in yesterday that there were actually many fences arrayed in rows.

Based on the well-burnished look of the bronze fences covered in vines, they were probably tougher than the bars down in the cells. There were layers upon layers of these impediments on the west side of the cathedral. It was a garden as much as it was a maze—most likely to keep in any prisoners in the unlikely event of an escape.

So between the wall and fences, the east, south, and north were blocked, but there was a gate to the west. Beyond it was a short, straight path that led to a clearing in the maze. That was where the dragon had landed yesterday.

Just before that had happened, I had tried to memorize the escape route, but the maze was so complex and my time so brief that it was completely impossible. Now it seemed we didn’t have any other option.

“We’ve got to make our way through the maze…and reach the north or south side of the cathedral,” I said.

Eugeo agreed. “I put my hope on your instincts.”

“I’ve got this. Always been good at mazes,” I replied without thinking. Eugeo gave me a strange look, and I had to start walking before he asked me how I would know that.

Within a few paces, we were at the gate to the west; I opened the window of the metal fence to check its priority level. The window said it was 35—as I suspected, it was special bronze. I could break it in a number of swings with the chain around my right hand, but not only would it take longer than climbing, it was likely to attract the attention of the guards or even an Integrity Knight.

We were about to resume our attempt on the maze as originally planned when Eugeo gasped.

“Wh-what is it? Is it something about the fence?!” I asked.

“N-no, not the fence…These leaves…”

Eugeo was staring at the vine wrapped around the fence, pointing out a plain old leaf growing on it.

“I’ve never seen one, but I’m certain…it’s a rose, Kirito.”

“A rose, huh…? Wait, really?! All these plants growing in the maze…?!”

It hadn’t seemed significant at first, but then I remembered that roses were no ordinary flowers in the Underworld. The Four Holy Flowers—anemones, marigolds, dahlias, and cattleyas—all grew fruit that contained very high-purity sacred power. But even more valuable was the rose, the Flower of the Gods. Commoners, nobles, and emperors alike were forbidden to cultivate them. The few that grew naturally in some remote mountains were worth a fortune at the markets of Centoria.

And there were thousands, tens of thousands of them just in this maze…I was overcome with a sudden urge to go pick as many as I could find, but sadly, the Underworld didn’t have a handy inventory system to hide them in.

In contrast to my baser instincts, Eugeo’s reaction was quite calm. He pulled apart the jagged-edged leaves and peered deeper into the growth.

“The flowers aren’t blooming yet, but you can see the buds swelling. With this many of them, I’m sure they put off an extreme amount of spatial power.”

Now that he mentioned it, the air in the maze was sweet and rich, and every breath felt like it was purifying me. I inhaled and exhaled greedily, but Eugeo just looked annoyed.

“No, what I mean is, we might be able to use higher sacred arts here.”

“…That’s great, but we’re not injured or anything…”

“True, but we are missing something very important. Our…”

“Oh, r-right! Our swords!” I said, finally realizing what Eugeo was getting at, and snapped my fingers. Our class-38 whip-chains were powerful weapons, but Eugeo didn’t know how to use one, so the sooner we got the Blue Rose Sword and the Black One back, the better. In fact, it should be our top priority.

We hadn’t seen the swords since Alice the Integrity Knight took them away, but with the help of sacred arts, we could form a good guess as to their location. I raised my right hand, took a deep breath, and said, “System Call!”

To Eugeo, this was the initiation of a magical spell. To me, it was a system control command. Purple light gathered faintly around our fingers, signaling that the booted command prompt was ready. I extended my index finger and squeezed the other four before delivering the next command.

“Generate Umbra Element!”

As I chanted, I envisioned a gemstone, black and matte, and on the tip of my finger appeared a tiny orb, totally black with blue and purple highlights. This was a darkness element, one of the eight kinds in this world. On the overall scale, it was a difficult spell, but at least those boring sacred arts classes and tests had carried over to practical use.

Darkness elements were the opposite of the light elements that Miss Azurica had used to heal Eugeo’s eye—they had a negative energy to them. They were dangerous: If discharged, they could easily scoop out and empty the surrounding space. But their adhesive properties were equally useful.

“Adhere Possession. Object ID WLSS102382. Discharge.” I finished chanting, and the floating element began to move away, as if drawn by a magnet. The orb wobbled and rose as it moved east, until it ran out of energy just before the cathedral wall and vanished. For several seconds, it left behind a faint blue-purple trail that hung in the air.

I watched it closely, following the trajectory of the line. Eugeo did the same and murmured, “As I was afraid. They’re inside the cathedral. I was hoping they’d been stashed in some kind of storage shed outside…”

“But it doesn’t seem like they’re very high inside the building. Only the second floor…maybe the third. That’s better than if they’d been carried way higher.”

“Yeah…I guess. Then let’s set our sights on sneaking into the cathedral using some method other than the front door and head for the third floor to retrieve our swords.”

At the academy, I was the only one who’d dare to say things like sneak into and retrieve, but now Eugeo was getting into the game. I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not, but that wasn’t important now.

