2

“Remove Core Protection.”

Just three command words, a phrase he’d never heard before in his life. But the moment that he finished repeating them, Eugeo came to realize that he’d just unlocked a door that was never meant to be opened.

Just one hour before that unthinkable duel against Kirito, Eugeo had barely managed a painful draw against Bercouli, commander of the Integrity Knights and wielder of a blade that cut into the future. By utilizing the Memory Release feature of the Blue Rose Sword, he had been able to freeze them both in place, until a strange man named Prime Senator Chudelkin had taken his unconscious body up to the hundredth floor of Central Cathedral.

It was there that Eugeo had met a girl with silver hair and mirror eyes, the otherworldly beauty that was Administrator, pontifex of the Church. Through a mental haze that refused to lift, he’d listened to her speak.

You are a flower in its flower bed, deprived of the water that is love.

But I am different. I will love you, and only you.

However, only if you love me just the same.

It was like they were sacred arts commands in and of themselves, binding his will to them. He’d felt himself repeating the three command words as she’d bidden him.

It must’ve been some kind of forbidden art. Something that hurled open the door meant to protect truly precious things—memories, thoughts…the soul.

With that perfect smile, Administrator had peered into Eugeo’s mind, looked around, and inserted something deep inside it, something colder than ice.

Then he’d lost consciousness again.

When he awoke, it was as though he were being dredged up from the bottom of a deep, dark blackness, answering someone’s distant call.

Bright sparks. Silver steel. And a young man with black hair, furiously fighting against him.

That was when Eugeo recognized that he was clad in the armor of an Integrity Knight and that he was using his sword on the friend he trusted more than anyone in the world and the childhood sweetheart he’d cared for more than any other soul.

But even that realization did not remove the icy thorn jabbing into the center of his mind. It bound his thoughts to its will, ceaselessly ordering him to strike down these foes for the glory of the supreme Administrator. Helpless to stop himself, Eugeo activated the Blue Rose Sword’s Memory Release art, locking those two precious souls in ice. He resisted in vain, but it was the only way to stop the fight.

…I gave in to her temptations and destroyed something that should never have been destroyed. But even still, there are things I can do…things I must do.

“…I’m sorry, Kirito…and Alice,” he managed to say.

Eugeo stepped onto the levitating platform to return to the hundredth floor of the tower—to Administrator’s bedchamber.

When it came to a heavy stop, the moonlight coming through the enormous windows reflected off Eugeo’s armor and sword, sending sheets of pale light through the room.

It was about two o’clock in the morning on the twenty-fifth day of the fifth month of the year.

Just three days ago, at this hour of the night he was in his bed in the elite disciples’ dorm. He always slept like a rock after a full day of lessons and training and never awoke before the morning bell.

Thinking back on the last few nights, he remembered that he’d spent the twenty-second in the school’s detention cell and the twenty-third in the underground jail beneath the Axiom Church’s grounds—hardly the best conditions for sleep. After the early-morning escape on the twenty-fourth, he’d been through battle after battle, a thought that made his body go numb with the weight of fatigue, but that pulsing, throbbing thorn of ice stuck in his head kept him from being sleepy.

Give your everything to the pontifex. Fight to protect the Axiom Church, the thorn commanded, both as stern as a steel whip and as sweet as the finest honey. In reality, the “thorn” was probably the same purple crystal that had been stuck in Eldrie’s forehead. And Eugeo got the feeling that if he gave in and tasted that honey again, his mind would never return.

The only reason he had any consciousness at the moment was because of Kirito’s desperate appeal and the ferocity of their swordfight. And the reason he could return largely unharmed was thanks to Alice watching them fight, rather than getting involved.

Alice Synthesis Thirty’s skill with the sword and the Perfect Weapon Control version of her Osmanthus Blade, a storm of golden petals, was a combination far beyond Eugeo’s current ability to counteract. If she had drawn her weapon and fought alongside Kirito, Eugeo would have fallen before he could have ever regained his own mind.

He didn’t know exactly why Alice would have pledged herself to rebellion against the Axiom Church. Perhaps, as he imagined while ascending the staircase, Kirito had managed to convince her. Perhaps it was something even more impressive than that.

There had been a bandage over Alice’s right eye that appeared to be fashioned from Kirito’s ripped clothing. Eugeo guessed that whatever had happened had been the same as when Eugeo himself had attacked Humbert Zizek at the academy. Her right eye must have exploded when she committed the crime of declaring war against the Church. Both the first time they’d seen her at the academy and later in the Cloudtop Garden of the eightieth floor, they’d been totally unable to stop Alice. And it wasn’t Eugeo who had brought her to that momentous decision, but Kirito…

But I don’t have the right to complain about that now. I gave in to Administrator’s honeyed words. I cast open the door to my heart. It was a betrayal of Kirito and Alice. Of Tiese, and Ronie, and Frenica, and Golgorosso and Sortiliena, and Miss Azurica the dorm manager, and Sadore the craftsman, and everyone on Walde Farm, and Selka and Old Man Garitta back in Rulid, and Elder Gasfut, and the little sage Cardinal in her hidden library.

He clenched the pommel of his sword, withstanding the chilling throb as it steadily grew worse. There wouldn’t be much time left for him to maintain his wits like this. He had to atone for his sins before he vanished for good.

There was only one way to do that.

Eugeo raised his head and looked around. The placement of the ninety-ninth and hundredth floors had to be unbalanced, as the disc had put him on the south side of the room here. The only thing beyond the glass windows that surrounded the room was a full blanket of stars. The massive sword decorations on the pillars between the windowpanes gleamed with the light of the moon and stars.

Suddenly, he got the sense that someone had called for him, and he looked up.

The pure-white domed ceiling over ten mels above featured a mural, which he’d seen the first time he’d come here, of the story of the gods. Among the gods and dragons and human beings in the image were embedded tiny crystals that shone with their own light.

…Is it that light that’s calling me…?

He squinted, focusing on one of the crystals. Then he heard an actual voice from a different direction and hastily looked forward.

In the middle of the vast chamber was a circular bed that had to be ten whole mels across. The drapes were down around the sides, blocking the interior from view. But if he focused, he could hear a faint voice on the other side of the sheer material. A voice that sang as much as it whispered, threaded with sweet, dulcet tones.

The voice of Administrator.

It sounded like she was chanting a sacred art, but it didn’t have the fierce rigor of an attack spell. If she was performing some typical, everyday kind of housekeeping art, now was his chance.

He put the Blue Rose Sword in its sheath and laid it on the floor, then removed the armor that had been damaged in the fight with Kirito. Off went the gauntlets, the boots, and the cape, until he was dressed in his usual shirt and trousers. Eugeo brushed at his chest with his fingers, just to make sure that what he needed was still there.

He took one step toward the canopy, then another.

A squat figure tottered closer from farther within the bed. It produced an unpleasant chortle.

“Hoh-hee, hwee-hee-hee…I figured buying me a good five or ten minutes would be about right. I didn’t actually expect you to come back alive. Perhaps you’re a better find than I realized!”

