Accel World - Volume 25 - Chapter 13

13

He opened his eyes.

A milky-white sky, like melted pearl. Below him stood a group of noble temples. The highest of the Sacred-types, a Sacred Ground stage.

This was a good sign. It would improve the status of the Archangel Metatron, and there were no gimmicks that might obstruct flight. It did have the characteristic that damage from long-distance attacks was reflected, but the attackers were all sword users, so there was no problem there.

Haruyuki shifted his gaze to the left.

An inky shadow rising up, a massive tower in the central plaza of Tokyo Grand Castle. The Super-class Enemy, the Deity of Demise, Tezcatlipoca.

It was already reacting to his appearance. White rings shone dully in its backlit face shrouded in blackness. Krr, krr. Its massive right hand moved.

Being hit by that just once risked immediate death. He wanted to spread his wings and take off right then and there, but he had to get its target off him first. Resisting his fear, he continued to glare at the giant.

In the sky far above, falling stars flashed. Streaks of blue and white light approaching from the northwestern sky. The blue slipped off to the south, while the white light plunged straight down. Around it, five shadows appeared—Metatron and the other attackers.

Tezcatlipoca was still targeting Haruyuki alone. A black circle darker than the shadows appeared in the hand turned toward him. Toxcatl—the gravitational wave attack. The circles grew in number in the blink of an eye. It was charging faster than when he’d seen this attack in Kitanomaru Park.

Haruyuki reflexively raised his hand. If the gravitational wave was launched, it could affect the trajectories of the falling attackers. He concentrated the image of light inside himself in this hand, compressed it as far as it was possible to compress, and released it.

“Light Veil!!”

A shining white, extremely thin film expanded into a sphere.

At the same time, a dark distortion was emitted from the giant’s right hand.

He didn’t know what kind of logic was used to process the two phenomena in the Accelerated World. But in Haruyuki’s view, the wall of photons instantly erased the ocean of gravitons released by Tezcatlipoca as it spread out to envelop the giant’s body.

The white falling star pierced this veil of light. The Archangel Metatron.

“Aaaaaaaaah!”

With a powerful battle cry, she used both hands to bring down the massive sword lent to her by Centaurea Sentry. The blade sliced across the giant’s torso, drawing out a rainbow trail of light, and severed the largest crown embedded in its chest, while also damaging the crowns on the stomach and hips. Perhaps the power of the slicing attack reached even the main body—the giant reeled backward.

Close behind her were Cyan Pile and Trilead Tetroxide.

“Cyan Blade!”

“Heavenly Stratus!”

The Incarnate techniques shattered the crown on the right arm and cut through the one on the left.

And then two more people. Lavender Downer, pleated skirt flapping, and Centaurea Sentry, long silver hair swinging. Neither voiced the name of their attack, but rather brought their swords, cloaked in the thinnest, most powerfully concentrated overlay, down at impossible speeds. Third-stage Incarnate techniques.

The crowns on the stomach and hips split soundlessly at the same time and fell away.

And then finally, the black avatar, clutching dual swords made of hyper diamond that powerfully reflected the gentle sunlight of the Sacred Ground stage, closed in on Tezcatlipoca’s head. The final attacker, Graphite Edge.

The giant thrust its hand up thunderously and tried to bat him out of the air.

Graph pulled back the sword in his left hand, imbued it with red overlay, and thrust it out. The series of actions happened with such incredible speed that Haruyuki’s eyes couldn’t catch it all.

“Vorpal Strike!”

The red lance that stretched out from the sword pierced Tezcatlipoca’s right hand.

The sword in Graph’s left hand was immediately imbued with a faint white overlay before it gently touched the crown embedded on the giant’s forehead.

For an instant, nothing happened.

But then—a line of light ran through the center of the crown and it split in half. The third-stage Incarnate technique, Elucidator.

All six of the crowns binding Tezcatlipoca had been completely destroyed in 0.5 seconds by the six swordmasters.

Krrrrrrrrnnn…

Emitting a heavy low rumble that shook the stage, the giant stopped moving.

This was it. The top-class Enemy, now freed from the restraints of the Luminary, would need a minimum of seven seconds and a maximum of probably ten to restart. This was Haruyuki’s first and last chance generated by the most powerful sword users come together to rescue him.