We knew where to find the swords, but it hadn’t changed the situation with the rose maze. If only I could cast a sacred art that would display the path to the exit, but there were no commands that convenient here—I thought.

Eugeo and I passed through the bronze gate again and headed for the little clearing straight ahead. If the roses were blooming in the daytime, it would make for a gorgeous sight, but the darkness was our friend for now. We continued stealthily but quickly under the light of the stars.

The next gate soon made its appearance. Just past it was the clearing where the dragon landed. I recalled seeing benches and a small fountain, but I wasn’t sure if there was a map of the garden as well. But it was a clearing for general use, so there should be one. There must be!

Just as we passed through the second, smaller gate, I felt a familiar pain at the roots of my bangs, while Eugeo tugged on the back of my coat.

“Wh-what?”

“…Someone’s here.”

“What…?”

I tensed and peered forward.

The clearing was rectangular, elongated east to west, with the gate at the eastern end. In the center was a fountain with a bronze statue of Terraria, surrounded by four benches of the same metal as the fences.

And just as Eugeo said, on the northern bench—the right-hand one, from our perspective—was a figure.

The face was hidden behind long, flowing hair. The person’s slender form was clad in polished silver armor and carried a curved longsword on the left side. Hanging from the shoulders was a dark-colored cape. Even from here, the circled cross insignia was clear.

“An…Integrity Knight…”

There was no question. Based on size, hair, and color, it was not Alice, but it was clear that this knight was just as powerful as she. This was not a foe who could be beaten without a sword…perhaps not even with our weapons.

We had to rush into the maze, either to the north or south. Or perhaps turn back, I considered. But before I could even make a decision, a pleasant male voice sounded through the clearing.

“Don’t just stand there. Come in, prisoners.”

There was a shining object in his hand. To my surprise, it was a wineglass. There was a bottle sitting next to him on the bench.

I sensed something confrontational about this, and yet I couldn’t help but indulge my bad habit of rising to the bait.

“What, are you going to serve us some wine?”

The knight didn’t answer right away. He looked over at us and motioned with the glass.

“Sadly, this is not for children like you…especially not criminal children. It’s a hundred-and-fifty-year vintage from the Western Empire. I might let you sample its bouquet, though.” He grinned, swiveling the glass in his fingers. Even in the starlight, he was shockingly handsome. The combination of his prominent, thin-bridged nose and slightly wild eyebrows had a profound balance, and his long, sharp eyes glinted with intelligence.

Eugeo and I were both shocked into silence. The knight uncrossed his legs and stood up, his armor faintly ringing. He was very tall—at least a head taller than me. His deep-violet cape and pale-purple hair both flowed in the night breeze.

The man took a sip of his wine and caught me off guard when he said, “I must admire my teacher Alice’s wisdom. She perfectly predicted this most unlikely prison break.”

“Alice…your teacher…?” I repeated.

The knight nodded easily and continued, “She ordered me to spend the night out here in case you escaped, but I honestly thought it was preposterous. I planned to gaze at the rosebuds and nurse a bottle of wine through the night, but here you are, in the flesh. Those chains wrapped around your arms are made of spiristeel forged in the volcanoes of the Southern Empire. I don’t know how you cut them, but it’s clear now that you have no regard for the law.”

He smiled and set the wineglass on the bench, then ran his free hand through his hair and continued, “I’ll be returning you to the cells, of course, but before that, you ought to be punished. I assume you understand that.”

His thin smile hadn’t left, but there was power radiating from his tall, lean form, and I had to resist the urge to falter. I summoned what strength I could muster to reply, “Then I assume you know we aren’t going to submit to your punishment without a fight.”

“Ha-ha-ha! Very feisty. I’d heard you were just pups who hadn’t even graduated the academy, but I’m impressed. In honor of your empty threat, I will give you my name, before I beat you to the last shred of your life. I am the Integrity Knight Eldrie Synthesis Thirty-One. I was freshly summoned just a month ago, and I don’t have any territory to my name yet—hope you don’t mind that.”

When this speech was over, Eugeo sighed over my shoulder, but I didn’t pay attention—because there had been several crucial bits of information contained in that annoyingly smooth introduction.

First of all, this established a clear rule to the naming of the Integrity Knights. Alice’s full name was Alice Synthesis Thirty, so it was clear that Alice and Eldrie were their personal names. The Synthesis in the middle was commonly shared. And the last name was just a number. Eugeo wouldn’t have understood, because they were English numbers, but it would suggest that Alice was the thirtieth of the knights, while Eldrie was the thirty-first.

He also said that he was “summoned just a month ago.” I wasn’t sure what he meant by summoned, exactly, but if he was indeed the newest of the knights, that meant there were only thirty-one of them in total. And given that many of them had to leave Central Cathedral to protect the various regions of the human empire, that meant there couldn’t be more than twenty in the tower itself.

But all that calculation was putting the cart before the horse if we couldn’t defeat the newest and greenest of the knights.

I turned my head and hissed to Eugeo, who stood behind me, “We’re going to fight. I’ll go first. You wait for my signal.”

“O-okay. But…Kirito, I…”

“I told you, there’s no time to hesitate anymore. If we can’t beat him, there’s no way we’ll get up to the cathedral.”