The instant he saw the figure in the moonlight, Eugeo’s breath caught in his throat. It was all he could do not to grimace.

He wore hideous clothes, bright red on the right half and bright blue on the left. The middle of his balloon-like chest was an ugly patchwork. His face was pale white, with narrow eyes like slits in his face and a long, upturned mouth. The gold cap he wore atop his bald pate was gone, but Eugeo would never mistake the remaining features as belonging to anyone else.

This was Prime Senator Chudelkin. He had shown up at the end of Eugeo and Bercouli’s fight, cast a Deep Freeze art that had turned the commander to stone, and then transported the unconscious Eugeo up here to the top floor.

While he looked just like a short, silly clown, he was almost certainly the most powerful sacred arts user after the pontifex herself, and a cruel inquisitor in the extreme. If he found out that Eugeo was (temporarily) back in his right mind, he would use that petrification art without missing a beat. The only way Eugeo could fulfill his final duty was if he managed to get past this man without suspicion.

Chudelkin cast a glance at the armor Eugeo had set on the floor, and his nearly hairless eyebrows shot upward theatrically.

“Oh, my, you certainly did a number on the armor that Her Holiness gave to you. I sincerely hope you did not receive this beating from those brazen rebels and come running back with your tail between your legs, Number Thirty-Two…?”

Her Holiness had to be Administrator, those brazen rebels would be Kirito and Alice, and Number Thirty-Two was his own designation as an Integrity Knight. He felt like he’d give away the game no matter what he said, but he had to answer the question one way or another.

Eugeo steeled himself and kept his face as devoid of emotion as he could. “I locked the two rebels in ice, Prime Senator.”

Chudelkin’s eyes curved as though he were beaming with all his might, but the pupils themselves glittered with cold, hard malice. “Hoh-hoh. You locked them in ice…? All very well, all very good…but you did finish the job, didn’t you, Number Thirty-Two?”

“…”

Throughout that moment of silence, Eugeo’s mind raced.

Of course he hadn’t killed either Kirito or Alice. The Blue Rose Sword’s advanced ability was designed only to imprison its targets, not to harm them. As long as their faces were exposed, they wouldn’t lose much life despite being stuck under thick ice.

Would it be better to not mention that and to just say they were done for? If Chudelkin went down below and saw for himself, he’d uncover that lie in short time. This was the sort of situation where Kirito would use his intuition and courage to come up with the perfect answer on the spot.

All I ever did was hide behind him. Whenever there was trouble, I looked to my partner for help. Every big decision was his to make.

This time, I have to think, and I have to decide. Kirito didn’t just leave all of the big calls up to his gut. He thought his hardest, picked out the right answer, and got me all the way here.

I have to think like he would.

Eugeo thought so hard that for a moment, he actually forgot about the cold throbbing in the center of his head. His lips parted, and he spoke with the absolute minimum of volume.

“No, I did not finish them off, Prime Senator. The pontifex ordered me to ‘stop’ the rebels.”

He didn’t actually know whether that was the order he’d been given by Administrator. But from what he could vaguely remember, the first time he had awakened in this chamber, the man had not been there. If Chudelkin hadn’t been around when Eugeo was turned into an Integrity Knight, he couldn’t judge the content of any orders—and if Administrator had said it, this man couldn’t possibly override that.

Of course, if Administrator herself was listening from the bed just ten mels away, then all was lost. But she seemed to be in the midst of chanting some kind of sacred art through the layers of hanging canopy. There was a good chance that as long as they whispered, she wouldn’t hear.

Eugeo waited for Chudelkin’s response, desperately controlling his expression to keep his nerves from showing. The little clown man’s huge lips twisted, and he scowled.

“Very poor, Number Thirty-Two, very poor indeed!”

He jabbed a finger at Eugeo’s face. “When you refer to me, you must call me ‘Lord Prime Senator.’ Understand that? Lord! The next time that you forget that, you’ll be my steed! I’ll ride around on your back, digging my heels into your sides—hi-hoh, hi-hoh! Hwe-hee-hee-hee!”

He cackled in falsetto, then clasped his hands over his mouth and peered toward the bed. Once he was sure that Administrator’s sacred art was continuing without interruption, he made a grand gesture of calming himself down, then beamed.

“…Well, I ought to carry out Her Holiness’s orders for me now. That miserable, corrupted knight must be put in Deep Freeze at once. Oh, and you’ll wait right here, Number Thirty-Two. It’s no fun if others are around to interfere, you see. Hoh, hoh-hoh-hoh.”

Eugeo nodded, stifling the sickening lurch rising in his chest.

Chudelkin tottered over to the levitating platform on the south end of the room. Like he did to Commander Bercouli, he likely had all kinds of humiliating treatment in mind for Kirito and Alice while they were stone.

But there shouldn’t have been any concern for them. The prison of ice the Blue Rose Sword created was nothing compared to Alice’s Perfect Weapon Control. In the Cloudtop Garden, Eugeo had locked Alice’s entire body in ice. But the Osmanthus Blade had turned into countless tiny shards that had carved the ice into nothing.

Either they were already out of the ice by now, or Alice would use that merciless power of hers as soon as Chudelkin showed up. For his part, the fat little man hopped onto the platform, huffing and wheezing, and headed downward. Eugeo watched and waited as the platform returned empty, fusing into the floor like always. The prime senator must have let the platform go back up so that he could enjoy himself in peace. It left no way to know what was happening on the ninety-ninth floor.

It’s all right. The stupid man can’t beat them.

Eugeo took a deep breath to steady his nerves and returned his gaze to the center of the room. He lifted his left hand and pressed down on the shirt over his chest.

I just have to fulfill my role.

He steeled his resolve, picked up the sword, and started walking forward. He was just three mels away from the bed, then two, then one.

Just then, the endlessly droning sacred arts chanting came to an abrupt stop, like it had been snuffed out. Eugeo automatically froze, mind racing.

Did the sacred art just happen to finish right then, or did she stop because she sensed him approaching? What kind of spell was it, anyway?

His head swiveled around, but nothing seemed different. The circular room was larger than the floor below, perhaps forty mels across, and there was hardly any furniture inside—just the bed, the thick carpet, and more than a dozen pillars with massive sword decorations to serve as frames for the windows that surrounded the room. They had gleamed golden in the moonlight, but nothing seemed different about them now.

Eugeo gave up on his examination and faced the bed again. Instantly, the middle of his head throbbed.

The cold pain was getting stronger, bit by bit. He probably wouldn’t be lucid for much longer. Before he became an Integrity Knight in body and mind again, he would do what needed to be done.

He took a few more steps, right up to the side of the bed, and after some hesitation, laid the Blue Rose Sword on the ground. The instant he let go, he felt anxiety and loneliness, but he had to remove any reason for the woman to suspect him of being a threat.

Eugeo straightened up, took a deep breath, and prayed that his voice wouldn’t tremble.

“…My lady Pontifex.”

After a few seconds of silence, which felt eminently longer, her voice replied.

“…Welcome back, Eugeo. You finished your errand properly.”

