Accel World - Volume 19 - Chapter 3

3

Graphite Edge hadn’t cut the hole in the floor for a mere demonstration. Having proposed that they change venues once more, the avatar walked over to the hole and pointed to it as he said, a little boastfully, “We go down through this hole. It should be a serious shortcut. But even still, to reach the hall of the Arc, we’ll probably have to fight a couple guards.”

Both of these guesses were correct. After jumping down the hole, the four of them only had to walk two hundred meters or so, but two Enemy guards stood in the middle of that path. The only way to get past was to fight, so the two high rankers—Graphite Edge and Sky Raker—showed what they were really made of, while Haruyuki and Trilead were little more than annoyances to the Enemies.

When they opened the large door that was the eighth of the ninefold gates and arrived at the large, gloomy hall, the accumulated acceleration time for Haruyuki and Fuko was ninety-five minutes. Just over twenty minutes left until the automatic disconnect safety was activated.

I guess we’ll have to go back there for a sec and then use another ten points to dive again, Haruyuki thought as they cut across the hall, when two large daises appeared from the darkness ahead. He approached in a near trot and went around to the front of the pedestal.

The two gleaming black stone pillars were separated by two meters. Silver plates were embedded on their fronts, never to lose their eternal shine. Inscribed on them was the Big Dipper and some Japanese characters, almost never used in the Accelerated World. The plate on the pedestal to the right read KAIYOU, while the one on the left said GYOKKO.

“These are the pedestals where the fifth and sixth Arcs were enshrined,” Fuko murmured from where she stood next to him, seemingly moved.

“Yes, Master.” Haruyuki nodded and added, “The armor on the right-hand pedestal was The Destiny, and the sword on the left pedestal was The Infinity. We sealed The Destiny away, but The Infinity is…”

He looked back at Trilead standing alongside Graph. The young warrior bashfully removed his straight sword from the sheath on his hip and gently raised it with both hands.

“This is The Infinity, Miss Raker. It is presumptuous of me, but I have taken possession of it. Would you like to hold it?”

“No, that’s fine. It’s a lovely sword. Thank you for showing it to me, Lead,” Raker answered with a smile and then turned her gaze back to the pedestals. “Sword and…armor, then? They were in the Castle, so I assumed they would be patterned after the three sacred treasures, but it seems not, hmm?”

“The three sacred treasures? You mean from Japanese mythology?” Haruyuki cocked his head to one side.

Graphite Edge had snapped his fingers. “That’s my professor, Rekka. You picked up on something good there. Lead and I’ve also talked about whether the Imperial regalia passed down through the Imperial family—the sword Kusanagi, the mirror Yata no Kagami, and the jewel Yasakani no Magatama—might correspond with the fifth, sixth, and seventh of the Seven Arcs in the Accelerated World.”

“Goodness. But The Infinity is a sword, so even if it does follow from Kusanagi, The Destiny is armor, yes? Isn’t it impossible for it to be patterned after the mirror?” Fuko’s comment was entirely correct, and Haruyuki bobbed his head up and down.

But the dual swordsman waggled a finger back and forth. “On the contrary. Before it turned into the Disaster, The Destiny’s true nature was to nullify physical attacks and reflect light-type attacks. More than anything else, it was a silver so bright it dazzled the eye, honestly like a mirror—”

“Goodness,” Fuko interjected. “You talk as though you’d seen it.”

Graph cleared his throat deliberately as he muttered evasively, “That is a thing in itself,” before returning to his point. “At any rate. I think reading Destiny as corresponding to Yata no Kagami is not necessarily off base.”

“S-so then…does that mean the third one, Yasakani no Magatama, corresponds to the seventh Arc…The Fluctuating Light?” The instant Haruyuki voiced this question, the icon on his shoulder, which had been silent for a while, flashed brightly for a mere instant. But it seemed she was not interested in actually saying anything, so he turned his eyes back to Graph.

The near-black avatar once again did not respond immediately. Silent, he turned slowly and looked at the northern wall of the great hall. It was shrouded in gloom, so Haruyuki couldn’t really see it, but there was the black mouth of a gate there, with a design reminiscent of an ancient temple. The last of the ninefold gates. Unlike the other gates, it had no door, but a chill—rife with ill intent—flowed outward, not allowing any easy crossing of its threshold.

“The three imperial treasures enshrined in the imperial palace in the real world,” Trilead said abruptly, causing Haruyuki to shift his gaze. The young samurai hung his sword from his left hip once more as he continued evenly, “Of the three, the sword and the mirror are katashiro; put more bluntly, they are replicas. The real Kusanagi is said to be at Atsuta Shrine in Aichi, while Yata no Kagami is supposedly at Ise Shrine in Mire. Yasakani no Magatama is the only one actually set in the Kenji Hall at Fukiage Omiya Palace of the imperial court. Of course, I have not actually seen it.”