“Um, I’m not hesitating, I’m saying that his name is— Oh, never mind. It can wait. But don’t be too reckless, Kirito.”

Based on his reaction, I wasn’t sure if Eugeo had understood the full plan, but we didn’t have time to hold a strategy meeting. I got the feeling that my invisible guardian spirit above my head sighed, but we could still flee for safety after ascertaining the enemy’s strength—I hoped.

I took two steps forward through the gate, then unraveled the chain and held it in my fingers. The knight noticed this and raised his eyebrow in curiosity.

“I see. I wondered how you would fight without a sword. A chain, eh? I suppose it might end up being a proper battle after all.”

His voice and expression were still overflowing with confidence. I inched closer, swearing under my breath that I’d wipe the smugness off his features soon enough.

The chain had a handicap: I couldn’t use my special sword skills with it. But it had much longer reach than a sword. If I kept moving, striking and disengaging, it should eventually build up enough damage to give us a chance.

It took one moment for that ray of hope to be smashed to pieces. Eldrie reached not for his sword but behind his back, and he said, “Then I shall forego my sword and use this.”

When his right hand emerged, it held a second weapon he had concealed under his cape—a thin whip that shone silver.

As I watched in disbelief, Eldrie let the whip hang so that it coiled on the stones like a snake. Unlike my crude chain, the weapon was of finely woven silver cords. And upon closer look, there were fine spiraling spikes running down its length like rose thorns, glinting wickedly in the starlight. It would do more than tear the skin if it hit me.

On top of that, it was at least a dozen feet long, at least three times the length of my chain. My plan to strike and keep my distance was ruined.

I froze, feeling a cold sweat break out. Eldrie noted the change and snapped his hand. The whip leaped like a living thing, cracking on the stone ground.

“And now…in recognition and admiration of your rebellion against the Axiom Church’s Taboo Index and your escape from imprisonment, I will do you the honor of fighting my hardest from the word go.”

Before I could react, Eldrie switched the whip from right hand to left and shouted, “System Call!”

The exceedingly complex commands he gave were too fast for me to make out.

The sacred arts of the Underworld were like the magic system of ALfheim Online in that high-speed casting was possible—in other words, saying the commands as quickly as you could. But the faster you tried to chant, the greater the likelihood you would flub a word and screw up.

Of the people I knew, the second-best at high-speed chanting was Sortiliena, with the best being Miss Azurica. But Eldrie spoke even faster than her. He finished the thirty-plus-word command in barely seven or eight seconds, finishing with an unfamiliar phrase.

“…Enhance Armament!”

I understood the English word enhance, fortunately. But armament…?

He didn’t give me time to consult my mental dictionary. Eldrie lazily raised his arm, pointed it at me, then swung.

The distance between us was a good fifty feet. No matter how long his whip was, it couldn’t reach. And yet.

Eldrie’s whip left a silver trail in the air as it stretched several times its actual length, as though made of some elastic material. Even in my shock, I lifted my chain with both hands overhead on instinct. There was a tremendous blast, and pale-white sparks showered down around me.

“Urgh…!”

My instincts told me that if I took the blow standing still, it would sever my chain. I bent my knees and twisted to the right to deflect the whip to the side. It scraped nastily along the metal and flew past to strike the stone ground, where it left a deep groove before returning to the knight’s hand.

Another wave of cold sweat rushed from my pores as I looked at my chain and groaned. The blow had gouged the class-38 object made of “spiristeel,” whatever that was, to the point that one of the rings was nearly ready to split apart.

The Integrity Knight smirked at my shock and remarked, “Well, well…I was expecting to take off your ear, but you managed to evade my divine Frostscale Whip at first glance. I suppose I should apologize for assuming you were a mere student.”

I really wanted to deliver a good comeback to that cocky comment, but my mouth refused to move.

He was powerful. He was deadly. If anyone was unconsciously underestimating the other, it was me. Eldrie Synthesis Thirty-One was a type of foe I’d never faced before, I belatedly realized.

The Underworld was Rath’s virtual-reality experiment, so in a strict sense, there was no mortal danger to me, Kazuto Kirigaya. If Eldrie’s whip knocked my head off and reduced my life to zero, it wouldn’t harm my actual flesh in the least.

So in a certain sense, the fear involved in battle wasn’t the same as in SAO, the game of death. Facing enormous floor bosses or psychotic red players in Aincrad, having that tightrope sense of the yawning abyss just beneath your feet—that was a sensation I’d never feel again, and I was glad for it.

Yet that game of death was populated with online gamers like me, who had no real knowledge of swordfighting. We were risking our lives based on stats and numbers, physical motion assistance systems, and reaction speeds honed over a year or two of practice at best.

But Eldrie was different. He’d spent more than a decade of his life in this world training and disciplining his skills, perfecting his craft to its limit. He was a true warrior, physically and mentally. He wasn’t an SAO player or a monster under the server’s control. He was a rune knight from a fantasy novel come to life.

Eldrie had sharper skills and sacred arts than the goblins we fought in the cave under the End Mountains. His willpower was stronger than even the first-seat elite disciples Raios Antinous and Volo Levantein. He likely had the advantage over me in every possible way. If I fought him with nothing more than a single metal chain, I was 100 percent going to lose.