“…Yes, my lady,” he muttered. Eugeo was bad at acting, but he’d spent years of his life in Rulid suppressing his emotions. All he had to do was go back to that time in his life. Back to the old him, before he met that strange, black-haired boy at the Gigas Cedar.

“Very good. Then I owe you a reward. Come into my bed,” came the soft, velvety welcome beyond the canopy.

He brushed the front of his chest again, then gently pulled open the part in the canopy surrounding the bed. It was all purple darkness inside, but the sweet, familiar scent there lured him in deeper.

He put his weight on the silk cover and crawled forward. While it might have been voluminous for a bed, it was still supposed to be only five mels to the center. Yet no matter how many crawling repetitions he did, he couldn’t see or feel anything ahead.

But if he panicked or said something, it would tell her that his mind was back under his own control. He kept moving, focusing only on the feel of the covers.

Suddenly, a bit higher than his eye level, a pale light appeared without a sound.

That color wasn’t coming from a candle or a lamp. It was a light element from a sacred art, though he never heard any commands. The floating little mote peeled back the velvet darkness just the tiniest bit.

Eugeo looked down and saw her smiling face, just two mels away. For an instant, his eyes bulged, but then he composed his face again just as quickly and bowed with his hands still pressed against the bed.

It was a girl dressed in sheer purple fabric, with long silvery hair. The ruler of humanity, with transcendent beauty and mirror eyes that kept her thoughts hidden.

Administrator, pontifex of the Axiom Church.

The young woman seated lazily on the blanket stared at Eugeo, silver mirror eyes reflecting the light of the little floating element, and whispered, “Come to me, Eugeo. As I promised, I will give you what you want. The love that belongs only to you.”

“………Yes, my lady,” he whispered, inching closer to her, still prone.

Once he was one mel away, he’d leap on her, cover her mouth with his hand so she couldn’t give commands, pull his secret weapon out from under his shirt with the other hand, and stab her with it. It would take less than two seconds altogether, but that still seemed like an eternity against someone like Administrator.

The instant he thought of this act of rebellion against her, a sharp pain ran from the spot between his eyebrows to the center of his head. But there was no time to think about it. He had to relax as much as he could and sneak closer, closer…

“But before that,” Administrator murmured just before he reached the right distance, causing him to pause, “I want you to show me your face again, Eugeo.”

Did she sense his malice? If he tried to execute his plan now, he wouldn’t be in time. He had to obey.

Slowly he rose off the sheets and looked at her, keeping his expression frozen. At the very least, he wanted to keep from looking into her eyes, but those glassy surfaces drew his gaze through some irresistible force. They betrayed no information of their own and yet had the ability to peer directly into the mind of any who looked into them. The floating light caused them to reflect an eerie glint.

After several interminable seconds, the woman said, “Conveniently, there was a hole in your memory already, so I inserted the module right there. Perhaps I shouldn’t have been so lazy…”

It seemed like she was mostly talking to herself, and Eugeo didn’t understand at first.

There was a hole in his memory—meaning that something had been missing from Eugeo’s memory even before he was first taken to this chamber? But he had no inkling that there was some missing period of his life before this. Maybe the fact that he didn’t remember it was the hole in his memory, but there had been that thing Cardinal said, too.

To insert the Piety Module, the most precious memories of the target had to be removed first, usually of their most beloved person.

That conversation in the hidden library seemed like it was ages ago by now. Eugeo mulled this over.

…My most beloved person. That would be Alice Zuberg, the girl who was taken away by an Integrity Knight before my eyes eight years ago. I’ve never once forgotten her. When I close my eyes, I can see her golden hair shining in the sun, her eyes bluer than the bluest midsummer sky, and that dazzling smile.

…And while it might not be the same kind of love, I also have a partner, a friend almost as important to me as Alice. A strange young man I met in the forest south of Rulid two years and two months ago. A “Lost Child of Vecta,” with black hair and black eyes in the eastern style. Kirito’s been my best friend—he got me out of the village and helped guide me all the way here to Central Cathedral. I can easily see that mischievous grin of his, too.

…Alice and Kirito. I may never see their smiles again. But even if I’m fated to lose my life here, I know that up to that final moment, I’ll never forget about them.

…I was hoping I’d be able to go back to Rulid with Kirito and Alice once she got her memory back…but I don’t have the right to wish for that anymore. I gave in to Administrator’s temptation. I lost sight of myself. I turned my sword on the two people I care about most.

Just as he reached that conclusion, Eugeo felt his eye twitch just the tiniest bit. Administrator tilted her head in slight confusion, though it was unclear how she chose to interpret that motion.

“Yes, you seem a bit unstable still. Very well, I’ll just have to resynthesize. Your reward can come after that, Eugeo.”

She thrust out her right hand.

It might have been the perfect moment to leap into action, but the moment that her delicate finger pointed at his forehead, Eugeo underwent a most peculiar sensation. His body jolted and went numb, leaving him unable to even speak, much less move his limbs.

And the next instant, a very bizarre feeling shot from the spot between his eyes toward the back of his head.

The source of the cold throbbing, that thorn of ice jabbing deep into his head, was being slowly but forcefully pulled out from its location. It didn’t hurt, but each movement of the thorn brought a bright flash to his eyes, and brief glimpses of vague scenes.

Green branches swaying in the wind. Gently shifting sunlight coming through the trees.

Running and laughing beneath them.

Shining golden hair just ahead.

Coarse black hair bouncing right beside.

Young Eugeo looked to his right as he ran. But the smile of his other childhood friend drifted away into a bright flash, out of reach…

A powerful shock brought Eugeo back to the surface of the bed in the darkness. As his numb body arched its back, something alien was protruding from his forehead. A triangular, translucent prism that glowed purple.

When they’d fought Eldrie the Integrity Knight in the rose garden, the mention of his mother’s name had caused him to act strangely, until this same kind of prism emerged from his head. But the one appearing out of Eugeo right now was larger, carved with more-intricate symbols, and glowing brighter.

Stunned with both the shock that something this enormous had been inside his head all this time and the horror that Administrator’s sacred arts were powerful enough to do such a thing, Eugeo could only watch in silence.

“Yes…be a good boy. Just stay there,” the silver-haired young woman purred. She reached out and gently plucked the purple prism from Eugeo’s head. The moment the object came loose, his mind went blank, and Eugeo slumped helplessly into the linens.

Administrator cradled the prism in her fingertips, gazing upon it lovingly. “This is an improved model of the module. I just finished making it. Not only does it force loyalty to me and the Church, it also contains circuits for strengthening the imagination. Synthesize this, and there won’t be any need for inefficient training. You’ll be able to use Incarnation that very instant. It’s still limited to very elementary steps for now, however…”

Eugeo understood less than half of what she was saying. But one thing was clear—that prism, the Piety Module, was what took over his thoughts, turned him into an Integrity Knight, and made him threaten his friends. Yes, he had chosen that path for himself, but now that the module was removed, he could fulfill his final role without that bothersome false obedience getting in the way. Now he realized that the horribly cold, stinging pain in the center of his head was gone, too.

