4

“I think the only thing I can say is that…this is quite remarkable,” offered a relaxed, lazy voice.

Gabriel stood at the edge of his carriage’s upper deck, gazing down upon the enormous divide in the earth that had appeared out of nowhere.

After that, he turned to the floor hatch in the corner of the deck, where a middle-aged man was sticking out his portly face. It was the leader of the commerce guild, a fellow named Rengil. He drew his wide sleeves together before his body and bowed deeply.

This was one of the few remaining leader units, but the man himself had very little combat potential. Gabriel inquired as to the reason for his presence by raising an eyebrow. Rengil held his hands up to his face and glanced left and right. He would have seen that Vassago was not on the deck, but he made no mention of it and bowed again.

“Your Majesty, when the moon rises soon…without the presence of an immediate order, I would ask that you allow the troops a break for nourishment and rest.”

“Ah.”

Gabriel turned back to the yawning fissure. He had sent scouts to either end to see how far it continued to the east and west, but they had not yet returned with reports. It had to be longer than a mile or two, then. And it was obvious at a glance that this was not a hole that could be filled in for passage across.

And Vassago and his helpers, whom he’d sent to the south in anticipation of the enemy’s moves, had probably been wiped out by now. In Vassago’s case, of course, he would simply wake up again in the real world.

This was the precise situation in which to use his aerial units, of course, but the dragons of the dark knighthood were only ten in number. It would take forever to ferry across twenty thousand infantry. He asked the few remaining dark mages if they could do anything with magic, but they said it was virtually impossible to fashion a bridge that was both long enough to cross the massive gap and strong enough for an army of this size. If a caster on the level of Chancellor Dee Eye Ell used multiple orcs as sacrifices again, maybe that would work, but she was reported dead without a body after the enemy knight’s attack.

For having been so motivated and ambitious, she certainly met an ignoble end, Gabriel thought briefly, but it meant nothing more to him than the loss of another AI unit, and she promptly vanished from his mind.

Ultimately, this massive crevice had to be something from outside of the proper “game balance.” The AI on the side of the Human Empire would not commit destruction that the units of the Dark Territory could not repair in some way, meaning that this had to be interference from the real world.

The Rath employees trapped in the Upper Shaft were logging in with a super-account the same way that Gabriel was. And they probably had the same goal: retrieve Alice and use the system console to eject her from the Underworld.

This certainly complicated matters, but at least knowing that much gave him options for adjusting. In fact, one might even say things had gotten more interesting.

Gabriel let the ends of his mouth curl into the slightest of smiles, but only for a moment. He turned to Rengil again and said, “Very well. We will camp here for today. Let the soldiers eat their fill. Tomorrow will be busy.”

“Yes, Majesty. Your magnanimity does not go unnoticed.”

The senior merchant bowed yet again and quickly made himself scarce.

“The same…world…as Kirito?” the girls repeated, their red and navy-blue eyes, respectively, big and wide. “D-do you mean…the celestial realm? Where the three goddesses of creation…and the gods who control the elements, and all the angels live…?”

“I don’t,” Asuna said hastily, shaking her head. “It is a world that exists outside of this place, but it is not a land of gods. I mean…look, do you think Kirito is a god or an angel or anything like that?”

The girls looked at the wheelchair, blinking, then giggled. They quickly regained their composure and bobbed their heads.

“I—I see…I don’t think any god would sneak out of school regularly to go buy food, I suppose…,” said the red-haired girl, bringing a smile to Asuna’s lips this time. He was up to his old tricks in this world, too. She felt her eyes growing hot again with the exasperation and joy of the discovery but kept it under control and smiled for the girls.

Next, the brown-haired one murmured, “Then…what kind of place is this…outside world, as you call it…?”

Asuna considered her answer carefully. “Well…I’m sorry, but I can’t describe it in one simple statement. I’d like to give you a full explanation in the presence of the people who are in charge here. Can you guide me there?”

“Y-yes, of course. Come right this way,” the girls said, looking serious, and headed for the exit from the carriage bed. Before she chased after them, Asuna stopped and glanced at Kirito. There were drying tear marks on his downcast cheeks.