If there was anything I could use to get out of this situation, it was…

You are not alone.

For a second, it felt like someone had spoken my own thought aloud. Following that instinct, I whispered to my partner, “Eugeo, the only way we can win is because there’s two of us. I’ll try to stop his whip. Then you hit him.”

I didn’t hear a response. When I quickly snuck a look over my shoulder, I saw that it wasn’t fear on Eugeo’s face but admiration. When he did eventually speak, my suspicions were confirmed.

“Did you see that sacred art, Kirito? That was incredible…I’ve only read about it in an old book at the library, but I recognize it. That was Perfect Weapon Control…an ultrahigh-level art that works on the very matter of your weapon and uses a divine miracle to increase the weapon’s strength. No wonder he’s an Integrity Knight!”

“This isn’t the time for gushing, man! Anyway, if that helps increase the attack span, do you think that Perfect Control would work on our chains, too?”

“No way! That’s a top-level secret art, according to the Church. And it only works on divine-level weapons.”

“Then we’ll have to forget about that one and make do with what we’ve got on hand. Anyway, I’ll find a way to stop his whip, and you finish him off. I know you’re not used to whips, but you can at least swing it downward, right?”

Eugeo finally got his face under control again, and I warned him, “You’ve gotta be ready, remember? He’s an Integrity Knight, the highest force of the Axiom Church—and we’ve got to beat him.”

“…I know. I told you, I won’t lose sight of the goal,” Eugeo answered, and used his free hand to loosen the chain wrapped around his arm, too. We looked forward again, where the knight smiled his cool smile and snapped his silver whip.

“Done with your little strategy meeting, prisoners? I hope you’ve come up with something fun.”

“…Should an Integrity Knight really be playing with fire like that?”

“It’s correct that we must mete out divine justice on those who rebel against the Church. That is the will of our exalted pontifex. But as a proud knight, it pains me to lash the weak and helpless with my whip. So I am holding out hope that you are at least strong enough to put a scratch on my armor and prove your worth as foes.”

“Scratch your armor? We’ll knock off half your life, and your cocky smile with it.” I snarled to hide the rising panic inside me. The “pontifex” Eldrie mentioned was an interesting title, but I didn’t have time to contemplate the implications. I gave my chain a wave, then thrust out my left hand at Eldrie.

“System Call! Generate Thermal Element!” I commanded, imagining a crimson ruby. Glowing red orbs grew at the end of my thumb, index, and middle fingers. They were flame elements, the basis for fire-based attack spells. I was going to continue, but Eldrie calmly held up his hand in response.

“System Call. Generate Cryogenic Element.”

Those were blue ice elements to counteract my fire, and there were five, one for each finger. He already had the advantage of numbers, but I ignored that and continued, “Flame Element, Arrow Shape!”

I opened my left hand, stretching out the lights so that they turned into three flaming arrows. They were designed for maximum speed and puncturing power. As quickly as I could, so as not to give the enemy time to react, I chanted, “Fly Straight! Discharge!”

A vortex of flame erupted, and the trio of arrows shot toward Eldrie.

In a world where sword battle was the orthodox method of combat, attack-type sacred arts existed only to battle the forces of darkness—or so the old lecturer at the academy said. He’d probably have a stroke if he knew I was using his lessons to attack an Integrity Knight.

I leaped forward after the arrows. Up ahead, Eldrie chanted a counteracting art in one breath.

“Form Element, Bird Shape. Counter Thermal Object, Discharge!”

The five blue dots turned into little birds—ideal for homing—that took flight at once. My arrows were faster, but there were more of the little ice birds. The fiery shafts slipped past two of them, but the other three pounced on the arrows, causing the flames and ice crystals to shatter and cancel each other out. The force of the collisions knocked the wineglass off the bench, and it shattered on the stones.

I bore down on Eldrie, using the flashy explosion as cover. Two steps until I was within my chain range…One step…

The knight’s right hand snapped, and the silver whip leaped off the ground like a snake. At this range, his Perfect Weapon Control range boost was meaningless. I watched it curve in from the right and tried to read its path, tilting my body to avoid it so I could cross that last step. But—

“—?!”

My breath caught in my throat. Eldrie’s whip split into two in midair, the new silver snake cutting a sharper angle to bear down on me directly.

I was already trying to avoid the original blow by inches, and I had no way to dodge this one. The whip struck me right in the chest and slammed me down onto the cobblestones.

“Gaahh!”

I’d been expecting it, but even then, the pain of those countless metal thorns on the whip made my vision briefly go dark. I clenched my teeth and looked down to see that the chest part of my black uniform had torn through both layers, with a vivid red line running across the exposed skin beneath it. Little drops of blood began to form along its length and trickle downward in parallel lines as they oozed forth.

Eldrie looked at me, splayed out on the stones, and laughed heartily.

“Ha-ha-ha! Those tricks won’t work on the Frostscale Whip. When under Perfect Control, not only can it cover up to fifty mels, it can also split into up to seven parts. If there were eight of you, then you might stand a chance attacking me all at once.”