However, even with the module gone, the numbness that came over him when she pointed her finger at him did not go away. He was completely unable to control his own limbs.

If only he could move his right hand. Then he could grab the thing from his chest and swing it down on her…

He struggled with all his might, stuck with his back hunched over—and then her hand was reaching out again.

Eugeo rolled his eyes upward and saw the pontifex, module in her left hand, approaching close enough that their knees were nearly touching. Unable to resist even the slightest of pressures, his head was pulled toward the smiling woman, and he toppled forward.

Administrator rested his head sideways on her lap and traced his hairline with her fingertip. “Show me your memories again. This time, I’ll bury this in the most precious place of all. Then your head won’t hurt anymore. Even better…you’ll be forever free of all those pointless, petty troubles and pains, your hunger and thirst.”

The pale finger pulled away, then descended to brush his lips. The numbing feeling went away but only around his mouth.

She removed her hand again, gave him a mind-melting smile, and commanded, “Now say those words I taught you, one more time.”

“…”

Now that they were barely under his control again, Eugeo’s lips trembled. His memory of fighting with Kirito as an Integrity Knight was fuzzy, as was whatever came before that, but he did have a very clear picture of the three command words he had chanted.

Remove Core Protection.

The sacred words were unfamiliar to him, and he couldn’t guess what they signified, but one thing was certain: That short command was designed to seize the door that all people were born with—a door that stayed shut to keep the mind safe—and hurl it open.

That was how Administrator had been able to peer into Eugeo’s memory and find the empty space into which she inserted the Piety Module. But according to her words, the synthesis process had been unstable, which was why she was trying to do the same thing again.

Despite the incredible danger he was in, Eugeo was still in his right mind, which meant the door was shut again. Either it closed on its own over time, or the pontifex had closed it afterward for some reason or another; he couldn’t be sure. Whatever the case, in order to resynthesize him, Administrator required that Eugeo utter the three-word command again.

If he did, he would almost certainly become an Integrity Knight in every sense and would never again get the chance to restore Alice’s memory.

But if he didn’t say them, Administrator would detect his rebellion against her.

This was the moment. Right here, with her skin exposed and defenseless, Eugeo had his last and best chance. He had to find a way to restore feeling to his numbed hands and stab her.

With just a gesture of her hands, she had paralyzed his body. And not just that—she’d also generated that light element above without uttering a word.

There was another occasion on which Eugeo had witnessed an invisible power being used without a spoken command, although it was not the same kind of sacred art. It was Bercouli Synthesis One, whom he’d fought in the bathhouse many floors below—though Eugeo originally knew him as the ancient hero who had founded the village of Rulid. With just a motion of his hand, he had drawn his distant sword to his side.

In fact, that wasn’t the only time. In the Great Library, Cardinal had closed off passages with a wave of her staff and made a table appear out of nowhere. There must be a level of power at which simple thoughts could have the same effect as the chanting of sacred arts.

Of course, Eugeo had been a simple student at the academy just days ago. His ability with sacred arts wasn’t even as good as the apprentices in the Axiom Church, much less masters like Administrator and Cardinal.

But at this moment—right now—he had to break this paralysis with nothing but the power of his mind.

Kirito once told him that what was most important in this world was what you put into your sword. In other words, the sword would take on the power that came from your heart and mind, making its bite sharper and stronger.

If your mind could make your sword stronger, then the same thing could be true of sacred arts…or of anything and everything that human beings did.

Move, Eugeo prayed, opening his lips and breathing steadily. Move, hand, move.

I’ve made so many mistakes in my life. I failed to save Alice when the Integrity Knight took her away. I spent years not going after her. Right when I was finally at the end of that long journey, I lost sight of my goal. I have to make up for all that weakness.

“…M—…”

A hoarse sound escaped from his throat.

“…Mo—…”

Administrator’s smile, just above his head, waned. Her silver mirrors narrowed, searching for Eugeo’s intention. There was no turning back now. He focused all the energy he could summon into his right hand.

But the numbness was not abating. Countless invisible needles stabbed at his fingers and palm, keeping them trapped in place. If only he could just move his hand this one moment, it could shatter into pieces afterward. He didn’t need to swing a sword again. Just one little…

“…Mo—ve…,” he uttered, wringing out the sounds.

Just then, light enveloped the hand that was resting on the bedsheet. It was warm and gentle and seemed to melt all the pain away. Instantly, the icy thorns that gouged his flesh and bones disappeared.

“…What are you…?” Administrator murmured and tried to pull away. But Eugeo’s mobile hand was already sneaking into the collar of his shirt and grabbing the object that was hanging on the chain around his neck.

It was a tiny dagger that gleamed deep bronze.

He pulled it out and jabbed it downward, toward the white skin visible above the deep collar of Administrator’s sheer nightgown.

It was impossible to miss. The blade of the weapon was barely five cens long, but they were basically touching already—there was no way he would come up short.

But just as that needlelike tip was about to pierce the skin of Administrator’s body, something happened that beggared belief.

Craaak!! There was a blast like thunder, and a film of purple light appeared, centered around the point of the dagger. The glowing surface was made up of strings of extremely tiny sacred script. They were so small they shouldn’t have had any mass at all, but the thin film was resisting the sharp tip of the weapon.

“Hrrggh…!!”

Eugeo gritted his teeth and summoned all his willpower, trying to break through the resistance. Cardinal had given him and Kirito one of these daggers each. It had almost no attack power of its own, but whatever target he used it on would be vulnerable to the remote sacred arts of the little sage in her isolated library.

Eugeo’s dagger was supposed to put Alice the Integrity Knight to sleep, and Kirito’s was supposed to defeat Administrator. But he had already used his own to save the life of Fanatio Synthesis Two, the vice commander of the knights, whom they had fought on the fiftieth floor.

At the time, Cardinal’s bodiless voice had told them, “There is a high likelihood that Administrator is not in a waking state at the moment. If you can reach the top floor before she wakes, you can eliminate her without needing the dagger.”

But they hadn’t been in time. Now that she was awake, the only way to beat Administrator, who had just as much power as Cardinal, was to use the dagger in Eugeo’s hand.

He’d wanted to return Alice’s memories and take her back to Rulid with him. It had been his only desire for years. But then he’d allowed himself to fall under the pontifex’s sway, even temporarily, put on the Integrity Knight armor, and threatened both Kirito and Alice with his sword. Eugeo could sense that his original wish would never come true. It couldn’t.

But if there was some way he could atone for his sin, it would be to abandon himself—to carry out this act not for his own personal conviction but in service of a much larger destiny.

Eleven-year-old Alice, taken from her hometown, bereft of her memories, and turned into a knight.

Tiese and Ronie, perfectly innocent girls, violated over nothing more than noble birthright.

These were the products of a warped, corrupt system of rule, and he would use the last remnants of his strength and life to destroy that. If he had to die in order to ensure that the pontifex fell, then all the time he spent on his journey and at the academy would have had a purpose after all.

But despite all that resolution, that determination, the thin purple film was keeping him from Administrator’s skin. Meanwhile, she clearly hadn’t predicted Eugeo’s actions, as she was arching her back away from him and breathing heavily.

