CHAPTER EIGHT

CENTRAL CATHEDRAL, MAY 380 HE

1

How very, very far we’ve come…

The ceiling was high enough that he had to crane his neck to see. Pillars of marble stood all around, and the floor was a fine mosaic of different kinds of stones fitted together.

Eugeo could scarcely breathe upon his first glimpse of the grand interior of the Axiom Church’s Central Cathedral. Until two years ago, his entire life, as far as he knew it, was to be vainly swinging an ax into a tree that would never fall down. His only sentiment would be to reflect on the memories of his long-lost golden-haired friend as he led a lonely life without marriage or children, dwelling deep in the forest until the day he grew old and handed the ax to a new generation and passed away with no one to tell his tale.

It was the sudden arrival one day of a black-haired young man that had broken Eugeo’s tiny, suffocating world by force. Using methods the previous carvers could never have imagined, he had cut down the absolute barrier blocking the way to the big city and confronted Eugeo with a major decision: stay here in his tiny home, nursing his memories of Alice, or set out on a massive journey to get her back?

It would be a lie to claim that he had never given it a second thought. When Chief Gasfut asked him what he wanted his next Calling to be on the night of the village festival, he had first considered his family.

Up to that point, Eugeo had given his family his entire salary as the Gigas Cedar carver. They were traditionally a barley-farming family, but their fields were small, and the recent run of poor harvests had left them little income. Eugeo’s steady monthly wages were a minor bedrock that he knew his parents and brothers relied upon, even if no one wanted to admit it.

Once the Gigas Cedar was felled, that salary was gone, naturally. But if he chose to be a farmer, like his father, they would receive preferential choice of the large, sunny stretches ready to be tilled to the south. Standing at the pulpit amid the excited villagers, Eugeo looked into the hopeful and anxious faces of his family members.

His hesitation had lasted only an instant. On one end of the scale was a reunion with his childhood friend, and on the other was the livelihood of his family. The scale tilted, and Eugeo announced that he would leave the village and be a swordsman.

Even as a swordsman, he could choose to stay in Rulid and be one of the men-at-arms, ensuring he’d still have a salary. But leaving the village meant leaving his family. The money that Eugeo made and the possibility of new, fertile fields would all go up in smoke. He hastily left the day after the festival because he couldn’t stand seeing the suppressed disappointment and unhappiness in the faces of his parents and brothers.

There had been more opportunities to choose a life that supported his family after he and Kirito left Rulid. They competed in the swordfighting tournament in Zakkaria and won the right to join the garrison there. After hard training, they were given a recommendation to North Centoria Imperial Swordcraft Academy—but the commander also offered to keep them around, with the promise of promotions and maybe even a future place as the garrison commander. If he’d accepted that steady salary in Zakkaria and had sent some of it back to Rulid on the regular trading caravan, it could have made things so much easier for his family.

And yet, Eugeo had turned down the commander’s offer and accepted the letter of recommendation instead.

Along the way to Centoria, and even after joining the academy, a part of Eugeo’s mind had been busy making excuses. He’d be named school representative, win the Four-Empire Unification Tournament, and receive the prestigious rank of Integrity Knight—and then his parents would have riches and comfort beyond their imagination. When he made his triumphant return with Alice, riding a dragon and outfitted in silver armor, his parents would be prouder of their youngest son than anyone could ever be.

But two nights ago, when he had drawn his blade against Raios Antinous and Humbert Zizek, Eugeo had betrayed his family for the third time. He gave up on the very real possibility of noble rank in his future…and chose to violate the Taboo Index, sacrificing his common status in the process.

Even as overwhelming rage drove his actions, a part of Eugeo had understood that if he attacked, he would lose everything. And yet, still he made the choice to go ahead. He could say it was to uphold his personal sense of justice and save Tiese and Ronie from being raped, but that wasn’t all of it. He wanted to unleash the raging thirst to kill, to erase all traces of Raios and Humbert from the world. There was a pit of black desire in his heart.

How very, very far he had come…

From one of twelve elite, prestigious students at the academy to a traitor against the Axiom Church—and now there he was, stepping on the most hallowed ground in the entire world.

After escaping from the archer knight and winding up in a vast, enigmatic library, the little girl who claimed to be the previous pontifex of the Church showed him books full of the world’s history, which he practically devoured. He had a pressing question to answer: How many people, in the long arc of history, had ever defied the Church, fought the Integrity Knights, achieved their desires, and safely escaped?

Sadly, he didn’t find a single anecdote of such a thing in the historical record. The glory of the Church illuminated the world, and all peoples bowed before the might of the Integrity Knights. These things easily solved even the gravest of troubles—imperial border squabbles, for example. No matter how far he dug into the thick history tomes, he found no instances of anyone attacking the Church and fighting the knights.

That means that in 380 years of history, ever since Stacia created the world, I am the most sinful person who has ever lived.

He felt a freezing chill assault him as he closed the book. If Kirito hadn’t returned at that very moment, he might have fallen to the ground and curled up into a ball.

Even as the mysterious little former pontifex explained the ways of the world to them, Eugeo couldn’t help but grapple with himself. He’d abandoned his family, attacked another person, and chosen to fight the Church. He could never go back to his old life. The only way out was forward—bloodied hands, soiled soul, and all. There was just one goal ahead of him.

He had to retrieve the heart fragment stolen by the pontifex, turn Alice Synthesis Thirty back into Alice Zuberg, and take her home to Rulid Village.

But his hope for actually living with her was probably gone by now. There was no place he could live after his many sins anymore, except for the horrifying Dark Territory beyond the End Mountains. But even that was a price worth paying if it meant Alice could go back home and live in happiness again.

Eugeo watched Kirito walk before him, turning over this secret determination in his head. If I said I was going to the Dark Territory, would you come with me…?

He stopped himself before he could imagine his partner’s answer. The black-haired boy was the only person in the entire world standing in this position with him. The idea that they might travel separate paths in the not-too-distant future was too frightening to ponder.

As Cardinal had warned, the hallway from the doorway was surprisingly short. He barely had time to get lost in his thoughts before they arrived at a spacious rectangular room.