Fly!

The light of Incarnate gushing from the silver wings on his back, Haruyuki shot up into the sky.

“Light Speed!”

Now he could use up all of his image power. He had to fly. Up into the distant heights where the White King’s evil influence couldn’t reach.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Metatron catch the falling swordmasters in a field of light and fly off to the west, almost scraping across the ground. She was probably mustering up whatever energy was left to her, too. She was magnificently fast, to the point where it was hard to believe she had five people on her back. They would easily make it off the Tokyo Grand Castle premises in seven seconds.

Soon.

Soon, it would all be over!

And then—

A wall of sound pushed up from behind him and drowned out everything else.

R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R !

Instinctively, he looked back over his wings and saw Tezcatlipoca leaning forward, both hands clenched on either side of its body, howling with its entire being, throwing its head back as far as it would go, like some kind of beast.

A ring on its face distorted into an irregular shape, compressing into the periphery while expanding. There was a popping sound, and then a hole opened up in the center, where something like countless black planks popped up. They were…teeth. Not sharp fangs, but thin, flat, human teeth. The opening twisted in unfathomable rage and thirst, opening wide.

An inky Blast Wave was released in all directions from Tezcatlipoca’s mouth.

Instantly, Haruyuki realized that the White King hadn’t been controlling Tezcatlipoca with the Luminary crowns.

Naturally, she’d been giving it orders. But she’d actually kept it in check. She’d restrained the power of the rampaging Deity of Demise, keeping it at the level of a Super-class Enemy.

Bathed in the black shock wave, the white paving stones at the giant’s feet cracked, circles radiating outward. The wall of Heimwert Castle shattered into pieces.

A second later, the Blast Wave caught up with Haruyuki as he shot into the sky at top speed.

The metal fins that made up the wings on his back were ripped away, and cracks raced across the armor covering his body. The wave slammed into him with a power he’d never felt before, like several tons of steel smashing into his body. The health gauge in the top left of his field of view dropped nearly eighty percent all at once.

Having lost his wings, Haruyuki dropped into a tailspin, unable to keep himself upright, and fell into the roof of the tallest tower of Heimwert Castle. His health gauge dropped another ten percent and changed to a dull red.

But he yanked his head up and stared not at his own health gauge but rather toward the Grand Castle’s main gate.

In exactly that moment, the Blast Wave swallowed the six members of the attacking team. Metatron’s shining white wings scattered into countless feathers and were ripped out from the root. As she crashed and slid along the paving stones, the five swordmasters fell from her back and slammed into the ground or buildings.

“Aah…Aah!” Something like a shriek slipping out of him, Haruyuki tried to stand. But his avatar was deeply embedded in the roof, and he couldn’t move. Perhaps the damage from the Blast Wave had reached all the way to his avatar’s naked body; his movements were jerky and awkward.

Even so, he somehow managed to pull his right arm free of the rubble and turned it toward Tezcatlipoca’s head.

“Over here, you monster!” he shouted in a hoarse voice and concentrated his almost zero Incarnate energy in his fingertips. He put the final image remaining to him into the irregularly flickering overlay and thrust his hand out.

“Laser Lance!”

The lance of light landed squarely on Tezcatlipoca’s head, creating a dent about five centimeters deep. That was all. He couldn’t even tell if the ten-stage gauge displayed above the giant’s head dropped or not. Actually, he likely hadn’t done any damage at all. He hadn’t felt the force that should have been reflected back at him according to the nature of the stage.

As if sneering, Tezcatlipoca twisted the mouth in the center of its face and turned away from him. It raised its still-undamaged left hand toward the six fallen Burst Linkers. Haruyuki couldn’t see them from where he lay, but he could imagine only too clearly the red rings carved into that palm.

“Graaar!”

A spinning vortex of flame was launched with this brief roar. The crimson line of fire, no doubt on par with or even more powerful than the flame breath of the God Suzaku, closed in on the swordmasters.

“Ruuuuuuuun!!”

As if in response to Haruyuki’s scream, one of them got up. Graphite Edge. His black armor was cruelly cracked, but his twin diamond swords were unharmed. He didn’t flee, but instead turned toward the spiral of flames, took a few steps forward, and thrust out the swords in both hands.