There was rage in those gaping mirror eyes now. Eugeo added his left hand to his right, trying with all his strength to push the dagger through.

“Yaaaaah!”

The needlelike point pierced barely a single milice into the shining protective layer—and then the sacred writing that formed the barrier exploded into bright light, blasting Eugeo and Administrator backward.

“…!!”

He tumbled through the air as though slapped by an invisible giant’s palm, but even as it knocked him completely off the bed, Eugeo was able to achieve two things simultaneously.

He got a fresh grip on the chain holding the dagger before it could fall out of his grasp, and the moment that his back hit the floor, he reached out with his other hand to grab the sheath of the Blue Rose Sword, which was right next to him.

Even with the heavy sword weighing him down, his backward momentum continued, rolling him along the floor until at last his back smashed against one of the giant windows that separated the room from the world without.

“Nng…”

Wincing against the pain, Eugeo raised his head and looked to the center of the room.

The hanging canopy sheets around the bed had all been blown clean away, exposing the circular bed. On the far side of it stood a silent figure. Like Eugeo, she’d been blasted backward by the explosion of the barrier, but the only damage she seemed to have received was the swaying of her long hair. In her left hand was the shining prism she’d taken out of his head.

The sheer purple cloth she’d been wearing hadn’t withstood the impact, however. But Administrator didn’t show the slightest bit of concern about her nakedness. She reached up with her free hand to smooth out her long silver hair.

Then she sat from a standing position, as though there were an invisible chair behind her, and crossed her slender legs. She moved silently through the air, not breaking her posture, until she stopped about ten mels away from where Eugeo lay prone on the south edge of the room.

From atop her invisible throne, the pontifex placed her fingers against her chin and stared at Eugeo. He was unable to move or speak. Eventually the silver-eyed young woman grinned and said, “I was just wondering where you hid that tool of yours…I suppose it was the doing of the little one in the library, wasn’t it? She filtered it out of my senses. In the time since I’ve seen her last, she’s gotten rather crafty, hasn’t she?”

She chuckled deep in her throat. “But too bad. I haven’t just been sleeping on the job, either. Her mistake was crafting that weapon with a metallic element. No metal-based object can harm my skin anymore. Not an ogre’s machete nor a fine sewing needle.”

“Wha…?” Eugeo grunted, still lying on the floor.

No metal weapons could hurt her? If that was true, then not only was Cardinal’s dagger powerless, but so was any other kind of sword. Assuming the strange purple film that had rebuffed the tip of his dagger earlier was that protective sacred art, he couldn’t begin to guess what precise art it was, in order to undo it—to say nothing of the fact that Eugeo himself did not have the skill for it.

He palmed his weapon, which was small enough to hide there, and stared up at the floating pontifex, unable to do anything else.

The naked woman whispered, “You poor thing.”

“…”

“I made a promise to you. All you had to do was give your everything to me, and I would love you back. And when the eternal love you always wanted, the eternal rule, was nearly in your grasp, you chose to do this.”

“………Eternal…love…,” Eugeo repeated, hardly knowing what he was doing. “Eternal………rule……”

She nodded, playing with the Piety Module she’d just pulled from his forehead. “That’s right, Eugeo. If you give your all over to me, the thirst that has tormented you your entire life will be quenched. The troubles and fears you’ve been grappling with all this time will go away…This is your final chance, Eugeo. Use the sword in your left hand to shatter the toy in your right. Then I shall forgive your sins with the bounty of my love.”

“…”

From his prone position, Eugeo looked first at the Blue Rose Sword, then at the copper-colored dagger. Then he looked up at Administrator and said, “Love is ruling and being ruled…? The only one I feel pity for is you, if that is the only way you can describe it.”

“…”

Now it was her turn to have no response.

All it would take was a swing of her slender hand to call down a high-level sacred art that would eliminate his life value in an instant. But Eugeo continued talking.

“I’m certain…that you must’ve felt the same way. Starved and searching for love…but never finding it,” he continued, but on the inside, he was reflecting.

Maybe I was a child who never found love from his own parents. But even if that’s true, I have loved many people in my life.

Old Man Garitta, the previous carver. Sister Azalia from the Church. Selka the apprentice sister. Grandfather, who told me stories of the past. My elder sister, Celinia, who cared for me when I was little. Vanot and Triza Walde from the farm. Their twin daughters, Teline and Telure. Golgorosso, who helped train me. Miss Azurica, the dorm manager. Tiese, who filled my life with smiles for the short time that she was my page. Ronie, who was the page of my partner.

And Kirito.

And…Alice.

“You’re wrong, you wretched soul.” Eugeo stared into those mysterious rainbow eyes of Administrator’s, emphasizing each and every sentence. “Ruling is not loving. Love isn’t transactional; you don’t give it to get something in return. You give it continuously and selflessly, like water to a flower…That’s what love is.”

Administrator listened, a faint smile playing around her lips again. But there was no honeyed sweetness there anymore.

“…What a shame. I was going to forgive the little criminal who betrayed the Axiom Church and rescue his soul, and this is what I get in return.”

And to Eugeo’s breathless awe, the silver-haired young woman floating in the air changed from human to god.

There was no change to her appearance. But her unblemished white skin filled with a kind of bottomless force, a holy aura. Something in the air spoke of unfathomable power—that of a simple twitch of a finger capable of tearing the greatest warrior or arts caster to pieces.

“Eugeo…are you under the impression that I need you? That if I really want you to be my knight, I wouldn’t dare take your life?”

There was no discernible emotion in her smile. All he could do was clutch his dagger even harder and bear the incredible pressure suffocating his body.

“Hee-hee…I don’t need boring little boys like you. I’ll suck out all your life, convert your body into a tiny jewel, and lock you away in a box. That way, even after I file away today’s memories, at least I’ll feel something when I look at it,” she gloated, crossing her legs as she sat on her invisible chair.

It wasn’t a bluff. If she decided she would do it, it would happen without pause.

He couldn’t run away now, even if there was actually a way out. It’d take far too long for the levitating disc to take him down to the next floor. If he could somehow break the window behind him, all that awaited him outside was empty air until he hit the ground hundreds of mels below.

Besides, Eugeo’s fate had been decided the moment he’d used his Perfect Weapon Control on Kirito and Alice down below. He had to stick Cardinal’s dagger into the pontifex, even if the act killed him.

She was protected by a barrier that rebuffed all metal weapons. But he got the feeling that it wasn’t as absolute in power as she said it was. When he had used all his strength to push in the dagger, it looked like the barrier itself had exploded. He doubted it was the end of the sacred art, but perhaps the dagger could reach her body right after a blast.

“Oh…are you still going to try something?” murmured Administrator, staring down at her prone foe. “How very thoughtful of you to keep trying to entertain me to the bitter end. Hmm, maybe it would be a waste to kill you and turn you into a jewel. Perhaps I could force-synthesize you, like I did her…it’ll just take a while.”

Despite the desperate circumstances, something in what she said stuck in Eugeo’s ear. “Like…her…?”