In the center of the right-hand wall was a surprisingly large staircase leading upward. The ceiling was about eight mels above, so there were a good twenty steps before the stairs stopped at a landing. On the left-hand wall was a set of large double doors surrounded by sculptures of winged beasts.

Kirito flung out his hand and pressed against the wall, so Eugeo followed his lead and backed against a nearby pillar. They held their breath and listened intently for any presence in the dim chamber.

If the former pontifex was correct, those doors on the left would lead to the armory. For being so important, however, the chamber was silent and appeared empty. Even the light of Solus coming down from the stairs on the right seemed chilly and gray.

“…Looks like there’s no one here…,” he whispered to Kirito, who seemed a bit surprised.

“It’s an armory, so you’d figure there would at least be a soldier or two on guard…but I guess nobody’s going to sneak into the Axiom Church to steal weapons, anyway…”

“Still, they know we’re here, right? They don’t seem too concerned.”

“They probably aren’t. They figure they don’t need to bother searching around for us. So the next time we run across an Integrity Knight, it’ll either be a whole bunch of them or a really tough individual. Let’s make the most of our leeway, then,” Kirito said, finishing with a snort. He darted out from the shadow of the wall, and Eugeo followed him across the empty room.

The doors of the armory, carved with reliefs of the goddesses Solus and Terraria, were so imposing and stately that even without a keyhole, it almost seemed to suggest that they would not open to anyone who wasn’t pure of faith. Kirito put an ear to one of the doors and yanked on the handles. They opened with almost disappointing ease—there wasn’t even the squeak of a hinge.

The dark space beyond the fifty-cen opening exuded the chill of centuries of silence. Eugeo shivered, then had to hurry to squeeze through after Kirito entered without a care. The doors swung heavily shut behind them, leaving them in perfect darkness.

“System Call…”

Their voices spoke in perfect unison, and in spite of the dead-serious situation, Eugeo couldn’t help but smile. The rest of the command was Generate Luminous Element, which reminded Eugeo of the time they’d gone to find Selka in the Northern Cave two years ago. At the time, even the simplest of beginning sacred arts was unbelievably hard to execute, and they could only weakly light the end of a stick.

A source of pure white light appeared above his palm, driving away the thick darkness and Eugeo’s wistful recollection along with it.

“Whoa…,” Kirito murmured. Eugeo swallowed.

What incredible size. The word armory had called to mind a space like the supply closet at the academy, but nothing could be further from the truth here. It was at least as big as the great training hall where Kirito had sparred with Volo Levantein.

The light element danced upward from Eugeo’s palm, reflecting off all the polished stone walls—and more importantly, off shining metal of every variety and color.

The floor was packed with wooden stands for full sets of armor. Black armor, white armor, bronze, silver, gold—a blinding array of shades, as well as shapes, from light chain and boiled leather to seamless slabs of heavy plate. There had to be at least five hundred sets in the room.

And hanging all over the high walls was an assortment of what appeared to be every conceivable weapon. Even with swords alone, there were long and short ones, thick and slender, straight and curved. There were single-and double-bladed axes, spears, lances, war hammers, whips, bludgeons, and bows—every possible variation of weaponry in uncountable numbers, stretching from floor to ceiling. Eugeo’s mouth dropped open and hung there.

“…If Sortiliena ever saw this place, she might just pass out,” Kirito finally whispered, breaking the silence after many seconds.

“Yeah…I think Golgorosso would have leaped onto that greatsword there and never let go,” Eugeo muttered, letting out his breath at last. He looked around the room again and shook his head a few times.

“I don’t get it…Is the Church going to form its own army or something? You’d think the Integrity Knights were enough…”

“Hmm…To fight the forces of darkness? No, not quite,” Kirito murmured, looking pensive. Then he turned to his friend. “It’s the opposite. They’re not creating an army…they’ve collected all these weapons to keep one from being created. I bet all these things are Divine Objects, or the next best thing to them. Administrator must have been worried about any other group getting these powerful weapons, so she gathered them all here to keep that strength out of the hands of others…”

“Huh…? What does that mean? No group would ever fight back against the Axiom Church, even if they did have powerful weapons.”

“Maybe it means that the one with the least faith in the Church’s power is the pontifex herself,” Kirito said drily. Eugeo didn’t understand that at first, and his partner patted him on the back before he could figure it out. “C’mon, we don’t have time. Let’s find our swords.”

“Uh…y-yeah. It’ll be hard to pick them out of here, though…”

The Blue Rose Sword and the Black One were in white and black leather scabbards with little ornamentation, and there were a number of similar-looking blades along the walls.

“…We probably used up too many spatial resources with that light element to use darkness search arts again,” Eugeo lamented, wishing that they’d only cast one light instead of two.

Then Kirito simply said, “Oh! Found ’em.” He pointed back, just to the left of the doorway they’d just walked through.

“Whoa…there they are.”

Indeed, there was a white and black pair of swords in that direction, undeniably the ones belonging to them. Eugeo gazed at his partner in disbelief. “Kirito, how did you know without using sacred arts…?”

“I figured that if they were the last ones brought here, they’d be closest to the door.” Kirito shrugged. Normally he’d have a proud, childish smirk on his face in this kind of situation, but now he was staring pensively at his sword. Then he exhaled, relaxed, and walked over to grab the black leather scabbard.

He paused for the briefest of moments, then lifted it off the display holder. He grabbed the Blue Rose Sword with his other hand and tossed it over. Eugeo hastily reached out to catch it and felt a familiar weight on his wrists.

He’d been separated from his blade for less than two days, but even he was surprised at the sudden surge of sentiment and relief as he clutched the sheath in both hands.

Ever since they felled the Gigas Cedar in his hometown, the Blue Rose Sword had been at his side. It had helped him through several great challenges, from the tournament in Zakkaria to the entrance duel at Swordcraft Academy, and even when he broke the Taboo Index to cut off Humbert’s arm.

If the Axiom Church had been stockpiling powerful weapons for years and years, then it was nothing short of miraculous good luck that the Blue Rose Sword had been sleeping undisturbed in that cave for centuries. It was fate—proof that their route to taking Alice back was correct…

“Don’t just stand there drinking it in; strap it on already,” Kirito chided him. Eugeo came back to his senses and saw that his partner had already fastened his sheath to his sword belt. He smiled awkwardly and did the same, then patted the hilt with satisfaction. The expensive-looking sets of armor had nameplates displayed nearby with impressive names like Armor of a Thousand Thunderbolts and Quake Mountain Plate.