“Spinning Shield!”

Together with the call of the technique name, the two swords began to rotate at high speed, with the hilts at the center, almost like a pinwheel. This instantly became a shield of shining white light.

Dawhank! When the Flame Vortex came into contact with the light shield, it scattered over a wide range with a sharp sound. Haruyuki couldn’t see Graph at all, but it seemed he’d held his ground and not gotten swallowed up by the flames. Haruyuki had thought Graphite Edge was completely specialized in attack, but the fact that he’d single-handedly defended against the attack launched by Tezcatlipoca after being freed from its restraints meant that his powers of defense were almost terrifyingly great. If the other five attackers got to their feet now and ran while the fire attack was interrupted, they might still escape.

In which case, this was no time for Haruyuki to simply sit and watch the battle play out. He had to fly again so that the hard fighting of his comrades wouldn’t be for nothing. Fortunately, he had another pair of wings—angel wings, given to him by Metatron.

“Equip…”

He started to call out the command to summon the Enhanced Armament.

Blrp. And then he heard a viscous sound.

With its left hand still shooting fire, Tezcatlipoca launched a black sphere from its stomach. It wasn’t an energy bullet; the slightly transparent ball flew through the air, wobbling unsteadily like a liquid with high relative density. Purple sparks snapped and crawled on the smooth surface.

He’d seen the exact same attack somewhere else before. During the mission to rescue Aqua Current from the east gate of the Castle…

Someone broke through the wall of flames produced by Graphite Edge’s spinning swords from the inside. Charging toward the black lump of mucus was Cyan Pile—Takumu.

“Hngaaaaah!”

Takumu brought the Incarnate greatsword he held in both hands down with incredible speed. The blue shock wave blade split the sphere into two.

However.

The sphere fused back together as though nothing had happened and swallowed Cyan Pile with the same viscous blrp. The purple sparks crawling along the surface of the motionless mucus sphere writhed like a living creature. It was…that attack.

Level Drain. The evilest special attack in the Accelerated World, thought to be used only by the God Seiryu. At that moment, the burst points that Takumu had accumulated were being sucked away by the sphere.

“Aah…Aaaaaaaaah!” Haruyuki screamed and flailed wildly. Heedless of the further drop in his health gauge, he pulled away from the chunks of the roof that pierced his armor, eventually freeing his upper body with great effort.

The sphere enveloping Takumu sparked even more violently, and inside it, Cyan Pile dropped to his knees. Takumu’s level had just fallen from six to five.

In the back of his mind, the conversation he and Takumu had once had in his living room came back to life.

“Let’s make a promise. Someday, when we both make it to level seven, when we join the high rankers, we fight one more time with everything we have, no holds barred. You’ve made it through so many trials, and you’re gradually getting stronger. But I’m working hard to beat you next time with my own power. How about it, Haru?”

“Got it. It’s a promise, Taku.”

Haruyuki and Takumu had fought up until that very day with this promise in their hearts. Because Haruyuki had been the one to cut into the Sun God Inti, he had gotten to a place where he only needed a few more points to reach that level, including the extra points he’d need for a safe margin. Once the fight with the White Legion was over, the time would finally come to fulfill his promise with his best friend. That’s what he’d thought.

“Stop…Stoooooooooop!” he shrieked, tears filling his eye lenses.

This cry drowned out the sound of the next big spark. Level five to level four.

Tezcatlipoca raised the right hand that had been pierced by Graphite Edge’s Incarnate technique. Dull lumps of dark energy were lodged in the five fingers, instead of the palm. It was going to strike the final blow.

Intuitively understanding this, Haruyuki severed his left leg below the knee with a sword hand, since he couldn’t pull it free from the rubble no matter how he tried. The pain was immense. His health gauge dropped another pixel.

He staggered up on one leg and focused his Incarnate light in his right hand once more. His overlay was unstable. And even if he attacked one more time, Tezcatlipoca would feel it about as much as a scratch from a thorn. Even so. Even so…

Suddenly, Haruyuki felt it not with his five senses but with his soul.

Watching. Being watched. Someone was staring at this tragedy from a higher dimensional space.

Instantly, he shifted his own consciousness to the Highest Level, reaccelerating without having to move at all.