The silver-haired woman smiled and nodded. “That’s right. The one you’re so infatuated with: Thirty. She really didn’t want to say the words, so I had the automated senate facility undo her protection. It took several days. I was asleep, so I didn’t see it for myself, but I’m sure it was torturous. What do you think? Would you like to try undergoing the same thing…?”

“…Thirty…? Alice…,” he hissed.

As usual, he understood less than half of what Administrator was saying, but he could tell one thing.

Eight years ago, after she’d been tied up and taken to Central Cathedral by force, Alice had undergone a harrowing process to become an Integrity Knight. She hadn’t given in to the demand to say the Remove Core Protection command the way that Eugeo had, and as a result, they’d had to pry open the door to her mind by force. Surely the wounds that Eugeo had suffered along the way were nothing in comparison to that.

No, he couldn’t run away now.

He couldn’t allow himself to fall without striking back at Administrator.

“……”

Eugeo clenched his teeth and pushed himself up with trembling arms, getting to his unsteady feet.

He stared back into those silvery eyes, which were losing their mirth, wrapped the chain of the dagger around his right wrist, and grabbed the hilt of the Blue Rose Sword with the same hand. The familiar white leather clung to his palm. He drew the blade and tossed the sheath aside.

In the light of the moon from over his shoulder, the weapon shone pale and bright.

Ten mels away, the girl seated in the air narrowed her eyes in response to the light. When she spoke, her tone was noticeably more chilling.

“So that is your answer, boy. Fine…then I will at least ensure that your end is not painful.”

She raised her right hand and pointed her index finger at Eugeo. Clearly, the pontifex did not need to speak the command words aloud to use sacred arts. But there were still two steps that had to be taken to use any kind of attacking art—

—the creation and processing of elements. Whether heat, ice, or some other natural force, even the greatest master needed at least two seconds to create the elements and give them a shape.

So by the time she started to move her finger, Eugeo already had the sword propped up near his shoulder.

Light-green color infused the Blue Rose Sword. Pale-blue dots appeared at the end of Administrator’s finger.

“Yaaaah!”

This would be his final swing, Eugeo knew, as he launched himself off the ground. The last ultimate technique.

The Aincrad-style charging attack Sonic Leap.

In his ears, he heard Kirito’s voice: Listen, Eugeo, these techniques will move our bodies for us. But just letting it do all the work isn’t going to cut it. You have to become one with the technique and speed it up with your legs and arms. If you can do that, your sword can hit the enemy before the breeze itself.

How many times had he practiced it? How many times had he failed and wound up with his face planted firmly in the grass?

And how many times had Kirito laughed with delight…?

Eugeo’s sword flashed the color of fresh green shoots and cut through the air so fast, even the sound couldn’t keep up.

Administrator’s smile vanished. She spread the fingers of her right hand. The ice elements, which were just about to be shot like needles, burst as they touched the Blue Rose Sword. Then Eugeo’s most powerful technique smashed against Administrator’s palm—or more accurately, the thin purple barrier about five cens in front of it.

He was buffeted by a shock far greater than the one earlier.

The purple barrier did succeed at blocking the accelerated Sonic Leap, but the fine layer of tiny sacred script that composed it rippled and shook.

If he kept pushing with all his might, the barrier should explode, as it had a few minutes earlier. He just had to resist it somehow and use the dagger hanging from his wrist to stab her this time. His body could disintegrate after that was done.

“Break…through…!!” he snarled, throwing all his strength into the still-glowing sword.

“…!”

The pontifex said nothing, but she certainly wasn’t smiling anymore. Colorful light swirled deep in her narrowed eyes. Her extended fingers were all bent and strained.

She wasn’t attacking with her left hand, because it was still holding the Piety Module. If she wasn’t discarding that despite her insistence that she would kill him, it meant that she hadn’t given up on making him a knight or that she had some other use for him.

But it was pointless to consider that now. All that mattered was completing this final attack—whether or not it required the very last drop of his strength and life.

“Rrraaaahhh!!”

He unleashed a bellow from the very pit of his stomach—and then, once again, something he never could have predicted happened:

The Blue Rose Sword began to sink into the purple barrier.

The wall itself was not gone. But the tip of the sword was indeed cutting—no, slipping through—the layer of sacred script that was supposed to rebuff all metal.

It wasn’t a trick of the eyes. Even the mirrors on Administrator’s face were gaping.

The situation abruptly changed.

Administrator stopped attempting to hold back Eugeo’s sword and suddenly leaped back. The barrier retreated with her, and without the surface holding it in place, the Blue Rose Sword swung downward with a slicing whoosh. The moment the edge touched the ground, a gash several mels long opened in the thick carpet.

He couldn’t tell what had happened. All he knew was that if he stayed where he was, her attack art would hit him. His limbs felt heavy after summoning all that power, but he promptly bolted into action regardless.

This time, his enemy was faster. As she pulled back, the pontifex generated fresh elements and sent them hurtling at Eugeo. By the time he was in his technique stance, green lights were flying right at him.

On instinct, Eugeo broke the stance and used the Blue Rose Sword to block his body. The wind elements burst with a flash, and the ensuing gust of wind pushed Eugeo against the south wall again.

Fortunately for him, she had forgone the step of shaping the elements. If she’d turned them into blades of wind rather than just dispersing the energy in the motes of light themselves, he could’ve easily lost a limb.

But not all his luck was good. Rather than slamming into the flat glass windowpane, this time Eugeo’s back struck one of the large pillars that connected the windows. It was designed with a massive standing sword motif, and Eugeo smashed into the side of the blade before falling to the ground. If that had been the naked edge, it might have maimed him, even though the sword was only decorative. Maybe that made him lucky after all, but the pain was enough to drive the breath from his lungs.

I have to move. It’ll be real sacred arts next time, he told himself, lifting his upper half off the ground.

She had retreated to the other side of the bed; the only thing he could see in the darkness was the shine of her silver hair. She was far away enough to be out of range of his Sonic Leap—but it was an easy distance for a sacred art. If he didn’t get off the ground, he would die.

“Nnh…hrrg…”

Somehow, he got to one knee. But there was no strength to push off with. He tried and tried to stand, but the leg only trembled and refused to obey.

No. Not yet. I can’t give up now. Why did I even come back to this room, then?

What have I been living for all this time?

“Grr…raaaahh!”

Eugeo pressed his back against the golden sword decoration and used his Blue Rose Sword as a support to get to his feet. He could tell that the previous impact had cut him as well as buffeted him, because there were droplets of blood spattering on the floor below.

It must’ve taken well over five seconds for him to get up, but for some reason, Administrator wasn’t attacking. She just floated in the darkness twenty mels away, holding her silence.

In time, he heard an utterance so quiet that it would have been inaudible if not in the midst of absolute silence.

“……That sword…Ah, now I see…”

Eugeo glanced down at his blades, uncertain of what she meant. The Blue Rose Sword was thrust tip down into the floor. Hanging from his wrist was the little copper dagger. Which of the two was she referring to?

His intuition told him this was a crucial distinction, but before he could reach an answer, the quiet that filled the top floor of Central Cathedral was broken by neither Eugeo nor Administrator.