I didn’t have the mind to get angry this time. I hadn’t experienced such searing pain since the goblin captain hit my shoulder two years ago.

I always tried to remember that my lack of resistance to pain was one of my greatest weaknesses here, but given that the stop-short rule was practiced in almost all cases at the academy, I just hadn’t had the chance to build up my hardiness. I talked a big game about stopping the whip with my body, but this result was pathetic.

“Uh-oh, did I put too much hope in you? Well, I can be merciful and at least knock you out quickly,” Eldrie boasted. He took a step forward, silver armor scraping.

Just then, Eugeo leaped out from behind the fountain, sheer desperation on his features. “Uraaah!”

With a rare bellow, he swung down his chain. It was a tremendous swing for someone with no experience using one, and it came with perfect timing—but it still wasn’t enough to break the knight’s defenses.

Eldrie’s right hand moved at blurring speed, the silver whip splitting once again. One of the tendrils deflected the chain, and the other hit Eugeo. Like me, it hit him on the chest, and he was thrown into the fountain with a huge splash before he could even react.

The shocking pain of my wound was still vivid, but I couldn’t waste the opportunity that Eugeo’s suicide attack had created. Sensing that Eldrie’s attention was mostly focused away from me, I sat up and hurled what I’d had clenched in my right hand at the knight’s face.

Unlike in Aincrad and Alfheim, in this world, most objects did not immediately vanish when they were destroyed. Pieces, fragments, even corpses received their own fresh, new life-counter.

That life—its durability—would dwindle much faster than it had before breaking, and once down to zero, it would crumble without a trace for good. But even then, it usually took a few minutes to get there.

Even for fragile little things like broken wineglasses.

The shard of glass cut through the predawn night toward Eldrie’s left eye. I’d even rubbed some of my blood on it before I threw it, so it wouldn’t reflect the light of the stars.

It didn’t take a tenth of a second from the moment it entered his view until it struck. But even then, the knight had the reaction speed to turn his face to the right and avoid a direct hit on his eye. The piece of glass scratched his left cheekbone and disappeared into the darkness, leaving only a shallow cut.

“Whoa!!”

I was in a squat before Eldrie could turn back to face me, and I raced forward. Two steps later, I was in chain range. I pulled it back over my left shoulder in preparation to strike. Momentarily startled, Eldrie recovered and brought his right hand back, returning the whip from its attack on Eugeo to use it against me.

If I just crudely swung the chain forward, the weapons would clash at best, or the whip would split and hit just me again at worst. But I banished my fear and focused hard on the gleaming end of the whip—then on the spot behind Eldrie, where Eugeo had fallen into the fountain.

In every style of swordfighting we learned about at the Swordcraft Academy, it was a tremendous mistake to take your eye off an enemy during an attack. A kind of “taboo,” in fact. Swordsmen in this world would never do that. Even Integrity Knights.

“Hrng!”

And thus Eldrie grunted and, for an instant, turned his focus away from me. He sensed that Eugeo was instantly going to rise from the fountain after his fall, striving to attack again. But that was a sensation he received only because I shifted my eyes away from him. Eugeo was tough, but not enough to take a hit from a Divine Object and get up the next second.

Mirroring Eldrie’s hesitation, his silver whip wavered briefly in midair. It passed my chain, missing by just a hair. I’d chosen the awkward backhand from the left to make the chain run parallel to the whips and increase the difficulty of deflection—a trick I’d learned through hard experience with my wooden sword against Liena’s whip.

But this strategy wouldn’t work twice. It was my one, only, final chance.

“Zeyaaaaah!!”

I screamed with all my soul and swung down the spiristeel chain with all my strength.

My aim was at his head, the only part of the knight’s body not protected by that shining armor. Whether he’d taken his helmet off to drink the wine or had assumed he simply wouldn’t need it against mere students, I wasn’t going to let that chance pass. A good heavy chain smashing an unprotected head could even knock out an Integrity Knight, I bet…

But once again, Eldrie displayed an ability I never considered.

His left hand shot out like lightning and caught the end of the chain—not with the gauntlet armor on the back of his hand but with the thin leather glove of his palm.

If he’d taken it with the back of his hand, the chain would have wrapped around the point like a fulcrum and still hit his head, albeit not as powerfully. In that sense, Eldrie made the right choice—but that thin leather glove wasn’t going to absorb a blow from a class-38 chain.

“Urgh…!”

He grunted, unable to conceal his pain. I clearly heard the sound of multiple bones in his left hand breaking all at once. He wouldn’t be able to use that hand for a while, and I didn’t think him likely to toss aside that Frostscale Whip for a different weapon.

I’d leap on him and start a hand-to-hand fight. Liena had taught me some of the Serlut style’s martial arts. It was more suited to holds than blows, but against a heavily armored opponent, that was actually a good thing.

“Not done yet!” I shouted, and lunged forward, ready to use my left hand to grab his injured arm.

“I don’t think so!”