“…What do you think, Kirito? There are so many, I’m sure we can find some armor that fits us.”

“No, we’ve never worn armor before. It’s better not to try something you’re not used to. Let’s just take some clothes from over there,” he replied, pointing to the end of the line of armor, where a variety of colorful outfits waited. Eugeo looked down at his own school uniform, which was dirty and torn from two days’ use, the battle against Eldrie, and the frantic escape afterward.

“You’re right. Pretty soon these will be more tatters than clothes.”

The two light elements overhead were starting to dim. Eugeo abandoned his hope for armor and pored through the expensive-looking fabrics until he found shirts and pants that seemed the right size for them. They turned their backs for privacy and got to changing.

Eugeo ran his arms through the ultramarine shirt, which was very similar in tone to his school uniform, and marveled at the smoothness of its texture. He turned around and found that Kirito was reacting in a similar way, running his hands over the black fabric.

“…I bet these clothes have some kind of special origin, too. Let’s hope they can help stop the Integrity Knights’ attacks.”

“Don’t get your hopes up too high.” Eugeo chuckled, then got serious. “So…shall we go?”

“Yeah…let’s do it.”

They returned to the entrance. Everything so far had been going so easily, it almost felt wrong—but that wouldn’t last long. They shared a moment of knowing determination—ready for anything that might come—as they each took a door handle, Eugeo on the right and Kirito on the left.

They pulled gently, just barely opening it a crack, when—

Thak-thak-thak! A number of metal arrows thudded into the outer surface of the thick doors.

“Whoa!”

“What the—?”

The force of the impact knocked the doors farther inward, sending both Eugeo and Kirito tumbling to the floor.

Standing on the landing at the top of the great staircase on the other side of that rectangular entrance hall was a knight wearing familiar red armor, notching fresh arrows—four at once, in fact—to a longbow as tall as he was. It was the Integrity Knight who had chased them around the rose garden on the dragon.

The range between both was about thirty mels. It was way too far for a sword to reach but close enough for a master archer to strike with perfect accuracy. They wouldn’t have time to pull their swords free, much less recover from their fall and scramble to safety behind the walls.

This is why I wanted the armor! We could have had shields! Eugeo protested to no one but himself, right as the knight began to draw back the string.

Forget about escaping harm. They had to focus on avoiding a fatal blow, or at least a debilitating one.

Eugeo stared hard at the line of four arrows. The dull silver tips seemed trained not on their hearts but their legs. As Cardinal suggested, the knights appeared to be ordered to take them alive, not dead. But from their perspective, the two things might as well have been the same.

The Integrity Knight’s bowstring creaked.

A moment of silence, in which everything short of time itself stopped.

Then Kirito’s voice ripped through it: “Burst Element!”

It was so quick that Eugeo didn’t actually pick up what his partner said at the time. It only clicked for him once he saw the result.

Instantly, his entire vision went white. Powerful light, like the descent of Solus itself, filled the room. It was a simple spell that released light, one of the elements that made up the building blocks of elemental sacred arts, but Kirito had never actually made the chant to produce the element in the first place. So where did it…?

Oh. It had been there all along—the light elements they created to illuminate the armory many minutes ago. Ever since, they had been floating around, waiting for the command input that would utilize them. Kirito simply gave that command to the elements overhead, producing a sudden burst of light.

Between this and the way he threw the shattered piece of glass in the fight against Eldrie, he’s always had a knack for making use of whatever’s nearby, Eugeo thought. He willed strength into his legs and leaped to the right.

Half a second later, he heard the unpleasant sound of metal arrows gouging stone coming from the spot where he’d just been. He was going to continue moving to the safety of the wall, but then he heard Kirito shout, “Forward!”

Instantly, he understood the intention and launched himself: not diagonal, but directly forward.

The light elements had burst behind their heads, meaning that they hadn’t seen the actual source of light directly, but the Integrity Knight most certainly had. They would have a few seconds with an opponent who couldn’t see.

Light elements were weak in attack power compared to heat or freezing elements, and in fact were more often used in healing magic, but causing a weapon to flash could have blinding or menacing effects. The class at the academy claimed that theoretically, one should counteract the use of light elements in battle with their anti-element, dark.

As the pinnacle of sword and sacred arts ability, an Integrity Knight would naturally be aware of this basic knowledge, so they couldn’t count on the light-based blindness trick to work twice. This was their first and only chance to close the distance on the ranged fighter.

Over and over, Kirito had told Eugeo that quick adaptation and smart action formed the core of the Aincrad style. It was the opposite way of thinking from the High-Norkia style, which emphasized grace and stylistic movement. And in order to keep your head about you and apply the teachings of the Aincrad style, it was essential to keep its secret motto in mind: “Stay cool.”

Eugeo pelted after his partner as best he could, drawing the Blue Rose Sword from his left side as he went. Immediately afterward, the light element was spent, and proper color returned to the world. They were out of the armory and into the antechamber. Twenty steps up the staircase on the other side of the room, they saw the Integrity Knight still standing in place.

As expected, he continued to appear partially blinded. He had his hand up to the visor of his dark-red helm, his upper half swaying.

Fortunately for them, unlike Eldrie, this knight did not have a sword at his side. Going into battle indoors with only a longbow was a bold, confident move. He seemed to believe that he could still hit their legs with perfect accuracy as they approached.

Even with his mind cold and clear, Eugeo couldn’t deny that there was a little flicker of anger in his head.

Sir Knight, you’re just like Raios—proud, haughty, and perfectly assured of your own righteousness. You believe it makes you impervious. But that will be your undoing. I’m going to make sure you realize that!!

He charged up the great staircase, propelled by this rather unfamiliar emotion. One step, two steps, and on the third—

The knight removed his hand from his helmet visor and swung it behind his back, then pulled out more metal bolts from his quiver. All of them at once, in fact.