“Ah, ah, aiiiieeeee!!”

It was coming from a circle in the floor about five mels away that was now sinking out of sight—the platform to the floor below. The voice was louder now that there was just a dark portal in the middle of the carpet.

“H-h-help meeeee, Your Holiness!!” wailed the voice, which clearly belonged to Prime Senator Chudelkin, who had gone down to the ninety-ninth floor earlier. Administrator proceeded forward through the darkness in silence and stood at the edge of the bed.

“…What is it about him that grows more childish with age? Perhaps it’s nearly time to reset him,” she muttered, shaking her head. Eyeing her with caution, Eugeo stealthily backed away toward the west wall, putting distance between himself and the hole.

The disc was sinking but not very fast. It would take most of a minute for it to descend all the way to the floor, then rise again with Chudelkin atop it.

But no sooner was there a twenty-cen space between the floor and the disc than two pale, clammy hands grasped the edges of the aperture.

“Hohhhhh!!” he screeched, and his round head appeared. The perfectly hairless skin was bright red now. The prime senator squeezed and pulled until his body popped through and landed on the floor.

His clothes hadn’t changed since he’d left the room earlier, gloating. But now, the puffed-out red-and-blue clown outfit was torn and sliced all over and slightly deflated. He plopped down on the carpet, wheezing and puffing.

Administrator gazed at him coldly. “What happened to your clothes?”

Meanwhile, Eugeo was stunned. The arms and torso that were visible through the ends of the prime senator’s tattered clothing were as thin as gnarled branches. And yet his head was as puffed up and round as ever—like a child’s drawing of a stick figure with a circle head.

So what did it mean that the first time he’d seen the man in the great bath, the clown’s outfit was puffed up to bursting? As Eugeo wondered, Chudelkin got to his feet, seeming not to notice the presence of the young man, and tried desperately to plead his case.

“Y-Your Holiness, I am certain that my appearance must be most displeasing to you, but I assure you, it is the result of a ferocious battle in which I endeavored to punish the rebels and protect the glory of the great Axiom Church!”

At that point, Chudelkin must have realized the pontifex was completely nude, because his crescent-shaped eyes went full moon. He slapped his hands over his face, giant head turning even redder.

“Hohhh! Oh-hoooo!! Oh, you mustn’t! Your Holiness, I am entirely unworthy of your visage! My eyeballs shall explode! I shall turn into stoooone!!” he wailed, but despite his protestations, the gaps between his fingers were wide, and his beady eyes gleamed through them.

Administrator covered her cheek with her hand and threatened, “If you don’t state your business, I really will turn you to stone.”

“Hohhh! Hwaaaa…ah…aaah!” screeched Chudelkin, immediately stopping his contortions and freezing in place. His burning-red head promptly went pale. The prime senator suddenly spun on his heel and hopped like a frog toward the hole he’d just climbed through. The platform was still down on the ninety-ninth floor and hadn’t returned yet.

“W-we must seal this place at once! They’re coming! The devils!!”

“…You mean you didn’t eliminate the rebels?” Administrator asked.

Chudelkin’s back twitched. “W-w-w-well, I fought valiantly and with great sacrifice, as you can see from my condition, but these rebellious devils are most foul and treacherous and sadistic…,” he screeched.

In the back of his mind, Eugeo considered this information. The “rebels” Chudelkin spoke of were obviously Kirito and Alice, whom he’d left trapped in ice down there. No matter that the prime senator was the second-greatest user of sacred arts in the Church or that the others were trapped in ice—Eugeo couldn’t imagine them being defeated. Sure enough, they’d put up a fierce fight that apparently had sent him running wounded.

However, that meant…

Eugeo subconsciously retreated a few steps from the platform hole. He must’ve caused some slight rustling of fabric, because Chudelkin paused in the midst of his excuses and glanced his way.

Those thin, beady eyes were wide again. The prime senator thrust his finger at Eugeo, instantly forgetting his own miserable failure, and screamed, “Hwaaaa! Y-you! Number Thirty-Two! What in the world are you doing there?! H-h-how dare you draw your sword in the Chamber of the Gods, where Her Holiness dwells! You will crawl upon the ground, this instant!”

“………”

But Eugeo barely heard anything Chudelkin said anymore. His ears were fixed on a faint vibrating sound coming up from the floor below. The sound of the thick levitating disc rising through the power of sacred arts.

Belatedly, the prime senator noticed it, too, in between his seething insults, and he fell silent. Then he turned around, got down on all fours, and peered into the hole in the carpet.

“Hwaaaaaa!!” he screamed, his loudest yet, and turned back to Eugeo. “N-N-N-Number Thirty-Two! What are you doing?! Go! Go now! This only happened because you failed to rough them up enough! This isn’t my job! Y-Your Holiness, surely you must know th……”

Chudelkin was crawling toward the bed, babbling furiously the entire time, until a hand reached up through the hole in the floor and grabbed his right foot.

“Eeeeeeeek!!” he squealed, eyes bulging, and kicked his legs. The pointed clown shoe popped off, and the momentum caused his little body to roll. The prime senator leaped to his feet, bounded for the bed, peeled the hanging canopy curtain aside, and wriggled into the darkness between it and the floor.

The pontifex, who was standing on the bed, stared down at the hole in the floor with a smile on her face, all thought of the prime senator’s miserable state banished. Eugeo was prepared to attack at once if she showed hostility, but for now she seemed content to wait for her guest to appear.

Eugeo glanced back at the levitating platform. The hand that had grasped Chudelkin’s shoe was still fully extended. The black sleeve slid downward, revealing an arm that was thin but finely muscled.

How many times had those arms saved Eugeo?

In fact, for as long as he could remember, he’d been led around by that hand. Even now, after Eugeo had gone the wrong way and turned his sword on the owner of that arm, the advance continued.

The disc continued rising.

Next to appear was black hair, still tousled from battle. Then two eyes darker than the night sky beyond the windows and yet brighter than the stars. Lastly, a mouth curved into a cocky grin…

“………Kirito…”

Eugeo’s voice was trembling. It wasn’t loud enough to be audible over ten mels away, but his friend glanced toward him along the wall anyway and nodded, smile never wavering.

It was a gesture that was warm and heartening, just like all the ones he’d made since the moment they’d met. The disc finally came to a heavy, grinding stop.

Kirito…there you are…

Something deep inside him throbbed with an emotion he couldn’t even name.

But that pain wasn’t an unpleasant one. It was certainly much gentler than the suffering he’d felt when the Piety Module was jammed into his head—and more wistful and sweet.

As he watched, frozen in place, his partner and teacher dressed in black smirked and said, “Yo, Eugeo.”

“……I told you not to come,” he murmured.

His partner hurled Chudelkin’s silly shoe and beamed even harder.

“When have I ever followed the instructions you gave to me?”

“……Good point. You’ve always………been like……”

He couldn’t find the words.

He meant to pay for the crime of attacking his friend by sacrificing his life. He was going to use that secret weapon from Cardinal to pierce Administrator’s skin, even if he had to get torn to pieces to do it. And now he was reunited with Kirito again, without having completed this duty.