It’s all right. It’ll all be okay, Kirito. Just let me handle the rest of this, she told him silently, squeezed his limp hand, and turned away. She made her way through the rows of boxes, lifted the canvas canopy, and leaped down to the ground.

The moment her white boots hit the soil, she saw a golden flash before her.

A sword.

But Asuna’s reflexes worked before she recognized what it was. Her right hand was already moving, pulling free her rapier at maximum speed.

A loud, high-pitched clang pierced the night forest.

She succeeded in deflecting the slash of her attacker, but the shock of it numbed her right arm up to the elbow. How heavy was that other sword?

Through the light created by the shower of sparks that resulted, she saw the next swing flashing toward her, giving her no time to breathe.

But if she simply blocked it, she would be battered backward, she knew, so she thrust multiple times with the rapier against the oncoming blade.

Only on the third strike did it stop. Asuna caught the sword on her hilt and pushed, buying her time to at least see who her attacker was.

The breath caught in her throat. It was an incredibly beautiful woman who glared at Asuna with such fury that it brought a flush to her snow-white skin. Her sapphire-blue eyes shone righteously.

Her long hair, the color of molten gold, shook with the pressure of the attack. Her ostentatiously designed armor and the graceful longsword in her right hand were both a deep, bold yellow.

The other girls, who’d been watching this unfold in shocked silence, finally recovered and shrieked, “M-my lady, please stop!!”

“She is not our enemy, Miss Alice!!”

Alice?!

Asuna found herself shocked for a different reason.

So this stunningly beautiful woman with the sword as heavy as rock was none other than the world’s first bottom-up AI, the high-functioning intelligence code-named A.L.I.C.E.? The goal of Project Alicization itself, and the core of this entire incident, wanted by both Rath and the invaders?

But why would Alice be attacking her with such hostility? Asuna was desperately seeking the answer as she pushed back against the golden blade when Alice’s cherry-blossom lips opened and emitted a voice that, while fierce, was as beautiful as a violin in the hands of a master.

“Who are you?! Why are you trying to approach Kirito?!”

In that moment, everything on Asuna’s mind, all the many swirling circumstances, were pushed aside in a reaction that could be described only by a single sound effect: ka-ching!

The words that erupted from Asuna’s mouth were less of a bucket of water on the enemy’s open flame than a bottle of oil.

“Why…? Because Kirito is mine!”

“How dare you! Ruffian!!” Alice snarled, baring her pearly white fangs.

Their swords separated, the last friction causing more sparks. The woman in gold floated backward, and as soon as her boots hit the ground, she zipped forward again with a high slash. This time, Asuna was not put on the defensive; she unleashed one of the combination attacks that would forever be a part of her muscle memory.

A huge crescent moon and countless meteors collided in the darkened woods, lighting their surroundings. Again, Asuna was stunned at the shock that ran from her elbow to her shoulder. She had to admit that she was slightly inferior when it came to skill; the only thing keeping her even with her opponent was the fact that the “GM gear” that came with the Stacia account—a rapier named Radiant Light—had a higher priority level than Alice’s golden longsword.

Their swords locked at the hilt again, coming to a stop. Amid the silence that followed, a man’s voice leisurely cut in: “Well, well, this is quite a sight, I must say. Two beautiful flowers in full bloom. Absolute beauty.”

From what should have been empty space emerged two powerful arms. Rough fingers pinched Alice’s and Asuna’s swords around the sides.

“…?!”

Her rapier went immobile, as though it were held with a vise. Then the arms lifted the swords, combatants and all, and held them apart before setting them back down on the ground.

Standing next to them now was a large man who looked to be in his forties. His clothing was a robe that looked similar to a kimono, with only a minimum amount of armor added to it. The steel-gray longsword in his waist sash and the arms extending from his sleeves were covered with scars. He was every bit the image of a mighty veteran warrior.