But the thirty-first and newest Integrity Knight once again betrayed my expectations. He squeezed the chain with his broken hand and pulled. The chain was rooted to the shackle around my right wrist, so it pulled me in the opposite rotation and threw off my balance. I desperately tried to hold my ground, but Eldrie bellowed and attempted to swing me away.

“Hrrng!!”

If he succeeded, I’d be out of my chain’s range and back on the wrong end of his whip. He’d ensure I didn’t get close again.

On instinct, I adjusted my left hand’s target from Eldrie’s left arm to the right hand holding his weapon. The Frostscale Whip’s many thorns did not reach down to the last four feet or so from its handle. I wrapped that part of it around my arm so that it couldn’t break free.

Unless Eldrie let go of both his whip and my chain, he couldn’t put distance between us. If he released my chain, I could wail on him all I wanted. He sensed that, too, so he gripped my weapon even harder in his crushed hand.

This stalemate of steel chain and silver whip kept us just over three feet apart. I was sure his broken hand had to be screaming in pain as it clutched the chain, but the knight showed no signs of it on his face.

“I suppose I must take back my statement about expecting too much of you. I never thought I would be pushed this hard,” he murmured, still calm and cool.

“Gee, thanks,” I said, wishing that I could have given him a snappier comeback—but I didn’t want to draw attention to our wounds. Between Eldrie’s fractured hand and my chest lacerations, the bleeding whip wound was making my life descend faster. If he realized this, he could maintain his hold on my chain and wait until I started to weaken.

But perhaps he already knew. The knight smiled, but if his next statement was meant to buy him more time, it was an odd way of doing it.

“You know, that way you fight…I feel like I’ve seen it before, strangely enough.”

“Oh yeah? It shouldn’t be that strange. Maybe you’ve fought someone else who uses the Serlut style before?”

“Hah. That’s not possible, prisoner. I told you, I was summoned into the human realm as an Integrity Knight only a month ago.”

“…When you say ‘summoned’…” I started to ask, but then I heard the sound. Or more accurately, I heard a shift in a sound that was already there.

In the middle of the fountain behind Eldrie was the stone statue of Terraria, the deity of earth. The statue held a little jug that was pouring a constant trickle of water into the fountain below—but now the sound was muffled. It was a sign. From my partner to me.

Eldrie would notice it soon, too. I had to keep up the conversation and be ready to move.

“…that makes it sound like someone snapped their fingers and called you here.”

In order to distract him, I had to do something. But releasing the Frostscale Whip from my arm wasn’t an option. That left only one possibility…

I yanked hard on the chain!

Eldrie reacted by pulling back to return the position to equilibrium. The metal yanked tight, and almost immediately, the chain snapped down the middle. The piece that had taken the whip blow moments earlier finally gave out.

“Wha—!” He gasped and lost his balance.

It was then that Eugeo leaped out of the fountain with a huge splash. He’d recovered from the blow to his chest and was waiting beneath the statue’s trickle for his chance to attack. The change in sound had come from the flow of water striking his back.

“Raaaah!!”

Eugeo swung his chain down at Eldrie’s defenseless head, spraying water droplets everywhere. But half a second before that, the knight had spoken a brief command.

“Release Recollection.”

This phrase, I didn’t understand at all. But the effect it had, given the brevity of the command itself, was so impossible, it seemed to transcend the category of sacred arts.

The silver whip wrapped around my left hand, so tight that he could neither push nor pull it away, flashed brightly. Then it began thrashing around like a living animal—and extended tremendously fast.

The Frostscale Whip, now a shining snake, soared over our heads and leaped onto the chain in Eugeo’s hand. And “snake” wasn’t just a bit of poetic license. On the tip of the whip, I saw little ruby eyes and bared fangs.

The snake bit down on the end of the chain, pulled it (and Eugeo) up into the air, and slammed it down onto the cobblestones just next to me. Eugeo landed on his back and grunted. That added up to more damage for him than me so far, but he valiantly attempted to rise again.

But a ferociously sharp tip grazed his wet bangs before he could get up.

Eldrie had recovered his balance, tossed aside the broken chain, and pulled his sword free to point it at Eugeo. It was a thin blade, but it shone with the richness of a fine make. The weight of it had to be killing the broken bones of his left hand, but there was only the faintest hint of a furrow between his eyebrows.

The silver snake, which—for all I could tell—had protected its master of its own accord, shriveled up and returned to being a plain old whip again. Whatever that Release Recollection command was, its miracle had a short time limit.

The situation was in a stalemate at last.

I had Eldrie’s whip stuck to my hand. I’d lost half my chain. Eugeo had a sword to his face, keeping him still. Eldrie seemed to have the advantage, being the one with the sword, but I doubted he could do all that much with it, given the state of his hand.

Silence settled upon the little rose garden in the predawn chill.

It was Eldrie who spoke first again. “No wonder Alice was worried about you. You attack without form or pattern…but I suppose that succeeded at catching me off guard. I can’t believe you forced me to use my Memory Release skill.”

“Memory…?” I repeated. Then I finally understood the meaning of that mysterious command. “Recollection” was a synonym for memory. So it was a sacred art that unleashed the memories…of the weapon?