When he brought it back around, there were at least thirty arrows clutched in his hand. Before Eugeo could even wonder what he was going to do with that many, the knight arrayed the entire bundle along the length of the horizontal bowstring.

“Wha…?!”

Eugeo gasped and halted, right at the third step of the stairs. It couldn’t be possible to shoot thirty arrows from a single bowstring at once and have them fly accurately.

He heard the sound of creaking metal. A shiver ran down his spine when he realized it was the sound of the arrows steadily giving way under an immense grip. Kirito had stopped to the right of him, unsure of the knight’s true intention. Was it a desperate bluff, or was he really going to—?

The longbow yanked back all at once, with a louder creaking sound than before.

“Back and to the left!” Kirito bellowed.

The air twanged and then snapped as the string finally gave out. But the thirty arrows flew in a radial pattern, a fatal silver sheet raining down on their heads from above.

Eugeo pushed so hard he thought his leg would break, hurtling himself to the left and holding his sword along the length of his body like a shield.

If the knight’s vision had been perfect, they would have easily been pumped full of holes. One arrow struck the Blue Rose Sword and clanged away. Another caught the right hem of Eugeo’s trousers, another ripped the skin of his left flank, and yet another grazed his left cheek, taking a few hairs with it.

Once his shoulder slammed onto the floor, Eugeo looked down, gritting his teeth in preparation for what he would see. After he realized he wasn’t hurt too badly, he glanced over at Kirito, who had gone in the opposite direction.

“Kirito! You okay?” he shouted. His black-haired partner looked a little shaken as he replied, “Y-yeah, somehow. I think it actually went between my toes.”

Eugeo saw that there was an arrow in the toe of Kirito’s left shoe, the tip poking through the sole. He exhaled, thankful for his partner’s quick reflexes and fantastic luck.

“…That was a close one…,” he gasped, forcing himself to his feet.

Up on the landing, the Integrity Knight seemed at a loss. His quiver was empty, and the string of his bow hung limp and broken. There could be no greater loss for an archer. But this was an Integrity Knight, not someone to underestimate and certainly not one to pity.

“…Let’s go,” Eugeo murmured, taking a step up.

But Kirito thrust out a hand to stop him, still holding the arrow he’d pulled from his shoe. “Wait…The knight is casting a sacred art…”

“Huh?”

Eugeo paused to listen. Since they were outside of attack range, they needed to respond to any spell with one of the opposite element. He focused on the voice coming through the knight’s metal helmet. The chanting pace was speedy, but thanks to the study they’d done in the library, he could make out the words.

Yet the art itself was unfamiliar to him. Without hearing the Generate command that would identify the type of element being summoned, there was no way to counteract it effectively.

“Uh-oh, this is bad,” Kirito moaned. “It’s not an elemental art, it’s Perfect Weapon Control.”

No sooner was the statement out of his mouth than the knight finished, clear and crisp, with “Enhance Armament!”

The two ends of the snapped string suddenly lit up with orange flame, accompanied by the soft sound of their ignition. The fire burned through the string in an instant, and when it reached the ends of the longbow, the copper-colored weapon burst into roiling red flame.

Even at the bottom of the staircase, Eugeo had to turn his face away from the skin-searing heat. The fire shooting from the bow wreathed the Integrity Knight himself, making it seem like he was aflame.

This development caught Eugeo by such surprise that he was unsure how to react. Should he assume that even with Perfect Weapon Control, the lack of any arrows was a major loss of power and charge in? Or was using up all his arrows at once a sign that the knight knew he didn’t need any more arrows with his bow in this state?

Eugeo glanced briefly at his partner to see how he was reacting. Kirito was neither pulling back nor charging forward, but staring wide-eyed with a childlike grin on his lips.

“This is amazing…I wonder what that bow was made of originally.”

“Now’s not the time for that!” Eugeo said, resisting the urge to punch his friend’s shoulder. They could choose to use their newly learned Perfect Control to fight back, but their opponent would not wait for them—he would certainly attack before they could complete the long chant. If they were going to use that, they needed to have started it at the same time as he.

Eugeo prepared himself to react when the enemy struck, but the knight decided to pause, transferring his blazing bow to one hand so he could lift his helmet visor with the other.

His face was hidden in the shadows cast by the flames, but Eugeo could sense a steely gaze just as sharp as those arrows. The knight’s voice was so hard it scarcely seemed human.

“It has been two years since I last bathed in the fire of my Conflagration Bow. I can see that you have the skill to match Eldrie Synthesis Thirty-One indeed, sinners. Now your crimes have further deepened. You did not best him in proper combat but misled him with the impure dark arts!”

“D-dark arts?” Kirito gaped.

Eugeo was equally taken aback, and he shook his head in denial. “N-no! We didn’t use any dark magic! We just talked about the time before Eldrie became an Integrity Knight…”

“Before he became a knight?! We have no past! The shining Integrity Knights are all we have ever been after our summoning from Heaven!!” he belted, voice echoing like steel off the staircase.

Eugeo held his breath. Cardinal had told them that the Integrity Knights couldn’t access their preknighthood memories. So this red knight had been led to believe that he, too, was summoned from the heavenly realm.

If they could stimulate the memories being blocked by his Piety Module, they could shake this man, too, but that was impossible given that they didn’t even know his name. They couldn’t stop him in his tracks the same way they did with Eldrie.

Standing amid a sea of airborne sparks from his bow, the knight barked like a bolt of lightning. “I have been ordered to take you alive, so I cannot reduce you to ash, but now that I have unleashed the power of the Conflagration Bow, know that you are likely to lose an arm or two! Let us see if you can evade the flames of condemnation and reach me with your flimsy blades!”

He held his bow aloft and placed his right hand in the spot where the drawstring should have been. His fingers pinched shut, but there was nothing there. It couldn’t mean—

Fierce flames ran out in front of the bow, shifting into the shape of an arrow. The burning red projectile gleamed with tremendous power. Eugeo felt his spine stiffen.

“No string, no ammo, no problem,” Kirito muttered.

Eugeo turned to him, chin nearly quivering, and asked, “Do you have a plan?”

“I have to believe that he can’t shoot consecutively. I’ll find some way to stop that first shot, and then you hack away at him.”

“You…‘believe’…?”