“Which means that, of the three Arcs existing or having existed in the Castle in the Accelerated World, only the seventh, Youkou, is the real thing?” Fuko asked.

“I do not know by what means one would designate it as real.” Trilead shook his head slightly. “But…Master Graph told me that it seems that of the kanji and English names given to the Seven Arcs, only Youkou and The Fluctuating Light correctly correspond.”

“Huh? I know that the kou is light, but what does fluctuating mean?” Haruyuki cocked his head to one side ruefully. He should’ve looked it up in the dictionary before they came. He’d never heard the word before; at the very least, it wasn’t an English word you learned in junior high.

It wasn’t Trilead or Fuko who responded to Haruyuki’s question, but Graphite Edge, gaze still focused on the ninth gate. “Fluctuate is a verb that means to sway, change, go up and down. Basically, fluctuating light means a light that shimmers and moves. Put it all together and you get Youkou.”

Sensing something reflective in that as-ever lighthearted tone, Haruyuki blinked several times. But the swordmaster shrugged lightly as he turned around and continued, “I don’t know if the fact that only the names of the final Arc correspond perfectly means anything…or if it’s just a coincidence. If we wanna know, our only choice is to get to level ten and ask the developer or whoever directly.” Graph laughed briefly.

“Graphite Edge, you should know this,” came a laser-focused voice all of a sudden. “It is impossible that you—with the power to reach the Highest Level and the technique to enter Area Zero Zero—would not know this. The reason for the existence of Brain Burst, which you call the Accelerated World…It is in The Fluctuating Light.”

The large white icon floated up, flashing remarkably brightly as she ordered the swordsman through the majestic voice of an archangel.

“Speak, Graphite Edge. Why are the little warriors of the three worlds, including the extinguished Accel Assault and Cosmos Corrupt, being made to fight? Why are we Beings given life? What is the final Arc, The Fluctuating Light?!”

Both Fuko and Trilead recoiled slightly in surprise. It was no wonder: They likely thought Metatron was at most an Enemy—an AI made to move by the BB system. But in the archangel’s voice, there were echoes of the same struggle and longing that lived in the hearts of Haruyuki and the other Burst Linkers.

The swordsman didn’t respond right away. He looked up at the tiny icon wordlessly as she floated slightly above his own head and then turned on his heel.

Eventually, a quiet voice came over his shoulder to them: “I said before, we should move to the Shrine of the Eight Divines before we talk about this.”

He started to walk toward the ninth gate, and Metatron watched him silently. Finally, she slowly descended back to her position on Haruyuki’s right shoulder.

After exchanging glances with Fuko and Lead, Haruyuki went after Graphite Edge. Once Silver Crow slipped through the solemn gates, a dense darkness filled his field of view, just like the last time. But he immediately saw the hazy light up ahead, and guided by the candle flame flickering in hollows in the walls, the party descended the spiral staircase that continued into the depths.

Haruyuki tried to count the number of steps this time, but he lost track right around a hundred. It was all he could do to simply resist the indescribable pressure that crawled along the icy stone steps. The reason it felt even more terrifying than it had a month ago was because he had more knowledge and experience, so that was fine, but…Mind racing, he intently put one foot after the other until finally Graph’s voice rang out up ahead.

“We’re here.”

Phew! He let out a breath and lifted his head.

Every surface in the small room in the very depths of the Castle was covered in white tile, befitting the Moonlight stage. The light of the candlesticks reflected off the polished wooden floor, making it shimmer like the surface of water. The “small room” was actually about twice the size of the Arita living room. A large arch opened up on the wall in the back, but a slender silver fence barred passage through it. The opposite side was pitch-black.

Fuko cut across the room, her heels clacking lightly, to approach the fence fearlessly and face the darkness on the other side. Haruyuki walked timidly to her side and narrowed his eyes to gaze beyond the silver fence.

Pok! Abruptly, he heard the faintest of sounds, and a meager light grew some ways off. The source of the yellow light was a candle shimmering on top of an unfinished wooden platform. Similar lights lit up one after another in the depths ahead of them to outline a dim path.

Eventually, a black stone pedestal appeared in the distance.

It was the same as the ones in the hall above, but this one was not empty. On the pedestal, there was something enveloped in a pulsing blue light. A warm golden glow shimmered irregularly, as if tired of waiting for the moment when the seal would be broken.

“This is…the Shrine of the Eight Divines,” Fuko murmured from next to Haruyuki.

“That is The Fluctuating Light,” Metatron muttered on his shoulder.

“It really is a fluctuating light, hmm? From here, you can’t tell what kind of item it is.”

Fuko simply accepted it, while Metatron floated up slightly.

“It is very vexing that I can only observe visual spectrum data. Servant, Raker, approach it.”