Memories of the weapon. That sounded familiar from the recent past, and I was about to consult my own memories when Eugeo gasped with admiration for some reason. He said, “And you…are every bit as great as I imagined, Sir Knight.”

“Th-this isn’t the moment for compliments! And…what do you mean, ‘as you imagined’?” I couldn’t help but reply. He made it sound like he’d known this knight before.

“I thought the name sounded familiar when he said it. And now I remember. Kirito, this man is the Norlangarth Empire’s champion swordsman for this year…as well as the winner of the Quad-Empire Unification Tournament—Eldrie Woolsburg!”

“Wha…?”

I stared at the Integrity Knight standing two paces away.

The Northern Empire’s champion. That meant he won the Imperial Battle Tournament held in late March. He was the representative of the Imperial Knights, the man who defeated Sortiliena in the first round and Volo Levantein in the second. He won the Quad-Empire Unification Tournament in early April with overwhelming skill, making him this year’s greatest swordsman in the human empire and earning him an invitation to Central Cathedral.

I now realized that I didn’t know that mighty warrior’s name. There was no Internet in this world, no television or radio, so the only form of news media was the primitive “town square” type of weekly newspaper displayed for the public. I hadn’t been bothered to go check out the school’s bulletin board, but apparently Eugeo had faithfully read it every week.

“You’re such an honor student,” I grumbled—I couldn’t help myself. But if Eugeo was right, and this Eldrie Synthesis Thirty-One was indeed this year’s champion, Eldrie Woolsburg, then something about his actions didn’t add up.

Eldrie had said that he was summoned to the human realm as an Integrity Knight one month ago. I would understand if he were designated an Integrity Knight…but he made it sound like…

“…What…did you…?”

That hoarse whisper didn’t come from me. I looked away from my partner back at the knight.

For some reason, Eldrie was pale, his faintly purplish gray eyes wide as if grappling with some monumental shock to the system. His bloodless lips trembled and formed the words, “I was…Northern…Champion…? Eldrie…Woolsburg…?”

Eugeo was taken aback by this puzzling reaction. But he recovered, closed his mouth, and said, “Th-that’s right. It said so in the newspaper last month. A handsome man with purple hair…who won every match by landing a perfectly clean hit with his graceful, flowing style…”

“No…I…I’m the Integrity Knight Eldrie Synthesis Thirty-One! I…I’ve never heard the name Woolsburg!”

I interjected, briefly forgetting that we were in the middle of a fight. “B-but you weren’t born an Integrity Knight. Wasn’t that just your name before you were designated a knight…?”

“I don’t know! I…I’ve never heard it!!” he wailed, hair flying. His face was white as a ghost now, eyes rolling and twitching. “I…I received…the summons of the pontifex, the administrator…and was brought here from the heavens as an Integrity Kni—”

He stopped abruptly.

And then something even more shocking happened.

A purple line of light appeared right in the center of Eldrie’s smooth forehead.

“Grgh…uhhh…”

All the strength went out of his hand, but I was too busy staring at his head to think of wresting the whip away from him. The glowing line formed a small, inverted triangle. It wasn’t just a magical seal, it was floating further and further out of his brow. The clear triangular pillar, like some kind of crystal, jutted out an inch or two from his skin, flashing and shining.

Inside the prism, fine tendrils of light ran freely in every direction. Once it had extended to a few inches, the whip and sword tumbled out of Eldrie’s hands.

His eyes were vacant. He stumbled backward a few steps, then fell to his knees like a lifeless puppet. The crystal on his forehead flashed and pulsed, and I could hear a strange ringing sound from it.

If I’m going to act, it has to be now, I decided, but I didn’t have a clue what that action should be.

Attacking would be easy: I’d pick his sword up off the ground and strike it against his defenseless neck. That wouldn’t just incapacitate him, it would kill him.

We could also run for our lives. If we somehow jolted the knight back to his senses, I felt like he’d truly go for the jugular. Our sneak attacks wouldn’t work, and we might be the ones facing impending death.

Lastly, and perhaps riskiest of all: We could stand here and watch what happened.

Whatever I was seeing now had something to do with the root of the Integrity Knights and the Axiom Church’s secrets. Why had Alice lost her memory and turned into someone else? Why did Eldrie talk about summoning? Perhaps I would know the answers if I watched this phenomenon to the end.

And for one thing, Eugeo would not be happy if I attacked Eldrie while he was helpless like this. We weren’t guaranteed to find the exit of the rose maze if we ran, either. We had to brave danger and continue watching.

I was inching closer to the kneeling Integrity Knight when the jutting triangular prism blinked, then began to recede back into his head.

“Ugh…”

I bit my lip. I’d been hoping that the prism would fall out entirely and cause some kind of event.

“Eldrie! Eldrie Woolsburg!” I shouted. The crystal paused for an instant, then continued moving again. His old name alone wouldn’t be enough to complete whatever this process was. I needed a more definitive memory.

I turned to Eugeo, who was watching the display in disbelief, and hissed, “Eugeo, is there anything else you know about Eldrie?! Anything at all—we need to stimulate his memories!”

“Um…” He squinted briefly, then nodded. “Eldrie! You are the son of General Eschdor Woolsburg of the Imperial Knights! Your mother’s name is…El…Al…Oh! Almera!”