Meaning that if he can shoot those flame arrows one after the other, we’re done for. But even if it’s just the one, wouldn’t that mean it’s enough to finish us off without a follow-up? How does Kirito plan to defend against it? Eugeo wondered, but there was no time left for that now.

“All right,” he agreed. If Kirito said he could stop it, he would. This was still far more realistic than when he said he’d chop down the Gigas Cedar.

The two readied their swords and showed signs of determination, prompting the Integrity Knight to pull back on his invisible string.

The heat licking at Eugeo’s cheeks strengthened. The flames from the Conflagration Bow were soaring up to the ceiling over the landing, painting the marble surface black.

Kirito’s movement was sudden. He charged without a yell, without a grand launching leap, like a leaf caught in a rapid river. One breath later, Eugeo hurried after him.

As they climbed, he noticed a faint blue light leaking from his partner’s left hand where it loosely held the sword. Eugeo would never mistake the tint of a frost element, which he must have generated while the knight was giving his speech.

By the time they were halfway up the twenty-step staircase, the knight had the bow drawn to its full length. That was when a high-speed stream of commands burst from Kirito’s mouth. “Form Element, Shield Shape! Discharge!”

He thrust out his left hand, hurling a line of five elements, the maximum that one hand could generate at a time. The blue points formed a line of large round shields, one after the other, that filled the space between Kirito and the Integrity Knight.

The knight barked yet again. “Laughable! Pierce him!!”

With a roar like the breath from a fire dragon, the arrow—more like a spear—of flame launched itself forward.

It took only an instant for the flaming spear to intersect with Kirito’s ice shield line.

The first shield burst easily, the shards instantly evaporating into steam.

The second and third erupted before the sound even reached their ears.

The fourth shield softened and warped in the middle where the arrow landed, but it still burst. Through the final shield, the flaming lance bore down, filling the entire scene with red.

Throughout it all, Eugeo kept his pace going up the stairs. He couldn’t slow down now while his partner maintained that mad dash.

As Eugeo watched, teeth gritted, the fiery spear made contact with the fifth shield and finally slowed its ferocious pace just a bit. Sparks shot through the air as the projectile sought to shatter its obstacle of the opposing element.

“?!”

Eugeo’s eyes bulged. For an instant, it looked like the fiery spear changed shape on the other side of the translucent ice wall. It sprouted a large beak and spread wings, like some great bird of prey…

But before he could so much as blink, the final shield cracked and burst.

Blazing heat washed over him, drying the breath from his lungs. The spear of fire, the phoenix, hurtled down on Kirito, free of all the barriers at last.

“Yaaaah!!”

At last, a fierce shout burst from Kirito’s throat. He thrust his black sword forward.

Surely he isn’t going to try to cut that bird, Eugeo thought. Instead, Kirito’s extended blade traced an unexpected path. Faster than the eye could follow, it spun like a windmill around the axle of his glowing fingers.

But the speed of rotation was abnormal. However he was managing to spin his fingers, the blade was moving fast enough to be a blur, as if it, too, was now a translucent shield blocking the way.

The head of the phoenix made contact with the sixth shield.

There was a fierce blasting sound, perhaps a roar of fury from the bird—and then the flaming projectile that had pierced five shields of ice was torn into scattering shreds by the spinning blade. More than a little of it landed on Kirito, and the pieces caused small explosions where they hit.

Eugeo saw his partner’s body fly through the air as though struck, and he screamed. “Kiriiito!!”

Even through the shower of sparks and flames, Kirito managed to shout back. “Don’t stop, Eugeo!!”

His momentary hesitation gone, Eugeo stared ahead. Kirito would never halt and give up that one sliver of hope in this situation. He did what he said he would. Now it was Eugeo’s turn.

He practically flew up the steps, passing the airborne body of his partner to the right. Once he was through the last remnants of floating fire, the landing and the Integrity Knight standing on it were right before him.

Surely the knight wouldn’t expect that one could escape his mighty Perfect Weapon Control attack unscathed. His face was still hidden in the helmet, even at this range, but Eugeo thought he sensed surprise. There wasn’t enough time for a second projectile. He had no sword, and he had allowed his foe to reach close quarters.

Now you’ve lost! Eugeo thought triumphantly, raising the Blue Rose Sword high.

“Toy with me not, boy!!” the knight bellowed, reading Eugeo’s mind.

Whatever momentary surprise he felt was gone, and pure fighting fury enveloped the heavy reddish armor. He held his left hand high overhead, still clutching the burning longbow, and flame burst around his fist again.

“Daaah!!” he screamed, hurtling his fist forward through the burning air.

What now?!

Eugeo was already in slicing range, but a series of calculations spun through his head at the speed of light.

It was fist versus sword, so in terms of range and power, he had the advantage. But his opponent had the advantage of terrain. He was already very tall, and his fist was coming from an added height advantage of three extra steps. Could the slender Blue Rose Sword withstand that kind of power? Should he dodge sideways, take the landing, and then attack again?

No. Eugeo’s friend and master in the Aincrad style had once told him, In this world, what you put into your sword is crucial. And it’s up to you to find what you infuse into your blade.

Eugeo’s tutor, Golgorosso; Kirito’s tutor, Sortiliena; and even the arrogant and cowardly nobles Raios and Humbert had something that gave their swords added power. But Eugeo could sense that he was still in the process of finding that thing for himself. He had trained as much as anyone and learned a number of advanced techniques, but he still hadn’t found what he could put into his sword to make it stand apart. He wasn’t born to be a swordsman; perhaps he would never find it.

But at this moment, he couldn’t submit to the Integrity Knight’s intensity and allow his weapon to shrink back. The time for training and building his skill was gone. Now was the time to achieve his goal. Now was the time to take back the old Alice from her new Integrity Knight form.

Alice.

That was the only thing that mattered. He’d watched his friend get dragged away in chains that summer day eight years ago, and now was the time to save her at last. All of his sword training and sacred arts knowledge was for this very moment.

Please, give me your strength. I still have so much to learn, and I might not be fit to own a sword of your pedigree…but I can’t stop and pull back now!

With the Blue Rose Sword high, Eugeo twisted himself even farther backward. The slightly translucent blade took on a brilliant blue glow, denoting the Aincrad style’s Vertical attack.