“Whoa! No way! There’s no way!” Haruyuki shrieked immediately. “If we go past the sacred rope, powerful Enemies called the Eight Divines will appear, and it’ll be a whole thing, right?”

This last query was directed at Trilead behind him. The young samurai nodded firmly and explained, “Yes. I have never seriously fought the Four Gods of the directional gates, but Master Graph has said that the battle power of the Eight Divines exceeds even their power.”

“Is that so?” Fuko looked back at the swordsman leaning against the wall near the entrance.

“Mmm. Hmm.” Scratching his helmet with a finger, Graph’s answer was fairly evasive compared with his student’s. “To be honest, I’ve only ever tried to run frantically from them and reach the pedestal without fighting. But it’s like the Four Gods are, at best, massive Enemies on a fairly large battlefield. To put it in gaming terms, they’re raid bosses. You can attack them all at once with a party of however many dozens of people, so you’ve got some wiggle room when it comes to strategies and techniques. But with the Eight Divines, as you can see, the battlefield is a room, and the enemy’s about the size of a large duel avatar, so it’s more PvP than boss fight—it’s pretty close to Brain Burst’s standard duel. If you’re not careful, you’ll have to fight one-on-one, but their specs are on the level of the Four Gods. My honest impression is that no one’s getting anywhere with that.”

“Hmm. If you are saying that, the person who challenged Inti solo, then I suppose we really aren’t going to get anywhere,” Fuko said.

With a wry smile, Graph shrugged.

Listening to this conversation between the two powerful and experienced high rankers, Haruyuki suddenly sensed a fundamental question. “Um, Graph,” he said hesitantly. “Can I ask you something?”

“Hmm? What’s up, Crow?”

“Um. Before, Metatron said that reaching the final Arc, The Fluctuating Light, was the reason that this game—that Brain Burst 2039—exists. So then, that means the creator of Brain Burst created the game to make us Burst Linkers break into the Castle. And it’s a game, so I know you need to jump over all kinds of hurdles before you can get to the end. You level up, explore dungeons, get items, defeat bosses…But normally, there’s a balance to the game, you know? Adjusting it to just the right level of difficulty is the creator’s most important job, right? But…the Four Gods and the Eight Divines are absurdly powerful. It’s almost like the creator doesn’t want anyone to ever clear the game. So do they want us to invade the Castle or not? Honestly, which is it?”

Haruyuki had absolutely zero confidence in his ability to put his thoughts into words, but his interlocutor seemed to understand the question he had so earnestly put forth.

The double swordsman slowly nodded and spoke in a more serious tone. “Silver Crow. Your impression that the settings of this game are contradictory is entirely correct. But there’s nothing to be done about that. Because Brain Burst 2039 is both a game and not a game.”

“What…does that mean?” Haruyuki asked, holding his breath. He’d had basically the same question about the Highest Level when the Archangel Metatron showed it to him in the middle of the battle at the headquarters of the Acceleration Research Society at the end of the previous month.

If the creator of Brain Burst placed TFL in the deepest depths of the Castle, then all they had to do was reach out and take it with the hand of God if they needed it again, right? They could set anything as the game-clear marker; why did they have to go out of their way to make countless Burst Linkers attack the Castle?

Graphite Edge stirred slightly before him, but before the man could speak, Fuko raised her hand to stop him. “Wait. There’s only two minutes left before Corvus and I automatically disconnect. This seems like it will be a long story, so can we continue once we dive back in?”

“Aah. Right. Okay, Lead and I’ll wait around here, so log in—I mean, dive again as soon as you can,” Graph said in his usual carefree tone, for some reason mixing in ancient net game terms, and crossed his arms, still leaning back against the wall.

Haruyuki glanced at the total time in his Instruct menu, which he’d left open all this time, before muttering to the 3-D icon on his shoulder, “Sorry, Metatron. We’ll be back soon, so just wait a sec, okay?”

“Do not tarry, servant.” While Metatron sounded as arrogant as ever, there was also the slightest bit of a sulk in her voice, and he grinned at this as he bowed to Trilead, who had moved to stand next to Graph.

“Lead, we’re just going to go back for a bit.”

“Yes, take your time, Crow. Miss Raker.”

Once they had finished their good-byes, they had thirty seconds left. He and Fuko nodded at each other and readied themselves for the disconnection when, abruptly, Graph snapped his fingers.

“Oh, right, Rekka! Make the next safety activation time around ten hours.”

“That’s quite long,” she remarked.

“There’s a reason for that. So please and thanks.”

Fuko looked slightly suspicious, but she nodded, and a second after she gripped Haruyuki’s hand, a warning shone bright red in his field of view.

DISCONNECTION WARNING—beyond the row of letters, the Castle depths melted into the light and disappeared.