But no. It was Kirito’s own will that had brought him here.

He’d broken through Eugeo’s Perfect Control art, defeated Prime Senator Chudelkin, and reached the hundredth floor while Eugeo was still alive.

Yes, I’m still alive. And I still have the dagger hanging from my wrist. Which means now is the time to fight. That’s the one thing I can do.

Eugeo turned away from his partner and looked to the center of the chamber. Administrator waited on the massive bed, an enigmatic smile playing across her lips. Her mirror eyes caught the moonlight but, as usual, did not reveal any emotion of their own. All that was clear was that she was watching this new visitor and thinking about something.

He had to explain to Kirito before the battle resumed. He had to tell him that her flesh was protected by a barrier that blocked all metal—and that it wasn’t infallible.

Without taking his eyes off the pontifex, Eugeo began moving toward his partner.

Just then, there was the sound of metal shifting from the direction he was moving. He had to break his gaze to look over.

To Kirito’s right, another figure strode forward from the thick shadow cast by the pillar between the windowpanes.

Golden hair and armor sparkled in the light of the moon. At the left side of the figure’s waist was the Osmanthus Blade, a Divine Object with a hilt fashioned like flower petals. A white skirt billowed below.

The Integrity Knight Alice Synthesis Thirty.

Eugeo had seen her working with Kirito already on the ninety-ninth floor. But seeing them standing together like this made his chest throb even harder. His legs stopped moving toward Kirito of their own accord.

Alice stared at the pontifex, then at Eugeo.

The right side of her face was covered in the dark bandage still. Integrity Knights were known for being excellent arts casters, so she should have been able to heal her eye in an instant. Perhaps she was leaving it as it was in order to feel the pain.

Her deep-blue left eye was full of conflicting emotions as she looked over Eugeo. It wasn’t at all like the impassive, cold gaze she’d had down on the eightieth floor. This time, it was full of human emotion.

She hadn’t recovered her Alice Zuberg memories yet, but there had been massive change within Alice the knight in a short amount of time. And the obvious cause of that was the black-haired swordsman standing next to her. Kirito’s words had pierced the unmeltable ice that surrounded her heart.

And if, somehow, they could recover the memory fragment that Administrator was hiding somewhere in this room and return Alice to her old self, then Alice the knight would go back to being Alice Zuberg, Eugeo’s childhood friend.

And it meant that Alice the knight, the one who had spoken to Kirito, sheathed her sword, and withstood the pain of losing her eye in order to fight back against the Axiom Church, would vanish.

That was Eugeo’s greatest wish and the reason he had fought so hard to get here. But how did the present Alice understand this? And Kirito…He had fought to the death against Vice Commander Fanatio, only to save her life afterward. Did he really desire for Alice the knight to be eliminated forever…?

Eugeo took a deep breath, let it out, and forced himself to stop thinking about it. He had to focus on this, the final fight. He’d been able to let his mind wander because Administrator was passively letting the situation play out, but she could resume attacking at any time.

He tore his eyes from Alice and looked back at the center of the room, resuming his march. He sidled across the moonlit floor until he was next to Kirito at last. Then he pressed the Blue Rose Sword into the floor again with a sharp exhale, resting his weight on it.

“Are you hurt?” Kirito whispered. “It’s not…my fault, is it?”

“…”

The fact that his partner was willing to let that simple statement cover everything that had happened on the floor below them brought an unexpected smile to Eugeo’s lips.

“You never hit me with your sword, not once. I had a run-in with a pillar.”

“You could’ve waited until we got up here.”

“…I was the one who trapped you to keep you down there, Kirito.”

“As if I was weak enough that something like that would stop me.” Kirito snorted.

Bantering with him like this reminded Eugeo of before they’d split apart at the eightieth floor…like the times back at the dorm of the academy. The throbbing in his chest lessened just a bit.

But what happened had happened and would never go away. He had given in to Administrator’s temptations and attacked his best friend, a crime that no amount of words would lessen.

Eugeo pursed his lips and gripped the hilt of his sword. Kirito stared at the middle of the room until eventually he muttered, “Is that Administrator? The pontifex of the Church?”

“That’s right,” came the answer from Kirito’s other side. “She hasn’t changed at all in the last six years,” Alice stated.

After this direct mention, Administrator finally broke her long silence.

“Oh, my…I’ve never had so many guests in this chamber at one time. Do I recall, Chudelkin, that you insisted I leave the fate of Alice and the irregular boy to you?”

The curtains hanging around the side of the bed parted from the inside, and a very large head popped out. Prime Senator Chudelkin rubbed his forehead nervously and craned his neck at an angle that suggested he’d made some kind of mistake.

“Hoh, hoh-hee! W-w-w-well, I assure you, Your Holiness, I fought as bravely as a lion for your sake…”

“You mentioned that already.”

“Hwaaaa! I-it is not my fault, oh-hooo! Number Thirty-Two was sloppy and only half encased them in the ice…And Number Thirty, that hideous gold knight, had the gall to utilize her Memory Release ability on me! Though I’m not so flimsy as to let that gaudy little princess’s secret technique put a single scratch on me, hoh-hee-hee-hee!”

“Anyone but him,” Alice muttered darkly.

Chudelkin didn’t notice—he spun around and looked up at Administrator, who was standing upon the bed, and screeched, “In fact, it was Number One and Number Two who started it by going mad! I can only assume that their idiocy has now infected Number Thirty!”

“Ah…now be quiet,” Administrator commanded. Chudelkin shut his mouth and froze where he lay on the floor. But he kept his eyes wide open, which he seemed to be doing in order to drink in the sight of the pontifex’s nakedness.

Administrator’s silver eyes were fixed on Alice and totally unconcerned with whatever the prime senator was doing. She inclined her head in curiosity.

“It was about time for me to reset Bercouli and Fanatio anyway…but I’ve only had you for six years, yes, Alice? You don’t seem to have any errors in your logic circuits…So is it the influence of that irregular unit next to you? Fascinating.”

Eugeo didn’t understand anything of what she was saying. But there was something in the silver-haired woman’s tone of voice that made him shiver—like a shepherd speaking about a sheep or a craftswoman about her tools.

“Well, Alice? Do you have something you want to say to me? I won’t be angry. Go ahead and speak your mind,” Administrator said with a faint smile, taking a step forward atop the bed.

Alice took a similar step backward, as though pushed by an invisible wall. To his surprise, Eugeo saw that the knight’s profile looked even paler than the moonlight, and her lips were clenched shut. But Alice stood firm and reached up with her bare hand to touch the bandage over her right eye. Then her withdrawn leg took a step forward instead, as if the scrap of cloth had given her strength.

Tak.

The sound of her foot was sharp and crisp, as though there wasn’t any carpet underneath. The golden knight, instead of kneeling before her master, thrust her chest forward and declared, “Holy Pontifex, the proud order of Integrity Knights has been shattered. It was defeated at the hand of the two rebels beside me…as well as the boundless obsession and deceit that you have built with this tower!!”