“Aaaah!” he bellowed, and then he swung. The sword sizzled forward with that special sound unique to ultimate techniques and collided with the burning fist of the Integrity Knight.

The shock wave of blue and red light fanned out, tearing the red carpet on the steps and the woven tapestries on the walls. Fist and sword came to a stop, connected in midair.

The gauntlet and the flat of the blade creaked. Eugeo summoned all his strength in the hopes of finishing the technique, but the knight’s arm was as immobile as a boulder—although he did not seem to be overpowering the sword, either. A low growl emerged from the helmet, and more weight was added to his fist.

But the stalemate lasted only a few seconds. The flame coming from the Conflagration Bow in the knight’s hand started to lick at the Blue Rose Sword. The light along the blade began to flicker, as if wilting under the heat. If his Vertical faltered, his sword would be knocked aside to give him a face full of burning fist.

“Grr…uuaagh…!”

Eugeo summoned all the strength and willpower he had in an attempt to swing through. But the flames only grew in strength. The blade began to heat up, turning red.

Though he’d never been conscious of it before, the memories of the sword that he saw in the Great Library said that the Blue Rose Sword had ice properties. That meant it should be weak to powerful flames, as its opposing element. If this continued for much longer, it could sap a dangerous amount of life from the weapon.

But on the flip side, the element of the sword meant it could possibly overcome the enemy’s flames, as well.

You’ve been forged in the freezing storms at the peak of the End Mountains since the days of the world’s creation. Don’t let this cheap little fire melt you now! Eugeo screamed in his mind.

The sword responded. Instantly, both his main hand on the grip and his left supporting the pommel felt a stinging chill. It wasn’t just his imagination—the little roses carved into the guard were shrouded in white frost. The frost advanced, growing into little vines that crawled up the blade and scattered the flames licking at it.

The phenomenon didn’t stop there. The white vines of ice grew onto the knight’s fist where it touched the sword, banishing the flames that covered the red gauntlet and spreading more frost…

“Hrrng…,” the knight grunted, surprised at the sudden chill. The moment that Eugeo sensed his opponent’s stance was faltering, he unleashed all the strength he’d been building.

With an ear-ripping squeal, the sword plunged forward and pushed the knight’s left gauntlet back. Unfortunately, the tip just missed the enemy’s body. As the sword descended through air, the knight threw his empty right fist at Eugeo. It wasn’t flaming like the other one, but a solid blow from that rock-hard fist would easily knock him back to the base of the stairs.

But Eugeo let out a fierce cry, and his sword leaped upward.

“Iyaaaah!”

Even the burliest of men couldn’t perform an instantaneous reversal of momentum with strength alone—not when the Blue Rose Sword was heavier than a steel sword of the same size. Only a swordfighting technique could achieve such an effect: the Aincrad style’s two-part attack, Vertical Arc.

The blade traced a figure like the sacred arts rune V, slicing into the Integrity Knight’s breastplate at an angle. A small amount of red liquid sprayed from the gash in the dark-red metal. The tip of his sword had tasted flesh—but only a bit.

The knight swayed backward, but he tensed his legs to leap away. If Eugeo let the enemy gain any distance, it would give him a chance to repeat his flame attack. But all of the Aincrad style’s ultimate techniques left the user immobilized for several seconds after finishing.

Kirito told him that if he was going to use them, he always had to consider how he would make up for that massive period of weakness. If the attack landed effectively, it wasn’t an issue, but if it was blocked or deflected—or, as in this case, it landed but didn’t fully stop the opponent—he would be open to the risk of a fatal counterattack.

The immobilization of a technique was absolute; no amount of mental fortitude could lessen it. The only ways to minimize the risk were tricks like having an ally step in afterward or unleashing prepared wind elements to blow the enemy farther away, and so on. But Kirito had fallen back down into the antechamber, and there hadn’t been time to chant any sacred arts. There was only one way left.

Eugeo summoned all the muscle and willpower he had to control the movement of the Blue Rose Sword along the route of the second half of its Vertical Arc. Normally it would end up high to the left, but instead he brought it back so that it practically rested on his left shoulder. Forcing the blade aside caused the blue light surrounding it to diminish rapidly, but the attack was essentially over anyway.

Just as the Blue Rose Sword came to a stop over his shoulder, the enemy knight leaped into motion. The landing of the staircase was spacious, and if he retreated toward the back wall, he could likely prepare another flaming lance while Eugeo was paralyzed. If Eugeo let that happen, he could not defend against it.

The final way to overcome the momentary paralysis was to stitch one ultimate technique into another. If the posture at the end of one attack matched the initiation of another, it could segue smoothly without causing any delay. This ultimate art of technique combination was so difficult, even Kirito could only pull it off half the time.

“…Hah!!”

Eugeo belted hot breath and focused as hard as he could on activating the new technique. The sword shone brightly, his body bolted forward as if struck, and the sword roared forward from the upper left toward the Integrity Knight. It was the singular attack move Slant.

At last, the knight’s eyes bulged.

The pain in Eugeo’s right eye and the rotating red sacred letters from when he tried to attack Raios were gone. There was no feeling of doubt, no hesitation whatsoever. Eugeo’s entire being was driven by one thought only: to slice the foe before him.

The Blue Rose Sword struck the knight directly on the right shoulder. The shoulder guard split, followed by a dull, heavy impact that traveled up to Eugeo’s hand. It was the sensation of the sword in his hand splitting muscle and flesh to crush bone.

The Integrity Knight was slammed directly to the floor on his back, wounded deeply from shoulder to breast.

“Gakh!” he gasped, voice muffled by the helmet, and then a spray of blood redder than his armor burst from the neck of his suit.

This was the second time Eugeo had slashed a man, and he still felt his breath catch in his throat for a moment. The sensation in his right hand caused something to clutch at the pit of his stomach, but he did his best to suppress it.

In a kind of coordination with Eugeo’s emotions, the Blue Rose Sword exuded frost again, turning all the blood on it into ice that vanished, leaving it clean. In fact, the wound on the knight’s shoulder was also white with frost now, the captured drops of blood hardening into little icicles.