His appearance caused Alice to magically appear several years younger. “Why are you stopping me, Uncle?!” She pouted. “I believe she is an enemy spy come to…”

“She is no such thing. It was this young lady who kept me from charging to an early grave, in fact. I’d guess the same goes for you?” he said, addressing the two girls in the back, who were gaping at the proceedings in typical fashion.

They replied very hesitantly, speaking in turn. “Y-yes, Lord Commander. She saved our lives.”

“With one swing of her sword, she sent a great number of the enemy to Hell…It was a godly act.”

The man they called Commander glanced back in the direction of the great fissure Asuna had created, and he laid a hand on Alice’s shoulder. “I saw it happen, too. A rainbow of light rained down from above and opened a gash in the earth a hundred mels wide. The pugilists were shocked that they couldn’t jump across it, I bet. It’s an undeniable fact that this young lady saved us from being absolutely overrun by the enemy.”

“………”

Alice glared at Asuna with obvious suspicion, naked golden blade still dangling from her right hand. “Then are you saying, Uncle…that this woman is neither an enemy spy nor some heretical imposter mimicking the garb depicted in holy art, but the actual Stacia, goddess of creation?”

Asuna bit her lip in silence. If this knight commander, who appeared to be the overall commander of the human army, identified her as a goddess, it was going to cause more trouble than she wanted.

Fortunately, the commander only smirked and shook his head. “I don’t think so. If this girl were a true goddess, she’d be scarier than the pontifex, wouldn’t she? She might strike down a violent surprise attacker to the depths of the earth, wouldn’t you think?”

Alice was unable to mount a response to that. She still glared at Asuna with hostile sparks flying, but she fit the end of her longsword to the mouth of her sheath and clinked it all the way into place.

For her part, Asuna had some comments as well. She wanted to know who this girl thought she was, talking about Kirito that way—but with a deep breath, she was able to stifle that urge for now.

Asuna’s duty was to guide Alice to the World’s End Altar at the very southern tip of the Underworld and physically eject the lightcube that held Alice’s fluctlight from the cluster. In other words, she had to convince this young woman, whom she clearly did not get along with, to leave the side of her army. This was absolutely not the time to bicker.

She stashed her own rapier away and turned to the commander. “Yes…as you say, I am no god. I am as human as the rest of you. I just happen to have some special knowledge about the situation you are in. I know this because I came from a place outside of your world.”

“Outside, huh…?” the commander repeated, grinning broadly. He rubbed his fierce, stubbled chin.

Alice, however, sucked in a sharp breath and demanded, “The outside world?! You came from the same place that Kirito did?!”

Asuna was taken aback. He’d explained it to her? At least in some measure? Taking the ratio of the Fluctlight Acceleration currently active into account, Kirito had already spent nearly three years in this simulation. She couldn’t help but wonder how much time he had spent together with this golden-haired warrior.

Alice was clearly wondering something along the same lines and took a step closer to Asuna before the commander blocked her path with a thick arm.

“It’s probably best if the other knights and the head guards hear the rest of her story. We can discuss this all over tea. The enemy isn’t going to be doing anything more tonight.”

“I…suppose you’re right,” Alice said, though her brow was still knitted.

“Good. Then if that’s settled…would you girls over there fetch us some hot tea and fire whiskey for me? You can listen in as well.”

The uniformed pair gave loud salutes. Asuna wanted to see Kirito one more time before she left the wagons, but before she could do anything else, Alice snapped, “Just so we are clear, you are not to enter that wagon without my permission. It is my duty to secure Kirito’s safety.”

Asuna felt her scalp burn with anger but held it in.

“And I…will not stand by and listen to you speak about my Kirito as though he means something to you…”

“Did you just say something?!”

“…Nothing at all.”

They snorted and looked away from each other, then followed after the commander.

Left behind, Tiese and Ronie exhaled together.

“Things just got really…intense somehow,” Tiese murmured. She clapped her hands together to reset the mood and said, in her usual bright manner, “We’d better go boil the water! And the fire-whiskey jar should be in that carriage, right? Let’s go, Ronie!”

Before she trotted after her friend, Ronie muttered, to no one at all, “But…he was my mentor first…”