“…”

The blank-faced knight’s lips trembled slightly.

“Al…me…ra…” he croaked, and the prism shone brightly. But even more surprising to me were the large tears that fell from his bulging eyes. Again, he wheezed, “M…Moth…er…”

“That’s right…remember! All of it!” I commanded, stepping closer.

But I couldn’t approach farther.

A heavy thud rumbled the ground, causing me to pitch forward. I didn’t even feel the stomach-churning pain until I looked down and saw the arrow sunk deep into the top of my right foot.

“Aaagh!” I cried, unable to hold it in. I grabbed the dark-red arrow, moaning, and pulled it right out. The pain redoubled as I did, but I somehow managed to keep myself from fainting.

“Kirito! A-are you all—” Eugeo started to say, but I grabbed the end of his dangling chain and hurled him downward.

Fwupp, fwupp! Two arrows stood in the ground right where Eugeo had been. I tugged him farther away, still holding the chain, and looked up into the sky.

Against the stars, starting to fade in the first hints of dawn to the east, I saw a dragon in flight, turning slowly. If I squinted, I could make out a figure in the saddle on its back. It was clearly an Integrity Knight, but if they were able to hit us with a bow at that distance, while riding a mount, they were one hell of a sharpshooter.

The knight drew back their massive bow, and I pushed off the ground with my injured foot as hard as I could. Again, two arrows thudded into the stones right before me.

“Uh, th-this is bad,” I stammered, still holding Eugeo’s chain. I’d never taken a blow from an arrow here before. Even Sortiliena, the Walking Tactics Manual, had only ever faced throwing daggers, so I had assumed that ranged weapons were not to the liking of the Underworld’s warriors. But it seemed that anything went when it came to the Integrity Knights.

I had to envision the area around us because I couldn’t take my eyes off the dragon, but as far as I recalled, there was no cover that could hide us here. Not even the leaves of the rose plants on the fences would completely hide us. That left only…

“We’ve got to run! Dodge the next shot, then sprint!” I whispered to Eugeo, waiting tensely for the next volley.

But this new knight stopped there and had the dragon descend. Within moments, the knight’s booming voice filled the fountain clearing.

“Criminals, move away from Knight Thirty-One!”

Against my better judgment, I glanced back at Eldrie and saw that after all the work we’d done, his prism was receding back into his forehead.

“There shall be no forgiveness for the crime of tempting a bright and noble Integrity Knight into ruin! I will pin you down, limb by limb, and cast you into the cells myself!”

Just then, a ray of sunlight from the east caught the dragon. The rider wore heavy silver armor much like Eldrie’s and held a massive red longbow in his left hand; it was probably another Divine Object like the Frostscale Whip. The most pressing question was its tremendous accuracy: Was that the effect of its Perfect Control, or had I not even seen its true power yet?

The large knight nocked four arrows to his crimson bow.

“Uh…run!”

He was too close now for us to evade after he loosed the arrows. I started sprinting with Eugeo’s chain still in my hand. My chest and right foot throbbed powerfully with each step, but I couldn’t stop now. Eugeo kept up behind me, breathing wildly.

I considered running back down to the cells, but that would only shelter us from the arrows, not solve our problem. We rushed through the southern gate of the clearing, realizing that a single dead end would be it for us.

Within a few scant steps, I heard the succession of heavy arrows landing behind us.

“Eyaaargh!” I shouted, somewhere between a scream and a roar, and ran like the wind. Depending on the angle, some of the fences along the path hid us, but when we had no choice but to expose ourselves in an intersection, for example, a hail of projectiles soon followed.

“How many arrows does he have?!” I ranted. Fortunately, Eugeo was there to tell me the answer.

“That volley just now put him over thirty. It’s incredible!”

“Come on, this isn’t some lazy MMO…Er, sorry! Forget I said that!”

I’d completely lost all sense of direction by now. But for some reason, at every fork in the path, that tugging sensation at my hairline started up, guiding me either left or right as I ran. So far I was staying ahead of the dragon, but if we got stuck in a single dead end…

Almost as if prompted by my pessimism, I turned left at yet another intersection and found that my mysterious protection had run out. About thirty feet ahead, the path simply ended.

My only option was to use the half-length of chain on my arm to break down the metal fence, but according to the check I did earlier, these fences were close in priority to the chain—they might not go down in one swing.

There wasn’t another option at this point, though. I summoned my courage, left my fate up to God, and swung back my arm.

“No, thisaway!”

A voice came out of nowhere, momentarily stopping my brain in its tracks. Thisaway was rather folksy, old-fashioned terminology, but the voice was that of a young girl.

I slowed down, looking around, and noticed that just ahead and to the right was a small door I hadn’t seen before. Peering out and beckoning us over was a girl, who was indeed maybe ten years old, wearing a black hat.

The round glasses on her nose flashed, and she disappeared through the door. For a moment, I wondered if it was a trap. Then my bangs tugged me onward harder than ever before. It was as if they were saying, What are you doing? Get in there!

Eugeo and I raced toward the darkness within that door.