“Rrgh…,” the knight grunted, lifting his left hand with the bow toward his wound. Eugeo clenched his sword harder again—if the Integrity Knight started some kind of sacred art, he would have to strike him again. An experienced caster could heal himself with all the available resources in the vicinity, and the only ways to stop him were to attack his throat, cut off his arm—or perhaps end his life altogether.

But the knight’s left fist was totally frozen, and when he realized that he could not even let go of the bow, he gave up on healing himself. Element-based sacred arts required fine finger movement to execute. Instead, he exhaled in chagrin and dropped his arm heavily to the floor.

Eugeo wasn’t sure what to do next. The Blue Rose Sword’s ice effect stopped the enemy’s flame in its tracks, but it also sealed the wound and stopped the bleeding. The knight couldn’t fight back for now, but he wouldn’t die, either. If left here, his hand would eventually thaw, and then he could heal himself and possibly continue pursuing them.

All Eugeo could do was stand in place and grit his teeth in indecision. It was the knight who spoke first.

“…Boy…”

Even in a rasp, his voice lost none of its commanding presence. Eugeo tensed at first, until he heard what came next.

“What is the name of the first technique you used…?”

“…”

Eugeo hesitated at first, then opened his parched lips to answer, “…The Aincrad-style two-part combination, Vertical Arc.”

“Two…part,” the knight repeated, pausing, then asked, “And you…what did you do…?”

His helmet creaked, and for an instant Eugeo looked behind him. There was Kirito, black clothes singed here and there, holding his left arm and dragging his right foot as he slowly ascended the stairs.

“Kirito…are you hurt?!”

His partner grinned weakly. “I’m fine. I already took care of the worst burns. Sir Knight, what I performed was the Aincrad-style defensive maneuver Spinning Shield.”

“…”

The knight looked up at the ceiling, helmet clanking, and fell silent. When he spoke again after several seconds, it seemed to be directed at himself rather than Eugeo or Kirito.

“…I have been from one edge of the human world to the other…and even seen what lies beyond…but now I have learned that there are techniques and styles in the world that are yet unfamiliar to me…I can sense that there is true discipline and experience in your style. When I accused you of using defiled arts to lead Eldrie astray…it seems that I was mistaken.”

His helmet creaked again as he turned to stare at Eugeo from within the helmet. “…Tell me…your names.”

Eugeo glanced at Kirito, then said, “…Eugeo the swordsman. I have no second name.”

“I am Kirito the swordsman.”

The knight nodded, savoring the sound, and then, to their surprise, said, “…Several Integrity Knights are awaiting you in the Great Hall of Ghostly Light on the fiftieth floor of the cathedral. They are under orders to obliterate your life rather than take you alive, however…So if you attempt to challenge them directly, they will instantly destroy you.”

“Whoa…Buddy, should you really be telling us that?” Kirito interjected.

But the knight seemed to grin (as far as could be seen with his helmet on) and muttered, “Having failed to fulfill my duty as given by Administrator…my knight’s armor and weapon will surely be confiscated, and I will undergo an eternal freezing…So before I suffer that ignominious fate, I would prefer…that you end my life yourselves.”

“…”

Eugeo and Kirito could not respond. The knight continued, “There is no reason to hesitate…You defeated me through skill and boldness, in fair combat…”

But any surprise Eugeo had felt was soon washed away by his formal introduction.

“My name…is Deusolbert Synthesis Seven.”

It was more than just familiar.

That was a name that had been etched deep into Eugeo’s soul for the past eight years, a name he could never forget for an instant. A name that conjured up regret, despair, and anger.

“Deusol…bert? You…you were the knight who…?”

To his own ears, Eugeo’s hoarse voice sounded like it belonged to someone else. The color of the armor was different, and the metallic muffling of the voice through the helmet had given away nothing. But now he understood that the knight on the floor before him was the very one who…

Eugeo staggered forward, compelled.

“Eugeo…?” said Kirito, but the brown-haired boy hardly even heard it. He leaned over to look at the face through the helmet visor.

There was some kind of enchantment on the helmet, because from just a few dozen cens away, the knight’s face was still hidden in darkness. But even after the loss of so much of his life value, his two eyes were clearly visible, having lost none of their force. They were sharp and bold and could have belonged to either a young man or an experienced one.

Eugeo’s voice creaked out of his parched throat. “End…your life…? Fair combat…?”

His right hand spasmed violently, and the sword clutched in it began to radiate cold once again. The armor right under the tip began to freeze over in white.

A ball of furious hot rage swelled up inside him, and he forced it out with one throat-ripping accusation.

“You shackled a girl…who was only eleven—eleven years old!—and chained her to the foot of a dragon…and you think you have the right to take the honorable way out?!”

He held up the Blue Rose Sword in reverse, the blade pointed down.

He would ram it through that knight’s mouth and his unforgivable words, right down to the floor, and be done with it.

But a heavy, wincing pain stayed his hand. The pain didn’t come from his right eye but somewhere deep in his chest. It was the pain of someone, somewhere, desperately trying to stop him.

He stood there, sword raised, entire body trembling with emotion—until Kirito reached over to put his hand on Eugeo’s arm.

“……Why…are you…stopping me, Kirito…?” he ground out to his partner, the person he trusted more than anyone in the world, as he grappled with a maelstrom of emotion that threatened to consume his entire sense of reason.

Kirito stared back at him with eyes full of pain and slowly shook his head.

“This man doesn’t intend to fight anymore. You shouldn’t use your sword on someone who won’t fight…”

“But…but he…he was the one who took Alice away…He…,” Eugeo protested, like a sulking child, but a part of him knew that Kirito was right.

The Integrity Knights were beings who acted entirely on the commands of the Axiom Church—the pontifex herself. It was the Church, the twisted law and order that ruled over the world, that took Alice away.

But even taking a step back did not rid him of the impulse to forget all about the truth and simply slice the prone knight to pieces. Learning the way the world really worked didn’t simply wipe clean the years of anger, powerlessness, and guilt that had built up since that fateful summer day.

A woven basket at his feet. Bread and cheese lying in the sand. Ice melting in the sun.

The dull shine of the chains that bound Alice’s blue dress. And his two feet, as immobile as if they’d grown roots on the spot.

…Kirito…Kirito.

If you had been there, you would have attacked the knight to save Alice, if that’s what it took. You would have done it, even knowing that you’d be arrested and subjected to interrogation, too.

But I couldn’t do it. Alice was my one true friend, the girl I cared about more than anyone else, and all I could do was watch. All I could do was watch as this knight on the ground here tied her up and took her away.

His mind was a storm, fragments of emotions and thoughts coming and going. His arm trembled in Kirito’s grasp and lifted the sword even higher.

But what Kirito said next was stunning enough that it succeeded at stopping Eugeo.

“…I don’t think he remembers that. He doesn’t remember taking your Alice away from Rulid…and not because he forgot but because the memory was erased.”

“Huh…?”

Stunned, Eugeo looked down at the knight’s helmet.

The Integrity Knight, who hadn’t budged once, even with the sword held over his head, finally moved. His left fist, thawed at last, pried itself open and let go of the longbow in a spray of little ice shards. He reached up to undo the fasteners of his helmet.

The menacing metal structure split in the front and back, then clattered free from the knight’s head. It revealed the fierce, stern face of a man who appeared to be around forty.

He had close-cropped hair and thick brows, both a burnished red color like rust. The bridge of his nose and the line of his mouth were straight and proud, and his eyes were as sharp as steel arrowheads.

But those dark eyes were wavering, betraying an internal struggle. His thin lips parted to produce a deep, rich voice that sounded nothing like what had come through the helmet.

“…This black-haired boy…is correct. You claim that I chained a young girl and brought her here by dragon? I do not remember such a thing.”

“You…you don’t remember…? It was only eight years ago,” Eugeo murmured, stunned. The tension drained from his arm. Kirito removed his hand from Eugeo and put it to his chin, thinking hard.

“That’s why it was erased…along with everything before and after. Hey, guy…er, Sir Deusolbert, were you the Integrity Knight in charge of protecting the north border of Norlangarth?”

“…Indeed. Norlangarth North District Seven was…under my jurisdiction. Up until eight years ago,” the knight said, his brows furrowing as he dredged up memories. “And then…in recognition of my feats…I was given this armor…and placed in a security role at Central Cathedral…”

“Do you remember what feat it was?” Kirito asked. The knight did not answer immediately. He pursed his lips, and his eyes wandered. After a short silence, Kirito continued, “I’ll tell you why. Your feat was finding the Integrity Knight Alice Synthesis Thirty—from a tiny little frontier hamlet in the far north that no one in Centoria would have known about. Administrator gave you credit for bringing Alice to this tower but also had to remove your memories of the event…and you just explained the reason why.”

At some point, Kirito had stopped talking to Eugeo and the knight and seemed to be laying out his argument for himself as his speech accelerated.

“You said that the Integrity Knights have no past, because you were summoned from Heaven. I’m sure that’s what the pontifex told you just after you awoke as a knight, in order to convince you that you had no memories before then. But in order to maintain that story, there had to be no memories, not just of your humanity but of the birth of any other knights. After all, there would be chaos if the sinner you brought to justice showed up as an Integrity Knight the next day. I suppose that might actually be the pontifex’s biggest weakness…”

Kirito looked down, pacing left and right, pondering at a rapid pace. This outburst by his partner sapped the momentum of Eugeo’s fury. He looked down at the man at his feet again. Deusolbert’s face was similarly vacant as he considered these ramifications.

His anger and hatred weren’t gone, but if Kirito was correct that all of the man’s memories of Alice had been erased, then perhaps Eugeo just had to accept the state of things: that all the Integrity Knights were merely pawns of this Administrator at the center of the Axiom Church. The true enemy who stole Alice from him, and turned her into a knight and erased her memories, was none other than the Administrator.

Deusolbert, sensing Eugeo’s gaze upon him, stopped glancing around. It was impossible to tell what exact emotions were swirling within the older man, but when his voice emerged at last, it wavered with a weakness that would be unthinkable from the imposing figure they’d faced in battle.

“That…cannot be…We Integrity Knights cannot have been human beings like you…before our knighting…”

“…”

Eugeo was at a loss for words. Instead, Kirito spoke for him.

“The blood from your wound is the same red as ours. And Eldrie wasn’t acting strange because we cast some wicked art on him. It was because we were trying to make him remember the memories that were taken from him…And you’re no different from him. I don’t know whether you won the Four-Empire Unification Tournament or committed some sin according to the Taboo Index, but in either case, Administrator took important memories of yours, forced absolute loyalty to the Church into your soul, and turned you into an Integrity Knight. Whatever this freezing punishment is, I’m certain that Administrator will just tinker with your memories again and erase this conversation. I’d bet on it.”

His phrasing was cold, but there was a kind of helpless frustration in Kirito’s voice, too. Picking up on that, the knight closed his eyes and then eventually shook his head.

“I cannot believe. I cannot believe that the holy pontifex…would do such a thing to me…”

“But it’s the truth. There must be something still left in you. A precious memory from before you became a knight that no sacred arts can wipe from your mind…”

Deusolbert lifted his left hand, stared at the thick, strong fingers, and exhaled. “From the time I first came to earth…I have had the same dream, over and over…of a small hand rocking me awake…and a silver ring on its finger…But when I wake…there is no one there…”

His brows furrowed, and he pressed hard against his forehead. Kirito watched him solemnly, then murmured, “I don’t think you can remember any more than that. Administrator stole your memory of whoever owned that ring…”

He paused, then returned the black sword in his hand to the sheath at his left side with a soft clink. “…What you do next is up to you. You can return to Administrator and receive your punishment, heal up, and chase after us…or…”

Kirito left the final option unsaid and took a few steps toward the next flight of stairs on the right end of the landing. He paused there and looked over his shoulder, straight at Eugeo.

His black eyes were saying, Isn’t that better? Eugeo glanced down at the prone Integrity Knight, whose eyes were closed. He lifted the Blue Rose Sword, then pointed the tip at his sheath and slid it home.

“…Let’s go,” he said, pulling even with Kirito, and they began to climb together.

Whatever choice Deusolbert Synthesis Seven made, it seemed unlikely that he would pursue them after this.